Knowing something is coming doesn’t soften the blow as much as people think it would. We’ve been seeing the hints for months. We wanted this for them. We’re happy for them. SO happy. 

Aside from their limited solo projects and engagements since 2013, the opening of their personal Instagram accounts seems like the first step they took publicly to assert their individual identities in front of us and start deciding what to share of (and for) themselves. Yet they did it together. 

These seven men have been joined at the hip for the better part of the last 10 years (some 12 including their trainee years). Kookie was 14 years old when he signed with BigHit. A child. He had a whole identity crisis in 2018 because he only thought of himself as the sum of his six hyungs. And they really did a beautiful job raising him – and themselves – along the way. 

We’ve gotten slight peeks into who they are as independent artistic humans with their solo works before, but like RM said, mixtapes aren’t meant to be high quality productions, and how much can you realistically pour into a personal project when you’re giving ALL of you to something else? Which explains why they haven’t been able to finish/drop more than a solo song at a time here and there since 2020. 

We’re in for a treat, and so are they. 

And hey – It’s normal to be sad. We’re all collectively turning a page. They clearly have struggled with this decision and how to break the news to us because it’s an end, and ends are always bittersweet. Even if it’s time. Even if it’s the right thing to do. Even if it’s what you want. 

They said this is the end of Chapter 1 of BTS as we’ve come to know them. We’d say the past 10 years are way more than a chapter – it’s more like a whole book that is part of a series. They worked tirelessly to bring us music and performances we had never seen, and powered through so much personal hardship to smile in front of us, all so that we too could smile. 

Hearing Namjoon and Yoongi say that they’ve had such a hard time with songwriting because they don’t feel like they can speak for the seven anymore was huge. This isn’t something you’d hear from any other KPop group. And this is why BTS has always been and will always be special. Within everything they can’t share because of contracts, confidentiality, etc. they always give us their most sincere words. They sugarcoat quite a bit, because they have to. But they always find a way to say what they need to say in a way that is digestible for a fandom as huge and diverse as ours. They did their best to give us three heartfelt songs on their way out for us to hold onto. And most importantly – they’re promising to come back.  

We don’t know when they’ll be back together on stage as seven, and they may not either. With enlistment still looming over them, the reality that this might be a long OT7 drought is hitting us in every possible way. But we’re SO looking forward to what’s Yet To Come. 

They lowkey laid out their schedule for us during their conversation. Hobi will be headlining Lolla in late July, which tells us Hope World 2 is coming within the next few weeks. He’s officially kicking off BTSolopalooza. KTH1 is almost ready, if Tae can only stop taking songs out already. Jimin shared he’s been working on his album and even though Tae has been working on his music for longer, it seems Jimin’s will be out first. RM’s is ready too. Agust D is blessing us with a D-3 that has been ready for who knows how long, but our guess is May 23, 2020 (the day after D-2 dropped, lol). And Kookie said JJK1 is slated to come out after Yoongi. And Jin said he’ll be last. 

Actually, this just caused a spark to go off and we’re off to delulu tin foil hat land with some serious predictions. Hear us out.

We’re in month 6 of 2022. June is BTS’ month, so they might let us rest and have the rest of June let reality sink in. Then, it’s tempting to think they could be dropping roughly one individual album a month until the end of the year, in the order of their birthdays: 

• JHope in July (maybe on Army’s anniversary which is 7/9?), leading to Hobipalooza 7/31
• Agust D in AUGUST (HELLO THIS IS GENIUS!!)  
• JJK1 on September 1, for his birthday 
• RM’s birthday is September 12, which is too soon to drop after Kookie so he might wait until October
• Jimin’s birthday is October 13th and he might just wait to cover November since there’s no competition there (or RM could also let Jimin have October since it’s his first album, and he takes November)
• Jin’s birthday is December 4th and V’s is December 30th. Jin said his album will be last… but maybe there will be a switcharoo? Maybe they were trying to throw us off? Or Jin might drop his album towards the end of November and possibly go off to the military, and then our winter bear gifts us an amazing album on or around Dec 30th. 

This is a lot of mental gymnastics that may not play out exactly this way but it ✨JUST✨MAKES✨SENSE✨(kinda).  

And this is exactly what we needed after the Festa footage and seeing them cry and struggle as they asked us to understand. 

Namjoon, Seokjin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Jimin, Taehyung, Jungkook: please rest assured – WE UNDERSTAND. We love you. We’ll be here. 

Getting the chance to speak for themselves without feeling like they represent six other humans *at all times* (PLUS all of BigHit/Hybe, Army, and even all of South Korea at points)? 

NECESSARY. 

Overdue. 

Ready. 

APOBANGPO.

To listen to/watch our podcast episode going into a lot more detail, go to:

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