SHINee member Onew has paid tribute to his friend and former bandmate Jonghyun, who died by suicide earlier this week.
Onew is SHINee’s leader and was particularly close to Jonghyun, acting as pallbearer at the 27-year-old’s funeral on Thursday (21 December). He was also seen supporting fellow member Key at the emotional ceremony.
Taking to Instagram shortly after, Onew paid tribute to his friend in a heartbreaking message that said: ‘I love you.’ Sharing just a plain black image, Onew wrote: ‘It does not matter who you are or what you do. Just remember this one. Somebody loves you more than you. I’ll cheer you on. I love you.’
10,000 mourners visited the medical centre in Seoul to pay their respects at Jonghyun’s funeral hall. After three days of mourning, three of his SHINee bandmates carried the coffin as head mourners in the place of brothers, along with three members of band Super Junior.
One member of SHINee with one walking ahead carrying a plaque that read ‘Kim Jong-Hyun, believer.’ His distraught sister walked ahead of the procession carrying an image of her brother in a dark frame.
A black Lincoln limousine arrived to take the coffin from the Asan Hospital in Seoul to the service and its final resting place.
The service was a private one, attended just by close family and friends. Since the ceremony, fans of the singer, who died by suicide in his hotel room, were devastated to realise that a tattoo on his rib cage was actually the symbol for depression.
Earlier this year Jonghyun got a tattoo of a dog on his left rib cage alongside the words: ‘I have a black dog. If you touch, you’ll get bitten!’ He later uploaded a graphic of the symbol to Instagram. A black dog is a symbol associated with depression, which was popularised by Winston Churchill to describe his own bouts of depression.
However, fans have only just come to learn its significance following his death.
