BTS ‘Spring Day’ Teaser: Jin, Jimin, JK’s MV Death Flags Sets Fandom On Fire

BTS’ highly anticipated comeback is almost within reach, as the powerhouse K-pop band’s 2017 album, WINGS: You Never Walk Alone, is set for release on February 13. As the group’s fanbase eagerly waits for the Monday release, BTS has released a short preview for one of the upcoming album’s music videos. From the imagery in the short clip, it appears that the Bangtan Boys are preparing something big and possibly dark for their fans. Needless to say, the K-pop community has been set aflame.

The short teaser video was for “Spring Day,” one of the tracks in the upcoming WINGS: You Never Walk Alone album, according to CelebMix. True to form, the short preview featured just a few lines from the song, together with a number of visually stunning imagery. Shot with soft filters, the “Spring Day” teaser appears very light and pleasant, with images of BTS’ members seemingly enjoying some good times together. Interspersed with these light scenes, however, are a number of seemingly dark clues as to what the music video would really feature.

Literary allusions to Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1973 short story, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, were included in the “Spring Day” teaser. Literary connections to the group’s music videos are nothing new to BTS, especially since one of the group’s previous projects, an MV for “Blood, Sweat & Tears,” was ridden with themes and excerpts from Demian, a novel by author Hermann Hesse.

The teaser video has only been released for a few hours, but it has already managed to attract the attention of thousands of fans, with many stating that there appears to be something dark beneath the light atmosphere of the “Spring Day” teaser video. For one, shots of Jimin holding a pair of white shoes on the beach seemed to be pivotal to the overall plot of the upcoming MV, as the BTS member was shown to be wearing a darker, different pair of footwear in the final seconds of the teaser.

Apart from this, the very same shoes that Jimin was holding appears to have been shown hanging from a tree. These two images alone have encouraged numerous fans to speculate that the music video for “Spring Day” would be melancholic, possibly even featuring the death a BTS member. The symbolism for shoes hanging from a tree is quite dark, as the image is usually associated with the death of someone young, according to K-pop website Soompi. Considering the scenes in the teaser video seemed to be associated with the fact that BTS member Jin was barefoot in the WINGS teaser photos, the images’ connection to the upcoming music video’s plot might very well be solid.

This is not all, however, as other scenes in the short teaser also seemed to tease the theme of death. The makeup of both Jimin and JK, which is very pale (the latter literally has purple lips) also appears to suggest the concept of a BTS member’s untimely demise. One of the final shots in the short teaser, featuring a match being blown out, all but wraps up the clues that were left by the K-pop group in their “Spring Day” music video preview.

While killing off a member in a music video is a pretty dark theme for a K-pop group, BTS’ previous projects have proven that the powerhouse band is open to experimenting and being edgy from time to time. Thus, even if the concept photos for WINGS: You Never Walk Alone appear very light and fun, it would not really be out of character for BTS to sucker punch its fans by releasing a music video with a very dark theme. That is simply the way the group works, and it is one of the reasons why BTS has been so successful.

WINGS: You Never Walk Alone is BTS’ comeback project for 2017. The album’s highly anticipated release is set for February 13, with the powerhouse K-pop group hosting a live countdown show in V Live on February 12 at 10:40 p.m. South Korea time.

[Featured Image by Big Hit Entertainment]