[Sportschosun Jo Min-jung] Singer Seven drew attention by recalling the different trainee atmospheres at YG Entertainment and SM Entertainment, saying that "there were a lot of romances at SM."
A video titled "YG Hard-Cut Stories, There Are Endless Behind-the-Scenes Tales" was recently uploaded to Daesung's YouTube channel, "Jip Daesung." Seven, Sandara Park and Minzy appeared in the video and shared a range of behind-the-scenes stories from their YG days.
Daesung asked whether there had ever been any workplace romances at YG. Sandara Park firmly replied, "Who would there be here? There really wasn't anything like that in our time." She said the company closely managed them under the pretext of taking care of the artists, so they had almost no chance to meet people of the opposite sex naturally. Minzy also looked back on that period, saying, "We just practiced back then. We knew nothing but practice," and added, "We didn't even have time to look at anyone else."
Sandara Park then described a very different atmosphere at SM Entertainment. Holding up a sign for SM Entertainment, she began, "But if you go over here..." Daesung raised his voice and replied, "There are so many here at SM. It's paradise." Seven joined in, saying, "It was a paradise for romance," drawing laughter. Daesung added, "I heard they even encouraged people to date inside the company because it was easier to manage. But for us, well..." He trailed off. Sandara Park gave a bitter smile and said, "You need people to meet in the first place if you're going to date."
Sandara Park also revealed more about YG's strict management system. She recalled that she had to hand over her mobile phone to the company early in her trainee days and said, "They even took my phone," which surprised viewers. She also said that people sometimes came all the way to the dormitory at the time, so the company's supervision was even stricter, sharing a tense story from her trainee years.
Jo Min-jung, mj.cho@sportschosun.com
