midnight | seventeen 14th member

ᴍɪᴅɴɪɢʜᴛ ᴠs ᴘʟᴇᴅɪs ᴇɴᴛᴇʀᴛᴀɪɴᴍᴇɴᴛ

It's well known the Pledis is a shitty company. And things generally get shittier if you are a female artist under Pledis. Seventeen practically saved PLEDIS from bankruptcy, and still there is a long history of mistreatment in the group.

From Seventeen's debut, they were accused of being a copy of EXO, since both debuted with 13 members and one female. Pledis essentially did nothing to help with it, and this would appear to not be a one-time thing. We have previously gone over all of Midnight's scandals, and this ties in as well.

First, Midnight was a K-Pop fan before becoming an idol. She chose Pledis because they were polite to her. Pledis appeared to really care about Midnight, as she trained in Japan with Ariola Japan (NU'EST Japanese Label) before coming to Japan. She however, didn't really know the language to well. She could sing/rap fine, but she could barely speak the language when she came to Korea. She was added to the Seventeen lineup as soon as she came to Korea, and had to quickly adjust to her new surroundings. Joshua and Jun mainly taught Midnight Korean, as the company did not provide any language training, and expected her to automatically start high school in Korea. At their debut, Midnight was criticized as the other foreigner members knew a lot more Korean then she did. Again, PLEDIS did nothing to handle the comments.

When Seventeen debuted, they weren't provided with in-ear monitors. Midnight comes from a very wealthy family, and bought in-ears for all 14 members after the company told them to buy it themselves. PLEDIS however, took the in-ears and refused to give them back. They told Midnight if she bought in-ears again without company approval, she'd have to pay them back the amount they cost. When Seventeen were finally given in-ears, it was discovered that they were lower-quality ones then the ones Midnight had purchased for the group. PLEDIS had taken the in-ears and sold them for a higher price, and then bought cheaper in-ears later. They had made profit off of their own mistreatment of their idols.

It is known that Midnight isn't very feminine and "girly" personas make her very uncomfortable. When Seventeen debuted with Adore U, Midnight was dressed as feminie as possible at all times. This is one of a few things that has improved as the years have gone by, as all comebacks past Mansae have switched to outfits she actually is comfortable.

In June of 2016, to a surprise of many, Midnight debuted solo. Midnight was defiantly not one of the most popular members, and the company basically treated her like a rat. Midnight admitted in a later interview with 'Heartbreaker' that she was the member chosen for a solo comeback only based on her large fanbase, not on her overflowing rapping and dancing talent. Midnight's solo debut charted okay in Korean, but she didn't achieve any wins for her solo debut. She blew up internationally, largely in part due to her huge international fanbase.

PLEDIS hopped on Midnight's international success, and Seventeen earned a quite a bit of success with the following two comebacks for the year.

After her car crash in early January of 2017, fans hoped that she would be given a break to adjust to her new issues. Midnight went on hiatus, and it was announced that she would return from her hiatus just 26 days later on her birthday for a solo comeback. It was met with outrage at the push quickly, but suddenly the comeback was postponed. went silent, and then her family news broke. Midnight would remain on a full hiatus until May, besides appearing at the last two days of Seventeen's Japanese Tour.

After the backlash PLEDIS faced surrounding trying to bring Midnight back from her hiatus quickly to make profit off a solo comeback, you would think they would let Midnight rest after everything that happened in the course of a month. She returned in May for Seventeen's comeback 'Don't Wanna Cry'. Midnight's return and "new" and "mysterious" look due to her left eye being faded brought more attention to the group along with the change in style.

PLEDIS again followed the bandwagon, but this time to much. For the rest of 2017, Midnight would make 3 solo comebacks and one more Seventeen comeback. While Midnight seemed very happy and cheery, it was very clear to CARATs that she was tired when SEVENTEEN made their comeback with 'Clap'. She practically was invisible during the comeback, staying in the background and only appearing when it was absolutely necessary. Fans also caught her slouched over objects numerous times, and she fainted twice while leaving the stage.

Midnight's social media went silent, and the only update was from Mingyu, who stated that she was just taking some recovery time and helping her family. Midnight would return back to her normal attitude for the 2018 comebacks. In mid-October, Midnight was again went invisible. She would appear once in a Halloween post, but then it went quiet again.

On November 13, Pledis suddenly announced that the Midnight would be taking a undetermined hiatus for an unspecified reason. The Seventeen members were silent on the issue, and fans finally got clarification from Midnight's older brother Issac, on November 23. He went live on Midnight's account for about 20 minutes explaining the situation.

"Midnight's taking a hiatus for health reasons." He started. "I know some of you are going to bitch about it since this isn't her first hiatus in past two years, but you guys need to shut up."

"Seventeen and Midnight aren't allowed to speak up about this, but Pledis holds no power over me so I'm speaking up for my family." Issac said, sighing.

"She's gone through a lot. With the car accident and the murders, it was making her depression and insomnia worse. Pledis forced her out of her hiatus early to put her through five comebacks because she's a highly profitable artist." He said, anger lacing his tone.

"Someone contacted me so I arranged a deal, limiting how many comebacks she'd do in a year for her health. Pledis argeed because failure to comply with the deal would end them up with a nasty lawsuit."

"But they broke the contract, and Midnight ended up in three comebacks this year. I only just found out about the third one because Pledis had illegally forced Midnight to cut contact with me. Keeping it so I wouldn't find out about the comeback till after they made their money." Issac paused to release some of his anger.

"Since the comeback was in Japan, Midnight wanted to visit family and everything, but Pledis was threatening to remove her from the group if she meet up with any family members." Issac huffed. "She complied, and when they returned to Korea, Midnight tried to take a trip to home but Pledis banned her from international travel."

"All of Pledis's treatment towards was causing her to spiral, and I managed to make contact with her after months around Halloween. Pledis moved her out the dorms to keep her from anyone, and it messed her up." Issac said, angry and upset at Pledis treating her like property.

"On November 12, she attempted committing suicide. She nearly succeeded, but was found by her friend Reiko who had broken into her place to rescue her. She nearly overdosed on morphine."

"I almost lost my sister because her fucking company treats her like an object that only they can touch." Issac said, tears coming to his eyes.

"I know Pledis is watching, but I don't care. You messed with the wrong fucking family and you'll have hell to pay for what you've done." Issac said before shutting off the Live.

Kpop Fans went insane after recordings of the VLive spread. With idols already having lost their lives, Kpop fans were heartbroken at the fact that they could have lost Midnight too. Twitter was flooded with postive stories of Midnight and #FuckPledis and #WeLoveYouMidnight was trending on Twitter for three weeks.

The legal action Issac took was never truly revealed to the public, but Midnight remained on hiatus for 8 months before finally making a post on June 1. She joined group vlives constantly afterwords, clearly happy to see fans again. On June 28, she made a return to the industry with a solo song. She made her debut with Heartbreaker, and then a semi return to the group with 'Hit' and a full return with their Japanese song 'Happy Ending'.

It is known to fan that Midnight is legally allowed to opt out of comebacks for medical reasons, but that is yet to happen again. Fans are still absolutely pissed at Pledis, but it seems that things are cheering up for Midnight. CARATs and Healers can only hope that things are only gonna get better from here.