(Fan Account) The Journey that is …Kim Hyun Joong Part 2

By: Lyd & Liz Pedernal

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.

\

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.