#10YearsWithBTS: A Letter to BTS, from an ARMY

Dear BTS,

Who would've thought that we have made it

to this decade already?

Your beginnings were very rough.

You were supposed to be just a hip-hop trio, but then turned into an Idol pop group.

You were made from a small entertainment company who believes in your hardwork from the very beginning.

You practiced hard to the point that even the mirrors in your practice rooms were slowly filled with fogs.

You even create and recorded some music in a car garage because you didn't have enough payment to rent a recording studio at that time.

You all stayed in a small dorm where space is limited but sharing stuff and even celebrating your first year together is always full of joy.

Even after years of moving from one dorm to another, You all stayed together all the way to the very end.

You debuted in a time where there's uncertainty in finding out if you'll even appear on a huge Korean music show.

And when you do appear, there will some unexpected hiccups along the way from the very start.

You experienced what many K-pop groups has also experienced before, seeing the black ocean of lightsticks was like ghosts not knowing who you really are.

And even if you have your first win since debut, you still need to do different shows — including a concert that you were supposed to perform on air, but ended up performing with lots of confetti left on stage, cameras turned off, and even a leader missing, and a fashion competition show where you just perform non-stop while the models step into the runway.

You even enter different variety shows, yet some of those just seem to not care about who you are and even wanted to step away and even completely forget about you.

(Well, who gets the last laugh now? It's still the seven of you, for sure!)

You experienced all of the challenges that the music and entertainment industry as a whole continue to do in Korea and the rest of the world.

You even conquered and endured all of the negative and harsh criticisms of every antis and critics who all tried their best to destroy your growth as artists.

Plagiarism? Sajaegi? Unorganic success?

Who even cares about that? It's only through hardwork, dedication and loyalty to each one of you and the whole ARMY of fans that brought us to where we are today.

You, who despite winning bigger awards in Korea and beyond, including your BBMA win in 2017, still faced backlash from the critics and other fandoms.

While the unexpected surge in your popularity as a group caused a lot of pressure, expectations, and even speculations of your next move.

Everything that you do, all the way to your private life at that time, started to calculate by everyone in the public eye — including the media, who can sometimes be a double-edged sword.

As the years went by and even more demand in different shows and events — especially by the last few months of 2017 up to the entire 2018 alone has began to take place, you all experienced the feeling of being burned out and having a lot of weight of slowly becoming global pop icons, it even come to the point that you all decided to just disband because of the success and responsibilities that you do as a group that slowly began to blow out of proportions.

Yet, you never forget what made BTS, the BTS that started from nothing.

The BTS who work tirelessly just to present the heart and soul of their music to the whole world.

The BTS who never failed to put smiles on everyone's faces everyday.

The BTS who believes from the very beginning, that there will always be a most beautiful moment for all of us.

And will always hope for a beautiful future that's yet to come.

You move forward with brave and strong hearts and continue to create music that connects the maps of every soul existing in this world.

You continue to shine a light on topics and issues that can sometimes be hard to even express on any medium imaginable.

You continue to fight for what is right, fair and equal in this ever-changing world.

You continue to inspire fellow Asians to follow their dreams, aspirations, and passions, without the fears and criticisms of the world that can hinder them from making big waves like you do.

You even continue to fight for your home country, by taking a big risk and continue doing the military duties — even if it will lose everything that you all achieved for the past decade.

As your maknae has stated in 2022, This will never be your last to do so.

The truth is, all that hardwork that you do for the past ten years, slowly makes all of the dreams work.

Everything that you do in the past decade — and even more beforehand as a team speaks louder than words can even say or even write in this letter.

Everything you experienced in the past decade, became a part of what makes you more bulletproof than ever before.

As long as you have the management who's been with you for all of the highs and lows, the joys and sadness, the positives and negatives, and the triumphs and tragedies of this ever-changing world.

As long as there are artists who appreciated you like how you appreciate them and inspired them to do the same since the beginning of their own respective careers.

As long as you have us, the ARMY, who come from just a small squad to a whole team, still here from the very start of their journey up until the very last moments of our lives.

We will always be strong.

Bulletproof strong.

From the bottom of my bora-filled heart,

Happy ten years to you, my dearest Tannies!

I hope the second chapter of your lives will always be fruitful and beautiful as it was in the first chapter.

💜 APOBANGPO, always and forever. 💜

Ericka