THE MAGIC OF BYJ

Having had such a precious experience, I was feeling a little guilty about leaving the gang behind, and decided to rejoin the other sisters upstairs. I was so afraid that I would get attacked by jealous sisters when I came up, but instead they were genuinely happy for me (tear, tear...) , sharing my story and ooh-ing and aah-ing about the images of HIM in my viewfinder.

You know, despite the warmth in the room, I really didn't see any strain nor expression of discomfort from him. On the contrary, I remember at one point thinking, "he looks at ease and laid back - these last 3-4 weeks have been so good for him."

But poor director Hur – I actually never even saw more than a shadow of him during this interview. When he was asked a question, he spoke so softly I could barely hear him. He really seems to sit there perfectly content, and not at all bothered by being overshadowed by YJ every step of the way. What a big heart he has! If you ask me, I think it’s thoroughly refreshing to see people without big egos in this world of entertainment.

Finally, the press conference was near complete, and the wagers were on again. Hmmm….which route would he take to go back to his suite?

This time around, everyone was smarter. Again, us family of neverending faith, we all crowded on the side of the circle which would afford us a view of him, if he were to take the exact route back. That is, if the big bad bosses (BBB) of the security team didn't try to concoct another absurd plan. Some lucky sisters including Satoe somehow even made it up a floor to the same level that he would traverse. She, for the 2nd time in her life, got right up to him to present him with another one of those famous BYJ fans - you know the cute one that lights up and seen all over the place during his Japan visit?

Anyway, our YJ did not disappoint us afterall!

But there was a teeny moment of doubt. The elevators opened and he came out waving, to an immediate reaction of roars and cheers. But then he was pulled back and disappeared from our view completely. The disappointment was actually audible from the family. A second, two seconds, three, four…..passed, and then he suddenly reemerged again, and gallantly walked along that same path, smiling and waving again. Despite being rushed by the BBBs, he took care to address all of us in all directions.

I’ll never know what happened in those few secs he disappeared. It seemed like the BBBs were shocked to find the crowd of fans on that floor, and probably wanted to go to Plan B. I prefer to think that YJ declined, and insisted on coming through to greet his family. Don’t you all agree that’s the most likely explanation?

With YJ safely tucked away doing private press interviews, we were finally able to catch a breath for a while. Did we put that time to good use to nurse our body a bit? Food? Sit?

Don’t be silly – of course not!
Round 2 of greetings, hugs, show and tell began.

Finally, five o’clock rolls around, and we all boarded our coach bus to dinner.

Not so fast…..
Isn’t that….?
But isn’t that “2252” over there? Getting warmed up?

Quick!
Everyone ran off the bus. We decided to see YJ off to his dinner party.

You know, we really behaved very well. There wasn’t a big crowd, and we formed 2 very neat rows on either side of the path leading from the hotel foyer to the limo. We chit-chatted with locals – it was that low-key.
Two foreign exchange students passed by and inquired about the commotion. “We’re waiting to greet BYJ,”a sister replied.”

"OMG! BYJ! I looooooooove him. I watch him all the time.” So they stayed to wait with us, and now we have 2 new family members from Spain!! They were so happy to have stumbled upon such a fortunate coincidence. Dear YJ, you should be so proud to touch so many people in such faraway places!

Ten minutes became twenty, and twenty became thirty and so on…….and still no YJ. Meanwhile, although the crowd was beginning to swell, we continued to be very orderly.

Please don’t ask me why, but someone gave a signal, and the limo driver suddenly drove off to make its way to the upper hotel exit.
What do you suppose happened next?Yep, all the fans ran madly after the limo….and instead of 2 orderly rows, you now have a frenzy of fans completely surrounding and plastered to the limo in all directions. Well…suffice to say that YJ never came out after that. Two men in dark clothing ran out of the hotel and literally jumped into the limo. No one ever got a good look, but turned out we found out later that Dir Hur was one of them. YJ left via the back of the hotel somewhere.

Oh well. From a safety standpoint, you’ve got to agree with this one. Nevermind. We’re cold. And hungry. Haven’t eaten since early this am. What’s for dinner?

We got back on the coach and headed out to our restaurant, driving by those same magnificent historical sights around Tiananmen square along the way. 15-20 minutes into the trip, Satoe let out a loud shriek! What an amazing eye she’s got. Somewhere in the rush hour traffic, she spotted “2252” again, just next to our coach bus. Zoom – everyone flew over to the left side of the bus. I know, I know – it’s silly, but we all waved and cheered and held out of YJ stuff. I’m sure he saw us. I’m sure he saw us. I’m sure he saw us….. I'm really sure....
So, it was side by side for a little bit. His lane was more congested in traffic and moving slower, but fortunate for us, we have that slooooowww mister driver, remember?

Only…......now he decided to impress us with his lead foot!

WHASSAMADDA WIF YOU? HUH????

This driver of ours – he’s a man. And he’s jealous of YJ. I’m convinced of it.

The more we pleaded with him, the faster he went. And little by little, all vision of 2252 was lost. As my sister would say, "No tip." hahahahahaha

Few minutes later, we arrived at our restaurant. Some kind of 8 course Chinese tour group menu. Don’t know what I ate. All I know is that everything tastes fine when you are in great company. Here’s some of us!
While we were happy snapping pictures and feeding our empy stomachs, a couple of sound-minded sisters, having earlier seen YJ head in our direction, actually managed to find out that YJ was indeed having dinner nearby.

So, after dinner, I blindly followed everyone , just to see, not knowing what to expect. When we arrived at Jun Wang Fu, there was a bit of commotion going on already, the majority of which was the media. We heard that YJ was almost done with dinner inside, and one of the BBBs whose face was now unfortunately too familiar to me, announced, to our delight, that YJ said he would happy to come out after dinner and greet his family. But….we had to be good.
OMG! Excitedly, we once again formed 2 neat lines, and this time, we even tried to interlock our elbows as our own crowd-control device to prevent a repeat of craze at the hotel earlier.

Here’s a good picture of Jun Wang Fu taken by our sis Rie (thanks for the pic!) during the day time - ain't it grand? It's actually part of a much bigger, impressive, hotel complex. Can you imagine? -this entire structure was lifted from somewhere else and relocated to this present location by Chao Yang Park. I read somewhere that there are plans to use this facility as a lounge for medal winners in the 2008 Olympics.

So, there, in that cold and windy night, we stood, patiently waiting, for over an hour. It takes extreme situations to bring out the best in people, yes? It was most heartwarming, to see people huddle together, share scarves, mittens, taking care of each other. So, who's laughing at my BIG suitcase now? If it weren't for my scarves, gloves.........heehee) Meanwhile, the media was having a flash-crazy field day – the pesky videographers were just so persistent - moving up and down the line, again, and again trying to capture everyone’s faces. Each time, they sent me scrambling (yes, I am one of "those" leading a double life...hahaha). Worried me to death about losing my prime viewing position. Thank goodness we finally had a few braver souls who stepped up to the plate and agreed to be interviewed. Good, good, good. Please start from the time you were a baby and talk as long as you want. Just keep them occupied. Thank you!
Of course our sights were fixated only on the restaurant’s exit. All the while we saw rounds after rounds of rapid-fire flashing lights go off inside the restaurant. Each time a flash frenzy was set off, we got a little more disappointed, knowing the festivities inside were far from being over.
Finally, a figure appears….Ms. Hong! She smiled graciously and walked down the stairs and path between the 2 lines of fans, bringing on claps and cheers! (Again, so nice to see her get credit!) She even stopped to talk to some fans from Australia and promised to deliver some presents for them. Very nice lady.

Now here comes BBB again, who came out and issued the same warnings not to push, touch YJ, etc. And it was still more waiting as over a dozen rounds of flashes were visible from our vantage point.
Abruptly, all the BBBs started to scramble around, moving and running about. You could just sense something exciting was about to take place!

Yikes!
As soon as he appeared at the doorstep, everyone broke into loud screaming and started scrambling.
“Yong Joon-ssi! YongJoon-ssi”
“Yonsama!”
“Oppa"

"[insert country of preference] loves you!"

Everyone around me suddenly seemed to grow 3 inches taller. The BBBs were actively shieldly him and blocking all the fans on each side, but his appearance was a complete contrast to them – a picture of perfect calm. It was late in the night, but his face reflected light like a prism. Despite the wind, not a hair was out of place. He walked briskly by right in front of me! It was not the perfect view, but I saw him. I REALLY SAW HIM! It was just a second, but enough to appreciate the sheer beauty of this being.

I really envy all those other fans - so quick to respond. I, too, wanted to scream something out loud. But when I opened my mouth, I could not speak. As everyone raised their arms to return his wave, my arms failed to move on command. And as he passed, and everyone swarmed towards him to follow behind, I could only stand still, my legs refusing to follow. My brain was completely & utterly blank. Like your computer that freezes when you shout one too many commands at it. Every system in my body seemed to be in temporary failure, completely overwhelmed.

It all happened so fast, I needed a moment to collect myself and my thoughts. Although the noise of the faraway commotion was still loudly audible, there were only a few people left around me by this time. I slowly gathered my things. Afraid to get left behind, I distractedly and hurriedly made a beeline towards the bus direction, not really aware of my surroundings.

Oops!

BOINK! I walk into someone who was coming in a perpendicular path.
Oh dear, it's Mgr Yang. So sorry! Clumsy, clumsy mishio. I really didn't see him coming.
Thank goodness, my brain somehow rebooted just in time.
I don’t know what I said, something like, "Mgr Yang, thanks for taking such good care of BYJ. "
HIM: "Oh........no problem...."
I suddenly remembered something.
M: Mgr Yang, the Vancouver sisters really support BYJ. Will you please give and show this to him?"
With the other hand, I pulled out and handed over a big photo collage of the VCR sisters that I had brought along. I really endured a bit of teasing you know, for being such a bag lady on this trip. In one of those bags was this big poster tube that I carried around tirelessly everywhere, never really believing that I’d have the opportunity to deliver it. How fortunate I turned out to be!
He replied, “ah....oh......, Ok - kay.......”

Mission accomplished, dear VCR sisters! [coco, mclara, cj, wls, ivy, victoria -no way he won't see it now, no?]

So, I thanked him and ran off. I dunno, I’m sure he’s so used to being accosted by random fans by now, but I think this is where my nickname of "mo-yung" started. I always run off. Quickly. Dear sisters, let me explain. It's just that I don't want to be a big imposition to these individuals, ya know? They deal with so much already. Better make requests simple and move on, right?
Anyway, I looked back and saw him get into his own car hurriedly to follow YJ. What a nice guy – he was in such a hurry and the last thing he wanted to deal with was this crazy fool, but you know, he never even tried to brush me off. Although....I guess it would be hard to fend off a direct hit like this! [sorry, bb - he wasn't hurt bad :)]

Ahhhh..finally back on the bus. Suddenly so noisy. Everyone was busy sharing their experiences excitedly.