H.O.T and Shinhwa Explain Tense Dynamics between Each Other

On March 20, the second art of the Shinhwa special on “Win Win” will be airing. On the episode, Shinhwa’s unexpected guests were former members of H.O.T, Tony An and Moon Hee Jun. The two said, “The group that made H.O.T the most nervous was Shinhwa.”

Tony continued to explain, “At the time, we got nervous every time a new group debuted. Of the groups, we became the most nervous when Shinhwa made its debut.”

Moon Hee Jun added, “If we would ever cause trouble or mess up the choreography to a song, our manager would sit us down and threaten us by saying, ‘If you guys keep acting like this, we’re going to make a team that can rival against you,’” Later when Shinhwa debuted, the members of H.O.T thought, “This must be the group we’ve been hearing about.”

In response, the Shinhwa members explained, “When H.O.T showed up, we couldn’t even go to the bathroom,” and surprised everybody.

Moon Hee Jun also made the audience curious by stating, “Eric and I used to be friends, but now we are a bit uncomfortable with each other.” He continued, “Before Shinhwa’s debut, Tony had introduced me to Eric as a friend. He was so good looking, and his face looked like it was sculpted. I was really happy to meet him. We were friends from then on, and then one day he started preparing to debut.”

After a while, one year, all the members of H.O.T and Shinhwa gathered for Moon Hee Jun’s birthday. All the Shinhwa members called Moon ‘hyung,’ but only Eric didn’t and called him by name. Moon explained, “Eric is actually a fast ’79, and I’m a ’78*, but he was a good looking friend so I didn’t mind, and I liked it.”

But then a member of Shinhwa made a comment, and rumor has it that Moon Hee Jun and Eric became awkward after the show.

The episode will be airing at 11:05 KST on March 20.

*Note: Because of the way school admissions are organized in Korea, those born before March of any given year are technically “friends” with those of the previous year. Eric’s birthday is February 16.