Red Velvet's Joy Has One Thing to Say About Retirement

Somewhere between a fan platform message and a television appearance, Red Velvet's Joy found herself the subject of a retirement narrative she never wrote. On Saturday, May 16, she shut it down in the most direct terms available to her — a message posted to fans on the social platform Bubble that left very little room for interpretation.

"I have no plans to retire," Joy wrote, before adding a line that captured a certain exasperation: "They keep saying 'second career prep' and 'retirement preparation.' I'm actively working right now." The comment came after multiple Korean media outlets ran pieces framing Joy's pursuit of a dog grooming certificate as evidence that she was planning for life after Red Velvet. She wanted that framing corrected.

What Actually Happened on 'I Live Alone'

The story starts, as many K-pop news cycles do, with a television broadcast. On May 15, MBC's long-running variety show "I Live Alone" (나 혼자 산다) featured footage of Joy attending a dog grooming academy. She was shown arriving at the school with purpose, describing her two-month enrollment and the practical details of what she's been learning.

On the show, Joy explained her motivation clearly enough: "I thought about what I would do if I couldn't do this job anymore, and I felt like having a skill would be good." She added that she loves dogs and decided learning grooming would let her combine that with the possibility of future volunteer work — specifically, grooming rescue dogs at animal shelters.

Some outlets covered the segment at face value. Others ran with a different angle: that an idol pursuing vocational training in something unrelated to entertainment must be planning an exit. The headline framing — "retirement preparation," "second career" — spread quickly enough to reach Joy herself.

Joy's Response Was Direct

Her Bubble message was brief but clear. "The reason I'm learning dog grooming is because I want to do volunteer work with it later," she wrote. "Something I said as a joke grew and articles kept 'retiring' me. Please don't misunderstand." She followed that with an emphatic statement: "I love singing and acting the most."

The response from fans and from broader social media was a mix of affection and amusement. Many pointed out that learning dog grooming for volunteer purposes is simply a thoughtful use of free time — the kind of activity that, for most people, would generate no commentary at all. For an idol, the same activity becomes subject to a narrative grid that connects every action to career calculations.

Joy's message pushed back against that grid without dwelling on it. The tone was annoyed but warm — closer to a correction between friends than a formal statement. That register, readable to anyone who follows her interactions with fans, made the point more effectively than a longer, more measured response might have.

Red Velvet, Joy, and Six Years of a Very Public Relationship

Joy debuted with Red Velvet in 2014 and has been one of the group's most prominent members since. Red Velvet — which also includes Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, and Yeri — has maintained a consistent presence in K-pop despite a pandemic hiatus and various members' individual activities, and remains one of SM Entertainment's flagship acts more than a decade into its existence.

Joy has been particularly active outside the group structure: she has released solo music, appeared regularly on variety shows including "I Live Alone," and built a public profile that extends beyond the typical idol template. Her appearance on the show has been a recurring element of the format — she's known for her expressive reactions and unfiltered commentary, which has made her a reliable presence.

Since 2021, she has been in a publicly acknowledged relationship with the R&B singer Crush. The two confirmed their relationship officially in June of that year, and it remains one of the more openly discussed couples in K-pop — a category where public relationships are still relatively rare. The couple reportedly first connected during the production of Crush's 2020 track "Naldari," on which Joy was featured.

The Bigger Picture: Idols, Skills, and the Retirement Framing

Joy's situation points to something broader about how K-pop media covers idol activities. When a K-pop artist pursues any interest outside of performance — whether that's education, a hobby, a fitness routine, or in this case vocational training — there is a tendency in entertainment media to read it as a signal about career trajectory. The logic runs: why would someone in a high-profile entertainment career be learning something practical unless they were preparing to leave?

The reality is more ordinary. Many idols have spoken publicly about the anxiety of building an identity that isn't entirely contingent on their performance career, particularly as the industry ages and the pool of people who debuted in their teenage years are now well into their twenties and thirties. Learning a skill, exploring an interest, or getting a certificate isn't necessarily a departure signal — it's a normal thing for an adult to do.

Joy's response essentially said as much, without the theoretical framing: she's learning dog grooming because she wants to volunteer at shelters, because she loves dogs, and because having a practical skill feels sensible. She's also still very much in the middle of her career, actively recording and performing with Red Velvet and maintaining a solo profile she has no apparent intention of stepping away from.

What She's Working On

Beyond the dog grooming academy and the Bubble clarification, Joy's current activities include ongoing work with Red Velvet and a variety of individual appearances. She has been a consistent presence on "I Live Alone" in recent months, and the show's filming of her grooming academy sessions suggests she gave the production full access to this part of her routine — which itself argues against the idea that she's hiding a retirement plan. People with quiet exit strategies don't typically invite television cameras into their vocational training.

Fans who follow her closely seemed unsurprised by her response. The consensus view in fan communities was that the retirement framing had misread her thoroughly, and that her Bubble message was less a dramatic denial than a simple correction of a record that had gotten muddled.

For now, Joy is still very much here — studying dog grooming on Saturdays, performing with Red Velvet, and occasionally setting the record straight on things that need to be straightened.

That, ultimately, is what the past week amounts to in her story: a brief media cycle that ran in one direction, met her going the opposite way, and ended where it should have begun — with the explanation she gave in the first place, on a television show that millions of people watched, if they had chosen to take her at her word.