Jung Kook 2/25 Live Review

Hi Loves,
I'm aware that I have a lot of new readers as of today that were greatly anticipating this translation.

HOWEVER, at the risk of potentially losing many subscribers/readers, I will not be translating Jung Kook's live as I normally do (see all past examples)

I will just provide a 'review' of what was discussed in strokes broad and specific enough to be helpful to ARMYs understanding of how to interpret this live - especially focusing on portions of the live that may have concerned ARMY.

When/where I assert my PERSONAL OPINION (as opposed to objective translation efforts), I will make it very clear. And finally, I will also make very clear recommendations (per my PERSONAL OPINION) of content that I think should NOT be reposted/circulated out of respect.

All of this is because (1) first and foremost out of respect for the artist's wishes - if he wanted/was allowed to/would not get penalized for keeping the live up, I believe it would have remained up and (2) as a Korean, I feel a sense of collective responsibility for protecting Jung Kook's reputation/privacy as much as relevant for me - which is admittedly VERY little but it is what it is doing translations.

to set the scene
re: Jung Kook & the other two

Jung Kook is with his close Busan childhood friend/roomie (as featured, off-screen in his previous pasta live) and his actual biological older brother, they've been singing/hanging out together for a while at the point the live is turned on around ~4m KST.

As ever, Jung Kook enjoys sharing himself/his life 'as is' - not polished or curated or necessarily crisply delineated from his stage persona. This live starts out with the simple intent to enjoy time vibing with people he loves (his brother, his childhood friend, and his ARMY) over noraebang (Korean word for karaoke), potentially introducing/showcasing the vocal talents of his friend and brother, and chitchatting.

A number of times in the first half of the live, Jung Kook repeats "I don't know.. I don't even know" a lot re: what is expected of him, what is "okay" to do on lives, etc. and that he thinks it's fine that ARMY witnesses him, authentically, in real time. As in, witnesses him puttering through this confusion, a bit loopy, processing his complicated frustrations and feelings in real time...

HOWEVER...

He's also realizing in real time that despite his intent, his brother and his friend were unprepared for this whole dynamic.

To be fair to these two men, I mean (1) they're not used to having MILLIONS of people waiting on their every word/singing/next action sober let alone after they've had a few; (2) they're unsure of whether or not Jung Kook might get in trouble for behaving this way; (3) they're unsure of how they should behave or if it's even okay for them to participate in his live like this. Not just in this context, but most Koreans, overall, feel a very STRONG sense of responsibility over the collective... so I promise their (bro/Busan friend) awkwardness was not over just their own personal discomfort but because they are also concerned for Jung Kook's wellbeing, reputation, etc.

re: Jung Kook & the cigarettes...

At some point, JK's Busan friend lights a cigarette off screen (likely to decompress and/or in lieu of knowing what else to do with himself) and Jung Kook playfully nags him to put out the cigarette and sing instead -further nagging that in the time it'd take for him to smoke the cigarette, he could sing more songs for ARMY~

A bit later, Jung Kook decides he'd like to address how he used to smoke, how through great efforts, he quit smoking, and is only speaking on it now that he doesn't smoke anymore.

As he's trying to unpack this, he realizes that because he's with his brother and his childhood friend, he's so comfortable he's worried he might swear - to which they both sorta reply like 'oh do you want us to leave for a bit then?' So he suggests they leave to take their cigarette break while he chats with ARMY for a bit and the two head out for a smoke break.

It's also important to recognize that yes JK's had a few but this admission of his past smoking habits was not thoughtless rambling or sloppy drunk text vibes. In a very uninhibited, vulnerable state - Jung Kook briefly mentions that he wants ARMY to know who he actually is - including his mistakes for which he also wants to take full accountability.

This is not some sort of dramatic confession because he thinks 'smoking' is some terrible thing - no. It's delivered just in a very matter-of-fact tone expressing that he doesn't want ARMY to think we're supporting someone who purports to never doing anything wrong (socially-deemed or otherwise).

He wonders if he was RM, he might've been able to articulate his thoughts so much better but really wants to express himself and is deeply frustrated that he can't get his feelings out.

re: Jung Kook & "the company" (HYBE/Big Hit)

Jung Kook does say at one point, to his friend, "if it weren't for the company, I'd probably blurt out everything..." and then he very quickly catches himself "oh does this make the company sound terrible?!" and corrects himself to say "wait I don't mean to say the company is bad - in fact, it works to neutralize lots of things so they are people to which I'm actually super grateful - they catch things that I miss all the time so please don't hate on our company - our company is very nice."

"...I'm more just saying if it were only me I'd say [such and such] but in fact, I'm a singer, an idol, and in the center of Kpop related things, so.. the company helps bring me back when I'm about to veer off somewhere.." "but if I was on my own..."

This is a hypothetical - purely a thought experiment, to say, if I was just a solo free agent (beholden to nothing - no group/no system/no company/etc.) I'd bare it all~

But please understand in context, this is no more emphatic or dramatic than if you or I were to say this about some of the shit we want to get off our chest -right? If I had no responsibility over anyone but myself, no family, no company's reputation, no known associates whose wellbeing I'm partly or wholly responsible for - the SHIT i'd want to get off my chest. I'm sure we ALL can relate to this very easily. This is all he means.

re: Jung Kook & circulating this live...

Jung Kook addresses that he fully realizes he's definitely going to hear from the company and his members at minimum because this is an unplanned live on which he's going rogue again.

Then, in VERY CLEAR UNAMBIGUOUS TERMS, Jung Kook says very clearly "i should delete this live... i shouldn't have done this live.. ugh but it'll probably circulate on YouTube ..sighh.. dangit.." and then he apologizes for starting a live without first having collected his thoughts and quietly thanks the ARMY on this live that are leaving comments but then includes "but I guess some of them might be malicious comments too..." quietly chuckles to himself 😭 and concludes "well anyway all of you, (including those hating on him in comments) i thank you all because after all, it's your attention."

I am only including these details because I want it to be very clear that after everything he said and thought through, the live HAS been taken down.

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As such, my personal opinion is that the only respectful thing to do is NOT TO SHARE/REPOST/ENGAGE with clips of this live.
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If you want to assert that "oh who cares, he's a celebrity, he should expect this kind of thing, viral clips are viral clips" - to you, blessings, go forth and argue with the wall~ 😘

Just because something can be done or has long been accepted as 'the norm' - if it's not good, not correct, not helpful, and especially if it is harmful - I will not abide that thing.

I'd go a step further and ask you to consider, not just re: BTS, but any celebrity/influencer/whoever's lives you feel entitled to manipulating in ways that are clearly against their wishes, that you admit to yourself that you are very comfortable treating other people as commodities that exist for your personal amusement rather than whole human beings with dignity. I did not stutter.

re: the next BTS album & comeback

They recently shot a music video and there are lots of worries and concerns with how things turned out but as nothing has been finalized yet, they have nothing to review as of yet... "but either way, we'll be sure to put out our absolute best"

Jung Kook goes on to talk about their new album that "while you may have expectations.... this time it is about what we want to do ..so it may or may not meet your expectations.. but I don't think you'll be disappointed..because we're all giving our best"

To anyone that might be quick to dismiss all of this like "omg who cares, they're adults, why do Koreans care so much about _____" let me gently ask you to pause. You're not entirely wrong. But you're definitely not entirely right.

Western values center the individual - the individual's comfort, welfare, and preferences. Others don't observe boundaries you set? Fuck em. They asked that much of you? Fuck em. And in western contexts, I'd more than likely say, with my whole chest, "oh 1000000% don't let anyone stifle you" - because in WESTERN contexts where nearly EVERYONE DOES embody this sense of self-importance, when one DOES encroach upon your personal boundaries, it is offensive and disrespectful. How dare they?! They likely would be offended if you did the same to them and they probably should have known better.

HOWEVER! In MANYYY other contexts, and especially Korean contexts, where the flourishing of the collective is prioritized WELLL above any individual - personal COMFORT? preferences? pshhh.. nope. We all yield for the good of the whole - together. This social contract also plays a part even in my own decisions to 'protect' Jung Kook's wishes/reputation.

There are very beautiful pros and devastating cons to both systems and of course each system is not without flex. Western thinking isn't exclusively self-centered. Korean thinking isn't exclusively sacrificial. But to dismiss their (JK/BTS/other Kpop idols/Knetizens/etc.) concerns all together or without inspection just because their responses don't make sense to YOU is to dismiss history, systems, beauty, tragedy, lived textures you have never felt, benefitted from, or contributed to~ There's MUCH broken in Korean society (as is true everywhere) but there's a LOT of good that has come from collectivist thinking too. All to say, please stifle your judgment~ If anything, do your research and engage with curiosity.

now for some conspicuously more lighthearted shenanigans

re: Jung Kook's love for ARMY vs. his Busan bestie

towards the second half of the live, he gestures (while his friend is singing) "i'm so sorry" "i miss you" "i heart you"

then a quick crispy 🖕🏻 to his childhood friend that cracks the both of them up

then back to air hearts for ARMY 💜💜💜

re: Jung Kook & cursing

um, have you ever watched those viral clips of like pre-K kids that are given permission to say one swear and they say it with their FULL CHEST with all the spice their whole like.. 3-4 years of life can muster?!

yea... it was like that.

the important thing to note is that Jung Kook is the cutest, tiniest, sweetest boba in all the land and that neither his Busan childhood friend nor his older brother are cool with him swearing in front of ARMY and will give him all the [playful] crap not to swear in front of his fans. in fact they said, you can do it this way (their way) but you can't do it that way (towards the camera) and JK goes "NO WHY WOULD I SWEAR AT ARMY??!" - he just wanted to say it at all in front of ARMY - to which his friend replies, "no don't even do it in front of them though" and then boba holds his tiny fists up (instead of his middle fingers) and points his ..knuckles towards his friend HAHHAHA this was a really sweet and funny moment

Just a final note to say - I have always operated this way even before I started this subscription translation or had any kind of following on social media and will continue to prioritize the artists' wishes when it comes to my translations. In the past, even after I had a full translation completed and published and circulating, once it was made clear that the artist didn't want it available any longer - I deleted mine completely.

I know BTS needs ARMY and that the fandom has done so much to elevate their reputation, impact, and reach to what it is today. I recognize this as fact. However, I don't believe that this entitles us into parts of their lives that they'd prefer to keep to themselves.

I treated this live as if it were my own loopy ramblings gone viral. In my heart of hearts, I imagine if I had a lot to drink after a very long, jam-packed work week, went live and talked about a bunch of things - from truly mundane ordinary random things to other more sensitive things that I either wouldn't address at all or would address very differently had I been sober - and this video went viral, perhaps if some folks, on my behalf, were to circulate information to help CLARIFY/CORRECT misinformation/misunderstandings, I'd appreciate that. But I wouldn't want video footage of my loopy moments to live on...

There are parts of this live, that if shared, could be harmful not only to his reputation but potentially to his career and safety. PLEASE do not circulate clips of this live.

In all instances when the content is legitimately made available for public consumption, I will continue to translate their longer lives the way I always have.

Thank you very much for your time, curiousity, and respect.

-TK