APRIL's Naeun And Jinsol Personally Deny Allegations That They Bullied Former Member Hyunjoo

Jun 11, 2021

APRIL’s Naeun and Jinsol have personally responded to the allegations that the APRIL members bullied former member Hyunjoo.

In February 2021, Hyunjoo’s brother and her high school acquaintance shared posts online alleging that Hyunjoo had been bullied by the other APRIL members. DSP Media denied the allegations and took legal action against Hyunjoo and her family and friends. In April, Hyunjoo released her first personal statement about the allegations, which DSP Media again denied. Chaewon and Yena were the first APRIL members to personally respond to the allegations. Hyunjoo has also taken legal action against a former DSP Media employee, while DSP Media’s defamation case against Hyunjoo’s acquaintance was recently dismissed by the police.

On June 11, APRIL’s Naeun shared a post on the group’s official fan café.

Hello, this is Lee Naeun. I’m sorry that it took me so long to write.

The biggest reason that I didn’t share my statement was because I trusted that our agency would respond on APRIL’s behalf. I felt that it wasn’t appropriate for us to give individual responses on behalf of the team, and I still believe this. However, there are a lot of people who are believing things that aren’t true, so I thought that it was my responsibility to protect fans from this false speculation. Even if it is short, these are my thoughts.

I didn’t want to bring up every little thing that’s been addressed, but I did want to say one thing: This has never happened and it is not true.

To tell fans about everything that happened as we raced toward our dream, to share the feelings and emotions that I’ve experienced, these are difficult things for a girl group to do, and I felt that I should be careful.

I started as a trainee on May 17, 2015, and trained for only three months before debuting in August. It was my responsibility to adjust as best as I could to those unfamiliar surroundings. Since I debuted at a young age, there were many moments in which I was inexperienced or clumsy.

While promoting for the past seven years, I worked hard to show the true Lee Naeun. There were times when I was too honest and I was embarrassed at showing what I truly thought, but I was able to communicate with you all because I had received so much love.

Through this incident, I have learned the weight of what it is to be a public person. All I’ve done is work hard and endure in order to achieve my dream.

Through this incident, I’ve asked myself again and again whether I am a person who is seriously lacking in many things. I’ve found that the answer is that I need to become a more confident person.

I will continue to stand in front of everyone as a more mature public figure, as someone who is growing and learning to love herself more. I wanted to thank everyone for believing in me and waiting for me until now. Thank you.

On the same day, Jinsol shared an Instagram post with her own statement and a photo of an old letter that Hyunjoo had written to her on her birthday.

Hello, this is APRIL’s Lee Jinsol.

First, I want to apologize for causing concern to so many people through this controversy.

The reason that I stayed quiet through the false speculation and criticism is because it was a problem that was being dealt with through a legal process. After long discussions with the agency, I didn’t release a statement and waited. Even now as I write this, I’m not sure what to write. No one would believe me no matter what I said, so I could only keep silent.

I have thought about the time period in which we worked with the member who left us. I entered the agency in February 2015 as someone who had already been selected for the debut lineup. I had no time to get used to things as I poured my all into practicing and following the rules and routines of the debut lineup. After the member lineup was finalized, we couldn’t go out on our own or take vacations, and so we rotated between the dorm and the practice room, practicing all the while.

Including myself, most of the members at the time had only known each other for a few months before becoming part of the same team and the same dorm. During this stage of getting to know each other, the member who left us often wasn’t around. She hardly ever came to the practice room and didn’t often show up at the dorm either. Most of the time, we would only see her when we had an officially scheduled event. Because of this, I didn’t have a lot of chances to have private conversations with the member who left us. Despite this, we tried our best to get to know each other and there were definitely times when we took care of each other. Even though these moments were only one part of our time together, I cherished those memories, so it makes me so sad to have to post something like this.

During the time that we lived together, and up to this present moment, I have never harbored malicious thoughts or feelings toward her or acted maliciously toward her in any way.

Thank you to the fans who trusted and waited for me despite being exhausted by my long silence.

In the old letter that was posted, Hyunjoo congratulates Jinsol on her birthday and praises her for staying strong despite the many hardships that the members have gone through in the time that they’ve been together. At the end of the letter, she asks that Jinsol come to her if she ever needs help and encourages her to keep fighting despite the struggles to come.