The reason why Roy Kim was called a 'runaway' even after donating over 300 million won

Roy Kim, who rose to stardom overnight by winning 'Superstar K4', shared the story of how he suffered from malicious comments calling him a 'runaway' even after donating a significant portion of the prize money he received at the time.

On the 2nd, Roy Kim appeared on Kim Seon-tae's YouTube channel and mentioned the donation pledge he made during his 'Superstar K4' win in 2012. While the prize money at the time was known to be 500 million won, 200 million won of that was for album production costs, and the actual amount received in cash was approximately 280 million won after taxes.

He stated, "I added the extra money I earned to the 280 million won and donated about 320 million won." He explained that he did not just donate the prize money, but also added his own money to provide a total of about 320 million won.

However, Roy Kim himself did not disclose the fact that he donated. Recalling those days, he said, "I was a kid who was completely intoxicated by being cool. I thought, why should I let people know that I am donating?" He added, "I thought the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing."

The problem was that his silence actually fueled misunderstandings. After returning to school following about a year of activities, Roy Kim was flooded with malicious comments such as "He's running away without donating" and "He won and then ran away." Because he did not reveal the fact that he had quietly donated, he ended up being suspected of not keeping his donation pledge.

Roy Kim also revealed the process of selecting the donation recipients. Having a vague distrust of leaving money with large institutions at the time, he stated that he personally visited about 10 places, including hospitals, small abandoned dog shelters, and private welfare centers, to make the donations.

Ultimately, Roy Kim disclosed the donation details himself during his last fan meeting before returning to the United States. He recalled, "I remember taking the donation records and reading them all to them one by one." Behind the 'runaway' controversy from 10 years ago was the choice of a young man who simply did not want to go out of his way to announce his donations.