On June 26, Daesung uploaded a new episode of Zip Daesung titled “Drink All You Want, But Don’t Overdo It | Zip Daesung EP.113 | MAMAMOO.”

Appearing as a guest, Heo Youngji immediately brought up the dating rumors, saying she felt she needed to clear the air. “I really felt like I had to explain this today.”

She recalled visiting a beauty salon where staff unexpectedly congratulated her. “When I went to the salon today, they said, ‘Congratulations, unnie.’ My reaction completely froze.” Daesung laughed as he revealed he had experienced something similar. “Even my makeup artist asked me, ‘When did you secretly start dating?'”

The rumors began after Daesung attended MAMAMOO’s concert on June 21 alongside Heo Youngji and OH MY GIRL member Hyojung. Photos of Daesung and Heo Youngji sitting next to each other quickly spread online, with one particular angle making them appear unusually close, leading to speculation that they were dating. At the time, Daesung’s agency denied the rumors, telling OSEN that the two are simply close colleagues and are not in a romantic relationship.

Heo Youngji then revealed what actually happened that night. She explained that about two weeks before the concert, MAMAMOO’s Moonbyul had contacted her, saying Daesung would likely attend the show and asking her and Hyojung to make him feel welcome. “I said okay, but by the day of the concert I had completely forgotten that he was coming.”

Addressing the now-viral photo, she said Daesung seemed unsure how to turn on his official concert light stick. “I looked over to help him because it seemed like he didn’t know how to turn on the light stick, but it turned out there were no batteries in it. That’s when the photo was taken.”

She added that the image looked misleading because it was shot from a low angle. “Since the picture was taken from below, it made us look much closer than we actually were.” Daesung immediately agreed with her explanation.

Fellow KARA member Kang Jiyoung, who was also on the show, joked that the photo really did make it look as though the pair had their heads pressed together.

In response, Heo Youngji humorously reenacted the actual distance between them on set, insisting they had been sitting much farther apart. She also shared another behind-the-scenes story involving Hyojung. “Hyojung kept saying, ‘Why am I the only one cropped out?’ She wanted to upload the original photo with all three of us, but I told her, ‘Just leave it alone for now.’ And now I’m finally explaining everything here.”

Wrapping up the conversation, Daesung joked that the timing of the rumors was almost perfect. “The day after the dating rumors, we ended up filming an emergency press conference-style video. At least it gave us a funny story to tell.”

Both stars laughed off the incident, putting an end to the brief dating speculation while showing there was nothing more than a misunderstanding caused by a misleading camera angle.

Sources: 모바일 네이트 뉴스