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HYBE’s quick response to Lesserafim Kim Garam’s bullying controversy triggers GFriend fans

Knets and popular gossip websites dredged up past rumors about the trainee being a school bully and the fiasco turned into a scandal overnight

The controversy ended even before it started and fans of the upcoming girl group Lesserafim are thankful HYBE and its subsidiary Source Music were prompt about it. Soon after Source Music announced Kim Garam as the first member of HYBE’s first-ever girl group, Le Sserafim (aka Lesserafim), Knets and popular gossip websites started dredging up past rumors about the trainee being a school bully. The claims suggested that Kim Garam had made certain comments about BTS V (Taehyung), speaking about him in a sexual manner in the past.

It was claimed that Garam was a school bully and a photo of her standing in front of a chalkboard with pornographic drawings was released. The entire fiasco was an overnight scandal and HYBE’s subsidiary Source Music - originally home to now-disbanded girl group GFriend - immediately responded with a statement saying they were looking into the matter. On April 4, not even a day after the controversy blew up, Source Music released HYBE’s official position about the scandal.

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HYBE responds to allegations about Kim Garam via Source Music

HYBE, via their subsidiary label Source Music, said, “We have been conducting an internal investigation into the allegations against Le Sserafim’s Kim Garam and our findings are as follows.” The label said that someone had cleverly & maliciously manipulated chats and issues that occurred when Kim Garam was in middle school. The label said that instead of being a bully, Kim Garam was a victim of cyberbullying, violence, and malicious rumors in the past, which was confirmed via a third-party witness.

Source Music also addressed claims that suggested that Garam was kicked out of Starship Entertainment and IVE because she had leaked private documents from the label saying, “The rumor about Kim Garam’s former agency and supposed leaked documents have been proven to be false.” HYBE and Source Music then went on to state that the malicious comments, rumors, and distorted allegations against Kim Garam will be dealt with in legal proceedings.

‘Y’all almost ruined a minor's life and career'

The labels ended the statement with, “In addition, the allegations being raised are defamation of character against Kim Garam who is a CHILD, before she is a celebrity and we would like to say we are taking legal action without agreement or leniency.” The statement has made fans of the girl group happy as the label is taking quick action against malicious commenters, especially since the girls are minors. One fan tweeted, “Yall will go preach on this app on how horrible it is for minors to debut then proceed to say the most vile shit the moment they get some sort of rumor you are the problem.”

Another said, “The Koreans in the qrts really need to go outside and touch some grass. They're not believing hybe and soumu's statements because they're probably ashamed of themselves for believing a baseless rumor without any solid proof. Yall almost ruined a MINOR's life and career.” One fan added, “Between this and Pledis starting to sue people after joining HYBE, I think that HYBE has really influenced its subsidiaries to be quicker on their artist protection response.”

‘They never did this for GFriend’

Buddies (fans of GFriend) are furious with Source Music as the label never defended the girl group in the past, despite their rushing in to protect Lesserafim now. One fan did not mince words, saying, “God is truly fair... this company bring misfortune on their one and only (ex) gg, now misfortune befallen them.” Another said, “And the only thing you did for gfriend is releasing a 4 days eviction notice.” One tweet read, “I wish u a very 'go to hell' for never protecting the very women who built u up from scraps.” Another added, “Never wanted to interact, or even see u again, but you've exceeded my wrath for not defending gfriend, especially sowon, as fast as u did this.”

One fan said, “The women who BUILT you from the ground up did not get the bare minimum protection from you for SIX YEARS btw.” Another argued, “Gfriend was used by both of them, and while source was just overworking them not spending their hard earned money on them hybe that according to bunch of smartasses is independent wtv that's working with source, did not even gave one single apology for info leakage at least.” One fan asked, “Where was this energy when umji was bullied and harassed whens she was also a MINOR? FUCK YOU SOURCE MUSIC.”