The Untold Story of the Relationship That Shocked the Korean Esports Scene.
On the afternoon of May 30th, 2024, at the observation deck on the 65th floor of the Lada Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, staff members discovered a man behaving extremely strangely. The man was completely naked, his face contorted with panic, and he was stumbling toward the railing of the observation deck.
As soon as they recognized the dangerous situation, hotel security quickly rushed over and pulled him away from the area, bringing him to a safer location. However, the man was in a state of violent agitation, continuously spouting incoherent sentences, sometimes screaming in Korean, other times switching to broken English, and even attempting to attack those trying to help him.
Given the circumstances, hotel staff immediately called the police. When the first officers arrived at the scene, they realized that communicating with this man was completely impossible because he couldn’t speak normally or coherently. To identify him, police checked the hotel’s guest registration records and confirmed that he was a South Korean citizen staying in room 602 named Lee Chanju.
In order to better understand what had happened and the cause of the man’s abnormal condition, police decided to escort him back to his room for inspection. And when the door to room 612 was opened, the sight inside caused everyone present to freeze in their tracks, unable to believe their eyes. On the carpet near the bed inside the room, a young woman lay motionless, showing absolutely no signs of life.
Police immediately sealed off the entire room as a crime scene. Criminal forensic technicians and medical examiners were quickly dispatched to begin their investigation. During the preliminary examination of the victim’s body, forensic experts discovered very clear strangulation marks around the victim’s neck, multiple subcutaneous hemorrhages on her face, and notably, a large bruised area on the inner left thigh showing signs of having been gripped very forcefully.
All of these indicators pointed to one conclusion. The victim had suffered a violent attack before her death. When confronted with questions during police interrogation, Chanju, still in a panicked and unstable state, admitted that he was the one who had killed the victim. He stated that the victim was his girlfriend named Park Huna, 31 years old.
However, what police hadn’t anticipated was that when they conducted a background check on Chanju, a completely unexpected piece of information emerged. It turned out that this young man with bizarre and erratic behavior was a fairly famous former professional esports player in the South Korean gaming scene. Under the game ID Yaharang, he had been regarded by experts and fans alike as a talented midlaner, even considered a prodigy in professional League of Legends tournaments.
Why would a retired esports player appear in such a condition? And why did his girlfriend, who had traveled with him to Vietnam, meet such a tragic death in the very hotel room they had rented? When police reviewed footage from the elevator surveillance camera, they discovered that the time between when the two entered the room and when Chanju alone burst out and ran to the rooftop was only 10 minutes.
What had actually happened inside that closed room in such a short span of time? Faced with these questions, Hanoi police immediately began a meticulous and thorough examination of room 612. This standard double room on the 60th floor at first glance appeared fairly neat and orderly with no obvious signs of a violent struggle or scuffle.
The bed was neatly made and items in the room were placed in their proper positions. However, on the carpet next to the bed, there was an area that had been unnaturally rumpled. And from this area, investigators collected several long strands of hair along with a small amount of skin tissue. When examining a pillow placed on the nightstand, they also discovered traces of saliva remaining on its inner surface.
Beyond these initial findings, as they continued searching the room, police found several other important pieces of evidence. Inside the drawer of the nightstand, they discovered several blister packs of medication that had been opened and partially used. Upon examining the labels printed in Korean, police determined these were prescription medications used to treat bipolar disorder.
In the trash can in the bathroom, they found an empty Coca-Cola bottle. And at the mouth of the bottle, there remained a suspicious white powder residue. When opening Chonju’s suitcase for inspection, besides clothes and ordinary personal items, police also found a small electronic scale along with several sealed plastic bags. The hotel’s surveillance camera system helped police reconstruct the entire timeline of events that occurred that day. At 12:54 p.m.
on May 30th, footage showed Huna and Chanju walking hand in hand into the hotel lobby, appearing unremarkable. However, upon closer observation, one would notice that throughout the walk from the entrance to the elevator, Chanju wasn’t wearing shoes, but was instead carrying his sneakers in his hand, and his gate appeared stiff and unnatural.
At 10:09 p.m., both entered the elevator to go up to the 60th floor of the hotel. And then, just 10 minutes later, at 10:19 p.m., the door to room 612 suddenly burst open. and Chanju, completely naked, rushed out into the hallway with a distorted, contorted expression on his face and ran straight toward the emergency stairwell.
The time from when the two entered the room until Chanju ran out alone was only 10 and 1/2 minutes, and this detail was specially noted in the investigator’s report as a point of interest. In the interrogation room at the police station, Chanju kept drifting between states of lucidity and confusion, and the statements he gave were completely contradictory.
In his first statement, he said the reason he killed his girlfriend was because she had refused to have sex with him. However, just a few hours later, he completely changed his story and said the real reason was that he had discovered his girlfriend had previously done disreputable work, making him feel deceived and betrayed.
When police tried to probe deeper into the details of the incident, he began speaking incoherently, nonsensically, and kept mentioning completely unrelated things like, “Someone is watching me,” or “An earthquake is about to happen.” Faced with such a complex situation, police decided to conduct drug testing on his body, as well as a comprehensive mental health evaluation of Chanju.
Test results showed he was positive for multiple types of illegal substances. Regarding the mental evaluation, specialist doctors after preliminary examination concluded that Chanju might be suffering from a serious form of mental disorder and they recommended that a formal forensic psychiatric evaluation be conducted for a more accurate conclusion.
News of the case quickly reached South Korea. The South Korean embassy in Vietnam contacted the family of victim Park Hyuna to deliver the terrible news. Her father, Mr. Park Yung Ho upon receiving the call simply couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Just the day before, his daughter had called home saying she had to go on a business trip to Vietnam and now she had suddenly died in a foreign land.
After multiple verifications of the information when the cruel truth was finally confirmed, his entire family completely collapsed in pain and despair. Meanwhile, in South Korea, news that the former professional player known as Yaharang had killed someone in Vietnam spread at lightning speed across all social media platforms.
On esports community forums, fans went from initial shock to suspicion and raised numerous questions. Many people began digging up information about the strange behaviors Chanju had exhibited after his retirement, while others started discussing and theorizing about whether he had been dealing with psychological issues for some time.
Returning to the Hanoi police station at that time, investigators faced an extremely complex puzzle with many unknowns that needed solving. Why had a once-admired esports prodigy fallen into such a state of mental collapse? And what had happened between him and his unfortunate girlfriend in that hotel room? To understand everything that happened inside room 612 that day, we need to go back further in time.
Chanju was born on June 12th, 2000 in Seoul, South Korea. He grew up and completed middle school in the Mapo district of Seoul, then continued his studies at an ordinary high school in the city. However, this teenager’s burning passion for esports far exceeded his interest in following the traditional academic path.
While still in 10th grade, he decided to drop out midyear to fully dedicate himself to training and pursuing a career as a professional esports player. And as it turned out, that bold decision wasn’t wrong at all because his natural talent quickly shone brightly in the South Korean esports scene. In 2016, at just 16 years old, Chonju under the game ID Yaharang consistently maintained a stable ranking among the top players on the Korean server leaderboard, attracting the attention of many professional esports teams searching for
young talent. By 2017, having just turned 17 and meeting the minimum age requirement to participate in professional tournaments, he officially signed a contract to join the League of Legends roster of JAG, one of the esports clubs with the longest history and tradition in South Korea. 2018 could be considered the first peak in Chanju’s professional competitive career.
In a prestigious tournament held that year, he and his Jag teammates impressively advanced through each round. Particularly noteworthy was the quarterfinal match where Chanju executed an almost unbelievably perfect play that helped his team achieve a spectacular comeback victory. This shining moment was later dubbed the Yaharang moment by South Korean esports media.
Although Jag ultimately couldn’t reach the finals and win the championship, Chanju’s outstanding individual ability was widely recognized by experts and fans alike. Some esports publications even voted him the most anticipated next generation midlaner. However, competition in professional esports is far more brutal than one might imagine.
Jag’s overall strength wasn’t outstanding in the LCK. Starting in 2019, the team’s performance continuously declined. As a core player, Chanju was under enormous pressure and his form began to fluctuate. In the 2020 LCK spring split, Jag was relegated due to poor performance and the team subsequently disbanded. Chanju faced his first career crisis.
In 2021, he transferred to another LCK team, but spent most of his time as a substitute, rarely getting the chance to play. In 2022, to extend his career, Chanju decided to go to Japan and join DFM in the Japanese LJL league. This transfer was initially seen as a mutually beneficial choice. At DFM, Chanju regained his starting position and had an outstanding performance in the 2022 LJL Spring Split, helping the team win the championship.
His individual ability displayed in the Japanese League was clearly a cut above his opponents. However, on the international stage, DFM’s gap in strength remained evident. In the 2022 League of Legends World Championship play-in stage, DFM failed to advance and Chanju’s career hit another plateau. After the season, his contract with DFM expired and was not renewed.
In early 2023, 22-year-old Chanju quietly announced his retirement on his personal social media, ending his 6-year professional esports career. The name Yaharang disappeared from the professional scene from then on. Meanwhile, in another corner of life, someone else’s trajectory unfolded much more peacefully and smoothly. The victim, in this case, Park Hyuna, was born in 1991 in the port city of Busousan, South Korea.
She grew up in a warm family, lovingly cared for by her parents, and possessed a gentle, cheerful personality that endeared her to everyone she met. Park Huna completed high school in Busousan, then had the opportunity to study abroad in Australia, majoring in commerce at the University of Sydney. After graduating and returning to South Korea, she found a stable job at a trading company in Busousan, living the kind of life many young Koreans dreamed of having.
These two parallel life paths that seemed destined never to intersect unexpectedly crossed at a friend gathering in 2023. At that time, 23-year-old Chanhu had just ended his professional esports career and was facing a period of confusion and directionlessness after suddenly disappearing from the spotlight. Meanwhile, 32-year-old Huna was in a stable phase of her career and looking forward to new things in life.
According to accounts from mutual friends, Chanju was the one who actively and enthusiastically pursued Huna first. Despite the 9-year age gap between them and their completely different lifestyles and life experiences, Huna was eventually moved by the young man’s sincerity and persistence. The two officially became a couple at the end of 2023.
At that time, no one could have imagined that this relationship would end so tragically and heartbreakingly. When the stage lights of the esports arenas gradually dimmed and his professional competitive career came to a close, Chanju’s life began veering down a completely uncontrolled path that no one could have anticipated.
In fact, not long after he officially announced his retirement, close friends around him began noticing that something wasn’t quite right with him. Chanju’s weight dropped rapidly and alarmingly, and his emotions became more erratic and unpredictable than ever before. Fans watching his live streams also noticed many abnormal signs such as his speech often being incoherent and contradictory, his eyes always appearing vacant and lifeless, and his body trembling uncontrollably.
However, the real turning point marking his serious decline occurred in April 2023. One day, the owner of a nail salon in Soul’s Gangnam district received a rather strange appointment call. The caller was a male customer who said he wanted to come in for a manicure. The following evening at 7:00 p.m. as scheduled, Chanju appeared at the salon.
The owner later recounted that throughout the 40 minutes of the manicure session, Chanju kept continuously mumbling things like, “It smells so good. What a nice scent.” And similar phrases in a very strange and incomprehensible tone. After the manicure was finished, he neither paid nor showed any intention of leaving.
instead just walking back and forth around the salon while continuing to mumble something under his breath. What happened next terrified everyone present in the salon that day. Chanju suddenly climbed onto the spa bed in the salon and right in front of the owner and another female customer present, he quickly stripped off all his clothes and lay there naked with an extremely bizarre expression on his face that made people shudder.
The owner in a panic immediately called the police for help. When police arrived and conducted a preliminary check, they found no signs that he was using illegal drugs or stimulants. Even stranger, after the incident, Chanju acted as if nothing had happened, even calling the salon multiple times, expressing a desire to return for more manicures.
Though, of course, all those calls were flatly refused. When friends later asked him why he had acted that way, he just mumbled that it was because an urge had risen up that he couldn’t control, and he felt overly excited. Word of this incident quickly spread within a small circle of the South Korean esports community.
Although the media didn’t directly name the person involved, almost everyone in the industry knew it was some former professional player. After this serious incident, Chonju’s family finally realized they couldn’t continue delaying getting him medical help. Under the insistence and urging of Chonju’s father, he was taken to the hospital for a comprehensive examination and was diagnosed by doctors with bipolar disorder.
The doctors explained, “This is a serious form of mental illness in which the patient continuously fluctuates between two extreme emotional states, periods of extreme excitement alternating with periods of extreme depression. Because of this illness, Chanju was also exempted from the mandatory military service required by South Korean law.
However, after being diagnosed, Chanju’s treatment process didn’t go smoothly as hoped at all. He showed fierce resistance to taking medication or receiving injections as prescribed by doctors. During the first treatment session, the situation was so severe that his father had to physically restrain him just to complete the medication administration.
Throughout the following 6 months, although he still had to go to the hospital for monthly checkups, his resistant attitude toward treatment never subsided. Later, Chonju<unk>s father admitted that because of his son’s fierce resistance and the ongoing conflicts and clashes between father and son over this matter, he had gradually become negligent in supervising his son’s medication compliance.
And it was precisely during this period when Chonju was both undergoing treatment and struggling with difficulties in life that he happened to meet Hyuna, a woman 9 years his senior through a friend gathering. From the available information, it’s clear that Huna must have sensed something abnormal about her boyfriend fairly early on.
She had complained multiple times to close friends that every time she met Chanju, he would curse and berate her for no reason. and his behavior was often very aggressive and unpredictable. Because of these things, she had thought about breaking up many times. This shows that throughout their relationship, she had truly experienced and witnessed the abnormal emotional and behavioral manifestations of her boyfriend.
Yet, every time she saw Chanju’s pitiful, wretched expression afterward, she would soften and couldn’t bear to leave him. Perhaps at that time, although Huna felt something wasn’t right in this relationship, she still hadn’t truly realized that these were symptoms of a serious mental illness requiring proper treatment.
Time moved on to May 2024, and everything began deteriorating rapidly. On May 27th, Park Huna called her father, and through her voice, one could clearly hear exhaustion and fatigue. In reality, at that time, Chanju was already on the verge of a serious episode. The chat message history between the two, later collected by police, showed that Huna had sent Chanu a message filled with helplessness.
I completely don’t understand what you’re saying anymore. By the evening of May 28th, the situation had become much more serious. Chonju, shirtless and barefoot, ran straight into a police station, incoherently saying things like, “Someone keeps staring at me. I’m scared. The officers at the station couldn’t understand what he was saying or what he wanted, so they had to contact his father to come pick him up.
However, after returning home, Chonju’s delusional symptoms not only didn’t subside, but became increasingly severe. He told his father in a completely serious tone, “There’s an earthquake happening right now. I have to fly there to straighten the earth’s axis so the earthquake will stop.
” And then carrying that delusional thought in his head, at 3:00 a.m. on May 29th, Chonju, wearing only shorts and a t-shirt, quietly slipped out of the house. He went straight to Inchan International Airport and boarded the earliest flight that day to Hanoi, Vietnam. It wasn’t until he received a phone call from his son in Vietnam asking for money that his father could finally believe that his son had actually gone abroad alone like that.
As for Huna, who was far away in Busousan at the time, it wasn’t until noon on May 29th that she received a short text message from Chanju containing just a few words, “Sorry, I’m in Vietnam.” After learning what had happened, Chanju<unk>s father contacted Huna and said to her, “I won’t be able to arrange to go there for another 2 days.
Could you go bring him back first?” Even more incomprehensibly and inexcusably, he also gave her a piece of advice that sounded harmless on the surface. When you get there, buy a bottle of Coca-Cola, then mix the medication into it for him to drink. He clearly knew very well that his son was extremely resistant to taking medication.
And he also knew that whenever Chonju had an episode, he was prone to exhibiting uncontrollable, abnormal sexual urges. Yet he still let a young woman fly alone to a foreign country to handle such a dangerous and unpredictable situation. On the day before the murder occurred, Hiona only told her family, “The company suddenly assigned me a business trip.
I have to go to Vietnam.” When her parents heard business trip, out of habit and instinct, they thought it was just an ordinary work trip like many times before. So, they didn’t ask many questions about the details of the journey. On May 30th, Huna flew to Hanoi. Immediately after landing at the airport, the first thing she did was go to the police station to explain Chonju’s situation and the reasons for his strange behavior earlier.
After hearing her explanation, police agreed to release Chanju and she helped complete the necessary bail procedures. By noon that day, the two reunited in Hanoi. Afterward, they walked together into the Lada Hotel, took the elevator up, and stopped in front of the door to room 612. When the room door closed behind them, the hotel hallway returned to its usual quietness.
What happened next inside that room, no third party witnessed. In his initial statement to police, Chanju said the two had gotten into an argument and the cause of the argument was that Huna had refused to have sex with him. He stated that he had completely lost control of his emotions and in his agitation had squeezed her neck with his hands until she could no longer struggle or resist.
However, in subsequent interrogations, he changed his story and gave a completely different reason. This time, he said the reason he killed her was because he discovered that Park Hyiona had previously done disreputable work, making him feel deceived and betrayed, and in an uncontrollable rage, he had killed her.
However, regarding this accusation about Park Hyuna’s past, the police investigation found no evidence whatsoever to prove it. All of her family members, friends, and colleagues unanimously denied this claim. During the continued investigation of the case, police also discovered a small quantity of illegal drugs hidden in Chanju’s luggage.
Blood and urine test results also showed that his body tested positive for these substances, proving he had used them previously. After killing his girlfriend in the hotel room, Chanju left the room alone and climbed up to the rooftop area of the building where he was later discovered by security staff. When police arrived at the scene, they quickly subdued and arrested him.
After Chonju was arrested in Vietnam, the case immediately became hot news, attracting special attention from the public in both South Korea and Vietnam. Because the crime occurred on Vietnamese territory according to the principle of territorial jurisdiction in international law, Chanju would have to stand trial in a Vietnamese court rather than being extradited to South Korea.
This was bad news for his family because the Vietnamese legal system has much harsher penalties compared to South Korea for crimes involving illegal drugs and violent crimes. In particular, if a case involves illegal drugs, the maximum penalty under Vietnamese law can be death. After the incident occurred, Chanju’s father gave interviews to the press.
In the interviews, he insisted that his son’s behavior was entirely caused by his mental illness while also trying his best to downplay the importance of the drug use factor in the case. Chanju is still in the process of being treated for his illness. It was the side effects of the medication that caused his behavior to become abnormal like that.
Chonju<unk>s father emphasized repeatedly throughout the interview, “Chonju is fundamentally a kind and good-natured child. However, this explanation and defense was strongly and firmly refuted by Huna’s family. If we had known earlier that he had such serious problems, we absolutely would never have let Huna be with him.” Huna’s father, Mr.
Jung-ho choked out at the press conference with tear-filled eyes. That father knew full well his son was so seriously ill, yet he still let Huna fly alone to Vietnam to deal with such a dangerous situation, it’s truly irresponsible. In June 2024, Vietnam’s forensic psychiatric evaluation center officially released its psychiatric assessment report on Chanju’s mental condition.
The report confirmed that Changu did indeed suffer from bipolar disorder and at the time of committing the crime, he was in the midst of a manic episode. According to the experts assessment, although his cognitive capacity was fully intact and he could understand his own actions, his capacity to control his behavior had been significantly diminished.
Based on these conclusions, Chonju was assessed as having diminished criminal responsibility for his criminal conduct. At the same time, the detailed drug test report also had official results. According to the report, methamphetamine was detected in Chonju’s body, and the concentration of this substance in his blood had reached toxic levels.
Additionally, the small amount of white powder that police had seized from his luggage was confirmed upon examination to be crystal meth. The forensic report clearly stated, “When this substance enters the body, it will exacerbate the symptoms of patients already suffering from mental health issues.
” Therefore, the defendant’s violent behavior in this case was very likely the result of the combined effects of his pre-existing mental illness and his use of illegal drugs. In August 2024, the Hanoi People’s Court officially opened the trial for this case. The procury prosecuted Chanju on two charges, murder and illegal possession of narcotics while also recommending a life sentence for the defendant.
On the defense side, lawyers argued that Chanju’s criminal conduct occurred while he was in the midst of a mental illness episode and simultaneously under the heavy influence of drugs and therefore requested that the court consider reducing the sentence for their client. Park Huna’s father, as a civil plaintiff in the case, was also present at the trial that day.
When the court played footage extracted from the hotel’s surveillance cameras, he had to witness the final images of his daughter while she was still alive. Unable to contain his emotions, he burst into tears right there in the courtroom. Throughout the duration of the trial, Chanju mostly just sat with his head bowed in silence, only giving brief curt answers when the judge directly asked him questions.
When asked whether he felt any remorse for what he had done, Chanju was silent for a very long time before finally opening his mouth and saying, “I didn’t think things would turn out like this.” In September 2024, the court delivered its first instance verdict for the case. Chanju was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison and additionally convicted of illegal possession of narcotics and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
After combining the sentences, the court announced a total sentence of 22 years. This verdict caused divided reactions among the South Korean public. Some people felt that such a sentence was too light and that 22 years in prison wasn’t enough to pay for a life that was lost. Meanwhile, others argued that considering Chanju’s unstable mental state at the time of committing the crime, this verdict demonstrated appropriate fairness and consideration under the law.
The case has closed, but the wounds it left behind can never heal. Somewhere in the city of Busousan, Park Huna’s parents still live with the pain of losing their daughter every single day. They will forever wonder what would have happened if they had asked just one more question when their daughter said she was going on a business trip or if they had known the truth about the man their daughter was dating.
As for Chanju, he will spend the next 22 years in a Vietnamese prison paying for his actions. Although mental illness may explain part of what happened, it cannot erase the fact that a young woman with a bright future lost her life, nothing can justify taking another person’s life. And that’s the case for today.
