When SUGA promised ARMY meat, and kept his word four years later

In 2014, while BTS was still early in their career, SUGA asked ARMY at a fansign what they'd like to eat. The answer was gogi, the Korean word for meat. SUGA said then that he'd make a lot of money someday and treat them to meat. So it wasn't the name of some specific Korean dish, it was really just meat.

The story could have stayed just a sweet little line from BTS's early years, but fans remembered it. When he was asked again in 2015 when he'd deliver on the promise, SUGA gave a very specific date: March 9, 2018, his birthday. Three years later, that date actually arrived, and it turned out he hadn't forgotten.

Since gathering all of ARMY for a shared meal was no longer realistic by 2018, SUGA found another way. He sent Korean hanwoo beef, a prized domestic beef from South Korea, to 39 children's homes, along with signed BTS albums. Each facility received ten kilograms of beef, and even the number 39 wasn't a coincidence. It stood for his birthday, 3/9.

One special detail was that he didn't make the donation just under his own name, but on behalf of ARMY. Big Hit confirmed at the time that he wanted to keep a promise he'd made to fans years earlier. The shared dinner he might have pictured back in 2014 had become impossible in the meantime, so he found a way to fulfill the promise anyway.

In the four years between the promise and its fulfillment, BTS's whole life had changed almost completely. When SUGA first said he'd earn enough someday to treat ARMY to meat, the group was still building its career. By his 2018 birthday, they were already winning major awards and performing for audiences around the world, but one small line from a fansign had clearly stuck with him.

We've linked the official BANGTANTV episode "BTS SUGA B-day Present for Fans" alongside this article. It isn't footage of the 2018 donation, but an earlier official video of SUGA preparing gifts for ARMY on his birthday, which fits nicely with the story of his habit of giving back to the fandom on his own birthday.

Maybe that's the best part of the whole story. SUGA didn't forget a promise made back when nobody could have known how big BTS would become. Four years later he couldn't treat all of ARMY to dinner, but he found a way to buy the meat anyway, and do some good in their name along the way.