Matching Set (필연) Chapter 19 (열아홉)
Val hadn’t realized how much she needed the visit from Maria until Maria was waving goodbye to her at the airport. It had reinvigorated her creativity and even sparked some ideas of how to create ‘friend spaces’ in the children’s hospital game room.
Val was sat in her office finalizing the drawings of the hospital when there was a knock on her door. She moved her attention from the couch colors to her door where she saw a worried faced Tina.
“You have a guest in the front foyer,” She stated.
“어?” Val stood from her desk chair and fixed her pencil skirt to remove any wrinkles from her sat position and made her way to the front. And when she went to greet the guest she was shocked to see 박지애.
Once again, 박지애 style was impeccable. Beside her flawless, almost ageless skin, her dainty frame was accentuated by the stylish pastel mint green suit dress that ended just above her knees, her heels were a nude pointed toe that most likely cost a month of rent for Val.
“안녕하세요.” Val bowed instantly upon seeing the woman. But 지애did not reciprocate the hello.
“I hear my son offered you a design opportunity with the children’s hospital.” She started.
“예.” Val responded coming up from the bow to watch 종현’s mother eyeing her every move. She was getting sized up…again.
“I think you should let Ms. Seung give the presentation.” She didn’t spend anytime beating around the bush. Val knew she wasn’t the type but what she said nearly left Val speechless.
“네?” Val asked.
“I happen to know the board of directors very well. And if they found out the only reason you were giving them a presentation was because my son gave you the chance, well they will turn you away instantly.” She took slow, powerful steps towards Val.
“Are you,” Val couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “Threatening me?”
“No threats here. Just a kind notice.” 지애 shrugged her shoulders, but her eyes gave away her true intentions.
“I’m surprised you wouldn’t want me to give the presentation. While I am not in your family,” Val wasn’t going to let 지애 scare her, “yet, I would’ve thought you would be a fan of the nepotism. I mean that is how your son acquired his role is it not?”
Val had been scared of 지애 her entire time working for Tina, but after spending all the time she had with 종현 she had learned a thing or two about his mother. And one thing she had gathered was while 지애 liked to scare people with her power, she was impressed when people showed her they wouldn’t cower. Those were the types of people she liked to keep on her side.
“My son worked very hard for his position.” She spat out quickly. Her mouth opened and closed a few more times like she was trying to find the right words to fight back.
“I know how hard 종현 works. Girlfriend, remember?” Val pointed to herself with a smirk, “But if he didn’t have your family business behind him, would he be in the same position he is in right now?”
지애’s mouth puckered closed and Val swore she could see steam coming out of her ears.
“I will give my presentation. It is mine to give,” Val continued, “I’ve worked hard for this opportunity and while 종현helped to get me the proposal, I’ve been a strong designer for years. Which is why Ms. Seung trusts me to work with her clients and why I moved up so quickly. I believe the board will make their decision based on my work ethic, knowledge, and designs.”
Val bowed ending the conversation, not letting 지애 get the last word, and walked back to her office. When she closed the door, and let out the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding and glanced at her renderings and samples for the hospital design. She had worked hard for the right to present her creation. And a vague threat wasn’t going to stop her.
~*~
Denied.
Maybe she should of heeded 지애’s warning.
After giving her presentation, the board seemed impressed. They asked her several questions about the timeframe, costs, the usual worries clients have about investing in a designer. They had impressed smiles on their faces, they spoke to her like she would be working up a contract and starting the initial demo in the following weeks.
That’s when they asked her to leave the room so they could discuss. And twenty minutes later she was brought in to be told they would not be pursing a contract with Seung Designs. Usually she took declines with dignity, but she had to ask why they had chosen not to work with her team and their response was a budgeting issue. Even after she said she could cut costs and still create the happy place for the children they refused saying they weren’t interested.
What sucked even more was 종현 had set up one of their dates that night to celebrate her nailing the contract. How was she going to explain to him that his mother most likely sabotaged her presentation? She knew his relationship with her was already strained, and she didn’t want to make it any worse.
As she made her way to the restaurant he had told her to meet him, she got even more stressed. It was another expensive spot, similar to their first ‘date’. Her heart wrenched. 종현 was a perfect boyfriend and yet he never wanted to be one. And there Val was, falling more in love with him on every date they went on. Hell, more in love with every text he sent her asking how the project was going, or letting her know where their next date was going to be.
She took a deep breath and pulled open the large glass door. There was light jazz music playing, but other than that, it was total silence. As she got up to the hostess stand she surveyed the place and saw it was completely empty.
“Valerie Parker?” The tall, young man, dressed in all black asked. She nodded and with her confirmation he turned and began his walk towards the back of the restaurant.
With every step her nerves were getting even more frantic.
“Through this door is your table.” The host motioned towards the closed dark teakwood door. With a smile and dip of his head he walked away.
“Fuck,” She whispered as she stared at the door trying everything to calm her breathing before entering.
She pushed the door open and there stood 종현 in a gorgeous slim fit light baby blue suit, white button up and a black skinny tie. His hair, she noticed had been cut since she last saw him, was shorted on the sides side parted while gently pushed away from his face. A face that had a bright smile, his eyes shimmering with excitement.
“Valerie 축하해!” He exclaimed as he pulled a bottle of champagne from behind him and popped the cork. A small amount of bubbling foam fell to the ground and he jumped back but grabbed a glass and poured some champagne and handed the glass to her.
“종현 what is all this?” She nervously smiled taking the glass as she thought about how she was going to tell him she didn’t get the contract.
“We need to celebrate your amazing achievement today.” He smiled as he poured himself a flute of bubbly. He clinked his glass to hers and took a sip. She brought the glass to her lips but couldn’t take a sip. A sip for a celebration she didn’t deserve.
“I am thrilled to see what you create for those kids.” He was nearly gushing and it was making it even harder for her to break the news to him. “I started the gala’s there to get those donations to the children.”
Jesus 종현 make this harder for me why don’t you?
He came around the table to pull her seat out motioning for her to sit. She followed so she could have a second of not seeing his happy face to collect her thoughts.
“My families company has always been this large company that people hated because to them all they saw was us buying up smaller companies. But those companies have flourished under us. But my family lacked the idea of profits aren’t everything.” He took his seat across from her as he continued, “Even before I took over, I told my father that doing any kind of charity work would build a better realtionship with the public. And what shocked me was him agreeing with me.”
He laughed but his smile was sad. Val remembered his father had passed a few years back. While she hadn’t lost a parent in that sense, after meeting her biological mother and realizing she couldn’t be part of her world, gave her a similar feeling of loss. She reached out to grab his hand that rested on the table.
“I gave him a list of places I thought would be great to help the community and he sent a number of them large amounts of money.” 종현 scoffed. “I asked him if he even went to see where the money went to and all he said he cared about was the tax break the company would get for his large charitable donations.”
“종현…” She squeezed his hand and he surprised her by picking up her hand and bringing it to his lips.
“I was furious to say the least. I told him he missed the point. But he didn’t care.” he smirked and shook his head. “When I took over my first order of business was actually going to the different charities, and picking two or three to donate too and actually do things with them. The hospital is my first big choice. I saw how much those kids needed better facilities and for the last two years I have been focusing all charitable efforts on them until I feel they’re comfortable enough for me to feel I can add another charity to the mix.”
“That’s incredible.” She meant that.
“I have had three gala’s there in the last two years and we have raised an incredible amount for them, but this last one was the first time I met the children and realized I need to do more.”
“종현 you’ve done such amazing work for those kids. You don’t need to do more.” She wanted him to know he has done so much for them already.
“Well it’s your turn to help me.” his smile grew as hers faltered.
“종현…” She trailed off.
“I can’t wait to see your creation come to life. Those kids are going to love -”
“I didn’t get the contract.” She blurted out and closed her eyes too scared to see his expression.
“뭐?” He asked.
“They said that while they liked my ideas, they didn’t see it working realistically in their budget.” She found it easier to tell him when her eyes were closed.
“무슨 수리야? Valerie, I know for a fact their budget nearly doubled after our last gala.” She could hear the legs of his chair scratch the floor and his footfalls as he walked, “When those photos of us leaked to the press people were donating like crazy because they were happy to see ‘the elite’ actually spending time with the children instead of just throwing money at them.”
She felt the heat of his body on the side of her.
“나 좀 봐봐.” His hand cupped her cheek and turned her face to the side and she did as he said opening her eyes to look at him. He was crouched down beside her chair, his eyes focused solely on her. “You did your best Valerie. I know you did.”
Why did that hurt more than not getting the contract? She had planned to have a nice good cry later when she was all alone but his words caused the tears to come on earlier. And before she could try and hide her face and get rid of the tears, his other hand was on her neck and he pulled her gently towards him, his lips softly landing on hers. His kisses were so sweet and she never wanted them to stop.
He broke the kiss to speak, “I’m so sorry Valerie.”
“Don’t be 종현.” She put her hand on his cheek, “You got my foot in the door. That’s even more than you needed to do. You gave me that opportunity and I am grateful for that.”
She leaned over to kiss him as gently as he had kissed her. She was going to miss them. She thought about telling him about her feelings for him. But all that would get her is an even more broken heart. He had made it clear that their relationship was business and he had no interest in furthering their relationship.
But then he would kiss her, when no one was around, and he opened up about his family and she thought that maybe he would be interested in a relationship. That was a conversation for another night.
She pulled away with a smile and said, “Let’s not dwell on it. I’m starved.”
Matching Set (필연) Chapter 20 (스물)
종현 knew something was off. And he had a sneaking suspicion his mother had something to do with it. His plan to tell Valerie how he felt about her would have to be put on hold. She wasn’t in the right headspace for him to confess his love for her. She would probably think that he was just saying it to cheer her up. Which wasn’t the case. So instead, he held off and went along with Valerie’s request to enjoy their dinner together talking about anything other than their work.
He dropped her off at her apartment, waited to see her light turn on and sped off to find his mother. He called his mother’s secretary asking where he could find her, at first he could tell she was nervous and he informed her he wouldn’t mention a thing to his mother about her.
And just as he suspected she had something to do with Valerie’s proposal being denied, it was more so confirmed by the fact she was out to dinner with the hospital board.
He pulled up to a restaurant he had frequented many times with his mother and that same hospital board, where a valet quickly handed him a ticket, clearly 종현 had a determined air about him as he strode into the familiar establishment. He smiled to the hostess who motioned for him to go back to the private room where the little meeting was being held.
Before he entered the room he could hear the loud laughs, the clinking of glasses and silverware on plates and it infuriated him even more.
He swung open the door and a silence filled the room. The scared faces of the doctors spoke volumes. And there at the head of the table sat his mother, her evil smile not fading for a moment.
“아들 , what are you doing here?” She asked, with a I’m-playing-dumb expression.
She knew exactly why he was there. But he wanted it to sting. Bruise her ego the way she had tried to do with such a cowardly move towards his girlfriend. Real or not, to him it was real. And so he was going to show her just how real he was.
“Oh I just came to see what my mother was doing tonight. I know you usually go out with the hospital board after their meetings and today was no different.” He walked around the table, taking in every doctors face. Their eyes dropping to avoid contact with his.
“I was just out with Valerie. You all met Valerie at the gala.” He saw some heads nod, “And today when she gave her proposal for the children’s new gameroom.”
No nods from that one. He saw one head move and he started to make his move.
“Dr. Rasminda,” he called everyone’s attention to one of the doctors. He was one of the oldest memebr on the board, sat right to the right side of his mother.
How fitting. 종현 was ready to pounce.
“You had a great time at the gala right?” He asked the doctor.
“Of course.” the man smiled, a nervous smile that all the other board members mimicked.
“Was it the food? The people? The Donations?” 종현 continued his calm interrogation.
“I’d say all of the above.” Dr. Rashminda answered politically.
“What about the rest of you?” 종현 turned towards everyone else in the room.
They all looked amongst themselves and suddenly all nodded their heads mumbling the things they enjoyed about the gala.
“Do you want to know my favorite part?” he turned to his mother, who he could see breathing quickly as she watched the memebers reactions to his questioning.
“My favorite part was that after the event your hospital received another one hundred thousand dollars in donations.” he grabbed one of the glasses of champagne off the table. “From everyday people, not Fortune 500 companies. Everyday people who happened to fall in love with my girlfriend and I actually taking time to spend with the children you all claim to care about.’“
“아들!” His mother tried to cut him off. Her mouth hung open at his defiance towards her and her choices. He was sick of her thinking she could control him. He was the CEO of the company, he made the rules. He made the choices. And his choice was Valerie was going to design that game room, and he was going to keep her at his side for as long as she would let him.
“My girlfriend who worked countless hours to create a fun environment for the children of your hospital. A hospital, and its patients, that has become near and dear to my heart. And yet you turned down her proposal because of,” He spat eyeing his mother and then back to the head doctor, “budegting.”
“Well Mr. Park, our budget is tight this year-”
“Tight? How so? My company alone donated two million dollars. And not to mention the other fifteen million that gala raised you.” He dropped his hand hard on the table making all the china and glasses clatter. “Not to mention that extra one hundred thousand I mentioned previously. Where in that large amount is there not enough in the budget?”
“We would have to crunch numbers but-”
“You do that. And when it’s done send it over to me.” 종현 pushed back off the table and made his way around to the other side. Getting a good look at every single members face. “I want it broken down to the point I know the cost of every square of toilet paper you use to wipe your asses. If I see any of that donation money going into your bonus checks I will make sure you get booted from this board and never able to practice in this city again. Understood?”
“아들, you are acting irrationally-” his mother jumped from her seat.
“No 어머니, you acted irrational when you convinced the board to not accept Valerie’s proposal solely for the fact she doesn’t fit in the bubble you want me to be in.” He had never spoken so boldly to her. But his anger had boiled over.
“She told you-” His mother started but his sudden surprise at the fact he had made the correct assumption about his mother had him seething.
“You have meddled in my life for far too long 어머니. I let it slide before. Mainly because your choices didn’t effect life as much as you thought they did. But this,” he pointed around the room, all the doctors heads hung low, “this time you went to far and broke the heart of the woman I love.”
Holy shit. He just said that out loud.
“Y-You-You love-?” His mother didn’t finish the question her mouth continuing to sputter without producing words.
“You heard correct.” He said turning back to the rest of the room, “As for the rest of you, sucking up to my mother in the future will not help your standing with me. I hold more power, though I might not have acted in such a way, I plan to from here on out. I expect to have a budget report from you by end of day tomorrow and hopefully you choose to rethink your decision of the proposal from Valerie of Seung Designs.”
He bowed, buttoned his suit jacket and walked out of the room back towards the front of the restaurant.
“You can’t possibly love a girl you paid to date you.” The shrill voice of his mother echoed through the open space of the restaurant. The patrons went silent as 종현 stopped his exit from the restaurant.
“Did you think you had me fooled?” She spat her long strides had her in front of him in a few steps. “I knew from the second I met her that there was something off about your relationship. And so I dug. You made it hard at first, I really did think you were dating. But then your little secretary slipped up leaving your planner open and there were your dates all neatly scheduled for the next three months but nothing after. And a date circled that simply said ‘The End’.”
He could kill his secretary. He knew it wasn’t their fault. Who would think to hide a planner? But he knew to tell them to be more cautious.
“You’re right 어머니, we started dating to get you to leave me alone.” he laughed at the idea that she thought she was about to change his choice in having Valerie do her job. “You constantly tried to throw women at me, women that were either so dull I would rather watch paint dry, or so obsessed with vanity that I might as well have been a mirror for them to stare at themselves.”
“Valerie is neither of those things. She is smart, hard working, and cares more about what her work portrays than how she is portrayed to the world. She wants her work to leave a mark on the world. And I fell in love with that passion. She is beautiful inside and out and I love every single thing about her.”
“You sure can sell it.” His mother still thought he was lying.
“Just because your relationship with dad wasn’t a match for love doesn’t mean mine can’t be.”
That’s when her smug smile fell, her face turned red and before he could say anything else he felt a sting on his cheek and loud gasps came from the audience of diners.
He had hit a sore spot. He knew it. And he had a small ounce of guilt as he watched his mother storm back to the back of the restaurant.
P1Harmony in NYC put P1eces Back Together
After selling out their first US tour in mere minutes P1harmony kicked off the P1USTAGE H : PEACE in NYC with two nights of stunning performances. And P1eces came out in full force to support their six boys, Keeho (기호), Theo (테오), Jiung (지웅), Intak (인탁), Soul (소울), and Jongseob (종섭), for the start of their US adventure.
P1Harmony debuted in October of 2020 under FNC Entertainment and have already amassed an insane international following. And when concerts started up again, a lot of people hoped P1Harmony would be one of the groups to make their way stateside.
We were fortunate enough to see the second night of their NYC stop and when we tell you we were blown away by the performances, that’s an understatement. From the second the six of them walked onto the stage, the energy in Town Hall vibrated through you. And no, it wasn’t just the insane bass of the songs.
P1eces screamed so loud, we honestly can’t remember the last time we heard such loud screams at concert. Even before the concert really even started. And when they kicked the show off with “Pyramid” the entire place shook. When followed up with “Bop” which is a bop, even we began to rock our heads to the beat.
Now to be 100% transparent with you all, while we knew one or two songs from P1Harmony, we were by no means P1eces. But when “Do It Like This” started… FORGET IT! We are P1eces for life. The beat, the dancing, their interaction with the fans throughout just solidified them as a group to remember and a group to stan.
Our biggest takeaway from this show was how much they loved the fans. Throughout all their performances they were smiling, waving, sending hearts of all shapes and sizes to P1eces.
After their first three songs and taking a break to talk to P1eces about how happy they were to be performing in NYC, they slowed it down with “Before The Dawn” but then kicked us right back up into the sick beat drops and melodic rapping with “That’s it” and “Reset.”
Little did we know the moment that totally blew our minds was about to happen: Their subunit performances. 소울 was up first. And when we say all our notes say is ‘holy sh*t’, we’re not kidding. The way he was able to move his body was other worldly. He dominated that stage, and everyone in that theater could feel it. Next up was a duet with 테오and 지웅who sang “Off My Face” by Justin Bieber. Their harmonies felt like we were having a spiritual experience. And the last unit was the rap line, 기호, 인탁 and 종섭 who continued to keep the crowd jumping, dancing and screaming. They truly proved why they have garnered the success they have in such a short amount of time.
After a brief intermission they were back on stage once again killing it with “If you call me” and “Butterfly”. Slower songs that had an R&B sound to mellow everyone out before they came back to make the whole place lose its collective minds again by performing their title tracks “겁나니” (gobnani – Are you scared?) and “Siren.”
They then “ended” the show with their song “Follow me.” We put ended in quotations because we all know k-pop and encores go hand in hand.
The encore started with “Do It Like This (English Version)” but then they had a surprise for all the P1ece in the building. Pink Sweat$ a well-known R&B artist who P1Harmony had done a cover of one of his songs showed up at the show! And so they performed his song “At My Worst” and killed it! Even Pink Sweat$ was rockin’ out to their rendition. The show finally, for real, ended with their song “AYAYA.”
This show honestly blew us away. The fact that they packed 18 songs and performances into a two-and-a-half-hour show was insanity. They had the entire crowd on their feet the entire time and the screams…honestly we maintain this was the loudest crowd we have heard in our several years of covering/going to concerts. Our ears are still ringing a day later. If you have the chance to see them on this tour we can’t suggest enough how much you NEED to go and see them. You won’t be disappointed. We want to thank P1Harmony and SubKulture Entertaiment for this amazing show.
Upcoming Tour Dates:
Washington D.C. (3/13)
Miami (3/16)
Houston (3/18)
Chicago (3/20)
Denver (3/23)
San Jose (3/25)
Los Angeles (3/27-3/28)
ONEUS TOUR ‘BLOOD MOON’ MAKES US SWOON IN NYC
Two days before Valentine’s Day and ONEUS was ready to steal all To Moon’s hearts by kicking off their US tour at Webster Hall in New York City. ONEUS is a six member group consisting of Raven (레이븐), Seoho (서호), Leedo (이도), Keonhee (건희), Hwanwoong (환웅), Xion (시온).
The second the lights dimmed you could feel the energy pumping through the crowd. Fans finally able to go to concerts, see their favorite idols, be with each other again. And like ONEUS knew how everyone was feeling they kicked off the show with “COME BACK HOME”. The crowd truly was at home and the boys were in their element. They followed it up with “Valkyrie” and some seriously insane dance stunts. From jumping from person to person, lifts that would make competitive cheerleaders jealous, all while singing their hearts out to make the crowd go wild.
After taking a short break to happily greet their eager To Moons, they sang songs like “Black Mirror”, “Shut Up Crazy Hot”, and “Plastic Flower/English Girl/Airplane”. Honestly every song grabbed our attention from their singing and rapping to their synchronicity in dance. And as the night progressed their songs had the entire place, including the security, bopping.
Between performing more of their own songs “No Diggity” and “To Be or Not to Be”, they also did dance performances to Post Malone’s “Motley Crew”. No one wanted the night to end and after they said they were playing their last song, everyone hoped they would come back out. And they did! Jogging back out to sing three more songs including “BBUSYEO”.
If you have the opportunity to see ONEUS on their US tour, we highly suggest you do! Check ‘em out at one of these stops! Pontiac on February 16, Minneapolis on February 19, Orlando on February 22, Atlanta on February 23, Cleveland on February 25, Louisville on February 26, Chicago on March 1, Lawrence on March 3, Dallas on March 6, Houston on March 7, and Phoenix on March 11, and wrapping up with their final show in Beverly Hills on March 12.
P1Harmony LIVE TOUR [P1ustage H : PEACE] is finally coming to the US
I know a lot of you have been waiting for this day. Us here at Korean From Context were no different. When we heard the announcement that P1Harmony were doing their 8 stop US tour we legit squealed!
P1Harmony will be hitting up New York (3/11), Washington D.C. (3/13), Miami (3/16), Houston (3/18), Chicago (3/20), Denver (3/23), San Jose (3/25), and Los Angeles (3/27).
Tickets are already on sale and for more information click here (www.subkultureent.com/p1harmony)
We hope to see all you P1eces there!
SummerDaze: The Series : The Interview
I have been fangirling over SummerDaze for several weeks now. I have been actively checking the indiegogo crowdfunding to see how much has close they are to their goal. (If you want to donate, please click here!) I have also been following all their socials, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. Yes, all of them!
If you have no clue what I am talking about, allow me to introduce you to Singapore’s first BL drama. I decided to shoot my shot and ask if I could interview the producers to help promote this amazing project and discuss what we can expect from the series. So, without further ado here is the interview!
K.F.C: You filmed the short movie in 2018 but in 2020 it rose back to popularity thanks to the internet. After you saw it soar back into popularity and fans begged for it to become a series, how long did it take you to make the decision to give the fans what they wanted? What was your reaction to the demand for the series?
How long did it take to respond: It took us quite a long time to respond to the fans because we didn’t want to compromise on the quality of the production.
Our reaction: It was exciting but there’s also that pressure of expanding the story without taking away from the beauty of the short film. We are very moved by the comments, especially for those who could relate to the characters. And we are thankful to all the support and love.
K.F.C: The short film was filmed on 제주도in South Korea, was there any significance to the location? And will we be seeing it again in the series?
We chose the beautiful 제주도as the location for the short film because the short film was a fashion film made for the Singaporean menswear label The Authority. Yes, we have written the script to include scenes from 제주도as the series revolves around how the two actors ended up filming the short film we saw 3 years ago. (A film in a film.)
K.F.C: What was the process for expanding the story for the series? How did you choose for it to be between two actors versus two friends or any of the other kinds of tropes we see in BL?
Because the short film didn’t have any dialogue or names, many viewers were able to relate to it or interpret the story in their own meaningful ways. We didn’t want to take away from their experience by extending the original story or throwing in a plot twist for the sake of it. The producers sat down to discuss this in 2020 and decided that the short film should just be a film within the new series.
K.F.C: How did you go about picking your two main leads? What about them was different from the others?
David got the role through a traditional casting process while Alfred was the last person who came for the auditions. Originally, they were supposed to play each other’s characters but after seeing their chemistry onscreen, we decided to swap their roles.
K.F.C: What do you want fans to know most about the series? What can we expect from it?
We hope they get lots of butterflies in their tummies.We want to thank the producers for taking time out of their busy schedules to sit down and answer all the questions we had for them. And if you want to help them make this dream come true, please donate to their crowdfunding here. There is still time! If you are unable to donate, please share to all your friends and family who are massive BL fans like us!
Summer Daze are fueling our Fall
Have you ever watched something and wished it didn’t end? I feel that most K-drama watchers, and even more specifically BL Drama watchers, understand this feeling all too well.
Have you ever wished you could do something about it?
A couple of nights ago, while scrolling through Instagram, I stumbled upon a trailer for a new BL series called ‘SummerDaze: the series’. As I watched the trailer it mentioned the previous hit of its short film.
You know I jumped to find said short film. I found it and when they say short, they aren’t exaggerating. The whole film was under four minutes. There was no talking, but told a strong story of a love and heartache. Fun fact: While the movie and future series is Singaporean, they actually filmed the short film in 제주도 (jejudo- jeju island).
While the film was gorgeous and I enjoyed all three minutes and thirty-eight seconds of it, I wanted to throw my computer across the room. I needed more! The movie had come out in 2018 and I was looking desperately for the series I had just seen the trailer for.
That’s when I re-watched the trailer to see it hadn’t come out and was in fact trying to raise money using crowd funding to help make an 8 episode mini series possible.
Now here is where you wishing you could do something comes into play.
They have released a crowd funding (here) only a few days ago. There are a ton of different tiers that garner all types of amazing prizes. Posters, postcards, early access to the episodes, video calls form the cast, your name in the credits, and if you’re a big spender a non-speaking walk on roll!
I donated so quick! I didn’t even finish the trailer a second time. (I have watched it a LOT more than that since) While I wish I was Ms. Moneybags, I couldn’t afford to just fly out to Singapore to be an extra. I opted to receive the poster and my name in the credits.
If you want to help there are several ways. The first is obviously donating to their crowd funding (here). The second, if you don’t have the means to donate, is share their story with all your friends who are also big BL fans. And have them share. And keep passing it along. This is the time to make shiz happen! This story needs to be told!
Follow them on insta (here) to follow their journey.
Who is your hero? #discovermyhero #discoverkorea
The past year+ has ben one I am sure no one will ever forget. I know there are a lot of people I could thank personally for keeping me happy, healthy, and sane. Everyone has someone in their life who helped them through this pandemic. And not only do we want to hear your stories but so does The Korea Tourism Organization who is offering some amazing prizes for sharing who your hero is! 이거 봐! (eego bwa- look at this)
Not only can you win this amazing K-beauty kit, but you can also win a trip to LA for you and your hero to get a K-beauty makeover! Now how exactly do you enter? ! 쉬워요! (shiwohyo – it’s easy!) Anyone can participate by posting an Instagram post, detailing your story and tagging your hero. Use the hashtags #DiscoverMyHero and #DiscoverKorea
You have until August 6th to enter! Good luck everyone. Can’t wait to see who your hero’s are!!
Our New Ko-Fi Goal…
I am sure if you follow Korean From Context on Ko-Fi the first two goals were small. It was the steppingstone into the world of Ko-Fi and to be totally honest I didn’t think I would reach that first goal, but then to reach the SECOND goal?!? I was so shocked by this but since it was able to be reached, I decided to make the next goal Korean From Context’s biggest one yet.
$2,500! Yes, I’m serious. How did I go from $100 to $2500? And why are commissions not open yet? All of the questions will be answered in this post!
To start off the money will not be going all to one thing. It will be split to several main things.
- A new phone. This will help me create nicer, more HQ content for TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.
- A new camera and/or lenses. I have been looking at new lenses, praying that concerts will be coming back soon so that I can go and start shooting again. I also would like a new camera to possibly start vlogging when I do go on the biggest trip of my life to South Korea.
- Trip to Korea. Since we are looking at having to be in a two-week quarantine for the foreseeable future, I would simply need enough to cover those two weeks of mandatory hotel stay.
Commissions are coming back. Don’t you worry. However, we want to focus on finishing Seoul Searching. And with that we will be taking the next two weeks to be focusing on that. We are almost all finished. Crazy! Sad, but exciting. We have so many new books coming soon to Korean From Context. Some a little more Mature. (hehehe)
2020 has been a year…now on to 2021!
I don’t know how to process the year we just had. I’m assuming a lot of people are in that same boat. I had no clue what to expect out of this year when it started, like any year before it. I looked ahead to a bright future and a small growth of our website. But also, I expected the worst and in the beginning of the year, I actually had intended to shut the site down. I tend to be a very pessimistic person.
Then the world went absolutely crazy. And while the world, outside, had been somewhat of a cluster f*ck, being in quarantine was probably the best thing to happen to this site. Mainly because I was able to focus a lot more of my time on the site and it’s growth. And grow it did.
When I entered quarantine, I had a lot of time to sit on my phone during the breaks from me doing my real job’s work. And instead of being productive, like a lot of people, I got addicted to TikTok. I had never planned to post anything, just enjoy the cute animals, food, k-pop, k-drama, and funny videos. Someone had said something about making a video of Bright from 2gether and I said that I used to edit videos so I could try. I made it but found the easiest way to post it was to TikTok. That was my first ever video. It got like 20 views and I was happy. And once again, I never intended to post anything else.
But then I saw a few TikTok’s about weddings, and I decided to post some pictures of my k-drama wedding photos. I left it there, went on with the rest of my day. That night, I went to watch some more funny videos when suddenly I had 99+ notifications and I was hella confused. I saw my wedding photo TikTok had over forty thousand views and thousands of likes!
Now in TikTok numbers that isn’t a lot, but to someone who only had 15 followers at the time, I was in shock! I got so excited and decided I would make another video. The next video is what changed the course of my website and my life forever.
One of my best friends had talked me into posting TikTok’s because she thought I would be good at it. I wasn’t so sure about that. After a failed attempt at YouTube, I wasn’t sold on putting myself out there like that again. She had told me to post my story about being hit on by a kpop idol. I felt I had told it so many times and no one cared, or even read my whole blog post about it. She said, “Yeah, but that’s not TikTok.”
I looked to find a fun way to tell the story, and the Put A Finger Down Challenge seemed like the funniest way to do it. I filmed it, sent it to her to see what she thought, she approved and so I posted it. Within minutes I was getting flooded with likes, comments, and follows. I couldn’t keep up. I had hit over eight hundred THOUSAND views! And my followers grew to almost four thousand!
I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy. And I am still insanely grateful for that!
And then Instagram launched REELZ (their version of TikTok). At first, I had decided REELZ weren’t my thing, since I had TikTok. But then I was in an Insta rut and said, ‘eff it just post a TikTok as a REELZ’.
Again, I didn’t know how to react when I woke up the next day to over several hundred new followers, thousands of likes and comments. I get more likes and views on my TikTok reposts to REELZ, than the videos posted on TikTok. I am now at almost four thousand followers on Instagram.
My next big accomplishment goal for the website was to finally start selling scenarios through Ko-fi to build my following on the site. I honestly am still figuring Ko-fi out but I think it will help me grow! At the beginning of December, I put up a small number of open slots, not believing I would even sell one. Sold all five with several of the customers wanting part two’s!!! We have more scenarios open for sale now, if you’re interested in purchasing your own.
I didn’t think 2020 could do more for Korean From Context. We had grown so much, and I was so shocked and thankful. I thought to make another fun TikTok that would now promote Korean From Context and our book Seoul Searching in a fun way. The video blew up! People shockingly believed I had seduced a Korean Drama actor. Me? Laughable. But once again there was a large influx of people to our TikTok page, surpassing ten thousand followers! Which means I can apply to the Creator Fund. I have heard nightmare stories about how it screws over smaller creators, so I won’t be joining just yet, but looking forward to the furture.
And through the growth, people have DM’ed me telling me that they have binge read Seoul Searching and they are desperate for new chapters. These DM’s included one special woman in particular. She reached out saying she loved my book and followed up with asking if she could narrate Seoul Searching! Obviously I said yes so that is in the works!
2020 was a crazy year for so many reasons. But I am happy to enter 2021 and here are some of Korean From Context’s New Year’s Resolutions:
- Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we will be making our trip to Korea this year. This is our passion but our day jobs only allow two weeks off a year. And since Korea is hella strict on quarantine, our entire trip would be quarantine. The Resolution? I will continue working to get miles for us to travel and possibly even stay in Korea free of charge!
- I would love for our Instagram to reach 10,000 followers and our TikTok to reach 100,000.
- Finish Seoul Searching, finish editing it all, and release a limited edition book version! You read that right! A real book!
- Sell even more scenarios to give people their one-of-a-kind k-drama experience!
- Start the new books I have plotted, and get you guys ready to learn even more Korean!
- And lastly, make Korean From Context the best it’s ever been!
I want to thank you all for making 2020 not a total suckfest and keeping me sane during the insane time we are living through. I hope 2021 can be a time for everyone to grow, heal, and hopefully prosper! I wish you all happiness and I wish for all of you to follow your dreams, your heart, and do what makes you happiest. I love you all and thank you so much for coming on this journey with me and the others of Korean From Context!
