The members of BTS had a lot of reasons to miss the band during military service, but one of the biggest ones was the loneliness of being separated from the only other people who could really understand what they were going through: each other.
In an interview with Capital Breakfast posted Thursday (July 23), RM, Jimin, Jung Kook, SUGA, j-hope, Jin and V sat down for a classic English tea with host Jordan North. When discussing what it was like to finally resume band activities after about two years apart as each member completed his respective military obligations in South Korea, Jimin said, “It felt like a family reunion.”
The guys also emphasized how much they missed each other during the break, with V revealing, “I just felt a bit bored, because I didn’t have anyone who could understand me.”
“I didn’t really have many people to talk to,” SUGA agreed.
“There are peer counselors in the military,” V added. “But I’m not good at opening up. So, I didn’t have anyone to talk to about my worries.”
The guys pressed pause on K-pop superstar duties in late 2022, when Jin became the first of the members to enlist. The rest of them followed suit in staggered enlistments that allowed them to keep ARMY tided over with solo projects before the septet finally reunited in 2025.
The group almost immediately started working on a new album together, resulting in ARIRANG, which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. BTS is now on tour in support of the album, taking a small detour earlier in July to help execute a historic halftime show alongside Shakira, Madonna and Justin Bieber for the FIFA World Cup Final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
And while the Bangtan Boys definitely seem to prefer being with each other in the band than apart in the military, the time away did come with some perks. “V looked so different in the military,” Jimin said on Capital Breakfast. “He really beefed up.”
Watch BTS full interview below:
