With more and more monster rookies entering the industry, many people believe that it
will be a pressure for companies to recruit and filter out only the best of best trainees
for the upcoming acts.
However, things don’t really seem to go that way because just within the past one
year, and actually even until most recently, newly debuted idols still got involved in
such major scandals that they literally pressed the cancel button themselves right at the
moment their year-long dream was achieved.
1.
Le Sserafim’s Kim Garam
If you mention the name Kim Garam right now, probably even your friends who aren’t even
part of the K-Pop league still know what is going on with this girl because one, she managed
to debut under the latest girl group of HYBE-Source Music, and two, her past is said to be so
dark that not only Knets but many international K-Pop fans are constantly demanding her departure
from the group.
Things all started after HYBE revealed Garam as the second new face of Le Sserafim and
because the power of netizens is scary, it didn’t even take one day for them to expose
her allegedly scandalous past.
The first thing got brought up was how Garam was a real bully back in secondary school
and what is even more shocking is that, very different from the previous bullying scandals
breaking out in the past several years, the case of Garam is said to be so scary that
a self-proclaimed victim had confirmed Garam’s reputation as a gangster went beyond her campus
and both teachers and students at other schools knew about her.
Other so-called victims of Garam are also reported to be so desperate and scared when
learning that HYBE would take legal action against them that some were even rushed to
the ER in ambulances.
Talking specifically about what Garam did, one claimed she was always part of big riotings,
bullying and violence at school.
She also said when Garam had the target, she and her group would insult and attack them
through Facebook and make fun of them in front of everyone.
One person recalled that Garam went to school the other day and pridefully claimed that
she had just used a vase or a brick to bang on the head of one student, making her head
ripped.
Or another time was when she cyberbullied a friend, forced that person to admit something
and to pick up the phone or else she would beat the victim black and blue.
It is also said that Garam had the habit of knocking on others’ heads, saying that if
Garam’s juniors didn’t greet her, she would immediately DM and assault them.
This person also said such things happened so frequently that the school ended up opening
a violence committe to criticize her behaviors.
Besides bullying, Garam was also accused of constantly drinking, being extremely arrogant,
never afraid of dragging down seniors at school, frequently pulling sex jokes and worst of
all, saying that one of her biggest goals is to… sleep with famous people.
One of the so-called victims said she heard with her own ears that the first sexual target
of Garam was BTS’ V.
This also ignited another series of dark photos about Garam’s past where she cut short the
school’s uniforms, which was said to be a typical sign of rebellious league in South
Korea, constantly did erotic posings, taking pictures in front of sensual drawings, and
posting provoking captions for her selfies on Facebook like “Can we have sex today?”,
and in the comment section, her friend was seen to be no less rebellious with the comments
“Lemme be your sexual partner.”
Because none of these allegations were confirmed to be 100% true, netizens tried to dig for
more evidence.
First up, Garam’s friends, aka her alleged bully gangsters at highschool, were seen to
write lots of congratulatory wishes to Garam on the black board at school.
Besides mentioning the fact that she would soon debut under HYBE and Source Music with
other famous names like Sakura and Kim Chaewon, there was also another phrase garnering the
attention of people: “IVE down, LE SSERAFIM up.”
Then on Pann, people found out that Garam was almost another piece of IVE but ended
up being kicked out at the last minute.
For netizens, such information was nothing but an implicit confirmation that Garam was
indeed a bully who frequently hung out with bad people and was also exposed by Starship
Entertainment at the final assessment round.
However, things got even more confusing when Source Music denied all the allegations.
From the company's stance, it was Garam who was the victim of slander and malicious accusations.
They confirmed that the girl in those sensual photos is not Garam considering the difference
between Garam's finger length and eyebrow compared to the girl in the photos.
Upon the harsh criticism aimed at Garam, Source Music announced that they will take legal
action against baseless accusations as well as disinformation related to this matter.
2.
Le Sserafim’s Kim Chaewon
Maybe HYBE and Source Music have been suffering from a dark energy this year because three
out of six members they introduced were already caught up in scandals.
For Chaewon, people said the fact that her video teaser was like a knock-off version
of The Rolling Stones’ Ride 'Em On Down starring Kristen Stewart ticked them off real
bad.
Some even pointed out that while on the surface, Chaewon’s teaser only copied the part where
Kristen dancing at the gas station in a white tee and blue jeans and eating the blue lollipop,
but actually the whole concept of Ride 'Em On Down was stolen for Chaewon considering
the rebellious spirit running throughout the teaser, the rock country background music
to compliment that spirit and especially the signature navy blue that present in every
little detail to show power and authority.
Basically, because every element in Ride 'Em On Down was incorporated with a clear cue
to highlight the big picture while HYBE and Source Music’s staff just cherry-picked
some salient details for Chaewon’s teaser without having the original, meaningful idea
in mind, her video was said to be way too inferior compared to the MV featuring Kristen
Stewart.
With such indisputable similarity, netizens can't help but wonder if this is a way for
Le Sserafim to tribute The Rolling Stones or is it a dirty media trick of HYBE and Source
Music to draw attention to the group because they can’t even thrive on their own.
3.
aespa’s Giselle
Somehow for idols of later generations in big entertainment companies, there will always
be some alleged stains in the background that could easily slip through the rigorous checking
rounds of companies and are only dug up by netizens after the group’s debut.
The sames also applies to Giselle because after SM Entertainment announced that she
would be the last piece of aespa, it didn’t take netizens very long to find out that there
was a thread accusing her of being a thug with a dirty past, getting involved in all
sorts of raging parties, doing things that underage girls should have never done and
having used all the addictive substances, even including drugs and weeds, back when
she was just a highschooler.
Though this post was deleted, probably under the pressure of SM Entertainment because things
got extremely quiet when they released a statement saying legal actions would be made against
any people spreading malicious words about Giselle, the footprints of it can still be
easily tracked down on the Internet.
According to various outlets that could record everything about the original post exposing
Giselle, the OP also accused Giselle of her bad personality, suddenly ghosting everyone
in Japan to become a trainee under SM, changing her phone number, deleting her Instagram and
maintaining no contacts with anyone.
However, the most shocking thing to everyone was still the extremely rebellious pre-debut
photos of Giselle where she was seen at multiple parties, flipping off at the camera, having
the tongue-sticking-out as the signature posing and choosing “That’s hot” by Paris Hilton
as the quote for her yearbook.
While these rumors were denied by SM Entertainment, many still believed that Giselle was still
a thug at heart and considering her latest scandal where she mouthed the N-word in aespa’s
behind-the-scene video, which was also deleted already, netizens have even more reasons to
believe that Giselle indeed had a “dirty” past like rumored.
4.
Lee Solomon
Back in March this year, the Internet was stirred up for a scandal where a newly debuted
K-Pop idol was accused of disrespecting fans, taking their support for granted, blatantly
sending presents gifted by fans to his girlfriend and worst of all, having no hesitation in
block the ones who poured their hard-earned money into helping him achieve his dream.
While the identity of this male idol was yet to be confirmed, many believed it was Lee
Solomon all along based on the cues given by annoyed fans and the fact that he was a
person having only debuted for four months.
According to some discontent fans, they had given Solomon lots of clothes but very soon
after that, a girl in his circle was seen wearing all these items and even proudly publishing
the photos on Instagram.
As if trying to tantalize Solomon’s fans, she not only posed with these clothes once
but many times on various occasions.
However, what shook Solomon’s fans most was still how he didn’t hesitate to block
those who tried to politely ask him and his girlfriend to be more cautious on social media
next time.
Things eventually peaked when he turned down fans’ requirement to engrave the fandom’s
name on a present though they spent up to 26 million won, equivalent to about USD 21,000,
for the gift.
As the OP still hid his name, it’s likely that they were still hoping Solomon to change
his way but considering human nature to lapse back into their old ways sooner or later,
it’s very hard to tell if this way will really work.
So, do you believe any of these scandals is real and what makes you think so?
Comment down below to share your thoughts with us.
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