[Fan Account] The Journey that is …Kim Hyun Joong

By: Lyd & Liz Pedernal

Repost from http://kathysbench.blogspot.com

More than a year ago on June 18, 2010, we were fortunate to have attended Kim Hyun Joong’s “Meet and Greet” here in the Philippines at the Crowne Plaza and his charity concert at the Araneta Coliseum on the 19th. It was quite an experience for us, a REAL treat (an experience that needs another fan account). Who would have thought that we will celebrate our “1 year anniversary” as KHJ fans in Seoul?

When KeyEast announced that Hyun Joong was going to hold a Showcase for his comeback album, Breakdown, on June 7 and it was going to be for free, we took the opportunity to send in our application. You guys cannot believe how chaotic it was sending in 2 applications just to meet the 12nn KST deadline. And they are going to accept only the 1^st 1,600 applicants. You also probably know that from previous events, online registration for anything (fanmeets, etc) about KHJ or SS501 members for that matter will be gone in minutes. We were expecting our acceptance within the day or the next day at the latest. As of that time, May 26, we still do not have a Korean Visa but we already inquired about the requirements to have one. On May 31, an officemate who’ve been to Korea just last March informed us that it will take five (5) working days for a Korean visa to be processed. On the morning of June 1, 2010, we were both resigned of not being able to go because of time constraints. Anyways, our original plan was to go there when SS501 makes their group comeback, whenever that maybe. And because of his popularity in Asia, meeting KHJ again is really possible. Lo and behold, at exactly 1:00pm that same day, we both received an  email from KeyEast/Henecia, our Invitation to attend the Showcase. To cut the long story short, we were not able to attend the Showcase because our Visa was released only on June 9. But we still decided to push through with our trip the next weekend.

On June 16, on the way to the airport, I, Lyd, received twits that Leader won at Mnet Countdown. We both couldn’t contain our excitement because it was what Hyun Joong and we Henecians were waiting for. Equally exciting is fellow SS501 member and friend Heo Young Saeng was there with him on stage! An added treat for us, both SS501 fan. We both came from the office so we arrived early. Had our pasta dinner at Pancake House before checking-in. Both our phones were out of batteries so we had to charge them while waiting for our 1:15am flight. Got our updates and contemplating if it will be possible for us to attend Music Bank, the day of our arrival in Seoul. Time was spent twitting people asking how to get into the Music shows.

Day 1

On June 17 at exactly 5:45am KST, our Cebu Pacific flight touched down at Incheon International Airport. WOW! We only read about Incheon, Gimpo airports in the internet and see them on YouTube. We never imagined setting foot on Incheon airport this soon.

Before we could get going with our “watch KHJ trip”, we had so many things to do first, check-in and get rid of our bags, call home, call friends in Seoul and most important, ask for directions to KBS, MBC and SBS. Since there will be a fansign event on June 19, we have to buy CDs (AGAIN!) at Hottracks in Times Square, which we also need to locate.

After doing the first three on our to-do list, now armed with the map of the Korea Train System (whatever they may call it), we set off to find the MBC Studio in a place called Yeouido. We learned that MBC has 2 offices, one there in Yeouido and another one at Ilsan, called the MBC Dream Center where all the entertainment shows was held.

MBC Building in Yeouido

MBC Dream Center in Ilsan

We were back to square one. We don’t know how to get to Ilsan. We hopped on the next train that will bring us to the venue of the fansign event, Times Square Mall. We had our late lunch at Pizza Hut across Lotte department  store and then walked to Times Square. Got 3 CDs, 2 for the both of us and another for Tita Lina, a friend from the Philippines living with her daughter’s family in Korea.  We dropped our stubs and hoped to get picked during the lucky draw. Having no decent sleep in the last 24 hours, we had to go home and get some needed rest. We have our “work” cut out for us in the next 2 days. And we also have to catch the Music Bank broadcast. But alas, when we were walking from the Myeongdong Station, there was this store that sold K-pop items and we were like, WHOAH! Kids inside a toy store. And to top it all, KHJ’s Breakdown album was being played. Stuffs you only see during Kpop conventions here in Manila were all around the place. Stickers, posters, lightsticks, CDs, DVDs, photobooks, notebooks, playing cards. You name it, they have it. You can just imagine how excited we were to be there. But we had to hurry because of Music Bank. It was such a long day that we were both dead tired when we arrived. Watching KHJ perform Breakdown and him winning Music Bank capped our 1^st day in Seoul. HYS was also there, his goodbye stage for “Let It Go”. I’m (Lyd) a big HyunSaeng fan. So you can just imagine how ecstatic I was when Leader prompted YS to stay beside him on stage when the winner was going to be announced.

Big thanks to a friend whom we “met” only thru FB and introduced to us by a good friend from Manila (who is also a big HJ fan), we got directions to go the MBC Dream Center. His win at the Music Bank made us even more excited. We are in Seoul and we are going to see him perform live the next day.

Day 2 – June 18, 2011

We left the Namsan Guesthouse at 7am and arrived at Ilsan at around 8am. After struggling to communicate with the security guards at the side gate of MBC, we were led to the front gate where it seems, fangirls are already waiting to be led inside the building. After surveying the place, we found a place to sit and eat our “breakfast” of brownies and water. We don’t think we had any proper meal since we got to Korea, or maybe except the McDonalds Big Breakfast we took when we arrived at the airport. What have you done to us, Hyun Joong? You’ve totally turned our normal and quiet lives upside down. LOL!

Back to our story, a Filipina who recognized us from the Meet and Greet in the Philippines approached us and introduced herself. Her name is Mariz and she’s also a big KHJ fan. Although not her first trip to Korea, it’s her first time to watch the music shows. Then, a big group of fangirls started organizing themselves with one girl, we presume to be a Korean, holding a list and started calling out names. It turned out to be Beast fans. We immediately moved away from the group and hoped to find fellow KHJ fans. A couple of Thailanders pointed to us the Korean girls who were holding a paper where we have to get our names listed. Before the gates opened, people from MBC placed placards outside for the fans to assemble. The placards turned out to be the names of the artist who are performing at the Music Core that day. Being SS501 fans, we immediately recognized these:

This placard says: Heo Young Saeng/Kim Hyun Joong

Fans immediately lined-up and we were all assigned a number. We got 15 and 16. This is around 9am already. After waiting some more minutes, we were told to return at 11:30am. We assumed this is the time assigned to KHJ for rehearsing/recording his number. As we waited, we ate some snacks at the Coffee Prince café.

After awhile, we saw the YS group already converging inside the building. As mentioned earlier, I wanted to hit two birds using one stone, meaning watch both KHJ and HYS, if possible. I approached the B2M fan support staff and struggled to ask if I can watch YS’s rehearsal without jeopardizing my slot in the KHJ line. She said to choose only one. Well, you all know who I will choose…. Besides, I should have brought our HYS CD. The CDs are our passport to the music shows. So, the waiting continued. We were just standing in line or seating on the floor. When the YS fans came down, it meant that YS was done with his recording! And we were still there waiting for Leader’s turn. By 11:30, the Henecia fan support staff started checking our Breakdown CDs and/or Henecia IDs. Firstly, we didn’t know we have to bring the CDs and secondly, our Henecia IDs didn’t arrive yet. Luckily, we brought our Showcase invitation and Hottracks receipts. Around past 1pm, after everybody got checked, we were asked (AGAIN!) to return at 2:30pm. We walked just beside the MBC building and ate at the Nescafe Café. Again, not a decent lunch, just a sandwich to get us through the afternoon. If you noticed, the MBC Dream Center is all glass. So you can just imagine, we were like a crowded fishbowl under the sun. And we have been waiting for a long time. To K-pop fans who do this stuff, week-in and week-out, out hats off to you. We say we will not do it again….but if HJ is there every week, why not? Will probably do it when he comes back with the 2^nd album or when SS501 comes back. Just around 3:30pm, we were finally asked to come up. If you guys remember the stairs that HJ took during the MBC awards, it was those steps that we took going to the studio. Just a side note, we did not take any pictures during this time because it’s going to be so obvious that a camera was inside the bag I’m carrying.

Lo and behold, we were led to the bottom of the theatre, just below the stage. No chairs, just standing room. The theatre seats were behind us. Other fans were already seated but all KHJ fans are right there in front, standing up near the stage. Because this is Music Core, not all performances were live. But for the sake of the live audience present in the studio, artists were asked to come out and perform their songs. To our delight, it was Young Saeng’s goodbye stage for “Let It Go”. He was wearing a white/gray outfit with red jacket. He sang one verse and one chorus of his song and he was gone. So short… but at least he smiled at the audience before he left the stage. Luckily, security was not strict at 
Music Core. I was able to get a few shots of YS but because it’s the first time I’m using an SLR, the pictures came out a bit blurry. Mianhe….

At long last, it’s Breakdown and Kim Hyun Joong on centerstage! And boy, he did not disappoint us. All I did was watch him, take pictures and stare. Watch, take pictures and stare some more. All of 3minutes and 33 seconds, duration of Breakdown. When the MV of Breakdown came out, he didn’t impress me much with his cat daddy moves. I thought he still performed it differently than his dancers. But in Music Core, he just nailed it! PERFECT. I kept saying to myself. We will not say anything about the pictures of HJ. They speak for themselves.

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We had no time to be fangirls after the show as we didn’t have the time to wait for KHJ or HYS by the exit and see them leave. We still have to go visit Tita Lina and her daughter’s house is around 1and ½ hours by train from MBC. We had a chance to rest during the train ride, allow things to sink in, KHJ things I mean.

We planned on having Tita Lina sleep-over at our place in Namsan so we can all go together to Inkigayo the next morning. After our chicken dinner (Pelicana, so yummy!), we requested Jane, Tita Lina’s daughter to go online to check for the results of the draw for the fansign event. To our big surprise, Tita Lina’s name was right there at No. 1. She was ecstatic! We were all so happy for her.  We left their house and trooped back to Namsan. It was so late when we arrived but still had time to go OL.