It takes one or two encounters to get hooked on the K-drama craze!
We all have different starting point stories to share on how we woke up one day and got caught in a K-drama love bug. But most of us would agree how the voodoo made us suddenly a superhero with the power to withstand hunger and sleep and even postponed taking bath just so we can send off the characters we have stalked to a satisfying closure.
Bravery, patience, and forbearance are some of the core values that Korean drama fans have or have acquired through religious following and watching. While not as social media passionate as our cousins from K-pop fandoms, we are one of the most loyal fan groups on the planet, at least.
I compiled the shared (and common) moments that most K-drama fans might have come across around the globe. Cheers to all these fan stalking truths which we can all mutually say – SAME!
1. Dynamic Fictional Relationship
No boyfriend, no problem! Women who love watching k-dramas would never sulk over not having a relationship because of her ever-changing fictional one-sided romance to a K-drama oppa. If she does have a relationship fallout, a binge-watch is an effective cure. Our favorite Korean actors have become our computer screensavers and cellphone wallpapers, not to mention passwords that protect our emails and various online access. Outside the K-drama world, onlookers might have rolled their eyes, but for the love of our oppas, we refuse to care. *grin
2. Too many dramas, so little time.
At least every two or three months, we get a taste of new dramas to watch – not even giving us enough time to bid goodbye to the previous stories we have grown fond of. Our mental tenacity and time management skills are top-notch considering how we can manage to monitor the drama plots, memorize the characters and schedule the viewing accordingly. We have long given up on the idea of fighting the trance it has cast upon us because the addiction is just too high to handle.
3. Incomparable smarts and patience
Our divination skills keep on improving as we easily spot the trajectory of the story as the dramas we watch continue to pile up. If the drama goes extremely bad, we either choose to be positive about it and settle for its “artistic” or “realistic” after-effect; or we pretend that nothing happened. We assume the spirit of war veterans who take the blows of the writers’ mood swings and the actors’ failure to deliver when an amazing narrative chooses an off-beaten-crazily-conceived ending that no one can understand. We have our very own brain compartment of all those bad dramas we watch because we love oppa (s). And we remain steadfastly in love even after streaks of epic fail dramas.
4. Life, K-drama life and work balance
Chances are calling in sick for work because the all-important episode that can’t be missed has happened to you. You have a neat watchlist of drama schedules on your calendar, sometimes even more highlighted than your friend or family member’s birthday. Indeed, we have become multi-tasker because the situations call for it. We have been caught in a stigma as people whose lives evolve in the imaginary realms we watch – when we actually know how to differentiate fiction from realities.
5. K-drama “one-more-episode” battle
Yes, it is really a K-drama battle out there since batches of stories are never-ending for us to indulge. With that, we have learned to choose our K-drama battles. Except for those rare occasions that we don’t want to let down the K-drama actor we faithfully follow. We have come to terms that we have to let go of K-dramas that can’t sink into our system like how love-at-first-sight happens – so we place it in a safe place where we can go back to watch it in the future when we have ample time to spend.
While the outside world worries about politics, scandals, and the economies, the bargain we mostly utter is “just one more episode”. We have dozed off holding our phone while watching and waking up from the impact of it falling on our faces. *wink
K-drama watching can never become a physically dynamic hobby unless of course, you have to remake the scenes and plots of K-dramas you watch and apply them in your normal life. But it functions well as a destressing activity and brings us to a whole new dimension of worlds and knowledge that we are not aware of.
One piece of advice that I want our culture to prosper with is to properly celebrate the joys of being a K-drama fan. In case when a drama disappoints you, move on as fast as you can. Be sad or angry – but don’t dwell on it.
Tell me about the cute memories you have as a K-drama fan and I would gladly share it in our “fan diary” segment soon. Email your fangirl/fanboy stories to kdramadiary.official@gmail.com or abbyinhallyuland@gmail.com today!
Photos: tvN | SBS | MBC
