Weekly House of A.R.M.Y (아미의 집) – November 15, 2023

earlier this week it was a quiet morning at work. my co-worker asked if we could listen to some music. i said “sure, go ahead!” then he asked if i had any playlists. like


long story short, we listened to golden, layover, face and an assortment of (sort of) office friendly kpop.

there were zero complaints!

Lol I was at the pub last night and I opened my flip phone to call an Uber. Of course the lock screen comes up which is just all Jungkook and abs (I am a simple girl with simple tastes).

The guy sitting next to me says, “Oh ok are you into those Korean pop boys?” So first I’m a bit surprised because I live in South Africa and our ARMY is dedicated but small, and I wouldn’t expect many people to know BTS. Anyway I say yes, and he says that his colleague is super into them, and maybe he should check them out. So JK and his abs may have converted one more local 🤣

Newer ARMYs – curious to hear your feelings about coming into fandom during the pandemic or enlistment/solo eras. I was listening casually in Butter era but didn’t get to my ‘learning their names’ phase until this year. So as an actual ARMY I haven’t really experienced BTS as an active group which is a bummer sometimes – as I work through all their content I do get nostalgic, wishing I’d been around for so many of these iconic moments and achievements. It would’ve been such a rush to see the literal rise of Bangtan in real time.

But then again, when it comes to my fave bands, I’m emotionally fragile 🤣🤣 I may have some unresolved emo girl trauma from My Chemical Romance breaking up in 2013. 😕 So I probably would’ve found getting hit in the face with Festa ’22 a fairly turbulent experience 😭 Maybe an upside of coming into fandom only this year is that the mood has moved on so much from dark times ‘hiatus’ anxiety? Things have gone so well for solo projects and there’s so much reassurance about 2025. Also feels like Bangtan have developed an even more direct and relaxed relationship speaking to fans, which I appreciate a lot in their lives – it’s like a balm that without OT7, at least there’s some pretty honest conversations being had and it feels like much less uncertainty and cloak-and-dagger secrets than in the past? Older ARMYs than me will have more insight on this. But stuff the company kept locked down – like Jin saying that ‘enlistment’ was a Voldemort-like word they were never allowed to utter – they can obviously reference more freely now that it’s finally in the open.

(Also my MCR trauma is mostly OK now – they got back together and did the most insane tour last year. 😃 If I can survive almost 10 years without MCR, I tell myself I can make it 2 more years through enlistments until the Bangtan reunion.)

I’m in London today on a Christmas present mission! I got a couple of things for my r/bangtan secret Santas 💜 but I’ve mainly been distracted by all the amazing food lol. As Jin encouraged us to eat bungeoppang today, I got a taiyaki which was the closest thing I could find 😆 it was delicious and did warm me up so I hope I’ve made him proud haha!

https://preview.redd.it/nz2f2l05kj0c1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14f4e1133a579014dca5592934cf4a9479ea5537

I was just in the bank and “Left and Right” came on. I NEVER hear KPop in the wild!