The real reason is still unknown.
Koreaboo
HYBE’s rookie girl group, TUIDE, appears to have run into an unexpected roadblock within just months of debuting, leading many netizens to draw comparisons with their senior group, NewJeans.
On October 25, KST, Kim Soyeon, the main creative director of TUIDE and the new HYBE sub-label, ABD, took to her social media and announced that she had left her role after two years with the label. In the post, she briefly talked about the stress of putting together the creative vision of the group and emphasized that she was able to do it because of her team.
As this news spread on social media, it attracted significant attention, with many netizens immediately drawing references to NewJeans. Some also speculated that the reason behind Kim quitting was TUIDE’s comeback “flopping” or HYBE stifling her creative originality.
New jeans 2.0 https://t.co/Yhirx61V1N
— 𝑅𝑖𝑛°‧ ¹⁺⁶ (@rin_xox9) October 25, 2026
Oh this Newjeans karma babyyy https://t.co/lkigoswbQG
— e. 🍋 (@nerolibaby) October 25, 2026
Oh baby that label is crumbling, NewJeans will be free soon, it’s coming https://t.co/fT0Bcg35Kj
— ᘻᘿ sᴏ ˢᵒᵘᵖ 🇯🇵 (@JAPANESEBLACK) October 25, 2026
wait this is interesting what do we think happened 😭
could it have anything to do with an oversaturated concept https://t.co/ibUp0GYcef
— 𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢 Ი𐑼♡ (@Haerin2kiii) October 25, 2026
the debut flopped so hard the creative director saw the competition and said yeah i’m OUT omg-😭 https://t.co/pxl17ll3e8
— 𝒞ℳ (@Callmee___) October 25, 2026
I know HYBE wanted her to starting copying that new group and she probably said FK NO https://t.co/LnzsIdfkeD
— 🐰🥕 (@pinktapeeeee) October 25, 2026
While some fans fear that this decision would force TUIDE to change their concept, others argued that it might evolve slowly, like another HYBE group, TWS, whose creative director also quit early into their debut years.
i really hope this doesnt stunt their growth 😭😭😭 the rookie era is so important for building a fanbase and i dont want them changing their concept or music bc i love what they're doing rn https://t.co/0b0sedQqcz
— ♡ (@illitz_9) October 25, 2026
they are about to change this group's concept…. https://t.co/EZ4tcnjf3W
— NeonBunny (@OChauders) October 25, 2026
okay so here is where the concept change happens https://t.co/gpX0jQyWAe
— ada ✮ 𖣘 IS SEEING XLOV (@esoftjk) October 25, 2026
the last time tws had a creative director was for their 2nd mini album so this isn’t crazy at all bcs they kept their concept. they’ve gone through subtle changes to naturally shift their concept to a more mature one so i think pledis will do the same with tuide. https://t.co/u60NdQnk9k
— . (@hanzhen_v) October 25, 2026