Love is a difficult thing in the world of K-pop, but for two of South Korea’s hottest stars, it’s getting even more complicated. South Korean label Cube Entertainment announced Thursday that it removed soloist HyunA and Pentagon’s E’Dawn from its roster, ousting the pair after they previously confirmed they were in a relationship since early August.
Cube’s decision, according to their original statement, was made in response to the pair publicly declaring their two-year-long relationship despite the company’s prior denial, ruining the relationship between artists and management.
“We decided the trust is broken and cannot be saved so we are kicking the two out of the company,” Cube told the Korea Herald. But Cube’s statement received a lot of backlash, and within a day of the announcement, the company backtracked and released a new statement.
“We’re discussing the issue, but it’s not confirmed,” Cube Entertainment CEO Shin Dae-nam told Yonhap News. “The opinions of the artists are also important, so it needs be handled carefully. We’ll have a board meeting next week to discuss this issue.”
The road to becoming a K-Pop star and maintain that stardom is tough. There are many strict rules included when actually signing with a label — there’s usually a “no dating” clause in artists’ contracts. As a result, it’s uncommon in South Korea for K-pop stars to go public with their relationships as it often negatively impacts their public image and careers.
HyunA, 26, and E’Dawn, 24, confirmed their 2-year-long relationship in a statement to Yonhyap News.
“We’ve been going out with each other for two years. We know that we will constantly be tagged onto each other’s names from now on, but still, we thought that it would be hard to look straight into the eyes of our fans once we got on stage. That’s why we wanted to be honest at least to our fans who love and watch over us, and then go in front of them with our confidence and joy on stage.”
Hyuna told the Korean news outlet that she got to know E’Dawn when he was just a trainee at Cube. They officially began dating in May 2016, and since then, they’ve been making music together as they are both part of trio Triple H.
By: Maytinee Kramer
