BTS Military Service

BTS All members will be serving in the South Korean military until year 2025, Big Hit, announced Monday. Why they fade out people’s eyes at such a famouse moment? This is under South Korea’s conscription system, the country requires all able-bodied men to serve at least 18 months in the armed forces by age 28, due to ongoing threats from North Korea.

Bit Hit, the BTS band’s label and management company. While BTS has become the the globally mega-popular K-pop band, which this news will upset millions of ARMYs/fans.

The leader of Bangtan Boys, RM, his Instagram post added a comforting touch to the whole ordeal. Jin(Kim Seok-jin,29-year-old ) is the firts begin at this year. When Jin turned 28 in 2020, the government offered him a tw0-year delay in entering the army in recognition of BTS’s efforts in “enhancing Korea’s international image.” He was one of the the first K-pop stars to be offered such a reprieve.

RM Instagram update after Kim Whanki exhibit

This is really a shot upset news. While, RM uploaded multiple pictures from his visit to a Kim Whanki exhibit at the S2A Gallery in Gangnam, with a simple caption that read, “Whanki.” Whanki is an artist he has adored for a long time now. The photos themselves were pretty usual of RM’s Instagram aesthetic, but when ARMYs looked up the background of the artwork he had posted, they started deciphering a deeper meaning of the post.

The paintings featured on RM’s post are all from a series called Where, in What Form, Shall We Meet Again? The series is named after a Korean poem, “In The Evening,” by Kim Gwang Seop, that talks about an intense longing between two entities. (source from koreaboo.com)

Among a multitude of stars

One stares down at me.

Among a multitude of people

I stare up at that one star.

As the night grows deeper it fades into brightness

And I disappear into darkness.

Where, when, as what will the two of us

you, one so warm, & me, one so tender,

meet again?

—Kim Gwang Seop

BTS to ARMYs

The fact that RM chose to make the post after the announcement of their enlistment hardly seemed like a coincidence to fans.

One specific picture especially stood out to ARMYs, where RM is seen posing in front of Whanki’s milestone work, titled “Universe.” The painting was created out of the artist’s longing for his homeland and its people after he had moved to New York.

The overall mood of his post seemed to convey a deliberate message to his fans, to the people he values so much as his own. The very fact that ARMYs went the extra mile to look up the artworks and try to decipher what he was probably trying to tell them only proves how successful BTS have been in establishing a solid connection with their fans—to a point where words are hardly needed for communication.