The origin of the incident originated from a short clip shared again, in which Karina was seen imitating Winter in a fun and humorous way. While most fans said that this was just a friendly teasing between members, an article on the Pann forum said that Karina's actions had gone beyond the limit, were mocking and made Winter uncomfortable.
This post commented that Winter is a gentle person, often does not reveal negative emotions, so she is easily teased. The author believes that Karina deliberately exaggerated Winter's voice and gestures, and implied that she only acted like that towards Winter without doing the same to NingNing or Giselle. These arguments were quickly widely shared and caused fierce controversy.
However, the wave of protest against the above accusations is also no less strong. Many fans have spoken out to defend Karina, affirming that the clip was cut and pasted and misunderstood the context.
They believe that the relationship between Karina and Winter has always been shown in a friendly and sincere way since aespa debuted, both in live broadcasts and in real life.
Recently, Winter has continuously become the focus of discussion on social networks when being suspected of dating Jungkook (BTS). Rumors about the relationship between the two idols began to erupt from December 4, 2025, when the online community simultaneously "dug up" a series of details that are said to be signs that they are dating.
The coincidences being discussed include a tattoo with similar features on the arm, Jungkook appearing at aespa's concert while on military service, along with a series of accessories such as rings, headphones and even the nail decoration on the thumb that is said to be the same. Faced with the increasingly widespread speculation, both HYBE and SM Entertainment remained silent, without giving any official response.
