A personal timeline documenting one fan's evolving engagement with Korean pop culture from 2015 to 2026. The author traces their journey from casual K-drama viewing through K-pop fandom, collecting, and concert attendance, ending with a reflection on how these interests changed their daily habits and social confidence.
This is a personal timeline written by a Filipino fan, documenting their evolving engagement with Korean pop culture from 2015 to 2026. It is a first-person account of how their interests shifted across K-dramas, K-pop groups, variety shows, and YouTube content over the years.
The narrative begins in 2015 with watching K-dramas like 'Oh My Ghost' and 'Love in the Moonlight' on Philippine TV. It then moves to 2016-2020, when a classmate introduced them to BTS's 'Blood Sweat & Tears' music video, leading to album purchases and deep immersion in K-pop.
From 2020 to 2024, interest in BTS faded and they became a casual K-pop listener while focusing on K-dramas, variety shows, and Korean YouTube channels like 'Nothing Much Prepared' and 'Lee Mujin Service'. They discovered groups like TXT, Mamamoo, Day6, and BTOB during this period.
The 2024-2026 section describes discovering ZEROBASEONE through Lee Mujin Service, which sparked intense fandom including collecting photocards and albums, attending cupsleeve events weekly, and saving for VIP concert tickets. The author notes this was their first K-pop concert experience.
The present section covers the author's current state after ZB1 members left the group. They now support both ZB1 and the new group AND2BLE, but as a casual listener. A new interest emerged from the K-drama 'Perfect Crown', leading to fandom for actor Byeon Wooseok and the band N.flying.
The final pages reflect on behavioral changes: learning Hangul and basic Korean, using Korean expressions, acquiring chopstick skills, developing tolerance for spicy food, subscribing to fan platforms, and gaining social confidence through attending cupsleeve events and building online friend groups.