“As a fellow member, I was a little hurt”.
TVXQ poured their hearts out on March 2nd’s episode of “Knee-Drop Guru“.
Explaining their feelings about JYJ breaking off from TVXQ, Yunho stated,”It was a shock to me at that time. I didn’t know [they] filed an injunction. My heart was broken by thinking that our big success at such a young age caused all of this“.
He added, “I was also disappointed as a member that they even took the situation as far as filing a lawsuit. I can personally handle being called a ‘traitor’ but I regretted the situation influencing my beloved and respected parents“.
Changmin revealed his feelings, saying “The situation has been written in the papers and some talked badly about my parents. My father is still a teacher so I felt bad about him getting hurt. I also felt bad at the thought that my siblings or friends would become adults holding this pain in their hearts“.
Changmin reminisced about the then 5-member TVXQ’s final performance in 2009 at NHK’s ‘Red and White Collaboration‘ saying, ”I looked at my schedule and I didn’t see anything. We were performing at a prestigious and memorable event, and I felt sad at the thought that this could possibly be our last stage. We advanced into Japan as raw newbies and it was a great time to profit from it, I didn’t know why I was performing a sad song at such a happy and fun stage”.
Yunho said, “I felt uncomfortable singing on that stage. We had a lot of memories and we came all the way here with one shared dream and I felt afraid that our last stage could take place at one of the most prestigious awards shows. So I felt as if I sang with a sad face, I’d be acknowledging (the situation) so I sang even harder.”
In addition, he revealed the hardships he went through in preparation for the new album, “For the new album, we needed to give off the TVXQ feeling / vibe with only 2 members, so it was hard filling the empty space. We practiced until the early morning, even after all the trainees left“.
At the question “Are the lyrics to ‘Keep Your Head Down’ targeting the JYJ members?“, Yunho replied, “It literally means ‘keep your head down’. Many people are thinking that we’re dissing the members but that was not our intent at all“.
He continued, “In our 1st album, there is a song called ‘Triangle‘, which has the lyrics ‘with a falling heart (I) cry bloody tears’. If we sang that at this time, people would mistake that we’re dissing (them). If we wanted to diss them, we would’ve never came out with this song“.
On the other hand, Changmin said, “I didn’t think we’d be able to dodge many questions for long. I felt we needed a time to jump over them”, giving a reason behind their decision to appear on the show.
TVXQ also revealed the story behind their stage name.
When MC Kang Ho Dong asked, “Were you all satisfied with the team name?“, Yunho said, “I didn’t like it. Our CEO thought about it for a long time and came up with ‘Dong Bang Bul Pae’. When I first heard it, I was really shocked. After that, our names were ‘Jun Muk Go‘ (A Whale Who Lives By Eating Legends), SM5, and Dream Team“.
Additionally, the two members came on the show with the concern, “We want to have more male fans“. Changmin explained, “In Cassiopeia, only 3.25% of the fans are male”.
Kang Ho Dong thought of a quick solution and made the whole cast laugh by saying, “Go to the army. If you go to the army, you can gain the hearts of 6,000,000 soldiers“.
