A new topic of discussion has been ignited in popular online communities in Korea and netizens are revisiting HYBE's internal report.

Earlier last year, HYBE was under fire after the company's internal company 'Music Industry Report', which included defamatory remarks about rival idol groups, was leaked to the public. 

Recently, Korean netizens realized that the 8-member girl group mentioned in the internal document was SM Entertainment's upcoming girl group Hearts2Hearts. The document described the group as lacking visuals, with which Korean netizens disagreed.

The document wrote, "Since HYBE’s new team is being discussed due to 'R U NEXT?,' information about SM’s new girl group has also started circulating suddenly. It seems they’ve narrowed down the candidates to about eight members. Surprisingly, none of them have impressive visuals. I was wondering if they’re using a training pool that couldn’t even make it into ㅇㅇㅇㅇ (possibly referring to a specific group or company). But when I remember how people were also shocked by the visuals when aespa debuted, I’m starting to think that SM’s aesthetic standards might have changed altogether."

Netizens realized this eight-member group was referring to Hearts2Hearts after SM confirmed that the group would officially debut next month.

Korean netizens reacted:

"Ah, this is seriously so hilarious."

"Judging their looks... lol. They were all minors at that time—who would want to live like that?"

"No, seriously, this is so pathetic it’s embarrassing."

"Wow, they even knew there were 8 members."

"That was in 2023, right around the time RIIZE was revealed—they had already written this document? What a joke."

"Is SM seriously insane? Wow, they were talking about themselves, but suddenly they’re obsessed with SM again..."

"Surprisingly, all of them are pretty lol. That company clearly knows nothing."

"I have so much to say, but I’m holding back lololol. That company seriously has zero aesthetic sense."

"Aren’t they pretty, though? That company is so shady; they’re constantly trying to undermine SM, but their cover performances are mostly SM songs lolol."

"The fourth member is so gorgeous."

"I was disgusted when I saw people on YouTube defending HYBE’s internal document, but SM is proving their worth by itself. I hope SM crushes those HYBE fangirls."

"They criticize SM’s aesthetics but steal their concepts the most."

"That’s why SM’s training center head posted on Instagram with angry emojis lol. I’d be mad too… All the members are pretty, they’ve been training diligently for so long, and you can tell they’re loved—and yet there’s this ridiculous behind-the-scenes bashing."

"Talking about aesthetics... what a joke."

"It’s not even about whether they’re pretty or not—it’s the fact that they’re leaving hate comments about underage trainees who haven’t even debuted yet. It’s just ridiculous. And they’re all super pretty, which makes this even more absurd."

"They’re shockingly beautiful! When aespa first debuted, everyone was shocked by how pretty Karina looked and called her an AI visual. But here HYBE is making ridiculous, groundless claims with so much effort."

"But evaluating them this ignorantly... seriously lol. There’s no fixing that."

SEE ALSO: The alleged names of Hearts2Hearts members circulate online