Former T-ara member Hwayoung recently opened up about the bullying controversy that erupted after she left the group. In 2012, there were speculations that Hwayoung was heavily bullied by the other members, forcing her to make her exit. T-ara's parent company, Core Content Media, denied such allegations, but it is a topic that was never put to rest up to today.
"It's disappointing. When I think about it now, it's something that could easily happen in a group of women. I only worked as a singer, and I didn't know how to behave in society," Hwayoung revealed on tvN's "Taxi," allkpop reported. She added that she shut herself out from the world and cried a lot. She also revealed to have lost a lot of weight.
However, Hwayoung's big reveal on "Taxi" was not met well by some of the staff members working for T-ara at the time. The staff member came to the T-ara members' defense, saying there's a different side to the story. She then revealed a screen capture showing a text conversation between Hwayoung's twin sister, Hyoyoung, and T-ara's youngest member Areum.
As translated by Soompi, the conversation shows Hyoyoung threatening Areum, saying she would give the latter a "beating" on "Music Bank." She also threatened to "scratch up" Areum's face so that she can't appear on TV anymore.
The staff member explained that the threats came after an incident involving Hwayoung and the rest of T-ara in Japan. During the concert rehearsal, Hwayoung complained of having pain in her ankle, but when she went to the hospital she was told that nothing was wrong and that she wouldn't be needing a cast.
Instead of returning to rehearsals, she asked to go back to the hotel and have her nails done. Her absence meant the rest of the girls had to change their choreography and formation. Around 80 staff members also had to toil for eight hours to make the necessary adjustments for the concert.
Hwayoung's actions caused tension in the group. When they returned to South Korea, Hyomin tried to reach out to her, but Hwayoung didn't want to apologize for the incident and refused to communicate with the group.
After the post went viral among fan communities, Hyoyoung's agency issued a statement, explaining that she simply reacted in defense of her sister who, at that time, was having a hard time due to the bullying incident.
