I've actually seen BTS live 2 times before and they were both the best days of my entire life. My first time seeing them was in Berlin for their Love Yourself tour in 2018 (which was also my very first kpop concert) and the second time was in Paris for their Speak Yourself tour in 2019. I still remember the chills I got when I saw them on stage and when my fellow ARMY were cheering for them.

BTS, an acronym of “Bangtan Sonyeondan” or “Beyond the Scene,” is a boy band from South Korea that debuted on June 13, 2013. The members of BTS are RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook. They have been embraced the world over, transcending nations, races, languages, gender, and generations for their music, their passionate performances, and their close connections to their fans. They are always seeking new ways to repay the love they receive through their music. When you do this work, you feel a big disconnect. Separate from my idol career, I was nothing at that age. I would have been nothing if I hadn’t ended up doing music.” This melange of memories — happy and sad — of seven young boys coming together to change the face of the music industry is one for the BTS fans, .This B&N Exclusive Edition includes a gorgeous alternative cover, unique end papers and special color case stamp. The stories of their beginnings exist in the fandom as folklore. For example, Min Yoon-gi aka SUGA had many odd jobs on the side to support himself and his family and on one of these jobs, he got into an accident as a delivery boy and had to undergo multiple surgeries on his shoulder over the years. When you see him perform on stage, especially in the choreography of RUN BTS, it is hard to imagine that he went through such a tough phase. But every BTS member has similar experiences of hurting themselves during concerts, practice, or performances and powering through it all. The group also doesn’t shy away from discussing struggles with mental health. In his debut solo album, D-Day, released under his stage name AGUST D, Suga sang of the past hurt in the song, Amygdala: The way I see it, all of us members are ridiculous. We’re quite feral and therefore stubborn to the end. I love it because in this group, no matter how much our hearts break, we only love the stage even more. “So I fell down, no big deal,” that kind of sentiment.”

In May 2022, I was travelling in a car to a bubble tea place in New Delhi with three women – all of us BTS ARMYs of different age groups, with different careers – a writer, a law student, a photographer, and a college professor. And all four of us hummed the lyrics to Ddaeng aloud to the music blaring from the car’s speakers and discussed how we found BTS at very different ages – the youngest one at 16. The rest of us, who found BTS in our twenties, wondered how great it would have been to have found them during our teenage years – to hear from someone you idolise that you are enough, you are beautiful, love yourself and at the same time, to hear their artistic and personal insecurities sung in a medley of rap, hip-hop, and soothing vocals. During this discussion, the youngest fan turned to us and said in a wise voice, “You know, you don’t find BTS, BTS finds you exactly when you need them in your life.” And that is true for most of us. I do like to try different things. I figured I'd be able to have a variety of experiences if I were an idol and an actor at the same time. Reality had other plans.”

It was the first time I felt that “so many people are listening to our songs” and it was thrilling. I also thought, “This is what we made music for.”” When people kept asking us when we were debuting, to a trainee that’s really... that question is like a knife to the heart.”

i don't really have much to say because it's their life and i can't critic their story. but i'm grateful for everything they did to me and the millions of armys out there. i will continue to support every step of theirs from them as a group to individual soloists 🫶 here’s the thing about books like this⸺we don’t really get to have a critical opinion on them, because it’s simply someone else’s life, and what right do any of us have to speak on people who have already gone through endless hardships? so, no, I don’t personally have a lot to tell you about this wonderful book besides for the fact that it’s a masterpiece, but the members themselves have a lot to say:me being an army for six years, praying for bts to write their own book...🥲🥹 this is literally the best gift to army bookworms lol Myeongseok Kang merupakan kritikus berpengalaman dan mantan pemimpin redaksi untuk berbagai media. Tulisannya fokus pada budaya pop Korea, termasuk K-pop. Saat ini dia bekerja di Weverse Magazine. BTS