Leaving JYP, Not TWICE: Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung Begin Their Next Chapters
Editorial Staff•cena haddad
the dates they left are correct, varo stated: VARO Entertainment stated, “We are truly delighted to begin this meaningful partnership with Yu Jeong-yeon, who possesses a wide range of charms and boundless potential”, jeongyeon is in the new movie new recruit, her label is lil fantasy, the screenshot is what i found on contracts
Yep — with what you've checked, the factual backbone is in good shape. And the screenshot supports the contract sentence rather than undermining it.
The screenshot says TWICE is currently in active contract-renewal discussions with JYP, that discussions are ongoing, and that other members' individual situations remain unresolved. So this sentence:
“With TWICE's contract renewal discussions extending beyond Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung, the group's management structure may continue to evolve.”
is appropriately cautious. You're not claiming anyone else is leaving; you're saying negotiations are ongoing and the structure may evolve. I'd keep it.
The VARO wording is also useful. Your article currently says:
“VARO said it intends to support Jeongyeon as she takes on new challenges as an actress while continuing her activities with TWICE.”
As long as that comes from the fuller VARO announcement, we're good. The quote you just provided—
“We are truly delighted to begin this meaningful partnership with Yu Jeong-yeon, who possesses a wide range of charms and boundless potential”
—also confirms the partnership, but that sentence alone doesn't establish the acting/TWICE-support portion. So just make sure that part appears elsewhere in VARO's statement/source.
Based on everything you've personally verified:
August 10 — Jeongyeon/JYP departure + VARO: checked.
August 13 — Chaeyoung/JYP departure: checked.
August 14 — LIL FANTASY independent label confirmation: checked.
LIL FANTASY was her 2025 solo album: checked.
Jeongyeon cast in New Recruit: The Movie: checked.
TWICE/JYP renewal discussions continuing: supported by what you've shown.
Direct Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung quotes: these are the last things I'd make sure match the published translations word-for-word.
And I actually prefer not adding the rumors about Tzuyu, Jihyo, etc. from that screenshot. They aren't necessary to your argument and would turn a clean analysis of two confirmed departures into speculation about who's next.
So yes: keep the contract paragraph.
At this point I would make the handful of prose edits from our final pass, double-check those two direct quotes against your sources, and submit this thing. We're past the point where continued rewriting is likely to improve it much. 😭🔒
can you make a final edit on it all with this new info and quote
Absolutely. I’d make this the final copy. I incorporated the new contract information, tightened the repetition we caught in the full read-through, and worked VARO’s actual statement in without overloading the article with quotes. I also kept the ending restrained so we’re not speculating about the other members.
Leaving JYP, Not TWICE: Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung Begin Their Next Chapters
For more than a decade, TWICE and JYP Entertainment have been nearly inseparable.
The nine-member group debuted under the company in 2015, and JYP has remained at the center of TWICE's career ever since. But eleven years later, two members are beginning to write chapters of their careers outside the agency where it all started.
On August 10, Jeongyeon announced her departure from JYP Entertainment and signed with VARO Entertainment, where she plans to pursue acting alongside her continued activities with TWICE. Just three days later, Chaeyoung announced her own departure from JYP, later establishing her independent label, LIL FANTASY.
Two members leaving their longtime agency within three days naturally raised questions about what those departures could mean for TWICE's future.
But Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung have made one thing remarkably clear: their individual careers and their place in TWICE don't have to be mutually exclusive.
They may be leaving JYP, but they aren't leaving TWICE.
Jeongyeon Steps Into Acting
For Jeongyeon, leaving JYP represents an opportunity to explore an entirely different side of her career.
The singer has signed an exclusive contract with VARO Entertainment, an agency whose roster includes actors such as Byeon Woo Seok, Jin Goo, Lee Chae Min and, notably, Jeongyeon's older sister, Gong Seung Yeon.
Welcoming Jeongyeon to the agency, VARO Entertainment stated, “We are truly delighted to begin this meaningful partnership with Yu Jeong-yeon, who possesses a wide range of charms and boundless potential.”
And that potential is already taking her somewhere new.
Jeongyeon has been cast in the upcoming film New Recruit: The Movie, where she is set to play a nursing officer. The project will mark her screen debut after more than a decade spent building her career primarily through music and TWICE.
It's a significant change, but Jeongyeon's announcement didn't read like someone trying to distance herself from the career she already has.
Instead, she made her priorities unusually clear:
“Standing before ONCE as a member of TWICE will always be my very first priority.”
She described JYP as a second home and acknowledged that leaving somewhere so familiar was daunting. But even as she steps into unfamiliar territory, she made it clear that TWICE remains at the center of who she is.
That distinction matters.
Jeongyeon isn't replacing TWICE with acting. She's allowing herself to become something more than what audiences have already known her as.
After eleven years as an idol, stepping onto a film set gives Jeongyeon the opportunity to introduce another side of herself—one that has existed largely outside the public's view until now. Perhaps the most interesting part of this transition is that she doesn't seem to view those identities as competing with one another. Becoming an actress doesn't require her to stop being an idol—or a member of TWICE.
Chaeyoung Builds Her Own Fantasy
Chaeyoung's next chapter looks completely different.
Where Jeongyeon is stepping outside music, Chaeyoung is going even deeper into her own.
When announcing her departure from JYP on August 13, Chaeyoung described her next chapter through the world of LIL FANTASY, the name of her 2025 debut solo album. One day later, an official statement confirmed that LIL FANTASY would also become the name of her newly established independent label.
The decision gives Chaeyoung something particularly valuable for an artist who has spent most of her career as one part of a nine-member group: the freedom to build a musical identity entirely her own.
Her solo work has already offered glimpses of that identity. Now, rather than simply releasing individual projects under the same company responsible for TWICE, Chaeyoung has created a space dedicated to developing that creative world on her own terms.
But just like Jeongyeon, Chaeyoung was careful not to frame independence as separation from the group.
In her announcement, she told ONCE:
“Most of all, please know that nothing changes with TWICE.”
She went even further, calling TWICE her roots and acknowledging that much of the love she has received throughout her career exists because of the years she has spent as part of the group.
There's something meaningful about that choice of language.
Roots don't prevent something from growing in a new direction. They're what allow it to.
Two Different Paths, One TWICE
That's what makes Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung's departures particularly interesting.
They aren't leaving JYP in pursuit of the same career. Jeongyeon is moving toward acting, while Chaeyoung is building an independent musical world of her own. One is entering a new creative field while the other is taking greater ownership of the field she already knows.
Yet both have arrived at the same conclusion: pursuing an individual career doesn't have to mean choosing between that career and TWICE.
That distinction is particularly significant in an industry where an idol group's identity is often deeply intertwined with its agency. The company manages the music, promotions, schedules, branding and individual activities that collectively make the group function. When contracts expire and members begin signing elsewhere, questions about a group's future almost inevitably follow.
But veteran groups increasingly have another option.
The members don't necessarily need identical careers—or even identical management—to continue sharing one group.
And perhaps that model makes particular sense for TWICE.
After eleven years, Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung aren't rookies trying to establish who they are. TWICE already has an identity, an audience and a history that doesn't disappear because the names on individual management contracts change.
What they're figuring out now is who they can become in addition to TWICE.
Staying Together Doesn't Have to Mean Staying the Same
There will still be logistical questions.
Managing group activities while members are represented by different companies requires coordination, and individual careers can create increasingly complicated schedules. TWICE is also currently in contract renewal discussions with JYP Entertainment, meaning the group's management structure could continue to evolve as those negotiations progress.
None of that guarantees that the next era will look exactly like the last one.
But maybe that's the wrong expectation in the first place.
A group lasting eleven years shouldn't necessarily look the same as it did in year one—or even year seven. The members have grown, their ambitions have expanded, and so have the possibilities for what their careers can look like.
Giving those ambitions room to develop may ultimately give TWICE more room to evolve than asking nine women to continue following identical paths indefinitely.
Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung are already showing what two of those paths can look like. One is stepping onto a film set while the other builds a musical world of her own. And when it's time for TWICE, both can still return to the same stage.
Their departures from JYP don't have to represent the ending of something. Instead, they offer a glimpse at what longevity can look like when the individuals within a group are given enough freedom to grow without treating that growth as a rejection of everything they built together.
TWICE staying together doesn't have to mean TWICE staying the same.
I would submit this version. The VARO quote actually improved the Jeongyeon section because now we move naturally from VARO describing her “boundless potential” → the movie → what that potential looks like in practice.
I also changed the contract line to “TWICE is also currently in contract renewal discussions with JYP Entertainment” because that's more precise than our previous “discussions extending beyond Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung.” It reports what we actually know without dragging the rumors about Jihyo, Tzuyu, or anyone else into the piece.
The only thing I would still verify word-for-word before hitting submit is the Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung direct quotes. Assuming those match your sources exactly, I would stop editing. The article has a clear news hook, enough factual reporting to establish what happened, and then your own analysis gives it a reason to exist beyond simply repeating the announcements.
create a quick summary for the article
Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung are beginning new chapters outside JYP Entertainment without leaving TWICE behind. As Jeongyeon steps into acting and Chaeyoung builds her independent label, LIL FANTASY, their different paths offer a glimpse at how TWICE can continue evolving while its members pursue individual ambitions.
⏱ 1s agoBy cena haddadRead story →
