Hyunjoo reveals she has been sued by two April members for defamation, opens up about the financial strain of facing multiple lawsuits

[My Everything]

On September 16, former Aprilmember Hyunjoo provided an update on the lawsuits she and her acquaintances are currently facing against DSP Media.

In a lengthy written statement posted via Instagram on this day, Hyunjoo revealed that she is now facing additional lawsuits, while the criminal lawsuit centered around her bullying accusations are still ongoing.

Previously, Hyunjoo's younger sibling as well as two acquaintances were found 'not guilty' in their respective defamation lawsuits raised by DSP Media. The plaintiff's side has since appealed these cases. Hyunjoo was also found 'not guilty' of a lawsuit raised by DSP Media for 'interfering in business affairs'.

Now, Hyunjoo stated, "April members 'A' and 'C' have now filed additional lawsuits against me for defamation of character, and these two cases are currently under investigation."

She added, "I am currently dealing with so many lawsuits at once, and I admit that the financial strain is very difficult to deal with. Regardless, I am following along with the investigation diligently, and for those who have cheered me on, I will continue to face the lawsuits bravely."

Regarding the ongoing criminal lawsuit which deals with the bullying accusations initially raised by Hyunjoo's younger sibling, Hyunjoo assured that her family is doing their best to take part in the investigation diligently, while submitting any form of evidence applicable. She also denied past rumors which claimed that she rejected a summon request for questioning, and explained that she does not wish to publicize her medical records, despite some netizens' demands. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CT2KD_tPIs-/?utm_medium=copy_link

Source

[echobunny]

well, i hope she stays strong and wins those lawsuits

[clevercactus]

It looks like she has a good, supportive and loving family and support system around her. 

I hope she stays level-headed throughout this tiring saga. 

[Your Biggest Fan]

I hope every last one of them loses their cases against her. They really shameless.

[headway]

While bullies should definitely be punished, why does it feel like in some ways it is T-ara redux and some ways AOA redux?

Unfortunately defamation in the Korean legal system is ridiculous, so both sides need to be careful in what they say publicly.

[AstroBaby]

Just now, headway said:

While bullies should definitely be punished, why does it feel like in some ways it is T-ara redux and some ways AOA redux?

Unfortunately defamation in the Korean legal system is ridiculous, so both sides need to be careful in what they say publicly.

because you're someone who doesn't actually look into the details of individual situations and just judges each by broad patterns. Hyunjoo's evidence is night and day compared to Hwayoung's, and her behavior on social media is night and day to Mina's. Just go to twitter you'll fit in well there. 

[felidae]

32 minutes ago, headway said:

While bullies should definitely be punished, why does it feel like in some ways it is T-ara redux and some ways AOA redux?

Unfortunately defamation in the Korean legal system is ridiculous, so both sides need to be careful in what they say publicly.

She didn't play victim like mina, nor say anything against the other side like her, nor hyunjoo and group had convo like t-ara.

I don't understand why people linked them together.

 

At this point I have no sympathy at all with the dsp side, the members included, even if they're the truly innocent one.

Edited September 16, 2021 by felidae

[headway]

40 minutes ago, AstroBaby said:

because you're someone who doesn't actually look into the details of individual situations and just judges each by broad patterns. Hyunjoo's evidence is night and day compared to Hwayoung's, and her behavior on social media is night and day to Mina's. Just go to twitter you'll fit in well there. 

I decided to look into it more.

Receipts are in the Youtube. 

3 isolated incidents even if 100% true, over many years IS NOT systematic bullying. Systematic bullying is bullying on a daily, over even weekly basis. This is just 1 or 2 people being a bitch to you once a year.

3 isolated incidents is cherry picking of 3 incidents over many many years, then claiming they are being bullied. Only someone nuts or being grossly deceptive would claim this is bullying.

I mean one of the three incidents, Hyunjoo is claiming she sprayed perfume and the other members complained loudly its smelly. WTf. This is bullying. If this is bullying then you dont know WTF bullying is.

Edited September 16, 2021 by headway

[AstroBaby]

23 minutes ago, headway said:

I decided to look into it more.

Receipts are in the Youtube. 

3 isolated incidents even if 100% true, over many years IS NOT systematic bullying. Systematic bullying is bullying on a daily, over even weekly basis. This is just 1 or 2 people being a bitch to you once a year.

3 isolated incidents is cherry picking of 3 incidents over many many years, then claiming they are being bullied. Only someone nuts or being grossly deceptive would claim this is bullying.

I mean one of the three incidents, Hyunjoo is claiming she sprayed perfume and the other members complained loudly its smelly. WTf. This is bullying. If this is bullying then you dont know WTF bullying is.

? If you're being bullied by multiple people everyday for years you're not going to remember every single incident. Again it was her brother who made the first post so it was just him remembering what she told him, if she just said "yeah X said this mean thing to me than the next day Y joked about and than.." it would be just be her saying random things, by providing certain events that she remembers more clearly (which dsp agreed happened as well just for different reasons) she seems more credible. She doesn't have to write a memoir for some randos on the internet when she's preparing for actual court cases. 

[sawarin]

56 minutes ago, headway said:

I decided to look into it more.

Receipts are in the Youtube. 

3 isolated incidents even if 100% true, over many years IS NOT systematic bullying. Systematic bullying is bullying on a daily, over even weekly basis. This is just 1 or 2 people being a bitch to you once a year.

3 isolated incidents is cherry picking of 3 incidents over many many years, then claiming they are being bullied. Only someone nuts or being grossly deceptive would claim this is bullying.

I mean one of the three incidents, Hyunjoo is claiming she sprayed perfume and the other members complained loudly its smelly. WTf. This is bullying. If this is bullying then you dont know WTF bullying is.

“over many many years”

april as a complete group debuted in august 2015 and hyunjoo’s hiatus and attempt was in may 2016.

she was in the group for 9 months, not many years. 

these incidents were brought up because it’s what the little brother wrote in his letter, he also said that she cried a lot. we’ll never know anything that might have happened behind the closed doors and while it may not have been hair-grabbing, stair-pushing kind of bullying there’s more than one type.

during that time, the members were extremely young and most likely still very childish (14 to 18) so in my opinion, it was targeted schoolgirl bullying. sly comments that hit her self-esteem “hyunjoo is so weak, we’re doing bad because of her” taking the stuff she likes without her permission (the custom shoes, her tumbler) purposely setting her up (leaving the stinky tumbler so one of the staff can find it, see it says hj’s and then pushing her for ‘leaving’ it, the same probably happened with the food in the car) 

edit: also, to the people comparing this situation and wondering why she’s so believable compared to the other situations… hyunjoo has not “milked” this, she doesn’t constantly hold instagram lives to trash on her former members, she’s not titling her videos “april’s bullied member lee hyunjoo goes out for a walk!”, she’s literally living a regular life.

Edited September 16, 2021 by sawarin

[headway]

1 hour ago, sawarin said:

“over many many years”

april as a complete group debuted in august 2015 and hyunjoo’s hiatus and attempt was in may 2016.

she was in the group for 9 months, not many years. 

these incidents were brought up because it’s what the little brother wrote in his letter, he also said that she cried a lot. we’ll never know anything that might have happened behind the closed doors and while it may not have been hair-grabbing, stair-pushing kind of bullying there’s more than one type.

during that time, the members were extremely young and most likely still very childish (14 to 18) so in my opinion, it was targeted schoolgirl bullying. sly comments that hit her self-esteem “hyunjoo is so weak, we’re doing bad because of her” taking the stuff she likes without her permission (the custom shoes, her tumbler) purposely setting her up (leaving the stinky tumbler so one of the staff can find it, see it says hj’s and then pushing her for ‘leaving’ it, the same probably happened with the food in the car) 

edit: also, to the people comparing this situation and wondering why she’s so believable compared to the other situations… hyunjoo has not “milked” this, she doesn’t constantly hold instagram lives to trash on her former members, she’s not titling her videos “april’s bullied member lee hyunjoo goes out for a walk!”, she’s literally living a regular life.

Again looking at the receipts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXA-plhUlgk&t=100s, Hyunjoo claims the bullying started in 2014. Idols are usually in groups training long before they debut.

You need to watch the video, because the claims and the receipts, i.e. the evidence, don't match up.

Sure you may know someone that has been bullied or you yourself has been bullied, so you are outraged as I was when Mina initially made her claims, but if the claims do not match up with the evidence, it starts getting suss.

Edited September 16, 2021 by headway

[Danee Danee]

3 hours ago, headway said:

I decided to look into it more.

Receipts are in the Youtube. 

3 isolated incidents even if 100% true, over many years IS NOT systematic bullying. Systematic bullying is bullying on a daily, over even weekly basis. This is just 1 or 2 people being a bitch to you once a year.

3 isolated incidents is cherry picking of 3 incidents over many many years, then claiming they are being bullied. Only someone nuts or being grossly deceptive would claim this is bullying.

I mean one of the three incidents, Hyunjoo is claiming she sprayed perfume and the other members complained loudly its smelly. WTf. This is bullying. If this is bullying then you dont know WTF bullying is.

Wait. So your proofs in the video is April members said it is a lie? Only relevant thing is messages from moms and wrong date given from sibling (which knows the situation only second handedly) and April members changed their dates much more then Hyunjoo did. Like Chae (I think it was her, but all the bs girls throw out kinda fall loosely) editing her claims of Hyunjoo being not on the set of Dreaming performance on like three occasions yet everytime got debunked by videos. 

Yeah, I mostly think it was serious miscommunication between the group and company which escalated in members trying to give "special care" to Hyunjoo (which basically can be taken as bullying). I also think the immaturity of the group played big role.

But honestly unlike Mina who showed signs of being vindictive and changing her stories in like her second post, in this case it was DSP and April members who came out as people who actually didnt care at all about her in their milion replies to this never even considering Hyonjoo's side. Hyunjoo haven't changed her statement at all since she started to talk herself and she never went for members heads like Mina did. DSP and April went for her head directly though on several occasions. 

Seriously if you compare the video you posted with the video How Mina assassinated Jimin's character. The amount of "proofs" given in the videos are diametrically different. 

I wouldn't even count T-ARA as case of bullying because the bullying was always only in heads of netizens. Hwayoung herself always said she had hard time but it wasn't bullying more like arguing. Yeah, she milked the attention, she definitely did, but basically never accused the members of anything. 

Edited September 16, 2021 by Danee Danee

[sawarin]

1 hour ago, headway said:

Again looking at the receipts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXA-plhUlgk&t=100s, Hyunjoo claims the bullying started in 2014. Idols are usually in groups training long before they debut.

You need to watch the video, because the claims and the receipts, i.e. the evidence, don't match up.

Sure you may know someone that has been bullied or you yourself has been bullied, so you are outraged as I was when Mina initially made her claims, but if the claims do not match up with the evidence, it starts getting suss.

because i hate being the person that takes up a whole page:

Spoiler

in 2014, she’s still training with the person that is rumored to have been the first to start the bullying within april members.. not chaewon, but somin. both girls had recently lost out on becoming members of a top girlgroup through baby kara. some who followed her through puretty to april know how passionate and stern  somin can be. so let’s say she sees this group as her last chance and when the company forces a young girl that had been initially training as an actress, she feels forced to help her. maybe here is where the “hyunjoo is weak” narrative begins, maybe chaewon tries to be close to hyunjoo (either she’s a good damn actress because she was the only member who didn’t look awkward with her) but she’s definitely closer to somin and picks her side. as the younger girls are added, they see the older two girls pick on hyunjoo and monkey sees monkey does. youth and immaturity escalate, hyunjoo is a joke to them and debut is near so emotions run high. that’s probably why the incidents are all dated throughout the group promotions, since they started living together and all incidents are related to hyunjoo’s personal items that they obviously didn’t have access to when they were trainees, they were already living together by february, 2015 as said by jinsol.  you want to add the year of training to the months she could’ve been under the emotional stress of bullying? fine, so let’s round it up to two years. 

 

maybe the dates shared by hyunjoo’s side are fucked up, still doesn’t change the fact how every member of april have changed their stance on the situation many times - if one members say that they were all close friends with hyunjoo, then the other says that they weren’t close friends at all and at the start hyunjoo was ‘weak physically and mentally, so soft’ and suddenly she was so scary that they tried to avoid making her mad, “we are close friends! but our only predebut pictures with her are from an official schedule”, jinsol’s proof of being close to her was a handwritten letter from hyunjoo who asked her to open up her heart to her.. what does that show us? that unlike some of the statements say, hyunjoo DID try to reach out to the other members, naeun’s statement that was basically a love letter for herself and also? are we forgetting the time the company themselves stopped caring about the other members to come and say that the “REAL” victim of bullying was naeun?

ps: mina’s claims were crazy from the start  

too long, didn’t read: kard’s somin and her instagram post alluding to the situation while the april members were releasing statements about hyunjoo’s weakness: "I thought it would be okay if I lived my life being round and kind. But the world wasn't like that. When I was only round I got kicked here and there, and rolled around everywhere. There is a need for me to have some edges."

[Goldenprawn]

I wish stans here would understand everyone doesn't react the same way to being trauma developed from being bullied for years. Hyunjoo spoke through a family member, whereas Mina did not. Both are  pretty obviously victims, and yet people think they can say one is more believable based on their narrow view on mental illness/trauma. Sometimes its difficult for someone to act 'normal' and not lash out or hurt themselves or other people. Some stay quiet, some do not as a result of being made to keep quiet for a long time. We're used to seeing people publicly turn the other cheek for things like this. Or remain polite but that doesn't go on all the time. I'm also not too sure why people are comparing this to Hwayoung. That situation has zero commonality with Hyunjoo or Mina. 

On the topic, it is truly grating to see bullies not just do better as people and continue to antagonize their victims like this. It's really disgusting. 

[seryozha.molodets]

The only one saint person among evils, poor baby Hyunjoo I hope you will get many many bag advertisements in the future 

[headway]

Receipt: You wore my shoe, your a bully

Edited September 16, 2021 by headway

[camilocorream]

Im soo sorry if she did get bully, but since I watch the unit, I never liked her she always gave me the victim vibe. I got bullyied a lot in my school for being gay and trust me when I say the people who bullied me then are nothing like that anymore. 

School bullying is a hard topic cause when you are a kid you are childish and everything you do is to based on how society is, I blame this more to the institutions than to the kids themselves.

Hello i dont go around wanting retribution for the people who bullied me before and wanting their careers to be over, at most I would only want for the institution to reform their norms so they could control this things better.

[Elscian]

5 hours ago, Goldenprawn said:

I'm also not too sure why people are comparing this to Hwayoung. That situation has zero commonality with Hyunjoo or Mina. 

I think one of the biggest similarities between hwayoung and hyunjoo situation is their group members claiming that the person was lazy/ weak (that was the reason t-ara initially ganged up on hwayoung on Twitter). Mina's case was slightly similar since later on people were speculating that jimin only scolded her because she was skipping practice/not listening.  But none of the AOA members fought back against mina, unlike the other 2 situations.

If someone was being lazy, or had health problems,  that's still no reason to bully them.  Now, it's a matter of did they really bully or is the person exaggerating scoldings as bullying? In t-ara case, hwayoung was lying and exaggerating.  In this case, we don't know yet.

I definitely see a similarity in the accusations it self, just not their approaches. And tbh, watching hyunjoo on on the unit and reading some of the incidents mentioned,  I can understand why some people suspect it as exaggeration.  However, we were not in her place.  We don't know what she went though.  Sometimes, little things done repeatedly can be extremely hurtful.   So we can't dismiss her concerns.  She's doing a very good job fighting in court at least. This way she can provide proof of her statements. 

 

[rananicolee]

I hope you guys realize one thing. You can't tell someone that what THEY felt is wrong because that's how they felt. Telling someone that what they are feeling is wrong is really bad. 

Just accept your faves did something bad. That's it. It's not hard. People typically look down on the fans that blindly follow rather than admitting their faves were wrong. 

[panqueque]

April case is a hard one, but at the end of the day the people who should be accountable are the damn company, the managers the people who saw all this and did nothing. Most of them were really young when this happened, all could have been avoided if some adult with some moral sense said something. Hyunjoo might be saying the truth or lying, but the facts are all this girls suffered because of that stupid company. THEY LEARNED LITERALLY NOTHING FROM BABY KARA.

Edited September 17, 2021 by panqueque

[A Hamster Named Loneliness]

16 hours ago, felidae said:

She didn't play victim like mina, nor say anything against the other side like her, nor hyunjoo and group had convo like t-ara.

I don't understand why people linked them together.

 

At this point I have no sympathy at all with the dsp side, the members included, even if they're the truly innocent one.

Rachel and Chaekyung have nothing to do with this since they weren't in the group yet when Hyunjoo was a member. I've seen posts saying they don't have sympathy for any of April members (the word "any" indicates inclusion of Rachel and Chaekyung) and it's like, why are you including those 2 when they have nothing to do with the situation?

Edited September 16, 2021 by A Hamster Named Loneliness

[A Hamster Named Loneliness]

9 hours ago, sawarin said:

because i hate being the person that takes up a whole page:

  Hide contents

in 2014, she’s still training with the person that is rumored to have been the first to start the bullying within april members.. not chaewon, but somin. both girls had recently lost out on becoming members of a top girlgroup through baby kara. some who followed her through puretty to april know how passionate and stern  somin can be. so let’s say she sees this group as her last chance and when the company forces a young girl that had been initially training as an actress, she feels forced to help her. maybe here is where the “hyunjoo is weak” narrative begins, maybe chaewon tries to be close to hyunjoo (either she’s a good damn actress because she was the only member who didn’t look awkward with her) but she’s definitely closer to somin and picks her side. as the younger girls are added, they see the older two girls pick on hyunjoo and monkey sees monkey does. youth and immaturity escalate, hyunjoo is a joke to them and debut is near so emotions run high. that’s probably why the incidents are all dated throughout the group promotions, since they started living together and all incidents are related to hyunjoo’s personal items that they obviously didn’t have access to when they were trainees, they were already living together by february, 2015 as said by jinsol.  you want to add the year of training to the months she could’ve been under the emotional stress of bullying? fine, so let’s round it up to two years. 

 

maybe the dates shared by hyunjoo’s side are fucked up, still doesn’t change the fact how every member of april have changed their stance on the situation many times - if one members say that they were all close friends with hyunjoo, then the other says that they weren’t close friends at all and at the start hyunjoo was ‘weak physically and mentally, so soft’ and suddenly she was so scary that they tried to avoid making her mad, “we are close friends! but our only predebut pictures with her are from an official schedule”, jinsol’s proof of being close to her was a handwritten letter from hyunjoo who asked her to open up her heart to her.. what does that show us? that unlike some of the statements say, hyunjoo DID try to reach out to the other members, naeun’s statement that was basically a love letter for herself and also? are we forgetting the time the company themselves stopped caring about the other members to come and say that the “REAL” victim of bullying was naeun?

ps: mina’s claims were crazy from the start  

too long, didn’t read: kard’s somin and her instagram post alluding to the situation while the april members were releasing statements about hyunjoo’s weakness: "I thought it would be okay if I lived my life being round and kind. But the world wasn't like that. When I was only round I got kicked here and there, and rolled around everywhere. There is a need for me to have some edges."

I don't know if that hidden quote was from another post or yours or not, but the "every member of April" is misleading and would make people who haven't been following this case from the start think Rachel and Chaekyung were also involved when they were not, they literally were added to the group after Hyunjoo's departure from the group. They have nothing to do with it. 

[felidae]

34 minutes ago, A Hamster Named Loneliness said:

Rachel and Chaekyung have nothing to do with this since they weren't in the group yet when Hyunjoo was a member. I've seen posts saying they don't have sympathy for any April members and it's like, why are you including those 2 when they have nothing to do with the situation?

Um obviously? 

[babyv004]

i already said once and i will say it again
for what i have seen from this case so far to me IT DOESN'T MATTER IF THERE IS BULLYING OR NOT.

As a person with depression, the way April members (and everyone supporting their backs) dealt with it made me disgusted af. They shown a lack of empathy, called Hyunjoo weak and blamed her like if it is her fault that she have depression and she wanted to use it to avoid training. not even AOA members did that and they had reasons to do it especially after Mina was catched relaxing in the pool and spa while the members work their ass off rechoreograph the performances

So even it will be proven that Hyunjoo lied and is not a victim as she claims, that will not make April members less guilty in my eyes. i will never listen April songs again

but i really hope that some bullying accusations are true bc if all of them start to get proven fake, people will stop believing the real future victims or worse real victims will shut up bc they will be too afraid to come out and expose their aggressors 

Edited September 16, 2021 by babyv004

[deobizone]

I watched the unit and I liked her. I wasn't fan per se bc there was more interesting and talented contestants but she was cute and endearing in the show imo. Had no issue with her making uni.t. And I've seen a lot of uni.t/unit g girls openly support hyunjoo during this, I take that as telling of her character more than my perception (even tho still positive) on the show or the accused claiming defamation.

Which is fucked, BTW. It's tricky in these public accusations where some ppl lies so some hesitate 'to hear both sides' or even worse, wait on court decisions. Justice system is fucked. Everywhere, but imo sk defamation laws are so dated, iirc, you can get sued for that even if you are telling truth (when defamation, by definition, is lying) 

I highly doubt hyunjoo lying, for starters it was her friend and brother who brought it to light and I think those cases were thrown out by Judge on sumn? And at the time April was supposedly bullying her she tried to commit suicide? It's really messed up, how many ppl are bullied, I have been too, but not all to the same extent, and even more so, not everyone has the mental strength to deal with it. I do not hold things against ppl and want their career ruined, etc. I have been bullied to my mental limit at my job a few years ago and I never reported ppl, I just change my schedule to the other shift and avoid them when our sched overlap. I just want to be left alone not cause public issues, but fgs it can cause irreparable mental damage so I wouldn't fight ppl who've been bullied to their limit, not be quiet about it. But I don't see hyunjoo as some vindictive person with victim complex, I think she opened up to her loved ones and they couldn't keep quiet. And it's difficult to talk about these sorta thing involving accusation between celebrities, not knowing truth there's so much grey area. But as someone who struggled with mental health my whole life, I can get the pain these ppl may feel. So it's difficult to be neutral and not believe victim. It is esp shitty to me that not only dsp but April members are suing her, and could succeed bc of how backwards (imo) sk law is. And then them/their supporters would say they're innocent just cuz that. When most damage done to their careers would of not been there if they just apologized to hyunjoo day 1 instead of denying and trying to sue, in multiple directions, the acusser. It's trying to save face but it just drags on the issue so fking long that only makes them seen worse. Similar to soojin in that way cuz other "bullies" are on hiatus and then come back, albeit some ppl will remember and hate them, but most will forget and stans will forgive. Even if it isn't yk tormenting bullying, there's some mistreatment I'm sure, worth an apology. I have complicated opinion on these things ig... Ppl don't need their career ruined on childish past things they've Grown up from, but the mess April members, their families, and dsp had done in just idiotic ways og trying to just silence hyunjoo they've done it to themselves. 

Edited September 16, 2021 by deobizone