Apink’s Hayoung shared that she and other celebrities decided to leave the soccer team “FC Rumor.”

In July, Hayoung and gugudan‘s Kim Sejeong posted on their social media accounts about joining a new all-female non-professional soccer club called “FC Rumor.” A photo of the team in their uniforms only showed their backs but it revealed the names of celebrities including gugudan’s Nayoung, BESTie’s Uji, TWICE’s Jihyo and Mina, EXID’s Jeonghwa, and actress Kim Sae Ron.

Soon after, rumors spread that the club was affiliated with an all-male celebrity soccer team, also called “FC Rumor.” Certain malicious commenters spread rumors that the two soccer clubs were just an excuse for those male and female celebrities to meet up and date.

Hayoung and Kim Sejeong both refuted the rumors on social media. The club also clarified that the female and male teams were separate despite the same name, with the male team being for soccer and the female team playing futsal.

On August 11, Hayoung spoke to fans via a V Live Broadcast after an article about the team came out earlier that day.

“I came on V Live to tell you this,” she said. “I left the soccer team after my birthday. Some others left too, including Jihyo and Mina.”

She continued, “We didn’t leave because there was a misunderstanding, we left because fans might misunderstand or be upset due to the group and because the people around us were hurt because of speculation.”

“We had really good intentions about the hobby, but if people think of it differently than we intended, then it’s meaningless to do it,” Hayoung said. She said that she’d seen fans write posts saying things like, “I wish Hayoung unni would leave it” (the term “unni” is used by women toward older female friends or sisters).

“I realized that even though I have a clear conscience, people might not see it in the same way,” she said. “I left because I wanted to end the issue.” She added that it’s been a while since she withdrew from the team, saying she left as soon as the controversy occurred.

Hayoung shared that in order to clear up the misunderstanding, she was intending to share footage they’d taken during their activities together. However, she decided that continuing to try to explain things could cause more harm to the non-celebrity members of the team.

“Those of us whose names had been mentioned, like me, Sejeong, and others, all left together,” she said. “Because we didn’t want to cause harm.”

Hayoung went on to say, “We said to each other that if we really want to do it then we can quietly, without letting others know, rent a futsal venue or take a class, so we decided to make sure that fans don’t misunderstand. That’s why we left.”

“I didn’t want there to be even one or two fans who were worried,” she commented. When some fans apologized, Hayoung said, “Why are you sorry? It’s okay!”

“For the past 10 years, I’ve worked hard to maintain my image and ensure that I don’t worry fans,” she said. “However, in the end, this made me for the first time think that I’ve unintentionally caused people to misunderstand.” She went on to say she didn’t want to make fans worry and said, “Even if I haven’t made them worry, as a fan it would be upsetting to see their singer’s name mentioned in a negative way.”

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