$900 to See ENHYPEN: Overseas Fans Flock to Busan for 'BLOOD SAGA'

Chinese and Japanese echoed through the crowd. It was easy to forget this was a concert inside South Korea. The turnout said everything about how far ENHYPEN's fandom now reaches.

ENHYPEN performed at Sajik Arena in Busan's Dongnae district on the 9th, part of the group's world tour "ENHYPEN WORLD TOUR 'BLOOD SAGA'." Around the venue, international fans who had traveled to Korea for the show were everywhere. When approached for interviews, several answered simply, "I came from China."

One of them was Mumu (a pseudonym), 25, from Qingdao in Shandong province. She arrived in Korea the day before the show. She had already seen the Seoul stop earlier, in May, but chose to fly back for the Busan date. The reason for seeing the same setlist twice was simple. "Because I want to see ENHYPEN," she said.

Her love for K-pop pulled her into Korean, too. Mumu said she started studying the language in middle school because of her interest in K-pop. Her Korean was fluent enough to hold a natural conversation with a native speaker.

She was carrying a paper bag full of bread. "I went to a bakery that member Sunoo is known to have eaten at," she said, laughing. "My hotel is over in Haeundae, and it happened to be nearby, so I stopped by." Between shows, she spent her time in Korea visiting places and trying food connected to her favorite members. Her trip to attend both days of the Busan concert cost about 6,000 yuan, or roughly $900.

Fans like Mumu, who study Korean because of a K-pop group and travel to Korea to see them in person, are no longer rare. Domestic fans are noticing, too. Choi, 24, who attended the previous night's show, said the seats on both sides of her were filled by international fans. "The person on my right was from Malaysia, and the one on my left was from China," she said.

Between the Chinese and Japanese heard outside the arena, the Malaysian and Chinese fans in the seats, and Mumu flying in from Qingdao at her own expense, ENHYPEN's global fandom was impossible to miss in Busan. What used to be measured in streaming numbers is now showing up in person, one plane ticket at a time.