Yesterday I had one of the most heartwarming experiences of my life and I’d like to share it with you.
I came to Korea in the middle of my Japan trip only to be able to attend the Seoul Music Awards and watch BTS live for the first time. I bought my tickets without even knowing my location in the venue, but still being able to attend and be in the same place as them felt like a dream for me.
But that’s not what is important. The important part is that I came here alone, and as I decided it on the go, I wasn’t prepared. So I only know a few Korean words and I don’t understand how their subway/train system works yet. So yesterday I left my hostel feeling a bit sad, because I thought i was gonna get lost, or be late, or feel lonely, and besides I’m not used AT ALL to this kind of cold and I was freezing.
It turns up that I got to the subway and ask two little girls for help buying the tickets. When I told them I wanted to go to Gocheok Sky Dome for SMA, they got happy INSTANTLY, as they were going too. They asked me who I liked, and when I said BTS they started jumping and asking me who my bias was. They taught me how to buy the ticket, they said they needed to wait for one of the girl’s mom, they indicated the way I should go and I left, happy with my encounter.
But it didn’t ended there. I got down to the subway and while I was waiting they came down too, looking for her mom. And they asked me if I’d like to go together, and I happily joined them.
At this point you need to know something: I’m a tall grown ass 23 years old girl dressed in all black walking behind two fourteen year old girls who look for their mom. When we met her I’m worried, because I don’t want her to think I’m a weirdo or I’m doing anything bad to them but they happily talk to her and she is glad that I join in. Only one of the girls speaks kind of a fluent English, I’m a native Spanish who is bursting out apologies in japanese out of use (I spent an entire week in Japan blabbing out “sumimasen” and now I can’t fucking seem to let it go) but we still talk and have fun during the entire way there. They teach me some words. They ask about me, they get SO surprised when they learn I’m from Argentina, they even say I’m pretty and at this point I’m dying of love for this girls. They asked if I had an army bomb (which sadly I don’t) and they give me one of their posters so I can cheer for bts with it (“choose whatever you want, I have too many” “thank you! I’ll give it to you when we meet in the end” “it’s ok, you can take it, it’s for you”). She chose a Jimin poster for me and gave it to me carelessly. At this point I’m dying again.
We get there, they ask if they could take a picture with me (I’m dying) and suddenly I have a black bag of something warm in my hands. “It’s Korean food, my mum made it” “No, you take it, we have ours”. THEY GAVE ME THEIR FOOD. Of course I said no and that it wasn’t necessary but they didn’t let me return it. And finally when her mum was about to go she asked (and the girls translated) if I knew how to go back. I told them I did, but they still offered me to take me home, as her husband was going to came to pick them up later. She was worried about me. A total stranger that tagged along with this beautiful little girls (they’re not that young but I have younger sisters and in my eyes they’re little ok) and she was worried that I couldn’t get back home safely.
And it this point I’m not dying, I’m crying. I received so much love from this family and this two friends, these two k-diamonds (they really deserve the name) who were happy to meet and talk with a dumbass foreigner who couldn’t even get to the venue by herself. They even grabbed my hand when the crowd became too big so I wouldn’t get lost.
So today I’m happy. Not because bts, because I saw them from far away and it felt like I was at home watching through a screen all over again (though I’m not complaining). I’m happy because i met two new friends, I’m happy because the love for a band brought us together, I’m happy because for a few hours I was adopted by a Korean family and they made me feel welcomed and loved. I’m happy because i met ARMY today and it was, for me at least, truly a family.
(As a bonus I need to say that when the mother left and I was alone with them I became The Adult™ and I guided them to their seatings, set a point of meeting, made sure they closed their jackets and put on gloves before leaving and took care of them when they ran to the parking lot in the middle of pushing fanatics trying to see the artists leaving. No one is gonna hurt MY family. Not on my watch.)
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