Back in February, I had the idea to go to at least one birthday cafe for all 8 Stray Kids members, and to bring along their Skzoo character and pose them with a birthday sign or freebies.
And then I forgot to bring Dwaekki along to Changbin’s birthday cafes.
I chose to donate blood the weekend of Seungmin’s birthday, and then I was sick the weekend of BangChan’s.
There’s always next year, I guess. I don’t have much in particular to write about the birthday cafes, but these won’t exactly be photo essays, either.
So let’s go back in time and see how Dwaekki spent his birthday!
Cafe Number One
Dwaekki, a combination of the Korean words “dwaeji” (pig) and “tokki” (rabbit), was designed by band member Changbin. Changbin is known for lots of things, including his muscles, his salon, and nailing girl group dances. He is a fantastic rapper and I think he is the most underappreciated member of Stray Kids.
I usually go to birthday cafes with friends who are also fans. This time, I had discovered my new co-worker was also a Stay and had never been to a birthday cafe, so of course I begged her to come along with me. My friend also met me at the first cafe a little later.
Before we met up, however, I met up with a friend from my book club and we had a great chat over coffee and egg tarts. When my co-worker arrived, I invited my friend from book club to tag along, even though she isn’t into kpop. Surprisingly, she wanted to come, and we ended up being a roving group of four.
Something happened at the first birthday cafe that I’ve never seen before. A man was sitting there. Just drinking coffee. He hadn’t ordered the special menu. I don’t even think he was aware there were blown-up photos of a cute Korean 20-something man posted all over the cafe walls. Minutes later, an entire group of people walked in and immediately started giggling. They weren’t expecting to be greeted by a table full of pink plushie pig rabbits, but they were quite amused.
Once we caught my new friend up to speed on what a birthday cafe is and their role in kpop, as well as how silly kpop memberships are, we agreed to go to a final, second cafe.
Cafe Number Two
I’ve been to this cafe before, but for whose birthday I don’t recall. They had a popcorn machine instead of the usual dry cookies, and there was a strong cinema theme. And Dwaekki, of course.
We received a lot of stickers and postcards here, which was great news for my coffee journal.
Afterwards, we decided to go to a makgeolli bar for an early dinner. Our new friend called her husband and told him that she was bringing him a gift, and said later that he found it hilarious she brought home kpop birthday cafe goodies featuring an attractive Korean man on them.
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