Meet BTS’ (almost) 8th member Kim Ji-hun, friend of V, Suga and Jungkook, breakdancer and aspiring K-pop idol – who sadly didn’t make the final cut

Feb 11 , 2022

Meet the member of BTS that never was: Kim Ji-hun, who trained alongside the likes of V, RM, Suga and Jungkook, but didn’t make the grade as a K-pop band member. Photos: @bito_on94/Instagram, @taemullet/Twitter

Countless teens across the world dream of becoming a K-pop idol. The vast majority don’t make it, a tiny percentage do (sometimes in the strangest ways), and then there’s those that come very close.

One almost-famous aspirant was Kim Ji-hun, who spent his teenage years dancing, rehearsing and singing together with a group of fellow hopefuls who went on to become the biggest boy group in the world today – BTS. Kim recently became a hot topic after he had an interview with Vice, where he detailed what idol training with BTS was like and how he feels about them today.

So what else do we know about the would-be eighth BTS member?

He was scouted by a K-pop recruiter as a breakdancer

Breakdancer Kim Ji-hun was scouted by a K-pop recruiter, but ultimately missed the cut to become a member of boy band BTS. Photo: @bito_on94/Instagram

A natural performer since he was a child, Kim shared in the interview that he was scouted by a K-pop recruiter and asked to audition. He grabbed the opportunity and became a trainee at the age of 18 along with seven other boys. Kim had a talent for breakdancing and was hopeful that it would be his launch pad into a boy band, but he was ultimately cut by management. The seven other trainees went on to make history as BTS.

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He works for the government but still longs for fame

Kim Ji-hun works for the South Korean government today, but still dreams of making it big somehow. Photo: @bito_on94/Instagram

Kim managed to land an impactful position as an intern at the Korea Veterans Health Service where he spends most of his work days behind a desk, as opposed to flying around the world and performing onstage on a daily basis.

While Kim leads a relatively normal lifestyle, he still exercises his creativity through a YouTube channel under the alias Bitoon. With about 15,000 subscribers and counting, Kim offers snippets of his daily life through vlogs and his thoughts on pop culture, with Harry Potter- and Spider-Man-related content.

The BTS hopefuls were like family during their trainee days

Kim Ji-hun with BTS member V. Photo: @taemullet/Twitter

Kim’s Vice interview and some of his past videos on YouTube provided a peek into the life of a K-pop trainee, where he shared a dorm with the BTS members and rehearsed with them on a regular basis for a year. In one of his own videos, he referred to himself as a “second parent” and a good friend to the BTS boys.

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One of his favourite memories from his trainee days was when J-Hope’s mother brought them a batch of gwamegi, or half-dried herring, which Kim and the boys enjoyed with seafood and spicy sauce in between rehearsals.

But late that night, Kim woke up with a splitting headache. Dizzy and retching in the bathroom, Suga got him a taxi and took him to the accident and emergency room at Soonchunhyang University Hospital. Suga filled out the paperwork and even foot the bill with what little money they had as trainees.

“When we moved into the dorm, we were very far away from our home and families, so we felt closer together,” Kim said of that time. “We even felt like a family more than our actual families when we lived together.”

“Even after getting cut, before they’d debuted as a band, I once snuck back into the dorm with some fried chicken,” he fondly recalled.

Cut from the group

Kim clearly remembers the day he was cut from the group and how he spiralled into depression afterward.

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While he enjoys his life now, his only regret is not being able to spend as much time with his old friends any more. “It’s just that they stay together. I just regret not being able to hang out with them,” Kim said in the interview.

He ended by mentioning that his ultimate dream is to throw a reunion and host his former fellow trainees.

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BTS

Sharing a dorm with the other BTS trainees, Kim told Vice he was like a ‘second parent’ to them though Suga cared for him when he got sick – now he dreams of a reunion
He has a government job in veterans health and a YouTube channel under the alias Bitoon on pop culture, with Harry Potter- and Spider-Man-related content