According to Allkpop, on December 22, the members of the group NewJeans posted a message to fans on their new social media account - jeanzforfree.
In it, Minji's message attracted attention with the content: "Thank you so much Bunnies (NewJeans fan community) for cheering and staying with us until the end, even though today's recording was quite long and the weather was very cold.
“Performing with the Bunnies is always memorable, but today felt like something special that I will remember forever. Always grateful to the Bunnies. You are all so lovely and warm.”
Additionally, Minji wrote the words “I will cry after I feel more comfortable” in a hard-to-see location, but fans quickly discovered this.
That day, NewJeans participated in the pre-recording of MBC's 2024 year-end music festival "Gayo Daejejeon".
According to fans who attended the event, some NewJeans members, typically Hanni, were in tears after completing the group's stage.
The members' move attracted attention because they are involved in a contract dispute with ADOR Company (part of HYBE Group).
All 5 members of NewJeans (Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, Hyein) held an emergency press conference, announcing the termination of their exclusive contract with ADOR from November 29. The reason given was because the company violated the terms of the contract but did not promptly correct them.
NewJeans said that they will operate independently, no longer related to HYBE and ADOR from the date of the announcement of contract termination, but still commit to fully fulfilling the obligations in the contracts that ADOR signed with previous partners.
NewJeans is ceasing operations on Phoning - the group's own fan interaction platform, as well as other NewJeans social media accounts belonging to ADOR.
On December 14, the five female idols created a new Instagram account called jeanzforfree, which not only updates fans on the members' schedules and activities, but also regularly posts "stories" - a feature commonly used on Phoning before.
The group's fashion and advertising activities after the contract termination announcement are also receiving attention.
Recently, Vogue Korea magazine made a move to not mention the group NewJeans when 5 female idols appeared on the cover of the January 2025 issue. The Dior Beauty account also removed the group NewJeans name along with Haerin when posting about the female brand ambassador.
