What will happen to BTS’s legacy?

It was recently reported that actor Kim Woo Bin recently bought over the building that used to house BigHit Entertainment’s old headquarters.

The building was where the BTS boys trained for during their pre-debut years, and where they began their legacy.

As such, many fans hold the building in high regard, claiming it as a piece of their memories. Fans who come to visit South Korea enjoy going to the building, leaving a trace of themselves behind by drawing on the building with markers or paint.

But how legal is this? After all, fans have been graffitiing someone’s owned property. BigHit Entertainment has long moved out of the place. Let’s take a look into the ownership of the building.

BigHit Entertainment mainly used two floors of the building, and the boys used a practice room in a nearby basement. It seems like the building was owned by someone else, given that the other floors were leased to other people.

It is known that they used this building from 2007 to 2017, before moving to another place in the Samsung-dong district. They later moved to the current HYBE headquarters in Yongsan around end 2019 to 2020. The building’s owners remained lenient about the graffiti, despite BigHit Entertainment having moved out years ago. The building also was emptied out slowly, with Chung Gu Construction Office (later known as Smile Construction) who built the building and occupied the top floor, closing down.

It seemed like the building was largely unoccupied until actor Kim Woo Bin gave it a second lease of life with his purchase in 2024. His plans for the building remain uncertain, but BTS fans are already feeling protective over the building. A fan encouraged others to continue to graffiti the building even if the new owner removes the current drawings.

This contributes to vandalism. Over the years, fans have been romanticizing their footprint, despite bringing trouble to the owners of the building. After all, BigHit Entertainment moved out a long time ago.

Many still dream of writing their names or messages on the building.

Thankfully, more logical fans have reasoned that the building never belonged to BigHit Entertainment in the first place.

The graffitis are periodically cleaned, but the task got too much for the owner before Kim Woo Bin.

Others pray that the writings will not be removed.

Some encourage it to be made into a landmark or museum.

No matter what plans Kim Woo Bin has in store for the building, it is entirely up to the actor himself. Fans can only hope that the building will retain some part of BTS’s legacy.