Scatter_88mil

I thought this would happen. Next thing I know, the drama Soyeon is in is going to be affected too.

I refrained from making a comment till now because frankly, I see a lot of people taking sides, some being delusional and others simply raging on without any sense of real rationality. And it disgusts me. I understand everyone is in shock, frustration and anger but seriously - have some decency to try not to stoop that low.
I myself am pretty surprised by the news but for some of you out there I talked with - yes, Hwayoung's departure was very likely before this announcement was made. It was bound to have happened - after all, Soomi of 5dolls followed the same fate earlier.
For me, I never understood Hwayoung's addition to the group because the background story and reasons as to why she was added are frankly, quite unacceptable. Entering a well-established group under such circumstances is definitely by no means, absolutely ridiculous. Idol rappers for the most part aren't even seen as real 'rappers' since the K-hiphop industry itself is pretty well established and popular on its own right.
On my take - I'll have to admit some sort of bullying did take place - or at least outcasting (mind you, the two don't always go hand-to-hand necessarily). And it is inexcuseable to condone such things. However, CCM obviously handled this terribly - not even SM would stoop this low. What was hoped to be a clarification to clear things up once and for all became an even bigger mess.
For those expecting T-ara to make their own statement in regards to the issue - I wouldn't hold your breath for it. Even if they did, what they say would be clearly scripted and not something purely out of their own heads. Even if they WANTED to, they don't really have much of a choice but end up being puppets.
CCM is obviously trying to avoid all ounces of responsibility by clearly making a smear campaign against Hwayoung and blaming its OWN employees. If it continues to keep this up any longer, I'm really afraid that a boycott of all T-ara merchandise and activities is what will be the only thing that will really knock some sense into KKS - especially since the current members aren't saying anything and likely won't be. This is a real serious case of incompetence, mercilessness and dare I say, a clear example that Kpop isn't about fluff and smiles. I even have no doubt that KKS may even go as far to physically abuse his own groups just so he can be dominant over them.
And suffice to say, the excuses are downright pathetic and unbelievable. You'd have to be be dumber than a brick to believe such nonsense.
In the long and wide shot, CCM is to be ultimately blamed for. What the original members did is inexcuseable and we can only hope they'll redeem themselves one way or another.
However, CCM and KKS are the deep root of the reason to this happening. As explained, why fix something that's not broken? 6-ara was functioning just fine overall (despite strong possibilities of tension between Eun/Ji/Min and So/Bo/Qri) and the last thing you'd want is a newbie thrown into the middle. On T-ara's part, I actually find their behavior - while daunting, immature and horrifying - quite understandable. They have after all, been overworked since debut and the last thing they want is a new member riding along their popularity and hard work since Day One.
Ultimately, if anything, CCM should seriously reflect on its system. T-ara has clearly given signs that they WANT to remain as 6-ara - they could have handled this a lot more better, but I don't blame them for wanting to reminisce their past. After all, things did seem much more stable for them back then. Hwayoung, personally, for her own safety was much better off not being in T-ara in the first place if you consider the original members' position. Considering the original T-ara definitely are pissed at their CEO and management for understandable (and even rightful) reasons, they've made it clear that no one else is welcome.
From this point and now on, I believe it's best for T-ara to remain as six members. Areum and Dani should take this incident as a very serious example and actually reconsider about being part of the group. Hell, I don't like Areum and Dani myself - but for their safety, I heavily advise that it's best that they stay away from T-ara - completely. Adding more new members is going to make things even worse for both T-ara and CCM by the long shot.
For all you out there still protesting Hwayoung's unjustly booting - take a second thought. She's free now. Free from misery, horrendous schedules, a pathetic company and a rabid baboon who dares to call himself a CEO. The least we can do is wish her to live like a normal human being and live out the rest of her days at the utmost best and peace as possible. I think Hwayoung herself as realized she got much more than what she bargained for and I don't blame her for that.
In the long run, I believe this is merely just the beginning of a series of bad events. I can't predict the future myself but for sure, relations between CCM and T-ara are likely to deteriorate even further and I think everyone should brace theirselves for more unfavorable crap to occur this year.
That, is all.

T-ara fans
Hwayoung is added to T-ara: wtf no seriously what the xxxx this is ridiculous. Haven't there been enough lineup changes already? T-ara is fine as they are. CCM is ruining T-ara.
Later: Hwayoung is actually useless. Like actually useless. What the xxxx does she even do? What the xxxx is all that Konglish xxxx? Likey likeu dis? ugh awful. Hwayoung is ruining T-ara.
Two new members are added: T-ara should be seven just like it always has and forever it should be. 7-ara is perfect. It's a sisterhood of love. KKS is ruining T-ara.
Hwayoung leaves/is kicked out/whatever: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THIS IS THE WORST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO T-ARA HOW COULD UNNIRS DO THIS TO FLAWLESS HWAYOUNG ALL SHE EVER DID WAS BE FLAWLESS IN YOUR PRESENCE YOU JEALOUS BITCHES WE'RE GONNA RUIN YR CAREERS F U T-ARA YOU'RE RUINING T-ARA

Honestly, it'd have to be a tossup between Hwayoung, Jiyeon, Hyomin, Eunjung, Boram or Soyeon getting the boot. At least for me, I think it's Hwayoung and Boram that face the most likelihood chance if it is to occur. If not, possibly a hiatus.
As far as WGM goes, I wouldn't even rely on that show for the real personality of their characters. I'm pretty sure Jang Woo himself is likely to be pretty gutted and disappointed to hear the news.
I think this chaotic incident should serve as a wakeup call for both fans and CCM - T-ara aren't the adorable perfect angels as the media and fans make them out to be and indefinitely, there should absolutely be no more new member additions at all. Personally, I think T-ara was simply better off in its 6-ara times - I'm not entirely sure but there is bound to have been some sort of tension between Eun/Ji/Min and So/Bo/Qri as well but at least things seemed much more stable back then.
I'm sorry to those who are fans of Areum, Dani and Hwayoung but honestly, I think it's better for them to stay away from T-ara. I'm no fan of those three myself but seeing this happen, they should really reconsider about being members of T-ara. Judging from what's seen, it seems like the original members want to go back to their 6-ara days - and I can't really blame them for that.
Adding in more new members is only more adding salt to the wound and repeat the cycle, no matter what disciplinary actions are made (plus CCM's actions are very likely to be awfully counterproductive), unless all the original members were somehow kicked out - but even that is an unthinkable move.

As much as I like the fact that Hwayoung is using twitter as a voice to the public and the fans, I don't see this ending well for two reasons:
- unless she plans on taking this to court or unless another management company decides to cash in on the public favor and fanbase and recruit her, a war on twitter might be a detriment to her chances in the industry. Hwayoung is a rapper, and unless she plans to enter hip-hop, her kpop!future require her to be in a group or at least a duo. Management companies in South Korea suck. They want power and control and if they feel that recruiting Hwayoung might lead to a bigger scandal in future then...Hwayoung's not going to get a second big break.
- she hasn't really cleared up the bullying issue. T-ARA at this point can only show support of Hwayoung - any defence they might claim will be automatically dismissed. They can't call the CEO on possible BS, since that would mean them falling under the bus too.
If Hwayoung were to denounce the bullying allegations (as long as they were untrue) and the members could express positive sentiments towards Hwayoung then it might go a long way towards neutralising the scandal.
However, this is not the case yet.
By failing to clarify the bullying rumors (anything CCM, KKS, and T-ARA members say will be dismissed as excuses or lies) Hwayoung is using the public to further her own needs. This can easily lead to a public backlash against T-ARA and put the team member's futures also in jeapardy. By not going through management and not communication with the group about problems, this could possibly doom T-ARA unless something is done.
My biggest question is why Hwayoung has not said whether she's been bullied or not. Is she trying to avoid a possible libel suit or legal action? Or is the situation more ambiguous where there might not have been bullying involved but Hwayoung didn't have anyone she was close to (like her sister) in the group - Qri and Boram are sort of BFFs, Soyeon kinda flies solo and Eunjung, Jiyeon and Hyomin are a bit of a trio. The feeling of isolation and pressure might have instigated this, so she might feel wronged but to the others, they might not feel like they've done anything wrong. We are our own worst critics and she might have taken those tweets personally beyond the intent.
Personally, I believe those initial tweets were either about the concert and motivating the group, or a forewarning to fans about something coming up (maybe management doing something negative because the Japan!concert was such a big deal).
Hwayoung used twitter to respond and her sisters' tweets (and coach's) turned it around to bullying. The weirdest thing is Hwayoung's initial tweet before it all blew up included a happy photo which makes everything even more ambiguous.
I also don't believe the so called videos of bullying proof - if you go through other groups' variety show appearances, I bet you'll find similar footage, esp in regards to the maknaes. There's an awesome post on twitter with photos of the Hwayoung with other T-ARA members having fun and showing some love and it just reminded me that we aren't getting any clarification on the major issue (bullying) and unless the public gets something solid from Hwayoung and T-ARA, the group's future is bleak.

It was the only solution i guess.
Just based on the existing "evidence".. I don't believe even a bit about the "bullying" issue but regardless any issues could've been sorted out internally..
The tweets made it impossible for Hwayoung to stay.. How can the other members supposed to work with her now that their reputation have been dragged through the mud by "netizens" (read: rumours by random people~ e.g:The Boram destroying Hwayoung's umbrella was totally false, Soyeon's candy teasing Hwayoung? She teases Boram the same way or even worse....). We still don't know the real reason.. but the damage has been done.
For those who choose to stop being fans of T-ara because the believe the rumours then its your choice.. this is the time to prove that you are a real fan or not. The girls need your support more than ever..
As for me I will continue to trust and support the original six members, though I still wish Hwayoung the best of luck since she has some awesome talents..

Honestly, it'd have to be a tossup between Hwayoung, Jiyeon, Hyomin, Eunjung, Boram or Soyeon getting the boot. At least for me, I think it's Hwayoung and Boram that face the most likelihood chance if it is to occur. If not, possibly a hiatus.
As far as WGM goes, I wouldn't even rely on that show for the real personality of their characters. I'm pretty sure Jang Woo himself is likely to be pretty gutted and disappointed to hear the news.
I think this chaotic incident should serve as a wakeup call for both fans and CCM - T-ara aren't the adorable perfect angels as the media and fans make them out to be and indefinitely, there should absolutely be no more new member additions at all. Personally, I think T-ara was simply better off in its 6-ara times - I'm not entirely sure but there is bound to have been some sort of tension between Eun/Ji/Min and So/Bo/Qri as well but at least things seemed much more stable back then.
I'm sorry to those who are fans of Areum, Dani and Hwayoung but honestly, I think it's better for them to stay away from T-ara. I'm no fan of those three myself but seeing this happen, they should really reconsider about being members of T-ara. Judging from what's seen, it seems like the original members want to go back to their 6-ara days - and I can't really blame them for that.
Adding in more new members is only more adding salt to the wound and repeat the cycle, no matter what disciplinary actions are made (plus CCM's actions are very likely to be awfully counterproductive), unless all the original members were somehow kicked out - but even that is an unthinkable move.

Honestly, I don't think we could ever really rely on clips from their variety shows to accurately show what their real personalities are. Considering they didn't accept Hwayoung as a whole (especially EunJiMin), I've no doubt that it would be considerably worse if it came down to Areum and Dani - if anything, CCM seems to actually enjoy sending newbies to a large meatgrinder for no apparent reason at all. All the more I think it's best if T-ara just stayed with its 6-ara formation and it would have been better if Hwayoung never joined in the first place.
I understand that Hwayoung is also at fault as well - if she did really care about being an idol, she would have reported the whole thing behind-the-scenes rather than letting the whole thing blow over to the public with her sister, making everyone's career in T-ara forced in a very unstable and dangerous position (ironically, her sister happens to be a member of 5dolls, which is notorious for its Soomi-Chanmi-Eunkyo case not so long ago).

Honestly, it'd have to be a tossup between Hwayoung, Jiyeon, Hyomin, Eunjung, Boram or Soyeon getting the boot. At least for me, I think it's Hwayoung and Boram that face the most likelihood chance if it is to occur. If not, possibly a hiatus.
As far as WGM goes, I wouldn't even rely on that show for the real personality of their characters. I'm pretty sure Jang Woo himself is likely to be pretty gutted and disappointed to hear the news.
I think this chaotic incident should serve as a wakeup call for both fans and CCM - T-ara aren't the adorable perfect angels as the media and fans make them out to be and indefinitely, there should absolutely be no more new member additions at all. Personally, I think T-ara was simply better off in its 6-ara times - I'm not entirely sure but there is bound to have been some sort of tension between Eun/Ji/Min and So/Bo/Qri as well but at least things seemed much more stable back then.
I'm sorry to those who are fans of Areum, Dani and Hwayoung but honestly, I think it's better for them to stay away from T-ara. I'm no fan of those three myself but seeing this happen, they should really reconsider about being members of T-ara. Judging from what's seen, it seems like the original members want to go back to their 6-ara days - and I can't really blame them for that.
Adding in more new members is only more adding salt to the wound and repeat the cycle, no matter what disciplinary actions are made (plus CCM's actions are very likely to be awfully counterproductive), unless all the original members were somehow kicked out - but even that is an unthinkable move.

Okay, here we go...
On the 25th five of the girls made a series of tweets on Twitter after their performance at the Budokan. At first nobody paid any attention to them as the messages seemed to be fairly innocuous in tone and even seemed to be very encouraging. The messages were all basically going on about determination, selflessness, manners, and working hard.
Then Hwayoung tweeted a message saying that sometimes determination simply wasn't enough, and that there's a reason for everything that happens; that's when things started getting messy. Hyoyoung (Hwayoung's twin sister) jumped in, saying that she hurt for her sister and that Hwayoung should still be treated like a person, even if she was physically hurt. She went on to make another tweet about how being pretty on the outside has no value if you're not pretty on the inside as well. Then Tarae (Hwayoung's rapping coach) joined in, calling some unknown people "bitches" and remarking that they needed to remember that, at one point, they were nobodies as well. Both Hyoyoung's and Tarae's tweets are thought to be directed at one or more members of T-ara; Tarae went on to rescind his original tweets, claiming they were actually aimed at Nicki Minaj and Beyonce, oddly enough.
It's about at this point that netizens caught wind of the situation and the whole thing spread like wildfire online, with many speculating that the original tweets were T-ara's way of "bullying" Hwayoung and questioning her dedication to the group as she was unable to perform at the Budokan due to her injury. Soon people were putting together elaborate conspiracy theories that speculate that Hwayoung has ALWAYS been bullied by the other T-ara members, even going so far as to compile collections of gifs and pictures that show that Hwayoung has been neglected this whole time; some of these examples are really, REALLY reaching (they've also simultaneously chosen to ignore the pics and videos that show Hwayoung getting along fantastically with the members, but that's another story for another time). Furthermore, CCM has made the mess even worse by stating that the tweets were, in fact, insults, but they claimed that surely the girls wouldn't have made such hateful comments, so what do they do? They claim that five of the girl's Twitter accounts were simultaneously hacked. Highly unlikely.
So, since this situation has only become a million times worse, it's now been announced that KKS will make an official announcement regarding his stance on the issue on July 30th, 2012 at 1:00 P.M., Korean standard time (roughly 8 and a half hours from now). People are speculating that members will probably be kicked out, and at the very worst the group may be disbanded. It's gotten bad enough that people are calling for Hyomin, Eunjung, and Jiyeon's heads (especially the latter), and to a lesser extent, Soyeon and Boram's, who ultimately ended up deleting their tweets, and now there's a petition on Daum requesting that the group officially disband. Anti-fans and casual onlookers are just having the time of their lives watching all of this happen, and none of the comments are very pleasant to read at this point, so it's probably best to stay away from general K-Pop forums like AKP or H8 for the time being.
So now all we can do is wait to see what happens. In any case most people have thrown their support behind Hwayoung, while openly bashing the other girls without proper knowledge of what's truly happened. The whole ordeal just keeps getting messier and messier, and nobody is stepping up to clarify anything or take a stance. I've actually heard that now people are wondering if Hwayoung is as innocent as she's making herself out to be, so even she's starting to get a bit of negative attention for the role she's playing. Right now it's basically a jumble of rumors, theories, speculation, ambiguous, vague Tweets, hurt feelings, and people throwing the word "bully" around a bit too liberally. No doubt that there are problems in T-ara but I doubt that it's a case of bullying. It's a sad situation, to say the least.

Honestly, it'd have to be a tossup between Hwayoung, Jiyeon, Hyomin, Eunjung, Boram or Soyeon getting the boot. At least for me, I think it's Hwayoung and Boram that face the most likelihood chance if it is to occur. If not, possibly a hiatus.
As far as WGM goes, I wouldn't even rely on that show for the real personality of their characters. I'm pretty sure Jang Woo himself is likely to be pretty gutted and disappointed to hear the news.
I think this chaotic incident should serve as a wakeup call for both fans and CCM - T-ara aren't the adorable perfect angels as the media and fans make them out to be and indefinitely, there should absolutely be no more new member additions at all. Personally, I think T-ara was simply better off in its 6-ara times - I'm not entirely sure but there is bound to have been some sort of tension between Eun/Ji/Min and So/Bo/Qri as well but at least things seemed much more stable back then.
I'm sorry to those who are fans of Areum, Dani and Hwayoung but honestly, I think it's better for them to stay away from T-ara. I'm no fan of those three myself but seeing this happen, they should really reconsider about being members of T-ara. Judging from what's seen, it seems like the original members want to go back to their 6-ara days - and I can't really blame them for that.
Adding in more new members is only more adding salt to the wound and repeat the cycle, no matter what disciplinary actions are made (plus CCM's actions are very likely to be awfully counterproductive), unless all the original members were somehow kicked out - but even that is an unthinkable move.

It is absolutely disgusting, especially considering that they really had to reach to tie this into T-ara's recent issues. If anything it just seems more of a way to keep people interested in the situation by grasping at straws. Johnny Noh (the owner of AKP) is a pr!ck who also just happens to be a 4nia, and part of me thinks he's taking some pleasure in possibly seeing T-ara get taken down a few notches so that his bias group can get some leverage (not that it'll help them).
Okay, I'm being a d!ck now, I need to stop lol.
Well, they've succeeded, big time. T-ara gave them the headline they've so desperately needed, that site's been going down for months since they went and utterly screwed up their forums. Most people defected to Hallyu8 and the majority of people left are idiotic pre-schoolers who have no business being near a computer in the first place.
Oh, trust me, I'm braced and ready to hear the worst. I just wish the man would hurry up and do the damn thing, I can't believe I still have to wait five hours and forty-five minutes to hear this mess.
And screw AKP, I cannot BELIEVE anybody's actually citing that pathetic excuse of a website as a source for anything. The only interesting reads were the Op-Eds done by TheProphetBlog as he's the only one with a modicum of writing talent, but beyond that their articles were about as dull and useless as Dara on stage when they were trying to be "good."

Honestly, it'd have to be a tossup between Hwayoung, Jiyeon, Hyomin, Eunjung, Boram or Soyeon getting the boot. At least for me, I think it's Hwayoung and Boram that face the most likelihood chance if it is to occur. If not, possibly a hiatus.
As far as WGM goes, I wouldn't even rely on that show for the real personality of their characters. I'm pretty sure Jang Woo himself is likely to be pretty gutted and disappointed to hear the news.
I think this chaotic incident should serve as a wakeup call for both fans and CCM - T-ara aren't the adorable perfect angels as the media and fans make them out to be and indefinitely, there should absolutely be no more new member additions at all. Personally, I think T-ara was simply better off in its 6-ara times - I'm not entirely sure but there is bound to have been some sort of tension between Eun/Ji/Min and So/Bo/Qri as well but at least things seemed much more stable back then.
I'm sorry to those who are fans of Areum, Dani and Hwayoung but honestly, I think it's better for them to stay away from T-ara. I'm no fan of those three myself but seeing this happen, they should really reconsider about being members of T-ara. Judging from what's seen, it seems like the original members want to go back to their 6-ara days - and I can't really blame them for that.
Adding in more new members is only more adding salt to the wound and repeat the cycle, no matter what disciplinary actions are made (plus CCM's actions are very likely to be awfully counterproductive), unless all the original members were somehow kicked out - but even that is an unthinkable move.

Honestly, it'd have to be a tossup between Hwayoung, Jiyeon, Hyomin, Eunjung, Boram or Soyeon getting the boot. At least for me, I think it's Hwayoung and Boram that face the most likelihood chance if it is to occur. If not, possibly a hiatus.
As far as WGM goes, I wouldn't even rely on that show for the real personality of their characters. I'm pretty sure Jang Woo himself is likely to be pretty gutted and disappointed to hear the news.
I think this chaotic incident should serve as a wakeup call for both fans and CCM - T-ara aren't the adorable perfect angels as the media and fans make them out to be and indefinitely, there should absolutely be no more new member additions at all. Personally, I think T-ara was simply better off in its 6-ara times - I'm not entirely sure but there is bound to have been some sort of tension between Eun/Ji/Min and So/Bo/Qri as well but at least things seemed much more stable back then.
I'm sorry to those who are fans of Areum, Dani and Hwayoung but honestly, I think it's better for them to stay away from T-ara. I'm no fan of those three myself but seeing this happen, they should really reconsider about being members of T-ara. Judging from what's seen, it seems like the original members want to go back to their 6-ara days - and I can't really blame them for that.
Adding in more new members is only more adding salt to the wound and repeat the cycle, no matter what disciplinary actions are made (plus CCM's actions are very likely to be awfully counterproductive), unless all the original members were somehow kicked out - but even that is an unthinkable move.

I think CCM's already on a slow road to collapse, considering that all their other groups have failed to bring any form of sufficient revenue and not even T-ara's revenue is going to keep them floating above forever.

Hmmm, interesting theory.
If one considers the circumstances revolving around Hwayoung's addition to the group, it is quite a possibility. From what I heard, it was Hyoyoung who was supposed to join T-ara in the first place but supposedly, she somehow convinced KKS to let Hwayoung in as well (and I think it was partly because Hwayoung won a beauty contest or something?).
It actually does seem plausible that KKS is more concerned with holding onto his own power and doing whatever he wants without even taking any serious consideration of the consequences. I swear, I sympathize for those who're trainees in that hellhole of a company - they need to seriously reconsider about their dreams if they plan on staying there any longer.

I understand your frustration over the issue.
On my part, it was definitely unwise of Eunjung, Hyomin and Jiyeon in particular to pull off such a thing. I wouldn't go as far to put Soyeon and Boram in the same amount of blame as those three over a variety of reasons but that's another story that I explained more than once out in the AKP forums.
Though coming from a Korean, I can testify to their behavior just fine as I experienced it first hand back when I was at Korea myself. Hwayoung, arguably, didn't really contribute much from the group at all since Day One of her membership (6-ara fans would argue why T-ara never needed a 3rd rapper in the first place). On my part, I found it difficult to culturally and socially assimilate with the whole class since I lived overseas for most of my life but once I started acting like them and proved my 'worth' (that is, getting top scores for English, drawing skills and the list goes on), the whole atmosphere quickly cooled down and I enjoyed school as a whole.
Which goes to say, that's how Korea's society system had gone for quite a while - newbies are expected to prove their worth to the veterans of whatever group (whether it be school, sports team or even a military unit) to be 'accepted' and if they don't have much to offer, then they're pretty much kept as outcasts - in Hwayoung's case, her rapping wasn't sufficient enough. Seen it happen all too many times around at Korea and it isn't a really pretty sight at all - but unfortunately, a norm. The same probably has occurred to other idol groups out there and as a whole, occurs within the public. T-ara's just one of the many. It's ugly, but that's simply how it is.
I wouldn't go as to call them immature indefinitely since there's a lot of factors surrounding the issue here (Qri and Areum did likely sit out because they refused to get involved due to the risks but on Qri's part, I think she's on the same position as Boram and Soyeon - Areum would obviously be intimidated not to take part at all). The timing is more horrid since Korea as a nation had been bombarded with media reports regarding bullying and subsequent suicide amongst students this year - and the last thing netizens would want to hear about bullying is it occurring within an idol group, of all people.
Long-term wise, I really think this incident should serve as a definite warning towards CCM as to what can really happen if new members are added in a group that's already well-established (conflict between 6-ara likely did occur but I'd say it was far more stable back then). If Areum and Dani are still planning to stay in T-ara, I think they should really reconsider and actually stay away from the group indefinitely - Hwayoung wasn't even accepted and it's been 2 years since she joined - and honestly, Areum and Dani won't fare any better at all, if not worse because they're even younger. Adding more new members in T-ara is a completely detrimental move at best - and the fact CCM tries to micromanage the whole group through threats and the like is obviously making things 10 times worse for both original and new members.
If Hwayoung really does want to leave, by all means, I think it's the best for her to do so. If I was in her shoes, I would have left T-ara a very long time ago. Management has definitely played a signficant role into this mess happening by a wide margin.
In a dark way, T-ara's just proven that they've indeed defied management and its idiocy (preferably, they could have done it with actual intent and with a lawsuit as I never thought they'd pull something like this even once) when it comes down to adding new members over highly questionable reasons. Judging from what's seen so far, T-ara seems pretty hellbent in going back as a 6-member formation - at the least, things seemed more 'fair' for them back then.

Yea, I'd have to agree with you on this one. I personally find Jiyeon, Hyomin and Eunjung to be the most guilty of this bullying case but in the long shot and in the wide picture, KKS is to blame for along with whatever cootheads in management supported him.
If more popular groups like SNSD or 2NE1 were in a situation like this, I can't even begin to imagine how much worse the chaos would be. It would be unthinkable - hell, Kpop as a whole would take what can be seen as an almost unrecoverable damage.
Honestly, the more I think about it, T-ara seems much better off in its 6-ara days.

I understand your frustration over the issue.
On my part, it was definitely unwise of Eunjung, Hyomin and Jiyeon in particular to pull off such a thing. I wouldn't go as far to put Soyeon and Boram in the same amount of blame as those three over a variety of reasons but that's another story that I explained more than once out in the AKP forums.
Though coming from a Korean, I can testify to their behavior just fine as I experienced it first hand back when I was at Korea myself. Hwayoung, arguably, didn't really contribute much from the group at all since Day One of her membership (6-ara fans would argue why T-ara never needed a 3rd rapper in the first place). On my part, I found it difficult to culturally and socially assimilate with the whole class since I lived overseas for most of my life but once I started acting like them and proved my 'worth' (that is, getting top scores for English, drawing skills and the list goes on), the whole atmosphere quickly cooled down and I enjoyed school as a whole.
Which goes to say, that's how Korea's society system had gone for quite a while - newbies are expected to prove their worth to the veterans of whatever group (whether it be school, sports team or even a military unit) to be 'accepted' and if they don't have much to offer, then they're pretty much kept as outcasts - in Hwayoung's case, her rapping wasn't sufficient enough. Seen it happen all too many times around at Korea and it isn't a really pretty sight at all - but unfortunately, a norm. The same probably has occurred to other idol groups out there and as a whole, occurs within the public. T-ara's just one of the many. It's ugly, but that's simply how it is.
I wouldn't go as to call them immature indefinitely since there's a lot of factors surrounding the issue here (Qri and Areum did likely sit out because they refused to get involved due to the risks but on Qri's part, I think she's on the same position as Boram and Soyeon - Areum would obviously be intimidated not to take part at all). The timing is more horrid since Korea as a nation had been bombarded with media reports regarding bullying and subsequent suicide amongst students this year - and the last thing netizens would want to hear about bullying is it occurring within an idol group, of all people.
Long-term wise, I really think this incident should serve as a definite warning towards CCM as to what can really happen if new members are added in a group that's already well-established (conflict between 6-ara likely did occur but I'd say it was far more stable back then). If Areum and Dani are still planning to stay in T-ara, I think they should really reconsider and actually stay away from the group indefinitely - Hwayoung wasn't even accepted and it's been 2 years since she joined - and honestly, Areum and Dani won't fare any better at all, if not worse because they're even younger. Adding more new members in T-ara is a completely detrimental move at best - and the fact CCM tries to micromanage the whole group through threats and the like is obviously making things 10 times worse for both original and new members.
If Hwayoung really does want to leave, by all means, I think it's the best for her to do so. If I was in her shoes, I would have left T-ara a very long time ago. Management has definitely played a signficant role into this mess happening by a wide margin.
In a dark way, T-ara's just proven that they've indeed defied management and its idiocy (preferably, they could have done it with actual intent and with a lawsuit as I never thought they'd pull something like this even once) when it comes down to adding new members over highly questionable reasons. Judging from what's seen so far, T-ara seems pretty hellbent in going back as a 6-member formation - at the least, things seemed more 'fair' for them back then.

Woo hoo hoo. Even I the big quitter couldn't stay away from this. It's my two gigantor cents time, so be fore-warned, I will be book-writing and all the chapters will be mixed up because I'll be jumping back and forth a lot, it's all aswim up in the head. So call me irresponsible (and whatever else) but it'll be a mess. And oh, the re-tread - I will try to quote and so on, but please bear with me on rehashing stuff. So no pressure to read this, it's more so that I can pretend to myself I was heard. And another thing, I'll fight hard to resist to urge to check back in, sorry, but I really, really do need to not get too into this. A part of me wants to get into this, but yeah.
But first, I quit being active here - and for a while, I couldn't deal with listening to T-ara songs either - but I'm still a fan, if you go to an older definition of that word, and not, like, what that seems to mean now. Not so old as "short for 'fanatic,'" but I'm boring you now.
So it's true that they're all living separately now? Like diviso et conquerrat, my stupid fake Latin for "divide and conquer." Perhaps Mr. Kim thought it would make it more difficult for them to coordinate in opposition to him, but now it looks like the collateral damage is more or less this situation. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
I checked out Oniontaker's post on all this on his personal... tumblr? Anyway, some real comedy to be found in the rap coach guy's predicament. Of course, it's also sad, but hey, laughter makes you cry for a reason, right? Anyway, his subsequent responses to what has been going on has enough of the ring of truth for me, so I feel comfortable having a laugh about that working father's predicament.
For all you kids, remember to place all this outrage in the context of your own personal lives - like, you could talk about Hwayoung being (cyber-)bullied, about the antis bullying T-ara, you could even talk about the T-ara fans "bullying" this or that member, and then you could talk about people in your personal circles being bullied (or, those outside of your circles). Like, really, you hear something about someone you don't really know, "that kid," and suddenly you do meet that kid and you're on guard because "well, I have heard..." And et cetera. You've probably heard about this kind of thing somewhere, so just remember that this is an example of all that.
But yeah, I'm not taking a harsh stance on any of them because, hell, even with some of my disagreements with some of the T-ara members' decisions and their judgement, I've done like ish in my own lives, and under heaploads less pressure than they are and have been under. And another funny thing about all this stuff is in my small circle, watching Hwayoung and hearing about her contributing to the lyrics and all that, we were all joking about "The Rise of Hwayoung" and all. There's this little moment at the beginning of a perf, she steps up right in the beginning and the camera is low in front of her, there's a look (we called) exhilaration, a kind of nervous excitement. They're wearing blue, and I think it was two weeks ago now. Oh well.
More to the meat of the matter. First, a general insult of your choosing directed towards Mr. Kim. Yon chickens come home to roost, all that. Speaking of leadership (and you management-minded kids could learn something from this)... Mr. Kim sets the tone for his company. And for T-ara. He set the rules, both the written ones and the un-written ones based on the way he's dealt with them and with things, so he creates the culture in his house. You create tensions between people, talking about competing for places internally, and snap at people calling them lazy and unprofessional, and you create unrest and uncertainty with frequent changes and disregard for your people, what with the leader changes and all the work load. You create negativity. And you don't address that negativity, you just keep hounding people and pushing them, they still nurse that negativity, on top of all the new frustrations you add and the random stuff that happens in peoples' lives, hell, you wind up with angry people.
My small understanding of Hwayoung's entry into the group, Eunjung said something about being against adding new members initially - and then Hwayoung is added, Eunjung is deposed and replaced with Boram, who, it seems, can only be charitably called a figurehead leader, if any kind of leader at all. I was wondering what was going on with Soyeon's "rebellion," and I guess Mr. Kim's (assumed) long-term goal of undermining her influence by throwing her into a situation she couldn't deal with is coming to a head (to clarify, having her instigate a situation that would snowball with other pressures that were known to come, others known to be building, and then the unknown ones). You can only bank on other people's forbearance for so long.
Ah, anyway. The first little go-around of tweets (for reference I'll treat Oniontaker's material as the "authoritative" translation), could be taken as the usual "cheer up" stuff, but yeah, the implication behind claiming they were hacked statements cannot be ignored. Perhaps Soyeon at first treated it as the cheer up stuff at first, but then deleted her comment when she found out there was more going on - after all, even if we understand that she knows what's going on within the group, why couldn't she have just seen Hyomin's tweet and been all, "lets all work hard today as well?" I don't know, maybe using the word "difference" is just her quoting the original words Hyomin used - Hyomin was first, right? And then Boram too for that matter, the other post-deleter.
And, on the negative side, you could think Soyeon was at best being patronizing but supportive, or at worst fully on the bandwagon. Like if "difference in determination" was a phrase they'd used before and that Soyeon would have recognized... but if that's the case, see below about the other three.
Qri, thanks to Google translate, I know she and Boram were tweeting something about not having makeup on. There is humor everywhere. Ho ho ho, maybe, maybe it's like an inside "joke" between her and Boram going on about not having to be performers anymore? Is that me being a jerk? Stay in school, kids, or you wind up like me.
Hyomin, Jiyeon and Eunjung... is the preferred portmanteau Eunjimin? Just looking at the tweets themselves, you could come up with whatever you want. Look what I did with the Qri thing, and I was just messing around. If we add the context of the press release, and from that assume that this is a part of ongoing disagreements... First, using the internet is very unnatural. People lose their self-awareness very quickly when they're "talking" to people by punching in letters on an input field using a keyboard or their thumbs and then mouse- or finger-clicking a little square that says "tweet" or "post" or "send." And then, being a celebrity is totally weird. Imagine what it's like, to go to school, and like, people are taking pictures of you, someone touches your hand and starts crying, and strangers are screaming about wanting to marry you. Someone bumps into you and out of no where fifty people rush up and start hating on that person for "hitting" you and, when you say, "dudes, I'm all right, leave him alone," suddenly those folks turn around and starting clapping and praising you for being so merciful and kind. Or, people from around the world send you packages of food.
To take the general into the specific - your boss has encouraged you to tweet often and about any trivial thing, because it's good, cheap publicity - Soyeon actually quoted Mr. Kim as having the attitude that any publicity is good publicity. So yeah, you tweet weird stuff like that Eunjung thing about the grass pot-human thing and people are all "oh, she's so cool and creative." You tweet sad stuff that gets your fan base in a bother about your unfair working conditions and they encourage you. You have a dispute, both with your boss, and now, with another member, and the message gets mixed up - you tweet about it, however innocuously, because "there's no such thing as bad publicity," you're getting back at your boss as part of this ongoing disagreement with him, even if you're talking about someone else. Maybe they thought the connection wouldn't be made, maybe they were trying to start something - as an outside possibility, maybe they really were playing nice, and Hwayoung was just complaining about something else, but because Mr. Kim's publicity machine got it wrong, maybe they're sticking to their guns because they think they can use it against him. But yeah, somewhere there was a disagreement, and it's been addressed on or because of certain tweets. I won't be more critical of them other than to say that it's generally unwise to air private matters in a public forum.
I get it, you reprimand people for behavior you disagree with. That's one of my big reservations with the netizen stuff in kpop - the various netizen groups frequently come off as reactionary jerks, but on the other hand, it's just part of keeping a society in line. And aren't the cultural values (expressed through their celebrity culture and entertainment media) a pretty big part of what makes Korean entertainment so likable? But everyone says I either refuse to take sides, or that I'm always on someone else's side. I mean really, even if EJH really have been negatively critical of Hwayoung, like, I'd disagree with their apparent treatment of the situation, but really, I've seen worse from better people, you know? And anyway, I've got nothing to do with it other than click my tongue from a distant sideline.
And Hwayoung. She's in her own spot too. Even if I didn't know about all the stuff I'm now reading about with regards to how close she was to everyone else (all taken with that grain of salt, of course), there's just no way she could be as close to the others as they are to each other. They can be real close, real tight with each other beyond any relationship I've ever had, but unless she just clicked with one or two of them, her relationships with any of them will be less than those between the other six with each other. So no, she won't be able to draw on them for the same kind of support, she won't be able to feed her own determination with the collective energy as the other six. She also won't have the same commitment to their collective fortunes, whether because she simply hasn't been a part of the group (and through all the same experiences) as long, or if she really was always treated as an outcast in the group. Everyone agrees this year's been a real effed situation, all told. Wherever her breaking point is, maybe she's just getting there. I mean, if she is talking about quitting or not being able to keep up any more, or if she's just been in really low spirits for an extended period... aren't all those things what the fandom's been saying would be the end result of Mr. Kim's harsh policies? That poor kid that Gen. Patton slapped couldn't handle the war back then, and maybe Hwayoung's having a difficult time dealing with everything on her plate. And yeah, the fallout from most of the Hwayoung episodes seem to have been good publicity for her personally - that is, she's come out looking good to the fans most of the time. Maybe this is about some campaign to push her forward, given Mr. Kim's general pattern of dealing with things. But if we assume she's not getting a big warm feeling from the group, maybe she turns to the fandom at large, who have mostly responded positively to her in situations like this. Where do we turn when we find ourselves up against a wall? If you're really up against it, it'll probably just be the first thing you think of.
Hyoyoung's tweets most specifically indicate that something's going on. Even if we treat them separately, it's clear from the first post that Hwayoung is "suffering," and from the second that someone in pain is being treated unfairly (in her opinion), and, we may also assume, that the person being unfair is attractive. She kinda wraps a big bow on the whole "bullying" idea, unless she really is just playing the twitter world for fools (and doing so by selling out her twin).
So few fishes left swimming... how much have I forgotten?
Here's something: They say Eunjung took painkillers to perform on injured knee (ankle?). Others say she was or may have been forced to do so by the management - against her will, or under duress, what have you. Imagine how easy that is to turn around in one's memory by saying "I did it then, why can't you?" even if you didn't want to do it back then? And maybe, just maybe Hwayoung wasn't pressured to take painkillers in this more recent event - but again, it would still cause negativity to the aggrieved parties.
But as for all this twitter stuff, given the volumes dedicated to the scenario, it's hard to imagine that as little as ten sentences or so could be the basis of all this. There's not even a lot of continuity between the tweets. The twins are obviously talking to each other, and Jiyeon and Eunjung both refer back to Hyomin, but there's swathes of empty space between even each individual statement. Talk about economy of language.
I mean, maybe the lack of corrective statements from the members... maybe they're all tired of it all too. Like they just decided, "I can't duck my head and toe the company line this time." Hah. It's only been a few days, but maybe they've already met among themselves and decided that if Hwayoung can't take this, then the rest just aren't going to deal with it all either - given that their fortunes are tied to each other, some collective position must be reached. But then, for contractual purposes, they can't up and say something like that, so they have to press the impression that they're feuding and hope they get bailed out by some misstep by Mr. Kim. Ah, idle speculation.
Lastly, people are more interested in being able to judge other people for their misdeeds than on applauding their merits. This is because problems get more attention than things that go smoothly, but still.
But also, why "Sometimes dedication alone is sometimes not enough?" Just tossing them out before I starve, is she saying "I really can't do it (no matter my amount of dedication)," is she (hee hee) simply disagreeing with Hyomin's statement, is she displaying a hint of fatalism, is she suggesting something like "you also need the support of those around you" or that she's running out of reasons to keep going... etc.
And just again, whatever the mettle or character of these T-ara kids to begin with, Mr. Kim screwed them up. He's also throwing a shady light on Kpop as a whole.
And lastly lastly, I'll toss out another message about taking all this in the context of your own lives. If you think you're freaking out too much over this, try to remind yourself of your other pursuits in life. It can be hard, but really, there are things that need doing. Like, keeping busy can actually help reduce stress in situations like this.
Sorry folks, if I messed up anywhere! Thanks site folk for having this place where I could say things like this! Thanks folks for whatever, and thanks T-ara for doing all right!
And edit lastly, I really do hope those kids get a break. With the company or not, whatever, I hope they find something else to do with themselves for a while and live better lives and after a year or two look back and treat their CCM tenures as the lesson it was.

I understand your frustration over the issue.
On my part, it was definitely unwise of Eunjung, Hyomin and Jiyeon in particular to pull off such a thing. I wouldn't go as far to put Soyeon and Boram in the same amount of blame as those three over a variety of reasons but that's another story that I explained more than once out in the AKP forums.
Though coming from a Korean, I can testify to their behavior just fine as I experienced it first hand back when I was at Korea myself. Hwayoung, arguably, didn't really contribute much from the group at all since Day One of her membership (6-ara fans would argue why T-ara never needed a 3rd rapper in the first place). On my part, I found it difficult to culturally and socially assimilate with the whole class since I lived overseas for most of my life but once I started acting like them and proved my 'worth' (that is, getting top scores for English, drawing skills and the list goes on), the whole atmosphere quickly cooled down and I enjoyed school as a whole.
Which goes to say, that's how Korea's society system had gone for quite a while - newbies are expected to prove their worth to the veterans of whatever group (whether it be school, sports team or even a military unit) to be 'accepted' and if they don't have much to offer, then they're pretty much kept as outcasts - in Hwayoung's case, her rapping wasn't sufficient enough. Seen it happen all too many times around at Korea and it isn't a really pretty sight at all - but unfortunately, a norm. The same probably has occurred to other idol groups out there and as a whole, occurs within the public. T-ara's just one of the many. It's ugly, but that's simply how it is.
I wouldn't go as to call them immature indefinitely since there's a lot of factors surrounding the issue here (Qri and Areum did likely sit out because they refused to get involved due to the risks but on Qri's part, I think she's on the same position as Boram and Soyeon - Areum would obviously be intimidated not to take part at all). The timing is more horrid since Korea as a nation had been bombarded with media reports regarding bullying and subsequent suicide amongst students this year - and the last thing netizens would want to hear about bullying is it occurring within an idol group, of all people.
Long-term wise, I really think this incident should serve as a definite warning towards CCM as to what can really happen if new members are added in a group that's already well-established (conflict between 6-ara likely did occur but I'd say it was far more stable back then). If Areum and Dani are still planning to stay in T-ara, I think they should really reconsider and actually stay away from the group indefinitely - Hwayoung wasn't even accepted and it's been 2 years since she joined - and honestly, Areum and Dani won't fare any better at all, if not worse because they're even younger. Adding more new members in T-ara is a completely detrimental move at best - and the fact CCM tries to micromanage the whole group through threats and the like is obviously making things 10 times worse for both original and new members.
If Hwayoung really does want to leave, by all means, I think it's the best for her to do so. If I was in her shoes, I would have left T-ara a very long time ago. Management has definitely played a signficant role into this mess happening by a wide margin.
In a dark way, T-ara's just proven that they've indeed defied management and its idiocy (preferably, they could have done it with actual intent and with a lawsuit as I never thought they'd pull something like this even once) when it comes down to adding new members over highly questionable reasons. Judging from what's seen so far, T-ara seems pretty hellbent in going back as a 6-member formation - at the least, things seemed more 'fair' for them back then.

Super long post, but hopefully its a good read for fellow concerned QUEEN'S.
I'm willing to give the girls the benefit of the doubt regarding this whole bullying Hwayoung issue (but things are seriously looking very, very bad). But if they really are, I would be extremely shocked and totally disappointed in the girls. Having known them since debut, watching them gain popularity day by day with their hilarious variety shows and catchy songs, T-ara have always been the group to be able to put a smile to my face, rain or shine.
It is so disheartening to see thousands of people coming to conclusions so easily about this bullying, calling JiEunMin and even Soyeon very foul names and calling QUEEN'S delusional for wanting to give T-ara a chance to explain. Years of hard work to gain fame and recognition all easily tarnished just by this situation. It's hard to see how T-ara will manage to recover from this, if they even can...
Looking at it from a realistic point of view, it's hard to not agree that Hwayoung is being bullied by the other members (minus Qri and maybe Boram). T-ara always had 2 'subunits'; the "Originals" (Jiyeon, Eunjung, Hyomin) and the "Unnis" (Soyeon, Qri, Boram) and then there was Hwayoung who didn't fit into either group (but was typically grouped with Qri and Boram as the "Underrated" group by fans).
Even I noticed from all of their variety shows that Hwayoung was always the outcast type; the members would talk to her and treat her normally but there were rarely ever any cute moments- or rather, any bonding- between Hwayoung and another member; at best it was Hwayoung having a derp moment like when she dropped the stack of cups in Pretty Boys and all the other members laugh at her for that. There was always a sort of invisible tension, a sort of coldness and neglect. Throughout Hello Baby Hwayoung was always just playing with Maden all alone by herself while the others were doing their own thing with Mason and Mavin. Also in the first episode of Star Life Theater, Hwayoung told the camera man that they were going to go practice for their concert and she said "right, Unnie?" to Soyeon who simply said "Mmm" and a second later gave Hwayoung a quick smile... this would have been okay, had Hwayoung not chuckle very, very awkwardly. That scene just felt totally off to me.
Many fans (including myself) HATED the announcement that T-ara was getting a new member back in '10, with many reasons being that T-ara was fine as they were and that the addition was completely unnecessary (it still kind of was, honestly. Her addition had no effect on the success of YaYaYa, Why Are You Being Like This, Roly Poly, Cry Cry, etc. All it did was force the current T-ara members to have to RELEARN the choreography for previous songs and the members themselves expressed how unhappy- or rather, the difficulties they had- about that).
Hwayoung essentially had a lot to prove to both the fans and the T-ara members themselves that she was a worthy member of T-ara. It was not until Lovey Dovey and Day by Day, nearly 2 years later, when 2 more members were added, did Hwayoung finally get to be recognized. Things were going so well for T-ara... No one had any idea that the members were potentially bullying Hwayoung. How can this be? And why would the girls publicly bash Hwayoung via Twitter?
Since we have quite some time until the 30th major announcement, let's piece together the information (this is all PURE SPECULATION).
1. Hwayoung's addition to T-ara makes no contribution whatsoever, and actually had a detrimental effect: the girls had to relearn choreographies for past songs and now had to split earnings even more, not to mention they now had the awkward atmosphere of having a new member- or rather, a nobody (everybody starts off as nobodies!)- being thrown into the group.
2. As a result, T-ara members never fully "accepted" Hwayoung. They have 'accepted' that she was a part of T-ara because obviously they could not do anything about it and had to be professional, but they have never 'accepted' her as a part of them. This is seen on variety shows, where Hwayoung is always the outcast- always left out. She always was there, but she wasn't a part of them. This becomes even more evident when you see how Hwayoung treats Areum- always hugging her and smiling with her... they almost seem inseparable. Already you see Hwayoung having cute bonding moments with a NEW member... Something that you rarely, if ever, see her having with the original members despite the 2 YEARS she was with them.
3. Regarding the fabled CEO KKS and his rather... interesting... reputation, his ranting about T-ara being "lazy" and "full of themselves" makes sense if you consider the current situation. As fans who only saw T-ara as angels with a hectic schedule and 2 hour sleeps we immediately dismissed KKS's crude remarks, but if Hwayoung was really bullied via Twitter, chances are she was bullied behind the scenes too. She could've told KKS about this, prompting him to be outraged at the behavior of these members who became "full of themselves" and think they were "irreplaceable" to the point of adding in more members and threatening that he can remove anyone who continues to stir problems. As Hwayoung was the victim here, KKS decides to let Hwayoung have the spotlight with her raps for the Day by Day album, while JiEunMin and even Soyeon seemed to have diminishing lines. This can be related to KKS's statement of "no singing talent = no lines", although it is impossible to tell. The sudden change in line distribution could also stir jealousy and competition among the members.
4. Due to stress, lack of sleep, and a hectic schedule coupled with KKS's threats of removing them if they were lazy or mistreating each other, a lot of fans saw T-ara as a ticking time bomb, wondering when they would finally explode and always commenting "I wish they'd just leave CCM for good" or to "pull a KARA and file a lawsuit". But T-ara somehow continued to pull through with a smile, telling fans to not worry about their health and that they even want to continue acting along with doing music despite the whole no-more-acting-in-2012 thing. The members were, in a sense, absolutely "determined" that they could manage everything. They even had a big-scale concert- the Budokan, coming up, and they were practicing furiously for it. Eunjung herself stated, "We just want to enjoy the stage, without the pressure of being #1".
5. Unfortunately, last minute, Hwayoung injured herself, and was ultimately unable to perform at the concert, causing all the members who had extremely high hopes for the concert to become extremely disappointed. Since it was last minute, there was no way T-ara could adjust their choreography and line distribution; in essence, their month(s) of practices and preparation for the concert went down the drain along with their hopes of just being able to "enjoy the stage". The damage a lack of Hwayoung causes is evidently seen in the 120727 Day by Day performance on Music Bank where Hwayoung was absent- Hyomin outright had to look at a staff member who wrote the lyrics on a board for her to be able to pull off the rap and her clueless expression was saddening to watch. If the damage for one performance was so bad without Hwayoung, imagine the damage it had on a full scale concert and the resulting disappointment the girls would have.
6. How do the members react? They don't live together anymore, so they didn't handle it privately. They used Twitter to express their frustrations. The new member that joined 2 years ago that didn't really offer anything to the group and was outcasted, costed T-ara the chance to enjoy their first big-scale concert in Japan. Having been brainwashed by KKS to be extremely competitive-otherwise-be-kicked, coupled with their frustrations, T-ara couldn't handle it anymore and had to outright (indirectly?) bash Hwayoung on Twitter. "It's all her fault. She was not determined enough" Is basically what this whole Twitter bullying thing is about. It's not like other members were mad about the injury but rather the timing of it; others have been injured and/or absent before- that happened all the time and they were fine. But this time it happened on a big-scale event with high expectations. Hwayoung- someone who was potentially not liked in the first place- cost them BIG time at the Budokan. Members could potentially be thinking, this would have never happened if she never joined our group. We would have been fine without her (and they would be right. Eunjung and Hyomin are wonderful at rapping and T.T.L. is living proof of that). But still... for them to publicly lash at her and questioning her about her determination is something that even I cannot forgive T-ara for IF it happens to be true.
7. How does Hwayoung feel? DEVASTATED. If she really was bullied all this time and was an outcast... I can't even imagine the pain she had to go through. The T-ara members constantly mentioned that through all the tough times, they at least always had each other; a sort of second family. What about Hwayoung? Her most recent twitter mentioned that she at least has the support of her "family" and fans... whether T-ara is a part of her "family" is unknown... but if they haven't been all this time, then my heart goes out to her. Hyoyoung, being revealed by Hwayoung in Star Life Theater as the one who told the CEO to put Hwayoung into T-ara, must be feeling extremely guilty. She was the one that allowed this to happen- to let her younger twin, her "better half", be bullied by T-ara. "What's the point of having a pretty face if your inside isn't pretty?" she says is basically calling out one or more of the T-ara members.
8. CCM claims that T-ara couldn't have made those tweets and that they were hacked- this essentially means that the girl's tweets are acknowledged as insults, NOT ENCOURAGEMENT despite what translations may imply. Hell they could of sincerely thought this would be the only case, because they didn't know that Hwayoung was actually being bullied. Many people are laughing at that hacked statement, as it is "obviously B.S." but who knows. Maybe they were hacked (doubt it), maybe CCM said that specifically because they know it will attract even more attention- especially since they have a "major announcement" coming up. The major announcement did shift some of the focus off the bullying scandal and has instead made people pondering about what the major announcement could be, but overall the damage this whole issue has on T-ara's popularity- dividing the fandom, making thousands call the other members very crude names, and overall making the image of T-ara not as Queens of K-Pop but Queens of Cat-Fights is a very depressing event that makes the future of T-ara look very bleak.
9. Hyomin ended this by changing her picture (she changed it shortly after) to something that mentioned, "Everything happens for a reason" on Twitter. We shall *hopefully* see what this reason is, and pray for the better, on the 30th.
T-ara hwaiting.

Yea, I'd have to agree with you on this one. I personally find Jiyeon, Hyomin and Eunjung to be the most guilty of this bullying case but in the long shot and in the wide picture, KKS is to blame for along with whatever cootheads in management supported him.
If more popular groups like SNSD or 2NE1 were in a situation like this, I can't even begin to imagine how much worse the chaos would be. It would be unthinkable - hell, Kpop as a whole would take what can be seen as an almost unrecoverable damage.
Honestly, the more I think about it, T-ara seems much better off in its 6-ara days.

While they don't want to be pressured themselves on becoming #1 (unattainable at best currently due to SNSD's massive popularity still overshining the rest out there), the same certainly cannot be said about that knockhead of a CEO of theirs.

Well, of course she had to say as if it doesn't affect her negatively. Idols, particularly female idols, in Kpop are expected to be happy little angels by the media and the public as well as the fans themselves. They do anything slightly that's 'off the radar' then they get hounded mercilessly by netizens.
After all, KKS did say that if any of the current members opposed the member addition themselves, they'd be kicked out. This hardly comes as a surprise. There is a reason why she and Eunjung (or was it Hyomin?) played it off cool when asked at the airport prior to the trip to europe.
This comes off as a no surprise to me.