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On June 3, 2024, reports flooded online about the tragic demise of the admin of @BTSMerchUpdates, Jean. The BTS ARMY was battling with cancer for years before she finally passed away on May 18, 2024. After learning about her untimely death, fans from across the world united online to give her a final send-off.
Jean was known across the ARMY community as one of the veteran BTS fans. She has been an ARMY since 2016 and operated the Twitter account (now X), @BTSMerchUpdates, where she would post links about the K-pop band's official merch, concert tickets, live streamings, and more.
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For years, Jean had helped the community by providing accurate updates regarding the band and showcased unwavering support and love for the band. Even before losing her long battle with cancer, she posted two tweets about 'BT21 City Edition' and its availability on Weverse Shop US. Those were her last posts on May 17, 2024.
Fellow fans were emotional to learn about her death at such a young age. They flooded X with their heartfelt messages which resulted in the worldwide trending of "Rest in Peace Jean" and "RIP Jean" with over 100K retweets and posts.
"Rest In Peace Jean. Up til your last moments you kept updating. Huge loss to ARMY community. Poured your heart out for BTS. You’ll still see BTS come home & reunite from heaven in those purple clouds with your ARMY bomb. Fly high angel." — an X user wrote.
"I remember Jean’s tweet about thinking if she would be here when BTS will return in 2025. She wrote, she hopes that she can fight cancer till their return. You lived fiercely & your love with 4evr guide BTS & ARMY. Rest in power, Jean. Rest in peace." — an X user wrote.
"ARMY is seeing you goodbye, Jean. You will be missed dearly, may you rest in peace." an X user wrote.
BTS ARMYs played Spring Day and shared its screenshots on X with the trending hashtags as they gave their last tribute to Jean.
"In honor of Jean, a respected ARMY fanbase & valuable member of our fandom. May you be free from all pain from now on & continue to watch over BTS from over the rainbow bridge. Please rest in peace & my thoughts and prayers are with your family & love ones." — an X user wrote.
"Surrounded by Bangtan, a fitting tribute. Thank you Jean for everything, a beautiful light on here and in the fandom. Rest in peace lovely Army."— an X user wrote.
"I remember seeing them tweet about being harassed for not posting enough earlier this year. We never really know what people are struggling with behind their online persona. Please always be kind. rest in peace, jean." — an X user wrote.
"This is so sad. Jean, rest in peace love. I had been following ya since ya first started @BTSMerchUpdates and will always be grateful to your help, love and support to us and the boys. Borahae forever." — an X user wrote.
"We lost a pillar of our community. I didn't know Jean personally but her updates were always a marker of my Army life. She was always there updating us all the time, dedicating her everything to it. Rest in peace beautiful purple soul." — an X user wrote.
Internet mourns over another BTS ARMY who lost their battle with cancer
Similar to Jean, in January 2019, Koreaboo reported about the 15-year-old ARMY losing her life to cancer. Vietnamese news organization TIIN reported that Bui Dieu Kl, 15, was suffering from cancer. Although severely ill, she was looking forward to the BTS' January 19, 2019 concert in Singapore and seeing Jungkook. Unfortunately, on December 20, 2018, she passed away.
Meanwhile, the mother of Bui Dieu Kl posted a heartfelt letter in 2019 and mentioned how the K-pop band had helped her daughter fight cancer for as long as she could. The mother added how she used to talk to her daughter about Jungkook since Bui Dieu Kl was a huge fan of the band member. She ended her letter by saying that she wished to send the letter to her daughter in heaven.
"I know very well that the 7 lovely members inspired you to overcome your illness for the past 3 years. Especially Jungkook, I used to talk about him with you every day. Remember, I used to call him son-in-law. Every time I did, you were extremely happy and couldn’t hold in your excitement. I love you so much and miss you so much. I’m going to send this letter to the place you are at and to the world where Jungkook is." (as translated and reported by Koreaboo)
The GRAMMY-nominated K-pop group will complete its 11th anniversary on June 13, 2024. The band's eldest member Jin will finally get discharged from the military on June 12 and is set to attend the in-person meet and greet event at Jamsil Stadium as part of their Festa celebrations. The rest of the group members are currently serving their military service tenure and will return in June 2025.
