a guide to

BU CONTENT

• introduction
• list of bu content
• about the timeline

Introduction

BU Content refers to multimedia content that belongs to a fictional universe Big Hit Entertainment is creating as part of BTS' body of work (BU = BTS Universe). However, not everything from BTS is part of this universe, so relevant content is marked with either the BU Logo, or "BU Content certified by Big Hit Entertainment" at the end of Youtube video descriptions.

Chronologically, BU content dates back as far as mid-2015 with I Need U, but several videos were retroactively marked as part of the BU in mid-2017, when the BU was officially established in time with BTS' rebranding and the release of the Wings Concept Book, which is where the BU Logo first appeared.

In fandom circles, the BU is sometimes still referred to as HYYH, which comes from the videos I Need U, Prologue, and Run. These videos were part of the album trilogy The Most Beautiful Moment in Life (kor. 화양연화, Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa = HYYH), and are now widely understood as the foundation of the BU, but fandom already recognised they belonged to the same fictional universe before the official introduction of the BU, hence the fanmade name HYYH. Even Big Hit still uses HYYH in the name for HYYH the Notes (short: the Notes), which are small pieces of writing similar to diary entries about events on a specific date in the BU, and written from one of the seven characters' point of view.

The characters and their backstories in the BU are fictional, but they borrow the names and age differences of the BTS members in real life. In the year 22, where so far most of the events in the BU take place, the characters are (most likely) between 17 and 22 years old.

A general warning: the BU story directly deals with potentially triggering themes like suicide, abuse, accidents, mental illnesses, and parental neglect. None of these themes are treated lightly or trivialised, but if you are generally sensitive to these topics, please proceed with caution! Specifically the webtoon is very graphic when it comes to death and injury. In the timeline there is an option to display trigger warnings.

List of BU Content

About the timeline

The timeline is a chronological list of events in the BU, with information primarily taken from the Highlight Reel and the Notes, which are part of the physical package of the albums from the Love Yourself and Map of the Soul series, one set for each album plus a few additional notes uploaded on the official Big Hit Twitter. After the end of the Love Yourself era, a book was released that contained most of the Notes from the three albums, with several entirely new Notes and some changes in the old ones.

The purpose of this list is to structure and connect what we canonically know about the BU, without any further interpretations of the story apart from a few conclusory notes about what's hidden directly in the text. It's meant to be an aid for those who want to understand what's going on, or want to draw their own conclusions about what's happening below the surface.

Prior to the release of the Notes and Highlight Reel (i.e. the start of the Love Yourself era) there was no information on which events happened when in the universe, and while the storyline is becoming clearer, there is still a lot of (video) content that currently can't be placed into any timeline. Seokjin time travels in an attempt to save the other characters, but for now it remains unconfirmed if the Notes describe events from different versions of the universe as a result of Seokjin's actions, or if they all belong to the same one (with the exception of Seokjin's notes from Aug 8, Year 22, where we already know there are two different versions thanks to the Highlight Reel).

The timeline doesn't include any events from the SAVE ME webtoon, since it shows multiple versions of how the story can play out on the same days, which would blow up the timeline considerably yet not contribute much to the understanding of the progression of the story as a whole in a chronological sense. It's best to read the webtoon in its entirety to learn more about the characters, and use the timeline as a guide, since the webtoon makes quite a few references to scenes from the Notes. However, none of the events in the Notes are ones that directly cause Seokjin to fail at saving everyone in the webtoon.

All notes contained in the HYYH the Notes 1 book will be added as soon as possible!

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