It’s been days since the fan meet and everyone has been uploading all their photos and fan cams, and sharing them around. If you’ve been there, or have been watching them, I’m sure you know just how good the fan meet has been by now.
To be honest, I am actually surprised at how much this fan meet has affected me. And to be really honest, I have watched so many times of Hyun Joong performing that it no longer has any effect on me anymore. I was expecting that this fan meet will be exactly the same as before, but man, Hyun Joong truly impressed me on that day from the start until the end. I didn’t expect the kind of thrill I felt to watch such a great show – Hyun Joong has truly pushed himself beyond what he has ever done for this fan meet.
Previously, we’ve always been just happy with just seeing Hyun Joong. Hyun Joong is always being labeled as this pretty boy hallyu star whose appearance is “more than enough” to send the fans into a frenzy. This fan meet kind of changed that sort of impression I always had in me. It showed me how the staff as well as Hyun Joong himself haven’t taken the fans for granted. True enough, we will always love Hyun Joong and give him all our support, but even so, Hyun Joong wants to work hard to earn this support, and he really did it on the 4th when he gave such an incredible performance. To this, I wish to say thank you, for all the hard work and effort, to both Kim Hyun Joong and the staff.
I’ve been reading praises for Hyun Joong’s vocals, performance on stage, how funny and cute he was that night, Hyun Joong’s English skills and how good the preparation were (the I-am-dating-a-bear video, the lucky guy comic strip, the games with the fans) that night.
But when you really look at it, it just comes down one thing – the very thing that I mentioned not too long ago in fact. It is sincerity, more than anything else, that made everything fit so perfectly that night. It was a GREAT show because Hyun Joong has been able to do what a REALLY GOOD performance is about: reaching out to and touching the hearts of every single person in the audience. This is more important than good vocals, talent and/or a fanciful performance. He has done exactly what I hope he would be able to do – in order to make reporters drop their jaws and realised that they need to stop their pen before judging the guy’s good looks too quickly. Well, not sure if they did. It’s hard to admit that one is wrong, after all
But this is not about the reporters, it’s about the fans. Is it too hard to tell already by now, what Hyun Joong has been trying so hard to say? This is a guy who doesn’t make empty promises with words; he doesn’t tell you that he loves the fans at every opportunity. He shows it with actions, with effort and hard work made just to make a day perfect for the fans. It would be hard indeed, for any fan NOT to feel the overwhelming gratitude and sincerity in every word he sang, every dance move he perfected, and every smile he gave.
To be honest, HJ is aware of the issues that the fan meet has before the concert. He knows it and as usual, carries all the weight and responsibility on his shoulders and said nothing. When mentioning it to his friends, he laughed it off and make a joke about it, as though it didn’t really affect him. Behind the forced shrug, his eyes probably betrayed the worry in his heart. When I knew, I was worried that prior to the fan meet that this guy will eventually break from all the pressure. Yet Hyun Joong has proven that he is more than a survivor; he doesn’t just merely “survive”. He made the best of what he had, to give his best show to his fans. And I’m so amazed and proud of how he didn’t let anything else affect his mind and what his heart has set out to achieve.
Hyun Joong started off the fan meet with his signature dance songs – Let Me Go, Breakdown, that showed off the manly 남자다운 side of him. When he finished Breakdown, he moved a little to the left side (our side) and as usual, his eyes scanned the crowd. If you notice Hyun Joong’s eyes, he is never just looking blankly at the audience, or just staring at one space. Hyun Joong’s eyes is always curious, searching, and darting from left to right, as though he’s looking for something. He is looking to see who is here, and if there is a face he could recognize.
I didn’t know if it was my imagination (it could well be! ^^) but at that moment, his eyes focused on us, where the unnies are holding their heavy cameras. He paused for a split second, as his eyes shifted from each person to the next. (I think one of the unnies caught that on her video camera, which I’m waiting for her to upload) This is one of the things I like about Hyun Joong – he is always observant, and didn’t just let the screams and cheers from the fans get in his head. Hyun Joong always want to remember the faces of his fans, even if there are too many and he couldn’t remember everyone, but he is always observant about who came. This means every fan should remember too… ^^ If you want him to remember you, make sure he remembers it in a good way, because he sure is observing what we are doing, during the performances, events, and at airports.
Just look at him, checking out other fans again. He can’t have been looking at the monitor to read the lyrics, because there was no monitor there at where I snapped this picture ^^
Hyun Joong then began his heartwarming ballads. For the song “HAPPINESS IS”, even the fans are included in the performance. We were supposed to sing the English lines with Hyun Joong “Happiness is (without you baby), I can’t even (imagine it)”. It was so funny and cute how Hyun Joong tried to teach us the lyrics in English, a language he is by no means proficient in. He struggled to get the fans to understand that we are supposed to sing the words (in brackets) and when we didn’t get it twice, he actually let out a sigh of frustration that is so adorable!
I am impressed at the amount of English he spoke that day. This is probably one of the things that touched me too, because even though I can understand his Korean, it is just different seeing how hard he tried to speak English. Language has an amazing ability to bridge a lot of gaps, and Hyun Joong clearly took advantage of this that day. He was initially self-conscious about his pronunciation, going “Hello, My name is *laughing* Kim Hyun Joong”. He was shy about saying this, and of course this made the fans scream. For some reason, the more embarrassed and awkward Hyun Joong is, the cuter he gets.
He grew more confident after successfully teaching the fans how to sing the two English lines in the lyrics for Happiness Is. Later during the game, he boldly used more English. Even though his pronunciation is strange, it just seemed so ‘right’ when he said it – nobody cared whether it was correct or not, because he was so adorable, and he tried so hard.
Another really good addition to the fan meet were the videos that we recorded. Honestly, when I heard there will be some videos, I expected something typical and boring – the kind they play during intermission just to give him some time to change his clothes. But the videos shown that day surpassed all my prior expectations! The video before Kiss Kiss where Hyun Joong showed how he would behave towards the *coughs* girl/bear that he loves – cooking for her (or it? ㅋㅋㅋ), writing letters, giving her (it) ring, and playing titanic with the fan (CUTE!!!). It wasn’t cheesy or boring. Hyun Joong interacted so well with that bear, I almost didn’t care it was just a white and huge soft toy.
But what really nails it is the comic strip that was shown before Lucky Guy. Hyun Joong and Artmatic were poor beggars who don’t even have a penny, but was lucky enough to fight with a cat – and won – a casino coin that gave him a chance to have a go at the jackpot machines. Hyun Joong’s acting and expressions were so good!! I am hereby convinced that Hyun Joong’s talent continues to be unseen because he always takes the roles that fits his appearance but not his personality. He’s always the handsome prince, the aloof popular boy in school, but all of that isn’t Hyun Joong. Hyun Joong is at his best in comedy, doing strange things, and saying out-of-the-world stuff that only a funny brain of his could ever think of!
What I am most delighted about is when he sang his last song – If you feel the same (OST). This song is my favorite song, and I wanted so much to hear it live. I always felt this song meant a lot, because of the lyrics as I’ve shared earlier. Having heard HJ talk about his experiences in love, and his depression over it, I sat there listening to him sing this song, knowing that it speaks so much about the pain he had in his heart all this while too. I could not share what HJ have said that night, but well, I have read some rumors who seemed to have gotten some of it right. In any case, it is HJ’s own private matter. All I can say is, this song is a story that he is all too familiar with. For a guy like Hyun Joong to find love is none too easy, and perhaps the only reality he could wish for is only in mind: to consider himself as being with the one he loves as long as they feel the same, because to be together physically is just too difficult.
“If you really feel the sameIf you feel the same nowIf you can feel my earnest longing
Even if you enter a completely different world
Even if you enter a world without me
We could feel the same”
We had encore afterwards, and that was really high and happy, jumping around, shouting, screaming, and just being relieved and glad (for HJ mostly) that finally he has managed to pull off a great show.
I love his charisma here, and it’s one of the rare moments when I actually hear him being “high” without sounding awkward. He’s really getting better and better at filling the stage with his presence. ^^ Check this out!!! Manly ROAR~
—
The fan meet ended and what came next is the event many fans feel much pain and heartache for Hyun Joong, because after such a tiring performance, he had to shake hands with every single fan in the stadium. He must have been exhausted, but even so, he held himself and gave his every energy until the very end.
What touched me also was how he thanked the Korean unnies – Ahlia, nomad, and the rest of the MEETKHJ girls when they went up. He said 수고하셨어요 to each of them, acknowledging not only the fact that they travelled all the way here, but also the hard work they’ve done each event to take photos of him. The security guards who forbade us to take photos is something he couldn’t do anything about, yet for each event, these fans still manage to produce some photos. It’s a lot of work, because they could have just enjoyed the show without doing anything.
What is amazing is how Hyun Joong acknowledged this hard work, saying thank you for the hard work. (수고하셨어요 meant something like “Thank you for the hard work” or “You’ve worked hard”. It’s different from just 감사합니다 which is merely thank you. We use 수고하다 when we want to acknowledge that a person has worked hard in something, and we are thankful.)
Of course, many fans worked hard that day and took so many photos and fan cams. Everyone has done really well. Hyun Joong couldn’t possibly know who are the ones who took photos and who worked really hard, but for those that he does recognize, he said thank you. I think we should even think of this as a thank you to every fan, who worked so hard with the photos and fan cams, a “thank you” that he couldn’t possibly say publicly since technically nobody should be taking any videos or photos. But nonetheless, it is a gratitude that I wish all fans to know….. Hyun Joong is more observant, caring and thoughtful than he appears to be.
We also realised something funny during the part when he threw the water at the fans. He seemed to have remembered that at our side, the girls are holding on to their cameras. He actually threw the water carefully on our side, as though he is afraid that if he threw it wildly, the water would damage the cameras. it’s damn funny, because when he moved to the other side, he threw it with his hardest might. The difference between how hard he threw the water on both sides made us laugh later on when we recount that, but all the same, thank you Hyun Joong for your consideration. ^^
All in all, it was a great fan meet, a amazing mini-concert and I thoroughly enjoyed myself hearing him sing. This is what a sincere performance is about. It’s not about looking good or being talented. It’s how the performer allows his feelings to be felt by every single person in the audience. It’s how the performer wants to touch his audience with his heart, and feel what he feels when he performs each song.
And I think…. we really felt it that day.
I had an amazing time, with the girls, with everyone. I am glad we could all watch this, and if you are still having doubts about HK and TW…… oh man, you really need to get over yourself and just GO already. After what i’ve seen in Singapore…. I am positive nobody is going to regret going. It’s worth my every penny, and I AM SO GLAD I HAVE HK AND TW TO LOOK FORWARD TO!
For every bead of sweat, we’ll make it worthwhile for you.
Edit: For those who are asking, my camera is really just an ordinary digital camera. I did not use a DSLR! My camera model is CANON POWERSHOT SX210 IS. ^^ I was really really near the stage, so my photos came out so clear despite me just using a normal digital camera.
And I think I also learnt a lot from Ahlia, when she droned on about having “THE EYE” when taking pictures. Whatever that is. But I think I did improve. HAHA! Thanks unnie! ^^
