GMarket Experience and Ateen 2 Photo Essay Review

2019 has been a big year for Golden Child's Bomin, with drama roles and endorsement deals! Bomin had his first role as part of the main cast of webdrama Ateen 2 from Playlist Studio. From Ateen 2, there have been products like the Peripera collaboration for lip tints (a cartoon of Bomin's character is on the packaging), ginseng (he is on promotional posters), fanmeeting merchandise (for the drama fanmeeting on July 14), and now the Ateen 2 Photo Essay. I doubt I can get my hands on all the other merch, but I'm so happy I was able to get the Photo Essay!

On June 18th, Playlist posted on Instagram that preorders would begin on that day, and I think it comes with a preorder gift of two photocards while supplies last. They added hashtags for Kyobo Books, Yes24, and Aladdin, but I hope ordering from GMarket counts for the preorder gift.

I chose to order from GMarket because they have a global site and ship internationally. If a product can be shipped internationally, there will be a different product link than if you want to ship within Korea. The product page listed the ship out date as TBD, but later on updated to July 15h.

I placed my order on the 18th; the photo essay was 19,800₩ plus 9,970₩ shipping to the US. The site said my order went through, but a few minutes later I received an email saying my order was cancelled because my credit card info was incorrect. I placed a new order and received a confirmation email that it went through; the moral of the story is to make sure you receive confirmation of successfully placing your order.

While the drama finished airing on June 27th (on the regular channel on vlive), this photo essay book's release quickly followed, on July 11th. On the 15th, the GMarket item page updated the ship out date to the 16th. On the 16th, it updated to the 17th.  However my package did ship out on the 16th via DHL. Now when looking at the item page, international shipping costs almost 25,000₩...I definitely got lucky on this one!

My package arrived on the 17th, with just a large layer of bubblewrap on top of the book. The book arrived with a few nicks on the edges, as well as the top corner of the pages inside, but overall I'm just really happy to have this! Also, my order didn't come with the preorder photocards; the photocards come with printed autographs, but on the flip side, one of the two images (Jooha about to kiss Kimha >.<) is included in the book.

The book came in a plastic wrap. It looked like a sticker was removed from the exterior wrap above Kimha.

First off, I was so shocked at how thick this book is!

Second, the overall quality of the book is really nice. It's hardcover and has a velvety smooth touch. Also this might sound weird, but the pages smell really good, like opening up a new album!

Here is the back cover. Retail is listed as 22,000₩.

There are two pages for the main cast's greetings. Bomin still had his old autograph style!

The next section is to introduce the main characters, with one page per character.

Here are the Table of Contents; following the format from the drama. The main focus of the book is broken up into six parts, followed by a Making Story and then the Credits page. There are a total of 356 pages!

I'll blog about each part below, focusing on Bomin. Each part has a title in Korean, but my limited Korean skills can't help me translate most of them.

Part 0. Prologue

The beginning of each part has a title page, again in a similar format as the Table of Contents.

This section is almost entirely of the original Ateen cast at Everland filming for the prologue of Season 2. Bomin does make a cameo, on the very last two pages.

Part 1. 열아홉의 시작

This book mostly contains screenshots of the drama, along with accompanying quotes. The layout is really well done, with many photos from key scenes to relive each episode.

This scene was done especially well, showing all three characters' expressions before and after Shiwoo interrupted Jooha and Doha.

Part 2. 경쟁 그리고 주의 사항

Unfortunately the photos from the camping scene are rather grainy. I did want to highlight this picture though because our actor Bomin is so talented to use chopsticks with his left hand!

THIS scene sent my heart in overdrive; I guess the creators felt this too as they had 10 photos just for this scene!

I can't read the dialogue without laughing here,; I always end up thinking about Tag's version! "고마워. 생일 축하해줘서."

Part 3. 위기는 곧 기회

There are so many (super high quality!) photos of Joohana on their campus date.

The trademark gummy smile^^

The last two pages of Part 1, 2, 3, and 4 contain a cartoon image of the cast.

Part 4. 마지막 10대

Jooha's confidence when he's confessing!

Of course they had to have *that* photo to mess with my heart. This bottom left photo is one of the two images used for the preorder photocards.

The other image used for the other preorder photocard is from the same setting as the photo on the right.

Making Story

This section starts with photos from the script reading.

Then there are photos from the poster shooting.

Here is a group photo from the poster shooting.

The remaining subsections of the Making Story are divided by hashtags. Apologies for the lack of translation for the hashtags.

#심쿵유발자들2탄_잘생김주의

The first subsection is for "pretty" female cast while this subsection is for the "handsome" male cast.

#카메라_하이라는뜻

Bomin is so cute here!

#촬영ing_진지한배우님들

Some behind-the-scenes photos of the cast going over the script and viewing the monitor.

#예쁜애옆에_잘생긴애

Here are some photos from the cute Instagram video that Playlist uploaded for Teacher's Day on May 15th!

#에이틴공식커플_주하나_여보차기

More Joohana photos...and from THAT scene again...

#귀염뽀짝_소장각

Hehe Bomin's expression^^

#졸업사진_에이틴포에버

Not Bong Potter, but Choi Potter^^

#팬여러분_사랑해요감사해요

This hashtag is to thank and show love to Ateen fans. There are only two photos from this last subsection.

Ateen2 Credits

The very last page of the book contains the drama credits.

Overall, I'm so happy there is an official Ateen product to complete the season (and provide comfort for withdrawals), and furhermore as a very high quality photo essay book. I'm so proud of Bomin in his first work as an actor and can't wait to see more of actor Bomin!