Blackpink’s Jennie and BTS’ V’s ‘romance’ heats up: new leaked photos are adding fuel to the dating rumours, from a kiss at Jeju Island to a hug at a Born Pink party - but some fans aren’t convinced

Sep 22 , 2022

Are BTS’ V and Blackpink’s Jennie dating? Here’s everything you need to know. Photos: @1TD6K9DEMuJ5iAq, @jennierubyjane/Twitter

Hot on the heels of Blackpink’s comeback and second album release announcement, ‘Taennie’ – a combo of Kim Taehyung, V’s real name, and Jennie – made headlines with new leaked pics

The photos seemingly show more of that alleged Jeju Island date, plus V apparently curled up on Jennie’s bed; meanwhile, Hybe and YG Entertainment finally broke their silence

Massively popular Korean girl group Blackpink has finally made its much awaited comeback with its second full length studio album, Born Pink.

On September 16, the music video for title track “Shut Down” was released … but that’s not the only reason the band made headlines lately. Around the same time, dating rumours around Jennie and V from BTS resurfaced after more pictures supposedly of them on a Jeju date were leaked.

Is this further evidence that the two K-pop icons are an item? Here’s how speculations of their relationship have progressed and why it’s all starting to look more real.

A slip of the thumb?

V followed, then unfollowed, Jennie on Instagram in December 2021. Photo: @JinsMullet_/Instagram

According to Allkpop, V and Jennie’s dating rumours started in December 2021, when V followed – then promptly unfollowed – Jennie on Instagram. The BTS member then went on to Korean fan community platform, WeVerse, to explain that he had “accidentally” followed Jennie after her profile appeared in his recommendations.

Luckily, fans of both idols laughed it off as an easy mistake and rumours were dismissed as quickly as V had retracted his follow.

Those Jeju Island lookalikes

The picture that seems to show Blackpink’s Jennie and BTS’ V on holiday together. Photo: @dailyfashion_news/Instagram

Later in May 2022, a photo of two people travelling in Jeju Island was uploaded on May 22. The caption on the image, translated by Koreaboo, read: “This is a photo that was sent in today. It might be that they’re lookalikes, but it is allegedly a photo of two top idols. The female idol, in particular, has been rumoured to have broken up with an OG idol member. So fans seem to be more receptive to this photo as true.”

The “OG idol member” is second generation K-pop idol and Jennie’s label mate, BigBang’s G-Dragon. The two had been in an unconfirmed relationship for over a year when fans noticed that G-Dragon had unfollowed Jennie on Instagram. That made netizens believe the two had ended their relationship, which led to further speculation that maybe Jennie and V were in a relationship after all.

Jennie’s hair was dyed orange around the time of the rumoured Jeju trip. Photo: @jennierubyjane/Instagram

According to Koreaboo, BTS and Blackpink fans dismissed the rumours, stating that Jennie’s hair was dyed orange at the time the image surfaced, unlike the woman in the photo. Others claimed the images were not real at all, just a good Photoshop job.

However, rumours of them dating continued to make rounds on social media platforms and news headlines. It didn’t help that neither of the artists’ representative labels made a strong statement to shut down the speculation.