Of travels and korean entertainment: Looking back on After School

Several hours ago, it was announced that Jung Ah, the last remaining original member of After School, will be graduating. This post is dedicated to my all time favourite group and will be about my journey as a fan. But Kahi's solos will be on a separate post :)

A long time ago in 2010, I was starting to really get into k-pop after watching Adam Couple on We Got Married and was listening to various songs I found on youtube. I remember watching the Bang MV and constantly replaying it because of that glorious bridge (+ hip shaking). But I wasn't a fan yet.
One of the best Bang performances.

Then one day, I watched a radio show performance of Because Of You. The song was great and in particular, I was enthralled by this lady called Kahi who was so different from most idols with her maturity and classiness. So I set out to find out more information about her. The more I knew, the more I grew to admire and respect her. She ran away from home to fulfill her dream. I know I would never have such courage. She wrecked my then-crappy k-pop bias list and became my k-pop ultimate bias.
BOY performance:

This was released before Bang and was their first big hit, giving them 3 music show wins. (Their only 3, sadly) You know how every group has a perfect era. For me, BOY was it. Styling, song, choreo. Everything was on point and it's one of those universally liked k-pop songs.

They came to my country just a few months after I started liking them. But I was inundated in schoolwork at that time with 7 concurrent projects and I had never been to a concert before, so I ended up not going to see them, which is something I will regret forever.

In the next year, I found out practically all there was to find out about them, downloaded all their performances, started to collect their albums etc. I have almost all their performances while Kahi was still in the group, and in HD :)

I was just amazed by how special this group was by learning the drumline (Kahi's brilliant idea), by how talented the members were, by how their performances were of another level.

A couple of my favourite special performances:

In 2010, they released a Christmas single under Happy Pledis. I LOVED IT. It was the first comeback that I experienced so it was very memorable. The thing is, I was in Cambodia without internet when it was released. The moment I reached the airport, I took out my phone and watched the mv haha!
Love Love Love was the title track and it's very cute, but Someone Is You is absolutely amazing.

Then in April 2011, they announced that they were to have their (proper) Korean comeback in almost a year! Once again, they blew me away with this flawless tap dance routine.

My favourite Shampoo performance.:

Apart from Shampoo, I also loved the song Virgin from the album. It was a bop and a pity they never performed it.

And then it was revealed that they were part of the lineup for the Heal The World concert that was to be held in my country on 4 June 2011. I remember freaking out to my mother about my favourite group coming to Singapore and just being on the verge of tears and hysteria.
A couple of other acts like T-ara and MBLAQ has already been announced and tickets already went on sale, which means the tickets I bought weren't that good. Still, I was in the 9th row which was relatively near. And due to my constant promotion of this wonderful group to my friends, one of them became a fan and thus accompanied me to the concert.

So. 4 June 2011. I went to the airport to wait for them. Again, first time doing such a thing. But it was probably one of the best decisions of my life because I had a brilliant spot and they were so so near to me. Kahi even waved at my camera and I just DIED. They were gorgeous and super kind and kept stopping to take presents.
My crappy fancam haha.

The concert was only a few hours after their arrival so I headed to the venue directly. While waiting, I managed to obtain these precious yellow AS balloons with the Virgin logo. I used one during the concert and kept one as a souvenir :) (pic below!)

The concert itself......
It was a combined concert so AS only appeared for a total about 20min. I spent 200bucks to see them for 20min gosh.
Orange Caramel performed first and they wore my fave outfits from Bangkok City era!
Since my bias is Kahi, I wasn't freaking out as much during OC's performance and managed to take fairly decent pictures.

When AS came out, the security guard told me to put down my camera :(
But anyway, I just lost it when they came out singing Bang and I was screaming for Kahi like a mad woman. This was followed by Because Of You (T_T this iconic song), Diva then Shampoo.They were so so so pretty and the performance was amazing and gahhhh. It's really an experience of a lifetime. Oh and I lost my voice after that from screaming too much hahaha.
This is the one decent picture my friend took:

They also had introductions, which Kahi did in English which killed me (again).
But they didn't appear for the final stage with all artists because they were already on their way to the airport to catch a flight back to Korea :(

So yes, my one and only experience of seeing them perform live was amazing. I was lucky enough to be able to see the Shampoo lineup with the 9 of them, before Bekah left.

A few weeks after the concert, it was announced that Bekah was graduating. It was the first graduation I experienced (Soyoung graduated before I became a fan) and I remember crying till I fell sick.
Bekah's graduation:

After that, AS had a brief Red and Blue unit comeback before they were shipped off to Japan to ride the hallyu wave there. Sigh, avex. Each Japanese single they released had 3 versions, and I ended up buying all 3 versions for many of them.

And then in June 2012, it was announced that Kahi was to graduate from the group. Your ultimate bias leaving the group is one of the worst things to happen in fandom. It was dark times. I couldn't look at an AS video without feeling like tearing up. But as time heals all wounds, now I'm able to fully appreciate the performances of these talented ladies again :D

After School came back in 2012 with Flashback with new member Kaeun. Even though Kahi left, I still had a lot of affection for the group and still bought the album to support them.

It was another year long break before their next comeback with First Love, which had the most amazing pole dance choreography that was criminally underrated. It hurts my heart that they practised so hard, got so many injuries and bruises yet never received due recognition for their effort.
Their comeback stage, because after that Nana got injured and didn't participate :(

The mini album was GOLD. Dressing Room and Love Beat are 2 of their strongest songs and best b-sides in k-pop.

And that is the final comeback of AS. It's been 2.5 years now, and I'm still waiting. But this news of Jung Ah graduating has really plummeted my hopes of a comeback. It's a pity if they never comeback again, because they were undoubtedly one of the best dance groups and one of the most unique groups in k-pop. We'll probably never see such unique performances in k-pop again.

Thank you After School, for being such an integral part of my youth. They were the ones that dragged me into the depths of k-pop, the ones that made me experience so many new things, the ones that owned my heart in those couple of years, and the ones that taught me so much.
Up to today, every time someone asks me for my favourite group, my answer is still the same.
Playgirlz forever.

Now for some of my favourite AS pictures.

Ah era! The start.