Stop that KPop!

       Do you ever feel ignored by your friends? If you do, then you can probably identify with my struggles. As someone who is uninterested in and knows nothing about Korean entertainment, I find it extremely difficult to maintain any form of sanity when my friends engage in discussions about it. It is disrespectful to me and my time for them to have such lengthy conversations in my presence. It is unfair to leave me isolated. You may think I am overreacting, but after reading some more, you will see that I am almost completely justified.
        Over the summer, my friends and I attended a Link Retreat. After a long day in the sweltering heat, we headed back to our tents. It was night, and I wished desperately to rest my fatigued bones. I would soon find out, however, that I would be denied this simple request. As I lied down, exhausted, my roommates (or tentmates, to be more accurate) began to talk to each other. The moment I recognized the titles of some anime shows, I knew I would be awake for a long time.

Tentmate A: Did you watch episode "U" of show "XYZ"?
Tentmate B: OMG, yes! It was so good! I loved the part when person "Y" did thing "Z".
Tentmate A: That was so cool! But I also loved part "B" when...

And so it continued.

After about two and a half hours of this nonsense, I lost my the last remaining bits of my sanity. I had not, however, lost my control. I decided to speak to them, subtly hinting at my immense irritation.

Me: You guys? What time is it?
Tentmate A: Oh, wow, it's 12:30. Have we really been up that late?
Me: Yes. We should sleep now. We have a long day tomorrow.
Tentmate B: Sorry, have we kept you up?
Me: Yeah, but whatever. Let's just all go to sleep now. I'm really tired.
Tentmate B: Sorry! We'll go to sleep now.

One minute later:

Person B: Person A, have you heard Shinee's new song?
Person A: Heck yeah! It was so cool! I love the video.
Person B: There was a video? I didn't know that! Tell me all about it!

And so it continued.

Hopefully you can now understand the hardships I go through when in a group of friends that weirdly has a common interest in Korean entertainment. I would like to make it clear that I do not hate KPop or Korean entertainment. In fact, I feel it is a unique interest and personally like Shinee's song, "Lucifer". I do not despise people who like KPop either. I do however, dislike it when people talk about it for extended periods in my presence, blocking me out of all potential conversation. I have tried changing topics, confronting them about it, as well as many other things. Nothing works. Maybe I'll just force an interest in KPop onto myself.

Nah.

A still from Shinee's video "Lucifer" in all its awesomeness.