By 2020, Apink has established itself as one of the most enduring acts of K-pop. A year short of celebrating a decade in the Korean music industry, Apink has amassed feats not a lot of pop groups, especially girl groups, have achieved. They have survived the 7-year curse and still continue to release music with resounding success while their contemporaries even struggle to keep their lineup intact. They took the chance of changing their image quite late in their careers at the risk of alienating their core fanbase who may never accept the idea that their innocent girls are now singing more sophisticated music. The risk paid off and they have been reintroduced to a younger generation of fans while still keeping most of their original fanbase. 

Throughout the nine years that the group has been together, they have had only one member quit their lineup and the circumstances apparently didn’t involve animosity, with Yookyung even appearing in a couple of Instagram posts of the members since her departure from the group. The scandals that involved Apink were the type that actually gave the group added sympathy from the public instead of negatively affecting their reputations, such as ARMY using the availability of their concert tickets as their “dry run” to see how fast they can sell out theirs. There was also that saesang who has threatened Naeun for years, which caused the group to cancel some appearances. Finally, there was the KBS Song Festival of 2019 when their performance was abruptly cut to give more time to younger groups.  Free from scandal throughout their careers, with every comeback successful for the past nine years, a couple of members also venturing into successful acting careers (Eunji and Naeun), and three members also releasing solo material (Eunji, Hayoung, and Namjoo), Apink was on their way to achieving what very few girl groups have before them – celebrating their 10th year in the business while still quite active in releasing music. 

Then, things went bad. 

For the past couple of years, the Korean entertainment industry has been flooded with bullying allegations. While entertainers from Hollywood got canceled mostly from claims of people getting sexually harassed by some of the industry’s biggest names, everyone in Korean entertainment, from up and coming actors to comedians and idols keep getting accused of being bullies in school and engaging in harmful practices like drug, alcohol, and sexual abuse. A lot of careers have been stalled because of allegations coming from nowhere and unfortunately, days before their 10th anniversary, the name of Apink’s leader Chorong suddenly came up. 

Reports of Chorong engaging in underage drinking and bullying sprang up on April 5, 14 days short of Apink’s 10th anniversary. To keep the rather long story short, Person A, a female schoolmate of Chorong, posted pictures of her drinking in 2008, back when she was only 17-years-old.  The person claimed that Chorong would go out drinking with friends every week and would figure in acts of physical violence targeting unpopular classmates. Days later, Chorong made a statement apologizing for the pictures of her drinking alcohol, which meant that she admitted to the underage alcohol consumption while denying the bullying claims. Play M Entertainment supported their talent and filed legal cases against the person. Months later, a classmate who knew both Chorong and A claimed that the two were actually bosom buddies during their high school years and had a falling out later, although she did not realize that the person would dig up the issue 13 years later. In November, police investigations concluded that the allegations against Chorong were false. 

Unfortunately, the damage has been done as the comeback to mark Apink’s 10th anniversary kept  getting pushed back. To commemorate their anniversary, the group only released Thank You, their annual song for their fans. Moreover, Play M announced ten days after the group’s anniversary that Naeun has decided to not re-sign her contract with them. Days later, Naeun revealed that she has signed with YG Entertainment as an actress and will still remain as a member of Apink. 

Wait, what? Naeun, the most reserved member of Apink has signed with the entertainment agency known for their swag and talents who are more known for their big personalities? Before contemplating on how Naeun’s move to YG was just plain weird, consider these:

  1. Naeun signed to YG as an actress and SPOILER: up to now, has not shown any indication of transferring her singing career to her new agency;
  2. Naeun’s sister, Son Saeun, a professional golfer, has been a YG Sports talent since 2017. 

Considering those two things, it does make sense for Apink’s visual to choose YG as her new agency after A Cube Plan A Play M IST Entertainment. But then, considering that Naeun was already accepting acting gigs even when she was still with A Cube Plan A Play M IST, was the transfer really necessary? Did Chorong’s scandal have anything to do with Naeun opting to sign with a different agency? When you look at the events, we can conclude that the leader’s bullying scandal may be a factor, albeit a minor one.

A few years ago, in their first contract renewal with A Cube Plan A Play M IST, it was revealed by the members that all of them re-signed with the agency without delays or hesitation because of Chorong. In interviews, when Apink members were asked how they were able to successfully overcome the 7-year curse that affects k-pop idol groups, they would usually narrate how Chorong, as a leader, assured them to leave things to her and trust her as re-signing with their agency would be the best move for all six of them. With the bullying scandal at its peak in April 2021, precisely during the time when the members were working out and negotiating the terms of their contracts, Chorong may have lost a lot of her bargaining leverage, prompting Naeun to heavily consider transferring agencies. But then, it wouldn’t be totally a reach if Naeun just decided that she was tired of having to share her income with five other people, which is the common practice among idol groups. With a new agency, she gets to have all the proceeds of her income to herself instead of always having to split in six-ways. 

Fast forward to  December 2021, when A Cube Plan A Play M IST Entertainment announced the return of Apink! The group will have a comeback scheduled for February 2022 with the participation of all six members. Pandas rejoice! 

With the Chorong controversy finally meeting its end in November, you would think A Cube Plan A Play M IST would schedule the Apink’s comeback / 10th year anniversary celebration ASAP. In an ideal scenario, then comeback schedules can be implemented easily and the  Apink anniversary comeback could have happened in December. Capitalize on the Chorong redemption arc – support a wrongly accused idol on her comeback that will celebrate her 10th year in the music industry, why not? But then, when A Cube Plan A Play M IST has to deal with YG, things can get complicated. YG can always say Naeun has drama 1, drama 2, and drama 3 on her plate, so participating in the making and promotion of the comeback album may not be a priority. True, Naeun was (going to be) busy with Ghost Doctor and Apink anniversary events (i.e. fan meets and concerts like Pink Eve: 10 Years, which did happen on December 31 and may have already been repeatedly rescheduled), but then Eunji was also busy with Work Later, Drink Now, so… yep, it is really difficult to coordinate schedules when another company is involved. 

Which brings us to Horn, Apink’s latest comeback released on Valentine’s Day 2022. All six members are part of the album and the music video. Unfortunately, YG put its foot down and did not allow Naeun to join the promotions of the lead track, Dilemma.  The five remaining members did the usual round of music, radio, and variety show promotions. Naeun has posted on Instagram of her support for her bandmates, but alas, when you have the five posting pictures of their music show guest stints and Naeun posting pictures of a Winter Olympics event she is watching on TV, people can (and have) start questioning her sincerity. 

Naeun has been vilified, YG has been painted as the antagonist, with reports surfacing that the company actually encouraged Naeun to leave Apink once they successfully signed her.  Naeun shut down the possibility as she reportedly said something along the lines of her not ever considering leaving the group that was responsible for establishing her name in the entertainment industry.  We cannot really blame Chorong for the series of unfortunate events she had to undergo as the cause of the delays in the comeback and maybe being a factor in Naeun leaving A Cube Plan A Play M IST. I think it makes the most sense to just blame YG for anything and everything; they’re used to being vilified, anyway. 

Featured Image: Apink Official Twitter