This is a tale about the time we accidentally became K-pop fans. Okay so I do tend to like the genre, I would call myself a Korean hip hop and definitely a K-drama enthusiast. I actually more so prefer the fashion this industry sprouts, men’s fashion has always been of interest and the famed K-pop stars bleed Gucci. But I don’t think of myself as an obsessed fan, here’s where the visions of teenage girls crying at airports when they see someone famous spring to mind – I’m definitely more of the ‘accidentally walk into a famous band and can’t even tell, totally ruin their photo ops and do something embarrassing while I’m at it’ type person…more on that later.

Example number 1: coffee with teenagers

While visiting Seoul we’d wanted to check out the luxury stores in Gangnam, as you do. But first, for us Melbournians, we needed coffee. Luckily for us, Korea loves coffee just as much as urban Australia does. After popping out of the train station exit, a quick Kakao Map search informed us we were close to a Starbucks and a café called The Min’s. The café pics on the Kakao app looked pretty similar to a café back home and craving something stronger than Starbucks we headed there. It was a nice café, the décor was similar to any inner suburban Melbourne café with trendy design features and fresh flowers. I guess I should have known we didn’t belong when we first entered and I tried my best at greeting the owners in Korean and a teenage girl laughed at me. Not surprising I am not an expert in the native tongue.

The lady and gentlemen who served us were lovely and things seemed normal. Matt needed to use the restroom so I waited while enjoying my coffee. It was then I had started to realise this wasn’t just a café, things were a little strange. Firstly, the clientele at the time was solely teenage girls who appeared to be tourists. Not too strange a fact in isolation but they were all walking around taking many photos of the tables and the walls, at this stage I was thinking perhaps they were interior design students. But they seemed to be agitated by where I was sitting, it seemed they really wanted to take a photo and didn’t want me to ruin their pic, quite understandable although I was sitting in a very typical chair and table. That’s when I decided to look harder at the walls and realised there were heaps of pics of K-pop idols, not that uncommon for Seoul but didn’t seem to mix with the aesthetic of the café. At this point I googled the café out of curiosity. Turns out it’s owned by a K-pop idol and famous musicians frequent it. Ahhh, I then noticed there was a picture of a famous band drinking coffee on the wall where I was sitting, they had sat there before hence the teenage angst of wanting me out of their ‘table and chair’ pic. 

I started feeling uncomfortable, I glanced across the room and shared a slightly embarrassed look of sympathy with a mother who had just been dragged inside by her teenage daughter. Here is what google taught me:

• The café is owned by Chang Min from the K-pop band 2AM and is operated by his mother
• They serve organic tea and artisan cold drinks
• K-pop band BTS posted a photo on Twitter which went viral

So that makes sense as to why it attracts all the tourists. Apart from the odd stares from the teenagers, the coffee was great and so was the service, next time I might choose a different seat though! If you are in Seoul and are an avid K-pop fan, Trazy has information on how to get there – or you can just wander in like unaware tourists as we did and enjoy the coffee.

Example number 2: gate crashing a band’s hotel exit

The second incident occurred returning to our hotel after a day of sightseeing. We may have been slightly hungover from the spontaneous decision to visit a hip hop club the night before (who am I kidding, I was completely hungover, all I remembered were flashbacks of dancing to Finesse and thinking legit that song was made for me….so yeh, hung). We were dragging our tired selves’ home to freshen up before dinner – side note: I rarely get hangovers so this one hurt bad. We caught a cab back to the hotel and the staff at the Grand Hyatt opened the car door for me so I could get out. Because it’s me and I am super classy I stumbled out of the cab and had somehow gotten my jumper and cross body bag caught up in my leather jacket, so I was focussed on fixing this situation – flashing my hungover mid-section in Korea was not really intended! 

I finally managed to get my clothes under control when I hear the intense shutter speed sound of a camera, looking up all I could see was a gigantic camera with a huge lens attached to it. I apologised for walking in front of the shot, but wait, what shot? The front of the hotel? Not exactly this was more of a rushed type of ‘paparazzi style’ operation. So I got my hungover self together just in time to realise I was standing right in the middle of a procession of fashionable, attractive young men with edgy haircuts. Then I noticed the hordes of young females screaming and taking pics while important looking people told them all to stand back. I was excluded from the warnings from the important people, maybe it was obvious I had no idea who these beautiful people were, or perhaps I looked as hungover as I felt? Potentially the super classy cab exit had blinded them.

It was all over as quickly as it began and Matt and I were left standing there, Matt confidently stating ‘well that was definitely a K-pop band right, so who are they?’. My response ‘I don’t know but they were pretty’. Later that evening I searched twitter and Instagram for tags at the Grand Hyatt and found out it was Got7, they are pretty famous…also I ruined about 1,000 teenage girls’ social posts by standing right in the middle of their stills and videos…oh man what a day to be hungover.

Example number 3: So do I like G-Dragon or what?

I sure do – remember I am a hip-hop fan and I dig men’s fashion, so of course the man that Karl Lagerfeld considered a friend piqued my interest. On my first trip to Seoul, we decided to visit Bukchon Hanok Village and absorb some last minute culture before heading home. It was really lovely to see traditional buildings in the heart of bustling Seoul. If you follow my Instagram stories you will see I have a thing for old vs new and seeing the juxtaposition of this traditional village in the middle of a sprawling metropolis like Seoul was really something.

After quietly walking around for a while we reached a street lined with tourist stores, and I had the realisation I hadn’t bought any trinkets from Seoul. So we went hunting in these little tourist stores, but I was struggling to find anything that wasn’t K-pop related…seriously there was floor to ceiling K-pop paraphernalia. 

Whilst browsing the outside K-pop table out of interest, mainly to determine how there could there be yet another table full of merchandise, the owner of the store came outside to offer assistance. She entered at the exact time I made the comment ‘look, G-Dragon’ while pointing at a calendar. The owner chimed in with, ‘you like G-Dragon?’ and in a flash she had produced a bunch of other G-Dragon merch. She then proceeded to put the hard sell on and was fiercely trying to get me to purchase a diary, as she identified it would be perfect for school. I hands down almost kissed the woman right then and there for thinking I was still in school and almost bought the G-Dragon diary, but Matt was getting fidgety and was already trying to wind up the situation. Alas, the G-Dragon diary remained unpurchased, but I was so close to becoming a legitimate K-pop fan, a teenage one at that!

There you have it, although I have never purchased any K-pop fan merchandise (ahem except the BT21 pencil case, luggage tag and phone cover from the Line Friends store….but that doesn’t exactly count!), I can say I have lived out some pretty envious fan experiences that would make some teenagers jealous, or, want to kill me for sitting in some chair that was blessed by K-pop. My biggest tip for avid K-pop fans – buy the dang G-Dragon diary, I really should have bought the G-Dragon diary….I do like G-Dragon! 

Other incriminating evidence

• The time we went to the Line Friends store and I made Matt order a BTS themed Sunday because they looked cute (while I ordered an Americano to look cool).
• The time I ordered Cass beer because Zico made it look cool.
• Not exactly K-pop related but I did catch a train from Busan to Seoul because I saw ‘Train to Busan’, it wasn’t quite the same….