Eun Ji Won filed missing person report for SECHSKIES member Kim Jae Deok

In the episode 'Regular Chat: If You Were to Debut Again, Would You Want to Be a Leader?' released on the YouTube channel Channel Bandal on the 21st, boy group leaders from different generations—including Eun Ji Won, EXO's Suho, Seventeen's S.Coups, and BOYNEXTDOOR's Myung Jae Hyun—appeared to speak candidly about the difficulties of group management and communication issues among members.

During the broadcast, when Seventeen's leader S.Coups lamented that member Joshua has a habit of not checking messages for a month, Eun Ji Won shared an extraordinary episode from his SECHSKIES days. Eun Ji Won told the cast, "We actually filed a missing person report because we had a member like that."

He continued, "At the time, we couldn't reach him at all, so we even imagined extreme situations. I thought he had died alone," revealing that the subject was member Kim Jae Deok. It turned out that Kim Jae Deok had completely cleared out his house in Seoul and moved to his hometown of Busan without telling anyone.

Because he moved without any prior notice to the members, the situation nearly escalated into a major commotion. Rather than focusing on the habit of not answering calls, Eun Ji Won brought laughter to the set by humorously expressing the realistic disappointment of a member who only reaches out when they specifically need something.

As a leader of a long-running idol group, Eun Ji Won also offered sincere advice to his juniors. He lightened the mood by humorously sharing an anecdote from his debut days when he heard the harsh words, "Your group is going to fail," and offered warm encouragement to S.Coups, who expressed the pressure of maintaining hit songs after passing his 10th anniversary of debut, saying, "Seventeen itself already says everything; Seventeen itself is the hit."

His sincere advice—that the continuity and value of the group as a community are more important than the performance of individual songs—resonated deeply with the junior leaders.

In the history of idol groups, incidents where agencies and colleagues have been put on high alert due to a member's disappearance or loss of contact have occurred. Given that it is difficult to fully predict the private lives or sudden actions of colleagues even after sharing joys and sorrows for a long time, Eun Ji Won's anecdote shows a facet of the intimacy within a group that has endured together for many years.

Kim Jae Deok's sudden move from Seoul to his hometown, and Eun Ji Won's decision to file a missing person report out of worry, paradoxically demonstrates the tight-knit bond built by the legendary first-generation group over many years, capturing the public's attention.