Big news for one of the coolest girl groups around. Soyoung is officially “graduating,” i.e. retiring from the spotlight. Although there are some conflicting reports, one article suggests that her health has been deteriorating as time went through constant work. How many times do you read a day that Korean celebrities are overworked and have illness and even sue for being overworked? That does sound believable to me.

So while she has graduated AfterSchool, she plans on graduating from a real college, towards another career -which is unknown right now.

I don’t know of the length of terms that she signed for, but I hope the record label has mercy. Most likely it was at least for a few years that required the singer to perform and produce albums or owe money to the label. The legal issues are being worked out at this time.

In the meantime, Afterschool has a new trainee freshmen under their belt and she’ll debut when she’s ready. (see picture)

So it’s true, After School is a rotational group much like Morning Musume.

Update: Some pictures were just added for SoYoungs last event. Why does she looks so sad? Her head is bowed low the whole time. Speculations exist that perhaps she could have been forced to tell the real reason of her sudden departure. I sure hope she wasn’t fired.

Thanks to kbites