This blog post was written by Leslie Day

With the release of Jimin’s “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band” and AP529’s coverage of Love Yourself 轉 'Tear', a lot of us wanted to know:

What is the Smeraldo flower and how does it connect with “The Truth Untold”?

The answer to this question was neither short, nor easy to find. This is a longer post, and I’ll direct you to many other websites to dive into the rabbit hole. The work has been done, and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. 

“There was a lot of rumors, but no truth was revealed.”

– Tesstesso, Smeralda’s Story Blog 8/10/2017

Current Context

The members of BTS and their staff are chess players. This means they play the long game. As we saw with the release of Monochrome, a simple, cryptic post on X, turned into a digital scavenger hunt that tested ARMY’s knowledge of basic facts about both the members, and ARMY.

But Monochrome was not the first time that BTS has pulled this kind of stunt. Rewind to 2019 ARMYpedia and its show and concert.

Let’s Go Back

But even before that, there was the 4th Muster in 2017 where BTS dropped clues about a memory cloud and they created an adorable video about how memories are made (shown above).

We’re going to get to all that in good time in the blog. For now, I want to talk about an earlier puzzle they dropped on ARMY that includes the BU (which we’ve been talking about for a while now), and a seemingly unrelated Twitter account which ARMY was only able to find after a cryptic tweet from Jin on July 7, 2017. 

ARMYs took his coded message and found a Twitter account for a Florist who announced his blog on July 4, 2017. His original tweet took us to Naver which, in the simplest of terms, is the Korean Google.

(Hint: if you’re following the link and it comes up in Korean, right click–or press and hold– and translate to English. I had to toggle between the Korean and English to get it to translate to English. If there are other languages that are more appropriate for you, try that.)

The blog was originally a series of nine posts, beginning on July 10, 2017, telling the sad story of the Smeraldo flower, its beautiful creation, and tragic history. The florist has his own sad story to tell in connection with the flower and his attempts to open a flower shop. The blog is his way of telling us why it is so important to him.

But Why?

The first entry of the “Smeraldo Blog” hints at the store opening in mid-September. BTS’s comeback was later revealed to be September 18, 2017 with the release of Love Yourself 承 'Her'. We got Easter Eggs through the whole series of blog posts, including the line “non potevo dire la verità”, which translates to “the truth that cannot be told.” This is the basis for the BTS song “The Truth Untold”, which appears on the album Love Yourself 轉 'Tear'. I didn’t mistype that, folks. They teased a song from the second album in the Love Yourself trilogy eight months before it dropped in May 2018. It was also before the first album in the series had even been released.

Did I mention the long game?

Being a relatively new PTD era ARMY, I didn’t know about all the mayhem from 2017. But after what I just endured with the Monochrome website, I think I understand what ARMY must have gone through back then. Posts dropped in July through August explaining the story of the Smeraldo flower, how it got its name, and how Testesso came to find it. Testesso even collected seven “untold stories” in a lucky draw.

I’m not going to tell you the whole story. It’s brilliant and sad and I think that is a journey you need to discover on your own. I’ll point you in the direction with the links of people smarter than me who lived through it and who have compiled their wisdom. If you want a visual summary, please check out xCeleste on YouTube, because she’s done an excellent job at summarizing it up until the launch of her video in 2020 (shown below).

What I will comment on is BTS’s and Big Hit’s long game. On July 4, 2018, the whole blog was deleted. Gone. Like Namjoon’s or JK’s Instagram account. But posts began to reappear with just a few changes. Each post was uploaded on the exact same date as the year before, but the date of the opening of the shop changed; instead of mid-September, Testesso announced late August. That coincided with the release of “Idol” and Love Yourself: 結 ‘Answer’ (LYS: Tear was released earlier that year in May.) 

Nothing happened in 2019. They ghosted us like Wootteo.

July 6, 2020 the blog disappeared again. When the posts began to return on July 10th, there were major changes. In Suchwita Ep. 1, we learned that the members had planned to enter the military after the conclusion of the Map of the Soul Tour. Knowing this puts this in a whole different context. They had prepared many things for us while they were away, but the global pandemic changed the lives of everyone worldwide. Could this have been our send off? Again, I’ll let you check the blogs and resources yourself, because the work has already been done.

What I marvel at, is the care and planning that go into such long term projects. When the posts came back in 2020, the shop opening coincided with the release of “Butter”, and the story lines were drastically changed. All of this connects with the BU (Bangtan Universe) and Jin waking up on the same day in order to save his friends. This storyline precedes the Love Yourself trilogy with HYYH and Wings. The threads that connect all their albums are mind blowing and I predict that Monochrome is an extension of the intricate tapestry they began a decade ago. 

If you dig into the links I’ve provided, and read the story of the Smeraldo Flower, you will begin to see the symbolism in their performances of “The Truth Untold”. I loved the song because it is the type of ballad that touches my heart with power vocals and delicate harmonies. But after learning and researching this folktale (Thank you, Heather C.) and how BTS used it, I can see the flowers on Jin’s costumes in a different light, the flowers on the set, even the digital graphics behind them in some venues. The production team that surrounds these seven talented men seem to be just as committed to perfection as the members are. 

So what now?

So, can we expect anything less from upcoming projects? I’ve seen some criticism of the latest BTS puzzle game as a money grab and merely a pop-up shop. I suggest that there is something much deeper with Monochrome. Part of the easter eggs in the Smeraldo Blog were announcements for pop-up shops and other announcements. ARMYs could buy jewelry, bookmarks, stamps and other merch. emblazoned with the Smeraldo Flower. Monochrome seems like more. We needed a password, and birthdays to access different bits of information. I believe that even the merch itself is highly symbolic (though I have seen some very random merch–like packing tape?).

RM told us in the first episode of Suchwita that they are planning something for the ten-year anniversary of HYYH. Bang PD confirmed that in an October interview in 2023. 

What if Monochrome is part of the lead up to that anniversary special that was also intended to take us through the members’ enlistments? It would totally be on brand for them. And I take it as a compliment that they think so highly of our collective intellect. “Look what our ARMY can figure out,” it screams.

Now, ARMY has received a new piece of the puzzle with the announcement of Jimin’s new album, MUSE. Again, we began with a cryptic message, this time on Instagram. Many of us wondered if it was a scam, and didn’t readily click on it. We checked the source to make sure it was, indeed, BigHit and not some person perpetrating a fraud. But click we did, and a short while later we were blessed with a teaser video. In the video lay a clue. 

A short while later, we received an image of the sheet music, where ARMYs on X discovered that the song was “The Truth Untold.” A few ARMYs even figured out the secret message before the clandestine poster dropped hints to look at the first letters. Scattered throughout the sheet music’s notes was the title of the song Jimin already gave to ARMY right after he enlisted. Not long after that, we received the Weverse notification that Jimin was dropping an album.

What this shows is a long pattern of well thought out puzzles that Bangtan Sonyeondan has left for its loyal ARMY. With the ten year anniversary of HYYH and the BU next year, there is no doubt in my mind that Jimin’s allusion to “The Truth Untold”, both in his documentary series as well as this teaser, is connected. “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band”, Jimin’s new single, was teased in Jimin’s Production Diary. The group that helped produce Jimin’s album FACE, spoiled it in the quiz show.

So many questions…

• Jimin teased “The Truth Untold” at the beginning of his documentary, are we going to have a reprisal of “The Truth Untold”? And extension? An addition?

• How much is MUSE going to involve the BU?

• Are they going to delete the “Smeraldo Blog” in July like they did in 2018 and 2020?

• Do we have to wait a year, because they will be announcing their new album in 2025? 

• Can Jimin play the guitar and will he perform with it? (Doc says no, I maintain yes.)

Whether or not we see the blog disappear this year or next, diving into the BU is always a treat and demonstrates just how deep these seven men and the production staff around them dive to give us quality entertainment. So, folks, dig into the BTS lore and Universe. I predict that much more is coming and it will all be linked to the past. 

CREDITS:

YouTube/Web: HYBE LABELS, ARMYPedia, BangtanSubs on YouTube, AP529 Volunteers: Heather C., Qdeoks, @bts_twt, @FlowerSmeraldo, TheBTSeffect.com, xCeleste on YouTube, Bloomburg.com, Smeraldo Blog