Friends Across Groups: How the K-Pop 98-Line Is Honoring Moonbin Two Years On

On April 19, 2025, exactly two years will have passed since the K-pop world lost Moonbin. The ASTRO member's warmth, talent, and close-knit friendships left an indelible mark on an entire generation of Korean idols. As that date approaches, the group of peers who shared his era and his daily life have been quietly preparing something that speaks to how deeply those bonds ran. The so-called "98-line"—a loose but meaningful collective of 1997-and-1998-born idols who grew up in the industry together—is organizing tribute activities that reflect not just grief but active, continuing love.

Cha Eunwoo, Moonbin's ASTRO bandmate and one of his closest friends, has taken a leading role in coordinating the memorial efforts. What is taking shape ahead of the second anniversary is a reminder that in K-pop, the friendships formed during training years and early debut periods carry a weight that public personas rarely fully reveal.

Who Was Moonbin, and What Is the 98-Line

Moonbin was born on January 26, 1998, and debuted with ASTRO under Fantagio Entertainment in February 2016. Over seven years of activity, he built a reputation as one of his generation's most complete performers—a dancer with stage magnetism and a vocalist capable of real emotional range. But beyond his individual talents, what marked him within the industry was the quality of his friendships. He was, by nearly every account from those who knew him, someone who showed up consistently for the people he cared about.

The "98-line" is less a formal group than a shared identity among Korean idols born around 1997–1998 who debuted within a similar window and developed genuine off-camera bonds. It includes Moonbin, SEVENTEEN's Seungkwan (born January 16, 1998), Billlie's Moon Sua—his younger sister, who was born in 1998 and debuted after him—and a range of others including Stray Kids' Bang Chan, who has spoken openly about his friendship with Moonbin. Cha Eunwoo, though born in March 1997, has long been counted within this peer circle by those inside it.

What made the 98-line relationship unusual was its visibility. These were not distant industry acquaintances but people who openly appeared at each other's events, celebrated birthdays together, and referenced each other in interviews with the kind of specific warmth that suggests genuine friendship rather than managed public relations. Moonbin's passing on April 19, 2023, did not sever those relationships. It deepened them.

The Shape of the Tribute

In the days and weeks leading up to the second anniversary, members of Moonbin's peer group have been sharing memories and organizing memorial activities that carry a different character than the shock-driven outpouring that followed his passing in 2023. Two years have introduced something quieter and more deliberate—tributes less about disbelief and more about the ongoing work of remembrance.

Cha Eunwoo has been central to coordinating a collaborative tribute project that involves multiple artists from the 98-line circle. The project, which is being developed for release on the anniversary date itself, brings together voices across ASTRO, SEVENTEEN, Stray Kids, and Billlie under a charitable framework—all proceeds directed to causes that reflect values Moonbin was known to hold. The involvement of artists from different agencies, each navigating their own schedules and label priorities, speaks to the personal commitment driving the effort. This is not a commercially structured memorial but something organized from inside genuine friendship.

Seungkwan of SEVENTEEN has been among the most publicly vocal in the weeks approaching the anniversary. His social media posts have referenced Moonbin directly and with the kind of specific personal detail—references to inside jokes, shared memories, moments from years past—that distinguishes real grief from performed tribute. Moon Sua, whose connection to Moonbin was the deepest possible—she is his younger sister—has continued to speak about him in interviews as someone whose presence she navigates daily rather than someone she has "moved past."

Grief as Collective Practice in K-Pop

The 98-line's ongoing tribute activities are worth examining in a broader industry context because they represent something that K-pop's public-facing culture has historically struggled to accommodate: genuine, unresolved mourning. The K-pop industry is built around forward motion—comebacks, concepts, schedules, fan engagement cycles. Grief is personal and slow; the industry is structural and fast. The tension between those two realities has, in the two years since Moonbin's passing, produced something instructive.

His peers have not moved on in the way that industry timelines might suggest they should. They have, instead, found ways to carry the loss alongside their active careers—integrating remembrance into the texture of ongoing work rather than confining it to annual memorial posts. Cha Eunwoo has spoken in interviews about how his relationship with Moonbin shapes his approach to friendship and professional life. That ongoing conversation, rather than a completed grieving cycle, may be the most honest account of what it means to lose someone central to your daily existence.

The tribute project being organized for April 19 is an extension of that ongoing practice. It is not a closing ceremony but a second-year marker—an acknowledgment that two years is a moment worth honoring, while also making clear that the remembrance will not stop there.

Fan and Industry Response

AROHA—ASTRO's fandom—has organized its own parallel memorial activities for the anniversary, including charity donations in Moonbin's name, streaming campaigns for ASTRO's catalog, and community gatherings across multiple countries. The intersection of fan and artist tribute around a shared date has created a week of remembrance that extends well beyond any single event or release.

The broader K-pop community has responded with the kind of quiet solidarity that the industry is capable of at its best. Artists from multiple agencies have posted personal messages without the competitive framing that typically shapes public interaction in the space. What emerges is a picture of an industry capable of genuine communal grief when the loss is acute enough to cut through the usual competitive noise.

Moonbin's Lasting Presence

Two years is long enough for the initial shock of loss to recede and short enough that the absence remains sharply felt. The 98-line's tribute activities ahead of this second anniversary suggest that Moonbin's presence in the lives of those who knew him is neither fading nor frozen—it is, instead, being actively tended. The collaborative project taking shape for April 19 will serve as both a tribute to the person he was and an expression of who his friends continue to be in relation to him.

In the months that follow, ASTRO's remaining members and their extended peer circle will carry that presence forward into new projects and new chapters. Moonbin's legacy in the K-pop 98-line generation—as a performer, as a friend, and as someone whose loss reshaped how his peers understand loyalty—is not something that second-anniversary tributes will conclude. It is something they will renew.