yuhwa is a non celeb on ig who was his bestfriend for a long time and just unfollowed him earlier. especially because I have found that unfortunately some people, especially men will still continue to suppor their friend because "loyalty" good to know this person has some morals but also it must be super serious. and what i meant by the group not mentioning him was in general pertaining to the type of person he is, i mean we haven’t really heard much of him talking or hanging out with members outside work schedules like for the longest time i feel he was the type to just be adrift from the group? like you said he was the eldest and most likely doing his own thing. also that long hiatus of his where no one had not much clue what he was up to, and wasn’t under company/work surveillance for much. but just to clarify during the last schedule they had with him in the 127 fanmeet they were still acting normally with him. also these types of people would be capable of concealing their inner demons even from the people closest to them, that’s how dangerous this situation can get.
about a week ago there were staff (who even got harrassed for) not including him in the group reels, PCs, fansigns, etc. and people were speculating he didn’t renew contracts so I wouldn’t even be surprised if knowledge of this was just kept to a select group of individuals prior to the announcement, this might’ve been an internal investigation. it’s best to take things at face value and SM, who was always known for holding on to their artists as much as possible, dropped him in the blink of an eye before any media or rumors of it came out is enough to say that proof must be irrefutable and that he is guilty of his crimes.