Today, the 28th November 2025, the MAMA awards was held in Hong Kong – and watching ENHYPEN win the daesang hit much harder than I expected.

It brings me joy to see people win awards because I believe everyone has something to celebrate; the happiness on their faces, the disbelief, the gratitude — it’s such a pure type of moment. There’s something so comforting about seeing people finally receive what they’ve been working towards.

The voting for the VISA Fan’s Choice Award was held from 30th October to 10th November 2025. From then, I made it my mission to vote every day for my ult group – and so did many other ENGENEs. The voting worked so that you could vote once per device, so I even went ahead and asked my family and friends to vote. I may have made promises I did not intend on keeping at all, like owing them a meal if ENHYPEN won… but I’m sure they’ve forgotten about that! When it came to the final vote, I ended up talking to people in my uni who I didn’t speak to regularly just so they could vote — and bless their hearts, they actually did. They were hesitant though, may I add: “Your group better win after this.”

So, today from 10:30 AM, I was watching the awards live, unable to take my eyes off it. Wherever I went, my phone was in front of me — there was no way I was missing any of it. The live vote was announced shortly after and ended within an hour. After a good three hours, it was finally time for the VISA Fan’s Choice Award winner to be announced. I held my breath; it’s almost as if time stood still for a moment. There had been known misconduct with the voting, such as people cloning accounts, so towards the end of the vote ENHYPEN wasn’t placed as number 1. There really was no way of knowing if they were going to win.

I had waited so long for this moment. As soon as the host said “ENHYPEN,” I cheered as if it was my own win. Seeing them get what they dreamed of achieving in 2025 warmed my heart so much. Yang Jungwon — the leader of the group — of course began his speech with, “ENGENE!!!” Bless his heart, he broke into tears after that, and so did all of us who were rooting for them. It was such an emotionally intense moment, even more so for them.

Moreover, they promised their fans they would publish their Chamber 5 (Dream of Dreams) dance practice, and they did – marking 5 years since the original!

This moment made me realise that I am not ashamed of being in fandoms, because this feeling can’t be matched by anything else. Rewatching them being announced as the winners reminds me of the adrenaline I felt, and it was great. I will never grow out of this behaviour, and I am forever thankful I was born with the fangirl gene.

You can watch the announcement of the VISA fan’s choice award here.