30+ Moments That Made People Realize They Were K-Pop Fans

SCHEDULING MOMENTS

 

What day is it?

“Sometimes I only know the date because of a comeback/debut.” — thekittywowzerNana

 

What time is it?

“When I read the r/relationships post about the guy who was too invested in the Tzuyu scandal, and his girlfriend complained about some of the same things I do…Look, it’s very important that I get up at 5am to watch this comeback performance.” — ilikeitiloveitr

 

New Lifestyle.

“I’ve been blogging about Kpop for 4 years now…and it has become a way of life.”  — Tery_Kpop Enthusiast

 

A new reason to take “personal days”.

“Had to explain to my area manager that I needed that extra day off because I.O.I is disbanding soon and I must see them..” — coke_lifeGod 

 

Time changes.

“When I started living on the South Korean timezone.I still do it. I’m asleep when they’re asleep & I’m awake when they’re awake. This is so that I can’t miss anything during the day.” ”  — CalatasBunny & Strawberry are Princesses

 

EMBARRASSING MOMENTS

 

Unusual photo collections.

“When I made an album of all the KPOP pictures/teasers on my phone, saw it was over 1,000 and then realized 50 of those were just pictures of SNSD and straws.” — griffbendor

 

Too many memes.

“I have about 3500 pictures on my camera roll which consist of Kpop memes, GOT7, NCT, and BTS. I really wanted to make one for Mamamoo, RV, and EXO but my iCloud storage space is rapidly dwindling..”. — Yoongissmile

 

Fanfictions.

“When I was reading Taeny fanfics. /not proud of it tbh.” — indexHO HO HOLIDAY

“When I started reading fanfics lol. That’s how I can tell I’m deep into a fandom when I start looking at fanfics. Especially because prior to K-Pop, I was extremely iffy about shipping real people.”  — taebaegiBTS

 

ESCAPIST MOMENTS

 

K-Pop news becomes more important than regular news.

“When I started checking daily for kpop news. It’s part of my daily routine now, I check twitter and reddit three times a day and it feels really weird when I forget to check or can’t check. It really feels like something’s missing.” — CaomhAGUST D 

“I pretty much pay more attention to K-pop news than “actual” news, mainly because reading about the state of the world makes me want to shoot myself, while listening to the freshest new girl groups keeps me going. Anyway I’ll start wishing for that giant world ending asteroid AFTER I get the chance to meet Seulgibear.”  — CronoDroid

 

Living vicariously through K-Pop videos.

“I check for new kpop news the moment I wake up. And then all I do at work for 8 hours is refresh reddit. When I get home I watch all the kpop youtube clips (because I can’t watch them at work) and finally when I’m in bed I’ll do one last /r/kpop check, watch a stream or 2 on vlive, and then knock out.” —  simplerthingsSHINee

 

TIME & MONEY MOMENTS

 

Buying physical albums.

“When I bought a physical album. There’s no real reason to do that in this day and age (other than to see your faves get praise.) I have 13 physicals albums overall and I already regret it as much as I regretted my vast collection of pokemon cards.” — bladeburnerEXID

 

Buying too many albums.

“I have 30 something albums with a ton on the way. i’ve always preferred having physical versions of things like books and cds anyway so i probably would’ve gotten them even if i wasn’t too deep into kpop lol. but can you believe that there’s people out there with like 200 albums?? like where the hell do they get the money for it” — lolmaggielolRomeo

 

Spending money on flights to concerts.

“Flying to LA from Jersey once I.O.I was announced as the final guest for KCON. I was in the process of recovering monies (lots of overtime) spent from KCON NY + a “massive” order of albums.” — ontherice 

“When I flew to another country to see my favorite group…. 3 times… And am already planning on doing it again. Someone send help.” — Alwany

 

Spending all weekend watching videos.

“This past Sunday I watched every single Bangtan Bomb, while skyping with a friend also watching every single Bangtan Bomb. We finished them. All of them. They’re not even my favorite group…”  — kissmybunniebuttDaesung

 

Becoming more committed to K-Pop than to school activities.

“When I realized how deep I was into fandom. I was attending concerts every month outside the country, joining and organizing fan projects and group orders 5-6 times a year, spending my hard earned money for support stuff, albums and photobooks, camped out in a hostel in Korea just attending events and taking photos for fansites for months after college…”  — kumamonie 

 

FAMILY MOMENTS

 

New wedding vows.

“When my husband let “Taehyung” be the password to our wifi, I knew kpop was not only accepted into my life, but into my marriage. “I promise to love you even when EXO dissolves and you cease to make coherent sentences for weeks on end” should have been in our vows somewhere.”  — EmberHands

 

Fan by association.

“Huband surprised me yesterday by busting out a BTS reference out of nowhere and completely knowing of what he just did as my jaw dropped.”  — EmberHands

 

Bonding time.

“I came out of the kpop closet with my partner and he’s been very patient and humorous. He’ll watch videos, and remember groups a bit, he even talks about what he likes and doesn’t like. Sometimes he’ll watch something like ioi’s latest and shut it off halfway through because he thinks its annoying. Others he really likes and tries almost too hard to understand the concepts of.

Last night watching TT together he was shouting “run children! this ends badly, there will be ghosts, likely dancing ones!!” 30 seconds later “what are they doing with their hands?”  — DravvieSNSD.Blink.LadiesCode

 

EMOTIONALLY INVESTED MOMENTS

 

Knowing the reason behind an idol’s hair color choice.

Friend: “Hey I hear Big Bang is filming a new music video.”

Me: “Yeah, T.O.P. left a restaurant with white hair last night so they’re probably filming this week.” — UndercoverChaebol

 

Developing the ability to recognizing an idol…not by their face.

“I can recognize the faces of members of large number groups (9+) and recognize them just based on random body parts without even needing to see their faces. Me and my friend were playing one of those “guess the MV” games that have videos on YT the other day and I correctly guessed one of Vixx’s MVs because they showed the back of N’s head. XD”  — taebaegiBTS

“When I was watching one of Exo’s live stages and I recognised Baekhyun from his legs and the way they moved…” — ChensCheekbonesMIXX

 

Getting irrationally jealous.

“For me, it was when Taeyeon x Dean’s Starlight first came out. When I saw Taeyeon acting as Dean’s lover in the mv, I actually felt jealousy. Which is weird because I’ve always been very encouraging about idols I like dating. But, yeah most of the comments were omg they’re so cute together–meanwhile I’m bitterly yelling DON’T TOUCH HER DEAN in the corner.” — igotaboychickenlet

 

Getting to know group members better than your own family members.

“When I could list the stage names, real names, and multiple nicknames of all the EXO members but couldn’t remember my three cousins.” — –chu-

 

Dreams just aren’t the same anymore.

“When idols started sneaking into my dreams” — akibaranger 

 

Developing weird habits.

“Initially I thought was in too deep when I put up a poster, but then I started talking to the poster….”  — AgitouUniversal

 

The moment when a group’s members become your “children”.

“It tripped me out when I could tell exo apart in this, even though I could clearly remember back to the times I thought they all looked the same. I felt like a mother who could tell her twins apart. It felt both alarming and like an accomplishment.” — 1408_

“I’m not a hateful person but the concept of fandoms made me bitter at times. Like when parents want their kids to succeed, I wanted only my favs to reach the top. I’d start comparing the comebacks and pretend like my biases had no flaws while all I saw were flaws in the rest. If there was no competition, I’d happily listen to them.”  — RainamooDB5K

 

Thinking of idols as friends.

“I nearly convinced myself to buy Taemin’s Press It album, not because it was good or because I liked Taemin, but because he was Kai’s friend and if his album did well, he would be happy, which would in turn make Kai happy because his friend is happy. Yeah, that was when I knew I was in beyond rationally deep. I still haven’t purchased it, but I’m sure I’ll need an add-on for free shipping one of these days.” — Galyndean

 

Having an existential crisis.

“Oh my god. When EXO dissolves, I will too. They can’t. They just can’t? It’s like BB and SJ, they’re gonna be forever. They have to. People’s sanity rely on them, they’re in too deep, there’s no getting out now. LuKrisTao knew and fled while they still could but the others are going nowhere. Oh my god, I think I’m having an existential thought. Like, what do I do when EXO no longer is? What do I do with all my time. What will I spend my money on. What will I do with my life” — brightersmilesChogiwa 

 

Knowing everything about an idol…including their pets.

“I realized I know the names of not one but several idols’ dogs.” — Pantlmn

 

Studying becomes impossible.

“When l should be studying for the exam that’s gonna determine my future but I keep thinking about how D.O. is such a penguin…” — silver-belter

 

CHANGING TASTES & HOBBIES MOMENTS

 

Reading a book because an idol read it.

“When Rosé from Blackpink says in an interview she’s currently obsessed with the novel “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, and you immediately go to the library to check it out… someone please help me with my problem…” — ddeokbokki212NE1

 

Mistaking The Big Bang Theory for BIGBANG.

“I embarrassed myself the other day with Big Bang.
In our sorority we have “speed dating” to get to know each other better, and the girl I was talking to goes “yeah and my favorite thing right now is Big Bang”, so me (thinking kpop) starts ranting about how awful enlistment is to the fans and how I won’t survive a break from Big Bang ot5. It took me a good 30 seconds in to realize she was staring at me in horror and was talking about the show…” — fourfoldcatYugyeom

 

“BTS” will never be the same.

“The acronym BTS is always Bangtan Boys at first glance no matter how hard I try to stop myself.” — somericecakeUmSaJa 

 

English songs are ruined forever.

“When I realized the only English songs in my music player are by Jay Park, FEM, and various artists/groups who sang 1-2 songs in english.” — penaltylvl

“When I realized that it was weird listening to lyrics that I can actually understand (a.k.a. all western music). Also the fact that I haven’t listened to the local radio in months..”  — vgonzalez951

“When I just can’t listen to anymore Western/English songs anymore (or at least it’s difficult to listen to).” — flameooohotman

 

Watching things you’d never thought you’d like.

“When I first got into my first ever group, I was watching their reality show and I said to myself “wtf am I watching?”. 5 episodes in, I wasn’t questioning anymore, and I knew then that maybe this was all for the greater good.” — flameooohotman

“When I’m watching Weekly Idol reruns even though I could be watching something new.” — aprecheCrayon