Cardboard Nights at Seoul Station for a K-pop Pioneer

Yunho, the leader of the K-pop group TVXQ, grew up with his family in Gwangju, in the south of South Korea. Like many aspiring idols, he had to move his daily life to Seoul to train as a young hopeful, and that is where the hardest part of his early career took place.

Speaking on the KBS programme 2 Days & 1 Night, as reported by TenAsia in April 2026, he recalled that during his trainee days he slept outdoors. He said he spent nights in parks and at Seoul Station, using cardboard boxes as bedding. His family home was far away, and the travelling back and forth for training left him without a place to stay on some nights. The report does not give the years or say how long this went on.

He did not describe the experience in detail beyond those places and the cardboard boxes, and the article does not cover how his housing situation changed afterwards. What it does show is the gap between the polished image of a pop group and the uncertain conditions in which some trainees begin.

Yunho went on to debut with TVXQ in 2003. The group became one of those that helped carry K-pop across Asia, and he has remained its leader. He spoke about the past alongside his plans for the future, treating the difficult years as part of the path rather than as the whole of it.

His account adds to a picture of how demanding the trainee system can be for young people who leave home to pursue a dream.