Actor Kim Soo-hyun denied underage dating allegations, saying, "We dated for about a year five years ago" after the late actress Kim Sae-ron became an adult. Kim Soo-hyun’s management agency said they filed a court complaint for 12 billion won in damages against the operators of YouTube channel Hoverlab that spread photos of his personal life and Kim Sae-ron's family to verify the facts through an investigative agency.

“We did not have a relationship when the deceased was a minor, and it is not true that the deceased made a tragic choice due to my neglect and the management agency's pressure to repay her debt,” Kim Soo-hyun said at a press conference at Stanford Hotel in Mapo-gu, Seoul. He stuck to the claim that “they dated from the summer of 2019 to the fall of 2020,” which was in a statement released by his agency Goldmedalist on March 14.

Regarding his denial of dating rumors that arose when Kim Sae-ron posted a photo of them with their cheeks touching on social media when the TV series “Queen of Tears,” in which he played the lead role, was airing, Kim Soo-hyun said, "I think it's natural to be criticized. Whenever I had to make a choice between Kim Soo-hyun as a person and as a star, I think I always chose the latter. I consider myself a coward." As for Kim Sae-ron, he only said, “I feel sorry for the deceased because I don't think she is resting in peace.”

Regarding the bereaved family's disclosure through the controversial YouTube channel Hoverlab, he said, "It's a compulsion to threaten me and admit falsehood as true, and I can't accept it." He cried, criticizing the bereaved family of Kim Sae-ron, saying, "They are putting the frame of a ‘pedophile’ and ‘underage grooming’ on me and also claiming that I sent her to death.”

About KakaoTalk messages between the two in 2016, which was released by a lawyer for Kim Sae-ron's family on March 27, Kim Soo-hyun said, “I received a result (from a private appraisal agency) that the person who sent messages in 2016 and 2018 is not the same person. He also said, “They are the photos and videos that changed the timing and the edited images of KakaoTalk messages, not the original.”

The management agency also refuted allegations that it pressured Kim Sae-ron to repay her debt by releasing a recording of the call. The recording shows former Goldmedalist representative A telling Kim Sae-ron’s next agency representative B that “the proof of content can only be sent due to administrative procedures,” and that “it would be nice if you could explain it well to her.”

Kim Jong-bok, a lawyer at LKB & Partners who represented Kim Soo-hyun, said that he filed a complaint with the court against the operators of YouTube channel Hoverlab and the bereaved family of Kim Sae-ron on charges of violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. The press conference was held without a question-and-answer session. The lawyer said, “This is because the matter has now become the subject of an investigation and needs to be judged legally due to the filing of the complaint.”