According to Allkpop, on December 22, the members of the NewJeans group 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 to the Bunnies (NewJeans fan community) for cheering and staying with us until the end, even though today's recording session was quite long and the weather was very cold.
The performances with Bunnies are always memorable, but today felt like something special that I will remember forever. Always grateful to Bunnies. You are all so cute and warm.
In addition, Minji added the words "I will cry after I feel more comfortable" in an un noticeable position, but fans quickly discovered this.
That day, NewJeans participated in the pre-recording for MBC's 2024 year-end music festival "Gayo Daejejeon".
According to fans attending the event, some NewJeans members, typically Hanni, shed tears after completing the group's stage.
The members' actions attracted attention, because they are involved in a contract dispute with ADOR Company (under HYBE Group).
All 5 NewJeans members (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 that the company violated the terms of the contract but did not promptly correct it.
NewJeans said that they will operate independently, no longer related to HYBE and ADOR since the announcement of the termination of the contract, but still commit to fully fulfilling the obligations in the contracts that ADOR signed with partners before.
NewJeans is stopping operations on Phoning - the group's own fan exchange platform, as well as other NewJeans social media accounts belonging to ADOR.
On December 14, the 5 female idols created a new Instagram account called jeanzforfree, not only updating fans about the members' schedules and activities, but also regularly posting "stories" - a feature commonly used on Phoning before.
The group's fashion and advertising activities after the announcement of the termination of the contract are also receiving attention.
Recently, Vogue Korea magazine made a move not to mention the name of the NewJeans group when the 5 female idols appeared on the cover of the January 2025 publication. Dior Beauty account also left the NewJeans group with Haerin when posting about the female brand ambassador.
