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What is "BU"?
BU is the acronym for BTS Universe. It is a universe created by Big Hit Entertainment for BTS. The events that occur throughout the BTS Universe does not portray and is not correlated with the BTS members' real-life stories and situations. The BTS Universe is completely fictional. Though the characters within BU share the same names as each of the BTS members themselves, as well as the fact that some aspects of each of the BU characters were inspired by the actual BTS members themselves, BU itself is a fictional universe.
BU is essentially a universe and a story that revolves around 7 boys, whom each has a different backstory that affects the kind of person they become and the actions and decisions they make throughout the story. The entire story is told from each of the boys' own perspectives through their personal journal entries, or what we know as "The Notes". If you ever purchase a BTS album (any album produced after 2015), you may find these small and compact booklets with the title "花樣年華 l The Notes" printed on the front of the booklet within each album. Each album version may contain a different HYYH note with a different character's journal entry. Together, all the notes are connected and intertwined with one another to form what we now know as BU.
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A Brief Introduction to BU and Each of the Characters
The BU storyline begins on March 2nd, Year 19. After being scolded and punished by a teacher for being late to class on the first day of high school, seven boys discover an abandoned classroom. They would soon become very good friends with one another and hang out in this abandoned classroom every day. However, at some point, a turmoil period arrives as each boy is faced with a difficult challenge that they must learn to overcome.
(*Trigger Warning Below: Mentions of death, depression, various mental illnesses, & bullying*)
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Seokjin
Seokjin is the oldest out of all the 7 boys and comes from a wealthy family. His father sent him to America to live with his grandmother after his mother's death when he was young. He often likes to see the world through the lens of his various cameras. He wants to become a good person through making others happy. The one person he always tries to please is his father, even if that would eventually imply betraying his own friends in order to not let his father down. After he betrayed his friends he went back to Los Angeles, California to finish high school there (Year 20). When he came back to Songju, South Korea, he found out that his friends were all going through very hard times. In an attempt to help save his friends from suffering from their hardships and resolve their problems, Jin ended up sealing a pact with a white cat. This pact allowed him to travel back in time and change the series of events that happened in order to make things right.
Yoongi
Yoongi is the second oldest in the group and comes from a strict family. He doesn't have a good relationship with his father (their personalities are complete opposite), and he lost his mother when their house caught on fire with her inside. During his last year of high school, he ends up getting expelled and since then he had cut all communication with his friends. He used to love playing the piano as it was his mother who had taught him how to play since he was very young. However, after his mother’s death and being expelled from high school, he decided to stop playing the piano. Even if the 7 of them were good friends, he had a special connection and was closest to the youngest one, Jungkook. Jungkook was the reason why Yoongi continued to play the piano after his mother’s death. Ever since his mother's death, he's always felt extremely guilty, as he would blame himself for it. This guilt eventually caused him to fall into a deep state of depression.
Hoseok
Hoseok is an orphan, as he was abandoned by his mother at an amusement park when he was 7 years old. To ease the pain of leaving her son, his mother pretended to play hide and seek and told Hoseok to close his eyes and count to 10. However, when he opened his eyes, all he saw was a chocolate bar (snickers), and his mother gone. His dream is to find his mother and to live happily. He often uses dancing as a coping mechanism and a way to make himself feel happier. But when he isn't dancing, he likes to be with his friends. When he isn't with his friends, he tends to force a smile to hide his sadness and loneliness. Hoseok suffers from narcolepsy (an illness that makes him to fell asleep at moments less expected) and Munchausen syndrome (a mental disorder that causes him to repeatedly and deliberately act as if he has a physical or mental illness when he is not really sick). He often gets hospitalized due to his illnesses.
Namjoon
He lives with his parents and a younger brother, but due to his family’s terrible financial situation (because his father is ill and cannot go to work) he has to work and study at the same time in order to help support his family. After becoming friends with all 6 other boys, he suddenly decided to leave high school because he could no longer afford to stay. Afterward, he moved to another town with his family, but left a message behind for his friends, which was “You must survive”. He tries to act like an adult but he tends to leave behind his problems and try to start over, which isn't always the best solution. After some time, he came back to the town where all of his friends lived, hoping to look for a better future and for his friends. Namjoon also lives in a container next to the train rails and he works at a gas station.
Jimin
Just like Hoseok, he loves to dance, but he get sicks more frequently, so he spends the majority of his time at the hospital. Ever since he was little, his parents would work a lot on a daily basis and didn’t have the time to take care of him. As a result, he felt abandoned by them. The cause of his illness could be traced back to a traumatizing event that happened to him at the Arboretum Flowering when he was 8 years old.
Taehyung
He dreams of becoming a superhero and saving the world from the bad guys. His mother abandoned the rest of their family when he was little and he has an abusive drunkard father who would often resort to beating his sister and him after getting drunk and coming home. He never talked about this with his friends, but it would slowly become quite obvious that his father’s abusive actions affected his personality. He would start to show a more violent side of himself to others. However, his worst fear was to end up becoming like his father, so he would build up a breastplate to contain his anger that grew day after day. This is the reason why he tends to put up a cheerful and foolish persona (which resembles that of an innocent kid). Sometimes when he does feel comfortable around his friends, he finds that he doesn't have to put up a persona in order to hide his true feelings away. His friends are like brothers to him, after all. For some reason, he develops the ability to dream and/or remember past timelines created due to Seokjin's time travelling.
Jungkook
Jungkook is the youngest in the group. His father abandoned his mother and him and his mother got married again after his father left. Since then, his family (biological mother, stepfather, and stepbrother) would neglect him, just like Jimin with his parents. But in this case, Jungkook suffered from his family's neglect because of the bullying he would receive from his stepbrother and stepfather. What's worse is that his mother did nothing to defend him. That’s why, like Taehyung, his friends are like his brothers and the family he never had. Since no one in his family pays attention to him, he likes to feel protected by his Hyungs (older brothers). The hyung that he relates the most is Yoongi, as he loves watching him play the piano. Yoongi's also the reason why Jungkook came to like music. Sometimes Jungkook looks to be a bit lost, which is why he tends to follow his hyungs. Besides his love for music, he also loves drawing.
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Smeraldo flowers
Smeraldo flowers is one of the most important objects to appear throughout the BTS Universe. It's a fictional flower which, in the flower language means "non potevo dire la verità", or "the truth that couldn't be told". Watch the video below to learn more about this magical flower:
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Smeraldo Blog
The Smeraldo Blog first appeared sometime right before the Love Yourself: Her era. The blog consists of posts in which a florist, Testesso, explains the origin of the Smeraldo Flowers, and other stories relating to the flower. If you would like to learn and read more about the stories posted from this blog, The BTS Effect is a great website to check out. The website gives a short summary of all the original stories posted by the Smeraldo Blog, as well as a timeline of the Smeraldo blog's history. If you would like to read the translations of the latest stories posted by the Smeraldo Blog, please check out cafe army's website. To visit the Smeraldo blog website on Naver, click here.
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The Flower Card
The Flower Card, or the Ashbless Cards, was first introduced to us in the original fifth story posted by the Smeraldo blog. In the original story, Testesso tells the story of the Italian aristocrat and poet, William Ashbless, and how he came to eventually create the Flower Card. According to the story, William Ashbless was inspired by the story of love entwined with the Smeraldo from an old woman. He happened to also really loved creating playing cards to present at salons to the court and nobles. As a result, he not only ended up creating the flower's name, Smeraldo, he also ended up creating a new card called the Ashbless card, or the flower card, as most of us know it. The flower card, depending on how it's turned (upright or upside down), can represent different meanings. When turned upright, the card symbolizes 'bearing fruit', 'blooming' (like beauty). However, when shown in the opposite direction, it signifies 'the fall', 'the end', 'a new start'.
Ashbless Card
We can also see the flower card being presented through the covers of every Love Yourself: Her and Love Yourself: Tear albums combined. We see that on the Love Yourself: Her albums, the Smeraldo flowers are blooming, but on the Love Yourself: Tear albums, the Smeraldo flowers are falling apart:
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Special items
For each boy, there are special items that correlates to them in a certain way. These items are very symbolic throughout BU and are important to note when writing theories. What each object means to each of the boys and what they symbolize is up to you to decipher and analyze!
Seokjin
Smeraldo flowers
Lilies
Earpiece
Camera
Yoongi
Lollipop
Piano
Lighter
Hoseok
Snickers Bar
Birthday cake
Namjoon
Hair tie
Lollipop
Jimin
Apple
Umbrella
Arboretum
Taehyung
Alcohol bottles
Spray paint cans
Jungkook
Key to the Magic Shop
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