On July 28, 2012, several members of T-ARA made public tweets that were apparently derisive references to Hwayoung. An official announcement regarding these tweets and a "major announcement about T-ARA" was made July 30th, which revealed Hwayoung
would no longer be a member of the group. She is now unsigned from Core Contents Media without further say of what will happen to her career as an idol. Following the announcement of her abrupt contract termination with Core Contents Media, evidence and suggestion of the her experiencing severe bullying by the other members of T-ARA since she joined the group surfaced throughout the web and the media, sparking immense interest and controversy. Much of the public strongly believes that Hwayoung was mistreated by the members of T-ARA and her agency, and has led to T-ARA's fan community to have a scheduled shut down, as well as suspension of the members' activities and a huge loss of the group's popularity. The official fan page of T-ara changed their page title to "HwaYoung Advocates" after the announcement by CCM. On July 30, 2012, it was reported that the CEO of Core Contents Media said late Monday night that he may reverse the decision of firing Hwayoung if she "apologizes for her actions, I will discuss the possibility of her return with my staff and with the members of T-ara. Before that happens, it is important that she accepts responsibility for what she has done." On 31st of July, Hwayoung tweeted her apology and told fans to stop, after that she was seen heading to the building of Core Contents media to apologize personally to the CEO. On August 12, 2012, Soyeon, a member of T-ara, was interviewed for the first time after controversy and cleared that there was no bullying; however, there was, indeed, a conflict after the Budokan concert that the members left for the company to take care of. Unfortunately, their CEO chose to kick Hwayoung out due to her actions in which it saddened and shocked the other members since they didn't expect things to be solved out that way
