KPOP's fakest "victim" - Hwayoung and the T-ara bullying scandal 

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Listen if you were a 2nd gen stan when this happened, you remember how BRUTAL this was. Those girls were under the biggest microscope. Everything was "evidence" of bullying. They target Jiyeon and Hyomin the most.

The bullying scandal that kinda made me lost trust in most Kpop's bullying scandal. Even up until Garam's bullying scandal, i stay silent because I KNEEWWW something was fishy 😂😂😂

A stark reminder that there’s always two sides to a story. Jumping to conclusions and “asking for forgiveness later” isn’t the way to go. An attention-seeker single-handedly obliterated a whole GG’s career just because a mob of people couldn’t wait to be on the “right side,” which turns out to be the exact opposite.

I distinctly remember an interview with Kim Kwang Soo right around the time T-ara hit it big with Bo Peep and I Go Crazy. He was asked if the girls would be getting a break now that they're famous, and he said no, and that he keeps the girls in constant competition with each other and that if they ever got lazy they would be replaced. He even said something along the lines of "they need to know that they need me more than I need them." Shortly afterwards, sometime around Roly Poly, Eunjung did an interview where she said that she cried and protested against the addition of a new member to the group because "they did everything the company asked, but its never enough." Based on this, I think its pretty clear how this whole situation happened. Kim Kwang Soo created a toxic environment, and was then shocked when he group became toxic. Hwayoung was plucked from a kareoke contest and put into a top tier girl group with little preparation to send a message to the other members; "you are replaceable." Hwayoung got it in her head that she was better than the other members because she was told that *she was*. The whole situation was mismanaged from the beginning and was allowed to spiral out of control because that's what KKS wanted.

its so sad that they were so popular but then just had a big downfall because of a fake bullying scandal

It’s sad that tiara went from one of the most successful group too being one of the most hated in there generation

This is why I can’t stand netizens. They are always jumping to conclusions and doing the most instead of waiting for more facts to come out. They keep ruining people’s careers over any stupid rumor they hear.

The most angering thing about this whole scandal is that Hwayoung is still an actress today and the T-Ara members suffered the consequence because of false allegations and lies.

I think most new kpop fans who have heard about this don't really fully grasp the level that T-ara was on. They were right there, neck on neck with giants like SNSD and Wonder Girls domestically, and their popularity in Japan rivaled that of KARA. In fact, SNSD went on a domestic hiatus after releasing "The Boys" and some have argued that T-ara had the potential to overtake them as the "nation's girl group" while they were away. KKS *should* feel bad for the way he handled the situation because he completely failed these girls. All he had to do was let the girls speak their truth. Instead, he shut them up and made them pretend like nothing happened. Kicking Hwayoung out of the group was the final nail in T-ara's career coffin.

It’s bizarre to me that not only does she still have a career but people still believe all the lies, and from what I’ve seen says she’s not wrong for lying. It’s so sick to me that a person will purposely lie, and ruin someone else’s life just because. I’m not sure who disgusts me more her or her sister. They’re terrible.

I became a T-ara fan in 2012, right before this scandal hit. It was a deeply distressing time for the members and their fans. People were so cruel to them, and the cruelty stretched on for years and years. I hope that later generations of kpop fans are able to appreciate just how successful and dominant T-ara was at their peak 🥲 They deserved better. I still listen to their music all the time

Isn’t it what Leia from Blackswan tried to do with Fatou? But then we found out that she was the bully and SA the other members

What AOA experience was basically something that T-Ara once experienced. As a victim of bullying, these type of bullying scandals always make my blood boilーthese so called "victims" gotta be thinking lying about their bullying situation was cute lmao.

I will never forget garams situation. Her idol career was literally obliterated and completely nullified within 2 weeks over a fake bullying rumor from when she was in middle school.

T-ara got more than just some success in China. For a few years they were the only group allowed to perform in Chine despite the country's ban on kpop.

Im so tired of these bully scandals. Ever since Seo Soojin lost literally her hopes and dreams to false accusations, i just look back at all the bullying scandals and wonder how many lost their dreams because of 1 single lie. Peoples lives just ruined in an instant. Truly heartbreaking. Great video as always ploopy. Ty.

I’m glad these girls have gained closure. It just goes to show that shoving idols who are strangers to each other in a group doesn’t mean they’ll become friends or even like each other. Even AoA’s Jimin seemed to have gotten hate from some of the other members a couple times (the “sweaty man scent” situation during an interview in particular had me going wtf is going on.)

regardless of how many time i have heard about this, it still makes me so sad. They deserved better

When I got into Kpop, this “scandal” wasn’t as fresh, like it was still going on but by the time I got into it, Hwayoung had already left. But I do remember all the hoopla when the truth finally came out and when T-ara won number 1 on a music show shortly after that and you could just feel the emotion coming from them. I really wish the CEO and all those staff members had come out sooner when it was still going on instead of way after the damage was done cause the toll this took on their mental health and just their careers was just chaotic. I mean they were up there with the big GGs like SNSD, Wonder Girls, 2ne1, Kara and this scandal just took them out. Great video and happy holidays!

As a T-Ara ult, it’s hard to even acknowledge her as a member. Most including myself, refuse to acknowledge her legacy in the group nor speak her name. Also, I love my girls but they were 100% in the wrong for airing out their grievances publicly concerning her; I think they’d also agree they were too emotional at the time and made a huge mistake. However, T-Ara’s mistakes in relation to this fiasco are why idols ( rightfully so imo ) are no longer allowed to have unrestricted access to social media. Additionally, as you mentioned, it’s extremely bittersweet to see T-Ara get recognition and an apology from the public after years of constant harassment. International fans were not as unanimously on her side as Korean fans were but they were still pretty heavily biased against T-Ara. When the final revelations came flooding forward in 2017, most Queens kind of felt numb to it. We all had known the truth for ages but were ignored and dogpiled on if we dared to defend T-Ara. Ultimately, the blame lays at the feet of CCM’s CEO for his complete ineptitude surrounding this entire situation. It was completely tragic their treatment that they endured, I’m a Qri bias an one of her birthday events hosted by CCM got something around maybe 15 or less reservations. When we say the public turned their back on T-Ara we mean not like 20% but more like 90-95% turned their backs entirely on the group, and as my Korean friend described when she was outed as a liar their was an immense sense of “We destroyed their careers for no reason. We are monsters” feeling in Korea amongst K-pop fans; this led to the infamous video of T-Ara’s win on The Show were they were all sobbing so hard they could not make a speech.

For new gen fans who aren't aware of just how big this scandal hurt T-ara, they very well were on track to having the title of Nations Girl Group instead of SNSD had this not happened. This scandal basically happened at just the right time when SNSD's consistent huge releases dominated while support for T-ara absolutely tanked and they basically stole the show, giving Koreans a new GG to put all their support into. Not that SNSD was not successful of their own right, but the way T-ara basically had to flee to Japan and China for even a drop of support meant SNSD had free reign to take over GG K-POP. It was pretty much no coming back after this scandal and I always wonder what would have happened if things went differently. Very similar comparison (not due to a scandal though) is how BAP was very close to being the top BG around the time of the BAP vs EXO fanwars for 3rd gen BGs when they lost momentum at just the right time that EXO spiked in popularity. I mean BAP were huge and it felt like after they fell off, no one would even dream of comparing them to EXO's success at the time. It's just very wild to consider that the smallest thing can ruin a group's trajectory in almost an instant.

T-ara was my ultimate in 2012 and T-ara is still my ultimate group in 2023. I get emotional everytime I watch them receive their first win post-scandal in the Show in 2017. It was definitely well deserved, especially as many of their best songs were released after the scandal e.g. Sexy Love, Sugar Free and Number 9.

I just realized the twins are actresses now I haven’t watched Tara mvs in a while so I never noticed. I never connected the dots that it was Hwayoung in hello my twenties

This is why I take every KPOP bullying scandal with a grain of salt and don't start deciding who is the victim/bully especially if there is no definitive proof. Personally, I feel like some people don't even care about the victim/bully but just want a justification to hate on the people involved. If you look at more recent bullying scandal, literally NOTHING changed. People will jump on the hate train so fast even if they never even heard of the people who are involved in the scandal.

This is so sad the fact the group members worked so hard just because this girl wanted to be a victim? Thank you for sharing this story

Oh god the memories. I am a hardcore sone (snsd fan) at that time but i still followed this scandal in real time. Wild times. Felt bad for T-ara, they lost all their momentum they built for years

I remember the Blackswan bullying scandal that almost ruined the group. As a kpop fan when the T-ara scandal happened, Blackswan's bullying scandal gave me the same vibes

its crazy how many times groups had their career ruined or nearly ruined by "bullying" accusations that turn out not to be true or something like that. history really does repeat itself cus ppl don't learn

Wow, I'm randomly up at 4am in America and early for a Ploopy video! And omg, on the topic of the very first kpop group I ever listened to before randomly stopping kpop altogether until 4th gen. Coming back to see what happened to T-ara, it's really one of the most tragic things I've ever read about (and I say this as someone who came back knee deep and well invested in the whole Soojin arc)

You could do an unluckiest trainee segment about Kim Dani from MBK… her life would’ve been so different had this scandal not happened LMAO

I remember this so well; the first cryptic tweets, the fake evidence, how T-ara got bullied out of Korea. This ordeal was the definition of being so much out of proportion, it was terrifying really. Til this day I still can't believe it happened and I'm glad all six ladies are alright today.

The comments on Hwayoung's instagram are just filled with snake,barf and middle finger emoji's as well as some hate comments. She stopped posting on it a long time ago. The hate probably got to her so even though she won an award I wouldn't say she got away with it. She will always have the cloud of what she did hovering over her career.

This was truly a wild scandal. Caused so much drama and destruction

“i disagreed and persuaded the parents we shouldn’t fight each other in public.” he really is too good of a person to be a ceo. it’s honorable to not want to air out your dirty laundry, but he needed to realize that this was already being played out in the public and there was no turning back.

God at this point I really wonder if there's been any fake bullying scandal in k-pop that's been handled well, that hasn't resulted in an entirely innocent person or an entire groups careers being destroyed or set back for years. T-ara, Jimin from AOA, Soojin from (G)I-dle, Garam from Le Sserafim, it feels like whether companies deny it, ignore it, investigate, threaten law suits, try to smooth things over or reveal the actual truth etc. it doesn't seem to matter. Has there ever been any really serious accusations (not like, one random netizen online who got little traffic, people who actually were full on campaigned against by the public) where the idol came out on the other side with their reputation in tact? It's so easy to make shit up, provide no evidence of bullying, sometimes barely be able to prove they even knew each other in certain cases, but almost impossible to prove a negative. Hypothetically something COULD have happened, but despite there being no evidence that it did, it hypothetically could have and that's good enough for so many people. PLEASE I would love to hear from someone about a case where the company actually handled it successfully and got the idol through it so they could continue on with the career they had worked so hard for.

I got into kpop around mid 2021 when bullying scandals were picking up. I remember hearing about this case and AOA's. This is so crazy. I can't imagine how the members felt being accused of doing all these horrible things by someone who they thought was their friend 😢

I remember this, they found success internationally, the bullying scandal was fake. Merry Christmas

At this point Bullying scandals are not even believable

Wow, I remember following this at the time it was happening. New K-Pop fans don’t realise how big T-Ara was back in the day, and how huge this scandal was. It was actually vile how they were treated throughout it, and even years after. They deserved so much better.

T-Ara, Soojin, Jimin (AOA), Garam all have been proven innocent, but knetizens destroyed dreams and careers because they judge, condemn and punishment based on nothing by lies and rumors. It will never change. When I discovered Kpop I was thrilled by the music but then the knetizens destroying dreams of young girls and harrassing them online turned me off. I began to not enjoy Kpop anymore and changed my mind about visiting Seoul. This horrible way knetizens treat these idols is disgusting.

Thank you for this video. T-ARA is my favorite group, but I discovered Kpop in 2018 so I'm glad I didn't have to live through this heartbreaking scandal. Their comeback of Tiki Taka and All Kill are classic T-ARA, but I wish Soyeon and Boram had joined them.

i lived this in the flesh too... t-ara was one of my faves back in the 2010s so watching them falling apart was so heartbreaking; and the worst part is that netizens have learned nothing, i think that because people have normalized that the accused don't get their deserved punishment to "get over it" that these things continue to happen (see Kim Garam's case) since it's not their career ruined right

Can the other members, or the company, sue for defamation ? She's allowed to get away with destroying a group ?

If I've learned anything as a fan of a K-pop group since 2015, it's that people will always look for the slightest mistake or even a made-up story to justify hate. People are envious and like to see a person destroyed.

Regardless of whether it was real or not, it's wild to me that K-pop stans are so against in group bullying when they bully the idols All The Time.

Omg I remember this. This is why I don’t hop on these hero trains to protect so called victims.

I got into kpop in 2012, but didn't get into T-ara or know about their scandal until about 2014. The group's biggest mistake was airing their grievances on social media, it looks messy. I believe Hwayoung would've exposed herself eventually - netizens would've picked up on her faking injuries, skipping concerts, and mistreating people. I wondered if Hwayoung and her sister had something over the CEO, some kind of pull at that company, because it doesn't make sense for the him to not step up and handle the situation until years later. His poor management and netizen drama ruined T-ara's career. It's even more sad considering T-ara was THAT group and one of CCM/MBK's most successful groups. The company never recovered and later groups like Coed School, Speed and DIA were never able to match their popularity or commercial success. I don't think newer/younger kpop fans realize how huge they were or how unique their sound was for their time, their songs, concepts and choreo are iconic.

This also happened to April but people still refuse to see and accept the truth

Was Hwayoung even the star of the group?! Why was she so arrogant as to help sink the group?! Why did she think SHE was so special?!

It’s sad how that scandal ruined their group. Their music was so good!

I remember when this happened. I had just gotten into T-ARA with their Day by Day release, and my two biases in the group were Hyomin and Hwayoung. So I was just beside myself when this “scandal” happened. I stuck with the group despite everything, but in 2017 when it was revealed Hwayoung lied… I still to this day can’t look at the albums, photocards, and merch with her on it and not feel a bit sick. I hate that it took so long for T-ARA to be redeemed. They would have been big. As big as or maybe even bigger than SNSD if this hadn’t happened… :(

why do staff members always wait to tell the truth of bullying situations ???😭😭 this, that co-ed group and probably so much more like why wait until things get terrible?

Imagine being so anti-bullying you bully and entire group out of the country.

I just cant believe how people IMMEDIATELY take the side of the person accusing. Where’s the proof? LOOK FOR FACTUAL PROOF FIRST

I remember fighting with everyone who keeps on uploading fabricated videos and photos of T-ara, most of them are SM stans. 🤧

I am so blown away by all this -- T-ara was my first favorite kpop group and I didn't even realize there was more to know about idols (like that there might be accusations of bullying) until so many years later. this is all new to me! playing Bo Peep Bo Peep in honor of these original queens

I think it's important to keep in mind that the mindset of believing the victims doesn't mean taking the accusers' side automatically, considering we do not know who the victims are when allegations are not proven. it is taking the allegations seriously and conducting proper investigations instead that is important in actually giving victims justice for what happened to them

The worst part about all these is Hwayoung NEVER showed a sign of regret or any will to apologize, she doesn't ever care. She played victim for 5 years always giving some comments about the controversy but never saying something specific, a total evil genius. T-ARA was reaching the top just before the scandal started, you cns check the charts, they were just under SNSD numbers very close. So sad to think they would be the next top girl group of all times.

Another informative video from Evangeline. Thank you once again!

Till now still don't understand why they even added her the line up was just perfect

Yay! A ploopy video just in time for Christmas! ❤

Ive been waiting for this video!

now Seunghan from riize is also facing baseless rumours because of someone trying to defame his name. sm being one of the biggest, if not the biggest, has a reputation of keeping silent and leave fans hanging

Because of this, I don't have a knee jerk reaction to this stuff. I always think of what happened to t-ara. When this came about again, I saw people defending what was done to t-ara as it didn't hurt them. They still had jobs after it.

I'm waiting for the next documentary videos! Glad to see you post dance videos aswell. Just hope that you'll still do this type of content 🫶

Love this Video Ploopy!

Thanks for covering this topic.

Ayyy !!! Welcome back, Ploopy! 🔥🔥🔥

Please upload a new documentary!!!!!!!! I miss youuu

Thanks for this video! I heard of the Tara situation before but I never knew it was this bad

The fans were just as guilty. Pretending to be innocent now is nauseating. Once an accusation is made you're screwed. Americans would know a thing or two about that kind of culture. Allegations=guilty.

I wonder why no one cleared up the situation earlier so the members didn't have to suffer for all those years🥲

This is the best Christmas gift!!!

the fact this still happens in the industry today, they never learn

april’s whole bullying scandal was just like this too

I was watching old clips of her last night!!! And the day before I was checking your channel for a new video!!! Omg!

hi ploppy please do more interesting topics like this one, of kpop and cpop .Always love and appreciate ur content :)

It's always a good day when ploopy uploads, also Merry Christmas 🎄

I will be bitter about this until the day I die….

This scandal was major... the consequences were brutal. Not even the fans were safe. Other fans were on the side of the person being "bullied", while they themselves were bullying others. It was very nasty work. And even now that the truth is out, some people are still on denial.

Thanks for sharing this story with usssss!!

Thanks for share this interesting story

Thank you for your videos, I enjoy watching them!! Also, merry Christmas!!

THIS! You said it all. I was also a fan of T-ara back then so I have the same reaction as you when I see new scandals every year. Netizens just chose to believe what fits their narrative and then collectively bully who they think the mean people are. And everytime when the truth come out the same people are like « justice for ___ ! 🥺 » as if they weren’t the ones that actually are responsible of the situation escalating. Ugh

Merry Christmas Ploops!! Love ya! 💖🎄🎁✨

I'm very glad that japan and china supported them at that time cause i don't want to know what would happen to the girls if it wasn't like that

Too many innocent idols, t ara, soojin, garam, jimin, hyunjin. I’m not sure who else I’m missing

great video! merry christmas

This whole incident makes me so sad. I actually became a fan of T-ara after everything had blown over, and I just feel so sad that the girls still don't get nearly as much recognition as they probably would have gotten if this had never happened. When people talk about gen 2 groups, T-ara is often left out despite how big they were at their peak. It's so unfair that their whole careers were ruined over this. :(

I randomly stumbled upon this video when I was trying to find something to watch while eating lunch. I never listened to K-Pop. The only time I ever listened to K-Pop was during high school when Gangnam style was everywhere. But somehow I stayed and watched the entire video being so invested in the story. Your narration and script is awesome, great job !

Merry Christmas Evangeline! I hope you have a wonderful day

The k pop fandom is truly the most toxic fandom I’ve ever experienced!

That rice cake rumor was WILD😂

I’ve been wondering when you’d ever cover T-ara’s case!

Ugh this situation makes me so upset because they DID not deserve this! It took so long for the truth to come out and the public to recognize it

Merry Christmas Evangeline!

I love your videos so much and you should definitely talk about 9muses next

omg yooo i was playing travel town when the ad started playing :D

Saw this as recommended but didn’t watch it and didn’t think much of it while also watching hello my twenties and now this shows up again, such a coincidence