Singer-actor Rain looked back on his trainee days and candidly opened up about the harsh reality that forged his ferocious drive.
On the 17th, tvN variety show You Quiz on the Block dropped a teaser featuring Rain. In the clip, he reunited with Yoo Jae-suk for the first time in a while and got emotional. "I could barely sleep thinking I'd be meeting you," Rain admitted, recalling the mix of nerves and excitement.
Yoo Jae-suk called Rain "a person who embodies effort, passion, and sheer grit," bringing up his trainee era. Rain remembered, "Back then, I hardly ever went home." He continued, "Surrounded by people who had more than I did, I believed I had to work even harder to make it," adding, "If I failed, my family could suffer — that pressure was immense."
Rain also confessed to the extreme hardship he faced after losing his mother. "After my mother passed away, even our house caught fire, and I had nowhere to go," he said. "My father and younger sibling went their separate ways, and I laid out a sleeping bag in the practice room and lived there." He added, "I truly felt like I was standing at the edge of a cliff. It was do-or-die, and I vowed to see this path through to the end."
After surviving those desperate years, Rain went on to succeed as both a singer and an actor, cementing himself as a quintessential self-made star. Most recently, through the Netflix series Bloodhounds 2, he took on the first villain role of his career.
Meanwhile, the rest of Rain's untold story will air on May 20 at 8:45 p.m. on You Quiz on the Block.