Spill the Tea
Junghoon did not vanish. His knee needed a very long argument with gravity.
When Junghoon stopped promoting with xikers in May 2023, the timing was brutal. The group had debuted less than two months earlier. Fans were still learning ten faces, and suddenly every stage had a missing space.
What happened: KQ Entertainment announced that Junghoon had torn his anterior cruciate ligament. He underwent surgery and began rehabilitation.
What changed: xikers promoted as nine for roughly twenty months.
What finally happened: KQ confirmed his return to group activity for the January 2025 comeback period.
The injury was serious, not mysterious
An ACL tear is not the cute little “rest for two weeks and come back with a chair choreography” injury. Recovery asks for surgery, months of rehabilitation, strength rebuilding, and the terrifying process of trusting the knee again. For an idol whose job includes jumping, landing, turning, and repeating the same routine until the camera likes it, medical clearance is only one part of the return.
KQ did something fans claim they want companies to do and then panic about when it takes too long: they gave him time. There were periodic notices, but no fake countdown designed to keep his name trending. That left roadY worried. It also kept a teenager from being shoved back onto a stage because an album schedule had feelings.
Why the full formation hit so hard
The January 2025 notice was short. The reaction was not. Fans had spent most of xikers’ early career watching nine members preserve the shape of a ten-member group. Junghoon remained part of official language and fandom conversations. He was absent from stages, not erased from the lineup.
His return meant more than another vocal color. It restored the original team before the group moved deeper into touring and Japanese promotions. By the time “Up All Night” arrived, the ten-member formation could look playful again without every wide shot carrying an unanswered question.
RaeRae take
I hate injury hiatuses because fans get trained to treat silence like a conspiracy. In this case, the boring explanation was the real one. A knee tore. Surgery happened. Rehabilitation took forever. The company waited. He returned.
That is not dramatic tea, but it is important tea. The industry is full of comeback schedules that behave like bones are a customer-service inconvenience. Junghoon getting nearly twenty months was frustrating to watch and probably the reason we can watch him now.