[with ARMY ㉔] "Everything Here Is a First": One ARMY Steps Out on Her Own for BTS

TORONTO — Ha Yu-kyung did not come to Toronto alone. Her husband and sons had made the trip with her from Richmond Hill, Ontario, but when it was time to walk into Rogers Stadium for BTS' "ARIRANG" World Tour, Ha would leave her family behind.

For someone used to doing things with her family, that alone made the night unusual. It would also be her first BTS concert, her first time attending a concert without her family and one of the first times she had gone off to do something entirely for herself.

"I'm a little scared and excited at the same time," Ha told K-POPIT ahead of the concert. "Everything I'm doing here is a first."

Originally from South Korea, Ha immigrated to Canada and now lives in Richmond Hill with her husband and sons. She became an ARMY around 2018 after watching BTS perform on ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2018."

At the time, Ha had recently had a baby and was going through a difficult period adjusting to life as a new mother. She had never been someone who closely followed K-POP, but watching BTS perform "DNA" immediately caught her attention.

"BTS are really good performers," she recalled. "They were so good that I started liking them after watching that performance."

The performance drew her in, but what kept her interested was something more personal. Ha said she had rarely paid much attention to other K-POP artists, partly because she felt older than their typical audience. BTS, she said, felt different.

She was drawn to what she described as the group's bright and positive energy. Living in Canada after immigrating from South Korea, Ha also found that following BTS gave her a connection to where she came from.

"With BTS, there was something that felt connected to the roots of my own life," she said. "It felt like there was this connection, so I came to like them from my heart."

What began as Ha's own interest eventually became part of family life. Her husband and sons grew to like BTS as well, turning something she had first discovered during a difficult period into something they could enjoy together.

Seeing BTS in person was another matter. Ha had secured tickets to the group's Toronto stop on the "Map of the Soul Tour" in 2020, only for the shows to be canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Six years later, she was finally standing outside Rogers Stadium with another chance to see all seven members together.

Her family had come to Toronto with her, but they would not be joining her inside. Instead, Ha was waiting with fellow ARMYs she had met and arranged to enter the stadium with, adding another new experience to a night already full of them.

For Ha, finally seeing BTS was only part of what made the evening meaningful. After years in which much of her daily life had revolved around her family, she was about to spend the night doing something simply because she wanted to.

"Leaving my family and doing something on my own like this is a first for me," she said. "It's scary, but it's exciting too. Everything here is a first."

There was something fitting about BTS being the reason. Ha had first found the group as a new mother adjusting to a difficult period in her life, and their music eventually became something she could share with her husband and sons. Now, six years after a canceled concert postponed her chance to see them, BTS had also given her a reason to step outside that familiar family routine for a night.

Her family had accompanied her as far as Toronto, but the final steps into Rogers Stadium were Ha's to take. For a night filled with firsts, finally seeing BTS was only one of them.