Gwangjang Market — BTS 'Boy with Luv' Detour

There's a moment in BTS's 'Boy with Luv' music video where the seven members run through a covered traditional market lit by string lights and lined with mountain-piled food stalls — that market is Gwangjang Market in central Seoul, and walking through it is one of the most casual, accessible BTS pilgrimages in the city. Unlike the company building, this isn't a place where you might glimpse staff coming and going. It's a place where the song actually exists in real life: noise, food smells, vendors yelling, kids running through. Gwangjang opened in 1905 and is one of Korea's oldest covered markets. The food section that the BTS scene was shot in is on the eastern side — wide central aisles lined with stalls serving bindaetteok (mung-bean pancake), yukhoe (Korean tartare), and live octopus. The lighting on the awnings is exactly the warm, slightly yellow tone that made the music video glow. Members of BTS, BLACKPINK, and dozens of other K-pop groups have eaten here on V Lives and travel shows; it's an established stop on the Itaewon-Jongno walking circuit. A typical visit: enter from Jongno 5-ga Station Exit 8, head straight into the food aisle, share a plate of bindaetteok and a small bottle of makgeolli at one of the standing-counter stalls, and let yourself wander into the textile and hanbok aisles afterward — those are quieter and they're what makes Gwangjang feel like a market, not just a food court. Lunchtime is packed, mid-afternoon is calmer.