BTS Introduction: How I Got Hooked and the Journey

[Update: 2024/11/23] I found the date I likely got hooked, so I added a "Related Articles" section.

Falling into the rabbit hole in an instant

At the end of November 2023, I suddenly got hooked on BTS.

If there are any ARMYs who see this and go, "Ah..." and understand, please let me cry on your shoulder. Yes, by the time I recognized BTS, the military service of all members had already been announced,
and my journey into the rabbit hole began from the state of

falling in love, but the members aren't there

I hadn't even seen a live concert, let alone anything else.
It wasn't even a question of that.

The trigger was KER

The trigger was Kevin's English Room YouTube content.
I loved the relationship between the three members of KER and watched them all the time.

They are also very good at singing, and they arrange, translate lyrics, and collaborate with others to sing.
Since they also sang BTS songs, I learned the three major English songs, "Dynamite," "Butter," and "Permission to Dance," without even knowing they were by BTS.

I made a playlist of KER's songs. It includes BTS songs too.
You should definitely listen to their version of "Suiheisen"!

Recognizing BTS through the UN version of PTD

One day, this song appeared in my YouTube recommendations.
I clicked on the thumbnail that said "UN conference hall recognizable at a glance + handsome guys recognizable even from a distance" without thinking. It was a fateful move!
I remember being surprised, thinking, "Oh, I know this song," "So it was these guys," and "They're performing at the UN!?"

Everyone looked so happy and was truly cute. The lightness of their steps after going outside and the sense of liberation brought by the clear blue sky matched the song, so I watched it over and over again.
I had never even thought about using the UN General Assembly hall as a stage. Amazing!

At this time, I thought, "I like this person's face, but I don't know who it is!!" which, looking back now, was Jungkook, V, and sometimes Jin.
Since all three shared the elements of "black suit, black hair, handsome, and legs too long," I was blinded by their aura and couldn't tell them apart...!

BTS was more of an ocean than a rabbit hole

After recognizing BTS, I searched for them as much as I could.
What surprised me there was the sheer volume of content. I... I can't keep up...!
Even just on YouTube, tons of related channels come up, and there's Weverse and social media, so no matter how much I watch, I can't see it all.

However, what I thought was amazing about the BTS community was the thickness of the accumulation built with ARMY; no matter what you search for, the answer comes up.

The path you are on now is a path someone else walked before

I felt that deeply.

For example, I wondered what that call-and-response-like thing was where Jungkook and V say "So show me" and "I'll show you" at an awards ceremony, and when I searched for it, I found that someone had definitely asked the same question in the past, and some kind ARMY had already answered it. That's the kind of place this is.

Thank you so much, ARMY from the past.
Thanks to you all acting as a light illuminating my path, I am smoothly falling deeper into this.

Three months since we met

I met them at the end of November 2023, so it's been about three months now.

During that time, my YouTube watch time has skyrocketed, and I've started not just watching, but creating playlists and leaving comments.
I've thought about studying the Korean I dabbled in long ago again, I sing along to karaoke videos with Korean lyrics, and I find myself bursting into laughter watching Run BTS! in the middle of the night.

A part of my brain is now occupied by BTS, and I find myself smiling every time I engage with them.
Like an addiction, I find myself wanting to see them.
This excitement is similar to being in love. It reminds me of the stirrings I felt long ago.
It's that feeling of finding everyone around you lovely, feeling happy yet restless.

I am fully aware that this is what it means to fall into the swamp.
It's that time when a sense of self-identity as an ARMY is starting to sprout.

I think I'll be hooked for a while, so I started this note.
I'll probably write again. Please feel free to read it if you'd like.

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