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Daeyeol the 1st Golden Child member to enlist in military, fans say 'serve well'

With 10 members, it could take over a decade for everyone to complete their mandatory military service and reunite

While more and more third-gen idols are enlisting in the military for their mandatory service, it doesn’t look like fans will be able to get used to it just yet. In fact, On March 20, everyone was shocked when SF9’s oldest member, Inseong had his hair shaved off by the rest of his members as he got ready to enlist on March 21. And just hours after SF9 and fans said goodbye to him, Golden Child’s Daeyeol became the next K-pop idol to announce his enlistment.

Third-gen’s military era has already begun with several members of ONF, Pentagon, DAY6 and A.C.E starting to enlist. And Goldenness (Golden Child’s fandom) are further getting a reality check as there are 10 members in the boy group Golden Child. Unless they all plan to enlist together, it could take more than a decade for all of the members to complete their military service and finally reunite as one. The standard military period for a South Korean civilian is up to 1.5 years.

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Leader Daeyeol the first Golden Child member to enlist

Well, leader Daeyeol who is also the oldest member of the group as he is born in 1993 will be the first of Golden Child to enlist in the military. On March 21, he personally wrote a letter informing Goldenness of his enlistment plans. The K-pop group had previously held an offline concert in February first week where Daeyeol had shared that he would be enlisting soon. Well, in his latest letter, he shared that he would be joining the military on March 29.

Daeyeol further added that he hoped that his life as a trainee and a group leader would help him fulfil his duties in the military. He also asked fans to continue to cheer for the remaining nine Golden Child members till he comes back. If the remaining members continue to wait till they reach the maximum age limit to enlist, Y will be the next to enlist two years later as he is born in 1995.

‘Gonna miss my lifeline’

Sad fans trended Daeyeol as they sent him supportive messages. One Goldenness tweeted, “Another day to bring this back to ur tl.. receive your hug from our BEST LEADER LEE DAEYEOL~ 💕Serve well and we will wait for you~ come back safely~.” Another fan posted, “Daeyeol’s beautiful letter. We love you so much, and you have been the best leader anyone could ever ask for. You were born to be a leader, Daeyeol.  We will be here awaiting your return. Serve well, Love.” One fan commented, “Gonna miss my lifeline. see you after serving, Dae.” Another was surprised, “Goldenness when we thought it was going to be a while before daeyeol enlisted but now it’s only 8 days away.”