KCON FANACCOUNT PART 1
So I already uploaded a normal sounding one here. ELA ALSO HAS A FULL, MUCH MORE FUNNY ONE HERE
BUT FOR YA'LL THAT ARE LOOKING FOR THE DIRTY UNEDITED CAPSLOCK VERSION. WELL HERE YOU ARE. SPLIT INTO PARTS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT.
To this day, as I am sitting in my room, cold, I still can’t believe that I won the KCON contest. These are the types of events and contests that other people win, that I read about online or in the newspapers, that it can never happen to me. Right? Despite having pictures, memories, and other fanacounts (ayo wassup Ela), I still can’t believe it. It’s just too fantastical of an experience, you know?
I guess I should start off with how I found out about KCON. For a few months I heard random details about how stupendewonderfabulouspecialgreat it was going to be. But it was still under my radar as I had more important things to focus on (like, my job lol).
So I didn’t pay attention to it until September something, when I saw that Ela entered a KCON contest. I was just goofing around on Facebook when I saw it, being a curious squirrel I clicked on the link and was surprised that it was only for Washington and California residents. And then I decided to enter. Ela and I vowed that if we won we would take each other. ’Why not, maybe I could win the runner up phone. I hate my phone anyways’ I thought, as I sent in an entry.
I forgot all about it until October 5th, when I received a call from a number I didn’t recognize. I was out to lunch with my coworkers and decided to let it go to voicemail. The reception in the restaurant was pretty bad, and it was noisy so I didn’t stand a chance of actually hearing what the person was going to say.
And then I smartly forgot my phone at the restaurant.
Luckily I remembered and went back to get it, and on the trek back I received a call again from the same number. I answered and it was the media coordinator of the event, who I shall call Miss X, congratulating me on my win.
For a brief, very brief moment, I was confused. What contest? A Verizon contest? What? OH. OH. /THAT/ VERIZON CONTEST. FDJWJSD? FJSDFLSJ??! WAIT IS THIS A SCAM?
Needless to say I was kind of incomprehensible and just so ecstatic to win. After a few moments of jumping up and down in the company parking lot, getting side-eyed by some employees, I accepted the prize. With a few promises to round up my guests (I had a chance to bring three other friends on my all expense paid trip hurr hurr) and their information, I finished up the call with Miss X and immediately went to Twitter, to announce how happy I was. And then I received a call from Miss X again, requesting that I keep the news about my win off social media, as Verizon wanted to be the first to announce it. As I was seconds away from sending the tweet I immediately erased it and instead sent a capslocky “U NEED TO CALL ME.” tweet to Ela.
Miss X had sent a preliminary email, detailing what I won, who I was to have dinner with, etc. For those who have been wondering, no I did not choose the dinner guest. I knew I didn’t, wouldn’t have that kind of freedom as Korean management is really strict and picky and Verizon were flying by with management wanted. Luckily NU’EST was chosen and I was already familiar with their work. I wasn’t a fan, but I was okay with the boys (and ngl, Face is a jam).
Once I thoroughly researched Miss X and her company like the stalker (oh god I found their website and saw a picture of her and I felt like such a creeper), deemed them not a scam, I started rounding up people.
I called Ela later on that day and we sobbed to each other on the phone. It was beautiful.
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The downside of being older and having a job and having friends that also have jobs, is that the last minute aspect of the contest made it hard to find people to go with me. Strange right? But finally I found my three friends: Ela (I was really worried they would not let her go as there was a weird implicit rule that I won’t go into details about), Shufen (who harassed people for time off, good girl!) and Jackie (who is the only 4minute fan I know).
But the stress didn’t stop! As with most things in life, there are always legal documents, paperwork that we needed to finish as soon as possible (stress on the soon part) or else I would lose my prize. And of course gmail decided to troll me by hiding some of it in the bowels of my mailbox. But we managed to send everything in and so cleared that hurdle.
To prepare for the announcement, I was invited to a Verizon store to “receive” my prize. The timing was slightly weird, and of course I got lost while searching for the store, but it was great. It was embarrassing. As you can see by the picture. THEY GAVE ME THE LARGEST BOUQUET EVER. It was so heavy! And mOON CAKES. AND LARGE BALLOONS.
They gave me other goodies, like a Verizon t-shirt, a poster that Far East Movement signed, and plenty of embarrassment. Omg so much embarrassment. Miss X told me ahead of time, but the local news was there to interview and take pictures of me. Apparently Verizon was really excited that I won since I’m from Washington. I was told that 90% of the people that entered were from California (gee I wonder why...?) and I was a miracle in thousands. I think when they told me that I made a pained expression and they laughed because they found me entertaining. But you get the gist.
I don’t know how I managed to get those huge balloons in my car and drive around without being killed SINCE IT WAS HARD TO SEE, but I managed. And then all I had to do was wait.
Those few days were wildly unproductive at work, as I had to respond to emails/calls/messages from both Miss X, Verizon, Ela, Shufen, Jackie about random trip details. I’m still kind of making up for it right now as I was so unproductive at work. BUT THE TRIP IS WORTH IT ONCE WE GET TO THE MEAT AND POTATOES OF THIS FANACCOUNT. I SWEAR I WON’T TAKE ANOTHER 2K OF RAMBLING.
And then suddenly, it was the day before I was to fly out. And for the life of me, I was just losing it. What should I bring? How fancy is dinner? Should I prepARE A GIFT FOR NU’EST? I DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE. IDK IF THEIR MANAGER WOULD APPROVE OF ME BRINGING THEM A HUNK OF SALMON FROM PIKES PLACE AJFOEWSDSF WHY ARE THEY SO YOUNG WOULD SOMEONE DISAPPROVE OF ME GETTING SHOT GLASSES WITH THE SPACE NEEDLE ON IT???
And so that was my general line of thinking then :L
After a few hours of running around, I found something Seattle-y to give to them: two packages of the special Pikes Place coffee, only found in the first Starbucks evar, and five postcards showing Seattle landmarks. I was worried that they boy’s management would not let the boys take the coffee, and so kept the receipt (THAT WAS EXPENSIVE ASS COFFEE, BOYS I HOPE YOU DRINK IT). I bought coffee as I knew that Starbucks was hella expensive in South Korea, as it was considered a Western brand, and thus a luxury, and because Seattle.
I bought postcards as I thought it would be fun to write a message to each of the boys. Of course it was in English because lol how do Korean. It ranged from silly (I wrote about the Seattle ferris wheel on Aron’s) to sweet (wishing JR and his group a prosperous future and hope that they can perform in Seattle one day, hurr hurr). On each, I did write one sentence in Korean, one that I harassed Jessica to translate for me. The final touch was a cute bear sticker, one that corresponded to their favorite colors (Minhyun and Ren I had to replace with brown and purple bears as I didn’t have a black bear sticker). I wish I took pictures of my gifts but I was too stressed out. :( They were cute postcards too.
I...did not sleep much that night. Maybe three hours at most. Because I was up to maybe, 4am running around, packing, repacking and panicking to Ela and Shufen on gchat (lol). I would have had everything done and ready much earlier, except I had company come busting in, wanting to hang out. I was already frazzled and hyper from lack of sleep from the night before so I was probably really strange company.
Chloe got me a little cake that says NU’EST, to congratulate me. She’s the sweetest qt. I had help picking my fashun choices as I was unsure of which cardigan/shoes to bring.
I woke up around 6 to hop on a bus to meet Shufen downtown. We decided early on that we should take the light rail to the airport to keep each other company and to idk, nervously cling to each other. Seattle, was of course, chilly, so I had on tights and and a jacket and I was still cold! I attempted to dress nicely (airport fashunnn) because I knew that they would be filming/taking photos of our trip from the get-go. Shufen lamented over her comfortable airport gear, as she missed my message about being filmed.
I need someplace to write this but Miss X told me beforehand that a lot of my trip was going to be photographed/filmed, even the super awkward sounding dinner. So I made an effort to at least appear nice and cute. And most importantly, normal.
We met up with Jackie at the airport. Shufen and Jackie did not know each other previously (and they didn’t know Ela either) so I was hoping that they’d get along, which they thankfully did. HAHA WAY TO GO SELF. INVITING STRANGERS ON A TRIP TOGETHER.
The plane ride was relatively uneventful. We flew Jetblue and the plane was so fancy. There were TVs on the backs of the seat OMG THIS LUXURY. I spent the first hour or so watching the recap of the Biden-Ryan debate (I THINK NU’EST WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE ME LECTURE THEM ABOUT THE ELECTION) and then finally fell into an exhausted nap for the rest of it.
I’m going to end with a selca I took of myself and made pretty using a Japanese photo app, pick.
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LONG BEACH WAS SO HOT. I got off the plane and immediately started shedding my sweater, my coat...I would have stripped out of my leggings but that would have been indecent and traumatizing to everyone around so I braved the heat. And lo and behold, I was right. Miss X met us at the airport with a camera crew, who were really really cool bros. Part of why I was okay with filming after a while is because the crew were so likeable. The driver they hired to tow us around was really nice too! I’m not sure why but this weekend was full of really nice people taking care of us. I’m not used to such nice people ;A;
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ANYWAYS. After an uneventful trip to the hotel, where we chatted with the cameraman who has met BoA and Big Bang (jealous), we found Ela. Ela, since she lives IN California, was to meet us at the hotel. I introduced her to Jackie and Shufen and we all creyed for the amazing weekend that was to come. The crew filmed an embarrassing skit where we were meeting for the first time and then us pawing through gift baskets that they prepared. I would die if that skit ever sees the light of day tbh.
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After the dog and pony show, we went to our hotel rooms to freshen up, unpack and possibly go and scrounge up food (and flip flops for Shufen). The hotel rooms were really nice! We were set in the ~preferred~ rooms, meaning the fancy suites with free water and coffee and stuff. IT WAS GREAT. IT HAD SLIPPERS. AND A HUGE FEATHER SOFT BEDDD. It was such a nice room, I cry.
We didn’t do much at the mall, tbh. Just wandered around the mall aimlessly (Jackie was super excited that there was a Deloitte near the hotel...that one) and loitered in stores. We were hungry so being classy people we ate at McDonalds.We probably could have scored paid food from Verizon or something but I didn’t want them breathing down my neck during the entire trip, y’know?
(Ela being kawaii and me looking like a hobo in my big t-shirt)
Of course at the McDonalds I was more interested in the handsome (but very young loooking) Korean boys sitting near us. I was scrutinizing them, trying to see if they were relevant. (hurr hurr). We passed through a Sears where I found a pair of really ugly panda slippers. I jokingly told Ela that I should get it for Tao, but then realized that if I bought him the shoes, he’d probably roundhouse kick me because they were FUG.
We only had maybe an hour or two to wander before going back to the hotel room and get ready. I rarely wear makeup and was operating on very little sleep, so I only brought bb cream, concealer, and lipgloss on the trip.
And when I saw Ela making herself look pretty with her jumbo set of eyeshadow I made sad noises a little at her and asked her to make me look pretty too. Ela, at one point in time, made some sort of sad sound and mentioned why she was even trying becauSE REN IS SO PRETTY and I made some gurgly laugh sob at her. Because it’s so true ;A;
I was planning on wearing these cute nude pumps to dinner (MAKE MYSELF LOOK TALLER AND HEELS ARE FANCY) but Ela helpfully reminded me that they were going to be giving us a tour of the convention first which means walking and I brought along a change of shoes.
While Ela, Shufen and I were busy creying over our looks (Shufen over not bringing fancier clothes), Jackie was side-eyeing us for being slow. “They’re just teenage boys,” she said. “Why are you guys taking so long getting dressed?” SHUT UP JACKIE. I thought. That was a recurring thought during the entire trip.
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Miss X met us out in front of the hotel with a party bus limo thing (ahem, porn mobile according to me and ela). It’s hard to explain. The outside looks like a mini bus, but the inside was like a limo. Complete with free water and DISCO LIGHTS ON THE CEILING THAT CHANGED COLORS. At one point we were a garish green because the lights. Miss X was surprisingly collected and even helped us camerawhore out of nervousness.
I’m just reusing Ela’s photos because she edited them to be nice and pretty and my camera doesn’t operate well in low lighting :( and jackie’s not a good photographer lmfao.
We were told earlier in the day that the dinner wth nu’est wasn’t going to be a one-on-one affair (oh thank god, I don’t know what I’d do if that was the case, maybe sob into my food). We picked up Verizon leadership and some MNet reps and went straight to the venue.
It was slightly awkward, taking a limo with these people. I accidentally let it slip that I work for a competitor of Verizon so every time I was introduced to someone new, they’d always be like “OH HERE’S OUR CONTEST WINNER. DID YOU KNOW SHE WORKS FOR OUR COMPETITOR, B? AHAHAHA LOOK SHE’S EVEN WEARING THEIR COLOR” and I cringe smile before telling them that, “NO HOT PINK IS NU’EST FAN COLOR. FFFSFFD”. But they were okay? We pretty much didn’t interact with them since they were on the other side of the limo and we were doing deep breathing exercises on our end. One of them even rapped for us (lol).
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Venue tour was pretty standard. It looked like an outside convention? but for kpop? I must admit, I felt pretty damn important when our car was treated like royalty by kcon security lolol. THIS MUST BE HOW A VVIP FEELS??/
The amphitheatre was really pretty! This is a map of it, if anyone hasn’t seen yet. And of course, we had another cheesy skit where we exited the vehicle and pretended to be ~surprised~ and in ~awe~. Cue wonderfully pained acting. I could star in a k-drama with my skills.
Part of my prize package (so to speak) was a chance to watch rehearsals/sound check. And for the first half hour was just watching security oppa and sound crew oppas rushing around fixing, checking things. At one point they had to shoo us away because they were running behind schedule (this is a recurring theme istg) and I guess they didn’t want us there or something. THEY KNEW I WAS LOOKING FOR OPPAS.
Kcon stage.
The camera crew caught footage of me telling Miss X about idols that were born overseas and how they had language classes as part of training etc. Way to go Nancy, good job promoting yourself like a walking kpop wiki article.
The cameracrew and Verizon staff decided to troll us and mention how they were going to bring me up stage during the live concert. AND MAKE US DANCE TO GANGNAM STYLE. Once we got good and scared they were all “lol jk.” HOW CRUEL IS THAT???
We met the President of MNet America, who was a nice man, and fairly sharp eyed as when he saw my camera out and told us “no pictures”. I made a slight faux pas when I jokingly muttered “I hate him” to Ela, which I think he overheard. OOPS.
Since they were behind schedule, we only got to see NU’EST rehearse in normal clothes and. I. Kind of started stanning them right then and there? Like, they were LIVE AND SO IN SYNC??? Ugh Ren’s haIR IS BEAUTIFUL.
And then on the ride over I outwardly creyed at how I forgot to bring my NU’EST album. Idk why I wanted to bring it, perhaps if they boys asked to sign it I’d have it handy??? And then I creyed at how my gift bag was slightly crinkled from me playing with it. flsdjfs
US DOING AEGYO?
The place they took us to was a Steakhouse called Mastros. Which, we learned later, is considered a top tier steakhouse? God I could feel my bank account cry at how fancy it was. We were stuck in a private room that was /beautifully/ decorated and oh god the menu was fancy. FANCY. Hell even the bathroom had an attendant there to squirt soap on your hands and then offer a fresh hand towel. THE FUCK? ALSO A PLETHORA OF EXPENSIVE HAND LOTIONS djsflsjfs
UM. IT WAS AN UNDERSTATEMENT TO HOW NERVOUS WE WERE. Ela was shaking like a scared pup and Shufen and I were internally screaming during the entire 10 minutes while we were waiting for NU’EST to show up. Jackie was the most calm, but I found out that she was shaking just as badly as Ela was.
Of course the reps had to make it worse by trying to make it better. They asked me which member was my favorite (JR) and tried to make him sit across from me. I made a dying noise at the thought and then they thought outloud whether if they should make the boys sit NEXT to us instead of across. In which collective sputtering occurred.
There were people by the doors that were in charge of directing our party in. When they mentioned that the boys were coming in and I flailed at the translator (a man named Henry) at whether I should sit or stand. He probably saw me looking more panicked than normal (IF THAT WAS EVEN POSSIBLE, CONSIDERING I WAS PANICKING DURING THE ENTIRE RIDE) and told me to stay sitting. Maybe he was worried I would fall to JR’s needs while sobbing because I was so unstable lmfao. MAYBE IT WAS FOR THE BETTER THAT I SAT ON MY ASS.
AND THE BOYS CAME IN THE DOOR. AND THEY WERE SO BEAUTIFUL AND REAL AND WITHIN TOUCHING DISTANCE OMG.
I REMEMBER MAKING A O____O FACE AT JR (he is such a pocket-sized shy lamb h e l p) before looking at Minhyun, making an ugly expression over how pretty he was, and blanking out on what his name was. MINHYUN LOOKS SO PRETTY IN PERSON? LIKE. I CAN’T EVEN EXPLAIN HOW STRIKING HE IS. I WAS READY TO DISSOLVE INTO MY CHAIR
oh god Baekho is really hot in real life. Like. It is unfair. ALSO ARON? MUCH MORE HANDSOME IN REAL LIFE? WHERE DO THEY FIND SUCH GOOD LOOKING CHILDREN???
Don’t get me started on how good Ren looks. He was dressed down and STILL LOOKED BETTER THAN ME. WEIOFSD? His hair is so long and blonde and pretty. I wish I could have braided it.
They had makeup on, which didn’t surprise me because ~idols~ but you can tell it was caked on IT JUST DOESN’T SHOW ON CAMERA BUT I WAS CLOSE ENOUGH TO SEE THEIR FOUNDATION OISFJL
JR was sitting across from me briefly and I was trying to not stare at him too much (sjds he’s so cute in real life I wanted to cry into my napkin) and I’m sure he saw me oggling at him before Baekho kind of shoved him to the side being all NAHP. SORRY ARON HYUNG SITS HERE MIDDLE BC ENGLISH. AND I’LL SIT NEXT TO HIM BC ENGLISH. And I thanked and cursed Baekho for that because he was thinking ahead and because JR was now far away so I can’t cry over him. AT LEAST I GET TO LOOK AT ARON. WHO WAS CHARMING AS FUCK? The fresh hell I can’t have a bias in Nu’est anymore. They are all wonderful.
So the order of sitting was: Shufen, Ela, Me, Jackie, translator. And the boys were across from us: Lady-translator, JR, Baekho, Aron, Minhyun, Ren, manager-hyung.
The boys introduced themselves to us in English and I wibbled because they are so polite and softspoken??? AND PRECIOUS. UGH CAN I JUST KEEP THEM.
Ren broke the ice slightly when he stood up and introduced himself as “Choi Minki” and it was so adorable. Baekho and the rest of his bandmates were like “jsdkf nuuu u r Ren. Rennnn’ and Ren made a slight poopy face at them before sitting down and not redoing his intro. SASSY.
I tried to not stare too much at Minhyun (JR was too far away sobbing) but I think I failed since I have the most Minhyun related stores lmfao.
JR IS TOO QUIET AND I’M HALF DEAF SO I COULDN’T HEAR HIM BUT I THINK I MUST HAVE LOOKED MANIC AT ONE POINT BECAUSE HE LOOKED AWAY REALLY QUICKLY AND HID HIMSELF WITH A COUGH.. JUST THROWING THAT OUT THERE.
And uh, we introduced ourselves to them and I had planned on being fancy (A PROPER MATURE AMERICAN NOONA GDI) and introducing myself in Korean and throwing in a “very nice to meet you” and the boys were cutely impressed. Poor Ela had to go after me. I’M SORRY ELA IF I SHOWED YOU UP. IF WE CAN GO BACK IN TIME I’D HAVE YOU AND JACKIE SWITCH SEATS.
OH LOOK A MENU
There were a few moments where we didn’t interact with the boys because we had to order our dinner. Me, Jackie and the boys (minus Ren) got steak. Ela and Ren got the chicken, and Shufen got salmon. I left them alone because Aron had to help Minhyun and Baekho order and idk who helped Ren, maybe his manager. Maybe he just pointed at something and called it good. IDK HEART WAS BEATING BC HANDSOME YOUNG BOYS
I’m going to be going out of order while recapping the dinner because I don’t remember the exact order of it. But, it was pretty obvious that the boys were kind of surprised at how fancy the restaurant is. American style steakhouses are considered a luxury in Korea and they were not prepared. GOOD JOB BOYS. GOOD JOBB
Yeah, Ren is just a quiet adorable pixie. It was hightlight of our night when he stabbed a hunk of garlic bread with his fork and sat there nomming on it. Minhyun made fun of him (stabbing motions and all) and the rest of the boys caught on and laughed. IT WAS SO CUTE. And Ren stank faced at him. Minhyun and Ren were kind of in their own little world for a lot of the evening. During the initial awkward conversation they were content to just sit there, stuffing their faces full of appetizers. They looked like chewing hamsters.
ARON WAS REALLY CHARMING? LIKE, I CAN SEE WHERE ELA’S CRUSH ON HIM CAME FROM. But DAMN. BOy. sTahP. Baekho ugh. I can’t not talk about how precious and smiley he was. I read that he is the most friendly with fans (int’l fans too) AND IT SHOWS. He really made an effort to pay attention to what we were saying even though he probably understood like, 4% of it and kept on poking Aron to translate and include him. AND THEN THERE’S POOR JR ON THE OTHER SIDE OF BAEKHO, NOT BEING ABLE TO HEAR WHAT WAS BEING SAID BECAUSE BAEKHO WOULDN’T TELL HIM ANYTHING. BAEKHO U R A POOP. POOOP.
Man, I don’t even know how to structure the dinner happenings. lmao. Ela said that me and her made it a point to assure the boys to relax and just enjoy the dinner. Except I wasn’t really sure what Ela was doing. I had a stuffed ravioli on my plate and she took a bit and I was all HEY THAT IS MINE WHY ARE YOU TAKING MY FOOD OH HI REN YOU ARE A TINY BABY YOU ARE STARING AT US sdsdl>???
Before long the boys visibly relaxed. Minhyun started paying more attention to what was going on, Aron stopped fiddling with his earring. Ren eventually perked up a little because he realized Henry knew Korean. AND THEN HE MINHYUN AND HENRY JUST HAD THEIR OWN LITTLE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THINGS IN KOREAN while Aron and Baekho were talking to me and Ela. idk what Jackie was doing and I think Shufen was too nervous to talk to JR still lmfaods.
But poor JR. At one point I asked a group a question and he said something and hid under his hat because he got shy and spoke quietly and because I was like :DDD?? IDK WHAT YOU SAID SO ;DD. The room was /loud/. I can’t hear. omg.
A funny story Shufen told me (as she was sitting next to the mnet president) was that the guy was telling her about how young the boys were and how he would not recommend that she ~go there~ WHAT DOES \GO THERE\ MEAN. /AHJUSSHI/ are you implying something.
I’ll try to include details that Ela didn’t! Uhh for the most part I tried talking to all of them and not showering one person too much attention, but it was hard as I had to talk to Aron to talk to any one of the boys AND THEN JR AND REN CAN’T HEAR ME so even though I tried most of the time I was talking to Aron (and Baekho because he wanted in).
Speaking of Baekho, he had a crumb on his mouth and Aron wiped it off, and I grabbed on to Ela and started grinning like a maniac. WHAT IS THIS. BOYS. /BOYS/ THAT WAS CUTE. AND YET. KIND OF GHEI. DO IT AGAIN.
thE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS?? Ugh, one of the Verizon execs told me that once I had a steak from Mastros, I can’t go back and it’s true. TENDER. SOFT. PERFECT. MELT IN MY MOUTH. I was determined to eat as much of it as I could KOREAN IDOLS BE DAMNED. FOOD IS MY #1 but I didn’t finish because I was trying to not be a pig and because I was trying to converse with them (Aron) and secretly stare (oggle) at them. Minhyun seemed to be having trouble cutting his steak, he was holding his knife and fork like like a toddler would. And I caught him looking around a few times (secretly) and watching how we cut it. dsjfs??
I also stole some of Ela’s chicken. Because.
Sometime during eating, Minhyun started singing Love Like Oxygen under his breath. AND I DECIDED IT WOULD BE GR8 IF I JOINED HIM. And once he caught me we kind of stared awkwardly at each other. It was a weird moment? Actually Minhyun kept on catching me when I was laughing nervously at something and he probably thought I was laughing AT him. ;n;
Henry, the translator on our end of the table was really nice! I met him during the venue tour and he was really easy to talk to. I’m glad he was around because he broke Minhyun and Ren out of their shells and even carried conversations with them entirely in Korean. At one point I had to poke him and be like HEY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? ;DDD
One of the conversations I remembered was that they were talking about Korean accents. Henry asked me if I knew about satoori and I was like OH YES. ACCENTS. PPL FROM BUSAN AND DAEGU AND GWANGJU HAVE THEM. And I asked Minhyun and Ren (through Henry) if they had any troubles “fixing” their accents, since they both hail from Busan. AND REN LOOKED SO IMPRESSED. Like, as if he did not know I could google this information. I felt both accomplished and smart and creepy. sobs.
Another conversation we had was weird foods. Minhyun and Ren mentioned that people can eat live octopus tentacle in Korea. And were in turn squicked out when I mentioned gooeyduck and chicken feet. Minhyun made a scrunchy face like EW WHY WOULD U EAT DAT AND IT WAS CUTE.
The boys mentioned they were in Australia recently and Jackie asked if they saw Kangaroos. And the boys were slightly taken back because it was kind of random but a very Jackie-esque thing to ask. In fact the mood killer of the night was when she asked if they ever were ever lonely and were homesick. and i’m pretty sure ela and i panicked because JACKIE that question is so personal and awkward AND SAD. SO SAD.
Aron was very impressive at conducting himself. He’s quick on his feet and knows how to carry a conversation and answer smoothly. Just throwing that out there. Though I think Ela caught him off guard when she asked him about whether they volunteered for the dinner or if they were told to come. He choked slightly and was all HAHAHAHA NOOOO. icu aron. icu.
Aron mentioned his love for Anthony Hamilton (DO YOU LIKE ANYONE ELSE I KEEP ON HEARING ABOUT THIS GUY) and fanboyed about him with a Verizon exec (idek). And during that part Baekho picked up a thing of pepper and was all ????/ GOCHU?? GOCHU/?? WAT R U MYSTERIOUS SHAKER. Ela and I told him that it was pepper (i was pantomiming sprinkling pepper) and he was so excited and happy to have found pepper. It’s endearing.
By the middle to latter half of the dinner, JR kind of gave up trying to hear what we were talking about and instead carried a conversation with the lady translator :( I did ask him if he made the boys watch 8Mile with him (JR being an Eminem stan lol) and he laughed adorably and shyly said yes.
JR DID NOT KNOW THAT HE WAS MY BIAS. AND I WANTED TO KEEP IT THAT WAY. Ela jokingly said that she would tell him and i was all elA NO. IF YOU DO I WILL KILL YOU. I think Baekho saw me making crazy faces and laughed at us ;n;
The dinner wasn’t all us interrogating them. The boys tried to ask about us too. Except I think they didn’t know what to talk to us about lmfao. They asked about our hobbies and I mimed photography. Though i kind of threw Jackie under the bus for hers lmfao. She mentioned she liked hiking and I was like REALLY???? RLLLLY???? ;OOO And Aron smirked.
It’s kind of surprising how surprised they were when they asked us about how we heard of them. I mentioned I saw their debut performance while watching a music show stream and they made appropriate :OOOO faces. And Ela kind of gurgled about seeing Ren’s teaser and REN SMIRKED ALL HAPPY AND SHIT BEFORE SCHOOLING HIMSELF INTO A SHOCKED FACE. icu Ren. ICU.
And then Aron asked us, a bunch of girls that don’t live in the area, about what is there to do in Irvine. DID YOU SPACE OUT WHEN I TOLD YOU MOST OF US WERE FROM SEATTLE? HUh. huh.
He and Ela agreed that in-and-out and cilantro were gr8. #elaron5evah
idk what kinds of fans they were expecting. i assume the more rabid kind but they were probably taken aback when we were JUST AS AWWKARD AS THEY WERE. Though. I know. I KNOW. That they were shocked when they asked how old we were.
THANKS ARON. I WAS DOING JUST FINE BEFORE YOU ASKED THAT QUESTION. Oh It was awkward. We all collectively started nervously laughing which made the boys confused. And when we were like, IF WE TOLD YOU WE WERE 17 WOULD YOU BELIEVE US. Baekho got excited when we said 17 BECAUSE THAT’S HOW OLD HE IS GOD WHY ARE YOU SO YOUNG AND PRECIOUS AND MISUNDERSTANDING THE ENGLISH and Aron said that that’s how old he thought we were (i think ur lying. LYNGGG).
And then they pseudo panicked when they found out we were noona fans. I could see JR stiffen as if trying to school himself to look cooler and more mature for American-noonas. Sobbing.
Finally it was time to finish the dinner portion and dessert time. CAKE. When Miss X told me that we were okay-ed to take a photo with them. And I kind of gurgled because WE ARE GETTING CLOSER??? DSJF. And while we were getting up to walk over the management was like YOU CAN’T TOUCH THEM. THEY ARE GONNA SIT THERE AND YOU STAND BEHIND THEM AND WE TAKE PHOTO. It’s weird how they thought that we were suddenly going to go rabid and rip their clothes off. As if they did not realize that we were being perfect ladies during the entire meal. HMPH.
So the first batch of photos were awkward because we were like, a foot away from the boys. And after we got back to our seats Aron (or idk who it was, I assume it was Aron) was all NO THAT WAS NOT FUN. COME BACK. LET’S TAKE BETTER PHOTOS.
And lo and behold:
lol Baekho is touching my shoulder. HE SMELLED NICE. WHAT IS THAT COLOGNE YOU WEAR?? Also according to Ela my boobs look gr8 with my dress. /flounces
I was kind of in euphoria after pictures were taken. ALL GIGGLY AND SHIT. AND THEN CAKE. I was about to take a bite in when I noticed that they gave me Jackie’s key lime pie (NOT CHEESECAKE) and we fought over it. Which amused the boys because idk. Americans. .
Minhyun needs to stop being so cute because I basically only paid attention to him during the cake part. He badgered Aron for a piece of his key lime pie and according to ela, made another scrunchy face because it was REALLY STRONG (i stole some of jackie’s pie so i knew what it tasted like). AND THEN HE WENT TO TO PICK/PULL AT THE FABRIC ON REN’S JACKET. Ren shooed him away with a stank face and Minhyun went back to poking him. UGH??
And so dinner ended, and the boys made to leave. They told us that they were going to say farewell “NU’EST” style and I remember thinking “OH GOD IF THEY ARE GOING TO GANGNAM STYLE AT ME I WILL CRY” but no, they did their SHOW TIME NU’EST TIME greeting and I wibbled. ;A;
THEY WERE SO CUTE AND PRECIOUS AND I’VE BEEN HAVING NU’EST FEELS FOR THE LAST THREE WEEKs. H E L P.
I SHOULD HAVE ASKED FOR A HUG. SINCE THEY GAVE OUT SO MANY ON NU’EST LANDING? DAMN.
After the boys left, the Verizon and Mnet reps were like WASN’T THAT GREAT? THE BOYS ARE SO SWEET. YOU HAD A GREAT TIME RIGHT and I wibbled for a little before giving a collected answer. My plan for the weekend was to be as nice and professional and easygoing as possible SO IF ANYTHING HAPPENED THEY CAN PULL STRINGS FOR ME. (huhu c:)
The ride back to the hotel was met with a lot of OIFSFSDL THEY ARE SO CUTE. FJSJ DID YOU SEE BAEKHO USING ALL THAT SALT DSJFLSJD REN IS SO PRETTY (even from Jackie who initially was turned off by how pretty he was. BLASPHEMY).
The hotel, when we first checked in was full of fans. Because apparently all the artists were staying there (apparently this was the only nice hotel within distance of the verizon amphitheater) and a lot of girls started staring at us when we pulled because apparently all the idols were in big white van car things and our porn mobile looked like it. But they lost interest (some even glared) when one of the cameramen opened the door and was all HELLOOOO LADIES. lmfao he’s great.
We hung out in the lobby for a little because the idols were apparently coming through. I met some of Ela’s exo friends (WHO ARE MAD TALENTED WTF), Bing, Demi, Lauren and other fans that were hanging around. We saw BAP, G.NA, and Vixx come through and eagerly waited for EXO. Shufen and Jackie left earlier as they were tired. AND THEN MORE EXO FANS KEPT ON COMING IN, LIKE A MINI MASS. The security guards were perplexed and a bit scared because we were clogging the walkways ;; ;
EXO never came in through the front. They went through the safer employee entrance as someone tipped them off about how many fans were waiting for them. At one point Shufen texted me that she thinks they already came in and were staying the 4th floor. AND WHEN I CAPSLOCKED BACK AT HER/CALLED SHE DIDN’T RESPOND. HDU SHUFEN. in her defense, my phone had horrible reception in the hotel lobby so.
And so, me and Ela trudged back up to our hotel room to clean up and sleep. Except we didn’t sleep until 3 because we stayed up talking about how cute nu’est were. ;A; I would have continued yapping except she had to tell me to shut up since we planned on leaving early to get merch (shufen wanted to get a nu’est cd, she liked them a lot more after the dinner ;;;;)
And me being me, FELL ASLEEP AS SOON AS I STOPPED TALKING. I’M SORRY ELA, I KEPT YOU AWAKE ;A;
The next part should be up this weekend. I’m still not done writing it as I’ve been busy. But it will be up soonnnn. ;;;
♥
BUT FOR YA'LL THAT ARE LOOKING FOR THE DIRTY UNEDITED CAPSLOCK VERSION. WELL HERE YOU ARE. SPLIT INTO PARTS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT.
To this day, as I am sitting in my room, cold, I still can’t believe that I won the KCON contest. These are the types of events and contests that other people win, that I read about online or in the newspapers, that it can never happen to me. Right? Despite having pictures, memories, and other fanacounts (ayo wassup Ela), I still can’t believe it. It’s just too fantastical of an experience, you know?
I guess I should start off with how I found out about KCON. For a few months I heard random details about how stupendewonderfabulouspecialgreat it was going to be. But it was still under my radar as I had more important things to focus on (like, my job lol).
So I didn’t pay attention to it until September something, when I saw that Ela entered a KCON contest. I was just goofing around on Facebook when I saw it, being a curious squirrel I clicked on the link and was surprised that it was only for Washington and California residents. And then I decided to enter. Ela and I vowed that if we won we would take each other. ’Why not, maybe I could win the runner up phone. I hate my phone anyways’ I thought, as I sent in an entry.
I forgot all about it until October 5th, when I received a call from a number I didn’t recognize. I was out to lunch with my coworkers and decided to let it go to voicemail. The reception in the restaurant was pretty bad, and it was noisy so I didn’t stand a chance of actually hearing what the person was going to say.
And then I smartly forgot my phone at the restaurant.
Luckily I remembered and went back to get it, and on the trek back I received a call again from the same number. I answered and it was the media coordinator of the event, who I shall call Miss X, congratulating me on my win.
For a brief, very brief moment, I was confused. What contest? A Verizon contest? What? OH. OH. /THAT/ VERIZON CONTEST. FDJWJSD? FJSDFLSJ??! WAIT IS THIS A SCAM?
Needless to say I was kind of incomprehensible and just so ecstatic to win. After a few moments of jumping up and down in the company parking lot, getting side-eyed by some employees, I accepted the prize. With a few promises to round up my guests (I had a chance to bring three other friends on my all expense paid trip hurr hurr) and their information, I finished up the call with Miss X and immediately went to Twitter, to announce how happy I was. And then I received a call from Miss X again, requesting that I keep the news about my win off social media, as Verizon wanted to be the first to announce it. As I was seconds away from sending the tweet I immediately erased it and instead sent a capslocky “U NEED TO CALL ME.” tweet to Ela.
Miss X had sent a preliminary email, detailing what I won, who I was to have dinner with, etc. For those who have been wondering, no I did not choose the dinner guest. I knew I didn’t, wouldn’t have that kind of freedom as Korean management is really strict and picky and Verizon were flying by with management wanted. Luckily NU’EST was chosen and I was already familiar with their work. I wasn’t a fan, but I was okay with the boys (and ngl, Face is a jam).
Once I thoroughly researched Miss X and her company like the stalker (oh god I found their website and saw a picture of her and I felt like such a creeper), deemed them not a scam, I started rounding up people.
I called Ela later on that day and we sobbed to each other on the phone. It was beautiful.
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The downside of being older and having a job and having friends that also have jobs, is that the last minute aspect of the contest made it hard to find people to go with me. Strange right? But finally I found my three friends: Ela (I was really worried they would not let her go as there was a weird implicit rule that I won’t go into details about), Shufen (who harassed people for time off, good girl!) and Jackie (who is the only 4minute fan I know).
But the stress didn’t stop! As with most things in life, there are always legal documents, paperwork that we needed to finish as soon as possible (stress on the soon part) or else I would lose my prize. And of course gmail decided to troll me by hiding some of it in the bowels of my mailbox. But we managed to send everything in and so cleared that hurdle.
To prepare for the announcement, I was invited to a Verizon store to “receive” my prize. The timing was slightly weird, and of course I got lost while searching for the store, but it was great. It was embarrassing. As you can see by the picture. THEY GAVE ME THE LARGEST BOUQUET EVER. It was so heavy! And mOON CAKES. AND LARGE BALLOONS.
They gave me other goodies, like a Verizon t-shirt, a poster that Far East Movement signed, and plenty of embarrassment. Omg so much embarrassment. Miss X told me ahead of time, but the local news was there to interview and take pictures of me. Apparently Verizon was really excited that I won since I’m from Washington. I was told that 90% of the people that entered were from California (gee I wonder why...?) and I was a miracle in thousands. I think when they told me that I made a pained expression and they laughed because they found me entertaining. But you get the gist.
I don’t know how I managed to get those huge balloons in my car and drive around without being killed SINCE IT WAS HARD TO SEE, but I managed. And then all I had to do was wait.
Those few days were wildly unproductive at work, as I had to respond to emails/calls/messages from both Miss X, Verizon, Ela, Shufen, Jackie about random trip details. I’m still kind of making up for it right now as I was so unproductive at work. BUT THE TRIP IS WORTH IT ONCE WE GET TO THE MEAT AND POTATOES OF THIS FANACCOUNT. I SWEAR I WON’T TAKE ANOTHER 2K OF RAMBLING.
And then suddenly, it was the day before I was to fly out. And for the life of me, I was just losing it. What should I bring? How fancy is dinner? Should I prepARE A GIFT FOR NU’EST? I DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE. IDK IF THEIR MANAGER WOULD APPROVE OF ME BRINGING THEM A HUNK OF SALMON FROM PIKES PLACE AJFOEWSDSF WHY ARE THEY SO YOUNG WOULD SOMEONE DISAPPROVE OF ME GETTING SHOT GLASSES WITH THE SPACE NEEDLE ON IT???
And so that was my general line of thinking then :L
After a few hours of running around, I found something Seattle-y to give to them: two packages of the special Pikes Place coffee, only found in the first Starbucks evar, and five postcards showing Seattle landmarks. I was worried that they boy’s management would not let the boys take the coffee, and so kept the receipt (THAT WAS EXPENSIVE ASS COFFEE, BOYS I HOPE YOU DRINK IT). I bought coffee as I knew that Starbucks was hella expensive in South Korea, as it was considered a Western brand, and thus a luxury, and because Seattle.
I bought postcards as I thought it would be fun to write a message to each of the boys. Of course it was in English because lol how do Korean. It ranged from silly (I wrote about the Seattle ferris wheel on Aron’s) to sweet (wishing JR and his group a prosperous future and hope that they can perform in Seattle one day, hurr hurr). On each, I did write one sentence in Korean, one that I harassed Jessica to translate for me. The final touch was a cute bear sticker, one that corresponded to their favorite colors (Minhyun and Ren I had to replace with brown and purple bears as I didn’t have a black bear sticker). I wish I took pictures of my gifts but I was too stressed out. :( They were cute postcards too.
I...did not sleep much that night. Maybe three hours at most. Because I was up to maybe, 4am running around, packing, repacking and panicking to Ela and Shufen on gchat (lol). I would have had everything done and ready much earlier, except I had company come busting in, wanting to hang out. I was already frazzled and hyper from lack of sleep from the night before so I was probably really strange company.
Chloe got me a little cake that says NU’EST, to congratulate me. She’s the sweetest qt. I had help picking my fashun choices as I was unsure of which cardigan/shoes to bring.
I woke up around 6 to hop on a bus to meet Shufen downtown. We decided early on that we should take the light rail to the airport to keep each other company and to idk, nervously cling to each other. Seattle, was of course, chilly, so I had on tights and and a jacket and I was still cold! I attempted to dress nicely (airport fashunnn) because I knew that they would be filming/taking photos of our trip from the get-go. Shufen lamented over her comfortable airport gear, as she missed my message about being filmed.
I need someplace to write this but Miss X told me beforehand that a lot of my trip was going to be photographed/filmed, even the super awkward sounding dinner. So I made an effort to at least appear nice and cute. And most importantly, normal.
We met up with Jackie at the airport. Shufen and Jackie did not know each other previously (and they didn’t know Ela either) so I was hoping that they’d get along, which they thankfully did. HAHA WAY TO GO SELF. INVITING STRANGERS ON A TRIP TOGETHER.
The plane ride was relatively uneventful. We flew Jetblue and the plane was so fancy. There were TVs on the backs of the seat OMG THIS LUXURY. I spent the first hour or so watching the recap of the Biden-Ryan debate (I THINK NU’EST WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE ME LECTURE THEM ABOUT THE ELECTION) and then finally fell into an exhausted nap for the rest of it.
I’m going to end with a selca I took of myself and made pretty using a Japanese photo app, pick.
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LONG BEACH WAS SO HOT. I got off the plane and immediately started shedding my sweater, my coat...I would have stripped out of my leggings but that would have been indecent and traumatizing to everyone around so I braved the heat. And lo and behold, I was right. Miss X met us at the airport with a camera crew, who were really really cool bros. Part of why I was okay with filming after a while is because the crew were so likeable. The driver they hired to tow us around was really nice too! I’m not sure why but this weekend was full of really nice people taking care of us. I’m not used to such nice people ;A;
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ANYWAYS. After an uneventful trip to the hotel, where we chatted with the cameraman who has met BoA and Big Bang (jealous), we found Ela. Ela, since she lives IN California, was to meet us at the hotel. I introduced her to Jackie and Shufen and we all creyed for the amazing weekend that was to come. The crew filmed an embarrassing skit where we were meeting for the first time and then us pawing through gift baskets that they prepared. I would die if that skit ever sees the light of day tbh.
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After the dog and pony show, we went to our hotel rooms to freshen up, unpack and possibly go and scrounge up food (and flip flops for Shufen). The hotel rooms were really nice! We were set in the ~preferred~ rooms, meaning the fancy suites with free water and coffee and stuff. IT WAS GREAT. IT HAD SLIPPERS. AND A HUGE FEATHER SOFT BEDDD. It was such a nice room, I cry.
We didn’t do much at the mall, tbh. Just wandered around the mall aimlessly (Jackie was super excited that there was a Deloitte near the hotel...that one) and loitered in stores. We were hungry so being classy people we ate at McDonalds.We probably could have scored paid food from Verizon or something but I didn’t want them breathing down my neck during the entire trip, y’know?
(Ela being kawaii and me looking like a hobo in my big t-shirt)
Of course at the McDonalds I was more interested in the handsome (but very young loooking) Korean boys sitting near us. I was scrutinizing them, trying to see if they were relevant. (hurr hurr). We passed through a Sears where I found a pair of really ugly panda slippers. I jokingly told Ela that I should get it for Tao, but then realized that if I bought him the shoes, he’d probably roundhouse kick me because they were FUG.
We only had maybe an hour or two to wander before going back to the hotel room and get ready. I rarely wear makeup and was operating on very little sleep, so I only brought bb cream, concealer, and lipgloss on the trip.
And when I saw Ela making herself look pretty with her jumbo set of eyeshadow I made sad noises a little at her and asked her to make me look pretty too. Ela, at one point in time, made some sort of sad sound and mentioned why she was even trying becauSE REN IS SO PRETTY and I made some gurgly laugh sob at her. Because it’s so true ;A;
I was planning on wearing these cute nude pumps to dinner (MAKE MYSELF LOOK TALLER AND HEELS ARE FANCY) but Ela helpfully reminded me that they were going to be giving us a tour of the convention first which means walking and I brought along a change of shoes.
While Ela, Shufen and I were busy creying over our looks (Shufen over not bringing fancier clothes), Jackie was side-eyeing us for being slow. “They’re just teenage boys,” she said. “Why are you guys taking so long getting dressed?” SHUT UP JACKIE. I thought. That was a recurring thought during the entire trip.
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Miss X met us out in front of the hotel with a party bus limo thing (ahem, porn mobile according to me and ela). It’s hard to explain. The outside looks like a mini bus, but the inside was like a limo. Complete with free water and DISCO LIGHTS ON THE CEILING THAT CHANGED COLORS. At one point we were a garish green because the lights. Miss X was surprisingly collected and even helped us camerawhore out of nervousness.
I’m just reusing Ela’s photos because she edited them to be nice and pretty and my camera doesn’t operate well in low lighting :( and jackie’s not a good photographer lmfao.
We were told earlier in the day that the dinner wth nu’est wasn’t going to be a one-on-one affair (oh thank god, I don’t know what I’d do if that was the case, maybe sob into my food). We picked up Verizon leadership and some MNet reps and went straight to the venue.
It was slightly awkward, taking a limo with these people. I accidentally let it slip that I work for a competitor of Verizon so every time I was introduced to someone new, they’d always be like “OH HERE’S OUR CONTEST WINNER. DID YOU KNOW SHE WORKS FOR OUR COMPETITOR, B? AHAHAHA LOOK SHE’S EVEN WEARING THEIR COLOR” and I cringe smile before telling them that, “NO HOT PINK IS NU’EST FAN COLOR. FFFSFFD”. But they were okay? We pretty much didn’t interact with them since they were on the other side of the limo and we were doing deep breathing exercises on our end. One of them even rapped for us (lol).
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Venue tour was pretty standard. It looked like an outside convention? but for kpop? I must admit, I felt pretty damn important when our car was treated like royalty by kcon security lolol. THIS MUST BE HOW A VVIP FEELS??/
The amphitheatre was really pretty! This is a map of it, if anyone hasn’t seen yet. And of course, we had another cheesy skit where we exited the vehicle and pretended to be ~surprised~ and in ~awe~. Cue wonderfully pained acting. I could star in a k-drama with my skills.
Part of my prize package (so to speak) was a chance to watch rehearsals/sound check. And for the first half hour was just watching security oppa and sound crew oppas rushing around fixing, checking things. At one point they had to shoo us away because they were running behind schedule (this is a recurring theme istg) and I guess they didn’t want us there or something. THEY KNEW I WAS LOOKING FOR OPPAS.
Kcon stage.
The camera crew caught footage of me telling Miss X about idols that were born overseas and how they had language classes as part of training etc. Way to go Nancy, good job promoting yourself like a walking kpop wiki article.
The cameracrew and Verizon staff decided to troll us and mention how they were going to bring me up stage during the live concert. AND MAKE US DANCE TO GANGNAM STYLE. Once we got good and scared they were all “lol jk.” HOW CRUEL IS THAT???
We met the President of MNet America, who was a nice man, and fairly sharp eyed as when he saw my camera out and told us “no pictures”. I made a slight faux pas when I jokingly muttered “I hate him” to Ela, which I think he overheard. OOPS.
Since they were behind schedule, we only got to see NU’EST rehearse in normal clothes and. I. Kind of started stanning them right then and there? Like, they were LIVE AND SO IN SYNC??? Ugh Ren’s haIR IS BEAUTIFUL.
And then on the ride over I outwardly creyed at how I forgot to bring my NU’EST album. Idk why I wanted to bring it, perhaps if they boys asked to sign it I’d have it handy??? And then I creyed at how my gift bag was slightly crinkled from me playing with it. flsdjfs
US DOING AEGYO?
The place they took us to was a Steakhouse called Mastros. Which, we learned later, is considered a top tier steakhouse? God I could feel my bank account cry at how fancy it was. We were stuck in a private room that was /beautifully/ decorated and oh god the menu was fancy. FANCY. Hell even the bathroom had an attendant there to squirt soap on your hands and then offer a fresh hand towel. THE FUCK? ALSO A PLETHORA OF EXPENSIVE HAND LOTIONS djsflsjfs
UM. IT WAS AN UNDERSTATEMENT TO HOW NERVOUS WE WERE. Ela was shaking like a scared pup and Shufen and I were internally screaming during the entire 10 minutes while we were waiting for NU’EST to show up. Jackie was the most calm, but I found out that she was shaking just as badly as Ela was.
Of course the reps had to make it worse by trying to make it better. They asked me which member was my favorite (JR) and tried to make him sit across from me. I made a dying noise at the thought and then they thought outloud whether if they should make the boys sit NEXT to us instead of across. In which collective sputtering occurred.
There were people by the doors that were in charge of directing our party in. When they mentioned that the boys were coming in and I flailed at the translator (a man named Henry) at whether I should sit or stand. He probably saw me looking more panicked than normal (IF THAT WAS EVEN POSSIBLE, CONSIDERING I WAS PANICKING DURING THE ENTIRE RIDE) and told me to stay sitting. Maybe he was worried I would fall to JR’s needs while sobbing because I was so unstable lmfao. MAYBE IT WAS FOR THE BETTER THAT I SAT ON MY ASS.
AND THE BOYS CAME IN THE DOOR. AND THEY WERE SO BEAUTIFUL AND REAL AND WITHIN TOUCHING DISTANCE OMG.
I REMEMBER MAKING A O____O FACE AT JR (he is such a pocket-sized shy lamb h e l p) before looking at Minhyun, making an ugly expression over how pretty he was, and blanking out on what his name was. MINHYUN LOOKS SO PRETTY IN PERSON? LIKE. I CAN’T EVEN EXPLAIN HOW STRIKING HE IS. I WAS READY TO DISSOLVE INTO MY CHAIR
oh god Baekho is really hot in real life. Like. It is unfair. ALSO ARON? MUCH MORE HANDSOME IN REAL LIFE? WHERE DO THEY FIND SUCH GOOD LOOKING CHILDREN???
Don’t get me started on how good Ren looks. He was dressed down and STILL LOOKED BETTER THAN ME. WEIOFSD? His hair is so long and blonde and pretty. I wish I could have braided it.
They had makeup on, which didn’t surprise me because ~idols~ but you can tell it was caked on IT JUST DOESN’T SHOW ON CAMERA BUT I WAS CLOSE ENOUGH TO SEE THEIR FOUNDATION OISFJL
JR was sitting across from me briefly and I was trying to not stare at him too much (sjds he’s so cute in real life I wanted to cry into my napkin) and I’m sure he saw me oggling at him before Baekho kind of shoved him to the side being all NAHP. SORRY ARON HYUNG SITS HERE MIDDLE BC ENGLISH. AND I’LL SIT NEXT TO HIM BC ENGLISH. And I thanked and cursed Baekho for that because he was thinking ahead and because JR was now far away so I can’t cry over him. AT LEAST I GET TO LOOK AT ARON. WHO WAS CHARMING AS FUCK? The fresh hell I can’t have a bias in Nu’est anymore. They are all wonderful.
So the order of sitting was: Shufen, Ela, Me, Jackie, translator. And the boys were across from us: Lady-translator, JR, Baekho, Aron, Minhyun, Ren, manager-hyung.
The boys introduced themselves to us in English and I wibbled because they are so polite and softspoken??? AND PRECIOUS. UGH CAN I JUST KEEP THEM.
Ren broke the ice slightly when he stood up and introduced himself as “Choi Minki” and it was so adorable. Baekho and the rest of his bandmates were like “jsdkf nuuu u r Ren. Rennnn’ and Ren made a slight poopy face at them before sitting down and not redoing his intro. SASSY.
I tried to not stare too much at Minhyun (JR was too far away sobbing) but I think I failed since I have the most Minhyun related stores lmfao.
JR IS TOO QUIET AND I’M HALF DEAF SO I COULDN’T HEAR HIM BUT I THINK I MUST HAVE LOOKED MANIC AT ONE POINT BECAUSE HE LOOKED AWAY REALLY QUICKLY AND HID HIMSELF WITH A COUGH.. JUST THROWING THAT OUT THERE.
And uh, we introduced ourselves to them and I had planned on being fancy (A PROPER MATURE AMERICAN NOONA GDI) and introducing myself in Korean and throwing in a “very nice to meet you” and the boys were cutely impressed. Poor Ela had to go after me. I’M SORRY ELA IF I SHOWED YOU UP. IF WE CAN GO BACK IN TIME I’D HAVE YOU AND JACKIE SWITCH SEATS.
OH LOOK A MENU
There were a few moments where we didn’t interact with the boys because we had to order our dinner. Me, Jackie and the boys (minus Ren) got steak. Ela and Ren got the chicken, and Shufen got salmon. I left them alone because Aron had to help Minhyun and Baekho order and idk who helped Ren, maybe his manager. Maybe he just pointed at something and called it good. IDK HEART WAS BEATING BC HANDSOME YOUNG BOYS
I’m going to be going out of order while recapping the dinner because I don’t remember the exact order of it. But, it was pretty obvious that the boys were kind of surprised at how fancy the restaurant is. American style steakhouses are considered a luxury in Korea and they were not prepared. GOOD JOB BOYS. GOOD JOBB
Yeah, Ren is just a quiet adorable pixie. It was hightlight of our night when he stabbed a hunk of garlic bread with his fork and sat there nomming on it. Minhyun made fun of him (stabbing motions and all) and the rest of the boys caught on and laughed. IT WAS SO CUTE. And Ren stank faced at him. Minhyun and Ren were kind of in their own little world for a lot of the evening. During the initial awkward conversation they were content to just sit there, stuffing their faces full of appetizers. They looked like chewing hamsters.
ARON WAS REALLY CHARMING? LIKE, I CAN SEE WHERE ELA’S CRUSH ON HIM CAME FROM. But DAMN. BOy. sTahP. Baekho ugh. I can’t not talk about how precious and smiley he was. I read that he is the most friendly with fans (int’l fans too) AND IT SHOWS. He really made an effort to pay attention to what we were saying even though he probably understood like, 4% of it and kept on poking Aron to translate and include him. AND THEN THERE’S POOR JR ON THE OTHER SIDE OF BAEKHO, NOT BEING ABLE TO HEAR WHAT WAS BEING SAID BECAUSE BAEKHO WOULDN’T TELL HIM ANYTHING. BAEKHO U R A POOP. POOOP.
Man, I don’t even know how to structure the dinner happenings. lmao. Ela said that me and her made it a point to assure the boys to relax and just enjoy the dinner. Except I wasn’t really sure what Ela was doing. I had a stuffed ravioli on my plate and she took a bit and I was all HEY THAT IS MINE WHY ARE YOU TAKING MY FOOD OH HI REN YOU ARE A TINY BABY YOU ARE STARING AT US sdsdl>???
Before long the boys visibly relaxed. Minhyun started paying more attention to what was going on, Aron stopped fiddling with his earring. Ren eventually perked up a little because he realized Henry knew Korean. AND THEN HE MINHYUN AND HENRY JUST HAD THEIR OWN LITTLE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THINGS IN KOREAN while Aron and Baekho were talking to me and Ela. idk what Jackie was doing and I think Shufen was too nervous to talk to JR still lmfaods.
But poor JR. At one point I asked a group a question and he said something and hid under his hat because he got shy and spoke quietly and because I was like :DDD?? IDK WHAT YOU SAID SO ;DD. The room was /loud/. I can’t hear. omg.
A funny story Shufen told me (as she was sitting next to the mnet president) was that the guy was telling her about how young the boys were and how he would not recommend that she ~go there~ WHAT DOES \GO THERE\ MEAN. /AHJUSSHI/ are you implying something.
I’ll try to include details that Ela didn’t! Uhh for the most part I tried talking to all of them and not showering one person too much attention, but it was hard as I had to talk to Aron to talk to any one of the boys AND THEN JR AND REN CAN’T HEAR ME so even though I tried most of the time I was talking to Aron (and Baekho because he wanted in).
Speaking of Baekho, he had a crumb on his mouth and Aron wiped it off, and I grabbed on to Ela and started grinning like a maniac. WHAT IS THIS. BOYS. /BOYS/ THAT WAS CUTE. AND YET. KIND OF GHEI. DO IT AGAIN.
thE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS?? Ugh, one of the Verizon execs told me that once I had a steak from Mastros, I can’t go back and it’s true. TENDER. SOFT. PERFECT. MELT IN MY MOUTH. I was determined to eat as much of it as I could KOREAN IDOLS BE DAMNED. FOOD IS MY #1 but I didn’t finish because I was trying to not be a pig and because I was trying to converse with them (Aron) and secretly stare (oggle) at them. Minhyun seemed to be having trouble cutting his steak, he was holding his knife and fork like like a toddler would. And I caught him looking around a few times (secretly) and watching how we cut it. dsjfs??
I also stole some of Ela’s chicken. Because.
Sometime during eating, Minhyun started singing Love Like Oxygen under his breath. AND I DECIDED IT WOULD BE GR8 IF I JOINED HIM. And once he caught me we kind of stared awkwardly at each other. It was a weird moment? Actually Minhyun kept on catching me when I was laughing nervously at something and he probably thought I was laughing AT him. ;n;
Henry, the translator on our end of the table was really nice! I met him during the venue tour and he was really easy to talk to. I’m glad he was around because he broke Minhyun and Ren out of their shells and even carried conversations with them entirely in Korean. At one point I had to poke him and be like HEY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? ;DDD
One of the conversations I remembered was that they were talking about Korean accents. Henry asked me if I knew about satoori and I was like OH YES. ACCENTS. PPL FROM BUSAN AND DAEGU AND GWANGJU HAVE THEM. And I asked Minhyun and Ren (through Henry) if they had any troubles “fixing” their accents, since they both hail from Busan. AND REN LOOKED SO IMPRESSED. Like, as if he did not know I could google this information. I felt both accomplished and smart and creepy. sobs.
Another conversation we had was weird foods. Minhyun and Ren mentioned that people can eat live octopus tentacle in Korea. And were in turn squicked out when I mentioned gooeyduck and chicken feet. Minhyun made a scrunchy face like EW WHY WOULD U EAT DAT AND IT WAS CUTE.
The boys mentioned they were in Australia recently and Jackie asked if they saw Kangaroos. And the boys were slightly taken back because it was kind of random but a very Jackie-esque thing to ask. In fact the mood killer of the night was when she asked if they ever were ever lonely and were homesick. and i’m pretty sure ela and i panicked because JACKIE that question is so personal and awkward AND SAD. SO SAD.
Aron was very impressive at conducting himself. He’s quick on his feet and knows how to carry a conversation and answer smoothly. Just throwing that out there. Though I think Ela caught him off guard when she asked him about whether they volunteered for the dinner or if they were told to come. He choked slightly and was all HAHAHAHA NOOOO. icu aron. icu.
Aron mentioned his love for Anthony Hamilton (DO YOU LIKE ANYONE ELSE I KEEP ON HEARING ABOUT THIS GUY) and fanboyed about him with a Verizon exec (idek). And during that part Baekho picked up a thing of pepper and was all ????/ GOCHU?? GOCHU/?? WAT R U MYSTERIOUS SHAKER. Ela and I told him that it was pepper (i was pantomiming sprinkling pepper) and he was so excited and happy to have found pepper. It’s endearing.
By the middle to latter half of the dinner, JR kind of gave up trying to hear what we were talking about and instead carried a conversation with the lady translator :( I did ask him if he made the boys watch 8Mile with him (JR being an Eminem stan lol) and he laughed adorably and shyly said yes.
JR DID NOT KNOW THAT HE WAS MY BIAS. AND I WANTED TO KEEP IT THAT WAY. Ela jokingly said that she would tell him and i was all elA NO. IF YOU DO I WILL KILL YOU. I think Baekho saw me making crazy faces and laughed at us ;n;
The dinner wasn’t all us interrogating them. The boys tried to ask about us too. Except I think they didn’t know what to talk to us about lmfao. They asked about our hobbies and I mimed photography. Though i kind of threw Jackie under the bus for hers lmfao. She mentioned she liked hiking and I was like REALLY???? RLLLLY???? ;OOO And Aron smirked.
It’s kind of surprising how surprised they were when they asked us about how we heard of them. I mentioned I saw their debut performance while watching a music show stream and they made appropriate :OOOO faces. And Ela kind of gurgled about seeing Ren’s teaser and REN SMIRKED ALL HAPPY AND SHIT BEFORE SCHOOLING HIMSELF INTO A SHOCKED FACE. icu Ren. ICU.
And then Aron asked us, a bunch of girls that don’t live in the area, about what is there to do in Irvine. DID YOU SPACE OUT WHEN I TOLD YOU MOST OF US WERE FROM SEATTLE? HUh. huh.
He and Ela agreed that in-and-out and cilantro were gr8. #elaron5evah
idk what kinds of fans they were expecting. i assume the more rabid kind but they were probably taken aback when we were JUST AS AWWKARD AS THEY WERE. Though. I know. I KNOW. That they were shocked when they asked how old we were.
THANKS ARON. I WAS DOING JUST FINE BEFORE YOU ASKED THAT QUESTION. Oh It was awkward. We all collectively started nervously laughing which made the boys confused. And when we were like, IF WE TOLD YOU WE WERE 17 WOULD YOU BELIEVE US. Baekho got excited when we said 17 BECAUSE THAT’S HOW OLD HE IS GOD WHY ARE YOU SO YOUNG AND PRECIOUS AND MISUNDERSTANDING THE ENGLISH and Aron said that that’s how old he thought we were (i think ur lying. LYNGGG).
And then they pseudo panicked when they found out we were noona fans. I could see JR stiffen as if trying to school himself to look cooler and more mature for American-noonas. Sobbing.
Finally it was time to finish the dinner portion and dessert time. CAKE. When Miss X told me that we were okay-ed to take a photo with them. And I kind of gurgled because WE ARE GETTING CLOSER??? DSJF. And while we were getting up to walk over the management was like YOU CAN’T TOUCH THEM. THEY ARE GONNA SIT THERE AND YOU STAND BEHIND THEM AND WE TAKE PHOTO. It’s weird how they thought that we were suddenly going to go rabid and rip their clothes off. As if they did not realize that we were being perfect ladies during the entire meal. HMPH.
So the first batch of photos were awkward because we were like, a foot away from the boys. And after we got back to our seats Aron (or idk who it was, I assume it was Aron) was all NO THAT WAS NOT FUN. COME BACK. LET’S TAKE BETTER PHOTOS.
And lo and behold:
lol Baekho is touching my shoulder. HE SMELLED NICE. WHAT IS THAT COLOGNE YOU WEAR?? Also according to Ela my boobs look gr8 with my dress. /flounces
I was kind of in euphoria after pictures were taken. ALL GIGGLY AND SHIT. AND THEN CAKE. I was about to take a bite in when I noticed that they gave me Jackie’s key lime pie (NOT CHEESECAKE) and we fought over it. Which amused the boys because idk. Americans. .
Minhyun needs to stop being so cute because I basically only paid attention to him during the cake part. He badgered Aron for a piece of his key lime pie and according to ela, made another scrunchy face because it was REALLY STRONG (i stole some of jackie’s pie so i knew what it tasted like). AND THEN HE WENT TO TO PICK/PULL AT THE FABRIC ON REN’S JACKET. Ren shooed him away with a stank face and Minhyun went back to poking him. UGH??
And so dinner ended, and the boys made to leave. They told us that they were going to say farewell “NU’EST” style and I remember thinking “OH GOD IF THEY ARE GOING TO GANGNAM STYLE AT ME I WILL CRY” but no, they did their SHOW TIME NU’EST TIME greeting and I wibbled. ;A;
THEY WERE SO CUTE AND PRECIOUS AND I’VE BEEN HAVING NU’EST FEELS FOR THE LAST THREE WEEKs. H E L P.
I SHOULD HAVE ASKED FOR A HUG. SINCE THEY GAVE OUT SO MANY ON NU’EST LANDING? DAMN.
After the boys left, the Verizon and Mnet reps were like WASN’T THAT GREAT? THE BOYS ARE SO SWEET. YOU HAD A GREAT TIME RIGHT and I wibbled for a little before giving a collected answer. My plan for the weekend was to be as nice and professional and easygoing as possible SO IF ANYTHING HAPPENED THEY CAN PULL STRINGS FOR ME. (huhu c:)
The ride back to the hotel was met with a lot of OIFSFSDL THEY ARE SO CUTE. FJSJ DID YOU SEE BAEKHO USING ALL THAT SALT DSJFLSJD REN IS SO PRETTY (even from Jackie who initially was turned off by how pretty he was. BLASPHEMY).
The hotel, when we first checked in was full of fans. Because apparently all the artists were staying there (apparently this was the only nice hotel within distance of the verizon amphitheater) and a lot of girls started staring at us when we pulled because apparently all the idols were in big white van car things and our porn mobile looked like it. But they lost interest (some even glared) when one of the cameramen opened the door and was all HELLOOOO LADIES. lmfao he’s great.
We hung out in the lobby for a little because the idols were apparently coming through. I met some of Ela’s exo friends (WHO ARE MAD TALENTED WTF), Bing, Demi, Lauren and other fans that were hanging around. We saw BAP, G.NA, and Vixx come through and eagerly waited for EXO. Shufen and Jackie left earlier as they were tired. AND THEN MORE EXO FANS KEPT ON COMING IN, LIKE A MINI MASS. The security guards were perplexed and a bit scared because we were clogging the walkways ;; ;
EXO never came in through the front. They went through the safer employee entrance as someone tipped them off about how many fans were waiting for them. At one point Shufen texted me that she thinks they already came in and were staying the 4th floor. AND WHEN I CAPSLOCKED BACK AT HER/CALLED SHE DIDN’T RESPOND. HDU SHUFEN. in her defense, my phone had horrible reception in the hotel lobby so.
And so, me and Ela trudged back up to our hotel room to clean up and sleep. Except we didn’t sleep until 3 because we stayed up talking about how cute nu’est were. ;A; I would have continued yapping except she had to tell me to shut up since we planned on leaving early to get merch (shufen wanted to get a nu’est cd, she liked them a lot more after the dinner ;;;;)
And me being me, FELL ASLEEP AS SOON AS I STOPPED TALKING. I’M SORRY ELA, I KEPT YOU AWAKE ;A;
The next part should be up this weekend. I’m still not done writing it as I’ve been busy. But it will be up soonnnn. ;;;
♥