“She left them girls to defend for themselves?” — Fans react as Min Hee-jin unfollows NewJeans following her resignation announcement from HYBE & ADOR

On November 20, 2024, Star News reported that Min Hee-jin announced that she would resign from HYBE and ADOR's board of directors and sue the parent company for alleged breach of shareholder's contract.

"I am resigning as an inside director of ADOR today. I will also terminate the shareholder agreement I signed with HYBE and hold HYBE legally responsible for the violation of the shareholder agreement. In addition, I will take necessary legal action against HYBE and its associates for their numerous illegal acts."

Additionally, on November 20, 2024, on her official Instagram account, she posted a picture of a cartoon bunny holding a placard, with "resignation" (퇴사) written on it in Korean. She also posted a song, Free by Deniece Williams, on her Instagram story.

Subsequently, fans were baffled by her behavior and official statement to resign from the company, as she unfollowed NewJeans' and ADOR's official accounts on Instagram. One fan wrote on X:

"She left them girls to defend for themselves?"

Netizens further criticized the former ADOR CEO on X for her "childish" behavior.

"MHJ unfollowed NewJeans and ADOR on Instagram. The official NewJeans account is still following MHJ. That's so childish," a user wrote.

"She really needs therapy," another user commented.

"I thought those girls were her daughters what happened? anyway glad this is over now," one fan said.

Others speculated that the ADOR girl group might terminate their contract with HYBE and ADOR and leave with Min Hee-jin.

"We have been warning NewJeans but they still couldn't listen! Well," a fan wrote.

"I’m sure that the group will leave with her but Ador is going to keep the brand name," one fan stated.

"Now that she's officially, fully out of hyb3, one of these days we'll either get: 1. Njs leaves hyb3 after terminating their contracts and paying up article. 2. Njs saw the sleezy person mhj for who she is and apologizes article. I'm leaning heavily towards no1 though," another fan added.

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Min Hee-jin announces resigning from HYBE and exposing its wrongdoings

On November 20, Min Hee-jin reportedly resigned as an inside director of ADOR. Further, as per Star News' report, Min Hee-jin claimed in her statement that she fought the parent company, HYBE, for the past seven months (since April 2024), as it violated her shareholder's agreement.

"For the past seven months, I have fought with all my might, mentally, financially, and physically, to revive ADOR, which was ruined by HYBE's serious violation of the shareholder agreement. It means that I have not backed down and have made great efforts, even though it was a hellish fight..."

Min Hee-jin continued that HYBE's "moral decay" has reached its height, stating:

"HYBE's moral decay has already reached its peak, so the dirty media play will continue, but I am not worried that even the public has now read the pattern. However, we would like to inform you that if there are any forces or media that are trying to slander you, we will never sit idly by and will punish them with the law."

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It is important to note that on November 4, 2024, the Seoul Central District Court dismissed Min's injunction, stating that the parent company did not violate her shareholder's contract. The Chosun Daily reported that the court added that the contract was separate from Min Hee-jin's other agreement as the CEO of ADOR, and the label is not bound to obey HYBE despite being its subsidiary.

Seoul Central District Court further stated that Min Hee-jin's injunction to get reinstated as ADOR's CEO, after the label's board fired her in August 2024, lacked proper justifications. Hence, they legally blocked her from becoming the CEO of the label.