Dear Gossips,   

Yesterday was a week to Christmas. And some of us, millions of us, received an early Christmas present: Jungkook went live yesterday on Weverse. JK is one of five members of BTS who are still serving mandatory military service in South Korea. Jin and j-hope were discharged earlier this year and now, somehow, we’re near the end of 2024…which means we’re almost f-cking there, ARMY! This is the last year we’ll ever have to say that BTS is on hiatus. 

 

By around the mid-pointish of 2025, RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook will be released. And the comeback, God willing, will be underway. 

As for JK’s live – he explained at the beginning that he’s on break from service and had already checked if it was OK for him to be on livestream. And then proceeded to livestream for nearly THREE hours. That’s basically the length of an award show. Which is why people are comparing his stats to an award show. 

 

I repeat, I repeat, that’s 20 million real-time views, people tuning in from around the world to watch him tour through his home and karaoke by himself on his couch, intermittently answering questions from fans in low light and track pants. 

 

Here he is doing “APT.” by Rosé and Bruno Mars …

 

and “Die With A Smile”, Bruno’s other smash hit collaboration with Lady Gaga. 

He also performed songs by ILLIT, Justin Bieber, and other artists, and several of his own tracks.

 

So if there was any doubt at all about the impact of BTS’s return will have… 

Like for me, personally, no exaggeration, it’s one of the things that will help me get up in the mornings next year – the knowledge that we’ll be one day closer to the reunion, OT7. And finally living out the dream, eventually, of seeming them together live on tour. This is what I want for Christmas, every Christmas. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey