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Spill the Beans: Refresh mania and funeral guilt

We’ve got a lot of hilarious addiction stories in this batch — hope you guys will laugh as much as we did! Keep sending them in, since we’re pretty sure there’s no limit to the depths of a full-blown drama addiction. Just listen to what these folks have to say!

 
Charmaine scores points for forcing work to fit itself around dramas, which is an impressive feat.

Here’s my Korean drama backstory: I was channel surfing on my rabbit-antenna TV and finally stopped on the local Asian channel. The outfit one girl was wearing (very girly girl) caught my attention and so I had to check it out. This girl was yelling at this plain-looking girl about her boyfriend being the plain girl’s ex-boyfriend. I got hooked on this drama mainly because of the plain girl. My Name Is Kim Sam-soon was my first drama and is in the top 3 of my all-time faves. I came upon Coffee Prince (a top 3 fave) and Boys Over Flowers the same way, where a scene caught my interest and I was hooked instantly on the dramas. But I didn’t think it was an addiction, yet…

And then You’re Beautiful came along. Like others, I googled everything and anything about it — spoilers, pictures, behind-the-scenes. I stalked Dramabeans and several streaming websites, waiting for recaps and videos to come up. I listened to the soundtrack and sang the songs all day. Normally, I would watch the drama in the evening after work, when the video with English subs were available. But I could no longer wait. I HAD to know what happened as soon as it happened. I started watching raw files at work.

I work in a research lab in a university and oversee a few students. Some of their experiments required some specialized methods that only I do, and therefore, their schedules also had to revolve around my drama watching. Raw files were available at 9am, so we didn’t start any experiments involving me before 10am. For an hour, I sat on the couch in the lab, watching You’re Beautiful, laughing out loud, squeeing even louder, and even tearing up when Jeremy sang his song for Mi-nam on the bus, all while the students were busy getting their experiments ready. Luckily, the addiction started with one drama, two days a week. Luckily, my boss and my colleagues are really nice and understanding. They fully support my addiction. I just took a week off from work, and even now, my boss asked whether I binged on my dramas (duh!).

🙂

 

 
We’re finding Rain another of the frequently cited drama gateways. (Ah, I think fondly on the days of my Rain crush. Those days are over, but you can’t taint the nostalgia of your youth!) Here’s apluszee’s story:

I don’t actually quite remember how and when I started watching K-dramas, but the first dramas I watched were Autumn in My Heart and Hotelier because I remembered buying the DVD box sets because it was on sale. I was in my early teens, must’ve been about 11 or 12. I then stopped watching as those box sets cost a lot of money (this was waaaayyy back before I had access to the internet). I stopped for quite some time and only started back when I discovered Rain Bi.

I was an avid fan of Rain in those days, and I would save my pocket money to buy his dramas’ DVD box set which would take ages to be in the market (the ones with English sub — obv not a Korean speaker). And when I discovered the internet, Youtube was a good site to start and I learnt about K-drama-subbing webs and blogs from fansites (i.e. life saviours!). Then I would spent most of my times in front of the computer! Even subbed dramas would be uploaded a few weeks after they were aired. Man, those old days when I had my patience still intact.

These days, if it’s not out the next day, I’d be refreshing the site numerous times and get super annoyed!! I’d be cranky the whole day and even more mad if the video won’t load or keeps buffering! Technologies sure has advanced and I don’t need any DVD box sets anymore! Buuuut my internet bills sure are not cheap!

You know what the doctor says — a drama (episode) a day keeps the doctor away. lol

 
faee, I sympathize with you, as one of those old dinosaurs who remembers what drama addiction was like in the pre-streaming days. Thank goodness for technology.

My addiction started in the year 2007, with a simple question: “Do you want to watch a drama?” asked by my best friend. She was going to camp and I had to stay back. It was the holidays, I was bored. So, of course, I said yes.

She lent me her pen drive (which I think had just 500MB) and could contain only two or three episodes. So, I very innocently came home, put in the pen drive and started watching a series called Autumn in My Heart. Yes! Thirteen-year-old me got addicted to the very handsome Won Bin (I was sick with a very serious case of second lead syndrome) and went to my best friend’s home every day with the pen drive just to watch another episode. My mother would say, she’s away at camp, why are you going there? And I would answer, mamma, I need to see what happens in the drama. I had my sister and a close friend caught up on the drama and they would take me back and forth over a course of a week, to get more episodes. By the time my best friend came from camp, I was completely taken. We had a full-on spazz session (she liked Won Bin more too, yay) and we just wanted to watch more!

But we had no idea how to get any! However we stumbled upon silentregrets and mysoju (anyone remember those sites?) and I continued the obsession with Full House with Rain and I continued with more Rain, with A Love to Kill. Still it was very difficult due to slow Internet and bandwidth restrictions. But again that never stopped me and I would stay until the wee hours of the morning to watch dramas. I’m from Maldives and now we’ve got places where you can just go and get an episode for 1 rufiya! Good days for drama addicts. And the Internet is cheaper and I catch up on dramas as they air in Korea. As soon as it’s available on the Internet I watch it raw! And again I watch it with subtitles, my latest obsession being Yong-pal! ( This drama gives me feeeeels.)

Times have passed and I’m sure I would’ve watched 100 or so dramas by now. And I’ve got no regrets! Best thing that has happened in my life.

 

 
Bebot explains, “It all started with Full House.” So many things did.

In my country the first international drama that became a hit was a Spanish drama and then followed by the very famous Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden. After that, Korean drama came. Rain and Song Hye-gyo’s drama started to air and for the first few episode it became very very popular. And I got addicted to it. But since it was dubbed in our language and we have to wait for the next episode to air, my husband downloaded all the episodes on the internet. We finished all the episodes in 2 days. The good part here is that it wasn’t only me and my husband who watched the whole drama. My grandmother, my mother, and my 5 siblings all crammed in our room and watched it together. We only paused it if someone’s going to the toilet, we even ate in the room. 🙂 After Full House, I started to search all the Korean dramas and where I can download them. I now have a lots of Korean drama DVDs and even movies. I became Rain’s fan too and been to his concert. I love Korean drama I only watch Korean shows dramas and movies now. I don’t even know about Hollywood movies and celebrities but anything about Korean I’m sure I can answer it all. 😀

Certified Korean drama addict here!!!

 
I think the story Lee Wah, Low relates is a familiar one to addicts everywhere: grades, or K-dramas?

It was 2009. I was enrolled in part-time graduate studies for my MBA. It was not easy to work full time and study part time. I didn’t even have a life anymore as all my spare hours were spent on my studies. Even my yorkie was disgusted with me. She would climb on top of whichever book I was reading and plonk herself there to get my attention. My poor baby!

Nothing could distract me — until my best buddy introduced me to her new discovery, Korean dramas!

She started me with DVDs on Boys Over Flowers. That was the beginning of my addiction. I remember that my grades started going downhill after that. How could it not?

I was sleeping at 3-4 am daily. There was one time I had a marketing module exam the next morning but I stayed up till 5am to finish off BOF. I had always gotten high distinctions but that was the first paper that I scraped through with passing marks. To sum it up, my MBA results were not the sterling string of distinctions that everyone who knew me expected.

What can I say? K-dramas versus grades? Of course K-dramas wins hands down!

And thank you Dramabeans for your wonderful recaps. They have been my source of comfort when unable to watch K-dramas. Fighting!

 

 
Lee Seung-gi, Jang Geun-seok, Lee Min-ho: Not a bad way to start off a drama addiction, as Shountz found.

I’m Jamaican and my drama addiction started with my uncle. One of my local TV channels was showing Brilliant Legacy. I had cable so I had never seen it before. One day when I was at his house I saw him watching it. I laughed him to scorn, I just didn’t get how he could watch “that weird Asian show,” but I sat and watched one episode since I didn’t have a choice. I was pleasantly surprised, but I wasn’t hooked yet.

Later that year I was away working for summer and we didn’t have a TV so I watched TV on my laptop. I thought of that weird Asian show and found it on epdrama. I started from the beginning and I was thoroughly hooked after that. The makjang of the dad just leaving his daughter broke and penniless, the eviiiiillllll stepmother, the near misses of finding her younger brother, the second lead who just wouldn’t take a hint. It was all so frustrating… but I was hooked I couldn’t help it. Next I started looking for other shows and happened upon Love Rain. I dove into that as well. That fountain kiss was my first K-drama squee kiss oooh Jang Geun-seok (I re-watched that scene at least 5 times) and Personal Taste which was my intro to Lee Min-ho. Luckily I had my own office so I was able to watch Personal Taste. And squee on my lunch break.

Well needless to say I’ve been hooked ever since. Boys Over Flowers and Secret Garden came afterwards after scouring the blogs for more suggestions. My sis is a new convert and I tried to warn her off BOF but that was her gateway drug lol. I’m just happy she’s here.

 
Aw, thanks Trigo! We’re just happy to enable assist addicts any way we can. 😉

Not sure if this actually counts but over the years rather than being addicted to dramas (because I don’t have time now 🙁 ) I’m more addicted to reading your website for the recaps HAHAHA. I literally read dramas all the time (on the bus, in the train, at home…) and I’ve missed a lot of bus stops because I was too busy reading xD . It is also through these recaps that I choose which drama I want to watch and it’s a fast way of getting my K-drama fix so I’m gonna continue reading!

 
Karen, we’d never laugh at you (or anyone) for their first drama crack. It’s our first time, we don’t know any better, and you can prove your good taste later. Never apologize for the thing that spurred your love!

My first drama crack was also my first simulcast and when I learned about Dramabeans. It was…don’t laugh at me… Spy Myung-wol.

Now that you’ve finished laughing at me. In my defense, I knew it was awful, but I also had to know what happened. Your recaps usually came out a little before the video on DF. So on drama days, I’d alternate between F5-ing your home page and F5-ing DF. When the recap came, I’d read it so I know how the last episode was resolved. I usually tried to stop there, but I’d sometimes read all/most of it while F5-ing DF. And then she [Han Ye-seul] left, and I remember thinking, “Is the drama going to end just like that?”

Don’t worry — I’ve since become more discerning and have never rewatched that drama. But to this day, if I see a kidnapped in a warehouse scene — I think of Spy Myung-wol.

 

 
Welcome to the club, Grace4u2!

Hi, my name is Grace4u2 and I am a K-Dramaholic.

Once upon a time I had some time. Little did I know that such a Jewel in the Palace existed in K-drama. I couldn’t Protect the Boss when after watching it for the very first time I was Goong (Not a Game Show). My nose would be as long as Pinocchio if I was to say I was not addicted. But I have not lost Faith in myself as my rewards of Boys Over Flowers and all the Flower Boys have so been worth it.

My addiction has required me to wear a Mask as I marathon all the Princes (Coffee Prince and Rooftop Prince, to name a few). But as the Moon That Embraces the Sun I find the Heirs on the back of my neck on edge as I watched Oh, My Ghostess the mostess.

In my Discovery of Romance of K-dramas, I realized that I Need Romance not once, not twice but at least three times (or more). Because my current romance is a mixture of Bad Love, Fool’s Love and yet ultimately the Greatest Love.

However, I am looking for a Healer of my disease so please don’t Lie to Me My Girl /cause I will Shine or Go Crazy and then you will really have to Kill Me or Heal Me.

All in all, I would rather have 49 Days of K-dramas than 100 Days with Mr Arrogant. (Sorry Yeobo)

Okay, to be honest, I was bored one summer while living in Mexico (too hot to venture out during the day) and just happened onto Protect the Boss. That show made me laugh and cry. From there you could say the rest is history as I began to chip away at the roster of titles available to me. At the end of the summer, I realized that I was more familiar with Korean phrases than Spanish ones.

Originally I watched with English subs but now I find I am hooked on some shows to the point that I read live recaps, watch the raw video and then the English sub. In addition to all of that, I read the recaps on Dramabeans to see if there was something I missed. What I have found is that the Dramabeans recaps have insight and additional humor that makes it so much more fun! So there you have it, confessions of a K-Drama Addict!

Please accept me as I am (Happy in my Addiction)!

 

 
Okay, I think this story wins for most extreme addiction, but we’re not judging you! This reader just called herself (himself?) Bad and Mad!!!!! ? And yet, somehow I’m willing to believe there’s someone out there with an even worse story… (Write us!!)

Okay I know this is a non-judgmental zone but this is bit extreme. We all have skipped work, class, and friends to satisfy our addiction. But me, I have skipped a funeral ! ?

I know I know, I am bad!!!

Please listen fully! It was my grandpa who was 90+ years old (it’s not an excuse I know) and he was bedridden for quite long, we all were expecting it in a day or two. He passed away and arrangements were being made for a funeral. And I knew I can’t go home until next day evening. People would be coming to visit.

It was around 8PM which is the time when episodes that air in Korea becomes available online in my country. Then I suddenly remembered. It was City Hunter! Episode 12 to be aired! When in the last episode, Kim Nana was shot. That is fiction and this is real, I know.

I kept telling myself, snap out of it. Those are characters who don’t exist. But I couldn’t sit still. Girlfriday’s words in the recap kept ringing in my ears of how she can actually die. And it was the first drama I watched without subs. And I was fully immeresed. And this was a time without smartphones. I could not wait 24 hours to find out what went on! It’s just too long!

So this is what I did. When some stuff was needed for the funeral, I volunteered to buy and took a detour home. Went to my room (everyone was at funeral), opened my desktop and watched it by skipping just to know she is alive!!! I made a call and said my vehicle has broken down and it’s no big deal, I found a mechanic shop nearby and I will be back soon!

And so I completed, relieved that she did not die, and went back to funeral place without buying the stuff they asked for. And had to come up with another story about how I left them at the mechanic shop, and went back to buy it again!!!!!!!!!!!

To this day, I am deeply embarrassed about what I did! I mean it’s not like I did not care for my grandpa or I didn’t respect any of it. It was not a shock and we all were relieved that he doesn’t have to suffer anymore.

I don’t have excuses! But that’s how extreme crazy a K-drama show has made me! That was my first drama without subs, first drama live watching, first drama in Dramabeans reading comments, a lot of firsts! To the point where the characters are as real as people and to that much extent I cared!

I realized the power of story and the effect it had on me that day! I have never even said this aloud anywhere.

Ahhh, what am I saying! Am a bad person who skipped a funeral to find out whether a fictional character lived or died!!!!!!!

K-DRAMAS WHAT YOU DO TO ME !!!!??.

PS: Don’t curse me!

We couldn’t curse you — that was a harrowing 24 hours for us, too. We understand the pain!

 

Thanks to everyone who sent in stories! To submit, email us your stories, and we’ll keep sharing them as long as you guys keep sending them in.

 
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Spill My Beans is officially my fave DB section!

I can find traces of myself in all these stories, omg - but mostly, dayum I'm with the first three about "when there were no smartphones / internet with restrictions / subs took a week plus" days. While BOF wasn't my entryway (was onboard the Kdrama train since Winter Sonata and Jdramas a lil earlier than that), it was definitely a drug - 2009 was still the year of lagging internet and non-HD quality, so man I remember how much I used to (im)patiently wait in front of my tiny netbook, waiting for an episode - sometimes it takes up to 2 hours to load ONE episode but I'd totally stand watch the whole time, squinting in the dark so not to wake my sister up. Crazy days, that.

Thanks for all these confessions and stories, it's great to reminisce about the dramatic - literally ha - years that were :D

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My first drama was a star in my heart starring choi jin shil(rip) and ahn jae wook. After watching that drama, i went and googled everything on ahn jae wook and even downloaded the ost. That led to other kdramas like full house, which led to youtubing bi rain and finding variety shows xman and loveletter and then shinhwa and kpop. And that is my life now. Stalking dramabeans daily for drama recaps and kdrama news.

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Grace4u2's story was so entertaining! Made my day!

Spill the Beans is officially my favorite section, too!

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Thank you for that! My daughter does not have the appreciation (I mean addiction) I have and her eyes are frequently rolling in the back of her head. I just smile!

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I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this column!! So relatable. It takes me back to 13 year-old me discovering the wonders of K-dramas. I think the first drama I really saw was Winter Sonata, with my mom! I was TAKEN. I was also 13 and naive but I was pretty sure Tru Luv existed after seeing that hahahaha. It occupied my thoughts weeks, MONTHS, after it ended. And with our crappy dial-up internet, I was grasping at straws every time I got online. I'd look up the OST and print pictures, I was obsessed. I was also the type of person who found it really hard to move on to other things (in this case, a show) that I was emotionally attached to, so it took me forever until I really let another drama into my life LOL! I'm sure I saw other dramas, but nothing really stuck.

I think I really got into rom-coms after I saw Sweet 18 and Full House. I was like, "wait, so, K-dramas can be funny and not TRAGIC all the time??" For some reason, the dramas that were available to us (my mom and I) were all melodramas, but you can only have cancer and get hit by a car and lose your memory so many times before I started rolling my eyes, y'know?? I remember being obsessed with Full House for the longest time as well. My WHOLE FAMILY watch Full House, it was so much fun. I don't know if I'll ever enjoy that show the same way again, but it does bring back warm fuzzy feelings whenever I hear the OST.

Once we got a proper broadband connection, I started picking up dramas on my own, along with what I was already watching, HAH. I remember streaming Youtube and MySoju (yes faee, I totally remember that site!) I remember we watched the entire first season of Hana Yori Dango in my Japanese class, and naturally I had to follow up on season 2 and then the Korean remake. Ironically, I discovered Dramabeans because of Hana Yori Dango, not a K-drama, haha! And the rest is history. I still watch with my parents from time to time, but I since realized that our tastes don't always match up lol. I can't believe I've been watching for 10 years now, and still going strong! I've since learned to control my urges but when something really addictive airs, I get caught up in it all over again. But now I have Dramabeans and a great online community to help me along. :)

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omg this is so relatable! Reading all of this feels like we grew up together! haha

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I am not only addicted to dramas but dramabeans too!! I am invigilating an exam now and getting my fix here ? Thank the K-gods that it's a small class!

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"there's no limits to the depths of a full blown drama addiction"
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I love it! Everything about everyone spilling the beans about their addictions. Its all fine, we all have done something just for our kdramas coz you see, my dear frnz, In the battle of Kdramas vs. Anything, anything will lose!!

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I always start cackling when they start with "[I am a perfectly normal student/employee/person]" cause you know the next part is how their whole life is turned upside down by kdramas

XD

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I love this new section. It helps restore my faith that nobody is alone in anything they do.
Its frankly amazing.

For me, 2012 is the drama addiction-out-of control year. I was on drama high, watching both completed and live streaming ones. thats almost 3 different dramas per week.
My the one drama that totally drove me insane that year was King2hearts.

Now I am a full blown addict, and even my S.O appreciates this considering how I am picking up awesome romantic tips from here ;)

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i'm glad and surprised someone mentioned spy myung wol.. I know this drama ended pretty badly and lagged around the same teary plot at the later episodes but the starting was so good! I loved the first 4-5 episodes and then could not put it down though the story sucked...especially after I discovered Eric moon....But have to say,all this addiction story reminds me of mine,when I binge watched you're beautiful and flower boy next door...I had office at the morning but ...because I hated the real life working shit so much lol that I used to be awake till 4-5 a.m in the morning and went to office quite drowsy and at weak state.Used to promise each day that I wont be awake next day and torture myself but then one episode would continue to next and then it's the same routine each day and this happened for a whole 2-3 months.I checked too if I've kdrama addiction after checking some random questions in some random site and found out I do have one.=/

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Wa ha ha! Bad and Mad... tsk tsk, taponoma, lol! Just joking! Addicts, aren't we all (ala Yoda)??!! Kurigo...Bad and Mad, aren't well all??!! LOL!

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Grace4u2 !!! Ur so creative !!! I love how to used the drama names !!

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It was just a drop in the bucket of titles I've watched! Thanks and glad you enjoyed it. Fun times!

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Im really loving dis section and funny enough my entryway was BOF. Kudos dramabeans, da best kdrama site ever

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Ahhh those days. Mysoju was my refuge.

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I admit being addicted to Dramabeans even more than the dramas :)

These addiction stories... made my day :)

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This section makes our drama community feel even more close-knit! My friend first discovered Korean dramas (and got me hooked) in 2006. Then she introduced me to Dramabeans, mysoju, etc..... so I always knew there was this whole "real" world revolving around our drama world. But reading these 'addiction' posts make me feel like shouting YAY!!! I'M NOT ALONE!!! :-D

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Thanks JB for your understanding !
Am not gonna kid, I feel like I have done a
confession to a pastor and relieved of a burden!!! :D

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I'm sure your grandpa was chuckling in heaven! So glad we are not alone! KDAs (K-drama addicts) fighting!

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Love the RAIN love. He too contributed to my addiction. Still love Full House too.

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Definitely remember Mysoju. It was also the time I started watching Korean varieties. I remember one faithful subber subbed all the WGM episodes by herself because people eventually left. She listed the number of lines she wrote and cups of coffee she drank in a small little rant at the end of each episode.

It was also the time we had to wait 2-3 weeks to get subs. But also the time we had the best quality subs from WITHS2. I used to wait for all the episodes to be out before binge watching them. I could go through an entire miniseries without sleep.

I remember shelling out my savings as a kid to be the first to get coffee prince DVDs that were in Chinese. The next semester, I got a B+ for chinese. That, to me, is amazing.

My mum started watching dramas since Autumn in my heart/hotelier but I really got hooked when Full House came and officially fell into the endless pit when Coffee prince and Dal Ja's Spring came. They were the reason I found Javabeans. And I think Javabeans really led me into my obsession.

I started knowing the names of actors and the previous works of directors/scriptwriters. Drawing parallels and analysing everything. Even my mum started to recognise that I was falling in wayyy deeper than her. "knowledgable" was the word she used. haha

During times I couldn't have even 10 mins to watch dramas, i read them through dramabeans. So even though I don't watch every drama, I still can talk about them as long as it's been mentioned here.

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Love all the stories. My first drama was Goong. I caught an episode on TV but couldnt wait for the next episode. I searched YouTube and thank you god, three quarters of the series were subbed. And henceforth starts the sleepless nights. At work, it would fill my mind. The moment it was lunch hour, I rushed home, 5 minutes away, and there I sat at my computer with lunch. I will watch until it was time to return to work. And the cycle starts again after work. Day by day i will sleep until 4 am. Until the day comes when the last subbed episode was watched and i had to wait for a week. Torture! I couldnt function well at work.

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Mad and Bad is heroic for admitting to bagging part of a funeral! I would have been tempted to do the same with THAT particular cliffhanger. I'm so lucky I was watching it a couple years after it broadcast, so I could stream the next episode right away.

Otherwise, who knows what I would have skipped?

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OMG... I remember silentregrets and mysoju and all the other sites that no lomger regrets... I almost had a heart attack when megaupload was forced to go offline....all the download links down the drain esp for the oldies.... Ahhh the anguish of waiting anywhere from a few days to weeks for drama subs to come out.... And here's to hitting the regresh button countless of times to see if the recap has been uploaded.... Ahhh good ol' times.... Lol

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I meant sites that no longer exist

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