2PM Reveals the Real Story Behind the Nichkhun 'Bullying' Rumor, And It Involves Headphones

Nichkhun swearing out his 2PM members in Korean, loudly, in a crowded airport, turned out to be the real story hiding behind one of the group's most stubborn old rumors.

On July 31, the members appeared on YouTube channel Channnel Fifteen Night's variety segment Na Young-seok's Wagle Wagle, where they finally addressed the so-called "Nichkhun bullying rumor" that had circulated years ago. The premise of the rumor was grim: some fans had begun claiming that the Korean members were deliberately excluding Nichkhun, the group's Thai member. The members say they found it baffling from the start.

"There was this bizarre rumor going around that the Korean members were ostracizing the Thai member," they recalled. "We thought it was completely absurd."

The incident that apparently gave the rumor legs happened at an airport. After wrapping up their individual schedules, the members had agreed to meet up in an airport lounge. Nichkhun arrived first and called out to his members as they passed through, but nobody heard him. One by one, they walked right past him. Ok Taecyeon offered the most plausible explanation: "We all had good headphones on at the time, so none of us could hear a thing."

The result, as the members described it, was Nichkhun sitting alone in the lounge while the rest of the group had no idea he was there. With the bullying rumor already swirling at that point, the scene looked exactly as bad as it sounds.

When the members eventually found Nichkhun and joked, "No wonder the bullying rumors started," he did not take it quietly. "You all ignored me," he told them, and followed it up with a string of Korean profanity.

Junho re-enacted the moment on camera, drawing loud laughter from everyone present. Jun.K had the warmest take on it: "I was actually proud of how confidently he swore in Korean in front of all those people." Junho agreed it was "the most memorable incident from our whole time as 2PM."

More than anything, the story is a small but telling window into how the group actually functions. The ease with which they laughed through the re-telling, and the affection in Jun.K's reading of the moment, points to a group that has had enough history together to turn the stressful parts into good material.