An idol girl group member gave up taking the Suneung, the most important college entrance exam in Korea, due to a sudden illness.

This photo is for illustrative purposes only. | Unsplash

The Suneung is Korea’s national college entrance exam and is considered the most important exam Koreans take in their lifetimes. Every year, it is held on the third Thursday of November, making this year’s exam date November 16.

Korea takes the Suneung very seriously and ensures that students are not distracted or disrupted on their way to the exam; employees start work late, businesses open later, and trading in stocks and foreign exchange is delayed.

Students and teachers cheer for the students taking the “suneung” this year. | Yonhap News

On November 15, LIMELIGHT member Gaeun was hospitalized for acute abdominal pain, causing her to be unable to take the exam.

LIMELIGHT’s Gaeun | @limelightseoul/Instagram

Her agency, 143 Entertainment, explained what happened to Gaeun.

Gaeun had sudden abdominal pain today and visited the emergency room. Due to high fever and elevated inflammation levels, she decided not to take the exam tomorrow.

— 143 Entertainment

Gaeun was advised to stay hospitalized for another two to three days.

| @limelightseoul/Instagram

The K-Pop idols taking the Suneung this day include Kep1er‘s Kang Yeseo, Rocket Punch‘s Dahyun, Weeekly‘s Zoa, and Triple S‘s Lee Jiwoo and Gong Yubin.

Kep1er’s Kang Yeseo | @official.kep1er/Instagram

The Suneung will occur from 8:40 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. on November 16 (KST) at 1,279 test sites nationwide. Thursday was chosen as the ideal test day in 2006 to ensure that the test sheets were delivered safely on time at test sites, according to the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE).

 It was an unexpected emergency.