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Open Letter to BTS: The ones who came back as if they never left!

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Aishwarya Srinivasan
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BTS

Happy 12th anniversary, BTS! There never was and never will be anyone like you!

Dear BTS, 

3 years ago, I saw the 7 of you perform for the last time before you left for your respective mandatory military services. I wondered back then if my love for you would still be the same when you'd return. How much life would have changed by then; what if I don’t have a lot of my time to give you? Little did I know that in these 3 years, I would only be more and more in love with all seven of y’all each day! Because over the course of this time, if there was one thing that I was sure about, it was about how I am stanning a group that stans me back. Loving you never felt one sided. 

As a group, you guys took turns to keep us company so that the group’s absence as a whole felt acute. Some days we read RM’s heartwarming letters to us, and some days we watched Run Jin and laughed till our stomachs hurt. We missed Yoongi’s smile and some days we were taken back to BTS' world with J-Hope’s stellar solo concerts - Hope on the Stage. Some days we loved getting mini updates from V on Instagram and on some, we went on a fun friends trip with Jimin and Jungkook through Are You Sure! And if all of this wasn’t enough, Jungkook’s Weverse lives and all of your solo albums were here to give us the comfort we were seeking!

You laughed at long distance in its face and showed me that it really isn’t rocket science to maintain a relationship even though ours is a parasocial one at best! So I never waited out of compulsion, I waited, longed and yearned for 3 years because you gave me good reason to. You became my home. The one I leaned to on my darkest days and in moments of uncertainty. In these past three years, you also motivated an entire fandom to focus on their lives and reunite as better versions of themselves in 2025. Thank you for always pushing us to love ourselves and be the biggest motivation to achieve our goals! 

Also Read: Hope on the Stage, new songs and keeping chapter 2 alive, here’s how Armys are reacting to J-Hope’s solo activities!

I am sure that military service wasn’t a garden of roses for you either. It wasn’t exactly a place any of y’all chose to be at but had to adjust to because of circumstances. While my heart goes out for everything that you went through over there, I am glad that all of us can finally put that phase past us and look for a beautiful future that’s yet to come. 

It is officially that time of the year when Korea is dressed in purple to welcome you back and celebrate your 12th year as a successful K-pop group. There barely is anyone in K-pop history who has managed to stay at the top the way you have! And now, as we put an end to chapter 2, I cannot wait to see what chapter 3 has in store for us. What would be the first group activity that you guys film? What will the new album consist of? I can't wait for it all and also experience the energy of the very first concert that you guys hold as OT7. There’s simply too much to look forward to and I love how my entire social media feed aligns with how the BTS world looks like in my head. 

I find the utmost joy watching fellow BTS armies from around the world feeling the same emotions as me. We cry together, laugh together, share inside jokes that obviously only we understand, it feels surreal to experience this with people I don’t even know but share such a huge commonality with. As you step into your 12th year, I wish you nothing but more success, love, kindness and safety above all else! I hope you always know that you have an entire army who’s got your back no matter what and we’re in this Bangtan Soneyeondan journey for life!

As we wait for Suga’s discharge next weekend and for BTS to finally unite as 7 members 3 whole years later, here’s how armies from all around the world are reacting to this pivotal moment in pop culture!

Happy Festa to the ones who paved the way for K-pop and put it on a global map, you will forever be the coolest people I know!

Yours truly,
Just a fangirl who will never stop loving you! 

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