Long-time fans of K-pop are intimately familiar with the conditions that idols typically live under for at least their first contract, and nothing really surprises us for the most part, though at times it can be unnerving that nothing is progressing much either.
In a recent video for CONSO, LABOUM‘s Yujeong, Lovelyz‘s Ryu Sujeong and BVNDIT‘s Seungeun were guests, and the most notable reveal was about the conditions LABOUM were under during their time with NH Media. While Sujeong and her both agreed that their companies didn’t allow them to have phones for four years, a question about how LABOUM member Yulhee became pregnant under those circumstances led to the reveal that they had CCTV cameras in their dorm.
Yujeong responded, “She hid it and got caught.” Choi Sungmin added, “She bought a burner phone, kept it under her pillow, and got caught.”
LABOUM reportedly didn’t have an explicit “no dating” clause in their contracts, but Yujeong explained, “The company was super strict about it. There were even CCTV cameras in the dorm’s shoe cabinet to check if we were going out. In our first year, I once went to a café just to get bubble tea and was immediately called in by the company and asked, ‘Where did you go?’”
Ryu Sujeong shared, “We didn’t have a written clause either, but we saw what happened when someone broke the rules. For example, they’d be removed from practice or not allowed to attend vocal lessons. That would reflect poorly on stage, so seeing that made us think, ‘We really shouldn’t date.’” Yujeong concluded, “We were basically gaslighted into living like that.”
Right, while the contracts may technically not say anything, perhaps cause it’s potentially illegal, in reality norms like this are 100% enforced one way or another. Between cutting them off from the outside world, having 24/7 monitoring of their movements, and having to smuggle contraband in — as well as not getting paid for their labor — this sorta makes them glorified prisoners of the company.
The weird thing is that while we can all understand how this is absurd to do to anybody, much less many children/teens, if LABOUM or any of them tried to get out from under those circumstances, there’d be a lot more support for their company than you think if they didn’t do anything technically illegal. Simplifying it, that’s basically because, well, child abuse has been normalized in the industry so it’s just what everybody goes through.
