One Day at Time: 8 Makes 5 Years

Welcome to the final day of our One Day at a Time series! As part of our special giveaway event, you can comment on each post for an additional entry into the giveaway being held on Instagram. If you want your comment to count as an entry, make sure to include your Instagram username in your comment.

Today, it is officially ATEEZ's 5th anniversary in both our own time zones and in KST, and there is much to celebrate. While we have already discussed the large and small ways ATEEZ has infiltrated our lives, today we thought we'd look back on 8 of the Big ATEEZ Moments that changed the trajectory of our own lives.

Neither of us have been with ATEEZ from debut, though I once had someone tell me that they couldn't imagine me ever being any thing other than an atiny, which I take as a very big compliment (unclear if that's how they meant it). Bobby joined the fandom around Answer, and I didn't join until Kingdom, so our Big Moments with ATEEZ will be skewed towards the back half of those 5 years.

GD's top 4 moments

1. From the Wonderland Stage - Kingdom

And speaking of Kingdom... I decided to watch Kingdom because I had seen that ATEEZ and iKON would be on it, and I knew that I liked some of their songs (for ATEEZ, I knew Wave, Say My Name, and Answer, and for iKON, I knew Love Scenario and Killing Me). I know this is a bold statement and that plenty of people don't agree, but I truly don't understand how anyone who watched Kingdom without any preconceived notions or favorite groups could leave Kingdom not stanning ATEEZ.

In the video above, I embedded the performance with reactions because all of those reactions are me. Every gasp, every jaw drop, every unbelievable laugh--those kpop boys are me watching this stage for the first time. There was my life before I watched this stage, and then there was my life after. I was all the way in after watching this stage.

2. Fever Pt.3 Showcase

Fever Pt.3 was my first real comeback. And I was the most prepared. I had an old phone ready to stream on. I had bought a Genie account from a questionable online source. I had every single one of the voting apps. I'd ordered somewhere around 20 albums. Like when I say I was ready, I was Ready. But as life would have it, we planned a girls trip for comeback weekend. Which could've been fine, except that we didn't have internet at our cabin, and all of my streaming plans shattered around me. One of my girlfriends was also a new atiny though, and I will never forget us waking up early and crowding around our laptop borrowing our friends hot spot to watch that showcase. We watched for a full hour before we realized there were subs available. It was maybe 5:00 AM? And later when those two hot spots we had worked harder than any hot spots have ever worked before for those precious streams. But everything that lead up to the showcase--like I literally considered ditching them for a hotel with WiFi--and being on this beautiful trip while listening to one of best albums ever released, sitting on the porch drinking wine and reading the diaries through bad Twitter scans. I'll never forget it.

3. Soundcheck in Dallas for The Beginning of the End Tour

I was attending the concert with a group of friends, but none of them got sound check tickets. And honestly, I don't mind doing things by myself, but sound check is a different type of experience to do alone. It's an all day affair where you have literally nothing else to do except look around. So I was really nervous and a little unhappy about having to go alone, and I can assure you, I would only ever wait all day alone for ATEEZ. But god, when they came out and performed? It was like every thing in the whole world was gone. I know that they performed Wave and Say My Name, but I do not remember which one they performed first. In my memory, it's Say My Name. But like, I think I may have actually cried. I will never, ever forget that feeling of the beat dropping in Say My Name while listening to them performing it live for the first time. It was absolutely perfect. It is probably the closest thing to awe I have ever felt in my life, and even recalling it now gives me this warm feeling. Right after the concert, I wrote a Reddit post about all of my many feelings, which is like 8,000 words of gushing, so my full concert review is available online. But I left that soundcheck and all I could do was text every one I know over and over again saying "omg they're so good. They're just so good. Omg." And that's still the way I feel every time I see them perform.

They are so good. They are just so, so good.

4. Jongho missing the second half of the LA show during Beginning of the End

Is it fair for me to pick two moments from one tour? Because I am. After the Dallas concert... it was so good that I decided I had to go to LA and see them again. Because it really was that good. So a friend and I flew out there, and on the Day 1 show, during one of the short VCR sections, Jongho left the stage, and he just didn't come back. And it's hard for me to accurately describe how that moment changed everything for me. But if you've heard Jongho's voice in person, you know.. it's insane. He is just so incredibly talented in a larger than life way. So to have him be singing, and then suddenly to just hear the absence of his voice, like it changed the person that I am. Jongho was new to my bias line pre this concert. I was mostly a Topaz girl with a Jongho wrecker. But this concert changed the trajectory of my fandom life, and by extension, my life as a whole.

Bobby's top 4 moments

1. San's Inception FaceCam

San was already my bias at this point—he claimed me almost immediately because he is San and he is wonderful but also because I really liked his vibes and vocals in Say My Name—but if he hadn’t been, this FaceCam would have promoted him instantly. The thing is, it’s not that San doesn’t care what people thinks. He really does. But that’s not more important than telling a story. San doesn’t just perform for the camera, he performs for the Atiny in the farthest of back rows. Some people may say he “overdances” or “does too much,” but I bet those people are uncomfortable with their own emotions. And are also stupid.

2. Right Now - Immortal Songs 2

Kingdom was a very hard time for me. This performance dropped right in the middle of all the chaos—right before round 3, I believe—and it was just the perfect reminder that no matter the size of their fandom, ATEEZ were (always have been and always will be) master performers. The way they get people who aren’t even fans so hyped, the way they impress legends in the industry, they way they pour their all into every single stage—it just makes my heart so full and my ego just absolutely take flight.

3. Jongho's Gym Selfie

Listen. I don’t know what to tell you. Truthfully, I think my obsession with Jongho began at episode 2 of Salary Lupin—I love a devious little con artist—but I was trying to follow rules of civility and remain monogamous and faithful to San. However, on November 23, 2021, Jongho casually drops this selfie and I remember commenting on reddit that “I have been so relentlessly and thoroughly wreckened by Jongho that I think he’s just my bias now.” And it was true. And I can’t imagine my life without his existence. But it also opened my eyes to the wonderful world of the bias line—which I have gleefully expanded to include Yunho and Yeosang. Because I do what I want. Which, I think, is a very Jongho thing to do.

4. The Fellowship: Beginning of the End Tour @ Atlanta

Specifically, the moment where their silhouettes first appear behind the curtain in the opening. I had bought my ticket for the tour in December of 2019—in fact, their postponed 2020 tour is a huge part of my Atiny origin story—so this concert had been a long time coming. To say that I was excited is a most absurd understatement. I was vibrating. I was levitating. I was beyond hyped and vividly remember an overwhelming feeling of awe when I saw their shadows behind the curtain and came face to face with the realization that I was in the same room as ATEEZ. We were quite literally breathing the same air (filtered because masks were a thing at the time, of course). I remembered that scene from That Thing You Do (a great movie, by the way) where The Wonders play the Ed Sullivan show and girls are weeping in the audience. I’d always thought it was silly, but I fully understood in that moment. I legit wanted to cry but tears would have ruined my view and I couldn’t afford them. I know I will never recapture that same feeling, but I will also never forget it.

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We hope you have enjoyed celebrating ATEEZ and their anniversary! Here's to many, many more years and memories with them.

What moments solidified your place in the fandom? What memories stick out to you as important? Let us know!