What ARMY has been up to on the long march to BTS's reunion
For many devoted BTS fans, known as ARMY, the past couple of years have felt both like an eternity and the blink of an eye.
With the band members completing their mandatory military duties, starting with Jin's enlistment on Dec. 13, 2022, the wait has been achingly long for some.
But others say the time passed quicker than expected, thanks to a steady stream of solo releases, past content to rewatch and occasional offline events — as well as a wave of creative fan-led projects.
Mitzy Minerva, a graphic designer from Mexico, only joined the fandom a year ago, well into BTS’s two-and-a-half-year hiatus.
But that, apparently, hasn’t dimmed her passion at all.
Fusing her love for the group with her cultural roots, Minerva created an ARMY-themed lele, a traditional Mexican doll, dressed in a purple outfit and the group’s official light stick, the ARMY Bomb.
“For me, it is a representation of our culture from Mexico,” Minerva said, as she offered her handmade purse with her own lele design on it as a gift during the 2025 BTS Festa event on Friday in Goyang, Gyeonggi.
Minerva’s work is one of many heartfelt creations ARMY members crafted in celebration of BTS.
An upcoming BTS fan art exhibition aims to shed light on such expressions of love with a telling title: “Presence in Absence: The Art of BTS Chapter 2.”
“At its core, the exhibition asks: How did we exist in their absence?” said Seo Ji-eun, co-founder of the event's organizer 25th Hour Collective, in a press release.
“It invites viewers to witness how fans sustained their connection to BTS through memory, creativity and shared longing, constructing a presence despite the group’s physical absence,” Seo said.
The exhibition, featuring works by 20 artists from 13 countries, will run from June 21 — the day that Suga is discharged from his alternative mandatory duty as a social service agent — through June 29.
Yvette Wohn, a professor of informatics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and one of the two co-founders of the 25th Hour Collective, defined fan art as “a form of love language.”
Wohn creates her own BTS fan art as well, under the moniker Kiru.
“Throughout history, artists have been inspired by other artists across genres of music, literature, et cetera,” the curator noted.
“I think there is a negative bias against all types of fan activities as something that is lowbrow, but from a philosophical perspective, I feel that fan art is a very wholesome expression of love.”
Meanwhile, some fans sought a connection with fellow ARMY members over their shared love of the group.
Valeria, a Seoul-based Colombian ARMY who has been part of the fandom since 2016, recently organized a BTS-themed trip with her friends to “create something truly special for fans visiting Korea.”
Following a carefully crafted itinerary of their own, Valeria led a group of ARMY friends to locations where BTS filmed its previous music videos, restaurants where its members have eaten before and more.
“For ARMY, even the smallest things related to BTS bring us so much joy,” said Valeria.
“That’s why we want to be present and take part in everything — we want to show them that we’re still here, always supporting them.”
Throughout the two-year pause, ARMY remained fiercely loyal. Among those is AnJolie Simeon, who traveled from New York to Korea for a 10-day trip that luckily coincided with BTS’s 12th anniversary.
“I think time went pretty fast,” Simeon told the Korea JoongAng Daily during the 2025 BTS Festa event on Friday, looking back on the past two and a half years.
“They [BTS] provided a lot of stuff, so I was enjoying it while they were away,” she noted, adding that she attended the members’ solo concerts in the meantime.
While she was tempted to support other K-pop groups at times, BTS remained her unwavering No. 1 through thick and thin because of “how genuine they all are,” said Simeon.
Such authenticity, she said, was what drew her to the group in the first place.
“I feel like that’s the best part,” the ARMY said. “This is a genuine group of friends, a group of brothers — they really love each other, and it is fulfilling to see that.”
BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]
