A man in a red coat and top hat grips a cell phone. His yelling face fills the screen, glistening, nearly as red as the coat. He is standing in the sun on the corner of Hollywood and Highland. It’s hard to make out what he’s yelling over the blood curdling screams of the 13-year-old girl on my right, but I soon realize—thanks to the man in red’s incessant repetition—it is this: “Welcome to Hollywood.”

Ten beautiful [redacted] boys stand in Hollywood’s crosswalk, posed as The Beatles. Still as statues, they do not acknowledge the red man. The light turns green. They do not move. Car horns blare. The 13-year-old girl’s screams grow louder. (After learning she loves them so much she followed them here from South Korea, it occurs to me just how much anxiety this scene must have given her.) I get the idea she might take her own life if one of these boys is run over by an impatient LA driver.

Together, the ten boys are NCT 127, a Seoul-based K-pop group Rolling Stone called “2018’s K-Pop Artist to Watch,” the LA Times declared to be “leading the next generation of K-pop,” and iTunes reports is “Up Next.” They were recently invited to the American Music Awards, which will go down as the group’s first red carpet event. The aforementioned 13-year-old from above is one of approximately 15 South Korean teenagers who follow NCT 127 around the world. Joining them on Hollywood is a herd of Angeleno K-pop fanatics.