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'Storage of ONF': 5th anniversary album has fans saying 'smartest group to handle military'

ONF became one of the first groups to have all Korean members enlist for mandatory military service at the same time

With all healthy South Korean males having to enlist for mandatory military service for a minimum of 18 months, even our favorite K-pop idols are not safe. The maximum age limit is 30 years. But according to a new amendment, 2022 is a sad year for us as several third-gen idols born in 1994 will also have to enlist from GOT7’s Jay B and Jinyoung, EXO’s Kai and Sehun to NCT’s Taeil and BTS’ hyung line (the four eldest members). However, third-gen K-pop group ONF is being commended for the way they have enlisted in their military service.

Despite beginning their military era in 2021, ONF is still very much at the forefront of K-pop. While we have had idols like Pentagon’s Hui and Astro’s MJ pre-recording and participating in one last comeback before enlisting, ONF has set a new standard by becoming one of the first groups to release an album while in the military. Previously, we had The Rose releasing a single while all Korean members were a year into their military service. However, ONF is releasing a whole album ‘Storage of ONF’ to celebrate their fifth debut anniversary while all Korean members are still in the military.

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ONF to release album while in military

On August 3, ONF announced that they would be releasing a special album by dropping an audio snippet. ‘Storage of ONF’ is a pre-recorded album that the group created before enlisting for their military service. The album is set to be released on August 16 at 6 pm KST (5 am ET) on all major music streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, MelOn and more. While idols are not allowed to promote as artists while in the military, they can still release pre-recorded content as seen in the case of Monsta X’s Shownu and EXO’s Baekhyun.

'Storage of ONF' is the first album following ‘Goosebumps’ in December 2021. In the following days, ONF had all Korean members enlist together around December 28 so that they could shorten their hiatus. Currently, we have U aka Yuto as the only active member since he is Japanese. Previously, we used to have idols enlisting only when they reached the maximum age limit which meant if there was a huge age gap between the members, it could take a while for all of the group members to finish their military service. But following ONF, this trend is changing as evident with even DAY6’s 26-year-old Dowoon enlisting so that his group can return quickly.

‘Icons’

Fans were touched as they made tweets like, “I love onf— no they love you more.” Another shared, “Onf serving in the military and SERVING💁‍♂️ in the industry.” One commented, “Onf going down in history as the smartest group to handle military enlistment. They all agreed to go at the same time, had a comeback right before they left, releasing an album mid way… icons.”

Another fan wrote, “The more you think of it, the crazier it sounds. onf enlisted together to shorten their hiatus and promote longer as a group. they had full on activities for a year prior to enlisting and on top of that, prepared an album to release while they're serving.. all for fuse.” One was shocked that ONF was in its 5th year, “HOW MANY YEARS SINCE ONF DEBUTED????” Another celebrated, “Happy 5 years since onf gifted the world with an amazing debut album and giving us 5 years of greatness and counting ❤️ we miss you, our safe place !!”