"Our album will do well"— aespa's Winter reportedly responds to HYBE's Bang Si-hyuk asking Min Hee-jin to "step on" the K-pop girl group

On Monday, May 27, the Korean media outlet OSEN reported that aespa's Winter laughed when she was asked about HYBE's chairman Bang Si-hyuk's recent statement about the K-pop girl group.

It was recently reported that Bang Si-hyuk messaged ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin through KakaoTalk to "step on" aespa with her K-pop girl group, NewJeans. Addressing his reported statement, aespa's Winter said that rather than thinking about the statement in depth, she simply took it as a sign that aespa and their album are doing well.

"I didn't think about it, I just took it as a sign that our album will do well," she said while answering reporters' questions during a showcase of the group's upcoming album Armageddon.

---

aespa's Winter responds to HYBE's Bang Si-hyuk's KakaoTalk message to Min Hee-jin to "step on" the K-pop girl group

On April 25, ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin held an emergency press conference and alleged a KakaoTalk conversation between her and HYBE's Bang Si-hyuk. In the text message, Bang Si-hyuk allegedly asked Min Hee-jin whether she could "step on aespa" in the sense that she could bring them down with the debut of NewJeans.

"Bang Si-hyuk asked me, 'You can beat aespa in December, right?' But that was never my goal. I thought that he was a really generous person, but I found that he was different on the outside from how he was on the inside," Min Hee-jin reportedly said.

ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin's allegations sparked quite a few debates among netizens. While many perceived Bang Si-hyuk to be a generous, kind, and giving person, the image was slowly being tarnished and questioned by netizens. On the other hand, fans were also curious about the aespa members' thoughts on the same. While this remained unanswered for a long time, aespa's Winter was seen responding to the same a month later.

She addressed the issue while answering reporters' questions during Armageddon's showcase. Following this information, fans couldn't help but comment on it. They were quite satisfied with Winter's answer and were happy that the controversy hadn't affected her or the group's members too heavily.

aespa is currently rolling out a comeback. While the group released a pre-release track titled Supernova on May 13, the K-pop girl group will release their first full-length album, Armageddon, on May 27. The album is expected to consist of nine tracks, including Supernova, and will hold Armageddon as its title track.

On the other hand, the controversy between HYBE and ADOR is still ongoing. HYBE Labels and CEO Min Hee-jin are undergoing court trials following the ADOR CEO's resistance to HYBE's efforts to remove her from ADOR.