Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
People have been asking me why I haven’t written about Dispatch‘s article that basically wrapped up the T-ara, Hwayoung, Hyoyoung drama and that got netizens to generally see that they fucked up.
Honestly? I didn’t bother because mainly all it does is have six more former staff confirm the existing story shared by the former staff and then confirmed by a former manager and the current company. Same applies to not bothering with Areum basically begging the media to not have her past photos become an issue again and to leave her alone, regardless of her continued support of T-ara, as it tells us basically nothing new. Also, quite frankly, continuing to post more and more evidence only furthers the bullshit narrative that T-ara are the ones that need more evidence or justification to exonerate them from this scandal.
Come on.
The Hwayoung and Hyoyoung side consists of T-ara members subtweets, out-of-context gifs and vids that have been constantly been proven false, and viral outright lies. That’s it. The T-ara side consists of dozens of people with first-hand experience with the parties involved, from company to staff to producers to choreographers to dancers to fansite admins to former members to T-ara to Hwayoung herself, all generally repeating the same story about what actually went down. That includes the only actual evidence that there may have been bullying involved in this, except it was from Hyoyoung to Areum, not T-ara to Hwayoung. All these things have either been admitted to, were said at the time, or have gone completely unchallenged as the truth.
And yet, here I am writing about it again, so in a way I guess all the people trying to continue to pester and question have been successful. But rather than rehashing stuff we already knew and that everybody else has already said, I wanted to point out that for as fail as Kim Kwang Soo was in handling T-ara (not just this issue but in general), he did in fact try to tell people the reality of the situation at the time. Thus, saying it’s weird or suspicious that this is all coming out now is also bullshit.
“In deference to the complaints by T-ara’s staff of 19 people (5 stylists, 7 hair and makeup, 5 on-site managers, 2 team mangers), Hwayoung’s contract as an artist will be voided effective immediately with no conditions.”
“We wish to impress upon the fact that this has nothing to do with the ‘bullying’ reports surrounding T-ara. Although the staff of Core Contents Media stayed up into early morning discussing with the T-ara members, who all wanted to stay with Hwayoung, we apologize in saying that we could not forsake the arguments of the staff members.”
At the time, this was seen as a cover up for “obvious” bullying problems with T-ara. Now, with the bullying evidence debunked and the staff themselves coming out of the woodwork, it looks like he was just honest.
The same can be said for the ‘Music Bank‘ story.
CCM had decided that due to her leg injury, Hwayoung would sit on a chair on stage for her rap segment, and so the girls had successfully completed their camera rehearsal before the broadcast. However, Hwayoung suddenly changed her mind and refused to go on stage with 2 groups left to go. The agency stated that in order to prevent an accident on live TV, members Eunjung and Hyomin were pressed to learn Hwayoung’s rap segment in the short amount of time they had before their turn. With the new pressure, Hyomin was clearly nervous and ended up making a mistake during the rap segment. On the way home, Hwayoung, in front of fans and reporters, threw down her crutches and sat on the floor, threatening to yell at the managers in public. It has also been revealed that Hwayoung has shown both fans and reporters a similar side to her, with unacceptable actions and behavior on the set of ‘Music Bank.’ CCM CEO Kim Kwang Soo stated, ‘We will not be revealing any more of Hwayoung’s similar behaviors outside of the ‘Music Bank’ incident because we do want to protect her. I am also sorrowed by the words left on Hwayoung’s Twitter.”
We now know the reason for this is because Hyoyoung sent those threatening texts to Areum right before the stage and Areum then “snitched” on Hyoyoung to the T-ara members and staff.
That’s not to say Kim Kwang Soo wasn’t sort of an idiot, as he continually tried to cover for Hwayoung and Hyoyoung at the expense of his only marquee group.
Kim Kwang Soo commented, “I saw Hwayoung’s Twitter message that read, ‘Facts that aren’t true.’ I don’t know if she really wants to hear the truth. I’ve decided not to speak in order to protect T-ara.”
Oh you naive dumbfuck.
Interviewer: “Your statement was a bit ambiguous. It actually caused more controversy.”
Kim Kwang Soo: “I cannot reveal everything. I am trying to at least respect the member that is leaving the group. If I reveal the truth, someone is bound to get hurt.”
Interviewer: “The bullying rumors have been spreading. Were these rumors the reason for her termination?”
Kim Kwang Soo: “No. Whether or not the members got along well together or not is not the issue. While working with a team, some controversies may arise. However, the biggest problem was the fact that the staff members were having such a hard time.”
Interviewer: “What sort of hardships were the staff members enduring?”
Kim Kwang Soo: “I do not want to specifically state the reasoning. All I can say is that these staff members that work so hard to make T-ara look good are having a hard time working with the group. Some staff members cried and told me that they wanted to quit. The singers are important, but the staff members that make the singers are just as important. Problems that break up the teamwork of the group is unacceptable.”
Interviewer: “Maybe if you talked about more specific and concrete events the controversies would die down?”
Kim Kwang Soo: “There are so many events but I do not wish to state any more. There were many events that broke the teamwork of the group. These girls worked so hard for three years to come this far. I hope that Hwayoung stays quiet about this matter.”
Hell, he even made a direct mention of the text Hyoyoung sent to Areum.
“The staff that were working hard were hurt a lot. One person close to Hwayoung even sent a message to a T-ara member and it contained foul language.”
Honestly, what else do you want at this point? Like I’m as surprised as anybody that Hwayoung and Hyoyoung haven’t said a peep about this so far, as one usually doesn’t go five years riding a wave of horseshit only to stop when it gets outed as, in fact, horseshit. However, that’s exactly what’s happening and if they aren’t even going to defend themselves, then why are others bothering?
Barring anything new emerging, this is hopefully the last “explainer” I’ll do on this, and I’ll be back to the petty posting about the scandal effective immediately.
