Idols have tons of interesting stories about their trainee days. Among the most surprising stories are idols’ accounts about being forced to leave their companies as trainees. Luckily for fans, the idols were given second chances to debut. Check out the idols who were kicked out as trainees.

Block B’s P.O

Block B’s P.O and WINNER’s Mino have a heartwarming friendship story. The two childhood friends originally trained together in the same company and prepared to debut as a duo. Unfortunately, the company favored Mino over P.O and the CEO later asked P.O to leave the company. Upon hearing that his best friend would be let go, Mino announced to the CEO that he would leave if P.O was forced to leave. Touched by what Mino did, P.O secretly spoke to Mino’s parents and told them that Mino had to continue training, even if it meant training alone. P.O did not give up even after leaving the company — after losing weight and training hard on his own, he was welcomed back to the company.

Super Junior’s Heechul

Heechul has shared that he was a rebellious and arrogant teenager during his trainee days. One time when he was listening to a rock song, a vocal trainer approached him to ask what he was listening to. When he shared the details, his teacher scolded him and told him to listen to the music he was studying instead. Heechul snapped back at his teacher and was forced to write a letter of apology. Here, Heechul — believing he did nothing wrong — wrote a letter saying, “Although I did nothing wrong, I’ll write this. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…” He was thus suspended because of his actions, but upon noticing Heechul was not in the company, Lee Soo Man asked where he was and brought him back.

AOA’s Seolhyun

Seolhyun once surprised fans with a story about getting asked to leave her company. While she was still a trainee, she skipped one day of training to watch ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ with some of the other trainees. Unfortunately, she bumped into the head of the company at the movie theater! The company initially ordered the trainees involved in the incident to leave, but later called them back and allowed them to continue training.

BTS’ Jimin

Although he wasn't forced to leave his company, Jimin has revealed to fans multiple times that he was removed from the original lineup of BTS. In fact, he was supposedly pulled off the team around eight times because many people in Big Hit Entertainment opposed him joining the group. Because he majored in contemporary dance in high school, his dancing style was different from that of a typical idol group, making it more challenging for him to blend in with the other members while dancing to BTS choreography.

EXO’s Lay

While no one can confirm if this was actually true or not, many fans have speculated that EXO’s Lay was kicked out of SM Entertainment as a trainee. One EXO-L shared that he was forced to leave after an incident with a trainee. The two trainees, tired and hungry after their training, fought over a bowl of rice. When the company found out, they asked him to pack up and return to his home. Luckily, SM Entertainment later gave him a second chance.