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SHINee's Ki-bum is getting discharged from military this October, proud fans say they can't wait to welcome him

Ki-bum aka Key is all set to be back to the global entertainment scene after serving South Korea's mandatory military conscription

South Korean pop-star, actor and member of the boy group Shinee, Kim Ki-bum, better known by his stage name Key, is all set to be back to the global entertainment scene after serving his country's mandatory military conscription.

Sharing the news on Twitter, a fan of the 29-year-old K-pop singer wrote, "Kibum is on his last vacation currently. He will be discharged from the military on October 7th without returning back to his camp." This was followed by: "Just to be clear: Kibum can’t do any activities/schedules until after October 7th. Kibum scheduled discharged date was already initially set on October 7th so it’s not an early discharge." Quoting a Korean new source, the fan further wrote, "He is indeed on his vacation & will officially only discharge on October 7. He indeed won’t be returning back to camp & it’s cause of the COVID protocol that he doesn’t have to. Hope this clears up."

Fans were quick to react to the news of the Shinee member returning from his mandatory military enlistment. One fan, excited about the K-pop group reuniting, tweeted, "Aww Taemin and Onew just be so happy to see him. Now we're just waiting for Minho and then the family will be back together." Another elated fan said, "I'm so happy Ki-bum's back like it's hard to describe the feeling... I'm proud of him for completing his duty, I'm so relieved the hiatus is almost over, and I can't wait to see him go back to doing what he does best."

More fans chimed in and talked about the news like this one fan, welcoming Ki-bum back, tweeted, "From 'I’ll go and return well energetically and healthily' to 'everyone i miss you!!!' now we’re in 'your captain freak got ready to fly'. You’ve worked hard our soldier Kim Ki-bum, thank you for fulfill your promise to return safely to us, welcome home," while another fan, congratulating Key, said, "hello my little egg Kib-um!! Congratulations on your military discharge!! We are so proud of you!"

Talking about how quickly time flew by, a Shinee fan tweeted, "It’s feels like just yesterday we said see you soon, and now it’s time to to say welcome back Kibum," while a different fan, sharing pictures of Ki-bum from his military days, wrote, "Kibum in this uniform, now we're saying good bye to this era!!! it has been so long yet we waited with respect."

His projects before enlistment

Ki-bum, who left for the military in March 2019, released his debut studio album 'Face' in November 2018 and its reissue version, 'I Wanna Be', the same month he left for the military. The singer's last solo single was 'I Wanna Be' featuring Soyeona in 2019. The same year, he released the single 'Cold' featuring Hanhae.

With Shinee, Ki-bum last released the album 'The Story of Light' which consisted of three-part EPs namely 'The Story of Light EP.1', 'The Story of Light EP.2' and 'The Story of Light EP.3'. He also released the Shinee Japanese album 'Five' in 2017.

As an actor, Ki-bum was last seen in the 2019 South Korean action police procedural movie 'Hit-and-Run Squad' directed by Han Jun-Hee. He was also seen in the main cast of the television series 'The Guardians' in 2017.