During the eighteen months Jin was serving in the military, the other members of BTS were all working on solo projects before they enlisted as well. From December 2022 until June of 2024 seven albums were released, including two from RM, and a repackage with a physical cd from j-hope. ARMY well-fed and spoiled. But we still speculated endlessly over what Jin might do once he was back. Obviously we all wanted whatever Jin wanted for himself. And if that was to take things slowly after he came back, ARMY would support that whole-heartedly. We should have known that would never be his plan. On October 14, we got the announcement for the November release of Jin’s first solo LP, HAPPY. And for any ARMY that’s known him and BTS for a bit, the title did not come as a surprise. Happiness is the ultimate goal for Kim Seokjin, it’s all he ever strives for. And when asked why he chose to name his album HAPPY, he replied that it’s also all he wants for his fans as well.

When the members of BTS started enlisting in the military, they were upfront from the beginning that they’d all be back to reunite (hopefully for or around Festa) in 2025. We knew they would all enlist around the same time, but we also knew that at least some of them had solo activities planned as well. So it wasn’t clear exactly when they were enlisting, or in what order. It was anxiety-inducing for ARMY, and we became conditioned to dread seeing any Weverse notification that said “Hello, This is Big Hit.” Jin’s was the first, and it set the tone. ARMY knew it was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. He enlisted on December 13, 2022, and all of his members gathered to see him off, putting on brave faces to send him off with a smile. Little did I, (or any of us really) know at the time the elaborate plan Jin and all of BTS had and was putting into place to ensure that ARMY would never NOT feel connected to them while they were gone. Before we knew it, time started flying by… Suddenly, it was June 12, 2024, and Kim Seokjin was coming home to ARMY.

If there is one thing Kim Seokjin excels at, it is not worrying about what’s already done, or what could potentially be. Self-admittedly, he prefers to focus mainly on the present, and small attainable goals for the future. His overriding drive is sustaining happiness. This simple honesty, and lack of guile, has carried Jin through his years in BTS, and served as an inspiring example for both his bandmates and his fans. During 2017 and 2018, BTS was going through one of the most difficult times in their career. Most of this was happening behind the scenes, so ARMY was none the wiser at the time. It wasn’t until Jin stepped up to the microphone during an acceptance speech at the 2018 MAMA awards that fans found out the group had been dangerously close to disbanding earlier that year. As the eldest hyung, Jin took that moment to recognize his fellow members’ bravery and love in coming through the fire. In his commitment to seeking happiness, he wanted ARMY to know that they were stronger than ever, always grateful, and dedicated to focusing on what truly matters the most… their fans, and each other.

The word ‘fate’ carries a heavy weight. To claim that something was fated to happen is saying that, no matter what, the outcome received was the one always meant to be. When we take into account things like timing, individual reactions and behavior, and a myriad of outside factors that could occur, claiming anything that happens to be fated seems a bit… naive, perhaps? Kim Seokjn was the last person who ever thought he’d end up a K-Pop Idol. He was a young man who prioritized simplicity and easy happiness over everything else. However, while attending college to pursue acting, a series of random events in his life led him to eventually becoming a member of BTS—now one of the biggest musical groups in the entire world. Prior to becoming a trainee, Jin had never tried to sing or dance in his entire life. As we look at the road he walked to become the artist he is now, it’s hard to think anything other than destiny was at work the day he was spotted by a Big Hit scout just getting off the bus, on his way to school.

As 2022 came to a close, RM was busy promoting his first solo album, Indigo. In the midst of all this, at the beginning of December, Jin (having reached his 30th birthday), enlisted in the South Korean Army, in order to fulfill his mandatory military service. The members all gathered with him at his base camp, to say goodbye (for now) to their hyung, and to Chapter One of BTS’ career. At the start of 2023, ARMY had no idea who would next be enlisting. Namjoon didn’t seem to have any projects happening at the time, however, in a Weverse live in February, he randomly said, “I think I’m off the Indigo mode. I think I’m on the next stage already.” What “next stage” did he mean? But we wouldn’t find out until over a year later… not until after he’d all but disappeared over the summer, teased us repeatedly with art house film images posted on a mysterious new Instagram account, and then enlisted in the military himself. We went NUTS (pun intended) trying to figure out what “rpwp” meant. Finally, in April of 2024… we got our answer. Right Place, Wrong Person—RM’s second studio album. 

We spend our whole lives seeking out who we are. We’re often defined by where we grow up, our careers, the people we surround ourselves with… but is that truly the essence of one’s self? Or is there more to that picture? From 2019 to 2022, Kim Namjoon pondered this question often. As his band, BTS, rose to the heights of superstardom, he found himself yearning to feel the ground beneath his feet again. This week we’ll explore the process by which he navigated his members through unprecedented global upheaval, all while chronicling the latter half of his twenties and searching for himself through the medium of art. This is the journey of RM’s first solo album, 2022’s Indigo.

Kim Namjoon has never been afraid of change. Which is good—adaptability is one of the most important qualities of leadership, and he happens to be the leader of the biggest music group in the world. In 2015, BTS released The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1, and it symbolized a significant change in the direction of their career. It was significantly different not only from BTS’ prior album era, but also to the mixtape Rap Monster had just put out about a month prior. RM was raw and often abrasive. The next couple of years of his and BTS’ career would continue to bring increasing amounts of change, which Namjoon would observe, analyze, and (of course) write about. By the time he released his next mixtape, mono. in late 2018, he was ready to share with the world how he’d developed both personally and artistically since his last project. Perhaps the most significant example of that growth he’d experienced, was the shift in his mindset from Rap Monster to RM… Real Me.

The beginning of 2013 brought a renewed sense of purpose to 18 year-old Kim Namjoon. He’d been a trainee at Big Hit Entertainment for three years, by that point, and as another new year was getting started, it felt like a make or break moment for him. In a series of VLOGs he filmed that January, he expressed both confidence and confusion… not unusual for someone his age. However, rather than ruminating on typical teenage worries like grades and relationships, he was dealing with warring narratives in his head over his budding music career. In one corner—the underground rap community he’d been part of before becoming a trainee—whispering in his ears that he was losing his edge and on his way to selling out. In the other corner—the higher ups at Big Hit—telling him he needed to forget his former peers and live up to his potential as a rapper. And at the center—a young man who was determined to share his talent with the world.

One of the reasons ARMY is the size that it is today is due to how free and honest the members have been with sharing themselves—sharing their true selves and feelings with their fans since the very beginning. The release of PROOF in June of 2022 was a testament to that. This week, we will take a look at the third and final disc of that album, which included raw and unfiltered demo versions of some of their hits, as well as some previously unreleased tracks. The world of K-Pop is always glossy—carefully crafted images and sounds. A lot of artists only want to present the polished final product to their fans, not the scrapped imperfections they had to get through along the way to making that product. However, from their beginning, BTS has proved themselves to be the opposite. While they’ve always wanted to perform their best for ARMY, they’ve also been extremely transparent on what it takes for them to get to that point. So it’s no surprise that even after achieving massive global fame and success, they were still taking the time to honestly show us how they got there—to show us their proof.