“Crush aespa” — Min Hee Jin Reveals Damning KakaoTalk Screenshot With Bang Si Hyuk

ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin held a press conference on April 25, 2024, to address her current feud with HYBE.

Amongst the many accusations she fights back at, she also revealed a snippet of a KakaoTalk conversation she had with Bang Si Hyuk. Bang Si Hyuk was the one who proposed a collaboration, inviting her into the company to create HYBE’s first girl group. He evoked aespa in the conversation dated December 2, 2021.

• Bang Si Hyuk: You can crush aespa, right? Heh.
• Min Hee Jin: Hahaha.
• Bang Si Hyuk: Hahaha. I’m leaving it to you then (emoji). Let’s have a drink soon.

He continued to encourage her to forget her past in SM Entertainment and build her own.

• Bang Si Hyuk: Forget aespa and let’s construct Min Hee Jin World.
• Min Hee Jin: I just…
• Bang Si Hyuk: Don’t worry.
• Min Hee Jin: LOL I’m not worried. I just wonder if [redacted] have to say such things [redacted].

2021 was a prime time. This was the year ADOR was created as a separate label. Judging from the text’s timeline in December, the texts probably came after ADOR was given the go-ahead. It seems like Bang Si Hyuk was concerned about rivalry from SM Entertainment’s new girl group aespa.