Dear Gossips, 

It was a long weekend in most of Canada and for those of us who are BTS fans, the weekend experience was ALL THE FEELINGS: euphoria, nostalgia, pride, exhilaration, heartbreak, and then all the way back to excitement. 

 

This band has technically been on a group pause for over a year now and not two weeks has gone by since last summer where there hasn’t been a BTS disturbance in the Force. This, of course, has been by design. And the strategy behind how they and their team have rolled out all this content as each member releases their solo work has been nothing short of a master class. So let’s sum up what’s happened in just the last five days. 

On Thursday night, Suga kicked off the first of three shows at home in Seoul to mark the end of his D-Day world tour. That night it was Jungkook as the special guest joining Suga on one of his tracks before performing his single “Seven”. On Friday night it was Jimin’s turn as he and Suga finally gave ARMYs what they’ve been asking for for months, performing their song “Tony Montana” together and Jimin got some solo time on stage too. 

For the final show, on Saturday, Jin and j-hope, who are both currently serving in the military, were in attendance, presumably having planned their personal break time from the service to come out and support their bandmate. RM was there too, and he jumped up on stage with Suga after which he also had time to share a previously unreleased song. 

 

Suga was demonstrably emotional throughout the night. He also revealed one of the secrets that he’s been keeping, a secret that ARMY has been waiting to find out for a while. Last year they told fans that they’d be getting matching tattoos to honour their friendship. And since then every member save Suga has told us where their tattoos were located. 

He waited until his final show – listen to the response: 

 

It’s extra meaningful because that tat is on the shoulder that was injured during the early days of BTS. He only had it operated on in 2020 so he endured that pain for a long time and talks about the trauma in his music. Choosing that spot for his tattoo then symbolises how important this BTS brotherhood has been in his healing process. 

So the tears were already flowing. And then the next day came the official announcement: 

They let us sit with that for 24 hours. But the BTS rollercoaster doesn’t stop. Because another announcement dropped today. 

 

V is the last member of BTS to release solo work. It’s coming – a six-track album called Layover dropping on September 8: 

 

So we’re on the climb again, even though this is what was expected. It was always the plan for the members to put out their solo works through 2023 so that by early next year, all seven would be serving and by 2025, ideally, all seven will have completed their duties. At which point, obviously, there will be some kind of reunion spectacle. 

One of my biggest pop culture regrets is that I’ve never seen a BTS show. I went to Suga’s concert in Chicago but I mean all seven, all together on stage. And they’ve performed several times like an hour away from where I live but like a stupid bitch I was all, I’ll wait until they come to Toronto proper one day. Which they were supposed to, but then COVID.

I don’t know who I’ll be in 2025, so many things can and will change, probably at a terrifying pace, and there’s a very good chance I’ll still be a dumb f-ck, but I won’t be dumb about this. If there’s an opportunity to see them, I’ll be there. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey