The revolving door that is mandatory military service in South Korea is taking two new recruits in while returning one back to civilian life this month. Pushing the very limits of enlistment deadline are two top idols finally shaving their hair and heading to do their national duty. T.O.P. of Big Bang checked in this week along with Junsu of JYJ, which is nice to have company though they are surrounded by plenty of ordinary Korean adult men enlisting the same time. I never get why members of the same idol group don’t just enlist at the same time regardless of age difference, making it easier to be away and comeback as a group together. Junsu’s enlistment just barely missed overlapping with his JYJ mate Jaejoong, who was just discharged on December 30th 2016 after serving his duty. Good luck to these two and see you both in 22 months!

The army taketh but the army also giveth back and with T.O.P. and Junsu’s enlistment comes the discharge of Kim Hyun Joong, who has been in the news basically nonstop during his entire enlistment two years due in part to a messy, convoluted, and terribly dismaying lawsuit and countersuit with his former girlfriend and now baby momma over allegations of domestic violence, forced abortion, blackmail, extortion, etc. The latest update is that the prosecutors are charging the baby momma for making up some of the allegations and trying to blackmail Kim Hyun Joong, so it means some salacious stuff wasn’t true while others are, and in the end he’s probably going to have a herculean task of rebuilding his career if at all.