Fans raise concern over OMEGA X’s mistreatment under agency

By: Gelene Peñalosa - 2 years ago

[Trigger warning: Mentions of physical and verbal abuse]

AGAIN: Violence should not and should never be the answer to anything.

K-Pop boy group OMEGA X was reportedly subjected to physical violence under the hand of the CEO of their agency, SPIRE Entertainment.

OMEGA X is a project boy group that debuted last year in 2021 and consists of idols who have already debuted in other groups or have participated in idol survival shows. Their members include Jaehan, Hwichan, Sebin, Hangyeom, Taedong, Xen, Jehyun, Kevin, Junghoon, Hyuk, and Yechan.

Accounts of this first arose on October 4, 2022, where an individual posted a series of Tweets recounting her mother’s experience of witnessing a woman yelling at OMEGA X in public in Chile. The person’s mother said she first saw the woman screaming at the members at the hotel, and then later at the airport.

The series of Tweets could be seen here.

The narrative of the individual then seemed to be true after another fan presented evidence of the “alleged” violence against OMEGA X by their CEO on October 23, 2022, just soon after the group’s concert in Los Angeles. The fan that had witnessed the hostile event stated that they “saw the agency CEO hitting the members” and posted an audio recording of the CEO yelling at the members and hitting one of them. Crying noises could be heard towards the end of the upsetting clip.

The fan captioned their post saying, “My hands were shaking so much, I didn’t know what to do. The members were getting hit in front of me, but I couldn’t do anything.”

As the posts turned viral, SPIRE Entertainment then said that they will be “checking the facts” regarding these “allegations”. However, even broadcasting channel SBS had evidence supporting the prior accounts. In the video they had posted, it could be seen that OMEGA X’s leader Jaehan was being abused by their company’s CEO.

The CEO was heard insulting the members, who then proceeded to grab Jaehan (who was seen to be having a panic attack), and then pushed him down.

Another thing that added fire to the flame was that OMEGA X was found out to have bought their own tickets back to South Korea with their own money and their parents’ help after the group had been left behind by their staff at the Los Angeles airport.

Fans were in an outrage after seeing these posts and demanded for SPIRE Entertainment for answers. In turn, fans trended #PROTECTOMEGAX on social media:

 

https://twitter.com/rebeccavmedina/status/1584349627628736513?s=20&t=EPcSzvXvkszjR5MVK_V0AQ

SPIRE Entertainment later on released a full and official statement and apology regarding the “claims” made on social media, which was published on Sports Chosun.

The translation of the statement is as follows (courtesy of Soompi):

“Hello. This is SPIRE Entertainment, the agency of boy group OMEGA X.

First, we bow our heads in deep apology for having caused concern through this unpleasant news. OMEGA X wrapped up their first world tour “CONNECT: Don’t give up” with their LA concert in the United States on October 22 (local time). The incident that has caused a controversy after being revealed on social media occurred after a meal that took place after the end of [OMEGA X’s] tour, which started on September 16 in Mexico’s Guadalajara and lasted over a month until their LA concert in the United States.

At the time, having completed the tour, the OMEGA X members and the agency were talking about how hard they had respectively worked up until then, in order to make plans for the future. In the process, they wound up airing their grievances against one another, and as they became worked up due to their emotions, they began raising their voices. The conversation continued even after the meal, but by continuing their discussions, the members and the agency have currently resolved all their misunderstandings, and they ended the conversation by saying that they wanted to move forward while being considerate of each other.

The past month during which OMEGA X and the agency went on tour, and during which we personally met and communicated with the fans who love us, was a deeply meaningful time that can never be replaced. Everyone worked hard together with the same goal in order to keep our promise to our fans, and we bow our heads in apology for ending it on a bad note.

Once again, our agency would like to take this opportunity to thank the fans who give this much love to OMEGA X. Just as their group’s name bears the meaning “From the first time we meet our fans to the final moment in which we achieve our dreams, we will realize a wide array of values,” our agency will protect the values created by OMEGA X and their fans up until the very end.

Once again, we apologize for having given you cause for concern.”

Regardless of what they may have said, the statement never explicitly mentions the physical violence seen on the video presented by SBS.

 

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