The Girls Have Become Women

So honestly, I’m not from some of the older K-Pop fans of the late 2000’s decade. I was only introduced to it in 2012 and gradually started appreciating it after being exposed to a Japanese single by 소녀시대 (SNSD; Girls’ Generation) called All My Love is For You. I know, I know! K-Pop fans won’t exactly be impressed that the first ‘K-Pop’ track I heard was in Japanese. Regardless, point is, that SNSD left a very deep mark on me and over the two years of my obsession I came to appreciate the beautiful voices of TaeYeon, Tiffany, SeoHyun, Jessica andSunny, as well the mad dancing skills of HyoYeon, YuRi, SooYoung and YoonA.

 

Having become a proud Sone, dreaming of HOPEFULLY making it to an SNSD concert, nothing could be as heartbreaking as hearing Jessica’s sudden departure from the 9-member group…

At first, I wasn’t greatly affected by the news simply because after all these girls have been a big unit for almost 7 years and I’m sure as hell that all of them need a break from their work and each other. Then I keep listening to their music on repeat and I cannot help but regret what has happened. Even if one member is missing from press conference pictures or a concert video on Youtube, you feel like something’s missing. Therefore, not being able to hear Jessica’s voice on the next album or two will be quite a loss.

I do understand how one would say that their group comes before all personal needs but it wasn’t until this year that most of the SNSD fans realized that the girls had in fact grown up into young ladies/women (whatever you choose to call them). This revelation of sorts came with all the news about all the different relationships that the girls were forming with their respective boyfriends. In the midst of all this talk in the media, assuming that any of them would date but keep away from marriage is just simply incompatible. My point being, that if all these girls are dating, they could possibly wish to marry soon and well, Jessica is no exception. Nobody other than her family has a right to tell her if she should marry or not and when to do so.

Even if SM Entertainment may be their second home since all of them have grown up there, but surely it cannot control its celebrities forever. The agency has been involved in enough scandals regarding how many of their artists have broken away, such as the sad break-up of the original line-up of 동방신기 (DBSK) and then Kris’ break from EXO.

I also object to how all the 8 girls kind of ganged up against Jessica, as I have come across on a number of news sources over the Internet. I feel like they have in fact, harmed their group and its image much more than any news about Jessica’s possible marriage could have been. Being the veterans of the Hallyu wave and always presenting such a unified image, I fail to understand why the girls had to do something so mean to somebody within the group. Not to ignore that maybe Jessica was the one causing them harm, but some fights, no matter how cruel should remain under the rug. So I am deeply hurt and am grieving the loss of the original line-up of SNSD.

Jessica, you will be deeply missed and I wish you all the luck with your life and future endeavours, as a proud Sone. I still wish that SNSD somehow manages to come back together… though I’m sure it won’t ever happen even in my dreams. They definitely left us with possibly their best song, Mr. Mr. and all of them looked like beautiful young ladies.