peaches and bunnies 🍑

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It’s been a while since my last post here.. I’ve decided to write here more often but more about reviews of my BTS-related stuff that I’ve been purchasing since 2016.

Basically, I started being an ARMY (what the BTS fandom has been trademarked) since 2015 but I just decided to buy official and fan-made merchandise during January 2016. I have various merch like their official albums, fansite merch, official DVDs from Summer Package, Memories, Muster, BT21 stuff, and others like The Notes and magazines related to BTS.

BTS fansite photobooks, BTS UNO cards (special version from MATTEL), Jungkook FUNKO POP IDOL version, various BTS fansite photocards (inside the box), BTS Mediheal face masks (box only)

BTS albums from 2013 (No More Dream) to 2019 (Map of the Soul: Persona), random BTS Japanese albums

BTS official DVDs and photobook like Summer Package, Season Greetings 2017-2019, Memories 2015-2018, Concert Tours 2015-2018, official ARMY Membership 4th and 5th terms, Jungkook image pickets and acrylics stands and frames

BTS magazines (mostly Japanese and from US), extra Jungkook and Namjoon FUNKO pops

BTS official lightsticks (version 1-3), official Muster DVDs, concert tours, game soundtrack

I still have some in my posters, official photocards that are kept hidden in my cabinet. At first, my mom actually was against of my collection (waste of money blah blah) but as time went by, she gradually accepted this fangirling of mine😂 and started reminding me stuff to bring when I go to concerts abroad lol. Anyway, collecting merch and supporting BTS has been keeping me sane and happy for the past years. Compared to other hardcore BTS fans, these are still considered little in amount lmao.

For my next posts, as I’ve mentioned above, I’ll be sharing my reviews of my owned BTS merch, some BTS concerts that I’ve been to and some BTS-related events that I’ve gone to.

When I first heard BTS songs and listened to their albums from the start (2 Cool 4 Skool), I felt like a newcomer in the K-pop industry as I’ve noticed that almost of their albums have intros* and outros**. I’ve been listening to K-pop since 2011 and it was my first time to see these kinds of tracks in an album. I admit, I was not familiar with these kinds of style, that’s why I skipped these songs at first. However, when I joined the fandom last 2015, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life’s the first intro I’ve listened to. AND IT WAS AMAZINGLY DIFFERENT. Hence, I’ve started listening to the other intros and outros since then.

Below are my top 4 intros and I had really a hard time choosing my faves because the songs are just too good and all of them have their own unique sound. 

My top 4 outros will be posted separately.

Note: I picked these songs based on my own taste of musicality as well as the lyrics and meaning behind the songs. 

*all of the albums have intros except for Young Forever as this is considered a special album and continuation of HYYH pts.1 and 2

**Wings has no outro, only interlude since the outro of it is included under YNWA (repackaged album of Wings)

INTRO (order based on ascending release of the album)

1) Intro: O!RUL8,2? - first EP album, O!RUL8,2? (1:11)

I noticed that from the early albums that they have released, only the rappers were involved for the intros. This was changed during the release of Love Yourself: Her in 2017 which was led by the song Serendipity, sang by Jimin (one of the main vocalists). Anyway, in this intro, this was all about rapping and led by Namjoon. Among of the three rappers, Namjoon’s rapping style is the usual that we hear from the other rappers but one thing that’s distinct in this voice is the power and authority as well as the smart flow of the lyrics through his mouth. This is one of my fave intros because of the deep meaning of the lyrics. 

“Nothing lasts forever You only live once So live your life, not any other’s lives Take chances and never regret, never Never be late to do what you wanna do right now Because at one point of someday everything you did Would be exactly what you will be Right?”

These lyrics are already in English when he did the rap parts. Basically, this song is about questioning your decisions in life if you will take a risk or just go with the flow on what’s happening to you. One of the best intros I’ve listened to.

2) Intro: Skool Luv Affair - second EP album, Skool Luv Affair (2:58)

Led by the Holy Trinity (Namjoon, Yoongi and Hobi), as the fans call them, this unexpected intro’s included in my faves list. If you will listen to it, you will definitely notice how the rappers have their own style in expressing what they want to convey to the public. Yoongi got the angst and swag, Hobi has the upbeat and bubbly part, and Namjoon emphasizes his deep and emotional rapping. Some of my fave lines (translated in English):

“Whether you’re in your Teens or twenties, love is all the same.”  

“If you haven’t loved yet How about doing it like me? A person’s emotions is so strange I’m the one who makes you smile but You go to the bastard who makes you cry.” 

3) Intro: Nevermind - fourth EP album, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 2 (2:18)

By far my favorite intro out of all intros made by the boys. I’ve always been in love with rap. This intro was written by Yoongi himself. His rap style made me like this track even more. I was deeply attracted to Yoongi’s style of rapping since I heard Just One Day (one of my favorite slow songs in Bangtan’s discography). In addition, I especially love the lyrics of this song - the pain, the judgment made by many people to them, the overall emotion of this song is beyond the definition of an ordinary kpop song. Here is an excerpt:

“I don’t give a shit I don’t give a fuck Like I always said hundreds of time every day, “Never mind me” I can have a taste of failure and frustration and bow my head We are still young and immature, don’t even worry about it Moss surely grows on a stone that doesn’t roll If you can’t return, go straight through your mistakes and forget them all Never mind It’s not easy but engrave it onto your chest If you feel like you’re going to crash then accelerate more, you idiot.”

And this last verse always get me emotional (even he called me idiot lol)

“Never mind, never mind If you feel like you’re going to crash then accelerate more, you idiot Never mind, never mind We’re too young and immature to give up, you idiot Never mind.”  

In all honesty, Yoongi’s delivery of the song went thru my heart when I first heard this. You can actually tell from the lyrics how the others (the general public) easily judge them thru their mistakes and their wrongdoings. However, we know that Bangtan is not like any other groups who give up easily. Instead, they just continued to show what they want to prove and fortunately, they really did the right thing. 

4) Intro: Serendipity - fifth EP album, Love Yourself: Her (2:19)

As I’ve previously mentioned above, this is the first intro that has been sung from the vocal line and I am just so proud that it was Jimin. Listening to Serendipity is like listening to one of those rainy nights reminiscing those moments with your first love. This song is so soothing and pleasant to my ears no matter how many times I’ve repeated this on loop. Jimin’s voice is so unique that you can’t compare it to anyone. He has this pure angelic voice that you want to listen to every single day. I’m not even kidding here. 

And yes, reading and listening to these lyrics? Made my heart flutter so much.

“As much as my heart flutters, I’m worried The destiny is jealous of us, just like you I’m so scared When you see me When you touch me The universe has moved for us There wasn’t even a little miss Our happiness was meant to be Cause you love me and I love you.”  

An open letter to the seven boys - the reason of my happiness since 2015

My dearest BTS, You’ve come a long way now and it’s already your five years of being together. As for me, I’ve only known you since 2015 and I still have the deepest regrets of not knowing you since your early days. Nevertheless, unlike the others who found you through their dark times, I found you during one of those ordinary nights when I worked overtime. I even hesitated for a moment to watch your recent MV that time (it was Dope) but I think it was really fate who made me realize that I should start supporting you. From then on, I listened to your songs, watched your interviews, your stages and concerts and even bought merchandise that I have not even done before in my entire life. Still, it was a wondrous feeling... it was like I’m just contented seeing you laugh, satisfied that you’re having a great day and so on. It was an unexplainable feeling of warmth and happiness. When you’re in pain or sad or you’re nowhere in sight, to be honest, I feel empty and alone. I always find myself worrying and checking the recent news if you’re okay. Relief comes flooding me whenever someone updates that you’re doing fine. These emotions that I don’t normally feel (I swear I’m not expressive and people call me stone cold)... it just started when I knew you guys. People will then ask me, “Why are you even reacting like that? They don’t even know you. You’re just wasting your time.” But then again, ordinary people won’t ever understand the way I feel about you. It was my choice why I started supporting you. At the end of the day, you may not know my existence until the end of your career, but that’s not what I’ve intended when I joined this fandom and supported you. I just want to let you know that we, as your fans, are always behind your every move and decision. We are here to support you until you’ve reached to a decision of the final time of your landing. Thank you so much for the music, for the happiness, for the unconditional love that you always spread and tell to ARMYs. You make me feel valuable and loved in every way that you can. Happy 5 years and counting! To more years of being legends and being extra and being the best boys that I’ve known 💜 보라해 우리 방탄~ Yours truly, Your ordinary but grateful fan

This post should have been posted last October when I got back from my Seoul travel but my indolent self was too lazy to share my experience thru writing. Haha. Anyways, here I am, finally doing it. Basically, this one is all about the places that we’ve been (I am with my friend, Sherry, who is also a BTS fan) plus what we did on our entire ten-day Seoul-searching. And! I also think that this may not be suitable to normal travellers because our itinerary is mainly all about Bangtan (plus little non-Bangtan related sidetrips). I will post this into several parts because it might be too long for a one post.

Hotel Inno in Dongdaemun – this is the place where we have stayed. Although this is kind of far from Itaewon and Myeongdong, I really love the place because it is so quiet and peaceful. It’s not really the normal Seoul that I have used to see on TVs. Detailing the hotel itself, the price of 11,000 won (basically 22,000 won for the two of us) for a ten-day stay is definitely worth it! You can see below our view of the city as well as our room. At night, you won’t hear any noise at all so we were really comfortable throughout our whole stay. We will definitely opt to stay there again when we plan to come back.

Coffee Shops – I am literally a coffee-holic. That’s why my main goal when I go to Seoul is to try every coffee shop that we see. Basically, I’ve tried seven cups of coffee (mostly caramel macchiato, two hot and five iced).

1.) Holly’s Coffee - this is just below our hotel in Dongdaemun. I tried the hot one first. (3 out of 5)

2.)  A Twosome Place - after some window shopping in Myeongdong, we settled for this cafe. I actually wanted to visit this one because Siwon of Super Junior used to own (or currently) a branch of this near SM building. (4 out 5)

3.)  I actually forgot the name of the coffee shop but this is one of the best hot caramel macchiato I’ve tasted! It’s located somewhere in Hongdae. It’s actually hidden and Sherry and I thought that it’s a cat cafe because of the building design. Turned out it’s not lol. (5 out of 5)

4.) The Min’s Coffee - so curious to see this because BTS used to hang out in this cafe! This is located in Gangnam (can’t remember the exact location) although it’s kind of difficult to search because it’s part of the building and small. (4 out of 5)

5.) Tom N Tom’s Coffee - we craved for a day for a cup of coffee and while we’re exploring Seokjin’s university (it’s in Kongkuk University), we went inside to try theirs. Kind of regretful though lol (2 out of 5)

6.) Angel-in-us Coffee - I remember this was near Gwanghwamun Square after our very long walk from the Gyeongbokgung Palace. We stayed in this place for so long because it’s so cozy and the coffee is so good! (4 out 5)

7.) Paik’s Coffee - THE BEST ICED CARAMEL MACCHIATO I’VE TRIED IN MY ENTIRE SEOUL SEARCHING. No need to say more. We tried this one inside Ehwa University’s but I think there are lots of branches of this. (100 out 5) SRSLY.