Jungkook was actually referred to as the golden maknae

It’s been a big week for the BTS Army, with the boys getting together with their label-mates TXT. One of the main things that gave us all the feels was the two bands getting a group picture with their younger K-Pop counterparts.

Another – and this is pretty huge – is that Jungkook has started calling himself as hyung, cementing the fact he no longer is the maknae of his label Big Hit Entertainment. If you’re not familiar with these terms (and, in that case, don’t know about what a big deal this is for fans) we’ve got you covered.

What is a maknae? Maknae is a Korean term used to refer to the youngest person in any given group. It’s commonly used by in groups of friends, and they’d call the youngest person maknae instead of their name. Jungkook has passed on his title (Picture: Twitter) In terms of idols, the youngest person in the band would be the maknae – for example Jungkook in BTS or Lisa in Blackpink.

Jungkook was actually referred to as the golden maknae. With TXT debuting – and sharing a label with – BTS, it was somewhat understood that the youngest member of any Big Hit Entertainment band would become the maknae. This would be 16-year-old Hueningkai in this case.

However, it was a big deal for Jungkook to call himself hyung, as this loosely means ‘older brother’ and shows he’s not only passed the maknae title down, but will also be considering himself a brother of the new bandmates.

Many followers of BTS felt that it was a shock to the system, not being able to think of Jungkook as the baby anymore, while others felt proud that he’d graduated to a new level like that. Either way, he’s still technically the BTS maknae, so you don’t have to mourn the loss of your Bangtan Baby just yet.