It's Dong Bang Shin Ki's 4th Anniversary today! Exactly 4 years ago did the five rising gods took the first step to fame.

To commemorate this special day, I shall reveal how I actually become their fan. And I remember a couple of people asking me how I got to know them. Well, here's the full story!

No, it's not the "omg, so shuai! I love them!" kind of story. This, I have never told anyone how I actually started to notice them- the very very first time I actually take notice of them. It was quite funny actually. :P

You know, before knowing TVXQ, I was a Kpop-ignorant [or truth be told, an all-round-worldpop ignorant]. I knew nuts about the industry at all. I even thought BoA was a Japanese singer when I first learnt about her. -_-"

So it was last year, Feb 2006, LE gave me this Kpop forum website, Soompi.com/forums so that I could search for Lovers in Paris OST. In case you didn't know, it's my favourite drama of all time! :] While surfing the fantastic forum, there were already a lot of TVXQ fans who had TVXQ's pics [banners] as their signature.

I saw a lot of their pics floating around the forum and my reaction was like, "oh another pretty boyband~" LOL. I seriously wasn't into boybands at that time. Because I always thought boybands were overrated and admired for only their handsome features. :x

So after awhile, a month had passed by and I was still surfing the forum. On a particular day in March 2006, I was looking through threads happily when I spotted this animated GIF of Jae Joong singing in a scene of their HUG mv. I stopped scrolling and frowned at the GIF. It was not his handsome face that caught me staring, it was his mouth. Was he singing, "hold your hands~"?

I swear I stared at the GIF for a long time and you know how those GIFs keep repeating the same action? I kept thinking his lips were moving in a way that he was singing/saying "hold your hands~~".

Now being the Kpop ignorant that I was, I was like what the heck?! Handsome Korean boys don't sing in english!! I didn't even think that maybe that was just an english phrase in the song but heck, I was curious and I don't listen to K music so I didn't know english phrases will be used much in Korean songs.

At that time, while I hurriedly search for their thread in the forum, what was in my mind was only 'omg, singing in english!' But after I successfully found their thread and looked through their profiles, that thought vanished in an instant.

My eyes were literally bulging when I saw their profiles, particularly, their birthdates. Years 86', 86', 86', 86', 88'? 88.... 88?!!!!! I totally flipped out. What's a boyband of members only 3 years older than me doing here?! And even one member only a year older than me...

I freaked!! ---> I told you I was a Kpop ignorant. At that time I didn't know Kpop singers can debut as early as that age!

Of course, by that time I was totally curious about them already. [Very]Young Korean boyband who can sing english songs?!

I immediately went to Youtube to look for Rising Sun because while looking through their thread, a lot of people were spazzing over how awesome Rising Sun is. So I got to see it.

Now, Rising Sun is a very upbeat dance song and a very awesome song as well. And that's the first ever MV I saw of them, of course I was totally impressed- like jaw-dropping impressed. Kids don't dance that well!! [lol, kids] They were just twenty at that time and well.. to me youths below 21 aren't considered adults. :p

God, so many heart-attacks from them in one day almost killed me! First, it was the animated GIF of JJ who I thought was singing in english, then it was their super young age and then their Rising Sun MV.

I am so sad I can't find that GIF of JJ anymore... it's the GIF [and my stupidity] that brought me to TVXQ. Oh, the irony.

In the end I found their HUG mv and realised it was a Korean song. Felt stupid? totally... Disappointed? Yeah... BUT in the end, they DID have an english HUG MV after all--> Unlimited talents. :)

So it's been what? 1 year and 9 months since I got hooked onto them. I have never liked -as in really totally SPAZZING kind of like- an artiste/groups for that long. And I don't think I'll ever stop. Well.. unless you find me a boyband that is better than them in all aspects, maybe I'll consider. But don't bother.. don't want to waste your time, if you know what I mean. ;)

After all these, I want to thank LE, for introducing me the forum [still surfing it daily! :P]. Thank the person who made the GIF of Jae Joong singing at that particular scene in their HUG mv. Thank SM Entertainment for creating Dong Bang Shin Ki.

And most importantly, thank DBSK for being such a talented boyband [and good looking too!] and the members for being such wonderful people individually. I love you guys!

사랑해요..

-Part 2-

After a couple of weeks of my TVXQ discovery, I went to search for their albums. At that time, they were not so famous [in SG] thus I couldn't find any of their albums in CD-rama. Ironically, I found their first "single" [it's actually China/Taiwan version, so there were additional chinese songs that they sang. LOL] in a VCD shop [the shop at basement 1]. Right now, if you go to that shop, you can either find one/two albums or none of their albums/singles at all. -_-"

But you know, I was extremely esctatic when I found that single [duh.. lol]. I remembered that day, my sis and I were eating at Pastamania and I showed the CD to her. She rolled her eyes when I kept spazzing about it. -_-" And who got hooked onto them afterwards?! Babo..

Anyways, at that time, it was soooooo difficult to find ONE album/single of theirs. Sometimes Orchard's HMV don't even have one. I remembered I bought one of their old Jap singles in City Hall's HMV which was also the only single there. And you know what, I bought their first and second album from another "fan" at a total price of $30! Hah! Cheap right?! LOL. And it was brand new because she didn't even open the wrapper. ;D

Wow, when I first started liking them at that time, I spent LOADS of money buying their stuff. :x Like, buying those unofficial stuffs... My sister being influenced by me did the same too. She bought this poster for $32!! I fainted when I learnt about it. Though the poster is huge and official, it's so not worth 32 bucks. Now I rarely buy any unofficial stuff unless I really like it.

I only spend on their official stuff now, which is actually enough to cause huge holes in my pockets. :) [and I like it! [no I'm not crazy]]