This past march turned ten years since I was dragged into K-pop. My friends from school made me watch fantastic baby by Big Bang during lunch break and my life changed completely.
Many times I thought I was a great change, other times I thought it was bad, some people found it weird that I enjoy Korean music, all those cliches about understanding it or not and so, and so…
In the past ten years liking kpop, I’ve liked many different groups, I’ve seen many different scandals, tragedies, many disbandments, many hiatus…
During these ten years I fell in and out with groups and K-pop on itself many times. Mostly because I needed it, I needed to fall out and back in to grow, to mature and to become who I am today, many of these falls happened due to the different moments in my life, to the timings and the messages I needed to hear and who I was as a person at those moments.
Since dynamite I felt like BTS needed a break, everyone does. The whole pandemic had been hard on everyone. Everyone is tired, burnt out and needing to relearn how live life and be a new version of ourselves. And they are no different.
I had to learn to be a new me when the pandemic started and now that life is back out again, I’m learning to be a new me again. And I’m very glad I had BTS during these times, and I’m also very glad they are taking time to learn how to be their new selfs too. They need it, I think more than any other group. They deserve to do things they want to do but never did because they put the group above all else.
When they announced the anthology album I though they were going to take a break or even announce their disbandment and there were a few reasons behind it, one of them being the military, (as a international fan and a bachelor in international business and affairs, I’ll not put my opinion on it here because is not relevant), another was a hiatus or solo projects making group projects take longer to happen again. And I’m sure all this is part in their decision and is also some of those things they can’t share with us but hope we understand.
And I honestly do. Their work is still out here for us to consume, they are still going to make great music for us. And I’m still going to cheer on them for as long as it takes, maybe not as hard as I’ve been doing in the last 6-7 years, but maybe as a occasional listener as I did in their first 2-3 year of their journey.
Once we love something so hard that it helps shape who we are, even if, someday it ends, it’ll always be part of us. And the fact that because of them I changed to become who I am today is already unforgettable.
I do feel a bit of regret that now that I found my timing with my writing, they are taking a break (since that are now my biggest inspiration) but is not like I won’t write anymore just because of it. I don’t know for how long I’ll keep writing but I won’t stop just yet.
