Kai EXO and Taemin SHINEE show off their friendship
SHINEE’s Taemin and EXO’s Kai have been appearing on ‘Happy Together 3’, which first aired on August 24, 2017. For the first time, Kai appeared on a variety show without his fellow EXO members, but with SHINEE’s Taemin instead. There were many people who were anticipating this episode, to see the chemistry between the men who have been friends for more than 10 years. Kai shared a lot about their friendship, stating “I was born earlier in the year, and so I went to school a year earlier. I was the same grade as Taemin so I decided to be friends but he told me to call him ‘hyung,‘” and then Taemin replied “At that time, these things were decided by what year you were born.” and then he added “In the end, he ended up just using informal speech to me,” which made everyone laugh. Taemin even revealed, “I didn’t want to show that I lost my phone, so I’ve even put in my earphones and put the jack in my pocket to pretend like I did have my phone,” and Kai stated that he had many experiences in similar situations, too. they really have many things that similar between them, even their nickname “magic hands”, because they both lose things so often. Even their face look alike. Taemin and Kai were once spotted wearing the same bracelet. Kai’s bracelet was a gift from his mother.
Kai and Taemin are the ‘Padding Squad’
There are so many ‘idol squads’ in Korea. One of them is the “Padding Squad”, which includes SHINEE’s Taemin, EXO’s Kai, BTS’s Jimin, Wanna One’s Ha Sung-woon, HOTSHOT’s Timoteo, and non-celebrity Jung Kwon-ho. On MBC Every1’s ‘Weekly Idol’, which aired on March 6, 2019. Ha Sung-woon revealed how the ‘Padding Squad’ was created. He said, “The first member was Timoteo ‘hyung’. He was the start to everything. He was an SM trainee for a long time. He was close to SHINEE‘s Taemin and EXO‘s Kai. And there’s a non-celebrity friend. Timoteo ‘hyung’ introduced him to them. The four of them are longtime friends.” From there, Ha Sung-woon became friends with Taemin and Kai through Timoteo. He explains, “And then there’s VIXX‘s Ravi’hyung’. Kai brought him. And I got to meet Jimin. I knew J-hope since trainee days. He’s not the type who goes out often. We have different hobbies. And then somehow I got to know SUGA ‘hyung’. SUGA ‘hyung’ introduced me to Jimin. I got along with Jimin so well. And I’m the one who brought him to the group. Now, we hang out often. It’s fun when we meet. We have similar hobbies.”
Recent News of Shinee’s Taemin and EXO’s Kai
on February 11, 2019, SHINEE’s Taemin made a solo comeback with a new mini-album, titled Want, with the same song title. Taemin said he had the support of his friends in the ‘Padding Squad’, “Kai gave me a compliment by saying that it was much better than the demo. Jimin told me that I was someone who really seemed to know what I am doing.” and added “Sungwoon always compliments me by saying, ‘Hyung you’re cool‘. He likes to joke around too, about me being a senior artist since I was the first to debut in our group.” and He continued “When we’re together we throw out the idea of being singers and simply treat each other as one human to another. We have the kind of relationship where we just treat each other as younger and older friends. That’s probably why we don’t talk much about work.” Taemin stated that even though they are all singers and idols, they didn’t talk too much about work. ‘Padding Squad’ is really ‘squad goals’, right?
