• Our Current 10 K-pop Songs

    K-pop is part of our every day lives. Whether we are listening to it, tweeting about it, spending all our money on it, and when coronavirus isn’t a thing, going to concerts for it. Any way you look at it, K-pop is essential. Since we’ve been spending a lot of time in front of our computers lately working on our Sims K-drama, STAY WITH ME (나랑 같이있어), we’ve been realizing we need music to keep us vibin’ with what we are working on. Just like with any project we work on really. Music helps us get the creative juices flowing. And since the website was created to share our love of all things Korean (and lately we have been focusing on other things like BL dramas…which #sorrynotsorry) we thought we would share our current most listened to K-pop songs. Not all of these are new, or the groups most recent songs, but these are the songs that currently keep us in the zone. And these songs are subject to change as new music is constantly coming out and making us feel some type of way.

    10. HOTSHOT – Jelly

    When we went to grab the link for this song, we saw it came out in 2017! And we remember like it came out yesterday. Even so, this song’s melody is catchy and will make you scream, “Baby please don’t go” at the top of your lungs. The music video is also very enjoyable. *cough* shirtless Ho Jung and Timoteo rolling his hips *cough* “뜨겁게 번져가고/ 숨이 점점 가빠지면/ 돌이킬 수 없는 Paradise – tteugeopge beonjyeogago/sumi jeomjeom gappajimyeon/dorigil su eomneun Paradise – It spreads hotly/My breath gradually catches/This irrevocable, paradise

    9. THE BOYZ -Salty

    Salty. One of our favorite words for god knows how long. Sammie professes the song was named for her. However, the lyrics hold a lot more sexuality than the song title leads one to believe. “몇 번이고 원할 게- myeoch(but the ch kinda sounds more like a t) boneego wonhal gae – I’m wanting it again, several times…”

    8. WINNER – Ah Yeah

    As our fav editor Aleda said, “Cutest break up song ever.” She isn’t lying. Most breakup songs are sad, or angry. This one is the song version of the girl/boy shrugging emoji. “네가 알던 착한 바본 여기 없어 – nega aldeon chakhan babon yeogi eopseo – The nice fool you once knew is no longer here”

    7. CLC – HOBGOBLIN

    This is the only girl group(GG) we stan. Religiously. Sure, we listen to a GG song here and there, but CLC constantly comes out with hard bops for strong independent women who don’t need no man. This is the song that got us hooked on them. Sorn quickly became our fav and we came to find out she’s Thai…maybe she’s what kicked off our Thai obsession. Like look at this hot girl confidence. “너도 날 원하잖아 – neodo nal wonhajanha- You want me too”  

    6. MCND – ICE AGE

    The beginning of this song always gets us ready for it to go in. It starts with a Castle J making a simple statement and then it grows into a chant with a hard backbeat. This is one of those songs that’s makes you want to punch the air and run up the Philadelphia Museum of Arts stairs. (Yes that’s a very old reference. WE’RE OLD!) “우린 앗 차가워!/Come into ice age – urin at chagawo! -we are cold/ come into ice age”

    5. VeriVery- Lay Back

    This song is sexy. That’s just facts. The sensual breathy voices that build into the deliciously erotic whispered “Lay Back” to start the chorus make that sexy vibe hit a peak. And their dancing really kicks it up a notch. “겁내지 말고 please take off/Go love 더 보여 줘 봐 – geopnaeji malgo please take off/Go Love deo boyeo jwo bwa – Don’t be afraid please take off/Go love, show me more)

    4. JINU – 또또또 (Feat.MINO)

    From the group that brought you the upbeat song about break ups, comes solo artist Jinu and his upbeat song about desperately trying to get this chick to simply text him. Yes, Jinu of WINNER produced a solo song that is literally a poor boy who wants someone to notice him and respond to his texts. But in a cheerful way. “ㅎㅎ은 너무 꼰대 같은 느낌이고/ㅋ은 가벼워 보여 결국 ㅎㅎ/으로 급히 보냈는데 오타 (Oh no)/뭐 해? 바쁘구나 – hieut hieuteun neomu kkondae gateun neukkimigo/kieukeun gabyeowo boyeo gyeolguk hieut hieut/euro geubhi bonaetneunde ota (Oh no)/mwo hae? Bappeuguna -“haha” seems too old/“ha” keeps too light so in the end I said “haha”/But I sent a typo (oh no)/What’re you doing? I guess you’re busy”

    3. IMFACT – Tension Up!

    If you’re looking for a song to get amped by, this is that song. We use this in every single work out mix we make. It has a great build and the chorus just gets you jumping and dancing and moving in general. It’s also a solid party track to get wasted, dance, and sing drunkenly to (If you are over the age of 21 in the US or are legally allowed to drink where you live. Please drink responsibly.)  “뭐든 뭔들 눈치 보는 사치- mwodeun mwondeul nunchi boneun sachi – whatever happens being cautious is a waste.”

    2. 1Team – Make This

    After seeing this song performed live, we have a whole new appreciation for it. The beat? Sick. The dancing? Solid. The vocals? Unparalleled. Song in total? Sexy AF. “수천 번씩 또 되감아/Drama 같은 느끼한 건 아냐 /어설피 널 쳐다보는 시선 yo I just – Sucheon beonssik tto doegama/ drama gateun neukkihan geon anya/ eoseolpi neol chyeodaboneun siseon yo I just – I rewind it a thousand times and it didn’t feel like a drama. I’m just looking at you.”

    1. ATEEZ – WONDERLAND

    This song goes HARD. The whole damn song. The beat is like a militaristic uprising and we are ready to march behind ATEEZ into any battle. The dance break with Mingi in the forefront…don’t even get us started. “터져버려도/상관없어 난/지금 이곳은/끝의 시작 – teojyeobeoryeodo/ sanggwaneopseo nan/ jigeum igoseun/ kkeute shijak – even if I explode/ I don’t care/ this place right here/ is the beginning of the end”

    So there you have it. Our top 10 current playlist. If you want to know more about any of these songs or the bands themselves feel free to reach out to us on insatagram (@koreanfromcontext) or twitter (@koreanfrmcntxt)

  • Our Top 5 BL Editors

    Since we have found a ton more people who are BL lovers like us, and have already made several lists, we wondered how else we would talk about our BL obsession. That’s when we realized besides re-watching the dramas for the millionth time, we also scour the internet for edits of our favorite couples. Whether cute, sexy, romantic, heartbreaking, or dark, we are fascinated by the creativity of fans who want to show their admiration for something they love. And it keeps us fan who are way less talented (we are speaking only of us, we don’t know many of you personally) well fed until we can get our hands on a new episode, or new drama all together. There are hundreds of thousands of edit instagrammers and youtubers out there, but these are the five we have decided we can’t live without. Enjoy.

    5. LBL_OG (Youtube)

    There are so many new editors out there and while we can complain A LOT about Youtube and their BS algorithms, we will say whatever algorithm is working to create the autoplay of all these BL FMV’s (fan made videos)  is helping us thrive. And also find amazing new people to follow like this angel right here. The thing we love about the editors we have chosen is the fact they can create so many edits that bring so many different emotions with their videos. And LBL_OG has created that. One of our absolute favorites from them is with TharnType, and a mix of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” playing behind Type being his anti-gay self but then they flip the damn switch and Tharn becomes the bad boy who seduces the guy who hates gays. We were screaming and kicking like the fangirls we are. That’s how you know an edit is good. When you fangirl over edits of scenes you know and love that are now being brought to you in a fun and new way.

    4. 0062s (Instagram)

    We found this editor via another editor on this list and we get why they like them so much, because we now love them enough to put them on our list. As of right now they have only edited two shows, SOTUS and Why R U?, but they are such solid edits that we can’t wait for them to make even more edits. Remember how we said that edits can make you feel something totally different for the same scenes you’ve watched countless times? 0062s’ exemplify that notion. They can pull so many different emotions from a singular scene than the actual scene could.

    3. dreamie234 (Youtube)

    This was our intro into FMV. We had mentioned that HIStory2: Crossing the line was our gateway drug to everything BL. Well after watching the series, and not really knowing what else was out there, we went to Youtube. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a video about our boys. We will never forget the day we heard Billie Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes” (starting to think we might need to actually listen to her albums at this point) over a beautifully edited montage of our boys loving and growing relationship. That’s when we learned about Fan Edits and also dreamie234 introduced us to the fact there were so many other BL dramas out there we needed to watch.

    2. Mochiigun (Instagram)

    One of our newest finds, who has quickly become one of our absolute favorite editors is mochiigun. Not only do they provide quality content, but they also share other amazing instgram editors that we have now become obsessed with (Like 0062s). What caught our eye about this editor was their mix of cuteness, like blushing cheeks and little stars sparkling, and then sexy, with the dark defining shadows and sensual transitions. It makes their Instagram, and our Instagram feed, never boring. Whatever you’re in the mood for, they provide. And let’s not forget how music plays a massive part of fan made edits. Mochiigun has one of the most solid tracklist that always meshes so well with the edits. We can’t say enough good things about this instagrammer.   

    1. Coldties (Youtube)

    DING! DING! DING! We have made it to our #1 BL FMV editor. This editor was another one of the YouTube autoplay finds. We can’t tell you when our love for them started but we can tell you exactly when they solidified their #1 spot in our heart. Win and Team “The King” edit. SOLD. 1000000%. Their impeccable timing of scenes, their music choices, their coloring of the edits, just EVERYTHING about these edits call to us. And we have seen their subscriber count go up by the thousands in the last week or so because people have also seen the talent of this editor. If you think we are exaggerating, we will tell you straight up that their last edit, which was of Sarawat and Tine of 2gether, caused us to cry. Yes, cry. We sent it to a friend who we facetimed to watch her reaction. She felt that shiz too. When an edit can hit us harder than the show…you just win.

    We hope you will follow these editors, and share your love of them and of all the BL content they provide us! Subscribe and follow their accounts. The few we have been able to speak to are some of the nicest people we have met!

    BONUS EDITORS!

    We couldn’t pick a top 10 editors but 5 wasn’t enough. And since an odd number count would cause Lindsay’s OCD to kick in hella hard, we thought we would share a video or two from other editors we appreciate. Enjoy!

    gia (Youtube)

    ohorngg (Instagram)

  • Our Top 10 K-Drama Kisses

    We like kisses ok? BL or otherwise. Kisses are kisses and as romance obsessed humans, kisses are important. We can lose all interest in a show if the kiss lacks in emotion and decent kissing form. Yeah. We take kisses that seriously. Sometimes if we haven’t watched a drama we will go to our girl @kdrama.kisscene on Instagram to see some quality kisses and make the decision to watch the drama.

    ON TO THE KISSES!

    10. The Liar and His Lover (그녀는 거짓말을 너무 사랑해)

    We are kicking it off short and sweet with this kiss. Now this drama…well tbh wasn’t good at all. The concept lacked a LOT, and it was just…just not good. The one thing we did love however, was the band that was the best friends of the male lead. Shockingly we will see the kissing ability of one of the other members of the band in a future number in this chart. But this kiss was between the band leader who is also the lead singer, and sexy mf, played by the god who is Sung Joo of UNIQ, and their old high school friend who became their manager. They always flirted and when they are hanging out they realize their romantic connection. Only problem is she believes he doesn’t like her because he never received her confession letter when they were in high school. After the misunderstanding they share a very adorable kiss.

    9. She Was Pretty (그녀는 예뻤다)

    This was the first drama we learned we had to wait for episodes to come out every week like normal tv shows. Seriously, it was rough. And while we disliked the concept of the show, Park Seo Jun being a douche to the not so attractive girl until he realizes it’s the pretty girl he was in love with when he was younger, we have to admit their relationship after that fact was shockingly cute and adorable. This kiss comes when he is trying to convince her to stay the night at his place. Nervously she declines, but once she leaves, she realizes she doesn’t want to go and so she knocks on his door to make up an excuse to stay. He pulls her back into his apartment for the bow chika wow wow and this kiss was our first look into the slightly steamy kissing K-dramas had to offer.

    8. I’m Not A Robot (로봇이 아니야)

    If we had started this website earlier, and started making these lists earlier, we would of made lists for top dramas of every year since we’ve started watching dramas. And this drama would probably be in the top 3 of 2017-2018. It was fun, cute, romantic and all around adorable but heartfelt and made us cry a few times. Our kiss is from when our two leads have finally resolved their problems, which tbh are A LOT, and she is making him her super-secret recipe, which is just covering up the fact she can’t cook well. He knew about the recipe due to her young niece telling him about it. And he sees how much she loves him, and how much he loves her and smooches the heck out of her. It is a solid kiss and when he pulls her closer…oof!

    7. Mistress (미스트리스)

    We didn’t watch this show. I know we said kisses can make us watch shows but we did try to watch this drama and shockingly with all the steamy scenes in it, the plot wasn’t for us. But this scene? The biggest of oofs! This scene is by far the MOST sexy scene we’ve seen in a k-drama. No lie, we watched the scene several times, and at one point drooled. We admit that to all of you. We drooled. Sex in a car. IN A K-DRAMA?! Seriously we can’t even describe how hot this scene is so just watch for yourself.

    6. 1% of Something (1%어떤 것)

    Clearly dudes pushing women against a wall really sends us. This drama was an example of the total cliché rich guy, poor woman, thrown together by a contract, and fall madly in love with each other, but someone tries to stop their love from thriving. But it was cute, and while cliché, sometimes we need clichés in our lives. This kiss is one of our favorite scenes in the show as well. It was just a funny little feel good kiss when he realizes he wants more than just a kiss. And she looks like she is all for it. He presses her against the wall after she just gets out of the shower (don’t worry she has a robe on. He isn’t a total horn dog), and just makes her melt. She’s gonna need another shower after he’s done with her. Too much?

    5. Clean With A Passion For Now (일단 뜨겁게 청소하라!!)

    We loved this drama. We feel it was very underrated and needs more appreciation. And this kiss was one of the ultimate kisses of the show. She makes it clear she is going to spend the night in his house and then kisses him to make her meaning known. When it truly clicks in his head what she is implying he lifts her up with ease, endlessly kissing her before placing her on the counter to continue their make-out session. We wished they continued to the bedroom but ya know, we take what we can get. Oddly one of our favorite things about this kiss was their outfits. Sounds weird, we know, but they complimented each other so well that we took note.

    4. Search:WWW (검색어를 입력하세요)

    TWO kisses in this drama deserve the #4 spot. We couldn’t choose between the two so we chose both! We really loved this drama and the strong women it provided for us to be inspired by. They all had their problems, but dealt with them and came out stronger. Two of the leading women had some pretty adorable relationships. And also shared some great kisses. A kiss shared by that #10 other band member, Jang Ki-young, we mentioned. The coffee making scene was super adorable and the ASMR killed us. The only things heard are the coffee maker and their smooching lips. Amazing. The second kiss, a confessional kiss between a fangirl and the man she has fangirled over. A true fan fic moment right there. She surprised attacked him and he got her right back. We should also mention the man she kissed is also the second lead in Extraordinary You. And we were very excited to know he had some solid kissing abilities with those nice lips.  

    3. Suspicious Partner (수상한 파트너)

    Ji Chang Wook is bae. That is all you really need to know for this kiss. But if you need more than that, this kiss is steamy, steamy, steamy! We weren’t expecting that kinda make-out session from a lawyer drama. But this lawyer drama wasn’t like many lawyer dramas we’ve watched. Possibly why we liked this one more than most. We loved this kiss so damn much we can’t even describe it. And while the kiss was amazing in the drama, we attached the behind the scenes of the kiss because…WOW. They really went in. It made a lot of sense why people thought the two were dating in real life.

    2. W: Two Worlds (더블유)

    Our number one K-drama has the number two spot in our kisses list. We think this kiss is what sold us on Lee Jung Suk as an actor. And once again the fashion during this kiss made us sweat. That teal suit with the white stripes at the cuffs, oh my lawd. *chef kiss* The kiss. Let’s focus on the kiss. This one was emotional as he finally admits his feelings for the woman who holds the key to his destiny. Not only does he lift her out her seat to drop her on the table, it involves handcuffs.

    1. What’s Wrong Secretary Kim? (김비서가 왜 그럴까)

    Park Seo Jun makes his second appearance on this list and it so happens to be the #1 spot! Yes, he is THAT great of a kisser. I mean we could make a whole top 10 of his kisses. Maybe we should? Let us know what you think. But back to this particular kiss. The #1 kiss. Why is this #1? Maybe it’s the pressing her up against the wall, maybe it’s the heavy breathing, maybe it’s her pulling off his tie, maybe it’s them tumbling onto his bed, or maybe it’s him pulling off his shirt and dropping down to tell her he loves her. It could be any one of those things. Or all of them combining to make a glorious sexy make-out to the bed scene. Yeah, it’s definitely all of them.

    What do you think of our top 10 kisses. Have you watched these dramas? What are your favorite K-Drama kisses? Let us know!

  • Our Top 10 K-Dramas

    This Tuesday’s list is brought to you buy our love of what helped create this website. K-DRAMAS! Hopefully all you BL-er’s aren’t disappointed, we promise to have more BL goodness in the future so please look forward to it. But back to the list that is this list. During this stay-at-home, don’t leave EVER, quarantine, you may be wondering, “What can I binge today?” Solid question. And in a large, very general way, we will respond, “K-dramas DUH.”

    But there are wayyyyy too many K-drama’s out there and if you’re new to the scene, you might feel that the sheer amount of decisions can be discouraging you from even starting. Well fear not! We are here to provide our top 10 k-dramas. Think of it as the entry into finding what you like, and from here you can venture out into the vast k-drama world and not feel so frustrated.

    10. Healer (힐러)

    Coming in at #10 is a show that has everything someone could want from a show. Hilarity, action, murder, mystery, and romance. Oh, it also has Ji Chang Wook. So that’s a thing. He is a super-secret ‘deliveryman’ who gets paid bookoo bucks to make special deliveries to people. He is known as ‘Healer’. He doesn’t know what he’s delivering but, he knows that it most likely isn’t the most legit business dealings. People begin hunting him down as he’s been delivering very important blackmail information. His badass self goes undercover as a nerdy, socially awkward journalist and meets a woman who is determined to make name for herself in the world of news. They team up to find out who Healer is, obviously he knows who he is, and suddenly a dark underbelly is uncovered that threatens to tear apart corrupt businessmen and politicians alike. This really is a drama to get you into all sorts of dramas.

    9. Save Me (구해줘)

    If romance isn’t your thing…then why the hell are you getting into k-dramas? WE KID! WE KID! But also, think about it. Almost every k-drama has some sort of love plot line. No matter how big or small. But this drama has probably the SMALLEST amount of romance. This drama is dark AF and revolves around a religious cult that takes a small farming town by storm. Brain washing citizens into believing in some higher being that will bring them enlightenment. But only if they buy what the cult is producing and work for no pay because it’s what the higher person says is a good thing to do. A girl moves into town with her family and her brother is instantly the boy bullies choose to make miserable. She is not about to let it slide and while trying to fight them off meets a group of four best friends, two of which form a crush on her. But while trying to save the brother from the bullies, the brother chooses to end his life. Fraught with grief the father tries to find solace and ends up finding it in the cult. Crazy shiz goes down for the rest of the show and you will never be bored. We were on the edge of our seats every episode.

    8. My Love From Another Star (별에서 그대)

    We always have to put what started it all on our lists. And this drama is just that. This drama started off strong, got a little boring in the middle, and had a stellar finish. It’s about an alien- hold up, hold up, let us finish. It’s about an alien, who had been stuck on Earth for hundreds of years, unable to get home, when an obnoxious, and very annoying k-drama actress moves in next door to him in his luxury apartment building. Since he is an alien he has super sonic hearing (obviously) and can hear through the walls as she constantly complains and just all around of her jackassery which pushes him to a breaking point. But then weirdly they form a friendship, which inevitably grows into love, and well you’ll have to watch the show to see how everything transpires.

    7. Circle (써클: 이어진 세계)

    Another drama where romance was not the focus and also our introduction to actor Yeo Jin Goo and the acting abilities of Gikwang of Highlight. Two men who inspired characters in our K-drama book Seoul Searching. This is a sci-fi drama that takes place in two different time periods but focuses on the same people throughout. One world is the one we all know as present day while the other is this bizarre future where everyone is implanted with this weird chip that erases bits of your memory. Not that people realize that’s what they paid for. And throughout you are unsure of who exactly the story is following. It is full of suspense, mystery, and aliens. The plot is so out of the ordinary we were sucked in by the first episode and couldn’t escape. You will never see major plot twists coming, and you will most likely scream at the end, but that’s life my dudes.

    6. Tempted (The Great Seducer) (위대한 유혹자)

    If we are being 100% honest, this show is not the best show there is out there. BUT we will say Woo Do Hwan, the inspiration for Hwan Soo in Seoul Searching, is the sexy lead of this show who was the reason we watched until the bitter end. He is a bad boy, with major daddy issues, and two friends, who are not the greatest of people. In fact, his best girl friend is the absolute worst and loves to destroy people’s lives since her mom destroyed hers. This show is straight drama. ALL DRAMA. ALL. THE. TIME. Just when you think something good is happening, a car hits a bish, parents have affairs, and people come to kill your love. But we have to say Woo Do Hwan’s sensually deep, slow, voice makes everything ok. The lead girl is played by Joy, of k-pop girl group Red Velvet. We aren’t the biggest fans of her acting, but we have to say we saw major improvements in this drama from previous ones. This is a drama for people who who love to say “I am not someone who likes drama in my life. I like to be drama free.” Because we know you’re lying through your teeth, so grab some popcorn and much to your hearts content.

    5. Extraordinary You (어쩌다 발견한 하루)

    This drama was one that took us totally by surprise. We tend to avoid high school dramas. They are sometimes too dramatic, cliché, and don’t target at people our age. Hence why we don’t watch them. But when we saw Rowoon from SF9 and one of our newest k-drama actor obsessions, Lee Jae Wook, were the male leads, we threw our previous conceptions aside and watched a high school drama. But this truly wasn’t like any other high school drama we had ever seen. In fact, the reason we love it so much is because it thrives off making fun of high school plot lines while also creating a totally insane, romantic, heart wrenching, funny, and life altering show that had us praying for the next episode to come out. Lucky for you guys it’s binge-able. All shows on this list, minus one, are completed so during this quarantine you can go ham and binge to your hearts content.  This story focuses around a girl who seemingly looks to have a good life. She’s pretty, her family has money, she is well liked in school, but she does have a heart condition that causes some minor issues here or there. Suddenly she starts to notice odd things happen around her. Time passes but she doesn’t remember what happened, her friends constantly repeat themselves but don’t realize it, she thinks her heart is causing issues in her life. FUN FACT: It’s not her heart. She is a character in a 만화! Once finding out she is determined to change her plot line, but it comes with some costs. Find out when you watch. You won’t be disappointed. (PS we told our friend at Forbes about this article and she binged the whole show and wrote and article about it. #justsaying)

    4. Love Alarm (좋아하면 울리는)

    And now for the only show that has yet to be completed. And with this whole coronavirus craziness we don’t know when it actually will. This drama is when Netflix tried to make k-dramas like all other shows in the world and create multiple seasons out of a show that could’ve easily been one. We’ve noticed, for now at least, they’ve realized the error in their ways and have been providing a normal season length.  Anywho, this six episode ‘season’ revolves around a girl, fairly normal school life, but an ugly step sister (actually her cousin) and an evil step mother (her aunt) who are making her pay for the debt of her dead parents. Trust us, the shiz is messed up and her aunt is a piece of crap, but that isn’t the main focus of the show. The main focus is the fact a new app comes on the market that shows you if someone within 10 meters of you is in love with you. ‘JoAlarm’ aka Love Alarm. She refuses to download it and it catches the attention of the sexy new boy in school. He chases her, and falls in love. Too bad his best friend has been in love with her for ages. Oh well the Love Alarm sounds off when the Love Alarm sounds off.

    3. Crash Landing On You (사랑의 불시착)

    A show that we have been able to convince even non interested parties in is Crash Landing On You. Yep. People who didn’t want to even start k-dramas have binged and fell in love with Captain Ri and his band of merry men as they navigate the worlds of North and South Korea. This drama is in the top three for so many reasons. The love story is one for the flipping ages, the friendships that are created between all the characters sends us, and well the plot line is refreshing, fun, filled with love and action and tear jerking scenes that everyone can love this drama. A well-known CEO decides to be the test subject of a new paragliding suit. Too bad a freak storm sends her whirling around and landing in a tree stuck until someone can find her. Luckily someone does. A North Korean soldier. She landed in North Korea! Trying to escape proves fruitless and the soldier does what he can to help her escape not only to keep her safe, but to keep him and his team out of fire for failing to do their jobs. But since North Korea doesn’t come to play, other officers start to get involved and things start to take a turn for the worst. Corruption, murder, and the CEO and soldiers past all come to light and well…we really don’t want to spoil this story for you guys. Just trust us, this is one that you will not soon forget.

    2. Reply 1988 (응답하라 1988)

    The first drama we got Sammie’s mother to watch is this beautiful masterpiece of a semi-historical drama. When you think historical you think anything before the 1900’s so let’s call this a throwback masterpiece. A story of four neighborhood friends growing up in half block radius, whose parents are just as close, and how they navigate life in South Korea during the late 80’s and early 90’s. While the teenagers were filled with comedy, love and heartbreak, the parents were really an amazing plot line as well that left Sammie’s mom sobbing, both laughing and heartfelt, along with us.  We also learned some crazy laws like, did you know that people with the same last names couldn’t marry? We sure as heck didn’t.   

    We couldn’t find a trailer but we decided to share one of the funny scenes that legit had us rolling at how embarrassing it was.

    1. W: Two Worlds (더블)

    If you follow us on Instagram (@koreanfromcontext) or Twitter (@koreanfrmcntxt) we have mentioned our love for this show. Not even just this show but a very specific episode. If you remember, wow, you’ve been here awhile! Thanks for staying with us! This show wasn’t initially a favorite of ours. In fact, we didn’t watch it when it came out because we, don’t come for us yet, didn’t find Lee Jong Suk all that attractive. We have since taken that back and are very loyal to our boy. We aren’t even sure why we chose to finally watch but now it’s here at the number one spot so clearly it was good. We have a love for 만화 , obviously since two of the titles here revolve around the concept as well as our last list was all about BL 만화. This story is even crazier than Extraordinary You. What if you liked a story so much, but didn’t like the plot so you got sucked into the story so you could change it? And then the lead of the story falls in love with you, and the story begins to change, and characters begin to disappear and people in the story and outside are trying to kill you both? And then you have to constantly change the story so that it can fix itself and your 만화 love ends up in the real world? Yeah, this drama is all of that and a bag of chips and we can re-watch until the cows come home. (We mean that literally we live in farm country lol) Also the orchestral scores are so epic. OST solid but the ORCHESTRAL SCORES ARE THE MOST AMAZING!

    So what do you think? Have you watched any of these dramas? Are you going to? What are some of your favorite dramas? We want to know!

  • Our Top 10 BL 만화

    WARNING! If we marked the last list as 18+ NSFW this is SOOOOO NSFW that we are glad we are sharing this in the middle of a quarantine. Seriously some of the images shared are extremely sexual. If you are not comfortable with such scenes this list is not for you.    

    Another Tuesday, another list. And this list is a doozy. Now that we introduced you to BL Dramas, we are going to introduce you to another BL genre. We had brough it up in the last list. 만화, are in the simplest terms, a comic book. And while not many BL drama’s come out of South Korea, 만화 are a totally different story.

    Another thing you could gauge from our last list is that we like the sexy stuff. Fluff is nice, but the down and dirty is what we’re about for the most part. This is what we call Yaoi. All Yaoi is BL but not all BL is Yaoi.

    These are our favorite BL 만화’s. Let’s Go!

    10.  Window to Window (너머 창) by Lee Aru

    This was the first series we ever read, finished, and wished we had more. Ginu and Yubin were best friends ever since they were little kids. But Yubin is in love with Ginu. And does *ehem* to himself while thinking of Ginu. Bad part is Ginu see’s him doing it from his window across the way. Which turns out to be not so bad as Ginu is curious about what Yubin was doing and why and a friends with benefits relationship starts.  What Yubin doesn’t realize is that Ginu has liked him since even before they really knew what “being gay” meant. And while their friends with benefits continues, things start to change between them. This was our first experience with yaoi. We were more so into the BL dramas before we knew yaoi and bl 만화’s existed. So our eyebrows raised, our temperatures rose, and our hearts pounded as we read through these sex scenes. We were hooked. The roll play one got us the most. So fair warning.

    9. Puppy Love (퍼피러브) by Eumnya

    This is a newer 만화having only been released, at the time of us writing this, two months ago. We usually try to steer clear of the overpowering, ‘ownership’ tropes. It just isn’t our thing. We can’t even tell you why we clicked it, but we did. And we were not disappointed. Seoyoon is a young man who is social media famous, but due to trauma in his past, he rarely goes outside and avoids all kinds of real life social interaction. He receives a DM from a man, Yeonwoo. A vulgar comment that is usually ignored but for some reason Seoyoon chooses to respond. The next thing you know Seoyoon is sending lewd photos and doing everything Yeonwoo asks of him. Even making Seoyoon his ‘pet.’ Yeah, we know, it sounds weird, but come to us after reading Killing Stalking. We can’t even share many images from this title as it is very VERY sexual. The reason it made it on our list is because we see that Yeonwoo, while dominating and making Seoyoon his pet, seems to have genuine feelings for Seoyoon. Since this is a newer title, we don’t know where the story may lead but we are excited to find out.

    8. Pian Pian (피옌피옌) by Haesin Young

    This is another new one to the scene. And while not a lot has happened in it yet, we have a feeling it’s about to. Sooha is the lowest of the low on the totem pole at a famous chef’s, Chef Calix, restaurant. Choosing to go into food as his profession was all due to seeing Chef Calix on tv when he was a bit younger. He started to develop a crush, not that he wanted to admit it, but he did. Seems like a pretty normal story, until you find out that in this world everyone has their soulmates initials on a part of their body, and Sooha has it on a pretty indecent place.  He had chosen to never show anyone until he meets his soulmate. BUT, he keeps having very vivid sexual dreams about his boss, and at one point those dreams become a reality. That’s as far as the plot has gone. Our hope is these two are in fact soul mates and get to do all the things together!

    7. On or Off (오어 오프) by A1

    This one was recommended to us by a friend @dyani_robles who has an amazing YouTube channel AND a super awesome website @thebelulineup. Follower her for tons of awesome K-pop content. When we first started reading, we will admit we didn’t like the artists style. Still cannot say we’re the biggest fans of it, but when the story is that good you tend to forget how it’s being drawn. Yiyoung is part of a start up app company. The company gets the chance of a lifetime to present their app to a massive corporation and the head decision maker, Kang Daehyung. Unfortunately, Yiyoung is so flustered by the attractiveness of Daehyung he messes up the presentation. To try and save his ass, as well as help the team, he tries to talk to Daehyung outside the office walls. Daehyung, mistakes his approach as flirtation and angry that Yiyoung would stoop so low, sleeps with him with the promise to take a look at his proposal. Although he has no intention of actually doing so. Shockily, he accidently reads the proposal and finds it was the best and hires the company to create the app for his business. The story and relationship grow from there, but this is another unfinished story. Not a lot of sex has happened, but the characters are enjoyable enough with their growing sexual tension that when they finally do have tons of sexy time we will all be screaming “thank you lawd!”

    6. Love Shuttle (애인셔틀) by Im Ae-Ju

    Another trope we tend to avoid is omegaverse (men can get pregnant and such).  Not for any particular reason but it just never interested us. This was another suggestion from our girl Dyani and we are, once again, glad we stepped away from our norm. Doyun is an Omega , who looks, and acts like an Alpha, but hasn’t ‘gone into heat.’ At his age, this is not common and his family is concerned that there might be something gravely wrong. Cue Taehan. Doyun’s sworn alpha enemy, for reasons that tbh weren’t that serious or worth getting so mad over, but we look past it because the story still is solid. Taehan, happens to be the one who sends Doyun into heat, and while he hates it, he loves it. And Taehan, we believe had a crush on Doyun since day one of them knowing each other, although not confirmed. The first season ended with a cliffhanger, and the second season started NOT even discussing said cliffhanger, but we’re here for the new couple that seems to be blossoming and pray that we find out what happened to Doyun and Taehan.

    5. Sign (수화) by Ker

    We wished this had more sign language in it because we probably would’ve become fluent. This story is about Go Yo, a deaf chef/coffee shop owner and Soo Hwa, a young man who was desperate for a job. Go Yo tends to never speak but when he hires Soo Hwa, who hasn’t learned all there is to sign language, he is forced to use his voice. The crazy thing is, his voice is sexy AF and makes Soo Hwa’s little Soo Hwa excited. The kicker? Go Yo gets turned on by Soo Hwa’s sign language.  This is a very light, cute, sexy story, with a little bit of darkness but not enough to make it crazy. They are currently on the second season which is focusing on the best friend of Go Yo, and the boy he’s been crushing on for a while. It’s been a very cute story so far and we hope we will enjoy it, but we doubt it will be as much as the original couple.

    4. Fanboy and Robot Idol by Young Dream

    We found this one when we were scrolling Instagram and a scene popped up on our explore page. We read it and lusted after the art. So much so that we went on a quest to find the 만화. It took a little digging and several app downloads to finally find this masterpiece. This one is also tame. No sexy bits (shame) but still sweet and funny. Callum is a robotic popstar. Yep you read that right. A robot. He gets shunned by the world when he is blamed for murdering several humans. His creator tells him he needs to learn about humans and he can’t return home until he does. Ron Lee is a massive Callum fanboy. To the point his ex-girlfriend breaks up with him because he was more in love with a robot. Guess who finds Callum, battery almost drained on the side of a coffee shop? You guessed it! Ron. There are several versions of Callum and one of them escapes and finds solace with Ron’s boss. There is a bad guy who truly is scum but for some reason, there are parts you hope he gets redeemed because you feel bad for the guy. They story isn’t finished and hasn’t been updated in quiet some time which breaks our hearts because shiz was just starting to go down but we hope the author comes back to provide us more love.

    3. My Suha (나의 수하) by Chahyun

    Suha is the secretary to Park Jiwoon, a mild-mannered man who is Director of a massive company. Suha works hard at his job, and makes sure that Park Jiwoon is taken care of. Outside of work, he is much more carefree, trying to find a decent lay and always coming up short. While he does look at his boss and think, “damn, he fine.” (and when you see Jiwoon you will too), he knows not to cross the professional line. That changes when they accidentally run into each other at a gay bar. Hilarity ensues, but then something even better happens. Sexy time! The reason we chose this secretary/CEO trope over all the others was the fact that Jiwoon, while a freak in the sheets, is not a douchebag outside the bedroom. Jiwoon has a past, that Suha is also part of but we don’t know to what extent yet. This story is still not complete, but we will say it moved up the ranks of our favs very fast with the relationship growth, the sex scenes, but oddly one of our favorite things is all the suits Jiwoon wears.

    2. Room To Room (건너 방) by Lee Aru

    The sequel to Window to Window is focused on the friends of Ginu and Yubin. Dowan and Chamin who wind up living together after Chamin’s girlfriend breaks up with him. Little does he know that Dowan is in love with him. And little does Dowan know that Chamin starts taking medication to sleep that turns him into a sleep sex-er. Dowan is a muscled god and little Chamin, well, he is so skinny and tiny that as you read you worry Dowan might break the poor kid with how hard he goes. But their sex scenes are some of the best and we loved every second of it. There are some points where the story gets a little confusing (like when the author throws in a bad guy for only two chapters, that doesn’t really do much and you never hear of him again) but other than that the story is solid, and the sex…well you will have to read to understand just how good it is.

    1. U Are Here by D. Jun AND IN A SURPRISE THAT SHOCKED ALL OF KOREAN FROM CONTEXT… A NON YAOI 만화 CAME IN FTW! Yes, you are reading that correctly. U Are Here is a sweet romance story of a boy (Yu Yang) afraid to fall in love and a boy (Li Huan) who wants nothing more than to shower him in love. It wasn’t love at first site. In fact, it was more so hate. But after constantly being thrown into situations together, they bond here and there, and Yu Yang, the boy who is openly gay, but also scared to fall in love again, realizes that the quiet anti-social freshman is actually a sweet, strong, and a little broken in his own way. They realize they can help heal and mend each other’s broken hearts.  The story is adorable but real and the artwork is our favorite. These characters stick with us and keep us wanting more.

    There you have it! Our top 10 만화! If you want to know where to read these feel free to reach out to us on Instagram @koreanfromcontext OR our Twitter @koreanfrmcntxt

  • Our Top 10 BL Drama Kisses (WARNING! 18+ content)

    We have had a rough few days if we are being totally honest. Coronavirus has taken a toll on our lives and those we care about. We are taking life day by day and trying to find some positives during this time. We are putting our Travel NYC Like____ series on hold, for obvious reasons, and we have been trying to figure out something to do instead for the time being. Getting side tracked we began talking about our favorite things. And listing them in top 5-10 lists. And that’s when we came up with the idea to make lists of our favorite things to remind us of what makes us happy and hopefully try and make you happy as well.

    Enjoy!

    *Sips some coffee* Good day, (not sure what time is will be when you read this so just going with day here) if you’ve been following us for awhile you know our guilty pleasure. If not, here is where we introduce you to some of the best of what we not so secretly lust for.

    Welcome to our top ten BL kisses. BL? What’s BL? Simple. Boys Love. BL. And for us it has become part of our everyday life. On Mondays we still crave boba tea (a shoutout to TharnType), and we crave Lays potato chips on Tuesdays (Shout out to Until We Meet Again), and lately on Fridays we really want to start getting into playing the guitar (Shout out to BOTH 2gether and WHY R U).

    Now let’s start off with…none of these are Korean, but one does have a korean actor in it, but there are some Korean BL’s out there. We just haven’t watched enough.

    We watch several series, and then re-watch to get our fix. After all the watching and re-watching, we go to Instagram where @blworld1 feeds us even more bits and introduces us to new shows and then @mochiigun for all the adorable and NSFW edits.

    Just when we think we have had enough we realize we’ve lied to ourselves. We still need more and so we go to our phones and read 만화 (Manwha – Korean version of manga). We will also possibly talk about some of those in an article as well.  

    We are dedicated to attractive men loving on each other. We think it stemmed from fandoms coupling up members of bands. And not just K-pop.  Even One Direction had Larry.

    Let’s crack on to the list shall we.

    10. Because Of You 2020, JunCheng & Lin Xun: We are starting off soft and sweet. This kiss is just that. It warms the heart when JunCheng professes his love for Lin Xun to the woman who raised the man he loves. He screams it at the ocean, as the mother passed and Lin Xun threw her ashes into the ocean so he could easily visit her. (cue the cuteness)

    Come on this is adorable!

    9. Until We Meet Again, Win &Team: We didn’t follow this show religiously. In all honesty, we skipped to the scenes that mattered. Which were any with Win and Team. The bad boy with tattoos and a rough exterior but a heart of gold, and the fresh new innocent meat, who totally deserved their own dang series, were more entertaining than the main couple. (this is all our opinion so please don’t come for us. We respect everyone in the show, but everyone has their favorites) They had such a natural feeling relationship. And anytime Win smiled all we could think was, “What that mouth do?” What it does is leave little love bites on our Team for the whole world to see.

    add captions to see just how lovely this scene really is.

    8. HIStory Crossing the Line, Zi Xuan & Yu Hao: This was the first HIStory season we watched. In fact, it was what got us in BL dramas. They gave us such heart clenching, butterflies in the stomach that we needed more and were sad to see their story come to an end. But this kiss was such a happy lighthearted love that we fell in love with BL.

    Why is it so sexy when the glasses come off to make out more?

    7. WHY R U?, Fighter &Tutor: This is not the last time you will see these names on this list. They have been serving so many good kiss scenes and the series, as this is being written, isn’t even over. This particular kiss had us screaming and throwing our pillows because one thing we always said was Fighter’s Adam’s apple was so prominent that it was really sexy. And guess who agrees? TUTOR AND HIS MOUTH! We screamed, and we mean do mean SCREAMED.

    That Adam’s Apple got the holiest of treatments.

    6. THARNTYPE The Series, Tharn & Type: This show kind of fell of the rails near then end for us, BUT there is a second season coming so let’s hope they can redeem themselves. That being said, their ‘first time’ scene was one for the books. Tharn explaining to Type that you don’t simply just get to it, but you take your time to enjoy your partner, really did send us. Throw in his ice foreplay…and well…we melted almost as quick as that ice cube passing between their mouths.

    Tharn really makes Type want those kisses after a little coercion.

    5. Love By Chance, Tin & Can: A couple that at the end of the show, still wasn’t really a couple had a very adorable and sensual kiss. You could see that while at first Can really was against the kiss, he found it enjoyable and even asked for more of Tin’s kisses. While the second season will be the last BL drama for the actor who plays Tin, we can still go back to this kiss, and hopefully the ones that will come in this upcoming season.  

    Swipe that lip boy. SWIPE IT!

    4. HIStory 3 Make Our Days Count, Xi Gu & Hao Ting: This was the first BL that made us sob ugly tears. It had a devastating ending, so if you plan to watch, keep that in mind. These men had one of the best relationship growths in our limited BL drama knowledge. And when Hao Ting decided to make his big move, the shock was that Xi Gu took the initiative. The scrawny little bottom chose to kiss the big muscular guy straddling him. And what was even more intriguing was Hao Ting not only going along with it but then nervously giving the go ahead to Xi Gu to continue what he’s was doing. The biggest of OOF’s

    Is it just us or does the cupping of the cheeks makes this hit the feels even more?

    3. WHY R U? Saifah & Zon: We clearly have a thing for sexy kisses…we are hard stans after all, however this kiss was much more tender and cute. Saifah and Zon’s relationship stemmed from their growing friendship as they had to work together but even as they were friendly, you could see their was a lot more flirtation as the friendship grew. And when Saifah said that Zon had his heart?!?! Forget it! We curled into the fetal position and wept at the adorable-ness.

    Seriously grab a neck and brush a cheek and we are sold on the kiss!

    2. THARNTYPE The Series, Tharn & Type: Yeah, yeah. We know. If we didn’t like this series that much why do they hold two spots? WELL…after skipping past the drama that didn’t seem to make much sense to us, we did want to watch their final special episode and boy are we sure glad we did. This was the ending we wanted from day one! The scene starts with no backgwound music, just some crickets so the ASMR of the making out is PRIME! When we watched Tharn lift Type and we couldn’t tell which one let out the light moan, we groaned. And then when they fell onto the bed and Tharn says hes gonna show Type how he’s gonna be a husband, our groan became an outright howl! Boi!! D-E-A-D!

    If Type wasn’t such a dbag for most of the show we probably would’ve liked it more…but this makes up for it a bit.

    1. WHY R U?, Fighter & Tutor: Yes they are back for the #1 spot on this list because that’s how good we find this couple’s chemistry. This is their ‘first night’ scene and boy does Tutor’s lustful looks give him a such a powerful vibe. And Fighter, who was nervous at first definitely fed off the sexual energy to give the best bed scene we’ve watched. The actor who plays Tutor had been in Love By Chance, and tbh his chemistry with his partner their is nothing like this show.

    So there you have our top 10 BL kisses. We hope you enjoy and hope you watch the series and send all the actors love. If you have any kind of questions on where to watch, or who the actors are, feel free to hit us up on Instagram (@koreanfromcontext) or Twitter (@koreanfrmcntxt).

  • 1TEAM ‘Make News Like Extra! Extra!’ in NYC for their Hello! Just One U.S. Tour

    After only debuting a year ago, 1TEAM, consisting of rapper and songwriter BC , leader and vocalist Rubin (루빈) , vocalist Jin Woo (진우), vocalist Je Hyun (제현), and finally, the maknae and the other rapper of the group, Jung Hoon (정훈), is already conquering the North American Tour circuit. With their unique blend of hip-hop, EDM, and alternative R&B, it was no surprise they were able to fill the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn with hundreds of screaming Team Ones on March 8th 2020.

    As the lights went off, the shrieks got even louder as the fans screamed their lungs out for 1TEAM to hit the stage. We could feel the energy pulsating through our own bodies, and also as our eardrums felt they were going to pop from how loud the crowd was. The boys descended the side stage stairs, and hit the main stage, and somehow the cries got even louder. 

    The beginning of “Make This,” their title track for their most recent comeback, started with its deep, dark, EDM sound and fans recognized it instantly. If we told you we remained professional, we’d be lying. We were bopping along with the crowd, singing along as our camera decided it was going to have its own little fanatic mental breakdown. 

    While we tried to calm our camera down and let it know the boys were in fact real and in front of it, our hearts continued to race as we watched the amazing dance moves we had seen on our computer screens come to life before our eyes. Oh, and did we mention that most of their opening outfits were made of see through material. We didn’t? Well now we did. Composed of dark black or bright white lace the blouses left little to the imagination of Team Ones. 

    And once we got our camera to somewhat cooperate with us, they were on to their next song from their most recent mini album “Love it.”

    Throughout the entire show they talked about how grateful they were to be on tour, and how excited they were to see the different famous places of not only NYC, but also their other tour locations. They interacted with fans picking different people in the audience to sing their favorite songs. They loved the fans and the fans loved them.

    They had another outfit change and our hearts throbbed at the chill, hipster vibe their red and white ensembles gave off. Rubin even flaunted his gorgeous tattoos when he pulled the sleeves down of his dope silk varsity jacket. Which, tattoos on idols? We. Are. Here. For. It. 

    They continued the show with other tracks of theirs like, “TAK!,” “Countdown,” “’Bout U,” and one of our favorites, the song that got us to stan HARD for these guys, “Vibe.” Every song was filled with more and more energy, like they were simply building it all up to have it explode in the next song. Their energy was unparalleled to other shows we have been to recently. We couldn’t help but shake our butts and tap our feet in the back of the venue as we watched them kill it on stage.

    Besides their own songs, like every group that comes to the US, they showed off their bilingual skills by singing some popular American music. Songs included Maroon5’s “Girls Like You,” Justin Biebers “Yummy,” and our personal fav Post Malone “Sunflower.”

    We have always talked about our appreciation for MyMusicTaste and StudioPAV and how well they put together shows. This was no different. The reason we always love their shows is the fact you get time to interact with the members via Meet and Greets, and Hi-touch possibilities. Fans who had VVIP got to spend some time with 1TEAM and even got signed posters. And VIP’s got Hi-touch where they got to greet the members of 1TEAM.

    The concert was one for the books. 1TEAM walked out going 100 and walked off after their encore at level 9000!  We hope you guys can see them this tour, and if not please check out all their music videos and join us Team One’s. You’ll “Love it.” 😉