Ok I caught up. We need someone to make a summary every Monday . I'd like to point out that ya'll managed to add an additional 4 pages while I was catching up
I've wanted to get this off my chest for like a month, but FUCK HYBE and FUCK Belift too. I know a lot of ya'll don't stan Illit, but I do. I watched runext (I was only there for Yunah, Jiwoo, and Jeemin tbh), and decided to stan the group once Yunah made it despite not understanding the lineup completely. I have been annoyed since their debut b/c the group and fanbase have not been able to catch a break since the finale of runext and belift is shit at handling things. Thankfully they're in Japan right now (that was their target market from the beginning anyway), so they're removed from this, and they aren't receiving as much hate as you'd think (it's more than you'd expect for a new group but not a lot comparative to the hate lsfm is getting), but this situation is becoming more and more absurd. This is the first hybe group I've ever paid attention to and I'm starting to retract about 30% of the complaints I've had against SM (I'm only retracting my superm complaints tbh). I don't think LSM or SME have ever pissed me off this much with the groups I stan from them (this is absolutely false, but they have never pissed me off this early on into a group's career ).
Whew, now that I got that off my chest, if that interview is to be believed, putting those girls on a 1.5-year hiatus is evil. 1 year and they'd be ok (still shitty to do though), but 1.5 years is a length so long that they'd likely come back to their core fanbase and some straggler old men b/c K-pop is a fast-moving scene. They seem to want those girls gone, and that's so short-sighted considering that they are your biggest money-makers atm. Imagine if at the peak of Exo' s career (monster I guess), SM went "ok guys, see you in 18 months!" I'd be hiding in their walls with the saesangs ready to beat them up ngl. It makes no sense from a business standpoint and if it's true I have to wonder if they're truly so petty that they'd impact their bottom line like this. I'm a bit skeptical about whether this is true b/c I can't believe shareholders would agree to this, but god knows how anything is run over there.
I do feel bad for njwns though. If they stay they're supposedly going into the basement for a length of time that will impact their growth substantially, but if they leave they might as well start applying to university b/c they will likely be blacklisted.
The drama loving part of me loves all these new developments though I can't lie.