NewJeans Members Haerin And Hyein To Return To HYBE Label ADOR

Lee Hye-In aka Hyein and Haerin of girl group NewJeans attend a photocall for YOUSER at Seoul Fashion Week S/S 2025 at DDP on September 03, 2024 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Han Myung-Gu/WireImage)

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After a lengthy and emotional legal battle throughout nearly all of 2025 between NewJeans and its K-pop conglomerate home HYBE, two of the chart-topping girl group’s members appear ready to return to their original label.

NewJeans label ADOR shared that members Haerin and Hyein have “decided to continue their activities with ADOR” following discussions with their parents and the label itself. The pair are NewJeans’ youngest members at 19 and 17 years old, respectively.

ADOR shared a notice on its social media pages with an official international press release shared not long after:

Hello, this is ADOR.

HAERIN and HYEIN of NewJeans have decided to continue their activities with ADOR. After thoughtful consideration with their respective families and thorough discussions with ADOR, the two members have decided to respect the court’s latest ruling and adhere to their exclusive contract with the label. ADOR is committed to providing its full support to HAERIN and HYEIN to ensure the seamless continuation of their artistic endeavors. We request the warm support from the fans and respectfully urge you to avoid engaging in unfounded speculation regarding the members. Thank you.

The announcement comes almost two weeks after a Seoul court ruled on October 30 that the exclusive contracts between NewJeans and HYBE subsidiary’s label ADOR remain valid, rejecting the group’s effort to terminate the agreements that began in the second half of 2024.

The court ruled that ADOR had not breached its duties simply by removing the label’s former CEO, NewJeans creative director Min Hee-jin, and found the agency had continued with its management work including album, performance and advertising preparations for the quintet.

Shin & Kim LLC, the legal team representing the five members, initially stated that they would appeal, with the members saying in a statement that their relationship of trust with ADOR has “completely collapsed.” Now, this position appears to have clearly shifted slightly in the past two weeks, following the aforementioned discussions in ADOR’s statement.

What’s Next for NewJeans?

With Haerin and Hyein on their way back to ADOR, the futures of the remaining NewJeans members, Minji, Hanni and Danielle are in question.

Beyond the legal battle NewJeans faced as a group, Hanni also testified last year to the Labour Committee of South Korea’s National Assembly regarding her experience with HYBE in a discussion on labor rights for contracted entertainers, such as K-pop singers.

NewJeans have not released new music since the summer of 2024, following the release of their single albums, How Sweet and Supernatural, which topped both Korea and Japan’s local albums and singles charts. Both singles also reached the Top 25 of the Billboard Global 200 charts. After announcing a one-sided rebrand as “NJZ” at the top of 2025, the group performed a new song called “Pit Stop” at the 2025 ComplexCon Hong Kong festival before ADOR obtained a preliminary injunction to bar the group’s independent activities, which the group complied with for an ongoing hiatus.

The most likely courses of career action will likely be for Haerin and Hyein to continue with brand endorsement work after the former was named a global ambassador for Dior in 2023 and the latter as a global house ambassador for Louis Vuitton in 2022. However, time will tell if there will be future music from the two — whether as soloists, as a duo, or if they will continue the NewJeans name. Nonetheless, NewJeans’ future music decisions may also not come until the remaining three members clarify their positions or if the trio proceeds with the appeal process.