BTS member Suga has been hosting his own weekly radio show on Apple Music, and the fifth and final episode came out on May 16, KST.
Like the last episode, this time too, Suga had a special guest feature on the show, and it was none other than Lee Byung Eun, aka Bangster, BTS’s performance director.
Lee has worked closely with BTS for years now. On the show, he revealed that he started working for BTS with “Fake Love,” and since then, has been a part of some of their most iconic choreographies, including “Boy With Luv,” “Butter” Grammy performance, and more recently, “Run BTS,” Jimin’s “Like Crazy” and Suga’s “Haegeum.” Lee is also involved with Suga’s current solo tour and has been traveling with him to all the stops.
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During the conversation, Lee and Suga reminisced about some of their old performances and how it was back then to work on them so hard. That is when Suga surprisingly revealed how Lee was connected with a BTS member, even before BTS was a thing!
As it turns out, Lee Byung Eun was a member of “Neuron,” the Gwangju-based dance crew that J-Hope was also a part of during his “Smile Hoya” alias days. He was one of the choreographers in the musical Janhyang, where the BTS member played the main lead as a child actor. Lee credited his experience back then for leading him to where he is in life right now.
(yoongi talking with Lee Byungeun/Bangster)
Yoongi: doing Neuron with hobi, u’ve been with hobi since he dreamed of becoming a singer, dancer in Gwangju
Lee: Yes, that’s right. i came all the way here because i started dancing with j-hope ssihttps://t.co/tgnXbNvONK— jayvee (@uarmyvibe) May 16, 2023
Though this particular detail has been a fascinating revelation to ARMYs, Suga, with his typical dry humor, reached a totally different conclusion and said his joining HYBE is then, technically, nepotism. Lee broke into a laugh and said it wasn’t, but Suga is never the one to back down.
Yoongi: so, it was connection/nepotism
Lee: well, not like that
Yoongi: it was connection!
Lee: i joined the company with my own skills— jayvee (@uarmyvibe) May 16, 2023
ARMYs couldn’t help but enjoy the humor of the situation and started making jokes about who else Suga might call a product of nepotism at HYBE, including but not limited to V’s dog Yeontan.
yoongi is gunna be looking at any bangtan children and remind them how they’re nepo babies for the rest of their life
— yunkiverse
⁷ IA (@taesarmypit) May 16, 2023
yoongi holding yeontan to eye level and going “you benefit from nepotism” has definitely happened on multiple occasions.
—
⁷ D-1 (@syubtraction) May 16, 2023
Fans also recognize that Suga could joke around like this with Lee because of their close friendship.