I was waiting to finally, finally write this post.
So here I am after the release of AYS Seasons 1 & 2 — especially after Season 2, where people speculated that we might get an OST and that the “Keep Going” phrase in Season 1 was hinting at it. Season 2 released… and there was still no OST in sight.
I almost wrote this post back then itself, but then another theory started floating around — that maybe we’d get subunits in the Arirang album and that’s when “Keep Going” would finally make sense. Never made sense to me but still I waited. Impatiently. And that theory too turned out to be false.
Honestly, from the very beginning — from the moment I saw “Keep Going” appear in the WHO MV followed by AYS Season 1 — I knew it had nothing to do with an OST or a subunit. Still, I thought, okay, let’s wait for official confirmation first.
And now after all this waiting, I can finally say it: Keep Going is Jikook’s private code. A code, just like 11/8 and the yellow-purple color palette they constantly use to hint at each other and their relationship. Since they can’t say things explicitly, they communicate through these little symbols, phrases, parallels, and codes, leaving it to us to connect the dots and see the bigger picture.
First, let’s talk about “Keep Going.” The phrase originally comes from BTS’s song Young Forever. Dream, hope, keep going. The song talks about continuing forward with hope and moving toward your dreams despite the struggles. But years later, the phrase became even more iconic because of Jimin himself. In 2018, during English interviews, he kept saying “Jimin, you nice, keep going.” And it became such a huge meme that the second you hear “keep going,” Jimin is literally the first thing that comes to mind.
Then in 2019, the phrase started appearing in BT21 content specifically connected to Cooky (Jungkook), especially around workout-related posts:
So this phrase that started in a BTS song slowly became something repeatedly highlighted around just two members: Jimin and Jungkook. Like this phrase started becoming associated with them.
And then years later, July 2024 happens. Jimin drops WHO — a song where he’s literally singing about searching for and longing for his forever love. And right when he sings “Who is my heart waiting for?” a billboard with Jungkook’s face (YES!!!) drops alongside the phrase Keep Going and WHO:
That moment sealed the deal, guys! Jimin deserves more acknowledgement and this deserves to be spoken at least once a day if you're a jkkr. Because he literally said "Consequences be damned my bf needs to be shown on the screen with major hints if I can't say it out loud that its Jungkook". Because suddenly Jimin was using a phrase already strongly associated with both him and Jungkook in a song about the love of his life — while directly placing Jungkook's face on the center of it.
And if anyone still somehow had doubts, he made sure to clear it all. By emphasizing it again in AYS Season 1. Double underlined too, mind you:
1) There's that yellow-purple again
2) Interlude: Showtime being 1:18 mins long
That number 11/8 and showtime
3) 11/8 being the launch time for AYS trailer (Showtime indeed)
If anyone needs lessons on soft-launching and hard-launching a relationship, it’s genuinely these two, y'all. Jimin and Jungkook! They have been doing this for at least 10 years now, slowly leveling up their hints every single year.
They're in a competition with themselves on how far they can take this leaving us all breathless. Let it be matching jackets on Valentines day, a trip to Disneyland as a birthday gift, love confessions through GCFs, ear suck and I love you signs in public while you know the whole world is watching and recording you, showing off hickeys from your bf in front of the cam letting the world know that you immensely enjoy carrying his marks on your body, the Maison Margela necklace on Silver day highlighting the 11/8 code, romantic getaways named AYS, tattooing your bf's name and flaunting it everywhere knowing that its serving the purpose of a wedding band, using everything in your power to make sure you won't get separated for the mandatory ms, flying across oceans to surprise your bf on his birthday, including only him in your debut album which you consider as your personal diary and feels that its wrong to include others but not him because he's your other half and also the person to whom you're gifting that particular song and the list goes on...
Also Jimin's pattern of supporting his bf's brand:
You nice Keep Going Jikook 💛💜
