1. He was born Sept. 1, 1997, in the southern port city of Busan.

2. He is the group’s main vocalist, sub-rapper and lead dancer.

3. Jungkook considered several stage names like “Seagull,” “Tattoo” and “Ean” before making his debut. The seagull is the symbol of Busan.

4. He once dreamed of becoming a badminton player.

5. In 2011, Jungkook participated in the popular Mnet audition program “Super Star K Season 3” but never made it to the finals. Despite the disappointment he received casting offers from seven entertainment agencies, including Big Hit Entertainment.


6. He joined the group at 15, becoming its youngest member.

7. He was the fourth member to join the group. The last was Jimin.

8. Jungkook moved to Seoul to become a trainee and attended School of Performing Arts Seoul. His schoolmates included SinB and Umji of GFriend.

9. He entered high school a year later than his classmates due to his debut, and graduated at 21 in 2017.

10. He decided not to take the Suneung, the national college entrance exam, because he wanted to focus on his music career.

11. On graduation day, he paid 910,000 won (US$823.23) to treat his bandmates at a Chinese restaurant.


12. Jungkook can’t seem to get rid of his Busan accent. He says he hopes to be able to use both a Seoul accent and a Busan accent someday, citing his pride as a Busan
man.

13. His blood type is A.

14. He is 178 centimeters tall and weighs 61 kilograms.

15. He doesn’t practice any religion.

16. His favorite foods include cheese, melons and apple mango.


17. During his school days, he disliked all academic subjects but liked physical education, art and music.

18. He got his driver’s license as soon as he turned 20.

19. His hobbies are drawing, playing guitar and watching movies.

20. One of his favorite films is “Love Rosie.”

21. He was a big fan of the anime “Shugo Chara!” in his childhood. He still likes watching animated movies such as “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day,” “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” “Spirited Away” and “5 Centimeters per Second.”

22. Jungkook loves taking photos as well as editing videos. He once filmed a video about a trip he took with Jimin.

23. He also released his own travel video series, titled G.C.F. (Golden Closet Films). The videos in the series were filmed in Japan and the US (both the mainland and Saipan).

24. Jungkook left for the US to begin dance training while preparing for the group’s debut, and the experience greatly improved his dance skills.


25. He seriously considered becoming a professional dancer after coming back to Korea. But Jimin persuaded him to come back to the team.

26. His favorite musician is IU. He recently unveiled a cover version of her song “Ending Scene.” The first music album he bought was also IU’s.

27. Another favorite musician of his is Charlie Puth. He performed with the American singer-songwriter, singing “We Don’t Talk Anymore” at the 2018 MBC Plus X Genie Music Awards.

28. As a big fan of the music-streaming platform SoundCloud, he enjoys pop songs by Tori Kelly, Adam Levine, Justin Bieber and Troye Sivan.

29. He is a member of the so-called “97 Line,” a group of K-pop idols born in 1997. Others include GOT7’s Bambam and Yugyeom; Seventeen’s Mingyu, DK and The8; and NCT’s Jaehyun.

30. V, RM and Jimin have younger brothers or sisters the same age as Jungkook.

31. Red is his favorite color. That’s why he is frequently spotted wearing red.

32. His favorite outfit is neat and plain, with no patterns.


33. Jungkook’s ideal woman is fair-skinned, smart, sings well and is at least 160 centimeters tall.

34. He used to do both vocals and rap, but nowadays he focuses on vocals.

35. He also participated in writing songs like “Outro : Love is Not Over” and “Magic Shop.”

36. Jungkook’s nickname is “Golden Youngest,” and his mother dreamed about gold before he was born (part of a Korean tradition).

37. BTS won the Order of Cultural Merit last year for the band’s contributions to the growth of K-pop, becoming the first K-pop band to be given the top honor for artists. Jungkook, at 22, became the youngest-ever recipient of the award.

38. BTS was named “musician of the year” at the Korean Music Awards last year, and Jungkook was the youngest recipient of that award too. The previous record holder was singer Hwi-sung, who won the award at 23.


39. Jungkook is in charge of laundry. When he told fans the name of his favorite fabric softener in a chat, the product quickly sold out at local retailers.

40. He has a black belt in taekwondo.

41. His bedroom is full of sportswear and sports gear, so he had to buy a smaller bed.

42. He once told fans that he was thinking of enlisting in the Army with V.

43. He used to like playing the shooting game Overwatch with V.

44. Jungkook enjoys collecting Bluetooth speakers.

45. Jungkook raised a puppy named Gurum, which means “cloud” in Korean. Gurum lives with Jungkook’s parents.


46. His habits are hiding his nose when yawning and touching the downy hair on his face.

47. Jungkook has a scar on his face, which he got in a fight with his older brother.

48. He is a member of the BTS “alcohol line” along with Jimin and Jin.

49. His motto in life is, “It would be better to die than to live without passion.”

50. Last year, he ranked No. 2 among TC Candler’s 100 most beautiful faces of the year and topped Starmometer’s list of the 100 sexiest men in the world.

By Lee So-jeong (xojeong2@heraldcorp.com)