The visual, in partnership with Cartier, captures the desire of turning a close friend into a love interest
BTS member V released a live performance video of single “Fri(end)s” Monday in partnership with luxury accessory designer Cartier. With a mic in his hand, V eyes the camera as he sings in the center of Cartier Maison Cheongdam’s “La Résidence.” As V croons “Friends, just for now,” in a live video released by W Korea magazine, he captures the uneasiness of existing on the friend-to-lover cusp.
V released his first solo album Layover in 2023, a six-track project that sulks in sadness, loneliness, and desire. Layover, which incorporates slow-burning R&B and soul-inspired pop, follows his earlier tracks “Scenery” and “Winter Bear.” Fan have theorized “Fri(end)s,” a song shaped by its warm bass and steady drum beat, is a sequel Layover‘s “For Us.”
In the original music video released on Friday, V drags himself out of bed, beginning his morning by eating leftovers. As he begins his daily commute, he can’t escape from smiling, smooching couples: a male bus driver gives his partner a peck on the cheek, a boyfriend proposes outside of a supermarket, and an elderly couple share a banana. Soon, he wakes up again in an alternate reality with a romantic match, as the lovers around him turn to bitter enemies. V, finally, wakes up a third time sleeping beside a clone of himself.
V teased the track on March 6 with a short film using inanimate objects like an apple, a bowl of cereal, and a crossword to spell out the song’s title. V, along with Jimin, RM, and Jung Kook were the last BTS members to begin their military enlistment process in November.