Jimin isn’t saying goodbye to BTS Army as he prepares to begin his service as an active-duty soldier in the South Korean military. Instead, he’s sending them a heartfelt love letter as more of an “I’ll see you later” in the form of his latest solo single “Closer Than This.”
“Whenever it rains, I’ll remember the times I sang in the rain/Whenever it snows, I’ll cherish how you smiled for me in the snow/On the spring day we meet again, I’ll tell you everything I couldn’t before/My love, my babe, forever by your side/Seven equals one, right, our hearts still beat as one,” Jimin sings, sprinkling references to BTS’ long career throughout his verses.
The singer daydreams about the day he’s reunited with his fans, offering: “Let’s sing it together, this song/For the day we’ll reunite again with a pat on the back/Gazing at one another with tears in our eyes/Calling out each other’s names.” Earlier this month, BIGHIT Music announced that Jimin, RM, V, and Jung Kook would be joining their bandmates J-Hope, Suga, and Jin in completing their mandatory military service obligations. BTS is expected to return in 2025.
In a later verse, Jimin looks back on how far he’s come with the band and celebrates the fans who have come along for the ride. “Starting on June 13/To the us of the present, here and now,” he sings, referencing the date of BTS’ anniversary. “Even if you’re not here/At the same place, always/I could never let you go/Never let you go.”
“Closer Than This” marks Jimin’s first official solo release since sharing his debut solo album Face earlier this year. The record, which arrived in March, featured the popular single “Like Crazy.”
“In this album, I look back at myself. I heard that the word ‘face’ has many different meanings,” he told Rolling Stone ahead of the album’s release. “Of course, it has the meaning of the noun, face, but it also means, ‘to face, to [confront],’ as a verb. So in order to stand at this new starting point and begin a new journey, I thought it would be necessary to look back at myself and face myself entirely.”
He added: “I’m actually not good at beating around the bush, or indirectly saying things, and that’s the same with my lyrics. I just wrote the emotions as they were, exactly how I felt two years ago, and the emotions that I felt in every situation [at that time]. So if you just listen to the music, you’ll understand the lyrics right away.”