Y'all remember this gem?

I cannot describe to you all how unbearably strange it is to see baby VIPs banding together and waving their "5 forevah" flags when in their last several years together the BB members, outside of work, quite openly distanced themselves from and excluded their now-former bandmate.

His stans complained about it often. They had their own inner circles and group chats where they griped about the hyungs and said nasty things about them, criticizing them for the years of "abuse" and "mistreatment". They despised these "jokes" back then. So why defend them now?

How many times did they tell us they never saw him outside of work? That he didn't hang out with them, not even when they were touring, alone in foreign countries? That he wasn't a singer anymore but had become "100% a businessman" and was only using BB to promote his businesses?

They said that when it came to enlistment he put on an act for the cameras/fans, promising to start his service soon in order to bring the group back together quickly, as if he cared about BB most. "That's a lie," YB said, revealing that he had no plans to enlist alongside them.

Daesung tried to make him leave when he showed up unannounced at the final show of his Dome tour. He accused him of making an appearance not to support him, but for attention. To take a pic for Twitter and go home. To advertise his ramen store. To boost his follower count on IG.

The members "joked" many times about him leaving BB. To pursue business, to stay in the army... or to pay the price for choosing the wrong friends. "BIGBANG is 4 forever," they laughed onstage while he shouted in the background. GD said it best: "It's time to find a new dream."

Newer VIPs weren't around back then to experience the years of tension developing between the older members and Seungri. Or to feel how that strain spilled over into the fandom, pitting his fans against fans of the other four. Especially when Seungri himself brought up the issue.

The footage and fan accounts are still there but it's not the same without remembering the reactions at the time and how it deepened divisions between fans. The hyungs sometimes said things they probably shouldn't have. Things we tactfully ignored because we didn't want to fight.

But here we are now, and in hindsight, there is no denying that something was terribly wrong. And in that way -- in that one, specific way -- Seungri stans were right. They were picking on him. They were pushing him out. Well, as much as they could without causing a collapse.

Because look how we've collapsed now that he's gone. "No, I'll stay with BIGBANG," he replied to that line about finding a new dream. He knew what was being asked of him. He understood why. We didn't. Because we didn't have the full story and because we didn't want to.