“He Comes to Every Concert With Me”: Meeting the BTS ARMY Boyfriends Outside the Arirang Tour

A horde of BTS fans flooded the mile-long pedestrian walkway connecting American Dream Mall to the parking lot of MetLife Stadium. It was Saturday afternoon, six hours before the seven-member supergroup took the stage for the first of two sold-out shows in East Rutherford—their first headlining shows at MetLife since 2019. And ARMY (the group’s highly dedicated and loyal global fanbase, whose name stands for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth) had been waiting for this moment for years.Couples walked hand in hand wearing matching BTS apparel, some of which was emblazoned with the names of their bias (the K-pop term for “favorite member”). Their clear plastic bags—12” by 6” by 12” in accordance with MetLife policy—dripped with BTS-branded keychains and figurines, whose jangling foreshadowed the fanfare about to erupt on the big stage.I’d opted for a slightly more low-key outfit, but I was part of that crowd—and not just as a spectator. I am a card-carrying BTS ARMY boyfriend. I’d secured tickets to the MetLife show for me and my girlfriend because she was stuck in a work meeting when they went on sale back in January. My coworkers recall my anxiety-fueled morning to procure the goods, driven by the fear of disappointing the love of my life—who wanted to see the loves of her life. Luckily, guided by a Google Doc cheat sheet she'd made to help increase my chances of winning the Ticketmaster showdown, I got her in for both of BTS’ MetLife concerts. (I only went with her to one.) The Saturday of the show, we braved three trains to cross state lines from our home in New York to see the septet in New Jersey.Anyone in a relationship with ARMY will know this is normal behavior. Supporting an ARMY partner means supporting a fan who’ll do anything to support BTS, whether they’re waiting hours online to buy merch, paying an exuberant amount of money for resale tickets, streaming BTS albums on repeat, or accompanying their loved one on journeys to far-flung locales like Bergen County, so that they can scream, shout, and dance in the presence of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook.The doors of MetLife opened at 5:30 p.m., but by 3 p.m. the parking lot already felt like a wholesome version of a football tailgate, with couples, groups, and solo attendees finding new friends amid the convivial crowd. As is customary with K-pop concerts, some fans handed out “freebies”—handmade merch like photo cards, bracelets, and signs to wave in the stadium stands. The energy in the crowd rivaled that of the World Cup fans who had flooded the lot just a couple weeks prior. Even as temperatures hit the mid-80s with high humidity and no shade anywhere in sight, the BTS buzz kept everyone—boyfriends included—in good spirits. Some of those partners seemed to be having just as much fun (if not more) than the loved ones they came with.For a taste of the energy outside the stadium, scroll on to meet the ARMY representatives—and the ARMY boyfriends—who showed up to mark the occasion.