Super Junior's Leeteuk Confesses to Taking TVXQ's Yunho's Change During Trainee Days

Super Junior (슈퍼주니어) leader Park Jeong-su (박정수), better known as Leeteuk, recently confessed that during his trainee days, he was so hungry and broke that he secretly took change saved by TVXQ (동방신기) member Jeong Yun-ho (정윤호), better known as U-Know Yunho, to buy snacks. To everyone's surprise, Yunho’s warm response upon learning the truth left the audience deeply moved.

On May 20, a new video titled “Super Junior Who Can Never Understand Each Other” was uploaded to the YouTube channel “Donghae, Su and Baekdu Eunhyuk.” In the video, Lee Dong-hae (이동해), Lee Hyuk-jae (이혁재), better known as Eunhyuk, Leeteuk, and Kim Hee-chul (김희철) discussed their pre-debut dorm life, revealing a little-known anecdote.

During the show, Eunhyuk asked in surprise, “Hyung, did you really take Yunho hyung’s money?” Kim Hee-chul then joked, “Do you have kleptomania?” Leeteuk quickly clarified, “No, it wasn’t like that!”

Leeteuk recalled that TVXQ had already debuted at the time, while Super Junior members, still trainees, lived in the adjacent dorm. Their schedules were completely opposite; Super Junior often practiced until the early hours of the morning, returning to the dorm after TVXQ had already left for their schedules.

He explained that they would often return to the dorm starving, only to find no white rice left in the rice cooker and no money to buy food. It was then that he noticed a plastic bottle in Yunho’s room, filled with 500 won coins.

Leeteuk revealed that he would slowly extract coins one by one from the bottle’s opening, taking about 1,500 to 2,000 won (approximately NT$35 to NT$45) each time, and then go with other members to the supermarket to buy biscuits to satisfy their hunger. He laughed, “We really just went to buy snacks.” Unexpectedly, a member immediately retorted, “That’s still stealing!” which made everyone burst into laughter. Kim Hee-chul added that saving change was one of Yunho’s biggest joys at the time, and he would count his coins daily, so he quickly noticed the money jar getting emptier.

Later, Yunho couldn’t help but say to Leeteuk, “I keep putting money in, but it feels like it’s always decreasing.” Leeteuk finally decided to confess, admitting to Yunho, “Actually, I took 1,000 won today. Because I had no money, I went with the members to buy biscuits.” To his surprise, Yunho didn’t scold him at all. Instead, he calmly replied, “Just use it when you need it.”

Yunho’s magnanimous reaction astonished everyone present, and this long-buried trainee story once again sparked heated discussion. Many fans commented, “No wonder Yunho is so well-liked,” and “This is truly the demeanor of a great senior artist.”