This Christmas carries special meaning for ARMYs around the world: for the first time in three years, fans are able to celebrate the year-end holiday season with all seven members of BTS, following the group’s hiatus due to military service. Beyond the joy of reunion, ARMYs are also filled with anticipation as they look toward spring 2026 — the milestone BTS has promised for their official comeback with a brand-new album.

In fact, over the past several months, the BTS members have seemed unable to contain their excitement whenever the upcoming album is mentioned. They have repeatedly emphasized that the new album is “very, very good,” and on more than one occasion praised j-hope and V as being “crazy” on this project. Jin, V, and Jungkook even revealed that the three of them once spent a full hour drinking together while listening to the entire new album. These anecdotes have only intensified fans’ desire for more concrete spoilers than ever before.

Among fans, the most direct way to hunt for spoilers is by closely tracking every suspicious move made by the members. However, BTS knows exactly how to tease their fans’ hearts. During several livestreams, they have only revealed vague hints, such as the album featuring a wide variety of musical genres, powerful choreography, and being extremely worth the wait. The only slight progress came during an early New Year’s greeting livestream, where the members humorously hummed a few melo∂ιєs from new songs — though, of course, nothing was made clear.

Recently, however, fans believe they may have caught a major spoiler through the members’ Instagram posts — almost like a Christmas perk gifted by the idols themselves. Specifically, across at least four recent posts by V, RM, and j-hope, fans noticed an intriguing common thread: pets, particularly cats and dogs.

V was the one who sparked the initial attention by posting a close-up photo of a chubby wнιтe cat paw, accompanied by the brief caption, “I can’t handle this.” As soon as the photo was uploaded, fans speculated that V might have welcomed a new pet into his family, especially since he has previously mentioned wanting to adopt a cat.

Soon after, RM shared a video of himself affectionately interacting with a similarly wнιтe-furred pet, prompting speculation that he might have adopted a new dog. However, some sharp-eyed fans pointed out that Namjoon appeared to have attended the birthday party of Tan — a dog considered the “child” of Youngjin, BTS’s stylist — and that the pet seen in the video actually belongs to one of Youngjin’s friends.

At this point, if the clues still seem inconclusive, j-hope will further reinforce your suspicions with a series of cat-related posts. On the 21st, he uploaded a selfie captioned only with a brown cat paw emoji. Then, on the 25th, j-hope shared a still video featuring a golden cat taking a selfie in front of a Christmas gift box from Louis Vuitton, the brand for which he currently serves as a global ambαѕѕador.

At first, many ARMYs excitedly wondered whether BTS had collectively adopted a cat or dog as a shared “family pet.” However, as more details were connected, fans increasingly came to believe that these animal-related images were likely hints pointing to the theme or concept of BTS’s 2026 comeback album.

This theory gained further traction when ARMYs recalled the iconic cat imagery αѕѕociated with the “Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa” series — one of BTS’s most significant eras. Even in one of Jungkook's Weverse Lives, he ever mentioned: "Our HYYH hasn't come yet, right? Back then when they would ask in interviews, "When do you think your HYYH was?" And we would say, "It hasn't come yet." It's still yet to come. I think we'll remember right before we ∂ιє".

Fans immediately started speculating that: "What if they're working on hyyh part 3 and the cat comes back to ruin jins life again", "it's gonna be that "hate the character but love the actor" situation isn't it", "THERES A HYYH CAT!! Wdym this all connects and it might be a spoiler", "I wonder if they were filming soмєтнing for the BU and they decided to use a real cat instead of CGI", "waittttt HYYH P3 IS COMING OMG",...

On the other hand, fans also remember that the BTS members have previously stated they would share spoilers when the time is right. Combined with the fact that RM and V are famously known within the fandom as “spoiler kings,” speculation and belief among fans have only grown stronger. Fan reactions have been diverse, ranging from excitement to amazement, such as:

- I decree a subunit between nam and v. The colors represent the album's concept

- There’s no way this is just a coincidence. Cats, dogs, and all of them posting around the same time? BTS is definitely hinting at soмєтнing

- This is related to yoongi but i cant prove it yet

- Yes we are getting LOVE YOURPUS*AY this march. This is 100% a spoiler

- ohk what if they’re indicating this cat to the one in Map of the Soul’s calico cat in the SAVE ME webtoon

- they’re gonna make a song about pu*sy i’m telling yall

- Or new run bts episode spoiler??? An episode about caring for pets for a day

- Imagine we get a meow meow version of any song like woh, ltb or super tuna

- They said they would spoil when the time is right, and this feels exactly like their kind of spoiler

- The animal theme instantly reminded me of Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa. If this is a callback, I’m not emotionally ready

- OH THIS IS 100% A SPOILER. You know Joon and Tae, spoiler kings. The comeback concept is already unfolding

- They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. This is clαѕѕic BTS-style spoiling. I'm losing my mind