Dear Gossips,

I am unhinged. And normally I save this outpouring of emotion for my BTS group chat – which has been popping off for hours, shoutout to my girls Ann, Hannah, and Liz. Because all we’ve been doing is crying and laughing and squealing over the footage of Jin’s discharge from Korean military service.

Jin is back!

And, as anticipated yesterday, we have a brand new photo, all seven members of BTS – Jin, RM, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook together as the first and oldest has completed his mandatory duty with the others to follow, one by one. A year and a half ago, they started going into service one by one, led by Jin. And now the reverse is happening… which is SO MUCH F-CKING BETTER, obviously!

I posted about this yesterday, that Korean media had been reporting that BTS members had requested leave so they could greet Jin upon his discharge. Jin was met by five of his fellow members – Suga was the only one missing at the base but as you can see above, he was present for the group photo so for him it was likely a scheduling issue.

The footage from the base, though, is really what set me off. This video of Jin coming out the gate and immediately being embraced by his family.

It’s the way Jimin held onto not only Jin but also V and JK, extra long hugs, because they must miss each other so much, they love each other so much!

And, randomly, RM with the saxophone because it’s not BTS if there’s no chaos. So there’s crying but also laughing, but let’s stick with the crying for a moment because there’s also this video of Jin saying goodbye to some of the people he bonded with during duty, telling them not to be sad, holding that soldier’s hand, embracing him affectionately…

I AM SOBBING.

This is a pop idol who, at the height of his pop idol career, enlisted in the army like every other eligible male in his country and made the most of the experience, made what appears to be very real connections with others. Am I seeing this through rose-coloured fangirl delulu eyes? You’re goddamn right I am, and I’m not sorry!

But back to the pop idol thing – Jin’s first order of business after his discharge was to head to HYBE headquarters, the company BTS built, take the photo with his bandmates, and then do a livestream with ARMY. Tomorrow, on BTS’s anniversary, aka FESTA, he’ll do an in-person event with fans during which he’ll give out “light hugs” (LOL forever at this) and perform and regale the audience with jokes and other stories.

I continue to be amazed at how these people time their sh-t, working it out so that they always hit their date marks. Because a year from now, June 2025, all seven will have completed their service, just in time for the next FESTA.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

BTS Gossip

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