On Sept. 12, THE BOYZ kicked off the U.S. leg of the group’s fourth world tour at The Theater at Madison Square Garden with a concert that pop-culture site OtakuKart said “encapsulates the group’s dynamic charisma and intense stage presence.” And yet, one member who originally helped define that dynamic wasn’t on the stage: Ju Haknyeon, who was dismissed from the group in June after rumors surfaced that he had met with a former Japanese adult-film actress.
In the aftermath, while his former bandmates toured the globe, Haknyeon has been wracked by sleepless nights and mounting financial fears — all stemming, he alleges, from a pattern of coercion by his former management company and label, ONE HUNDRED, that led to his sudden exit and a multimillion-dollar breach of contract lawsuit that’s set to go to trial on Thursday (Dec. 4).
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Hakyneon was introduced to K-pop fans as a contestant on 2017’s singing competition series Produce 101, which sought to create an 11-member boy band chosen by fan votes. The son of farmers from South Korea’s Jeju Island, Haknyeon’s popularity on the show ultimately landed him in 17th place. That visibility led his agency, Cre.ker Entertainment (later rebranded as IST Entertainment), to quickly announce its first male group — THE BOYZ, featuring Haknyeon — which it debuted in December of that year. Since then, Haknyeon has remained a notable face, with his Instagram account boasting 4.2 million followers, the second-most among THE BOYZ’s 11 members.
On June 16, ONE HUNDRED, which signed THE BOYZ in November 2024 after the group completed its seven-year contract with IST Entertainment, announced Haknyeon was taking a temporary hiatus. Just days later, it said it had decided to terminate his exclusive contract after rumors began to swirl, including in a June 18 report from Korean outlet TenAsia, that Haknyeon’s alleged meeting with the actress involved paid sexual activity, which is illegal in South Korea. Haknyeon denied those claims and subsequently filed a defamation complaint against the TenAsia reporter. On July 2, the Seoul Gangnam Police Station decided not to charge the singer-actor for prostitution because the claims were based on internet articles. And yet his dismissal from the label remained.
Speaking to Billboard via Zoom, Haknyeon is sharing for the first time the exact series of events that he says led to his dismissal, ONE HUNDRED’s alleged demand for millions in contract fees in a lawsuit against the star, as well as supposed evidence he says proves his former management coordinated with local media to push him out of the band. (Billboard has not been able to independently review the lawsuit.)
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According to Haknyeon, the claims that led to his June 18 dismissal stemmed from an incident on May 29, when THE BOYZ attended the Asia Star Entertainer Awards 2025 in Yokohama, Japan, where they won the platinum and best conceptual artist awards. After the ceremony wrapped at 10 p.m., and with the group having a day off on May 30, Haknyeon says he met a friend and several others for a drink at a local bar.
“We were hanging out with many people and, as it got later while we were drinking, there was one person [there] who used to be an AV [adult video] actress. Her name is Asuka Kirara. I met her there for the first time and, as far as I knew, she had been retired for about five to seven years.”
Haknyeon says he spoke with the 36-year-old about her career transition into the beauty and cosmetic world. “She’s very famous in business,” he says of Kirara, who has more than 6 million followers across social media. “She became very successful after changing from her previous career. So, while drinking together, I was curious, and we talked about various things, including discussions about business — she works with cosmetics, I know she also runs dermatology clinics, so we had those kinds of conversations while drinking when there were many people there [with us]. After that, we kept drinking and everyone got a bit drunk together. As adults, it’s normal to drink and get drunk, right? I’m turning 27 years old.”
Haknyeon describes his exchanges with Kirara as part of a typical, alcohol-tinged evening among adults, but believes an attendee took photographs without his consent that night and sold them to the Japanese tabloid Shukan Bunshun under the pretext that Haknyeon and Kirara were alone.
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In a statement, Kirara also publicly denied that any sexual contact occurred — not to mention prostitution — and has said she did not receive payment, nor had she ever privately received money for sex. After news broke of the dropped charges against Haknyeon, she spoke out again on social media, reiterating that the tabloid stories were untrue and sharing a similar story of joining a large party at the bar, where she said the K-pop star asked her about her career.
But in its own June statement, ONE HUNDRED said the company “took time to thoroughly verify the facts” regarding the rumors and decided that Haknyeon’s exit was “an unavoidable measure to protect the members and the team.” It went on to call his social-media allegations of a one-sided contract termination “unilateral false claims” and claimed he violated a clause regarding “conduct that damages the dignity of an artist to the extent that it interferes with entertainment activities.” The agency vowed “necessary legal action including submitting relevant evidence and documentation.”
In a statement sent to Billboard in late September, ONE HUNDRED went even further, not only doubling down on its previous assertions but suggesting the company had uncovered additional alleged behavior by Haknyeon that caused it to take the actions it did.
“As ONE HUNDRED officially announced on June 20, 2025, Mr. Ju Haknyeon’s actions were deemed to have fallen under Article 6, Paragraph 3 of the exclusive contract, which applies to ‘acts that seriously damage the reputation of a public cultural artist to the extent that they interfere with entertainment activities (such as, but not limited to drunk driving, drug use, gambling, prostitution, sexual misconduct, assault, sexual assault, fraud etc),’” the September statement reads. “Accordingly, the contract was terminated and a claim for damages was filed. However, Mr. Ju Haknyeon, through his personal social media, mentioned the relevant clause but intentionally omitted the reference to ‘sexual misconduct,’ thereby minimizing the importance and distorting the facts to present arguments favorable to himself. Furthermore, while reviewing the facts of this matter, we discovered additional circumstances regarding the negative conduct of Mr. Ju Haknyeon.”
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In Haknyeon’s recollection, upon learning about the sale of the photographs, he did everything he could to work with ONE HUNDRED to get ahead of the controversy and address a potential leak. But following internal discussions, Haknyeon says the ONE HUNDRED label (also known as 100RED) presented a termination agreement that demanded repayment with penalties he now calls ruinous.
“During this process, I said I wouldn’t sign it, that I couldn’t agree to this amount,” he recalls. “I was so sorry and apologetic, crying a lot because, realistically, if I paid this, it would be the end of my life. I would go bankrupt. I just kept saying I couldn’t do it.”
According to Haknyeon, after he refused to sign the termination agreement, ONE HUNDRED filed a lawsuit against him on June 24, originally demanding roughly 2 billion Korean won (approximately $1.4 million) — a combination of returned signing bonuses and a separate penalty. Weeks later, he says, the ONE HUNDRED team filed an amended lawsuit seeking nearly 8 billion won in compensation (about $5.5 million), with no further explanation.
Responding to a series of questions from Billboard, ONE HUNDRED confirms it “applied to amend the existing lawsuit from June’s contents in August 2025,” but adds it “cannot disclose the exact amount of this ongoing court case.”
After Haknyeon received the June complaint, the singer says he and his lawyers prepared and submitted a detailed document refuting its claims, but that the agency did not respond to that document, either before or after it filed the amended complaint. The two sides later failed to come to an agreement during a mediation session, leading to the court showdown that kicks off Thursday.
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With millions in potential penalties hanging over his head, Haknyeon now says he believes the Korean media coverage that followed his refusal to pay was coordinated by ONE HUNDRED management.
“It’s too obvious because I only told the company,” he says, asking how the TenAsia reporter would know details he shared only with his direct management before Shukan Bunshun published its photos. However, ONE HUNDRED denies providing information to any particular outlet, stating, “Since the incident involving Mr. Ju Haknyeon was reported, we have only responded to inquiries from all media outlets based on factual circumstances.”
But Haknyeon maintains that the “factual circumstances” cited by the label are not factual at all. “Honestly speaking, I never had any sexual relations [with Kirara], and we never even discussed this at the company,” Haknyeon says. “I never stayed anywhere with Asuka overnight; there is no evidence, and the reporter never presented any evidence, but that’s still how they wrote the story.”
ONE HUNDRED, a music company established by Cha Ga-won and veteran hitmaker MC Mong, has multiple labels under its umbrella, including the flagship ONE HUNDRED, Mong’s longtime label, Million Maker, and its newest imprint, INB100, dedicated to the solo careers of EXO members Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin. (Mong recently stepped down from his position as producer of the company, which Haknyeon clarifies is unrelated to his situation.)
In the K-pop industry, Cha, ONE HUNDRED’s chairwoman, has become an increasingly visible presence, publicly speaking out on issues relating to her signees. At a press conference last summer, she declared “full-on war” on SM Entertainment after ONE HUNDRED filed a pair of lawsuits over allegedly unfulfilled royalties and distribution fee agreements for Chen, Baekhyun and Xiumin. Two mediation sessions held in September and October to settle the matter failed; local and higher courts ultimately awarded SM a total win in the lawsuits in a late October ruling.
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After leaving IST Entertainment, THE BOYZ signed to ONE HUNDRED because “they were the most aggressive in trying to prove they were a good fit and put in a lot of effort to bring opportunities for artists,” Haknyeon says. “But the reality was a bit different.”
Haknyeon isn’t the only former ONE HUNDRED artist to publicly spar with the company. In June, Yong Junhyung also went public about a dispute with the label. “On the day my album was released last year, I was suddenly called in and told the label was restructuring due to business expansion,” Junhyung shared on social media per The Korea Herald, referring to his Beautiful Dystopia EP, released in April 2024. “They offered to cancel my contract without condition. When I expressed confusion, they changed course and suggested we continue working together.”
Junhyung said his label later pressured him to terminate his contract and repay funds allegedly invested by a distributor. “They calculated damages in the billions of won and told me to leave,” he added. “When I asked for the contract to be honored, they cut off communication.”
Haknyeon points to the police’s decision not to move forward with prostitution charges as vindication that he never took part in conduct that could interfere with THE BOYZ’s entertainment activities, despite what ONE HUNDRED claims. He said he is no longer in contact with his former group members to avoid implicating them in any trouble, as they remain signed to ONE HUNDRED, but that he wants to speak out about his situation as a warning to other K-pop acts.
“ I want people to know that the company doesn’t protect their artists and isn’t acting like a proper company,” he says. “If I lose this case over something I didn’t do…the companies will certainly abuse this kind of situation again.”
Still, Haknyeon says supporters, both in his personal and professional life, give him hope for the future.
“I think about it this way: If I hadn’t lived my life properly, they might have turned their backs on me,” Haknyeon shares. “But after this incident happened, there are friends who believe in me and support me, both from the industry and many other people, because they know who I really am. Their trust gives me a lot of strength.”
