"Everyone was pretty jealous of our squad"— BTS' Jin shares stories from his military service about treating juniors to food, making friends, and more

On July 10, 2024, BIGHIT MUSIC published the latest issue of BTS Jin's interview, where he talked about his military service and more. The Moon singer-songwriter was discharged from the military on June 12, 2024. He drove to HYBE directly from his base and greeted ARMY via Weverse LIVE while still in his uniform.

Meanwhile, in the exclusive Weverse interview, the Epiphany singer-songwriter commended his former division and said that after six months of service, the barracks' satisfaction rate had risen to 98–99%.

He added that other units were "jealous" of his division, and no soldiers were reported through the anonymous tip box for reprimand.

"The other soldiers at my level were great too. By the time we were about halfway through our service, no one got reported in the anonymous tip box anymore, and both our officers and enlisted personnel ranked their level of satisfaction at around 98 or 99 percent. I heard it’s usually only 38 or 40%. Everyone was pretty jealous of our squad. They said we got along really well."

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"People in my squad call me a god"—BTS' Jin talks about buying food to his juniors and earning the nickname

The BTS idol enlisted in the South Korean military on December 13, 2022, and was the first band member to enroll. The Epiphany singer-songwriter revealed that he was shocked to discover his bandmate, Kim Namjoon, aka RM, playing a saxophone.

He claimed that at first, when he was waving at the photographers and was emotional over leaving his friends, he didn't notice Namjoon carrying a saxophone and playing BTS' song, Dynamite.

In his Weverse interview, he recalled buying food for the junior soldiers with his military salary and "goofing" with them. He added that since he is financially stable and a lot of the junior recruits were just 19, he treated them to pizza, jokbal, and fried chicken all the time.

Jin added that, due to this, he became quite "popular" among his military peers and earned the nickname "God" since he used to buy food for everyone all the time.

"I spent my military pay and then some buying food for everybody. A lot of them were just turning 19 and never even had a job before, but I’m a lot more financially stable [...] I bought them so much fried chicken, jokbal, and pizza, that later on they got sick of them. I even took people from other barracks out to have barbecue. [...] That made people in my squad call me a god, not to brag. As soon as they saw me, they’d say, “Worship him!”," he said.

Jin recalled the day of his discharge, when his comrades bid him adieu and were crying. The BTS star told Weverse that he got close to several soldiers, and it was difficult to part ways with them after 18 months.

The Epiphany singer-songwriter mentioned losing his cool once during his military service. Jin had advised a junior recruit to heed his senior officers and show respect after the recruit made a mistake and continued "joking" about it.

Jin stated that he improved his shooting and sprinting skills every time new recruits joined the unit, as they would practice using firearms. He mentioned that as the Assistant Drill Sergeant, he had to pave the way for the new recruits so he would run longer to improve his skills.

"It varies by camp, but at ours, we got a chance to practice using firearms every time new recruits came. So I got to practice shooting, and I was always doing exercises like sit-ups or pushups on my own, so I got progressively stronger. We had to run with the trainees, and the assistant drill sergeants can’t fall behind, so I forced myself to keep running until I got better at it."

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Jin concluded his Weverse interview by announcing that he will follow Jimin's release of MUSE with the release of his own debut solo album. Jin also highlighted his excitement to be back onstage and in front of the ARMY (BTS fandom) and mentioned working hard on creating new music and content.