Did you know Jungkook once had a ‘mental breakdown’ and almost quit BTS?

Youngest member of BTS, Jungkook, once had a nervous breakdown and almost quit the boy band during his training days. Although Jungkook's powerful stage performances tell another story, the 23-year-old has battled extreme shyness to debut with the globally acclaimed K-pop group. 

Jungkook almost quit BTS

According to AllKpop, during his training days in BTS, Jungkook was sent to LA for dance lessons. The young star, who was just 14-15-years-old found the new environment and lessons extremely challenging, owing to which he had a mental breakdown.

He said, “On the first day, I remember receiving about 2-3 dance lessons, but compared to what I had imagined, the dance lessons weren’t that difficult. But from the second lesson on, I started to have a mental breakdown. And I couldn’t understand what they were saying.”

Given the language barrier, BTS star Jungkook struggled even more to overcome his shyness. After returning to South Korea, he decided to quit K-pop training and simply become a dancer instead. However, other members of the BTS convinced him to stay back with the help of ice cream. "I went to America and suddenly I didn’t want to debut in BTS and I wanted to be a dancer. I just want to dance. So the members bought ice cream to convince me", he revealed.

Previously, HYBE’s CEO Bang Si-Hyuk had also discussed Jungkook's shyness problem saying the company questioned if could even debut. “When Jungkook was a trainee, he couldn’t sing when we asked him to”, Bang told the Korean news outlet, OSEN. “He just twisted his body for 15 minutes and was very shy. He didn’t have much talent, so the company questioned if he could even debut", he added.

BTS star Jungkook's birthday

BTS members have already begun trending 'Happy Birthday Jungkook' and 'JK Birthday' to wish their favourite maknae on his special day. For those wondering when is Jungkook's birthday, the star vocalist was born on September 1, 1997. This year, BTS member Jungkook will be celebrating his 24th birthday. According to the Korean age system, JK BTS will celebrate his 25th birthday. The ARMY members have several special events planned for Jungkook's 24th birthday. Even fans have been holding fund-raisers for several projects and donating money to charity in the run-up to the Jungkook's birthday. 

Earlier today, JK took to Weverse to thank fans for making his birthday trend so early. He said, "Everybody, it’s not my birthday yet…You guys have to understand my intention well..! Please write a few things as if they were 'lyrics', regardless of whether it's my birthday or not, just something you wanted to say to me.".