A store employee has sparked controversy after allegedly taking some of the gift certificates a K-pop star had given to fans. The company has apologized and launched an internal investigation. According to the retail industry, Jaemin, a member of K-pop group NCT Dream, sent fans 30 Shinsegae gift certificates worth 100,000 won each ($67) on the night of March 14 to mark White Day. He shared images containing the barcode for each voucher, allowing fans to claim them on a first-come, first-served basis. Some fans who visited an E-Mart branch the next day to exchange the mobile vouchers for paper certificates found that a large portion had already been redeemed at the Gumi branch before the store opened at 10 a.m. The news fueled online suspicion that a store employee had secretly taken the vouchers before opening hours, leading some fans to file complaints directly with Shinsegae Group, which owns and operates E-Mart. After launching an internal investigation, E-Mart confirmed that an employee at the Gumi branch had preemptively redeemed nine of the vouchers. Shinsegae apologized for the inc