What Does ‘I Purple You’ Mean? BTS Fans Celebrate 1,000 Days of

BTS fans are spreading love all over the internet with the color purple. The K-pop group’s legion of fans, otherwise known as the BTS ARMY, flooded social media the message, “I purple you,” on Friday in recognition of the 1,000 days since a member of the group first said it to them.

Kim Taehyung, one of the singers in the seven-man band, first coined the phrase during the group’s 3rd Muster—a fan club event—back in November 2016. Before wrapping up their performance, Taehyung told fans, “I purple you,” just as the lighting shaded the crowd in rays of purple light.

Taehyung, whose stage name is V, explained the color purple was a hue of love. “Do you know what purple means? Purple is the last color of the rainbow. Purple means I will trust and love you for a long time, “I just made it up,” he said.

The audience lovingly roared in response to Taehyung’s statement, while his BTS band members were stumped he managed to create such an eloquent meaning for the vibrant shade off the top of his head.

“I wish I could see you for a long time just like the meaning of purple,” Taehyung continued. “We will always trust you and go up the stairs with you. You don’t need to help us all the time. You can hold our hands and follow us now. We’ll go up really high. I’ll make it nice.”

Since Taehyung coined the phrase, fans have used the color purple to express their adoration and affection for BTS.

The wave of purple has served the band well as their devoted fans have helped the group gain monumental success. The release of their sixth extended play album Map of the Soul: Persona in April marked their third No. 1 album on Billboard’s 200 chart—making BTS the first Korean pop band to achieve such a feat.

They’ve since gone on to continue breaking records with the release of their third concert film, Bring the Soul: The Movie, which released in 110 countries—marking the group’s widest film release ever—on Wednesday.

The movie follows Taehyng and his fellow BTS members RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin and Jungkook during the last leg of their world tour in Europe, which completed in April. Bring the Soul: The Movie is available for viewing in theaters across the U.S. and U.K. as well as France, Germany, India, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brazil and Mexico.

BTS’ second concert film, BTS World Tour Love Yourself in Seoul, which released in January, opened in 3,8000 theaters within 95 countries. The group’s very first film project, Burn the Stage, made history with box-office records of more than $2 million on opening day, with a global box office of $18.5 million. Before BTS’ first movie, One Direction held the title of having the highest opening release and global box office for a boy-band concert movie.