BTS and Twice Could’ve Been in the Same Agency… Had It Not Been for a Pair of Socks?

Twice and BTS

The mega-popular boy group BTS and girl group Twice could have worked at the same company.

Si-hyuk Bang appeared as judge on "Star Audition: The Great Birth" on MBC.

Twice is a JYP Entertainment girl group. Bangtan Boys is a Big Hit Entertainment boy group. Si-hyuk Bang, a former composer and a music producer, is the CEO of the Big Hit Entertainment Company. While working as a producer at JYP, Bang produced a number of most popular hit songs in K-pop history.

Jin Young Park, the CEO of JYP Entertainment

What is the story behind Bang’s departure from JYP Entertainment? According to Jin Young Park, the CEO of JYP Entertainment, the two had a bit of a quarrel over laundry.

Jin Young Park, the CEO of JYP Entertainment

Back in 2011, Park told an anecdote about the time he was in the US with Bang. “When I first went to the States, I had a hard time adjusting,” he explained. “I went together with Si-hyuk but he ditched me and left three months later.”

A little quarrel over laundry changed their destinies.

“We had a fight over laundry before he left,” added the singer-producer. “He was the one in charge of doing the laundry, and I would write songs at night and during the day I would drive an hour and a half to Los Angeles to try to sell the songs I wrote. By the time I got home I was too exhausted and when I put my socks inside-out in the laundry basket, he got really mad at me. We quarreled for over an hour.”

Si-hyuk Bang, the CEO of Big Hit Entertainment

According to Park, Bang apologized and left. Park regretted that “if I had put the socks right-side out, he wouldn’t have left me.”

Twice.

Indeed, if Park hadn’t put his socks inside out in the laundry basket, perhaps BTS and Twice would be in the same company today. Perhaps there wouldn’t be BTS if it hadn’t been for a pair of socks turned inside-out. Upon hearing the story, some fans jokingly thanked Jin Young Park for “putting the socks inside out.”

By Gothesun and Arin Kimecho@joongang.co.kr