BTS is going on a break! And my are they (temporarily) going out on top!
According to Deadline, the K-Pop sensation will take an “official and extended period of rest and relaxation,” which, considering all seven members been performing nonstop since 2013, seems perfectly fair. Indeed, when BTS released their debut single album that year, they were all teenagers, and now they are in their 20s and certainly considering the existential weight of mortality.
It’s unclear just how long BTS will be on a break, or if they’ll return in the same form (or, honestly, at all). Big Hit Entertainment, which formulated BTS back in the day, announced the band’s hiatus on Twitter:
This period of rest will be an opportunity for the members of BTS, who have relentlessly driven themselves towards their goal since their debut, to recharge and prepare to present themselves anew as musicians and creators. This will also provide them with a chance to enjoy ordinary lives of young people in their 20’s, albeit briefly.
During this time, the members will rest and recharge in their own personal ways.
Big Hit Entertainment also asks that if you “have a chance encounter with BTS while they are on vacation,” you “show consideration for their need to rest and enjoy their private time off.”
Considering the BTS members are swarmed by fans at all times, I imagine this is a pretty big ask, but also probably an important one. I have never been a famous person and hopefully never will be, but fame seems pretty exhausting, especially when you didn’t expect—when signing up to join a boy band at the age of 18 or whatever—that you’d eventually shoot to superstardom so extreme people would camp out for a week in the rain just to see you perform. Give these kids a break! And don’t mob Jungkook when you see him at the grocery store, no matter how much his eyes seem to tell you to come hither.
Update (10:36 p.m.) A number of BTS fans pointed out to me that they’ll be on tour in October, so perhaps this extended break is not very extended, after all.