After lighting up the Empire State Building earlier this week, Jin has continued to promote his album, Echo, in New York the last couple of days. There was an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and yesterday he was at a fan event. Tickets to Hi Seokjin were available through a raffle, and it was promoted as a “touch” event for a thousand ARMYs lucky enough to be drawn. 

 

This is an example of how fan service and fan engagement is so different between east and west because basically at the end of it everyone lined up for the opportunity to do this – and he did it, a thousand times, a thousand hi-tens. 

Jin will be touring, his first solo tour, in support of Echo starting at the end of June in Korea and then going on to eight other cities in Japan, the US, and Europe. Before that though… 

The countdown is on. How has it already been two and a half years?! 

We are really, really, REALLY close to all seven members of BTS completing their mandatory military service. On May 10th, RM posted to stories noting that it was D-30. BTS’s anniversary, basically ARMY’s national holiday, is June 13, also known as Festa. Since RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook enlisted at pretty much the same time, those four should be out by Festa. 

 

Suga’s release date, however, has been reported as June 21. So this is the day that’s marked on the calendar – when RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and JK will finally be done and free to pick up where they left off. In other words, less than a month. 

Jin greets fans as he arrives at a New York City fan event on May 22, 2025

Their label has already been managing expectations, though, previously announcing that the members will need time to rest, get organised, think about what it is they want to say through their music before they get back into the studio. After all, Jin’s tour takes him into mid-August so for sure he won’t be able to participate in anything until at least after that. And he probably will need a period of recovery. 

 

Still, that first photo of them together will be…well…it’s cliché to say but it will break the internet. But even for those who aren’t fans, there is pop culture relevance here. This is a band who, at the height of their unprecedented record-breaking global popularity, paused their careers to serve their nation. For two and a half years. We haven’t seen this in contemporary times. We don’t really know what it looks like to make a comeback after that. I can’t wait to enjoy it, but I also can’t wait to study it. 

Photo credits: BACKGRID

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