On January 20, Kim Ki Bum uploaded a video that he filmed with Kim Heechul on his personal YouTube channel, Yangban Kim Ki Bum.

In the video, Kim Heechul visited Kim Ki Bum’s house for a drink and the two talked about their past together. Kim Ki Bum joined Super Junior’s lineup during their debut in 2005 but took a leave of absence from the group to focus on his acting career in 2009. He announced his departure from SM Entertainment in 2015.

In the video, Heechul and Ki Bum reminisced about their trainee days at SM Entertainment. Heechul said, “You joined in the winter of 2002, not long after I joined. Yunho, Donghae, you, and I hung out together a lot. The four of us were always together. We spent a lot of time at internet cafés. Most of us were still minors. Only [TRAX’s] Jay and I were 20 years old [the age of majority in Korea] so everyone else went home at 10 p.m. When Ki Bum turned 20, I taught him how to go to nightclubs. I think that if you’re going to play, you should know how to do it properly. If you go in secret, that’s how bad things happen. After all, you can’t live without ever playing.”

Kim Heechul shared that he had been glad when Kim Ki Bum started to appear more on broadcasts and said, “He used to call me and say, ‘I got contacted to appear on a show. I think they’ll ask me these sorts of questions. What should I say?’ Since he was absolutely a member of Super Junior, it was natural that people would be curious about his relationship to the group. After hearing Ki Bum talk about this, I also felt cautious about what to say. I knew that he absolutely wasn’t the type of person to go around selling Super Junior’s name. In the end, he refused to go on a lot of shows and told me, ‘What can I say about Super Junior when I’m not working as part of the team?’ So he refused casting offers.”

Kim Heechul continued, “But there’s something you have to say at least once. It’s inevitable that people will bring up your old group. The problem is that when we debuted, there was something we hated. We debuted as a 12-member group, and later, Kyuhyun joined and we promoted happily as a 13-member group. But there was a lot of ‘media play’ with people saying, ‘I almost debuted as part of Super Junior,’ or ‘I was a Super Junior trainee.’ There were so many articles about that. There were people who were trainees at SM and there were people that weren’t. At the dorm, we’d log on the computer and Ki Bum would ask, ‘Who is this? He says that he was almost part of Super Junior.’ I’d go over and look and I’d be like, ‘Who’s this?’ There were so many people like this. All the members hated it. But it’s inevitable that people will ask you about your past.”

Asked about his memories about the team, Kim Ki Bum said, “I remember training together and becoming part of a team. The members came in as part of a ’05 and ’06 schedule. [Super Junior was originally planned to be a rotational member system.] At the time, you and I were really busy. So it felt like I couldn’t focus properly.”

Kim Heechul said, “We were supposed to join in ’05 and leave the next year, but ’05 was so popular that we kept going in ’06. I remember that you would get so nervous during recordings. You would bite down on a pen to practice pronunciation, and you’d get so down whenever you had to go into the studio. And you weren’t great at singing at the time.” Kim Ki Bum added, “I would get so embarrassed when I heard myself. I even asked for my parts to be removed. Later, they actually were removed,” and Heechul commented, “You looked more comfortable after that.”

Heechul then pretended to be a reporter to get Ki Bum more comfortable with talking about his past in public. He said, “Imagine if a reporter asks you, ‘Why did you leave Super Junior? Were you bullied by the members?'” Ki Bum replied honestly, “I put my own hand up and voluntarily said, ‘I will leave the group.'” Heechul got immersed in his role and said, “Why? Were you hit?” and Ki Bum laughed and said, “No, I just wanted to focus on acting.” Heechul then asked, “Do you have good memories or bad memories with the members?” and Ki Bum replied, “I have some good ones and some bad ones,” satisfying Kim Heechul with his frank answer. About the bad memories, Kim Heechul said, “We were all young, and we all fought with each other. The members often fought, made up, fought, and made up again.”

Check out the video below!

Source (1)

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