On February 9, Super Junior's Heechul appeared as a guest on an Afreeca TV broadcast hosted by comedian/BJ Choi Goon.
On this day, Heechul and Choi Goon chatted about various issues in society over drinks. In particular, Heechul freely brought up various issues considered to be rather sensitive topics by more formal TV broadcasting standards, and even liberally cursed as he interacted with viewers, showing a rather different side than the image he has shown on TV.
Multiple times during the broadcast, in fact, Choi Goon had to turn off the microphones when Heechul went on cursing rants about sensitive topics.
One topic brought up on this day resulted from a question by a viewer, asking Heechul, "Who was the #1 fist fighter in Super Junior?".
Heechul responded, "You're talking about the old days right. Our Kangin, he really messed up. He needed someone to put him in his place. I really gave it to him hard too, but there were a few times when he got more crap than he deserved."
Heechul continued, "I mean he's a b*****d. I scolded him for what he did. But I think there were times when I would have probably acted the same way too. Since we are celebrities, we tend to back down if people try to start something with us. But he wouldn't back down. That guy, he picks fights with gangsters. The gangsters will laugh and go, 'Isn't this guy famous?'. And that gets him riled up and he starts beating the crap out of those guys."
The Super Junior member added on, "Kangin that guy, he's one of those really rough ones. He made a lot of mistakes, and he deserved all of the criticism. But there were times when he went and picked a fight with a gangster because that other guy was harassing a woman. He beat the crap out of that gangster, and the gangster apologized. The woman ran away because she was frightened. This story is definitely not TV-friendly."
Finally, Heechul said, "But he's already out of the group." BJ Choi Goon chimed in with, "Heechul is not trying to cleanse this person's image or anything like that." Nodding, Heechul continued, "Definitely not. It's just that Kangin was one of those guys who just couldn't stay away from a fight. He just started punching first. I'm not trying to sugarcoat it. He f***ed up a lot. But to me at least, he wasn't a bad guy. He had guts. He was a good friend of mine."
Kangin, who debuted as a member of Super Junior alongside Heechul in 2005, announced his departure from the group in July of 2019. The former idol was wrapped up in a number of controversies, including assault and two accounts of DUIs.
this kind of talk should be more frequent, outside of on air broadcast. we need these raw, non sugarcoated truth from idols, we need space where we can view them as ordinary human beings. that have conflicts, make mistakes, feeling sorry, shamed, angry about life, but being honest about it.
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