T-ARA

Hyomin

Jiyeon

Boram

Soyeon

**T-ARA** (티아라; pronounced as Tiara) is a six-member girl group formed by Mnet Media in 2009. Prior to their debut, they released their first song for *Cinderella Man* OST in April 2009. In June 2009, members Jiwon and Jiae left the group, delaying the group's debut. The following month, T-ARA re-grouped to become a six-member group and released their debut single "Lie" on July 27, 2009 and officially debuting on the 29th on the MBC talk show *Radio Star*.

## Using Them

#### Bullying

The Group had a whole bullying scandal in 2012 when they were having their first solo concert in Japan and Hwayoung only performed one song due to a injury. After some time passed, T-ara’s Hyomin updated her twitter account and expressed her feelings toward Hwayoung’s incident. *“There are differences in levels of determination. Let us have more determination”*, she wrote.  T-ara’s Jiyeon also came and commented on Hyomin’s tweet.  *“The differences in levels of determination ^^, Always be humble ^^ and sensible ^^ I applaud you, acting genius ^^” s*he wrote. Starting from a single tweet, the whole story about the T-ara bullying scandal started.

It got even worse after Hyoyoung, who is T-ara Hwayoung’s twin sister posted a tweet saying “*Even determination alone is not enough.”.* Hyoyoung also added *“God, you know everything right?”.* After all those incidents, everyone started talking and presuming that Hwayoung was bullied by the other T-ara members. Not long after that, Hyoyoung tweeted a post saying *“My other half is going through troubles.”*, to which T-ara Hwayoung replied *“I only have you.”.* All those posts showed how pathetic Hwayoung’s condition was at that time. A lot of T-ara’s fans were disappointed, and they started to hate T-ara members because of the bullying scandal.

People then started speculating and started finding evidence that the members of T-ara were bullying member Hwayoung, but turned out to be wrong.

On February 8, 2017, ex-T-ara Hwayoung and her twin Hyoyoung were invited as guests on “Taxi”, a tvN talk show to talk about their sisterly bond, career, etc, but Hwayoung also started opening up about her past scandal with T-ara members.
*“It’s a shame. Thinking about it now, it’s something that can definitely happen between girls. Looking back, we were still young and inexperienced. I, also, wasn’t an adult.”*, Hwayoung said. Then, Hwayoung was asked whether she cried during those time, to that she replied, *“I locked myself in my room and cried a lot. I had lost a lot of weight at the time, and my sister, choking up, told me to stop losing weight.”*

Hwayoung said that her twin sister, Hyoyoung, was her biggest supporter as she was judged and bullied by other T-ara members. She started shedding tears as she looked back at her past. Hyoyoung revealed, “*My sister was watching a music program, and she spaced out [thinking about something else]. It made me think that I should work harder.”* In “Taxi”, Hwayoung also shared her past ambition that she really wanted to become an actress, but the former CEO recommended that she become a rapper by saying that she has a good voice. The bullying scandal has ended years ago, but when Hwayoung brought it up again during her appearance in “Taxi”, more people looked back at that scandal.

After the “Taxi” with Hwayoung and Hyoyoung as guests aired on February 8, 2017, someone, who said that she was a former staff of the T-ara members, spoke up. She revealed the T-ara scandal from her objective point of view. She said, *“I saw yesterday’s broadcast of ‘Taxi.’ I saw that Ryu Hwayoung and Ryu Hyoyoung cried, too. [Hwayoung] said ‘It’s something that can definitely happen between girls?’ That they didn’t know better? As if what happened was nothing? What, exactly was it that ‘could have just happened’? The threat that [Hyoyoung] would scratch up someone’s face?”* The former staff member looked back at Ryu Hwayoung’s leg injury on 23rd July 2012.

The former staff revealed that during MBC “Music Core” special in Ulsan, Hwayoung twisted her ankle. But soon after they returned to Seoul, Hwayoung went to the hospital to get an x-ray and treatment. She went with her manager and the doctor told them that she was just fine. The next day, all of the T-ara members went to Japan for the Budokan concert. When the T-ara manager came to pick up Hwayoung, she unexpectedly came out with a cast on her leg. Her worried manager asked about what happened and Hwayoung said she went to another hospital with her father and the doctor put a cast on her. But oddly, she took the cast off after she entered the car saying that she could still walk. The former staff got this information from the former manager.

Arriving at the airport, Hwayoung asked her manager for a wheelchair since there were many reporters outside. Soon after Hwayoung went down with a wheelchair, the picture spread everywhere and became the most-popular topic on Naver. This was the first time the former member felt that something was odd.

The day after, T-ara’s Hyomin posted her tweet that made everyone wondered if Hwayoung was bullied by other T-ara members. The former member said it was true that they were disappointed and angry at Hwayoung, but the former staff as a third party said that she understood why T-ara members said those things.

When they were in Japan, Hwayoung kept asking for a wheelchair, and the staff brought her to a hospital in Japan to check on her ankle once again, but they said everything was fine and she didn’t need a cast or a wheelchair. “*Even so, Hwayoung demanded a wheelchair, saying it was difficult to walk. What happened after is even more ridiculous. To a Japanese staff member that went with her to the hospital, Hwayoung said, ‘I want to get some nail art done. Instead of the concert venue, let’s go to the hotel.’ I recall that the Japanese agency was very angry about this. She knew that the other members were practicing, but she wanted to go to the hotel and get her nails done. How ridiculous is that?”*, the former staff said.

Demanding to be absent from performances, when T-ara members were struggling on the choreography and formation, made T-ara members and other teams to do rehearsal for 8 hours.

After everyone returned to Seoul for “Music Bank”, T-ara members admitted that they were wrong and apologized to Hwayoung. “*Hyomin tried first to talk to Hwayoung, but Hwayoung said, ‘There’s nothing that I feel bad for, so I have no reason so say sorry,’ which cut off any conversation. And that’s when it happened: the threatening messages from Hyoyoung to Areum.”*, the former staff revealed.

Areum was also late in joining T-ara, but she didn’t agree with the way Hwayoung reacted at that time. Areum also kept her distance with Hwayoung after that, but knowing this, Hyoyoung started to threaten T-ara’s Ahreum. The former staff said, *“Areum showed the texts to the T-ara members, asking them for help, and in the end it was reported to the agency, and that’s when I saw them. This is the story behind the T-ara case that nobody knew.”*

Areum’s agency, B.A.M Company declared that the message from Hyoyoung wasn’t manipulated, but they also said that it was a difficult situation for Hyoyoung looking at her twin sister’s situation that led to her threat. “*Hyoyoung did not know all the details of what was happening inside T-ara. She only sent the messages as an older sister because she was watching her younger sister suffer so much, and there was no other reason”,* Areum’s label stated.

Hyoyoung: “Areum, it’s Hyoyoung.”

Areum: “Hi (Hyoyoung) unni! ^^”

Hyoyoung: “Areum, when someone takes care of you, you say ‘thank you’ and be grateful. If you don’t want to take a beating, get it together. Rumors in the industry spread fast. And don’t go blabbing. Be classy ^^. I’m really mad right, now, so let’s not run into each other?

“If there’s something that I’ve misunderstood, do you want to meet and talk, or do you want to apologize now?”

Areum: “I’m not sure what you’re talking about exactly, but I’d like to meet and talk. Unni (Hyoyoung), I haven’t done anything so bad as to be hearing this from you.”

Hyoyoung: “Babe, you should just go.

“Let’s give you a beating at ‘Music Bank.’ There will be dust everywhere.

“I’ll scratch up your face so you can’t be on TV.

“Hahaha just wait~ ^^

“I’m not going to be a singer haha so you wait ^^ Dogs need to be hit to come to their senses.

“Stupid bitch. Show up in front of me, we will see what happens.”

“Okay, you’re doing a gre~~~at job tattling.”

Ending her long message, the former staff expressed her frustration toward the T-ara bullying scandal. *“What Ryu Hwayoung said in 2012? ‘Only fans will know’? I don’t know if that was a premeditated move, but everyone, including fans, only know bits and pieces. For example, Ryu Hwayoung ran out of a dressing room. But the staff members from back then remember exactly what happened. Ryu Hwayoung’s selfish actions… playing the victim wasn’t enough and now they have to pretend like they’re taking the high road? I was frustrated, and I talked for a long time. Thank you for reading my long message.”*