Fans of the second K-pop generation already acknowledge the 91-line friends, who are SHINee’s Key, Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun, INFINITE’s Woohyun, former KARA member Nicole, former 2AM member Jinwoon, HIGHLIGHT’s Dongwoon, former MBLAQ member Mir, and former Miss A member Min, as well as the more introverted 91-liners, which consist of BTOB’s Changsub, Apink’s Chorong, former INFINITE member Hoya, former B1A4 member Jinyoung, and MAMAMOO’s Solar. The 92-line friends are also considered powerful, since that group includes popular idols such as BTS’ Jin, EXID’s Hani, former B1A4 member Baro and the current member Sandeul, VIXX’s Ken, and MAMAMOO’s Moonbyul. On the other hand, younger fans may be more familiar with the 97-line group, which consist of rising boy-group members who befriended the Golden Maknae, Jungkook. In this article, Channel-Korea will discuss BTS’s Jungkook’s friendships with his 97-line male friends and the netizens’ reactions to their clique, so keep reading!
Get to Know BTS’s Jungkook’s Idol Friends, the 97-Line Boy Squad!
The 97-line friends were first introduced in late December 2016. On December 29, GOT7’s BamBam shared a post on his Instagram account. The photo was taken at the 2016 KBS Song Festival.
A post shared by BamBam (@bambam1a) on Dec 29, 2016 at 6:58am PST The GOT7 member wrote, “97. I love you my friends” while the photo included himself, GOT7’s Yugyeom, BTS’ Jungkook, and SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu, DK, and The8. The boys were smiling brightly backstage. Prior to the photo, they performed a cover of A Flying Butterfly by YB with some female 97-line idols such as TWICE’s Jihyo, GFRIEND’s Yuju and Eunha, and IOI’s Chaeyeon.
During BTS’s comeback showcase, Jungkook revealed that he has a chat room which includes 97-line male idols. However, he wouldn’t mention the group’s name because apparently, it isn’t quite appropriate. Jungkook stated that he often chats with them through the chat room. In the middle of February, 2017, fans noticed that Jungkook put the names of his 97-line friends on the ‘Thanks To’ part of BTS’s album You Never Walk Alone. The fans observed that the group initially formed because Jungkook and Yugeyom were already close to one another. They then added BamBam and the SEVENTEEN members. After the six-member formation, the 97-line boy squad added NCT’s Jaehyun, who already was friends with SEVENTEEN’s DK, as they used to go to school together. DK mentioned that he was too scared to congratulate Jaehyun on debuting because he was so handsome, while Jaehyun was worried about talking to DK, because he was popular at the time. Other fans pointed out that, despite being born in the same year, iKON members Donghyuk and Junhoe are not included in 97-line. They noticed that compared to other groups, iKON seemed a little more distant from other groups. Even so, it may be possible that iKON’s Donghyuk and Junhoe will join the 97-line boy squad in the future. In October, 2018, it was reported that ASTRO’s Cha Eunwoo had joined the 97-line boy squad. The news was shared by GOT7’s BamBam. Many fans suspected that SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu was the person to bring Cha Eunwoo into the group, because they were already close friends. Early in February, 2019, the signatures of some 97-line boy squad were seen at a restaurant of gopchang (small intestines of a cow or pig barbeque with Korean soju). The photo has been spreading on the internet forums, since it contained a hand-written message that read “Mingyu, Jungkook, Eunwoo, and Yugyeom together!” It seemed that four of them had a good time during their off days, going out to eat and hanging out. A month later, Mingyu shared the pictures of the 97-line boy squad who went for a meal. He posted the pictures on his Instagram account, “Meat, Bowling, Wine (Cha Eunwoo, who ran away after eating)”. On the second post, Mingyu uploaded the clip when the boys were watching part of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s movie, A Star is Born. https://www.instagram.com/p/Buna1DZHZrO Late in January, 2019, it was revealed that the 97-line boy squad has a hidden member, the comedian Kwon Hyuk-soo, who starred tvN’s SNL Korea. During his appearance on KBS2’s Happy Together 4, Mingyu said, “I have a very good relationship with Hyuk-soo hyung. Along with Cha Eunwoo, we often meet. We did not really have a reason for him (to join the 97-line club) so we said he can join since he weighs 97 kilograms”. Well, that’s a funny reason to join a group, don’t you think so, dear readers?
Netizen’s Reactions Towards Jungkook’s 97- Line Boy Squad
Ever since the first revelation about the 97-line boy squad, Korean and international netizens agree that the combination in the group is too good to be true, “This combination is unreal. My eyes will be purified. Please let me run into them, I will only stare”, “The 97-liners are all so cute and fun, I wish they would do something together”, “This combination is daebak (fantastic)…young+rich+handsome+tall…”. The fans noticed that the 97-line boy squad members aren’t only blessed with attractive appearances, but they’re also very tall. They ranked the boys’ heights and it turned out that Jungkook is the shortest in the group, despite his tall height, “Jungkook is the smallest among the 97 gopchang line. Our Koogie is not short either but he is the smallest among his friends. So cuteeeee”.
97 곱창라인 중에서 쩨일 쪼꼬만 정꾸기ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ 우리 꾸기도 작은 키 아닌데 칭구칭긔 사이에서 제일 꼬꼬마야ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ 귀여워ㅠㅠㅠㅠ — 국정전 (@jk2_euphoria) February 7, 2019 During the boys’ hangout for gopchang, netizens commented, “I hope that our Jungkook has fun with his friends and eat a lot of delicious things”, “Our Mingyu must have been so happy to meet his friends after such a long time <3 The friendship among the 97-liners is freaking cute”, “VISUAL OVERLOAD!!! BTS Jungkook! Yugyeom, Enwoo and Mingyu!”, and “Mingyu, thanks for uploading a picture of the 97-line!!! I am so glad to see Jungkook having a good time with his friends, thank you so much”. Hope to see more moments shared by the 97-line boy squad in the future!
