Former LIMITLESS Member Yoon Hee Seok Speaks Up About Conflicts With Members And Agency CEO

Former LIMITLESS member Yoon Hee Seok has opened up about why he left the group.

This May, Yoon Hee Seok took to his personal Instagram account to state that he was leaving LIMITLESS. Soon afterwards, his agency ONO Entertainment released a statement saying that they had not canceled their contract with Yoon Hee Seok and were unable to get in touch with him.

On August 10, Yoon Hee Seok made a post on his Instagram account to state what had happened.

Warning: discussion of suicide.

Read the translation of his post below:

I am currently in a very unstable state, so please understand if this post is not very coherent.

I gritted my teeth and endured it for almost a year because I didn’t want to write something like this, but I decided to write this post because it doesn’t seem like there’s any other way anymore.

While I was preparing for my debut after joining the agency, the company the agency had merged with went out of business. We couldn’t receive lessons anymore and didn’t have a practice room, but even in such poor conditions, we had voluntarily come together, so we prepared for our debut with the one thought that we wanted to achieve our dreams.

In July 2019, we debuted as a group called LIMITLESS. After we wrapped up the dreamlike promotions for our first album, we were informed about the addition of two Chinese members [to our group]. Not long after, I found myself in significant pain from the alienation and verbal abuse due to discord between the members. I wanted to recover my relationship with the members, but it did not work out smoothly, and as I was living in the dorm, I had no one to talk to about the situation, so the illness in my mind grew bigger. I told the CEO several times about how hard of a time I was having due to the problems. However, he turned a blind eye and told me to tolerate [the members] because that’s how they normally are.

Last December, I could no longer take it and told the CEO about the situation and that I wanted to leave the team. The CEO listened to what I said and told me that he knew how much trouble I was going through as well as the problems the members have. He stated to me that he would cancel our contract for me after our concert scheduled for late December. At the time, I was suffering from having to give up the job I really wanted to have and from the difficult situation I was going through. I worked hard to prepare for the concert since it would be my final one, but even then, the discord between myself and the members continued, and practicing for the concert was not easy. After the concert was over, I spoke with the CEO, and he suddenly blamed everything on me and said he would cancel our contract after a radio show appearance that was scheduled for early January. So I carried out all of the activities as part of LIMITLESS as he had told me to, and I had countless talks with him during the times he was available, but he postponed resolving the issue with a different reason each time. In the CEO’s meetings with my parents, he said different things to me and my parents and tried to pit us against each other.

The eight months were like hell to me. I took pills to fall asleep at night and got severe depression, anxiety disorder, and panic disorder, and all I thought about was wanting to die. Because of these issues, I even attempted suicide. I couldn’t bring myself to tell my parents, so I told the CEO in cries that I was having such a tough time that I even attempted suicide. However, the CEO turned a blind eye. I’m sorry to my parents who will find out about this through this post.

I lost my identity, and I felt like my life was crumbling down with every passing day. I couldn’t wait for the CEO who was avoiding me, so I uploaded a post on social media saying I was leaving LIMITLESS. The CEO hurt me once more by releasing a false statement saying that he was not able to get in touch with me and that [my post] was false. I was utterly distraught when he said to me about my depression diagnosis that anyone can easily get a medical certificate for depression.

I’m very sorry to have to reveal this to my parents, to those who supported me, and to my fans who loved me despite my shortcomings.

I gritted my teeth and bore with the situation, thinking that if I just endured it for a bit, everyone would be happy, but it’s too hard for me to stand it any longer. The thought that I don’t know who I am deepens, I keep getting negative thoughts, and I think I am having issues with controlling my behavior. I’m really having a hard time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDtbeH0pvNr/

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