Alright! Alright! I know I missed last week’s 3F post (blame it on a frantic rush to get Halloween costumes finished by Saturday) and for that I’m sorry; so to make it up to you, I’ll treat you to a Monday edition as well as a regular post on Friday. I know, you’re all squealing with delight now but try to keep it down or your boss may notice you’re not actually working right now.

Today’s feature band is the super poppy B1A4, who made their debut in 2011 with their single, “O.K.” (Which, by the way, has to be one of the catchiest songs ever. Seriously! Every time it pops up on my iPod, I have to dance.) Since their debut, B1A4 has released a full-length album in both Korea and Japan as well as four mini-albums, their fourth releasing in May of this year. If, like me, your home has been invaded by a tweenage girl and you feel that if you hear one more Justin Bieber or One Direction song you just might throw yourself out a window, I’d recommend introducing her to B1A4. In true Bieber/1D fashion, B1A4‘s albums are full of super catchy tunes that’ll have your tweenage princess dancing around her room as she sings into her hairbrush (well, at least to the lyrics in English) and maybe, just maybe, you won’t spend the rest of your life with the lines “You don’t know you’re beautiful” running through your head. *Hey, it’s worth a shot, right?* (And just in case you’re wondering where all the music videos for B1A4 are, the embedding of their videos on YouTube has been disabled so if you really want to watch one, click on B1A4 anywhere in this post and you’ll be taken straight to a video. Have fun!)

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought it only fitting to highlight a drama full of things that go bump in the night. Enter my favorite K-Drama of 2013 (so far)…The Master’s Sun. Written by my K-Drama writing heroes, the Hong Sisters, and starring Gong Hyo Jin and So Ji Sub, The Master’s Sun is the story of a poor, miserable girl, haunted by ghosts no one else can see. Labeled as crazy, she’s spent years alone, trying to hide from the unsettled spirits that refuse to leave her alone, until one stormy night, she happens to meet a man who, with the slightest touch can chase all her ghosts away. It doesn’t take much to imagine where things go from here but let me just say, this is one of the best dramas I’ve seen in a long time. There’s more to this story than ghosts and the seventeen episodes it takes to reach this story’s conclusion are well worth your time. If you only ever watch one drama, I’d recommend this one as its ending is probably one of the most satisfying in the history of K-Dramas and you won’t have to spend the days that follow in some miserable post-K-Drama funk because things weren’t resolved to your liking. Seriously, this was one of the easiest dramas to walk away from at its conclusion because it felt like everything had been really resolved. *If you watch any amount of K-Dramas, you know exactly what that post-drama funk feels like.*

So that’ll do it for this belated edition of Fantastically Foreign Friday. Join me this Friday as I introduce you to my second favorite Japanese rock band and one of the most beloved K-Dramas of all time. See you Friday! Oh…and Happy Halloween!