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Recently, ZEROBASEONE's Sung Hanbin and Zhang Hao were included in the poll run by Forber Korea on the Idol Champion app that asked fans to vote for the idol pair with the best chemistry. The voting between August 25 and September 8 ultimately led to the two ZEROBASEONE members winning the poll by bagging 60% of the votes.
The poll winners were promised to appear on the magazine's PR Story for its October edition and a one-page including the two members to which fans eagerly looked forward. However, they were disappointed to notice that Forbes Korea released a group photo of ZEROBASEONE rather than the promised one, a dual photograph of Sung Hanbin and Zhang Hao.
Though IDOL CHAMP apologized for the issue and mentioned the two members' names behind the ad to give them credit, fans believe this sudden turn of events might be due to WAKEONE Entertainment allegedly being homophobic.
Fans outraged following WAKEONE Entertainment's homophobic treatment of ZEROBASEONE's Sung Hanbin and Zhang Hao with their feature on Forbes Korea
Fans who've been watching the two K-pop idols, Sung Hanbin and Zhang Hao, from their time on Boys Planet often remark that the pair shared a fantastic friendship and won several hearts with their skyrocketing chemistry. Therefore, it did not come as a surprise for fans to see that the two were nominated for the poll of the idol pair with the best chemistry and even winning the same.
When the news was announced that the ZEROBASEONE members won the poll after bagging 60% of the votes, fans expressed their excitement to see the one-page PR Story of the friendship duo in Forbes Korea's October edition magazine. However, their expectations were crushed when they noticed that the magazine used a group photo instead for the one-page ad and only mentioned the two K-pop idols' names as the winners behind the same.
Following fans' angered and confused response, the IDOL CHAMP released a statement apologizing,
In regard to the matter at hand, a group image of ZEROBASEONE was used as the cover page instead of an image of the winners Sung Hanbin and Zhang Hao, as there were no official image of the two members together.
They also added that they tried to make up for the same by mentioning their names at the back of the ad and also used their pair name, 센터즈 or The Centers. Regardless, fans expressed that they should have pre-planned the picture beforehand and shouldn't have asked fans to vote if the promised product wasn't available. However, fans also noticed that there had been enough pictures between the two to use for the ad.
Some fans speculated that it might be their agency, WAKEONE Entertaiment's actions to prevent the shipping between the two. While the sexualities of the members are still speculative, fans claim that the actions and intentions with which the company has been working to separate the closeness of Sung Hanbin and Zhang Hao might be homophobic.
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