On August 20th, ChoA, former member of the girl group AOA, appeared on the YouTube channel This Is the Real Final in a video titled 'AOA Choa, Crayon Pop Soyul, Reason for Quitting Idol'
and shared her reasons for leaving the group.
Reflecting on her current life, ChoA revealed, “I left AOA due to burnout. At that time, Soyul from Crayon Pop was getting married and raising a child, but I wasn’t doing anything. I was just lying down, thinking about how to start the second chapter of my life.”
Looking back at her time with AOA, she said, “I had a short training period, about a year and a half, before debuting. There wasn’t much room to relax. Even in the waiting room, I would keep practicing in front of the mirror if something didn’t feel right. That’s the main memory I have, but it was fun. I worked hard and spent eight years fully committed.”
ChoA explained her reasons for stepping back from her idol career: “I debuted with dreams of being an idol, but I felt that no matter how hard I worked, it wasn’t enough. Around that time, TWICE and BLACKPINK debuted. Seeing new groups like them made me think, ‘I’ve reached my peak here.’”
She continued, “I thought, ‘If I push myself any further, I might go half crazy. Mentally, it would be too hard.’ I left because I wanted to find my own happiness. At the time, the bestselling book The Courage to Be Disliked influenced me a lot. I left with a strong sense of courage. Even now, if I went back, I think I would still leave.”
Her former bandmate Soyul commented, “She seems like the type to think things through and make decisions on her own,” to which ChoA responded, “That’s true. The members probably wouldn’t like me for that.”
She also addressed misconceptions about her career break: “When I left, I never thought it was retirement, but many people assumed it was. I spent three years doing nothing, then challenged myself with YouTube. Receiving attention again made me want to restart my activities. I want to work on an album again. Some people even think I got married. I left at a time when I was really happy, so it’s hard for others to understand. People assumed that if I didn’t get married, I must have quit for another reason, which led to many rumors.”
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