[Captured from YouTube channel]
[Captured from YouTube channel]

Singer Jun Jin's wife, Ryu I-seo, revealed a harrowing experience from her days as a flight attendant, when she narrowly avoided being secretly filmed by a male passenger.

On Sept. 10, a video titled "Wake-Up Calls Are Mandatory: Former Flight Attendants Ryu I-seo and Sung Hae-eun Reveal the Ultimate Hazing Stories for the First Time" was posted to the YouTube channel "My Love, Ryu I-seo."

In the video, Ryu, a former Asiana Airlines flight attendant, and Sung Hae-eun, a former Korean Air flight attendant known from Tving's "Transit Love 2," candidly discussed the harsh realities and rigid organizational culture hidden behind the glamorous image of cabin crew life.

Ryu recalled a harrowing experience she had while providing in-flight service.

"I was serving and something felt off," Ryu said. "When I looked down, a man was lying face-down, doing something."

She was wearing the skirt uniform while serving at the time, and she felt that the male passenger appeared to be filming her legs or up her skirt.

Ryu immediately told a superior, "Something is strange. It looks like he is filming." She added that she developed severe trauma and sensitivity around cameras and filming afterward.

Soon after, the two went on to reveal the strict hierarchy and so-called "hazing culture" within the flight attendant community.

"It was taken for granted that a rookie flight attendant would call a sunbae directly to give them a wake-up call while staying overseas," Ryu said.

A junior crew member had to state their department and class year when calling a senior, then confirm, "Have you woken up?" — a duty they were expected to fulfill.

Beyond that, juniors had to call senior crew members "unnie," a term used for an older female colleague, regardless of age. The youngest crew member had to hold the elevator button until all seniors had boarded, and crew were sometimes forced to join seniors' meals during overseas layovers, they said.

The two also said, "In the past, there were even stories of junior flight attendants washing their seniors' stockings, on top of making wake-up calls."

Meanwhile, Ryu married Jun Jin, a member of Shinhwa, in 2020. The couple is currently undergoing fertility treatment to have a child.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com