“This doesn't look right”: Trainee A’s social media closing notice confuses fans

BIGHIT MUSIC’s pre-debut boy group Trainee A’s social media accounts, including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and SoundCloud will be closed as of December 23, 2022, 8 pm KST.

The notice was posted by the group’s Content Production Team on December 16, 2022. It instantly became ground for speculative posts and comments as Trainee A’s fanbase began questioning the reason behind it.

The trainees were first introduced in March last year and since then, have constantly been communicating with fans through their multiple social media accounts. However, the company’s notice of closing off their social media accounts led to widespread confusion.

Fans were divided - one part believed that the group was being disbanded while the other believed that it was a hint of a debut announcement.

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Trainee A’s social media accounts being closed off spark debut or disband conversation

After walking a tumultuous road of hidden members revealed and three members exiting the original pre-debut team, Trainee A is currently a six-member group comprising Yorch, Sangwon, Woochan, James, JJ, and Jihoon.

The most recent member to leave the trainee group was Leo. His farewell video sparked a rather serious conversation about the group being disbanded, and the latest update ignited the same fear.

On December 16, the Content Production Team of BIGHIT MUSIC announced that Trainee A’s “social media channels will end their services” as of December 23. The news ignited mixed reactions as many were heartbroken and others, excited. The many ups and downs the pre-debut team had faced made a section of fans believe that the group’s debut was being called off.

However, some fans also noted that a debut might be imminent. Trainees are generally asked to delete, deactivate or make their social media accounts private as they could potentially leak confidential information about their debut. Fans also observed that the notice does not mention the word “delete” in its Korean and English versions.

Since the announcement says “close” and not “delete,” the majority of opinion is that the accounts will still have all its content available but the members will not be active on it. To be on the safer side, however, fans are downloading and archiving all of their social media posts.

Another major point of discussion is that BIGHIT MUSIC will not risk losing out on the loyal fanbase that the pre-debut group has already created. The group has 1.7 million followers on Instagram, 473k on Twitter, 1.34 million on YouTube, and 3.9 million on TikTok.

Moreover, the group's last post across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter was on September 20. Fans optimistic about their debut also believe that their name will be Aloners Association since they discovered BIGHIT MUSIC's registration for its trademark on a public site.

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All the members who left Trainee A

As of December 2022, three members, Junil, Inhyuk, and Leo, have left the pre-debut trainee group.

Junil was introduced as part of the original Trainee A lineup in March last year. He left the group in August 2021, due to personal reasons not yet disclosed. In the reality show A-Road Ep.1 on January 11, the debut candidate lineup was revealed and it excluded Inhyuk, thereby confirming that he was no longer a part of the team.

In A-Road Ep. 5, titled Debut valuation stopped, and trainees in confusion, Leo was seen struggling with the pressure of becoming an idol. Soon after, in an epilog for the same episode titled Hello, This is LEO, Leo revealed his decision to leave the debut candidate team.

It remains to be seen what lies in the future for Trainee A.