Former KARA’s Heo Youngji Shares How Idols Date Even When Agencies Confiscate Their Phones

Former KARA‘s Youngji is slated to appear on MBC Everyone‘s South Korean Foreigners. The episode will be centered on girl groups of each generation, inviting Shakra‘s Hwangbo, CLEO‘s Chae Eunjung, T-ARA‘s Qri and KARA’s Youngji.The former girl group members began to talk about the hot topic of idols and dating.

As idols’ love lives are often wrapped in a veil, the episode sought to shed a little bit of light on how girl groups dated despite strict restrictions put in place by their companies. MC Kim Yong Man revealed that T-ARA was known for being well-governed by their company. Qri confirmed the fact and shared that the group’s weight was monitored as rookies and their phones were confiscated a day before debut as well. Kim Yong Man speculated that this could be a method to prevent girl groups from dating as rookies.

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Chae Eunjung and Hwangbo revealed that there were ways that they used to escape scrutiny. For example, one member in the group would have to have a cellphone for the managers and company to be able to contact them. In that case, this phone would be passed around for secret communication between the members and their lovers.

Youngji revealed that her method was a little more modern. When her phone was taken away by the company, she would use the wifi function on her iPod to connect to the internet and she was able to use messenger apps that way.

It seems that this is a common method many use, just to stay in contact and not necessarily for dating. Previously, it was also revealed that OH MY GIRL only received their handphones back from the company a few years into debut. However, prior to that, they were allowed to keep iPods, which practically had all the functions of a phone anyway.