Journey to Atiny

How I discovered Ateez as someone who had never heard K-Pop.

The YouTube algorithm started my journey to Ateez but in a very roundabout way.

Have you ever fallen victim to a clickbait title on YouTube? I was scrolling through my home page when I was captured by a clickbait title, "Husband Laughs at Wife in Bath" (or something to that affect) and was so confused...I had to click on it. I was sent to a scene from the Chinese drama, Legend of Yunxi, and had to wait through 15 minutes of content before I finally got to the scene where the husband laughs at his wife. By then, I was hooked.

As someone who lives in the States, I had seen my fair share of American and British television shows. I had even discovered some Spanish and Brazilian shows through the power of Netflix, but I had never seen anything from the Southeast Asian countries. I spent my winter break binge watching Legend of Yunxi and then moved on to other Chinese shows. I somehow felt the need to download Viki in order to open my world up to additional content and it was there I moved from China to Korea and happened upon the show, Imitation, about 6 months later.

"Are any of those actors actually singers in real life?"

I was about halfway through the Imitation when my mom came to visit me, which meant I had to put a pause on all none English content because she struggles with shows in other languages. This was a challenge for me because, at this point, I was fully invested in all Chinese and Korean dramas. I had even thrown in a little Thai for good measure. On her last day with me, as she was getting ready to pack up, she graciously said, "Why don't you turn on one of the shows you really want to watch. I don't mind." I instantly brought up the most recent episode of Imitation and she sat down and started watching it with me. She asked a very innocent question, "Are any of those actors actually singers in real life?" To which I responded, "I have no idea. I don't know anything about K-pop other than what this show is portraying."

What Google Did

Later that evening, after my mom had gone home, I looked up who the actors in Imitation were. I was surprised to find out that my two favorite characters, Hyuk and Yoo Jin, were from the same group and the "pink haired guy who performed my favorite dance move" was in the group as well. How was it that of the 10 male idols on the show, 4 of them were in the same group in real life? I thought, that they must be a pretty good so I looked up Ateez.

Not going to lie, seeing the Sparkling guys going from Diamond to Pirate King was a little jarring and it was a that point that I realized they were really phoning it in as Sparkling members when it comes to performance because, WOW, Ateez knows how to perform!! That's all it took. One performance music video of Pirate King, a 42:05 minute Helpful Guide to Stanning Ateez (if you don't know which one I am referring to, ask and I'll send you a link), and Imitation turned me into a full fledged, card carrying (when I get it since I am hoping its in the mail) Atiny!!

From the Helpful Guide I knew there was a storyline, but it took me about another 6 months to try to dive into that. I spent those 6 months in blissful ignorance watching music videos, dance practices, funny YouTube compilations by the amazing people in this world you know how to use editing software (I am not a member of this group which is why I am writing a blog), variety shows, and live stages.

Army Accountability

It wasn't until I discovered that a friend of mine at work was Army and we started educating each other about our respective groups, that I finally had the courage to try to figure out the Ateez storyline. We made a pact to research our own storylines and then share our knowledge with each other so we could learn both at the same time. It was good to have someone who was waiting on me to figure out what was going on with Ateez as a form of accountability because I probably would have given up by now. But I made it (as of when I am starting this blog at least) and I wouldn't have done it without her.

So I guess that is my story. At this point I have shared my journey though text messages with my Army friend and another friend of mine, who I can proudly claim, I turned into another baby Atiny. Now I am ready to share it with the masses so I guess the only question I need to ask now is, "Will you join me?"

- Paisley