Here's a timeline (or a love letter if you will) on how I went into a downward spiral of happiness with none other than the Queen, The Icon, The Legend, The One and Only #UhmJungHwa:

(Also because I don't want to forget this...all of this She brought about all the feelings that I have long since buried after my last fangirling stint with Major Crimes back in 2016)

March 11, 2020

My Twin @jayzhelle dropped in our convo who she's been following and fangirling lately after being sucked back into Hallyu (namely KDramas)

She sent me this 2017 SBS Gay-o (*wink) Daejun performance and was /dying/ over the woman in black:

The funniest thing I asked @jayzhelle that day was:

"Twin is this KPop? Who are you and what did you do to my Twin?"

Because we weren't into anything Hallyu. We met through a US series and has since grew closer with all the shenanigans in life that we happen to experience

That's another story--and no we don't look down on any fandoms! KPop was present in my growing up years but I never really took notice mostly because I have a different preference when it comes to music and visuals. I've been a fan since I was 10 years old, I know my preferences!

Back to #UhmJungHwa - @jayzhelle sent me a lot of her YT performances and it really struck me that I somewhat know her. I mentioned that the Hot Lady in Black looks familiar and asked for her full name.

and lo and behold, I do know her

Back in 2019 in one of my fights against insomnia, I stumbled upon a Korean movie by the name of Wonderful Nightmare and being a sucker for good family movies, this was a welcome distraction. Guess what I ended up bawling at 5 in the morning.

So yep, I know her. She's Uhm Jung Hwa from Wonderful Nightmare and recommended to Twin to watch it immediately because of the great acting and storytelling.

And oh boy curiosity kills the cat indeed. Well in my case, curiosity revived a very dormant fangirl.

She can act, that's my main impression of her. Her portrayal of the lawyer-turned stay at home mom & how she gradually fell in love with her family is the reason why I never forgot her face. I forgot the name but not that impact. Not that talent.

So in the next couple of days, I was a happy recipient of @jayzhelle's fangirling as I was also happily immersed in another fandom which we won't name because this thread is not about that LOL

She's gone into the deep end and I was testing the waters by dipping my toes in it

I remember introducing her to a GIF maker app and have found myself actively searching for UJH's performances over YT by myself--no prodding or links from @jayzhelle

She firmly planted a seed and was watering it consistently during those early days of the lockdowm

I was more intrigued by UJH the singer than the actress at this point because I know homegirl can act (see tweet on Wonderful Nightmare)

And no, @jayzhelle didn't know I was searching on my own, I was at this point, knee deep in the pool, checking the temperature and depth.

March 25, 2020

And then it happened. @jayzhelle sent me a video of her singing live with just a piano accompaniment

March 25, 2020

The recommended video on my side bar was that one video of her that made me dive and never want to go back up again.

I searched high and low why it's this particular video of hers that did it for me and I guess I can say that in the past 3 months that I've tried to catch up with #UhmJungHwa's 27 years and counting career, it probably was because exactly of this dance routine.

I know the facts:

She is an amazing actress
She sings and was even dubbed the Korean Madonna
She is still on top of her game 27 years later

but I wasn't ready to see her dance in a dance class

The dancer in me happily screamed in victory.

I accept Uhm Jung Hwa as my Queen.

And then it happened

I love that she is an amazing dancer, Korea's Dancing Queen, but there it was...the reason why I've been a stan of another queen here in my country for 2 decades...

I heard her singing live. While dancing. And then just her singing live, without any duets.

Her live singing voice, after all these years, even after her thyroid cancer--like hell I didn't even know that she had surgery and it took her a lot of time to recover!

It's exactly her singing voice.

And then I learned about her even more. I learned who she is as a person.

I accepted Uhm Jung Hwa as my Queen and the floodgates of Hallyu opened. Now I am (im)patiently waiting for #오케이마담 and is just in a state of utter bliss when she updates her Insta. I have even found myself subscribing to iTunes to just listen to all her available albums.

In this world full of fear and awful things, I have found another silver lining to keep me running on my every days. I jumped into the waves of her and I absolutely fell in love with Uhm Jung Hwa.

I haven't resurfaced ever since.

#엄정화