BTS is a boy band that consists of seven members: Kim Namjoon (김남준), Kim Seokjin (김석진), Min Yoongi (민윤기), Jung Hoseok (정호석), Park Jimin (박지민), Kim Taehyung (김태형), and Jeon Jungkook (전정국). Their respective stage names are RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, and each member plays an important role in BU. In this post, I will provide a short outline of the storyline and a summary of the BU characters.
Story Outline
*Disclaimer* This is a chronological break down of the story that I put together. The information may be false because this is my personal interpretation of the music videos and The Notes, which I discussed in my first post.
The story is broken into five main parts: school days, the breakup, turmoil, reunion, and the encounters. The school days encompass the happy moments when the BU characters spend time together in their “classroom” (an empty classroom where they meet with each other). The breakup consists of a series of events that cause the group to separate. Turmoil follows the breakup in which each member goes through their own personal struggles. Reunion details how the group comes back together again after several years. The encounters describe the interactions the group has with several unnamed girls.
Character Descriptions
Before I start, I have a few things I would like to mention:
The characters’ names in BU come from the first names of the members that play them. In Korea, the surname comes before the given name; therefore, the character that Kim Namjoon plays is named Namjoon in the storyline.
The descriptions I will provide below are about the BU characters. They are in no way related to events that occur in the actual BTS members’ lives.
I derived the information below from watching the music videos and reading the english translations of The Notes.
BU Name: Namjoon
Real Name: Kim Namjoon
Stage Name: RM
Namjoon lives in poverty with his mother, father, and sibling. His father is ill, and no other information about his family is given. During the school days, the other boys see Namjoon as a responsible adult they admire, but he believes that he does not deserve to be perceived in such a way. Namjoon’s family moves away during the breakup period, and not much is said about him during the turmoil phase other than his struggles with poverty. In the reunion period, Namjoon runs into Taehyung in the parking lot of the gas station where he works part time. Namjoon and Taehyung have a close relationship after their reunion, but there are instances where their relationship falters. During the encounters period, Namjoon interacts with a girl he frequently sees on the bus.
BU Name: Seokjin
Real Name: Kim Seokjin
Stage Name: Jin
Although BU centers around all seven characters, Seokjin appears to stand out the most. During the school days, the relationship between Seokjin’s father and the school principal causes trouble. The principal pressures Seokjin into tattling on his friends by threatening to tell his father he is a bad student. To keep from angering his father, Seokjin tells the principal about their “classroom”, which ultimately leads to Yoongi getting expelled. This triggers the breakup period, and after Yoongi is expelled, Seokjin transfers schools. Not much is mentioned about Seokjin in the turmoil period besides his thoughts on the group’s misfortunes in life. During the reunion period, there is a confusing diary entry from The Notes that leads readers to believe Jin is stuck in a repeating cycle where only he can save the group from their misfortunes. In the encounters period, Jin finds the diary of a girl that he passes near the train tracks. After looking inside her notebook, he decides to get the girl the flowers that she mentions in her diary called smeraldo. Unfortunately, a car hits the girl before he is able to deliver the smeraldo flowers to her.
BU Name: Yoongi
Real Name: Min Yoongi
Stage Name: Suga
Yoongi used to love playing the piano because his mother taught him how to play. However, he is traumatized by the time his house burned down with his mother inside and keeps a burnt piano key as a memory. Not much is specified about Yoongi during the school days, except his close relationship with Jungkook. In the breakup period, Yoongi is expelled because he pushes a teacher that physically abused Jungkook. During the turmoil period, Yoongi blames himself for his mother’s death and drinks frequently. In the reunion period, he rekindles his relationship with Jungkook. The girl Yoongi meets during the encounters period tries to get him to quite smoking.
BU Name: Hoseok
Real Name: Jung Hoseok
Stage Name: J-hope
Hoseok was abandoned by his mother at a theme park when he was a young boy, and consequently, he spent ten years at an orphanage. During the school days, Hoseok and Jimin become close friends. Due to Jimin’s medical condition, he is hospitalized, and the two friends separate during the breakup period. The turmoil period presents a depressed Hoseok whose only comfort is dancing. Both The Notes and the music videos also suggest that he has a drug addiction. In the reunion period, Hoseok helps Jimin escape from the hospital, and gets closer to Taehyung. The encounters period details Hoseok’s relationship with a girl he dances with who will soon be leaving to dance with an international team. The girl reminds him of his mother who left him as a child.
BU Name: Jimin
Real Name: Park Jimin
Stage Name: Jimin
As a child, Jimin had an unspecified traumatic incident at an arboretum. Due to the incident, he has seizures and is hospitalized frequently. During the school days, he and Hoseok grow close, but due to his medical conditions, he has to leave his friends to stay in a hospital. For Jimin, the turmoil period revolves around him telling his first lie by saying he lost his memory. The reunion period brings him and Hoseok together again, but he struggles to face what happened at the arboretum. In the encounters period, Jimin collides while dancing with Hoseok’s dance partner which sparks his memory of the incident at the arboretum.
BU Name: Taehyung
Real Name: Kim Taehyung
Stage Name: V
Taehyung is another character that, like Seokjin, stands out from the rest. He has an alcoholic father that has physically abused him from a young age. During the school days, he hides his bruises well and enjoys his time with his friends. Unfortunately, the breakup period leads him to his turmoil period, which is characterized by disruptive behavior resulting in many encounters with the police. The reunion period leads to a close relationship with Namjoon, who he sees as his brother, and vivid nightmares including Yoongi’s death, a car accident involving Jungkook, and a fight with Namjoon. During this period, Taehyung attacks his father after he witnesses him abusing either his mother or his sister. In The Notes, Hoseok prevents Taehyung from stabbing his father with a broken bottle, but in the music video I NEED YOU, Taehyung is shown stabbing his father multiple times. It is unclear which storyline is real since both scenarios are shown in the short videos posted by BigHit’s youtube channel. ARMY speculates that the discrepancies between the storylines are different outcomes of the repetitive cycle in which Jin is trapped. Taehyung’s nightmares may also represent more alternative endings. During the encounters period, Taehyung meets a girl who follows him at a convenience store, and they vandalize property by spraying graffiti together.
BU Name: Jungkook
Real Name: Jeon Jungkook
Stage Name: Jungkook
Jungkook lives with his mother, stepdad, and stepbrothers. Jungkook’s mother and stepfather ignore him when his stepbrothers beat him up, which leads him to have suicidal thoughts. During the school days, Jungkook feels happy to spend time with his friends in their classroom everyday, and he enjoys listening to Yoongi play the piano. During the break up period, Yoongi gets expelled because he steps in to protect Jungkook after a teacher hits him. Both he and the other boys are unaware that Yoongi’s expulsion was Jin’s fault; therefore, Jungkook feels guilty for getting Yoongi expelled. The turmoil period brings Jungkook to the brink of death when he almost commits suicide by jumping off the top of a construction building. A phone call from Yoongi stops him, which leads to the reunion period where he and Yoongi grow closer. During this period, a car hits Jungkook, and he is hospitalized. In the encounters period, Jungkook meets a girl in the hospital and has repetitive nightmares about Yoongi dying in a fire.
The descriptions above may be confusing for the readers who have yet to watch the videos or read The Notes listed in my last blog. It is important to keep in mind that the story has many loose ends which is why my explanations may seem fragmented at times. The character summaries above only touch upon major events in the storyline, but I recommend reading The Notes to have a clear understanding of what occurred. While certain aspects of the story seem depressing, there is a reason every character is faced with such dismal conditions. BU is a coming of age story, and ARMY believes that BTS is trying to portray the negative sides of growing up and how to overcome them.
Thank you for taking the time to read to the end, and I hope you enjoyed my summary of the BU storyline. While BU is quite heartbreaking, please remember that the actual BTS members promote a healthy lifestyle and want their fans to love themselves!
References
Pictures: Featured Image
Wow! I can’t believe all of the effort that you’ve put into this. I will admit that I was a bit lost at times even though you had good explanations. After having read all of what you said, I am really confused as to why the story they tell through their music is so sad if the group is aiming to support the happy healthy lifestyle. I’m mostly just wondering what the group does to promote that lifestyle if they make such heartbreaking music.
Hi! Thanks for commenting, and I will answer your question in the next blog post, which will decribe the happier aspects of the story. It will also briefly describe their campaign with UNICEF to end violence.
Wow! That was a really great post! Even though I’ve never seen any of the videos or read the notes you referred to, I still felt like I understood a good portion of the story by reading your explanations. I now get why being an AMRY is harder than passing organic chemistry 🙂
I really loved your way of explaining things. Honestly you are right there are many loopholes in the storyline and while concluding each outcomes and scenarios, I personally felt like perhaps I was still missing out on things or maybe I have overlooked something. Your explanations were clearance to my own ideas and in fact it helped me gain more insight on the events and process of story. Thanks. I am looking forward to your next blog. Frankly, interpreting BU is more interesting than my literature assignments. 😁💜
Can somebody put the link to the video