'Jealous but so happy': 1000 ARMY hug BTS' Jin, fans who could not attend share their reactions online

Soon after being discharged from his military duties, BTS' eldest member, Kim Seokjin, met the group's fans, called ARMY, at the Seoul Sports Complex in southern Seoul on the group's 11th debut anniversary. Jin even hosted a fan event in which he gave out 1,000 free hugs, and several videos showed lucky fans meeting and hugging the superstar.

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Many fans had been queuing up hours before the event officially began, and after many videos were shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), Jin was seen welcoming ARMY with a big smile. However, fans who could not make it and did not receive a hug were seen as jealous but happy for the fandom being together.

At the event, the singer expressed his desire to host another similar event someday and said "Maybe right now I can only hug 1,000 people, but in the future, before I die, I want to do it again".

This event marked Jin's first appearance since he completed his military training on June 12. Soon after being discharged, he went to the HYBE headquarters and hosted a Weverse Live to connect with ARMY first. Jin revealed that the "free hug event" was his idea and explained that he aimed to offer hugs to 1,000 lucky fans.

"I need to talk about FESTA. I gave a good idea, but it received a lot of criticism. I took a look at it so let me try to explain. I took a draft with me from the start. Since I am in charge of the FESTA by myself this time, I contacted the organizer around October, or November last year. But they were honest and said they already planned everything so there wasn’t much left to do. They asked me if I had any ideas. I said I wanted to do a free hug event, but they said no," he explained as reported by Koreaboo.

Jin also mentioned that the organizers were initially concerned about his safety, however, they eventually agreed to a free hug event, limited to 1,000 fans.

Jin is the first BTS member to complete his military enlistment while J-Hope is set to complete his enlistment this year as well. Next year, leader RM, Jimin, V, Suga, and Jungkook will be discharged and the group has promised to make a strong comeback.

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