1of1 week 2 Music Core, Inkigayo and Mini Fanmeeting

Weekend was super hectic and amazing and now I'm back at work and can take a rest....not really work is super busy OTL In any case the rushing around and lack of sleep was totally worth it cause I had an amazing weekend and a tonne of fun.

So this is week 2 of 1of1 promotions. I'm going to write another post about last week but hardly anything happened so it's gonna be boring and that's cramping my style right now. Right now I'm full of joy and energy and want to write about something fun.

So I left work on Friday afternoon and took myself out to MBC to join the list for Music Core entry to see SHINee Saturday morning. I got to MBC around 5 oclock on Friday afternoon and got number 616. That is a truly insane number holy crap. We had to hang around until later to confirm our numbers and then we took ourselves home. I have a friend from overseas staying with me to see SHINee and another friend who slept over so plus my roommate there were four of us taking a taxi together to get to MBC in the morning. We had to be outside MBC at 4:50 am and I was super hyped from drinking coffee like an idiot so me and my friend talked about SHINee for ages and slept around midnight.

Out of nowhere my roommate comes bursting in with my friend from SG in tow and they're like: INKIGAYO NOTICE IS UP. What that means is we need to go join the list asap. It went up just after midnight I think? Around 12:15 and at that time it was 12:30. In hindsight this has happened a couple of times and it's always totally hilarious. I was wearing basically nothing to sleep and got dressed and out the door so fast. Unfortunately where I live is also very close to a drinking/clubbing area and just after midnight is when everyone's trying to take a taxi so we wasted 10 minutes trying to find a damn taxi before getting anywhere.

Anyway I mention this because we got home again around 1:30 and then slept until 3:30 and left for MBC again. I'm laughing just thinking about the whole thing. It was honestly the earliest MBC recording I can remember going to. Music Core airs kind of later in the day so generally the start time is a bit later but lately SHINee's just been pulling enormous crowds so we need to be there really early just to sort through all the people.


MBC MUSIC CORE

Skipping ahead a little we got in line, fanstaff came and sorted us out and then they let us in for the recording and SHINee were so cute. They were in a really perky, sweet mood. It's really nice seeing the super confident, fanservice-y, flirty Taemin that emerged during his solo promotions in the context of SHINee.

I already wrote a little bit about the recording on twitter but I'm so useless at fan accounting. So much is always happening at once and I get so excited over them saying this or that. By the time it's over I'm fixated on a handful of things and forgot a tonne of other stuff.

Taemin and Key playing around really stood out to me. Taemin was being silly and sweet and Key was kind of done with his shit, but in a really fond, exasperated, teasing kind of way. Really sweet.

They were waiting on standby for the song to start and it was taking a while so Onew whispered: SHINee's back and Key and a bunch of SHAWols thought it was the beginning of the song and started. Key figured it out pretty quickly and was whining/scolding Onew who just laughed sweetly.

All of them were actually playing around a lot when they were meant to be on standby and Minho was nagging them and whining a little.

Key kept making cute aegyo-style noises as he wandered around.

Taemin talked through the beginning of a take cause he just can't contain himself now-a-days and Key smacked him and Minho pretended to high kick him.

TaemKey were singing a song that was meant to be their debut SHINee track and the last line is: are you ready? and instinctively shawols yelled; we're ready! It was really cute.

Of course the big conversation was when Taemin kept asking if we were hungry and we were saying no and then they were all playing around saying we HAVE to be hungry, and we definitely should be able to eat right?

SHINee said they'd prepared pizza and drinks for us and I was honestly so shocked. I didn't really believe it except as they were leaving they were all waving and saying we should eat well and smiling. Honestly in hindsight I think they were all so happy because they were just super proud of themselves ^.^;;;

Honestly this isn't the first time SHINee's done this kind of thing. Key had candy prepared for fans during To Heart on White Day, Taemin bought us ice cream during Taemtori and Jonghyun got hot drinks during his Base promos. All the way back during Everybody promos SHINee had water, juice, kimbap and snacks brought out to us. I think it's when situations become particularly hard for us because of the weather or scheduling SHINee usually go out of their way to show appreciation for the extra effort fans put in. During Taemin's Goodbye/Taemtori stages the weather was so hot. It was a summer heatwave and some of the most miserable line ups I've ever done in my life. Base was during the freezing cold winter mornings and the Everybody recording was meant to be at 8~9pm in the evening but ended up being so delayed that we went in at 3 something in the morning and didn't get out until 5am? And it started raining.

I'm not sure if I'm just the kind of person to not expect things, but I never seem to anticipate SHINee doing this kind of thing. Pizza for that many fans sounded like a crazy undertaking and it kind of was. They prepared for 800 fans and it wasn't skimpy preparations. Every person got a large slice of cheese pizza that came in it's own box as well as a freshly made barista drink. Which is honestly where the problems started. The menu had 10 different options of hot and cold drinks and they were basically filling people's orders one at at time. Eventually the staff making the drinks figured out that wasn't working and ended up sorting us into separate lines based on our orders and that made the whole process a lot more stream-lined and quick.

Pizza was really delicious and the coffee was actually really good. I've had hundreds of shitty cups of coffee in Seoul, but this was not one of them. I think it could have been the worst slice of pizza ever made and it still would have been delicious though. I always think: ah I'm so blessed to be able to see SHINee. I can be in the worst mood ever, hate my job and everything involved in fandom and dealing with people around me, but just seeing them wipes all that away. It's like an instant cure for all ails. Waiting in the cold or the rain or super early in the morning doesn't seem like a huge cost to pay for something that magical so when they start saying thank you to us and buying us food I'm always like nope I should be thanking YOU not the other way around dear me.

I spent the afternoon lounging around MBC with my coffee and friends in the sun enjoying the post SHINee glow and just enjoying the idea that SHINee are wonderful, considerate magical human beings.

SHINee did an event at COEX on Saturday night which I decided not to go to for several reasons. I asked for an ice latte and unfortunately my order was one of the last to come out so I was waiting until well into the afternoon. I hear eckso was going to be at the same concert so I also really didn't want to deal with the packs and packs of insane middle school kids. It's better for my blood pressure honestly. And I'd also only had about 2 hours sleep so I was ready to go home. Me and my shawol bestie went home and ate more pizza and watched Conjuring 2 as per Taemin's recommendation. My cat woke me up in the middle of the night staring at me from on top of my wardrobe like a psychopath and then he scratched me, but other than that I slept like a log.


SBS INKIGAYO

Sunday morning was kind of complicated for a lot of reasons. SHINee were doing Inkigayo live and pre-recording for next week AFTER Inkigayo aired. So basically whenever SHINee don't prerecord and just do it live only a small handful of SHINee fans can go into the studio because they have to fit people from all the fandoms inside. We still went because we thought they might let more in for the recording after the live, but turns out they were probably sharing the recording with other fandoms again because only a small amount of shawols were allowed in. Which was ok since I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Mini Fanmeeting in the afternoon.

Went home, chilled out for a while, went to the location, drank some coffee with the shawol bestie and then lined up in the light rain around 3:30 to get a ticket to go inside. The tickets were selected at random and I picked out a spot right in the middle, row 10. It was a really nice view of everything and I could see SHINee's faces and expressions really well which lately I've come to think of as more and more important. I like seeing their expressions when they laugh or confirming if they look tired or happy. Recently at SHINee World Concert was actually one of the first times I've been at their concert really really close in a long time so I was surprised at how different the experience was when you could see their expressions. Anyway~

SHINEE 1OF1 MINI FANMEETING

Fanmeeting was crazy fun. SM put on events like this with SHINee and never really give any clues as to what's actually going to happen. They did the same with the 7th Anniversary Cruise thing where they sent a tonne of shawols out to sea on a boat with SHINee. So as always we were shuffled into a room and sat down and they could have been leading us to honest to goodness death and we would just go ^.^;;; Fanmeet was a little delayed I guess because SHINee's schedule was running late. Instead of starting at 6 we starting around 6:30 I think?

SHINee performed Feel Good which was actually amazing because they uploaded the fanchant for it over the weekend and it was the first time we ever ever did it and it sounded ah~mazing. The timing is really fluid and matches well. It was a lot of fun and sounded really really good. I had a moment of: wow this is such an amazing moment. SHINee are performing this incredible song, I'm so close and I can see them so clearly and everyone around me is waving the same colored lightstick at the same rhythm and fanchanting so perfectly at the same time. I think we rarely have moments where we're totally content, totally at peace, totally free, but this was one of those moments for me. 

The talk segment was really wonderful. I felt a little sorry for the MC because he kept saying how nervous he was and when SHINee came out and started talking he kind of got lost in what was going on. Jonghyun led them talking about their album and all the tracks on it and there were so many references that kind of just went over this guy's head. I think it's just part of a long tradition of SM hiring MC's that are kind of shitty. I guess we can't expect industry pro MCs to be expert shawols as well, but some basics would be nice. Last time on the SHINee cruise the MC stuck is foot in his mouth a lot. One example was when SHINee got a question about whether they would choose to get rid of their eyes, nose or mouth the MC was like: wtf kind of question was that? And the audience of shawols all rolled their eyes out of their heads because of course the question was regarding the Married to the Music music video. This time there was a paper the mc pulled out of a box that referenced Taemin as Taem. I can't remember the exact wording anymore, but it was regarding how Taemin doesn't really bother with technology and SNS etc. The MC was like 'Taem? Taem? What's Taem? Is there someone here that's referring to?' to SHINee and they were all like....sweat dropping before Taemin raised his hand and was like: 'Um, I'm Taemin,' So yeah, this guy got a little lost and overwhelmed by SHINee's usual method of just kind of talking. Jonghyun definitely filled in for this poor guy.

I always find it so interesting to hear SHINee talk about their album and the creative process. I like the affirmation that they're at a stage in their careers where they get so much say in everything. It was also kind of cute to watch them stumble through the process because they were all pretty tired. I think it was a content kind of we had a long day and we're satisfied, but exhausted, but content kind of tired, but they were still super sleepy. Jonghyun actually seemed the most energetic and talked a lot and kept kind of handing the baton around and encouraging the others to talk about the songs. Key especially wasn't really saying much until Jonghyun was like: "Yo, you talk about this song Key,"

No doubt the fan accounts are already all over twitter about what was said. I was especially interested to hear Feel Good was a potential track on both Taemin and Jonghyun's solo albums. It's probably my favorite song on the album so it would have been so interesting to hear Jong and Taem's solo interpretations. I'm glad it's an ot5 song though because the layering of the voices is really fun and part of what I love about the song. Also this event was the third time I've heard Jonghyun bring up how much he likes the part in Don't Let Me Go where Key transitions from rapping into singing into a high note. I get the feeling he's very proud of Bummie.

To add to what's already been said online, I was watching Key and Minho very closely for the whole talk segment. I guess because it's very rare that Minho is visibly tired to me and the same for Key. MinKey are usually the members of SHINee you can rely on to look after themselves so seeing them so sleepy was interesting. Minho was swiveling around on his bar stool chair a lot and he swiveled too hard and was spinning around and Key grabbed him by the leg and then Minho grabbed his wrist and they looked deep into each other's eyes and.... Ok sorry no I'll stop. Key just saved Minho from spinning it's not a big deal but it was cute. Following Weekly Idol it's also interesting to note that Minho thinks Key is the funniest person on the entire planet sometimes. He really does repeat a lot of what Key says and he doesn't really do it to the other members. I think Minho and Key found a happy place between them considering their previous relationship and now a days they've gone next level besties because they're kind of all over each other this comeback. It's really heartwarming to see. They're always laughing and giggling and clutching at each other like little boys. Taemin said something strange at one point and Minho and Key died, clutching at each other while the other three just went on ignoring those two clowns. It was nice. I like that they were so happy despite being so busy. It was sweet.

I think they performed Prism at this point, but my memory of order is already fading. Of course, that was totally phenomenal seeing it so close, with such a clear uninterrupted view. At SHINee World Concert my seats were close but always a little awkward for seeing the full choreography. I also saw these songs at some random music festivals and at Spectrum and this is the first time I've seen it straight on without a million cameras held in the air and blocking my view. It was so so magical, I appreciated it soooooo much.

SHINee were pulling fan submitted requests/comments from the Vyrl box next and this is where Taemin talked about not being into tech and how he just likes hanging with his friends like a grandpa. And Onew butt danced so violently in people's faces that I thought I was going to vomit my heart onto the floor. It was really shocking. He pulled a sexy dance request out of the box and the MC was like: well you can hand this to any member and make them do it and Onew coolly says: I pulled it out so I'll do it. Then he turns around and starts like.... twerking but also doing the 1of1 butt wiggle and going back and forth. It was just a lot of butt and it was so unexpected. He just stood up, made an abrupt turn and started thrusting his butt around. It was.....also mostly cute more than anything holy shit. Jonghyun was pretending to be like: 'omo, omo what my heart :O' and putting his had over his mouth. And it wasn't a short butt wiggle. He just kept going. Afterwards he was apologizing to the girls in the front row for thrusting his butt around so abruptly and all those girls were like: 'no no no no apologies not at all it was great, keep going' Cute.

Highlight was also Key pulling out a paper and before anyone could stop him he just violently flung it back in the box. Jonghyun tried to fish it out but Key stole the box and just kept pulling cards out and reading them and throwing them away. All of SHINee were like:....bro what? that was an option? Key had a stack of paper after that and Taemin took the box and was checking inside looking really like: wish I'd done that, are there any left? So Key was complaining that the comments all applied to the other members and he couldn't say or do anything about them when Taemin found one that was about the SHINee member with the most distinctive laugh. He showed it to Onew and the two of them had an evil little giggle together before showing it to Jonghyun who was basically the MC at this point. Jonghyun was like: welp SHINee has two representative laughs and then they spent the next 5 minutes trying to coax Minho and Key into laughing. Key just up and did it pretty easily and we got to hear a couple different types of his cute laughter. The whole time Minho looked really embarrassed and suddenly very reserved. They finally got to him and he was like: I can't just laugh, something needs to be funny. So SHINee were asking the audience if there was anyone who could make Minho laugh and they looked out expectantly and of course no one volunteered. So I think they were just going to give up except Jinki just randomly started laughing and then Minho started laughing waaaaaay over the top and his laugh is so cute. It was nice. Minho laughing and all the shawols laughing because he sounded so cute. He laughed so crazy that he ended up coughing a lot.

Also throughout the night so many times Minho and Kibum looked like they were going to start arguing about something and Jonghyun would slip in like a master MC and distract them. I don't think Minho and Key were angry, I just think their relationship includes a lot of friendly bickering and Jonghyun seems like he's extremely used to distracting them before they really get into it. 

At this point SHINee performed 1of1 which was a complete disaster. They handled it really well and the reaction was really cute though. The sound guys were having some tech difficulties and when 1of1 started I could see Minho and Jonghyun especially were laughing and cringing while pushing through the choreography. Steadily I could hear that the 1of1 backing track was playing, but they were also playing Prism as well I think it was. So there were two fairly loud tracks playing and I think the situation in SHINee's in-ear sets was worse since they were cringing so much. At one point Key was trying to gesture off stage at the staff and crashed pretty heavily into Minho. Minho politely gestured for Key to step into his spot and then moved around him. They got pretty far into the song before Jonghyun was making an X with his arms and telling them to stop. 

They killed the music and SHINee were joking around and being like: wow you guys what's going on? They made a huge joke out of it and the music blasted back on for a second and Minho jumped so badly then hopped around for a bit to play it off. All of them were smiling and laughing it off, while Key gestured wildly backstage and looked like he was kind of scolding someone. It was cute. I think Key was feeling very sentimental and was a little upset that there were tech mistakes. Jonghyun apologized to us for the mistakes and all the shawols were immediately denying and saying it was ok and not to worry. They started up again and SHINee began dancing and then Jonghyun was X X X making arm X's again. They began throwing a huge over the top fake tantrum, Minho and Jonghyun especially. Minho starting stomping and whining that he was going to tell his mom. Eventually Jonghyun asked the tech crew if they were ready and all the shawols replied: yes~! and Jonghyun was like: yo shhh not you guys, but he was grinning. I was happy for all the stuff ups because it was an opportunity to see them be playful and see them for longer. And we got to see more 1of1 butt shakes this way.

They announced Key had to leave for another schedule and he was saying that he regretting not being able to do fansigns because of his drama recording and that he was very sincerely thankful for all the support and the kind things he heard from fans. He said he wasn't too good at making big meaningful/sentimental posts and he wanted everyone to know he was very thankful. He was a little quiet and reserved at times during the fanmeet, but he seemed very content and Key doesn't tend to say sentimental things as often as the others, so it was a really special treat to hear him speaking so honestly. I sincerely believe Key is really enjoying filming Drinking Solo and he's having a great time so I wasn't too unhappy that he had to leave. Hopefully he got to eat and rest a little on the way. 

Key also was asking the MC if we knew about what was going to happen next. He pointed at something on their prompt screen and was like: do they know this is happening? The MC said we didn't know yet. That special thing we didn't know about was that we were going to get to go up to SHINee and get a card stamped. It's a method they used during the 7th Anniversary Cruise so that everyone could have an opportunity to see SHINee. At this fanmeet there was 1000 people so there wasn't enough time to sign for that many people so the solution is they give stamps in order to move through quickly. I'm a certified idiot because I know they do this kind of thing frequently and I never expect it so I end up panicking. I didn't bring my make up compact and so just had to deal with going up with kind of smeared foundation and hating myself. Not that SHINee had time to notice nor did they necessarily care, but make up is for me not for others!


SHINEE STAMP EVENT

I was shaking and teary immediately. I know that sounds like a dumb reaction, but I respect and adore them so much and it's always just like a completely panicked, frenzied dream being close to them. There was about ten millions things I wanted to say. I already word vomited this all on twitter, but I wish I could sit down and have coffee with SHINee so desperately. I'm not crazy, I don't want to date or demand secrets from them. I just want an opportunity to tell them, in a situation where I don't have a deadline, how much I adore them and how they changed my life and how wonderful they are.

Here's a list of things I wanted to word vomit in no particular order:

Thank you for the pizza
Congratulations on your win
You worked so hard
I love you
Thank you for being born
Jonghyun, you're so violently attractive.

With the exception of the pizza thing, all of these are very standard fangirl phrases and given the short amount of time you have to prepare and deliver I think they're all appropriate. But then your brain is also screaming at you to say something more personal or original. In the end I just went with whatever came out of my mouth because frankly what other option did I have?

So this stamp thing is super fast. Super, super insanely fast. It goes by in a flash. It needs to because there's 1000 people.

So my conversation goes something like

Onew: Hello
Min: Hello, thank you for the pizza
Taemin: Hello
Min: Hello, thank you for the pizza
Taemin: No, thank you
Jonghyun: Hello
Min: Hello, thank you for the pizza
Minho: Hello
Min: Hello, thank you for the pizza
Minho: Thank you
Min: I love you

Wow so much variation and wonder. It was way more exciting than all that though.

Onew was sweet he would look up, make solid eye contact and great you and smile like an angel. He's so attractive. His eyes shimmer and I was really pleased because he didn't look like he had a business smile on. He seemed genuinely happy to see everyone. 

Taemin was incredible. I heard a lot of fan accounts and he was basically the only one quick enough to fire off responses to the fans who were saying things to him. He's so incredible and funny now-a-days, I'm always so impressed. He was wearing colored contacts though so I remember looking into his eyes and being surprised because I didn't realize he was wearing them until he was right in my face. I think it goes without saying that Taemin is so incredibly attractive.

Jonghyun, I say this all the time, is VIOLENTLY attractive. It's so painful. I just got past Taemin and look over and Jonghyun's looking me straight in the eyes in the clingy-est, most stretched out black turtle neck knit I have ever seen. It fit him perfectly but was way too tight on his biceps. His eyes are so gentle though. I don't know if that's a dumb way to describe them but I'm terrified of Jonghyun because I know he likes to tease fans sometimes, but also so comfortable with him. I don't think he'd ever go to far with it. He's very straight to the point though and on my card his stamp came out the best. Very strong and clear because he concentrated on pressing firmly. He mentioned when the fanmeet was over that they were really slamming the stamps down so we could get a clean transfer and that it wasn't meant to be unfriendly and apologized they were smacking them down so hard. When I said thank you to Jonghyun he tilted his head and smiled.

Minho was last and I was so impressed with him because out of 1000 fans he said thank you to every single one of them. He looked them in the eye, smiled a really beautiful genuine smile and thanked them with the biggest, most sincere eyes ever. I really really like Minho. I love all of SHINee so much but I love seeing Minho at fansigns and meets up close the most because he's so comfortable. Jonghyun makes me really nervous and I love Key so much I'm always just word vomiting all over him. Taemin and Jinki I find fairly comfortable too but Minho and I are the same age and he's so sincere in the way he addresses fans that if he told me to jump off a cliff and not to worry because he'd catch me at the bottom, I'd believe him and do it. That's the kind of impression he gives off. I was't going to say 'I love you' because I have a very English speaker perspective on the word. Saying it in Korean seems more casual sometimes, where as saying it in English has a weight to it. It slipped out without my meaning to for Minho. He waved and I did a little finger heart and and he grinned and gave me a thumbs up and kept eye contact until I turned away. 

It's crazy I just managed to write that many paragraphs about something that literally lasted less than 30 seconds.

I feel like the best thing about the whole experience was that SHINee seemed happier and more energized after having seen the fans. We're always so excited and happy to see them but I never realize they might feel as happy and energized seeing as. It felt like they were tired but happy. It was really really nice. Also SHINee....we carry on about them being so tiny and sweet and I always feel like I'll be enormous compared to them and then I get near them and their hands are enormous and their heads are so much bigger than mine and they're broad and male. It's not something that really hits me until me until I'm that close.

Someone had the sense to carry candy in their bag and gave SHINee some sweets and they were all happily munching away on them as the MC was having them say goodbye. Someone hates us all and gave Jonghyun a lollipop and he was sucking away at that like a living wet dream while saying goodbye to us.

Overall it was a really wonderful experience. As always it was more than I expected and I'm so happy to have had the good fortune to go. As always, I'm glad I chose these boys and this fandom. Or they chose me. Like a wand~