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Ten had many names. It came with the territory of being a foreign idol promoting in two different countries.
Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul.
Ten.
Li Yongqin.
Lee Young-heum.
Even though he went by Ten in most situations, it being by far his simplest name, sometimes it was fun to see others’ reactions to his many names.
He introduced himself to everyone as Ten, plain and simple. He occasionally added his Chinese name if he was introducing himself for an interview, but that was it.
Whenever he was asked to sign something, he often signed his name in large, loopy letters. As a joke, he sometimes signed all three of his names, maybe a little cat drawing next to it, because honestly, why not?
But sometimes it got confusing, even for Ten.
It’s tedious to explain Thai’s nickname system to everyone, so he often has to assert multiple times that, yes, Ten is his real name. No, it wasn’t a stage name. No, it wasn’t a joke, he really was named Ten, like the number.
In fact, he was so good at asserting that Ten was his real name, that even his members forget that he had multiple names.
He had ordered a new box of cat toys for Louis as his old ones were getting worn out, but since he was going to be out when it would be delivered to the dorm, he had asked Xiaojun to sign for it. Xiaojun had agreed, begrudgingly, if only because he was the only one who was going to be at the dorm then.
So Ten had returned late that night, but had been cornered by Xiaojun before he could even put his bag down.
“I don’t think your package was delivered today, but we got something else, from someone named Lee Young-heum. I had absolutely no idea who that was, so care to explain?” Xiaojun demanded.
Ten stared at him incredulously for a minute before letting out a loud laugh. Xiaojun’s glare just intensified until Ten straightened up and looked at him again. “Really? You don’t know?” Ten asked.
“How the hell should I know who that is, I have never heard that name before in my life. I even checked if it was one of our managers, but it’s not. So sue me for being cautious about some strange package being sent to our dorm without any idea of the sender,” Xiaojun snapped, voice full of exasperation.
“Well, it’s not a stranger. It’s me, that’s my name. Did you even look at the sender, it probably has the name of the pet store on it and everything. Really Xiaojun, how dense can you be?” Ten teased as he sidestepped Xiaojun to enter the dorm properly. He spotted the package on the kitchen table, so he grabbed a pair of scissors to open it.
Xiaojun sputtered for a moment before finally responding, “How the hell is that you? Your name isn’t Lee Young-heum….,” Xiaojun trailed off, his voice suddenly unsure.
“That’s my Korean name,” Ten said offhand as he carefully sorted through the contents of the now opened box. “I ordered the toys with my credit card, which has my Korean name on it, which means that I put the order under my Korean name,” he stated matter of factly.
“I didn’t even know you had a Korean name!” Xiaojun exclaimed. “Honestly, how was I supposed to know you did? When you said ‘Hey Xiaojun mind signing for a package for me’, I thought the name was going to be Ten, or even Yongqin, okay?”
“Well, I guess that’s fair,” Ten said. “Though I don’t use my Chinese name when I’m, you know, not in China because that makes no sense. Plus, all my papers for Korea have my Korean name on them, so I have to use my Korean name for pretty much everything. Can’t believe it took you this long to realize I had one to be honest,” Ten admitted, putting all the cat toys back in the box to give to Louis later.
He shoved the box under an arm and picked up his bag again to head to his room. It had been just like Xiaojun to overreact about Ten having a Korean name, just like half the members of this group, he had thought, rolling his eyes.
Still, for Ten, that kind of reaction was unfortunately too common. Most people knew about one, maybe even two of his names, but beyond that people reacted with surprise or confusion.
Sometimes, he likes to poke fun at himself for having so many names, saying that he’s 4 different people, but he stops those jokes when Kun gives him a disapproving look and Lucas just looks confused.
However, one nice thing about his Korean and Chinese names is that they’re simple; easy to pronounce, easy to write, fairly common if he was being honest.
His Thai name, on the other hand? That was a completely different story.
People would constantly misspell or mispronounce it, sometimes both, and Ten got tired of having to correct them all the time. It got hard to do that without being rude, though Ten tried to hold himself back.
He got raised eyebrows at the airport whenever the immigrations officer couldn’t read the name in his passport, questioning if that jumbled mess of letters was really his name–it stopped being funny years ago.
Still, Ten continued to make jokes about it, pressuring Hendery to write it perfectly in order to prove he was Ten’s friend during a fan meet. However, just like on so many other occasions, Ten took pity on him and told him the characters under his breath so they could keep up the charade.
This happened so often, that Ten was actually shocked when Kun randomly threw in "Chittaphon" into a conversation, not even stumbling once over the long name.
It was touching that Kun cared enough to learn the name properly, even if he only used it when he was scolding Ten or upset with him. Kun was also the only member that Ten knew could confidently spell the name. When Kun had to fill out an official form that needed the full names of all the members, Ten was about to ask if Kun needed him to write his own name for him, only to be shocked when Kun wrote it out flawlessly.
Not everyone was Kun, sadly.
The most fun part of being in SuperM, at least to Ten, was how much his seniors stumbled over his different names.
It started at their first practice as a group. As they were all packing their bags to go, Taemin had asked Ten curiously, "What's your actual name? I shouldn't keep calling you Ten."
Ten smiled. "My real name is Ten, hyung. So you don't have to worry about that."
Of course, just like everyone else, Taemin seemingly refused to believe Ten was his real name until Taeyong almost broke down laughing and told Ten to explain the nickname system to Taemin.
After that, Taemin had apologized for the confusion and that seemed to be the end of it.
Until two seconds later when Baekhyun decided to interrupt. "Wait, if Ten is like, your official nickname or whatever, that means you must have an actual birth name, right?"
At Ten's nod he continued. "Well, then what's your birth name? I don't think you've ever mentioned."
But before Ten could say it, his manager had poked his head in their practice room, telling him and Lucas that they were running late for another schedule, so he and Lucas had quickly said their goodbyes and that had been it.
Except apparently that hadn't been it, because the name was brought up once again during Knowing Bros. Ten puts his Thai name on the application form, knowing it always incites a laugh from other people.
When Lee Soo-geun pauses at the name before sputtering through it, just as Ten predicted, everyone is shocked at it. He hears Baekhyun mutter that he had never even heard the name before, and remembers that he had never actually told the older members of the group.
He laughs along with everyone else, explaining that the long name was why he was nicknamed Ten, and everyone laughs a bit more before moving on.
Now that everyone actually knows his name, Ten figures that no one would bother him about it again.
Until one evening he gets a call during practice from Sicheng, which he answers with a furrowed brow because Sicheng never calls. He can sense the other SuperM silently eavesdropping, but he pays them no heed.
"Sicheng? Is something up?" he asked.
"Ah Ten, well, it's nothing serious but uh… here, Kun wants to talk to you," Sicheng says and there's some fumbling on the other side of the line as Sicheng passes over the phone.
"Li Yongqin!" Kun said, in his slightly raised voice that is Kun's equivalent of yelling because Kun is too good to yell at anyone. "Where the hell did you put the extra bags of Louis' food? We have been looking for an hour, and I swear if we don't find it we won't have an intact dorm soon." Kun's voice is a combination of anger and desperation and Ten winces in sympathy, even if Kun couldn't see it; Louis was incredibly picky about the cat food he liked, which was a nice quality brand that Ten had to special order.
"Sorry about that, it should be in the cabinet above the fridge? I had Lucas put it there after Louis was able to get it from all the lower cabinets," Ten explains and he hears Kun relay the information to Sicheng before responding.
"Thanks, I should've checked there but it's hard when Louis keeps hissing me. Okay, I know I called in the middle of your practice, so I'll talk to you later?" he asks.
"Of course. Bye," and after Kun echoes the sentiment he turns off his phone and turns to put it back in his back.
"Hey Ten," Baekhyun calls, "I didn't mean to overhear that call, but I've got a question for you."
Ten looked at him puzzled; the entire call was in Mandarin and unless Baekhyun became an expert in the language in the past 5 minutes, there was no way he could understand anything. "Sure, what's up hyung?"
"Well, I have no idea what you guys were talking about, since I speak less Mandarin than your cat probably does, but did I hear someone call you Yongqin? What was that about?" Baekhyun asked, genuinely puzzled.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ten can see Lucas choke on his water bottle.
"Yongqin is my Chinese name, I have one since I promote with WayV in China," he explained, hoping that covers everything. "My full name is Li Yongqin, and Kun uses it if he's angry about something and he's speaking in Mandarin," he laughed at his own words.
Baekhyun looked appeased at this response. "So many names, I don't know how you don't get mixed up between them. I know I definitely would," he said, shaking his head.
That was Lucas' cue to jump in with a ridiculous story about how Ten one time had handed someone his Thai ID instead of his Korean one while traveling, and Ten buried his head in embarrassment at the memory.
However, the (hopefully) last time the name situation is brought up is when SuperM are told to take a test about each other. Ten is notoriously bad at remembering things about others, so he decided to just have fun with it.
Since Baekhyun kept asking so many questions about his name, Ten decided to pretend he has no idea what his last name was, which makes everyone laugh since they all know he knows and they all know why he is pretending that he doesn't.
When it becomes Ten's turn to become the "teacher" of the class, he prepares funny answers to all the questions. The responses everyone else provides to the questions are equally hilarious.
"What's my real name?" Ten asks, fully prepared for the large variety of responses that are thrown at him.
He gave Lucas a point for being able to pronounce the name, and almost died of laughter at everyone else's responses. Literally, he thinks that after this he might need to take a breather to be able to continue.
Jongin throws out a "Chittaphon Leechaiya Hybrid Samsota" that makes Ten almost fall out of his chair.
"Where did you get that from?" Ten gasped out incredulously, and Jongin just grinned.
"I took the wildest guess possible because your last name is an actual pain to spell," Jongin admitted and Ten nodded in agreement.
Even when SuperM promotions are ever for the time being, it's not as though Ten's many names go away.
During NCT 2020, when all the members are asked to sign their name, he jokingly signs all of them, including the little cat at the end.
Some days, he's Li Yongqin. Other days, he's Lee Young-heum. On some occasions, he's even Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul.
But in the end, he's always Ten.