can they get any younger?

I seriously should start withdrawing from kpop (I'll get to it...soon). I thought EXO would be the youngest of the young for me but here comes another group. I should abstain from watching reality shows altogether. It took me a while to watch Who is Next? and Mix and Match, but after that...fine YG, you win. Now I'm invested with Team B / iKON. The talent and the drive...it's crazy. I hope they debut this year because I cannot take another variety show from them anymore.

Nah, who am I kidding, I'll probably watch them either way.

All of them are amazing dancers:

And then they just get you like...ugh... (turn on the subtitles)

That's all...*sniff*...they have superb songs so far and they haven't even debuted yet. Their debut song better be good. 

exo comeback + sehun's birthday

So, as usual, there's barely any time for EXO to recover from their punishing tour and from the Luhan + Kris drama of 2014 that they staged a comeback again. I guess, for the most part, there was no choice in the matter. Fan love is a delicate thing, especially for impressionable teenagers. So you can never afford to lose momentum, especially for those subset of fans (myself included) whose connection to the group has waned given an underwhelming (in my opinion) Overdose comeback and the tiring emotional rollercoaster from the member changes.

The EXODUS (very apt title I might add, although please SM, stop with the butthurt imagery with the two marbles and stuff) era has arrived with a vengeance. A full album, along with high production value teasers that led a lot of fans to doing more detective work on the subliminal messages (they have more time than I do, I think. I just admired how awesome they look, and the fact that Sehun's location is in Edinburgh), plus an adorable marketing play (seriously, those mascots are crazy cute) -- I guess that's enough at least to pique MY interest. Because honestly, I was really close to checking out of the fandom if it weren't for my active fics that I've yet to finish hihi.

So...the album was good, better than I thought it would be. Very reminiscent of 90s rnb style, and more sexing up of their images which I guess was introduced during the Overdose era. I miss the Growl era though, how tight the concept is, how every song can be a single in itself (except for Wolf. Still have a love-hate relationship with that). The sound in Exodus is a 180 degree turn from Growl, that I'm not sure right now what their brand of sound is.

I winced at first when they said that the title track is called Call me baby...errr okay. But the track is catchy. The music video also has a lot of movement and interesting points, and way better choreography than Overdose. There are some questionable styling though (but again, better than the billowy white shirt of Overdose). I seriously don't know why they keep on giving hideous clothes to Kai. But yay on Sehun's black hair. My favorite tracks in the album are My Answer and Beautiful (all ballads, I know *sigh)

So I'm just checking in to usher the new EXO era. I guess it's sort of safe to assume that they'll be promoting as 10 moving forward. They are also doing a webdrama, EXO Next Door, from the same people behind the Oh Boy! project. I was preparing myself from the cheese but surprisingly it was really cute.

Lastly, Happy Birthday Sehun!!!

EXO's 2nd Anniversary!!!

Today (April 8) is EXO’s 2nd anniversary, so I decided to make a (sort of) tribute post to the current group that’s taking over most of my free time (whether this is an ideal situation given that I’m almost 30 years old as of this writing, I cannot tell lol).

Last year, I planned to make this infographic of my obsession timeline in my first wholly EXO blogpost. But yeah…became too busy with a lot of things that I’ll just do that when I have free time (which can be never). So I’ll just make a long-winded outline about it, and it might bore you to death (or shatter whatever respect remaining you have for me) so sorry in advance *peace*

EXO, who you? (Pre-mid2013): Ignorance is (apparently not) bliss

• Discussion with a friend:

         Friend1: “Hey, check this video. It has dancers from SM’s new group.”

         Me: “Uh, sorry which ones are we talking about?”
         Friend1: “*points to Kai and Lay* There!”
         Me: “hmmm...okay...anyway I can’t take another boy group. Even shine is too young for me”

• January 2013 – DKFC 2013 in Manila

         Me (messages EXO-obsessed Friend2): Hey! Isn’t EXO in DKFC today?

         Friend2: “What! Why didn’t you tell me?”

         Me: I thought you already knew about it!
         Friend2: “!!!!”
         Me: “oh well, hihihi…”

We have to go through a denial phase right? (Mid-2013 to August 2013): My kpop heart doesn’t have room for 12 more boys

• Me (listening to kpop radio): “oohhh, nice song….(looks at phone display)…oh, EXO sang it? okay... :|" That song is EXO’s “What is Love”… it enjoyed heavy play in that kpop radio that I finally caved in and downloaded that single song. At least I know one EXO song…that’s fine. Just one song.
• Me: Hey, I downloaded EXO’s What is Love, I like it.

        Friend2: Oh yeah, Chen kind of owned that song
        Me: *nods* (though I don’t know who Chen is, never looked up the members)

• Me (listening to kpop radio): “what is this weird Gregorian chant song? *looks at phone display* haha it’s EXO *snicker* see, I can’t get on board this thing (the song is MAMA)
• *sees a lot of twitter spam of Friend1 and Friend2 about EXO’s Wolf and Growl*

         Me: The heck! What’s with this twitter flood!
         Friend1: Just watch this video! Just try it!
         Me: “Who is this again?”
         Friend1: “EXO”
         Me: “Oh, I only have What is Love in my player. Fine fine I’ll watch it. Hmmmm…catchy.”

         Friend1: “Yay!”

         Me: “But there’s too many of them! I cannot!”

• the next day

        Me (messages Friend1): “Dammit! I keep on replaying that video!”

        Friend1: Give in! Give in! Who do you like?

        Me: “the heck, how would I know? I can barely see their faces!”

        Friend1: “Cmon!”

        Me: “errr hmmmm…the one with the NY cap? He looks like the best dancer…”

        Friend1: “That’s Kai! The one in the old SM the Performance video! He and Taemin are close friends by the way.”

        Me: “errrr, okay…”

• in Thailand for the Seunggi fanmeet

        Friend1: “dude! I sent you a video! Watch it while you’re abroad!”

        Me: “Is this exo again? I can’t I have to focus on Seunggi!”

• back at home

         Friend1: “did you watch the video?”

         Me: “wait…”

         Me: “OMG! This is Kai right? Oh shit, and this happened in DKFC?!?!”

         Friend1: “see!”

         Me: *sighs*

No going back (August 2013-Present): It’s the gift that keeps on giving

• It’s a Wednesday and it’s a holiday and for some reason I’m already awake at 8am

         Me: “Dammit, I’m still hung up on that song!”

         Friend1: “Bwahahaha see! Who else do you like?”

         Me: “Didn’t I just pick Kai?”

         Friend1: “Another one!”

         Me: “Hmmmm…that guy with the revolving thing with light hair…”

         Friend1: “I think that’s Sehun *goes off to confirm with Friend2* Yeah that’s Sehun! Dude, you always have a thing for maknaes!”

         Me: “The heck, how would I know he was the youngest?”

         Friend1: “Another one!!!”

         Me: “Errr, the one with the pink hair?”

         Friend1: “Luhan!”

         Me: “Yeah, he looks cute sans pink hair. in the world of kpop hair always changes so I don’t take that into account (little did I know Sehun’s hair history at this point) Fine fine! Send me their names!"

         Friend1: "Yipee!!!"

• Start of EXO discussion in Line and we roped in Friend2 to make a group chatroom and invited Friend4 over (another friend influenced by Friend2)
• The memorable names-in-post-its day…to help me remember (and Friend1 and Friend2 squeeing that I’m officially in the fold):

• Obsession officially started….barrage of past videos from Friend 1&2…not being able to tell Sehun and Luhan apart at first. Deciding that Sehun will be my no.1 bias…then wavering a bit when I saw the radio guestings (hehehe)…but in the end decided to stick with my choice.
• Started to devote a portion of my hard drive to EXO videos and other related content. Listened to their other songs (and *gasp* had a I’m-starting-to-like MAMA phase)
• EXO-K arrives in Manila…made major bargaining powers and finally secured a ticket to watch their concert performance…wherein I went batshit crazy
• Told myself that I wouldn’t read fanfics, especially yaoi ones…but lo and behold I caved in to reading the good ones (filtered via friends, I don’t search them on purpose hehe)
• Told myself I wouldn’t write fanfics, but lo and behold my friends started churning out fics until I’m the one left…so…..hello fanfic writing! *peer pressure* (note: only 5 of my friends have read my stories (let’s not count the cyber readers hehe))
• Merch merch and merch galore! This is the late bloomer in me talking. Honestly when I was growing up I did like boybands and such but never got this irrational in buying merch (or maybe because I’m already working so it’s my money anyway? Hehehe). I’m sure my stuff pales in comparison to others, but yeah…here you go!

Made a mad scramble and these are the stuff I have near my bed, hehe. Didn't include the posters anymore:

Oh and I ordered this snapback online because Sehun has one hehe:

And how can I forget my moment of insanity in buying this:

That’s it! I can expound the obsession section further but it would be too long lol. I don’t know how long I’ll keep up with this, I just pray that I’ll be alive until the end hehehe

So congrats EXO for making it to two years! We are one!