honey-belle/history.co.kr
honey belle
honey belle
honey belle
history
(trigger warning: ual exploitation, -shaming, plastic surgery shaming.)
🔔 pre-debut — 2017
full moon ceo mo inseong was a huge fan of orange caramel and crayon pop. he took inspiration from both of these acts when creating the concept for honey belle- quirky, cute but also y. ryuyi had already turned eighteen internationally so he took that as the green-light to do whatever he wanted to do for their concept, ignoring how odd it would be that ryuyi was still very young.
of course ryuyi had embraced her uality long ago and didn't realize just how odd it was, in fact she helped inseong with the wacky concept and costume, it was even ryuyi's idea to have herself kiss the broccoli man in the dark circle music video but her aunt stepped in and shut that down, resulting in aesol being the one to film that.
aesol was very hesitant about the concept; it was so out of her realm of comfort, especially when she found out she had to do the kiss scene... she had never kissed anyone before. cut to ryuyi planting one on her to help "ease her nerves" ("there! now it's not your first kiss, right?") her cheeks were red for the rest of the day. eventually aesol psyched herself up to shoot the scene, because she can't allow any stupid hesitant feelings to ruin her success. she also had helped write and produce the song, using ryuyi's silly lyrics to try and make something work. the song was admittedly a bop, but not many would agree.
honey belle finally debuted with dark circle and they were met with... a whole lot of nothing. it shouldn't of been surprising that there were only a few people anticipating the debut of duo from a nugu company, but it was still disheartening. when the girls started promoting on music shows it got them a bit more attention, but not the kind they were after; netizens pointed out the scandalous outfits, were outraged when they saw ryuyi's age and then insulted them for being "orange caramel wannabes."
ryuyi was disappointed, but she tried to keep her head up. full moon had found out about her nightly escapades with her friends, she still hung out with them after debut; though full moon strongly advised her not to. she didn't listen though, and escaped her troubles by having fun. aesol was extremely upset by honey belle's reception, and spent every night at full moon working.
there were some hate comments that mentioned aesol's appearance and the girl had convinced herself if she got more plastic surgery it would make everything better, people would have no choice but to stan two pretty girls making good music right? ignoring that ryuyi got hate comments too. she didn't consult full moon, she just went ahead and booked a whole bunch of surgeries.
🔔 2018
inseong was livid. he wasn't opposed to aesol getting work done, but you have to do little by little so it's not as obvious, plus aesol was going to have to be away for awhile to heal which means honey belle would need to halt activities. everyone knows how fast paced the k-pop world is, any time that isn't promotion is wasted time. they had to think of something, and by 2018 it was decided to have ryuyi comeback as a solo artist for the time being. the song ootd was created for her with the help of a bedridden aesol, whom also hobbled in the recording booth to feature on the track as full moon didn't know if ryuyi could carry a whole song alone.
thankfully with ryuyi the easiest part was shooting the music video as the young girl always shone on camera. everything went flawlessly after that, and soon enough ryuyi was promoting on music shows. honey belle wasn't popular by any means, but they had fanbase that was willing to show up and out for ryuyi whenever she performed. that all changed by october 2018.
ryuyi's friends came to the realization that they weren't debuting anytime soon and they ended up leaving full moon with a bang. bitter at the nepotism girl for making it to debut, they started spam posting photos of ryuyi with different guys on naver and attaching stories of all the crazy antics ryuyi got herself into.
honey belle was still very unknown so this didn't make breaking news everywhere but it was covered by some substantial media outlets and honey belle's fanbase (majority men) were outraged. it didn't matter that those photos were posted without her consent, or that ryuri was betrayed by "friends" or that she is an adult with free will; to them she is nothing but a . they demanded ryuyi apologize and/or get kicked out of the group.
ryuyi thought this whole thing was stupid. why should she apologize? all of the photos and the stories were from after ryuyi became an adult, so who cares what she did in her free time? she made a post on instagram trying to calm the storm but also sticking up for herself in which full moon promptly had her delete it. instead they tried the ignore approach similar to sm entertainment, and also made sure honey belle's manager was keeping a close eye on ryuyi.
🔔 2019
by the time this fiasco happened, aesol was all healed up and ready to work again. gasps followed her when she entered full moon for the first time in a awhile, she was even stopped and questioned a few times to make sure it was really her. aesol felt high as a cloud that day, the feeling of all that torture she went through healing was worth it. with honey belle still standing albeit on shaky legs, it was time to have a comeback.
mi amor was more in line with aesol's comfort zone and she enjoyed making the song; ryuyi was also a fan and helped style herself and aesol because the budget was a bit tight and there wasn't much to work with. that also shone through in the music video, but the girls and full moon did the best they could and by march 3rd, 2019 honey belle was back!
... and all anyone focused on was aesol's drastic transformation. the song was really good, but did anyone care? they only pointed out how much plastic surgery shim aesol must've gotten, oh my gosh how could she do that her face? is her nose botched? what a plastic monster. she was prettier before. aesol wanted to scream and rip her hair out. you people are the ones that were telling me i was ugly before, now this!? people can just say whatever they want with no consequences, it wasn't fair.
inseong was beginning to think honey belle wasn't going to be what he had hoped. it seemed every time they tried, one of the girls would get backlash for something. still, he wanted to at least give it one last shot. however, nam ryuyi had other plans; she quit. ryuyi found herself fascinated by the world of adult video jockeys, or vjs. she found out the girl from glam that got arrested was making a killing doing adult streams, and it looked like fun too!
ryuyi decided the idol life just wasn't cutting it and wanted to give vjing on pandalive (a popular vj site in korea) a try. she felt bad for leaving aesol and full moon, but being an idol just wasn't fun anymore. ryuyi's streams started off slow, but when she was revealed to be a former idol people swarmed in at the edge of their seats. there was nothing netizens liked more than seeing people's downfall, after all. even though ryuyi was thriving and really liking this new job of hers. she was finally able to move out of her aunt's and get her own space.
🔔 2020 — present
full moon didn't know what to do; they still had aesol of course, but where aesol saved the talent in honey belle, ryuyi provided the fanservice and stage presence. could aesol handle being a solo act outside of the music-making? with no other options, they had to give it a shot. they gave aesol full creative control.
aesol felt betrayed by ryuyi at first; it hurt, loving this girl so much and wanting to chase the same dream together; only ryuyi didn't share the same dream as aesol. the two stayed in touch, the bond they formed strong, but those feelings were hard to wash away, despite how hard aesol tried. that is when wash was born, aesol's solo debut. she'd take it to the grave that the song is about ryuyi, but she couldn't think of a better song to debut with, it was perfect; and full moon agreed.
they'd bypass aesol's stiffness by having the music video be animated. hopes were high; unfortunately it was a little too late. the few who listened gave it rave reviews, but the numbers just weren't good enough. aesol would stay at full moon for a bit longer but she would eventually part in 2021. during her time as an idol, aesol had made a few connections.
she used these connections to pay the bills, able to score songwriting gigs thanks to her network. she wrote a lot for underground artists but her most notable works were "killing me" for chungha, in which aesol was a lyricist and composer, and hyolyn's "a-ha" which she helped compose. however this wouldn't be enough; she didn't wanna write songs for chungha, she wanted to be chungha.
one fateful day, aesol opened up her e-mail and saw a casting call for a certain netflix show by the name of produce angel. it was like the universe was giving aesol a second chance; however, she didn't want to do this alone. the thought of being by herself in a trainee-like environment scared the out of aesol, even if she wouldn't admit it. her one comfort was far away, but aesol would end up giving her a call and asking her to come a long. ryuyi said yes, because it sounded like fun and she could always go back to vjing in the future, but most important it was shim aesol asking. she would never say no.
full moon ceo mo inseong was a huge fan of orange caramel and crayon pop. he took inspiration from both of these acts when creating the concept for honey belle- quirky, cute but also y. ryuyi had already turned eighteen internationally so he took that as the green-light to do whatever he wanted to do for their concept, ignoring how odd it would be that ryuyi was still very young.
of course ryuyi had embraced her uality long ago and didn't realize just how odd it was, in fact she helped inseong with the wacky concept and costume, it was even ryuyi's idea to have herself kiss the broccoli man in the dark circle music video but her aunt stepped in and shut that down, resulting in aesol being the one to film that.
aesol was very hesitant about the concept; it was so out of her realm of comfort, especially when she found out she had to do the kiss scene... she had never kissed anyone before. cut to ryuyi planting one on her to help "ease her nerves" ("there! now it's not your first kiss, right?") her cheeks were red for the rest of the day. eventually aesol psyched herself up to shoot the scene, because she can't allow any stupid hesitant feelings to ruin her success. she also had helped write and produce the song, using ryuyi's silly lyrics to try and make something work. the song was admittedly a bop, but not many would agree.
honey belle finally debuted with dark circle and they were met with... a whole lot of nothing. it shouldn't of been surprising that there were only a few people anticipating the debut of duo from a nugu company, but it was still disheartening. when the girls started promoting on music shows it got them a bit more attention, but not the kind they were after; netizens pointed out the scandalous outfits, were outraged when they saw ryuyi's age and then insulted them for being "orange caramel wannabes."
ryuyi was disappointed, but she tried to keep her head up. full moon had found out about her nightly escapades with her friends, she still hung out with them after debut; though full moon strongly advised her not to. she didn't listen though, and escaped her troubles by having fun. aesol was extremely upset by honey belle's reception, and spent every night at full moon working.
there were some hate comments that mentioned aesol's appearance and the girl had convinced herself if she got more plastic surgery it would make everything better, people would have no choice but to stan two pretty girls making good music right? ignoring that ryuyi got hate comments too. she didn't consult full moon, she just went ahead and booked a whole bunch of surgeries.
🔔 2018
inseong was livid. he wasn't opposed to aesol getting work done, but you have to do little by little so it's not as obvious, plus aesol was going to have to be away for awhile to heal which means honey belle would need to halt activities. everyone knows how fast paced the k-pop world is, any time that isn't promotion is wasted time. they had to think of something, and by 2018 it was decided to have ryuyi comeback as a solo artist for the time being. the song ootd was created for her with the help of a bedridden aesol, whom also hobbled in the recording booth to feature on the track as full moon didn't know if ryuyi could carry a whole song alone.
thankfully with ryuyi the easiest part was shooting the music video as the young girl always shone on camera. everything went flawlessly after that, and soon enough ryuyi was promoting on music shows. honey belle wasn't popular by any means, but they had fanbase that was willing to show up and out for ryuyi whenever she performed. that all changed by october 2018.
ryuyi's friends came to the realization that they weren't debuting anytime soon and they ended up leaving full moon with a bang. bitter at the nepotism girl for making it to debut, they started spam posting photos of ryuyi with different guys on naver and attaching stories of all the crazy antics ryuyi got herself into.
honey belle was still very unknown so this didn't make breaking news everywhere but it was covered by some substantial media outlets and honey belle's fanbase (majority men) were outraged. it didn't matter that those photos were posted without her consent, or that ryuri was betrayed by "friends" or that she is an adult with free will; to them she is nothing but a . they demanded ryuyi apologize and/or get kicked out of the group.
ryuyi thought this whole thing was stupid. why should she apologize? all of the photos and the stories were from after ryuyi became an adult, so who cares what she did in her free time? she made a post on instagram trying to calm the storm but also sticking up for herself in which full moon promptly had her delete it. instead they tried the ignore approach similar to sm entertainment, and also made sure honey belle's manager was keeping a close eye on ryuyi.
🔔 2019
by the time this fiasco happened, aesol was all healed up and ready to work again. gasps followed her when she entered full moon for the first time in a awhile, she was even stopped and questioned a few times to make sure it was really her. aesol felt high as a cloud that day, the feeling of all that torture she went through healing was worth it. with honey belle still standing albeit on shaky legs, it was time to have a comeback.
mi amor was more in line with aesol's comfort zone and she enjoyed making the song; ryuyi was also a fan and helped style herself and aesol because the budget was a bit tight and there wasn't much to work with. that also shone through in the music video, but the girls and full moon did the best they could and by march 3rd, 2019 honey belle was back!
... and all anyone focused on was aesol's drastic transformation. the song was really good, but did anyone care? they only pointed out how much plastic surgery shim aesol must've gotten, oh my gosh how could she do that her face? is her nose botched? what a plastic monster. she was prettier before. aesol wanted to scream and rip her hair out. you people are the ones that were telling me i was ugly before, now this!? people can just say whatever they want with no consequences, it wasn't fair.
inseong was beginning to think honey belle wasn't going to be what he had hoped. it seemed every time they tried, one of the girls would get backlash for something. still, he wanted to at least give it one last shot. however, nam ryuyi had other plans; she quit. ryuyi found herself fascinated by the world of adult video jockeys, or vjs. she found out the girl from glam that got arrested was making a killing doing adult streams, and it looked like fun too!
ryuyi decided the idol life just wasn't cutting it and wanted to give vjing on pandalive (a popular vj site in korea) a try. she felt bad for leaving aesol and full moon, but being an idol just wasn't fun anymore. ryuyi's streams started off slow, but when she was revealed to be a former idol people swarmed in at the edge of their seats. there was nothing netizens liked more than seeing people's downfall, after all. even though ryuyi was thriving and really liking this new job of hers. she was finally able to move out of her aunt's and get her own space.
🔔 2020 — present
full moon didn't know what to do; they still had aesol of course, but where aesol saved the talent in honey belle, ryuyi provided the fanservice and stage presence. could aesol handle being a solo act outside of the music-making? with no other options, they had to give it a shot. they gave aesol full creative control.
aesol felt betrayed by ryuyi at first; it hurt, loving this girl so much and wanting to chase the same dream together; only ryuyi didn't share the same dream as aesol. the two stayed in touch, the bond they formed strong, but those feelings were hard to wash away, despite how hard aesol tried. that is when wash was born, aesol's solo debut. she'd take it to the grave that the song is about ryuyi, but she couldn't think of a better song to debut with, it was perfect; and full moon agreed.
they'd bypass aesol's stiffness by having the music video be animated. hopes were high; unfortunately it was a little too late. the few who listened gave it rave reviews, but the numbers just weren't good enough. aesol would stay at full moon for a bit longer but she would eventually part in 2021. during her time as an idol, aesol had made a few connections.
she used these connections to pay the bills, able to score songwriting gigs thanks to her network. she wrote a lot for underground artists but her most notable works were "killing me" for chungha, in which aesol was a lyricist and composer, and hyolyn's "a-ha" which she helped compose. however this wouldn't be enough; she didn't wanna write songs for chungha, she wanted to be chungha.
one fateful day, aesol opened up her e-mail and saw a casting call for a certain netflix show by the name of produce angel. it was like the universe was giving aesol a second chance; however, she didn't want to do this alone. the thought of being by herself in a trainee-like environment scared the out of aesol, even if she wouldn't admit it. her one comfort was far away, but aesol would end up giving her a call and asking her to come a long. ryuyi said yes, because it sounded like fun and she could always go back to vjing in the future, but most important it was shim aesol asking. she would never say no.
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