Our Story - Binjin

Chapter 144: The Last of Awards Season & Omega/BAU

Author's Notes:

I hope everyone had a good weekend! (although, I'm trying to forget how it's going to end for me soon 😭)

I almost (but didn't) forget about the voting for AAA and APAN. lol, it actually felt like it happened a life-time ago. I observed how so many fans put in so much effort and I wanted to include it in this story... lol, a little tribute to everyone who worked so hard. ❤🥰💕

The second part touches on the Omega as well as how they are timing their news releases. Even though a part of me still finds it hard to believe they would time it... it's happened so many time I also cannot believe it's coincidental. 🤡 As mentioned in earlier chapters, I'm taking the side that it's timed!

We probably have just one or two more chapters before we hit 1st Jan. I think I have covered most of the key events which happened. I probably have one more on his new house and something for Christmas. If there's any other major events I missed, do let me know. thanks!

Thanks again to @Artiejjie for editing. Also, Arti was the one who noticed Hyun Bin's weight change and added in that bit😊

Also thank you all for reading, commenting and voting! ❤🥰

A heads up that the next chapter could take a couple of days longer than the usual 5 day gap... I have a tough first half of week coming up and am guessing I likely will not have time to write before mid-week. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this chapter and have a great week ahead!

Awards - Again

A Fan's POV

October and November were busy months for many fans.

The last two award ceremonies for 2020, Asia Artist Awards (AAA) and APAN Star Awards (APAN) announced their nominees. Both awards had categories for most popular actor and actress to be decided by a month long voting campaign. To complicate matters, voting for the two awards started two weeks apart - Asia Artist Awards (AAA) on 14th Oct and APAN Star Awards on 27th Oct. There was an overlapping period where fans would have to vote for both simultaneously, and overall fans would be voting for 6 straight weeks!

If fans thought that Baeksang's voting was stressful, their craziest nightmare was about to begin.

For AAA every artist would be awarded daily ranking points. The artist with the highest cumulative points at the end of the month long voting period would take home the popularity award. Rankings were determined by the number of hearts voted each day and fans could earn hearts by either watching hourly ads, clicking on pictures every four hours or exchanging hearts with friends.

It was quite chaotic. The voting process was announced at the very last minute and many international fans struggled to understand the app as well as the complicated rules. Every possible "mis" happened - miscommunication, misunderstanding, misinterpreting, misconstruing - everything. It took a few days for things to settle.

It was competitive from the onset. It may sound crazy but winning popularity awards involved strategies and different fandoms had different levels of expertise. Generally speaking, idol fandoms were veterans and hence very well planned and organized.

Unfortunately, Hyun Bin and Ye-Jin's fans were not at that level. Imagine trying to strategize across a fandom which was made up of Hyun Bin only, Ye-Jin only as well as BinJin fans. To add to the complexity, they came from all over the world, lived in different time zones, varied widely in age groups and sometimes did not even speak the same language.

Everyone tried their best though. They created as many accounts as they could. They were collecting hearts day and night. Some set alarms to remind themselves, others relied on friends to wake them up and some even managed to train their fingers to wake up on the hour to click on advertisements while their minds continued to sleep. Everyone found their new routine.