The only thing worse than a friend breakup? Having your friend breakup broadcast all over social media.
This nightmare became a reality for former besties Kelly Kim and Joanna Lee, after a salacious “get ready with me” spiraled into TikTok — and later, Twitter’s — drama du jour.
The ordeal began earlier this month, when beauty and fashion influencer Kim decided to take a more personal approach to her regular stream of beauty videos, detailing why she chose to ghost one of her closest pals after she allegedly flirted with a man who would ultimately become Kim’s boyfriend.
@kelly_kim_ @Joanna Lee ♬ original sound - DTB
“I’ve never, ever in my life have to cut out a person cold turkey,” she began the clip, patting concealer into her skin. “I’ve never had to go through a friendship breakup because genuinely, I feel like I only open up to the people who deserve my time and I end up loving them for a lifetime, hopefully, but this girl was just an exception.”
So what, exactly, made Kim’s former friend worthy of getting the chop? Alongside several purported indiscretions including adding him to her Close Friends Instagram story shortly after meeting him, posting photos in his hoodie and primping before his arrival, Kim cited a sandwich as one of the final straws in their friendship.
The friend, who she didn’t mention by name in the clip, allegedly decided to get up early, “getting him the sandwich that he mentioned he likes and then volunteering to wake up early so that she could hand him the sandwich so that he could take it to work.”
Though the above instances all allegedly went down before the pair were officially an item — “this was before my boyfriend and I started dating but everyone knew that we were into each other” — Kim said she felt her ex-bud’s actions crossed a line.
“Now that I’m talking about this months after it actually happened, I find this hilarious, I’m not even raging anymore,” she added. “I just think it’s kind of funny how hard this girl is trying.”
@kelly_kim_ which one was ur fav? the sandwich one is mine #girlsgirl #grwm #datingstorytime ♬ original sound - Kelly
Shortly after the video went viral, Lee decided to speak out, sharing her side of the story despite not being identified in the original clip.
“Let me clear up some misconceptions that people are having online about me,” Lee began her rebuttal. “I don’t know if you saw the video yet, but there is a video about a girl talking about why she ghosted a friend and the reasons behind that and I am the friend that’s been ghosted.”
Though Lee claimed she “reached out so many times” to her ex-friend in order to get to the bottom of her disappearance, she decided to take a page from Kim’s book, rebuking several of the claims against her.
Alongside writing off adding him to the Instagram circle — “close friends don’t mean a lot to me,” she said, noting that she added every person she met “that night” onto her close friends story — she cited the hoodie incident as being par for the course.
“I’m just notorious for not not giving back hoodies and I am sorry she said,” nothing that the hoodie — rather than the boy in question — was “cute.”
The sandwich anecdote, however, one Lee dubbed “the most iconic part of this story” seemed to hit a deeper nerve.
“You and I both know that sandwich was an expression of my gratitude for mounting my TV,” she explained of the incident, noting that she and Kim were living together at the time of sandwichgate. Instead of going out of her way to grab a specialty sandwich, she stopped at a bakery next to her workplace, keeping the meal in the fridge for Kim’s boyfriend to grab at his leisure.
@joannayeonlee cant believe this is what it is but here it is #girlsgirl #femalefriendships #gaslighting101 ♬ original sound - jo
“Why the f—k would I get you a sandwich and have it spoiled, you know?” she asked, adding that “she came with him to pick it up. I handed her the sandwich.” “It was just a form of expression, I would have done this for anyone else.”
Lee ended her clip with a scathing message for her bygone bestie.
“I respected that you had your own perspective on things but now that I know that this is the reason I am so glad that you’re not in my life anymore,” she fired back.
With both sides accounted for, several viewers decided to add their two cents of the matter, expressing their respective support for team Kelly or team Joanna.
“I knew I was being gaslit when I saw Joanna’s video first,” joked “@Annahy alongside several laughing emojis. “This makes more sense.”
“OK but did YOU TELL her you were uncomfortable back then???!” @Ali asked Kim.
But regardless of who you’re siding with, one thing is for sure — we can only hope this boyfriend was really, really hot.
5 Comments