The answer that got the segment going
B1A4's Gongchan was one of two guests on the 29 October broadcast of SBS Power FM's Cultwo Show, appearing alongside singer Nam Yujeong on the segment Love Go-Stop. Broadcaster Kwon Hyuk Soo joined as special DJ, with Kim Tae Gyun also on the microphones. When Kim asked whether there was a member of the group who economises, Gongchan's reply was immediate and unhedged: "Me."
What followed, as reported by Koreaboo, was less a confession than a small masterclass in justifying the cheaper option. Gongchan did not describe himself as careful in the abstract. He gave examples, and the examples are the reason the clip travelled.
The coffee argument, laid out in full
Gongchan's first illustration was coffee. Rather than claim a particular level of thrift, he compared what the older members do with what he does. They order coffee, he said; he does not drink it. He then pointed out that coffee is already available in the places the group works — at the salon, and on the first floor of the company building.
His reasoning, as he put it, was that anyone can drink the coffee provided at the company or the salon, so he could not see why anyone would bother ordering a delivery instead. "Why not just drink the coffee?" he asked.
Kwon Hyuk Soo's response was the kind of dry aside that radio panel shows run on: that this is exactly what people who do not drink coffee say. Gongchan had an answer ready, noting that others insist the taste is different. It is a fair point, and also a slightly convenient one for a man who has already said he does not drink the stuff.
The exchange is funny because both men are right, and because the logic is airtight only if your starting position is that coffee is fuel rather than a small daily pleasure.
Waiting-room snacks, and where he draws the line
Kim Tae Gyun moved the conversation on to a related habit: idols who take the snacks prepared by a broadcasting station from the waiting room. Gongchan claimed that one too. "That's me," he said, prompting laughter.
Kim pushed further, mentioning that some people even take what is in other waiting rooms. There Gongchan drew a boundary, saying that is not him. The distinction matters more than it might appear. Idols spending long hours at music shows and radio studios are often surrounded by catering that would otherwise go uneaten, so taking some of it is not exactly a scandal. Raiding somebody else's room is a different act, and he was clearly keen that the joke not extend that far.
It is a reminder that the version of frugality being described here is fairly modest: using what is already there, not extracting more from elsewhere.
The part that reframes the whole story
The detail that gives the segment its weight came near the end. Gongchan explained that the group has to save because they run their own company, which requires being even more careful with spending. He said he had saved before, but now saves more, describing the mindset as that of a CEO.
That single line changes how the rest of the conversation reads. An idol explaining that he avoids ordering coffee can land as a mildly eccentric personality quirk. An idol explaining that he is thinking like the person responsible for a company's outgoings is describing a different relationship with money altogether. The reported conversation did not set out the structure of that company or what his role within it involves, and the focus of the segment stayed on attitude rather than business detail.
For a listener, though, the general point is legible enough. When artists take on the running of their own affairs, the costs of staff, premises and day-to-day operations stop being somebody else's spreadsheet. Being careful with small things is one of the few levers anyone can pull in that position, and it tends to be the lever people talk about on air because it is concrete and self-deprecating rather than dry and financial.
Chicken breast: the one place he spends
Kwon Hyuk Soo then asked the obvious follow-up, whether there is anything Gongchan does not skimp on. The answer was chicken breast. He said he likes it and orders it in all kinds of flavours. Kwon's reply — that this is quite a luxury — got the intended laugh, and it works as a punchline precisely because the item in question is not luxurious at all by the standards of idol spending.
The exchange also does useful work that a list of economies would not. Frugality presented as an unbroken rule reads as either an affectation or a straitened circumstance. Frugality with an exception inside it reads as a set of priorities. Gongchan is not describing deprivation. He is describing a preference for spending on the things he actually wants and declining to spend on the things he does not, which is a fairly ordinary approach to money dressed up for radio.
Why this kind of radio moment travels
Cultwo Show is built around guests being asked everyday questions in a loose setting, and the format reliably produces exactly this sort of small character revelation: not an announcement, not a controversy, just a specific habit described in a specific way. Koreaboo reported that the frugality surprised listeners, and the surprise is understandable. Public conversation about idols and money tends to focus on the visible end of it — fashion, campaigns, the price of an outfit.
A coffee order, or the decision not to place one, is a much better window into how somebody actually thinks about spending.
There is also a mild pleasure in hearing a well-known figure defend a mundane choice with total confidence. Gongchan made the case for drinking the coffee that is already in the building, and he made it in a way that people can immediately apply to their own working week. The chicken breast aside keeps it from becoming a lecture. Whether the segment will be remembered beyond the usual clip cycle is hard to say, but the reason it circulated is not mysterious.
The takeaway
Gongchan's Cultwo Show appearance was a short, funny radio exchange that happened to reveal something more interesting underneath: an artist thinking about money as somebody with responsibility for a company rather than purely as a performer in front of one. The coffee and the snacks got the laughs. The line about running the business is the one worth keeping.
