Article: "TS was hell"..."13 realities that TRCNG members had to endure
Source: Dispatch
TRCNG had a dream, so they endured and endured until two members couldn't anymore.
The 10 members of TRCNG met to pursue their dreams but after years of abuse, two members decided to escape from "TS hell".
Members Woo Yeop and Tae Sun detail years of abuse and assault by senior executives at TS Entertainment and exposed to Dispatch the 13 realities the members had to endure. This was only the tip of the iceberg.
① Dorm: XXX-XX Hannam-dong, Yongsan Seoul where TRCNG's dreams began is an apartment villa with two levels. 8 members lived on two rooms on the first floor and two members stayed in the storage room on the basement floor. The ceiling in the basement was so low that the two members couldn't stand properly and the heating was non-existent.
② Food and Clothing: The members bought clothes with their own money and lived on rice meals from the convenience store nearby. However, during the early morning practices, the company paid for the meals which always consisted of fried rice. As a result, Tae Sun frequently went to the emergency room for abdominal pains.
Tae Sun details an instance where "he arrived at their practice room with coffee and the executive got angry and asked him why he only bought a coffee for himself." The executive said, "Make sure to buy coffee for everyone else next time."
③ Shortage in water and electricity: The most common recurring theme in TS Entertainment? Unpaid utility bills. Sleepy suffered because of it regularly. What about TRCNG? Their story was similar and water and electricity shortage was a given. In April and October 2019 their electricity went out.
Woo Yeop recalled, "In January 2018 our boiler stopped working. 4-5 members caught the flu. We had to sleep and wash in a sauna. That was when we were promoting our second album and we had to perform while enduring this pain. All medical bills were paid with each members’ own money.”
④ Toilet plumbing: The house had two toilets. One of them was broken. 10 members had to share one toilet. That one toilet also broke at times. Those incidents happened in December 2017, January 2018, and February 2019.
One member asked in a group chat, “Hyung, our toilet got clogged. Can we call a plumber to fix it?” The company did not respond.
Eventually, Wooyeop’s mother called a plumber and paid for the entirety of his services.
⑤ Lights: TS Entertainment’s building has lights that periodically flicker on and off. So the lights at TRCNG’s dorm did the same. On. Off. On. Off. On January 7th, 2019, the lights in their laundry room and kitchen broke. This happened on the 15th and 21st as well. Taeseon reported this to the manager.
Taeseon: "Because the lights are broken, we’re living in the dark right now."
Company: "Ah ㅋ ㅋㅋㅋ ㅋㅋㅋ ㅋㅋㅋ oh yeah the lights ㅋ ㅋㅋㅋI have a schedule in Hannam-dong on Thursday so I’ll replace the bulbs then."
However, the manager never came on Thursday. The lights in the laundry room and kitchen remain dark.
⑥ Water Purifiers: No words can describe this poor living environment. The excerpt below is from a group chat of the members’ parents who were worried about the broken water purifier.
Mother of a member A, “Yesterday I went to the dorm to get the laundry but it was so hot I was sweating a lot… the dorm reeked of a pungent smell because it was so hot. The water purifier is broken but its power is still left on. If the boys drink this water then they might get sick, so it would be good if we can demand them to change the purifier so that they can drink cold water. Especially since it’s getting hot this summer. Because the company doesn’t deal with dorm issues I think it’s imperative to replace the water purifier. If I were them, the first thing I would want to do is to drink cool water after coming back from choreography practice at midnight.”
⑦ Air Conditioning: On July 5th 2019, the temperature went above 34 degrees celsius. However, the TRCNG members had to use all their effort to get through the heat. This was because the air conditioner in their dorm was broken. Below is what a members’ parents had to say about the situation.
"I hired a service repair man because the company has not replied to concerns about the broken A/C yet. According to the repair man, he’s not able to fix the A/C unit. He asked me how the members even survived and said that this entire situation was wrong. The current temperature in the dorm is over 31 degrees, so I bought a new unit. Should we buy it with our own money first and tell them to take it off of the payment? In that case we can also buy an air purifier. The total price for A/C installation is 660,000 won. Everyone can chip in 6,000 won."
⑧ Physical Assault: TS Entertainment director Park Sang Hyun claimed that claims of physical abuse from Wooyeop and Taeseon were false. "If it is true that they filed complaints, then we will as well.”
The company’s executive hit members’ necks with their toothbrushes. Wooyeop was hit with a metal chair. His entire body was bruised. He has medical records of his injury. The members are the witnesses.
⑨ Verbal abuse: The company officials never stopped with their verbal abuse. For example, one texted profanities to the members when they began a V live seemingly without permission. Of course, this “permission” was merely a communication error.
If you look at TRCNG’s group chat, you can see messages like this: “Mr. XX cursed again,” “He came to our dorm after drinking.”
It seems like the company expresses apathy when it comes to abuse.
⑩ Room Salon: Member A was born in 2001. He is 18 in international age. However, company officials asked him if he wanted to go to a hostess bar. It’s difficult to tell if this was meant seriously or as a joke.
Member A stated, “XX was watching me rap in the recording studio and he asked me, ‘You’re 20, right? Let’s go to a hostess bar together.’ Can he talk about drinking and going to a hostess bar when there were other women in the room?”
⑪ Air Jordans: A TS Entertainment official’s hobby is to collect Nike Air Jordans. However, for TRCNG, it meant physical labor. They had to bring out many boxes of shoes, set the shoes above the boxes, and take pictures so that they could help him sell the shoes.
“He asked members in the practice room to find out the market price of Air Jordans. We had to search everywhere through a fan cafe called ‘Nike Mania.’ We had to write them on post-its and stick it on the boxes. The choreography team was responsible for posting them on websites for selling shoes.”
⑫ Cost: TRCNG tried to reach their dreams in an environment that is unimaginable. They never received ‘care’ from their own agency. However, as their promotions went on, their debt accumulated.
According to TS Entertainment financial reports, the company spent 1.64 billion won on TRCNG from January 2011 to June 2018 but TRCNG had only made 269.53 million won for a net loss of 1.37 billion won.
This meant that the members owed 1.37 billion in trainee debt to the company by the end of their 3rd year.
⑬ Contract: According to exclusive contractual agreements for TS Entertainment, the contract length is 9 years (starting from the date of their first album release). The distribution ratio for album sales is 9:1. From their 3rd full album, the ratio went from 9:1 to 8:2. CFs and events were 7:3.
TRCNG consists of 10 members. Individual profit distribution is 99:1. That is, if they made a profit of 100 won, then each member received 1 won.
TS Entertainment has maintained that TRCNG Wooyeop and Tae Sun are liars. They claimed that they did not violate the Children's Protection Act.
