For the past couple weeks there has been a lot of talk about A Pink member Yookyung's decision to leave her group. The young singer said it was so that she could pursue an education at Joongang University and her agency A Cube Entertainment agreed and showed their support.
However, Yookyung's father has been very outspoken recently that his daughter was actually kicked out of the group. He has called on A Pink's label to issue a formal apology to Yookyung and suggested the decision was not his daughter's idea.
With the jury still out on the conflicting sides of the Yookyung saga, the situation has raised a lot of questions about other female singers who have left their groups supposedly to further their educations in university.
Before Yookyung, Girl's Day member Jihae left in order to go back to school. However, as it has been noted, she is currently promoting herself as an actress instead. The same can be said of After School's former member Soyoung. Soyoung retracted from the group citing health issues and the desire to return to school, but since then has also returned as an actress.
And there are plenty more examples as well. Girl group EXID debuted with six members in early 2012, but after only two months, three of the members left. Former leader Yuzi and Dami both claimed they would be going to university.
Yuzi has suggested she may return after completing her studies, but EXID has since moved on and has already added two new members to their lineup. The third member who left, Haeryung, was the only one who came out an said she left EXID to pursue an acting career instead.
Girl group RaNia also saw the removal of a member recently for university studies. Riko has decided to finish her schooling at Sookmyung Women's University for the time being. Although RaNia's agency DR Music claims Riko's absence is not permanent, RaNia will always seem to be a five-member group, as the return of vocalist, Jooyi, feels more like a gap-filler for Riko's absence, sparking more rumors about the true nature of her departure.
When Sunmi decided to leave JYP Entertainment's Wonder Girls a while back, there was also some disappointment among fans. But now it appears she has started a trend among her idol peers.
Many netizens have pointed out that Sunmi has all but dropped off the face of the earth - she has not even been spotted in her university department.
Whatever the reasons are for leaving a girl group, it seems that the agencies are all in favor of using education as an excuse. After all, who would fault a girl for wanting to go to school?
M/s : kenvilthomas@kpopupdates.com
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