[12.07.28] Core Contents Media's CEO to make a very big announcement regarding T-ara on the 30th

[Skream]

[dsong2013]

From how we see it, this kind of situation is unprecedented. If the twitter conspiracy was a fraud or just to poke fun, why would CCM make a "special" announcement? Of course this is crazy, but it doesn't feel good. Hwayoung's retweets are strangely ambiguous. Remember when Boram blocked her twitter account because of stress? The feeling is worse than this.

Nevertheless, as cliche as it may sound, we Queens/diadems must stay strong, hoping the best of Hwayoung and T-ara.

[scelesters]

We will just have to wait for the news when it comes. Speculating will just make things worse in my opinion. Many times the speculations have been wrong. What I cannot stand right now are the naysayers especially the ones bashing T-ara members who do not even follow them. Reading comments "Oh, i don't really follow T-ara" yet feeling their opinions matter is ridiculous to me and I hate the thought that people will read comments and blogs and believe it as true. T-ara did not just start a few months ago, they have been in the industry for three years. I believe they are smart enough to know what to post on a social site. People are just twisting things around to have news to gossip about.

I'm staying faithful to the group and will wait to see what unravels.

[dsong2013]

Kind of insulting, but if our premonitions are true, this may be the unfortunate message.

[maskingmark]

I hope thaat monday brings good news

[b3auty jiyeon]

it torturing me to wait for the "big announcement"...oh please dont let anything ruining t-ara..hope the big anoucement is happy anouncement...worried a lot..

[jokerstorm2]

I hope it's not about the Twitter thingy, cos that's just dumb speculations by netizens who have nothing better to do. Gow in the world do those look like insults?! Hopefully, it's about Dani, or even better, KKS gonna leave CCM.

>KKS gonna leave CCM.

Holy crap, here and I've been feeling down about what's going on lately I laughed and smiled, that'd be the best announcement ever. Thanks for that.

[leah cala]

about the bullying thing, some comments are getting out of hand and hypocritical.

i mean bullying is one of the main entertainment in kpop, have you seen some groups like suju, shinhwa, afterschool, infinite etc etc in many shows, they always bully another member esp the maknae... its so normal in kpop.

nitizen focus too much on the negative stuff, if they check on t-ara pretty boys eps, hwayoung gets along with the members there.

i don't know what happened but my best guess is that hwayoung somehow changed and it upset the unnies.

about the rice cake thingy, i don't know but when i watched that earlier before this scandal..it was meant to be a joke and they laughed about it...maybe i'm just too used to seeing that in variety shows in korea where stars purposely bully another castmate for entertainment...

tsk this is like 2pm all over again where netizens think the members is bullying jay park

[Tsurara]

Hopefully it's just twin getting kicked out for being lazy and not caring about the other members and fans. Her lack of respect and dedication is abhorrent.

oh yeah because SHE'S the problem here..... smh

[Eclipsed]

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.

[AznMunky]

it seems as though everyone here has the same feeling towards this announcment... oh well, we should all try and cheer up by like... idk... watching one of T-ara's variety shows lol

[JYC]

please be good news on 30th..as a fan i dont believe in all the speculation and rumors

[AznMunky]

With the recent attention on T-ara, Core Contents Media's CEO will make a big announcement regarding T-ara on the 30th.

Core Contents Media said on the 28th, "Core Contents Media's CEO is currently in Japan for meetings and T-ara's Japanese concert and will return on the 30th. At 1 PM KST, he will make a very big announcement regarding T-ara."

According to the press release, because of the unavoidable circumstance that arose from the situation, their agency will reveal their official position on the situation at a scheduled press conference.

CEO Kim Kwangsoo will directly make a big announcement about the theory about Hwayoung being bullied. It's confirmed that he will announce a serious decision. Core Contents Media officials said, "Kim Kwangsoo has a lot of concerns. He'll take direct action to avoid any disruption to promotions."

The content of the announcement is unknown, but it's likely related to the situation that happened recently on Twitter in which it looked like some members were insulting fellow member Hwayoung.

Meanwhile, T-ara were in Tokyo on the 25th and 26th for their "Jewelry Box" tour at the Budokan arena. Because of an ankle injury, Hwayoung wasn't able to perform.

from dkpopnews.net

[Daniel]

I don't know which side to take! Hate or Support? cuz i can't tolerate bullying but i love my girls! so everything will be decide tomorrow. This is the worst anniversary!!!

[ventolin]

I thought at first maybe a new leader will be announced.

One wild card: After working hard and being in the spotlight in DBD, KKS gives Hwayoung the leadership and everybody goes bananas...

We all know KKS is against prideful and lazy members, so, I'm afraid he's going to punish one of the sides.

[teddybearx55]

I bet you he is just going to announce leader change

[lordliem]

I do really hope it's just a surprise fake war for surprising us in 3rd T-ara anniversary.. That's all what i can think of since this rumor spread..

[LucasKxony]

All i know is that I'm supporting Hwayoung, which does not mean I'm against the other girls, and that we will never know the whole truth and things will change after the announcement. But with the information i have right now, Hwayoung is the victim of netizens and misunderstandings so I'm at her side. Let's have hope that, like Hyomin new profile picture, "every thing happens for a reason", let's have faith that it is a good reason after all

[Rin ♥]

I don't like this feeling of thinking "Could this possibly have been going on and I was too blind to see anything?"

Being a QUEEN's I don't like doubting any of the members.

I really REALLY hope this is a prank, or KKS's is plotting all of this or anything that makes me hold on to the thought that the girls are not like this.

Seriously, this is the worst group anniversary ever.

[fransium]

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.

Your analysis is really long.

OK, we all hope that's all the speculation is wrong, but if the speculation is right I hope CCM will make a wise decision not base benefits.

untill now I believe in T-ARA

but I really leave T-ARA fansclub if that all speculation is right. and always support HWAYOUNG!!!

T-ARA hwaiting!!!

[maskingmark]

i think we will never know what fully happened. Even after the announcement, that will never change. Hence no matter what happenes i think ill continue to root for tara.

[min-nah]

oh nooooo, please not a bad news please... i hope no members will get a kick out.

although i prefer the 6-ara, but still T-ara now is good... please noo

[linhnguyen]

EunJiMin lost thousands followers yesterday. It is true?????

I don't think that everything become worse like this

[Scatter_88mil]

Honestly, I'm not really thrilled with anybody right now, save for Qri and Areum, who wisely decided to sit this one out. Eunjung, Jiyeon and Hyomin should've known better than to make comments that could've been taken out of context on a social networking site like Twitter, Boram and Soyeon should've taken the mature route and not said anything at all (especially since they went ahead and deleted their tweets anyways), and Hwayoung shouldn't have added fuel to the fire by calling for a bid for public sympathy. None of them are impressing me right now, their behavior is reminiscent of twelve-year-old girls, so maybe Dani's inclusion shouldn't be such a shock anymore since their mentality is probably closer to her than we thought. And before anybody says anything, I still love them and will continue supporting them, but this whole ordeal is just ridiculous.

Anyways, back on topic...I agree that maybe this is all a blessing in disguise. As I sat last night thinking about everything, the one thing that kept crossing my mind is how when idols get involved in scandals too big to be swept under the rug, they are usually put on an extended hiatus to let things cool down. If ever there was a time that such an action was appropriate, it's now. Day By Day showed us that T-ara has enough power to their name that they can withstand some controversy, what with the member changes and everything, but for KKS to keep them on track for two or more comebacks for this year alone isn't going to help matters. Sexy Love/Mirage and T-ara's Effect need to be put on the backburner until next year, and these 8 (maybe soon to be 9, who knows at this point) need to sit down, have a pow-wow, sing a couple of bars of Kumbaya, and GROW UP. All of them.

As far as a member leaving goes, I've heard some interesting theories about Hwayoung...that she's actually been rumored to want to leave for some time, and that the member's tweets are actually in reply to her deciding that she's going to leave, and them questioning her level of dedication to the group. If that IS the case, I can somehow understand their frustration with her, but even then all of this Twitter mess is just driving me crazy. It's not that they had problems with each other, that's understandable, it's that all of their dirty laundry is being aired out in public, and they're the ones who seem to be responsible.

Sorry, I'm just venting right now. I guess it's all of my frustrations over the past few months finally coming out all at once. I still love T-ara and hope for the best for them and will continue to support them, but I seriously hope they get put on an extended break, both for their sake and for the fan's sake. It's just not fair to keep f*cking with the fandom like this.

EDIT: I was so busy ranting that I forgot to say apology accepted lol. But yeah, we're good, if there's anything good that's come out of this mess it's that I've realized that it's time for me to wake up. T-ara had a good run but they're just as fallible and prone to error as anyone else; time to be realistic about their current situation. You're absolutely right about one thing; Queen's need to brace themselves, the proverbial sh!t is about to hit the fan.

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.

[Mongrolian]

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.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Mongrolian