Netizens Suspect Bang Si-hyuk & Min Hee-jin Relationship: They Dated & The Conflict Is Their Breakup?
The conflict between HYBE and Min Hee-jin, the CEO of its label ADOR, is the hottest issue right now. HYBE sued ADOR executives, including Min Hee-jin, for attempting to take over the management rights of ADOR, while Min Hee-jin accused ILLIT, HYBE new girl group under another label Belift Lab, of copying NewJeans and even held an emergency press conference to refute HYBE and Bang Si-hyuk’s claims about her.
Hearing Min Hee-jin’s arguments at the press conference on April 25th, netizens even came up with speculation that Bang Si-hyuk and Min Hee-jin might have dated and this conflict is the result of their breakup.
Netizens pointed out that Min Hee-jin mentioned Bang Si-hyuk’s name very politely even when she was complaining about mistreatments from him. However, she didn’t use honorifics when talking about LE SSERAFIM members Sakura and Kim Chae-won. Examining the Kakaotalk conversation she had with Bang Si-hyuk, many people began to suspect the two’s relationship because they sent cute stickers to each other as if they were a couple.
What’s more surprising is the fact that Bang Si-hyuk literally let Min Hee-jin do anything she wanted at HYBE. When Min Hee-jin first signed to HYBE, she was planning to produce a girl group under Source Music. However, due to differences in opinions when Source Music recruited LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Chae-won and Sakura, Min Hee-jin persuaded Bang Si-hyuk to allow her to establish the label ADOR and take 4 trainees from Source Music, including Minji, Haerin, Danielle and Hanni, to form NewJeans.
Despite Source Music’s opposition, Bang Si-hyuk accepted Min Hee-jin’s request and even gave the female CEO all the freedom and rights to produce and manage NewJeans. Moreover, he sold 18% of ADOR shares to Min Hee-jin at a cheap price, which was a special treatment that had never happened in HYBE.
In fact, the romance rumor is just a speculation and suspicions of netizens based on the information from press releases.
Earlier on April 22nd, HYBE decided to conduct an audit on ADOR and requested Min Hee-jin to resign because they suspected ADOR executives had been planning to take over management rights and make ADOR become independent from HYBE under the lead of Min Hee-jin. In response, Min Hee-jin explained by complaining about HYBE ignoring her report about ILLIT copying NewJeans.
After the audit, HYBE announced that they already secured enough evidence, including Min Hee-jin’s messages talking about becoming independent from HYBE, asking for advice on BTS’s military service issue from a shaman, etc., and immediately filed a complaint against the female CEO for breach of trust in the middle of her press conference.
