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Will BTS drop new music soon? ARMY confused over ‘Like An Actor’ and ‘Bubble Gum Talk’ merch

ARMY wonder whether BTS' new merch 'Like An Actor' and 'Bubble Gum Talk' are titles of their upcoming songs or albums

It is always a reason to celebrate when BTS is dropping new music. In a short span of time, they’ve perfected their discography, figured out their signature and continue to release hits. With a vast number of fans who come from different backgrounds, they have songs for everyone from fierce EDM tracks to soft and relaxing ballads. And while the boy group already released a new song last month, there’s nothing like too many BTS songs.

The global boy group has been working on their English single album, the ‘Butter’ CD for a while and released its tracks over the course of three months. ‘Permission to Dance’ was BTS’ latest English single that they released in July. While they’re still riding high on the success of ‘Butter’ and ‘Permission to Dance’, they could be working on some new music. ARMY believes that HYBE’s newest merch announcements hint exactly at that.

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What exactly is ‘Bubble Gum Talk’ and ‘Like An Actor’

BTS’ company, HYBE dropped the news of some official fan merch being released on August 5 at 11 am KST (August 4 at 10 pm ET). The announcement came with pictures of four items presented in a film viewer format. Two of the items were named after BTS’ albums - ‘Skool Luv Affair’ which is their second EP and ‘Dark & Wild’ which is their first studio album. The remaining two items have been given unusual names - ‘Bubble Gum Talk’ and ‘Like An Actor’.

Ever since the release of the merch news, ARMY have been racking their brains trying to figure out what ‘Bubble Gum Talk’ and ‘Like An Actor’ could be. While ‘Skool Luv Affair’ and ‘Dark & Wild’ showed several BTS photo cards, there were blank squares around the words ‘Bubble Gum Talk’ and ‘Like An Actor’. It could mean that the latter two titles are themes of a photoshoot which will then probably be released as photo cards or a photobook. But it’s never that easy to deduce something in K-pop.

It has been a while since BTS has released Korean songs. Their last K-pop album and its lead single were back in 2020. After that, they did release a Japanese single in April 2021, but fans have been eagerly waiting for an album. And since two of the new merch items are named after albums, ARMY believes that the other two could also be a spoiler for their next K-pop albums or singles. Well, whether they’re the titles of BTS’ upcoming music or just photoshoot themes, we are excited for them.

‘Future singles’

Confused ARMY ended up trending ‘Bubble Gum Talk’ and ‘Like An Actor’ on Twitter after the release of the merch news. One fan tweeted, “BUBBLE GUM TALK??? LIKE AN ACTOR??? BTS, what’s going on….” Another wondered if ‘Like An Actor’ referred to V’s stint as an actor and his ‘Hwarang’ group - the Wooga Squad, “Just tell me what Bubble Gum Talk and Like an Actor refer to. Wooga Squad? Park BoGum? (it's late. I'm being ridiculous).” One tried to connect the dots, “OMGGG I THINK I REMEMBER JHOPE PUTTING "LIKE AN ACTOR " IN ONE OF HIS MOMENTS ON WEVERSE!! IDK IF IT WAS BAD TRANSLATION BUT AHHHH IM GOING CRAZY OVER THE LAST TWOO!!” Another tweeted, “Bubble gum talk? like an actor? i’m not saying these might be future singles, but you know.” One tweeted, “Like an actor and bubblegum talk def just theme for photocards or sumthing.” Another tweeted, “I think bubble gum talk is a soon to be released song.... no idea yet on like an actor.”