Singer Paul Kim recently shared an amusing anecdote about being mistaken for BTS member V, due to his real name, Kim Tae Hyung.
On the July 26th episode of JTBC’s variety show ‘Knowing Bros’ (Episode 492), Paul Kim appeared alongside fellow artists Tim, ZO ZAZZ, and Kang Daniel as transfer students to the fictional “Brother School.”
During the show, Paul Kim explained why he chose to perform under the name Paul Kim instead of his birth name. “Paul is actually my baptismal name,” he said. “All my friends called me Paul when I studied abroad as a kid, so I naturally went with it.”
Fellow cast member Shindong joked, “Things might have been awkward if you had gone with Kim Tae Hyung.” In response, Paul Kim shared a recent travel episode that confirmed this.
“Not long ago, I went on a trip to Prague,” he said. “At the hotel lobby during check-in, a male staff member kept glancing at me and smiling. I thought, ‘Huh? Am I kind of famous in Europe?’ After I finished checking in, he asked if I was a singer. I thought, ‘Here we go,’ and said, ‘Yes, I’m a singer from Korea.’ Then he asked, ‘Which group are you in?’”
Paul Kim continued, “When I told him I was a solo artist, he asked, ‘Aren’t you in BTS?’ That’s when I realized he mistook me for V because we share the same real name, Kim Tae Hyung. I told him, ‘V doesn’t stay at hotels like this,’” drawing laughter from the ‘Knowing Bros’ cast. When the cast jokingly accused him of dissing the hotel, Paul clarified, “I just meant that if V had really come, it would have caused chaos!”
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