On October last year, A, who went to the same middle school with Taeyong posted a story about how Taeyong made fun of his friend on the Internet back then. A explained that Taeyong made fun of B based on her looks. Later, it was informed that Taeyong met B in person and apologised to her. In the press release, he said that even though there were no records, he apologised to B for the harms he had caused her.
However, the informant, A, revealed that Taeyong’s reps was vague and his apology was not sincere.
The informant, A, through SBS FunE’s reporter, revealed a voice note consisting a 50-min long conversation between them and SM Ent.’s lawyer. This happened after Taeyong’s meeting with B.
In the voice note, Taeyong’s lawyer explained that after Taeyong apologised, B is forbidden from talking about the case, or else she has to pay 2 times of the compensation that was given to her.
According to A, during the meeting, Taeyong’s reps asked for B to write a contract that was so demanding, as if it’s ‘trying to silent her’. The contract was signed by all the parties and now is in SM Ent.’s legal team. After signing the contract, B is not allowed to talk about the case anymore.
A also informed that Taeyong promised to donate to the victim of school violence, do volunteer works related to school violence, reflect on his behaviour, etc. However, she couldn’t confirm if Taeyong fulfilled his promises or not. A also said that Taeyong still hasn’t apologised to another victim, which is confirmed by his lawyer. He only asked for the victim’s address and phone number. A added that SM Ent. also still hasn’t deleted the post on the Internet that caused her to receive malicious comments.
According to SM Ent., there are a lot of part in A’s information that differs from what actually happened.
Regarding the contract, it was already approved by the lawyers and it was also made under B’s agreement. The contract talks about the compensation damages, that B had requested. The lawyers also explained to B and B’s mother that the contract was written for security purposes. Now, the contract is held by the lawyer only.
Regarding the donation and volunteer work, SM Ent. confirmed that Taeyong has been consistently donating to the victim of school violence, visit them, do volunteer work, etc since September 2016.
Regarding the online posts, SM Ent. said that even though the informant is not the victim, they genuinely gave legal advice to A regarding the hate comments. A sent the estimation of money needed to delete the post, however the original post couldn’t be deleted. Since deleting the post is not the best solution to get rid all of the hate comments, SM Ent. refused because it was meaningless. SM Ent. also added that the lawyer has never made any promise or agreement with A to delete the post.