Ji Yunseo has been kicked out of his group, fired, and is likely being held captive by a non-compete contract, for no reason.

He has not bullied or assaulted anyone or committed any crimes: in short, there is absolutely NO reason why this happened. Fans want him back and have kept up a tweet and email campaign to the companies for eight months demanding his return, and have also been supportive of his individual activities.

The final straw was yesterday. While visiting his fan cheering cafe, Yunseo announced that he will be enlisting in the military at the age of 21 (04 liner). It’s heavily implied that this is because he cannot meet fans right now (officially promote as an idol) and there’s nothing else he can do. He hasn’t given up on his dream and has asked fans to wait for him.

This is entirely due to the cruelty of YH Entertainment, who destroyed the dreams of a young idol with their malice. I will systematically rule out all other possible explanations for this situation, and then explain why Yuehua needs to be held accountable.

Why it’s Yuehua’s fault: a timeline

• September 19, 2023: Ji Yunseo debuts as a member of project group EVNNE, composed of runner-up contestants from the survival show Boys Planet that formed ZEROBASEONE. Jellyfish is to manage the group while the idols remain under contract with their training companies. Yunseo and groupmate Yoo Seungeon are under Yuehua; leader Keita is under Rain Company; the remaining 4 members are signed with Wakeone. It is expected that EVNNE will disband before or at the same time as when ZEROBASEONE’s 2.5-year contract expires. (EVNNE goes on to release 5 mini albums and achieve 5 music show wins. They are not a major-tier group, but they have a loyal fandom who care strongly for the members.)
• December 7, 2025: Jellyfish announces that 5 out of 7 EVNNE members have signed with them, making EVNNE a permanent 5-member group. However, Yunseo and Seungeon will depart and return to their original agency Yuehua. It is expected that Yunseo and Seungeon will redebut with the 4 members of ZEROBASEONE from Yuehua (Zhang Hao, Ricky, Kim Gyuvin, and Han Yujin). Any redebut will be delayed, as just a week before, ZEROBASEONE has announced their temporary contract extension for 2 months until March 2026.
• January 4, 2026: EVNNE holds their final concert as 7. Less than 72 hours later, Yunseo and Seungeon’s Plus Chats are terminated and the chat logs wiped, leaving them completely cut off from fan communications.
• January 5, 2026: Yuehua posts a meaningless statement about the future of Yunseo and Seungeon. They claim to be ‘carefully discuss[ing] the future direction and activities based on mutual trust’, asking for fans’ ‘understanding that specific schedules and updates may be limited during this time’. This will prove to be radio silence about the two of them, with fans left uncertain and bereft.
• February 13, 2026: Yuehua announces the termination of Yunseo’s contract with no further explanation. Fans are outraged: why remove Yunseo from EVNNE, only to fire him? Yunseo is a greatly cherished and loved member, not to mention one of their lead vocalists with many prominent lines and high notes. On the same day, EVNNE members Lee Jeonghyeon and Mun Junghyun both send messages asking fans to support Yunseo.
• March 3, 2026: Yunseo opens a personal Instagram account. He posts regularly on both the feed and stories, as well as having a channel where he sends messages similar to what he used to send on Bubble. EVNNE’s Junghyun confirms that the account is legitimate and cheers on Yunseo. Yunseo uses his channel to send caring messenges reminding fans to eat their meals, be mindful of the weather, etc. This shows that he remains passionate about connecting with fans.
• March 18, 2026: 3 days after ZEROBASEONE’s final 9-member concert, Yuehua announces that former ZEROBASEONE members Hao, Ricky, Gyuvin and Yujin will debut in a new group, AND2BLE (then tentatively known as Ndouble). It is unknown if Yunseo and Seungeon will join or if any new trainees will be added.
• April 3, 2026: Yuehua announces the finalised 5-member AND2BLE lineup with Seungeon as the last member. This is after three months of uncertainty and silence on Seungeon’s future, revealing Yuehua’s disrespect for fans, although they had almost 3 years to plan for this.
• April 9, 2026: Yunseo opens a SoundCloud and posts a two-track single, White Noise. He follows this up 3 days later with another song RUSH. A week on, he drops another song 상승기류 produced by EVNNE’s maknae Park Jihoo. He continues to regularly post song snippets on his IG story and share them in lives (too many to link here). These songs show his unwavering desire to create music, and also that he can artistically collaborate effectively with the EVNNE members.
• April 20, 2026: EVNNE has their first 5-member comeback with the single Backtalk. Yunseo posts about it on his Instagram story and is also spotted at the comeback showcase. Fans analyse the references to all 4 companies in the lyrics. In the line ‘Rain comes down but my head is still on fire’, ‘on fire’ is written as ‘위에 fire’. When ‘fire’ is read in Korean as ‘화’, it becomes ‘위에화’ (Yuehua). Leader Keita explains that this line (and others in the Backtalk lyrics, fully self-written by EVNNE members) is intended to show respect for EVNNE’s history and members, showing that Yunseo is honoured as a member: there is no bad blood with the members.
• Apr 24, 2026: AND2BLE’s Weverse officially opens, resuming fan communication channels after 3.5 months of no updates from Seungeon and over 1 month from the former ZEROBASEONE members, despite all members being debuted idols. This shows Yuehua’s consistent pattern of flagrant disregard for and utter disrespect towards fans who wish to stay in contact with their idols.
• 5 May, 2026: Yunseo shows up at the cheering cafe organised by fans (he’s visited all his cafes and ads so far). Once again, Yunseo takes being an idol seriously and always tries to make fans happy. When asked what song he listens to often lately, he mentions Backtalk and does the dance challenge. He also adds that he was given a signed copy of Backtalk but it didn’t come with the photocards, so he needs to go back to the company (Jellyfish) to get them. (Yunseo collects photocards of all the members and plans to pass them down as family heirlooms). These two anecdotes show that Yunseo is still very supportive of his members and that he has a positive or neutral relationship with Jellyfish. In other words, Jellyfish is not the obstacle to Yunseo rejoining EVNNE.
• May 12, 2026: EVNNE’s Jihoo mentions Yunseo and Seungeon while discussing the question: ‘Which member has an unexpected twist you didn’t know about at first?’. This occurs during self-produced variety content and it is NOT edited out. Again, there is no hostility or ban towards Yunseo from the Jellyfish side. (To be clear, I have my own gripes with Jellyfish and this is not a support post for them either, but I do think the evidence shows that they’re NOT the biggest problem in this situation.)
• May 21, 2026: EVNNE’s Park Hanbin has a cafe date with Yunseo. Hanbin posts a picture of himself (taken by someone else) with a cake at a cafe, while Yunseo posts a picture of the same cake on his Instagram story. EVNNE’s members continue to love Yunseo.
• May 26, 2026: AND2BLE debuts. Yunseo reposts the title track Curious on his story to support the work of his friends. Yunseo is extremely gracious and sweet for doing this after being literally fired by that company. How many people would do the same in his position? This continues the pattern of Yunseo being known for being caring, supportive and kind: he was nicknamed ‘Ji eomma’ for being the mom friend of EVNNE. I cannot emphasise this enough: Yunseo has done nothing but work hard as an idol and be a good person, and yet he’s being treated like this.
• May 27, 2026: Over four days, Yunseo posts a series of photoshoots on his IG. One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Fan response is extremely positive and it’s hoped that this will become a debut. Over the next 2 months, Yunseo continues to actively post on IG, doing lives (June 8) and sending messages to his channel. Yunseo continues to pursue his dream of being an idol.
• Jul 4, 2026: On EVNNE leader Keita’s birthday, Yunseo sends a message written in Japanese (Keita’s native language), saying ‘Today is my oldest brother’s birthday’ and asking fans to celebrate together. Later in the month on maknae Jihoo’s birthday, Yunseo asks fans to take care of Jihoo: ‘Please just cherish him a lot’. Yunseo also continues to send positive messages cheering on fans. ‘If it was a good day that’s a relief, and if it was not let’s not put too much meaning into it’ and ‘What kind of day will tomorrow be, a day filled with luck, a happy day’. Yunseo always speaks this sweetly and gently and uplifts everyone around him.
• Jul 26, 2026: Yunseo announces that he will enlist in the military on September 14. He’s only 21. He mentions this while attending his cheering cafe and later does an IG live to announce it for the fans he couldn’t meet in person. He says that he’s never thought about quitting being an idol and asks fans to wait for him. He says he’s enlisting in the band so there could be public performances, he’ll try to see if fans can come to see him, and he’s happy to still be able to do music during his enlistment. Most importantly: he says he can’t meet with people the way he used to and he can’t perform on stage, which logically means he’s under a non-compete clause that bans him from actively promoting.

In summary: There are no problems with how he treats fans, there are no conflicts with the members, there are no issues with Jellyfish (managing company of EVNNE), Yunseo himself has never stopped being passionate about being an idol. Literally the only possible reason left for why he’s unable to perform — and for long enough that he’s resigned himself to enlisting — is that he’s trapped because of a non-compete clause in his contract.

Why should Yuehua be held accountable?

Why did they have to remove him only to terminate his contract and then keep him trapped under a non-compete? There is no reason why he couldn’t just have been left in EVNNE if Yuehua didn’t want him on the AND2BLE lineup. In fact, there’s a precedent with Keita, EVNNE’s leader. Pre-Boys Planet, Keita had already debuted in Ciipher (group managed by Rain Company) but Ciipher was notably mismanaged, with only two comebacks to date after debuting in March 2021, and completely failing to capitalise on Keita’s hype as one of the top-ranked finalists on Boys Planet. Ciipher was essentially abandoned and Keita’s future was uncertain before he signed permanently with Jellyfish. Jellyfish was able to successfully negotiate the artist transfer with Wakeone and Rain Company, both of which are infamous for being awful companies. It’s only Yuehua who are playing around with Yunseo’s career.

Let’s be clear: companies were never what we loved. What fans are really looking for in their idols is to give each other mutual support and joy. Undeniably there’s a monetary aspect to it, because that’s the only way that producing content at such volume can be financially viable. Yet, I’m happy to spend the amount I can afford on my idols, because they make me happy and I want to support their livelihood in turn. Not to mention all the non-financial forms of support that fans engage in like sending messages, promoting their idols, translations. Dangers of excessive parasociality aside, I think that as humans we want to love others. The basis of the idol-fan relationship is supposed to be human connection and inspiration.

In that light, companies merely exist as a necessary evil that fans grudgingly accept because they make idol production logistically feasible. This is a tacit social contract that fans have with companies. We may grumble about questionable song choices and bad management, but for the most part fans put up with it to a certain extent because that’s the only way to see the idols they love.

Yuehua has violated this tacit social contract. They’re not just a nuisance or useless, they are actively hostile against the idol-fan relationship. They are holding Yunseo hostage and stopping him from meeting with his fans. If it was your bias’s future that was uncertain and held captive for months and months, how would you feel? And then what if you found out his career is being put on hold and you can’t see him for another 2 years? 2 years. That’s longer than the contract of some groups, that’s half an undergrad degree, that’s enough time to make 4 comebacks. So many things he should’ve been allowed to do with his youth, now all gone, because of that company. To them he may just be another idol that they can kick out, dispose of and then lock under a non-compete, but treating him this way is an act of unbelievable cruelty. His dreams, his youth, his career, his desire to connect with fans: none of that should ever have been treated as disposable.

It is downright evil to have such a long-lasting and strict non-compete. Some were holding out hope that it would only last for 6 months and he could rejoin EVNNE or have a solo debut after, but it’s been 8 months and it’s clearly not ending anytime soon or he wouldn’t have enlisted. I’m aware that technically we don’t have 100% confirmation that it exists, but I also think it’s laughable to try to give that company the benefit of the doubt after all that’s happened. I can’t stop thinking about how cartoonishly villainous this is. In other industries, there might be a legitimate purpose for a non-compete to prevent spreading of trade secrets, but I find it hard to believe that for the idol industry. They lose NOTHING by letting Yunseo go back to his group or have a solo debut. Clearly, the noncompete is nothing but an act of pure malice and sadism to punish him. I can’t even write it off as a company being profit-minded because they don’t even profit off it. I despise that company and I want to leave this post as a record of what they have done.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love the AND2BLE boys. I was excited about their debut too! Some of you may recognise me from the ZB1, A2B and EVNNE subs because I have been supporting all of them. But hearing about Yunseo’s enlistment was the final straw that really drove home how depraved that company is and this is where I draw the line. I don’t blame anyone who wants to support their bias who is a Yuehua artist; it’s a difficult time for everyone and I respect everyone’s right to spend their time, money, energy etc however they like. I’m not writing this post to say that anyone who does so is a bad person, or that any of the idols involved are to blame — but rather to chronicle what Yuehua did to Yunseo and how unwaveringly kind and persistent he is in spite of that. I will never forgive and never forget this injustice.

Lastly: I don’t think hating the company equals not loving the idols. I don’t think mindlessly supporting the company just for the sake of not bringing the idols down is the right thing to do, not when the company repays that by mistreating their idols. As a fan of those artists, are you okay being treated like this? Yuehua is a company that has shown a consistent pattern of mismanaging, mistreating, and misusing their artists. Do you want your hard-earned money, your precious time, your emotions and love for your idols to be disrespected like this?