Girl group T-ara is receiving criticism from a few disappointed fans.
T-ara’s Hwayoung is currently in a wheelchair after hurting her leg from a music program on July 22nd, and was unable to fully participate in the group’s first independent concert at the Budokan.
After the concert, the T-ara members then posted a few tweets that netizens assumed was directed towards fellow member Hwayoung in a teasing manner, and the fans were shocked at the girls lashing out at Hwayoung and the fans are now questioning T-ara’s teamwork.
The story goes as follows.
T-ara held their first independent concert on July 25th and 26th at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. But ahead of their concert, T-ara had apologetically announced that because Hwayoung was injured, she would only be able to be on stage for part of their concert.
Towards the beginning of the Budokan performance, Soyeon, Eunjung, Qri, Boram, Jiyeon, andHyomin each greeted the fans one at a time, and afterwards Hwayoung came on stage with her crutches, and the fans encouraged her with their cheers.
When the concert was nearly over, T-ara performed their hit song “Day By Day“, and Hwayoung performed her rap portion on stage seated in a chair.
But the problem began when the T-ara members began tweeting on July 25th. Some of their fans grew angry, as they felt the girls were publicly ridiculing Hwayoung and her determination / commitment level.
Hyomin had began by writing, “The differences in levels of determination^^, Let us all have more determination. Fighting!!!”
Member Jiyeon then resonded, “The differences in levels of determination ^^, Always be humble ^^ and sensible ^^ I applaud you, acting genius ^^”
Eunjung added, “A position can make or break a person, but determination can make a person too. Sigh, it’s unfortunate. You have to know to take care of the people around you.”
In response to this, Hwayoung had tweeted, “Sometimes, even determination alone is not enough. At times like these, I feel upset but I trust that it’s a blessing in disguise from the heavens. God, you know everything right?”
Member Hyoyoung of 5dolls who also happens to be Hwayoung’s twin sister then wrote, “My better half is suffering. My heart hurts. No matter what anyone else says, (Hwayoung), you can get through this,” and Hwayoung responded to her saying, “You’re the best.”
Many fans have interpreted these tweets to be attacks against Hwayoung. They believe that the members were pointing out that Hwayoung did not show enough determination, and thus by not performing throughout the entire concert, she had caused some inconveniences for the other members as they had to hurriedly figure out how to carry on their performances without her. Fans have responded negatively to these tweets to say the least. No matter how young the girls may be, they remarked that it is wrong for the girls as a group to publicly bash their very own group member.
On lookers further remarked that the girls got lost in the competition of becoming the main spotlight of the group. They expressed that the members coming together as a clique to say that an injured group member had no determination was a typical example of some mental cracks in their teamwork.
Their agency at first argued that the girls’ accounts had been hacked, but it seems unlikely that all of their individual Twitters could have been hacked at the same time.
