Not that we were doing it for the money necessarily, but I wonder if we should’ve at least been paid enough to buy a meal, and a lot of times we weren’t paid even that.”

If history books are the answer sheet to the present, then our sunbaes (seniors) who did music before us are our answer sheet, right? However, with us, we had to deal with an additional something else.” once in all the lifetimes 💜 review to come hopefully this weekend! but i am so thankful this book will be on my bookshelves forever and that bts gave us this vulnerable insight on them as creators and humans for this last decade. ;___; it is such an honor to follow them + love them. The book slowly opens up to the journey of Bulletproof Boy Scouts, the initial name of BTS, to how they became Behind the Scene or BTS. The band’s members – Kim Nam-joon (RM), Kim Seok-jin (Jin), Jung Ho-seok (J-Hope), Min Yoon-gi (SUGA/AGUST D), Park Ji-min (Jimin), Kim Tae-hyung (V), and Jeon Jung-kook (Jungkook) – each belong to a different region of South Korea, and met each other for the first time in Seoul. 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.”I had to do a little better, but I didn’t have the ability, but I still wanted to do something.... that’s what it was like at the time.” For most actors, musicians and celebrities, these fan meets happen all over East and Southeast Asia (South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand) and even in Dubai and Australia. For BTS, the fandom may be an extension of their existence. Time and again the band has called on ARMYs for support, whether for their music, or the charities or causes that BTS supports. Any donations made by them are quite often collectively matched by the fans. As J-Hope mentions in the book about BTS’s United Nations invitation, “Because I’m an extremely ordinary person. Just a Gwangju native, with a very ordinary upbringing, so much so that all this took a while for me to accept.” I couldn't be glad in the moments I was supposed to be glad, and I couldn’t be happy in the moments I was supposed to be happy.”

I was worrying my head off as to whether I could continue my life as a trainee. It was really hard for me, the act of living itself.” Actually, I don’t think we were people who lived life thinking about so many things. In fact, if we had thought a lot, it would have been harder, and because we were just seven really simple people, maybe that was what made it possible.” For Jin and RM, these discussions were important while V/Kim Taehyung found ways to continue the gruelling training through some stolen moments of happiness, for instance, sharing a favourite food with RM despite being on a strict diet or bonding with Jin over their favourite anime. Outside the training, what made BTS stand out was its digital marketing strategy. I try not to think about those times if I can help it. Because ultimately, we’re the ones who won and ended it.”The stories have been woven together within the context of the larger Korean music industry by the journalist and candid, in-depth interviews with BTS. Of course, all of this is on-brand for BTS – opening up, sharing their struggles, or things that may be embarrassing for others but are important life lessons for BTS. There are details such as the fact that they practise more than 16 hours daily, their initial doubts about making a debut, doing justice to their fame with their music, and other creative and personal concerns. It was a super pleasant read (gulped it down in 2 days), but it was akin to the In the Soop or Bon Voyage interviews when I guess what I was looking for was a bit more of the spontaneous V Live candidness or even the raw storytelling that comes out on Suchwita. 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, . 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