"He seemed very determined" - BAE173 responds as member J-Min announces suspension of activities with the group for his Close Your Eyes debut

On Monday, February 3, the South Korean media outlet TenAsia revealed that BAE173's J-Min would be suspending his activities with the group to debut under Close Your Eyes. The idol participated in the JTBC reality survival show Project 7 and made it to the debut lineup of the same.

Given that the resultant group, Close Your Eyes, will be debuting in April, J-Min will be concentrating on the same.

This will automatically pause his activities with the group he's already a part of, BAE173, under which he debuted in 2020.

Regarding this, TenAsia also revealed the response from one of the group's members who remained anonymous. The member stated:

"J-Min said he wanted to focus on Close Your Eyes and stop participating in BAE 173 activities. We were really upset when we heard that. But he seemed very determined, and we couldn’t stop him. It would be great to do team activities with J-Min, but if he wants to leave, what can we do? He felt bad about it, and I just told him to do what he wanted."

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BAE173 member hints at group's comeback without J-Min's participation

The anonymous BAE173 member who responded to J-Min's non-participatin in the group's activities also revealed that the group might roll out a comeback around the same time as Close Your Eyes' debut.

However, given that the idol has chosen to concentrate on his debut with Close Your Eyes, the comeback would most likely happen in Jimin's absense.

Here's what the member stated:

"We’re going to do our best as the remaining members. Opportunities for comebacks don’t come for everyone. Since J-Min announced his decision to suspend his activities, we haven’t been in contact with him."

Additionally, the idol was absent from BAE173's activities for a while now since he didn't attend the group's fansign event that was conducted on January 10.

The anonymous member also addressed the conflict that took place between PocketDol Studio (BAE173's agency) and UNCORE (Close Your Eyes' agency).

On January 8, PocketDol Studio filled a missing person complaint for two of their artists, J-Min and Sakurada Kenshin. Both the members are housed under UNCORE and are debut members of Close Your Eyes.

The compaint was filed due to UNCORE allegedly restricting contact between PocketDol Studio and their artists.

However, the anonymous member explained that the next day after filing the complaint, January 9, there was a meeting between the group members and PocketDol Studio's representatives.

J-Min stated, according to the anoynmous member:

"At that meeting, J-Min expressed that he didn’t want to continue activities with BAE173."

On the other hand, there have also been suspicions of contract issues between UNCORE and PocketDol Studio. UNCORE initially called out PocketDol Studio for scheduling events with two Close Your Eyes members, J-Min and Sakurada Kenshin, without the knowledge of UNCORE, and also named it as breach of contract.

In response, PocketDol Studio stated that UNCORE agreed that if their artists debut under Close Your Eyes, they will also be able to carry out activities under their current agency.

As a response to this, UNCORE highlighted that it was agreed upon with all the Project7 contestants that if they were to debut under Close Your Eyes, all their other activities will have to be suspended.

On the other hand, TenAsia also revealed that a representative from UNCORE who is close to J-Min failed to talk about the idol's non-participation in BAE173. When asked if the non-participation was related to the contract issues, here's what the representative said:

"It’s hard to discuss the contract issue. There’s no reason to respond to an interview request."

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Therefore, according to TenAsia's article, the member J-Min will be focusing on his debut under Close Your Eyes, and will not be participating in any BAE173 activities.