Hyerim, who joined Wonder Girls after Sunmi left, opened up about the reaction she received from the public at the time. Although she joined the team at the height of their popularity, what she remembers most is not the fame, but the criticism.
On the 18th, MK Sports reported a video titled 'Wonder Girls' Sunye and Hyerim: K-Pop pioneers who went from idols to raising five children' was posted on Tak Jaehoon's Youtube channel the previous day.
In this episode, Hyerim was introduced as the final member to join Wonder Girls. When Tak Jaehoon asked, "How long after the group debuted did you join?" Hyerim replied, "I joined after the 'Tell Me' and 'Nobody' promotions ended." Tak Jaehoon commented, "'Nobody' was when the group was at its peak, and you joined after that."
The conversation naturally shifted to Wonder Girls' peak years. When Tak Jaehoon asked, "Weren't your appearance fees no joke back then?" Sunye recalled that Wonder Girls' status at the time was so high that a single commercial endorsement was reportedly worth around 1 billion KRW.
However, Hyerim remembered something very different, saying, "I joined after all the commercial deals were already over." She added:
"I was a trainee when they were actively promoting. I used to hear stories about how much they made just from filming commercials. I ended up joining for no good reason and just got hated on."
At the time, Wonder Girls were already popular and Sunmi's popularity was at its peak. Hyerim stated:
"I was filling the position that Sunmi left behind. She was so loved by fans. I received every kind of hate comments you can ever imagine."
Hyerim shared that she purposely avoided reading the comments because she was afraid of getting hurt, saying:
"To be honest, I didn't ready any of the comments. I was worried they would hurt me."
She continued, "Everyone around me would say things like, 'Are you okay? I heard you're getting a lot of hate these days.' They told me not to read the comments, so I didn't."
Even though she never read the comments herself, she was aware of how people felt about her. For Hyerim, who joined Wonder Girls right in the middle of the group's peak years, filling the void left by Sunmi turned out to be a far greater burden than she had expected.
