[I got it bad I’m making puns in my title just to accommodate Yong.]

So how does one begin the road to fangirling full of twists, bumps and exhilarating turns?

My friend @blissful_days says it starts with the OST of a drama, then moving on to CDs and then concert DVDs. Before you know it, you’ve become a true-blue X-popper.

That’s the route I took with Arashi too, but it goes further back. It started with a drama. Just like most everyone else, yes, I was baited by HANA YORI DANGO. The drama that made me discover Matsumoto Jun and which, inevitably led me to Arashi. There was no turning back from there.

And I am going through a familiar route right now.

It all started with a drama.

Wait, that’s getting ahead of the story.

It started some years ago.

I’ve been hearing CNBlue from @greyhavens. When you follow and occasionally cover or handle stories on pop culture, it’s inevitable to hear of them. I have a vague recollection of spending a Saturday covering a Korean pop festival and going home with a headache. The article I wrote afterwards is proof that I did not really grasp the K-pop factory and only CNBlue made an impression on me.

But my fangirl life went on virtually unchanged after that.

Then A GENTLEMAN’S DIGNITY aired last year. One of the stars was Lee Jong-hyun, CNBlue’s guitarist and vocalist. Cute dude, I thought, and nice song too.

When the drama was over (and I have to admit, if not for Jang Dong-gun and Lee Jong-hyun, I would have stopped watching because Kim Ha-neul’s juvenile acting was getting on my nerves), my fangirl life went on still unchanged.

I also remember someone giving me a CNBlue CD (that I could no longer find). I hate to admit this but I must have given it to someone else or it got discarded when I moved.

A few weeks ago, I gave MARRY HIM IF YOU DARE a watch but after the first two episodes, I decided it wasn’t really to my taste. Lee Dong-gun seemed to have lost his shine and Yoon Eun-hye’s acting wasn’t showing some growth. Oh, and the dude from CNBlue is also here? Okay.

 

 

I moved on to other dramas.

Then I had cable installed all for the sake of NHK and Kouhaku. One night, I switched on the TV and surfed, looking for something entertaining. I chanced on KBS, which was airing MARRY HIM IF YOU DARE.

Then it happened.

That moment, the tipping point, when I finally sat up and paid attention.

Jung Yonghwa wasn’t even doing anything special onscreen. Just him in this suit as he enters a boardroom to finally be introduced as the young master. He was also wearing his ear studs.

 

 

I forgot what I was doing and focused on the screen, wondering how come I haven’t been following this drama as faithfully as I should have when there is this eye candy right there all along. The next few nights, I’d always tune in to KBS and watch even if it’s an episode I’ve already seen.

That’s when it occurs to me that this dude was in YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. But the thought of watching Jang Geun-seuk and his eyelid that never twitches (it bothered me so much then) was just too much. So instead, I checked Yonghwa’s Wiki page and voila… HEARTSTRINGS. Oh, I have just taken the first serious step to fangirling: bothering to look up information about him on the Internet and actually doing something about it, such as watching his drama.

And so HEARTSTRINGS and many episodes later, here I am listening to “Because I Miss You” on loop for two days in a row. And because my search among my CDs didn’t yield a CNBlue album, I turned to Grooveshark, all the better to go through the band’s music and see if it’s for me. So far, so good.

Now, I have to finish watching HEARTSTRINGS and wait… I have to search for information on Yonghwa and Park Shin-hye. Uh-oh, here’s another spin-off to fangirling: the uncertain world of shipping. But that’s for another post.

Liking another band or artist doesn’t make me love less the major fixtures of my fangirl life. It just means that it’s sometimes interesting to have variety. And this is coming from me who has always been amazed by the energy of other fans to fangirl most everyone.

Meantime, I’m spending the rest of the weekend with Yong.

 

 

My Yonghwa indoctrination continues.

Yong are the reason why I listen to K-pop again.

I am hopeless.

Help me. Somebody?

© Yasminka Lee (blogging since 2001). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the contents in Orange Jasmine Purple Yam without permission from the author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Yasminka Lee/Orange Jasmine Purple Yam with appropriate link to the original content.