
2AM's Lim Seul-ong revealed that the group he belongs to was planned as a rival to Super Junior. This information was shared in a video released on the YouTube channel "Donghaemul and Baekdu Eunhyuk," operated by Super Junior members Donghae and Eunhyuk. The video title is "It Turns Out JYP Made 2AM as Super Junior's Rival?! Revealing All the Shocking Latte Stories and Leaving Gloriously."
Lim Seul-ong confessed that 2AM and 2PM were groups planned in the past targeting Super Junior. He said, "2AM and 2PM came out to catch Super Junior." He then explained that there was a strategy to first promote as units and then merge, in response to the opposing team's approach of merging after unit activities.
Jung Jin-woon recalled the days when he was active as One Day and shared the constraints that the choreography had to be arranged to the level that even Changmin could perform. He lightheartedly recounted the situation at the time and shared anecdotes from his trainee days before debut. Jung Jin-woon remembered how he joined JYP Entertainment through street casting after rehearsing for a band competition. He described the moment he doubted the business card as a scam but became convinced when he saw 2PM's Junho, who resembled Rain, during his trainee days at the company building.
Lim Seul-ong shared his feelings at the time when he did not expect to debut as an idol and recalled feeling grateful for the environment where he received free meals, accommodation, and singing lessons. The hardships of trainee life were also revealed. Jung Jin-woon disclosed the story behind the so-called "111 servings of pork belly incident," where he was summoned to the CEO's office due to the enormous food expenses. He explained the situation where 12 members, including 2AM and 2PM, stared only at the grill and devoured a huge amount of meat during a celebration dinner for Wonder Girls entering the Billboard chart.
Lim Seul-ong revealed an episode from 2010 when, despite significantly contributing to the company's revenue, he was called to the CEO's office and received an apology request regarding the meal expenses after nearly 100 million won was charged for two months of food costs. In response, Super Junior's Eunhyuk shared his experience of a one-order-per-person restriction being imposed during trainee days due to excessive meal orders, expressing deep empathy.
There was also a revelation about the strict recording process with producer Park Jin-young. Lim Seul-ong shared Park Jin-young's unique instruction to sing as if entering a hot sauna and expressed the difficulties of sensitively adjusting the debut song "This Song" while recording it for eight hours a day over two weeks. Jung Jin-woon confessed that the most difficult instruction to understand was to sing with the emotion of adults ordering soju at a restaurant during his underage days, which brought laughter to the scene.
Lim Seul-ong shared an episode where Jung Jin-woon, now in his mid-thirties, recently had his hair grabbed by Park Jin-young during recording for vocalization, adding his sincere feeling that he now regards Park Jin-young not as a tense figure but as a respected mentor. These stories evoke memories of the past and show how the relationship between the two has developed.
The recollections of Lim Seul-ong and Jung Jin-woon will remain an important example revealing the history of JYP Entertainment and the competitive relationships within it. The fact that 2AM and 2PM were planned as rivals to Super Junior holds significant meaning in the development process of K-pop. They competed while active in their respective groups, contributing to the diversity and competitiveness of Korean popular music.



Previous Article






