Below is a statement from Adore’s CEO, Heejin Min, to reporters. We’re releasing it uncut so there’s no misunderstanding.
hello. This is Heejin Min. For the first time since the press conference, I’m writing from a personal perspective. The reason I’m writing this in the form of a formal position paper is that the nature of the issue I’m trying to clarify has important context that isn’t conveyed in a formal position paper.
Hive controversies and legal responses
I’m sorry that I’m writing this to an unspecified audience, wondering what the hell this has to do with you, the reader of this post, but I’m writing to minimize misunderstandings and to correct the misrepresentations made by Hive in court, as every day since April 22 has been an embarrassment.
Our position on the Dunamu issue
Background and nature of the encounter
First, we would like to address the issue of NAVER Dunamu. My acquaintance A invites me to dinner on 3/6/24 at 7:30pm. A told me not to feel uncomfortable because some of his old friends would be there, and the people I met were older and more comfortable than me.
While we were eating, one of A’s acquaintances mentioned that he had called another acquaintance, and I didn’t know which one was coming at the time. About an hour later, he came, and at first I didn’t even know who it was. When he introduced himself, I realized that he was Mr. C of Dunamu, and I remembered that he had told me a long time ago that he wanted to meet me through Chairman Bang Sihyuk. He said that when he found out I was at the dinner, he wanted to join us. He was interested in Newzine and said that I, the creator, was the reason he was curious. I didn’t realize it, but I also contacted Mr. B from Naver, who was familiar with all of the attendees, and he also came. That’s how I ended up with all of these people there, against my will, and it ended up being a private, non-investment-related meeting where everybody who was there that day could testify.
False claims in the hive
Despite the Hive’s huge media hype, surprisingly, that’s all there is to meeting Dunamu C-Boon. Hive, who was not present at the meeting, is making false claims based on what? Mr. C said he wanted to come to the NewZines Tokyo Dome concert, and our conversation ended with a short conversation about the Tokyo Dome concert. I’ve only had a few private conversations with B since then.
On the way home from the meal, I told Mr. L about the people I had met that day, and we had a vague conversation about how it would be good for both Hive and Adore if a company like Dunamu, one of the companies that invested in Hive, became the owner of Adore. But this idea is hardly realistic. Above all, there’s nothing we don’t know that couldn’t happen without hive consensus. Dunamu C and I hadn’t even met that day, so we couldn’t have had a conversation about it.
Conflict between adopters and hives
Feasibility aside, it was a breath of fresh air to hear this at the time. As a representative of Adore, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking that Adore is like the “underdog” in the hive, the one that suffers from subtle bullying and harassment. I don’t know if it’s a sin to imagine wanting to get away from a perpetrator you can’t escape. We don’t live in a world that “censors thoughts,” so what’s the big deal, and I’m tempted to censor the thoughts of Hive executives.
After joining Adore, Mr. L said he was surprised to learn that even though he was in the same hive, he didn’t realize that Adore was being harassed by the hive. And he asked me, ‘What have you been up to? For this reason, Vice President L and I have been having conversations about how to avoid being harassed by Hive and what to do about it, but Hive captured, edited, and maliciously used this conversation as if it were some kind of big stunt. I still can’t believe I have to explain the story of a private encounter at such length, as if I were explaining a capital crime. Did you ever find the Saudi sovereign wealth you so earnestly claimed?
Illegal auditing behavior in the hive
The Hive took the laptop I was given when I joined the company, wiped it, and returned it two years ago, and “pre-forensically” looked into my personal life without my consent before the audit, shared it with each other, and included it in the audit documentation. How is what happened before Adore was founded relevant to this audit? I was also told that dozens of reporters, knowing full well that they were listening in open court, pulled out excerpts from Saddam’s private life and read them out in inflammatory language, without making any legal arguments. As someone who wasn’t in the courtroom at the time and heard about it later, it’s creepy that someone would go to such lengths to harm a person’s privacy and honor.
He improperly publicized his personal history before the founding of Adore, took the laptop of the deputy CEO without permission in order to find a way to attack me, and threatened and cajoled the deputy CEO with criminal liability. He also pressured doorway members to enter their homes late at night, demanded their personal cell phones, and even leaked unrelated private conversations. They published an article claiming that they were protecting their members by engaging in such unorthodox and barbaric behavior. It makes you wonder what the real intent of the thank you is.
Complex human relationships and misunderstandings
Complex human history and human relationships are not explained by a few randomly pasted characters on KakaoTalk. There’s no reason to make excuses, and it’s not something you need to explain. My personality, my usual way of speaking, my style of jokes and pranks, and the situation I was in and the people I was talking to are not something to be judged by people who don’t know this or that, and I’m sure that anyone would feel the same way if they were squeezed in the Hive’s despicable way.
Newzine and I have been through a lot of things and situations over the years that you probably don’t know about. I can’t explain them all here, and there’s no reason I should, and unnecessary additional explanations are unnecessary because they require me to speak of other people’s private matters and create yet another divide that perpetuates hurt. So many things you don’t know about have driven us crazy, but so many things in us that you don’t know about have made our relationship stronger and stronger. In a way, I think the idol business, which I’ve been in for 20 years and still don’t understand, has made us that way. Starting a business in a prejudiced business environment, with a group of young friends, and with other people’s money was more painful and challenging than I could have imagined.
Most people aren’t born rich. Most of us come from humble beginnings, and the idea of funding a business with our own money is a dream come true. It’s also the ability of people without money to get invested with talent. It’s not a sin to take that investment and start working on it, and it’s not a sin to take that investment and start working on it for a very short period of time.
I don’t understand why I’m being framed as a traitor, an egomaniac, a usurper, or a usurper just because I started with an initial investment, even though I’ve already paid back more than 10 times what I received and have given back a tremendous amount of value that isn’t calculated in monetary terms. Where has the value I’ve been bringing to the hive evaporated to? I think that’s what you brought me in for.
Authentic relationships and commitment
My experience with the idol business has been full of contradictions. It’s never easy to balance the pursuit of profit and the well-being of children, especially young ones. If I was less obsessive, it might have been easier, and if I was just a paycheck boss, I don’t think it would have been this hard. I’ve asked myself countless times if my passion for not wanting to taint everything with unnecessary responsibilities has turned into poison, but I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve looked back and had any regrets.
Through it all, the painful, difficult, joyful, and embarrassing parts of the process, I feel like Newzine and I have come together in a way that is like family, but not just family. So I would have to say that my relationship with Newzine is much more than what you might think.
Immediately after I was attacked in a choreographed Kakaotalk conversation, members sent me a flurry of texts of support. It wasn’t just a comforting text, it was full of love. The consoling texts lasted until the next morning. I cried out loud, not because I was being misunderstood and judged by strangers, but because I felt sorry for everyone in this situation who has to go through the worst kind of shit. It’s unfortunate that some people fall for it when the intent is so obvious, but I think that’s the problem of the propagandists, not the sin of the receptive. But if you care about the newsgroup at all, I think the least you can do is to keep members from jumping up and down over something that doesn’t even make sense.
No matter how much I hate it, I can’t do this if I care about the future of our members. I’ve been busy suing malicious YouTube channels. I’ve always assumed that anyone who contributes private material to such a channel is malicious, so it’s ironic to see this happen.
Choices and values for the future
It would be easy for someone to say that I should just give up, but if you stop and think about our humanity, and the situations we’ve been through and the situations we’ve been in, that’s just not possible. A million times a day, I think about who and what this work is for. If he worked with moderate compromise, he was guaranteed a generous financial reward at the end of his term. But they took the risk and blew the whistle because they had something worth protecting. Why would someone who’s in it for the money go to the trouble of blowing the whistle, fighting the fight, and ultimately pursuing a legally impossible path that requires hive approval? It doesn’t make sense.
No matter how many times I say that money was never my focus, people who don’t know me think what they want to think. No matter how hard you try to sell me, anyone who knows me knows that. I think the conclusions and decisions I make in the future will speak for me more than any words.
I say this because I don’t want to mislead people, but I also want to make it clear that my values go beyond money. People who know my process, decisions, and judgment will recognize that.
To be honest, I’ve wanted to walk away from this business, with all its money and absurdity, many times. I don’t want to sell myself to people I don’t know. It’s times like this that I wonder why I’ve fought so hard to keep going, but I remind myself that there’s always a cause. Hive has already put a team called Newzine in a bind. To be honest, I’m appalled and disgusted with them for driving things this far.
Humans are not puppets
Humans are not puppets. It’s not something that can be judged, stigmatized, or dolled up. Everyone’s life is precious and shouldn’t be judged by a people’s court of people who have never worked together. No matter how much the hive wants to make me a witch, they don’t know me better than I know myself.
The nature and resolution of conflict
In our world, conflict can be an unavoidable choice. And yet, I’m one of those people who really deplores all the antagonism in the world. I don’t like conflict, but I also realize that I need to embrace the pain as a necessary part of getting to a better place. I’m usually a self-help kind of guy, but if I’m going to summon up all the positive energy I can muster, I’m going to have to accept this ridiculous reality in the same vein.
I don’t take sides and appeal to any particular faction or gender for sympathy or support in my struggles. Because human individuality is not simply determined by the division of gender. I think their different characteristics give them a different raison d’être.
I’m a person with a lot of thoughts and concerns. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m full of reasons and explanations. So you can’t just cut and paste my usual thoughts and philosophies into a snippet that leaves out the context, point of view, and audience of the conversation.
Because of these tendencies, I prefer to work with a small number of people whenever possible. There are only a handful of people in the door who have direct and specific communication with me, maybe 5 or so. This is likely due to personal trauma. Oddly enough, I’ve had a steady stream of stress from my previous jobs, either from being accused of doing things I didn’t do, or from people lying about me as if they’ve met me, even though I rarely leave the house. I don’t drink, smoke, or go out, and I don’t usually know how to de-stress, so I think my history of therapy may have led me to minimize my encounters more in self-defense.
That’s why I was quite surprised to hear reports of people talking about me as if they had worked directly with me, even though they’ve had very little direct professional interaction with non-Hive members other than Adore, but I must say that I’ve appreciated the messages of support from other Hive organizations that have been carefully delivered.
As I was going through this, I was reminded of a quote from CEO Ji-won Park that I once heard in passing. I got chills as I remembered all the things I’d overheard about how well I’d done with restructuring at my previous job, and how I needed to pay attention to what and how. It wasn’t something I was interested in at the time, so I let it slip out the back of my mind and didn’t expect it to come back to haunt me.
The true purpose of auditing
The Hive took the laptop I was given when I joined the company, wiped it, and returned it two years ago, and “pre-forensically” looked into my personal life without my consent before the audit, shared it with each other, and included it in the audit documentation. How is what happened before Adore was founded relevant to this audit? He also brought up some of the things Saddam said in private, without making any legal arguments, knowing full well that dozens of reporters were listening in open court.
I’ve heard it read in a provocative tone. As someone who wasn’t in the courtroom at the time and heard about it later, it’s creepy that someone would go to such lengths to harm a person’s privacy and honor.
He improperly publicized his personal history before the founding of Adore, took the laptop of the deputy CEO without permission in order to find a way to attack me, and threatened and cajoled the deputy CEO with criminal liability. He also pressured doorway members to enter their homes late at night, demanded their personal cell phones, and even leaked unrelated private conversations. They published an article claiming that they were protecting their members by engaging in such unorthodox and barbaric behavior. It makes you wonder what the real intent of the thank you is.
Authentic relationships and commitment
A hive that has scanned even private KakaoTalk conversations will know how much of the unedited context is in their favor, and how much more is against them. Despite the ‘right to investigate subsidiaries under commercial law’, I once again question Hive’s moral insensitivity and how low they have sunk with an illegal audit conducted by ‘their own standards’.
The nature and resolution of conflict
I want you to see the essence. If it’s truly an audit, and you have evidence of a takeover, you don’t need a big media play. It’s something that should have been handled quickly, quietly, with hard evidence and a legitimate audit process, and then just announced the results to the outside world. That would have prevented the stock price from falling and eliminated the need for epilepsy.
The essence of the current dispute is that something serious has gone wrong, with my future and the future of countless others, and we’re trying to reach a consensus on how best to overcome it. It’s not a people’s trial against me based on fragmented and biased information and fabrications. We are currently in the middle of a legal battle. It’s a time to wait for a judge to make a decision based on the facts.
While I’m tired of the Hive maliciously dragging topics out of context and misrepresenting them in order to make a point, I’m even more appalled that if this behavior is allowed, it won’t just apply to me in the future. so it’s not abandoned.
I haven’t seen the petition submitted by Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, but the word “evil” in the headline struck me. I was reminded that the same word can have very different uses.
Conclusion and acknowledgments
Unsourced facts and other articles are too derivative. Once an untrue article is published, it becomes a frame, and we have to publish articles that we have to explain, so the process is lost. And it’s easy to be swayed by the argument that attacked you first. It’s hard to tell what’s true from the public’s perspective, so it’s best to wait for the court’s decision and see what happens next rather than jumping on the sensationalist bandwagon.
In closing, we’d like to apologize for the unnecessary noise.
Thank you.
Dream by Heejin Min, CEO of ADORE
