Imagine when you meet your idol, how do you think that will go? I, for one, thought that I would be able to say lots of things to them without being nervous. That was very bold of me to assume. This is the story of how I met Youngjae from GOT7.
A Month Before the Party
A month before Youngjaeโs birthday party, I actually got the chance to video call with GOT7โs Yugyeom as my friend went to his parentโs restaurant and he came.
I am able to speak Korean to some extent and was ready to say everything I wanted to Yugyeom. But, I only ended up saying โHello, My name is Sharon. I am Indonesian. I love you!โ in Korean. Up until this day, my friends still tease me about it since there was no use in saying my nationality to Yugyeom.
For those of you who are curious about Yugyeomโs parentโs restaurant, here is the address!
Steak Box Dasan New Town Branch (์คํ
์ดํฌ ๋ฐ์ค ๋ค์ฐ์ ๋์์ )
Address: 25-23, Dasanjungang-ro 19beon-gil, Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do
Korean Address: ๊ฒฝ๊ธฐ ๋จ์์ฃผ์ ๋ค์ฐ์ค์๋ก19๋ฒ๊ธธ 25-23
Opening Hours: 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Map Link:http://naver.me/IIZcep7x
After that incident, I learned that I should not panic and stay calm if I ever had the chance to meet one of my idols again.
Birthday Party Admission
On the day of, the booth to pick up the ticket opens up 2 hours before the event. Of course, being the paranoid person that I am, I went there early with my friend and picked up my ticket. With the ticket, they also gave out some goodies such as two special photocards, a griptok with Youngjaeโs baby photo on it, a personal birthday invitation, and much more.
Aside from that, there are also other Ahgase who gave out freebies in the venue. So, if you go to an event like this, there is no way that you will walk home empty-handed!
It wasnโt long until we could go in since they let people in one hour before the event. I got a seat on the second floor, first row. So although the view isnโt as close as the first floor, it is still very nice. Every single person got a banner in their seat that they could also take home!
Since the venue was a theater, there were probably around 500 people only in the venue so it felt just as intimate as a fan meeting!
Let the Party Begin!
After a long wait, the party finally started! Youngjae opened the show by singing one of his songs, looking handsome and happy as ever!
After his performance, he greeted everyone in the venue and also the people streaming online. He then proceeded to be his own birthday partyโs MC and told us how he wanted to have a fan meeting but calling it a โbirthday partyโ seemed more intimate to him.
Yongjae Story Time
He shared stories about how the rest of the GOT7 members wished him happy birthday, even when some of them are abroad. He also mentioned that he is looking for content ideas for his youtube channels, etc. It really felt like talking to a friend.
After his short storytime, he proceeded to see the compliments and answered some questions that were left by Ahgase before the start of the show. He read about 25 compliments and questions. The funniest part about it was when he read that someone came in a wedding dress to the event. Previously, he mentioned it as a joke in his birthday invitation video before the event. He was surprised that someone actually came dressed like a bride.
Yongjae Performance Time
Moving on from that segment, Youngjae had a costume change and performed another one of his songs, and started a game segment. There were several challenges that he had to complete in order to give the Ahgase in the venue additional prizes.
So Youngjae hopped on a mini tricycle to complete the challenges and he finished it in under 3 minutes. It was the cutest thing ever! He then played another minigame where he would do certain challenges like making an alarm ringtone for Ahgase, dance, sing, and many other things.
It was so fun that we didnโt realize that one and a half hours had passed. Youngjae performed another song and this time he went off stage to interact with the audience on the first floor. It was at that time that I really envied the first-floor people since Youngjae couldnโt make his way up to the second floor. But nevertheless, it was still very fun!
Surprise Appearance by JayB
After he ended his performance, the birthday song came on and he looked so happy as the people in the venue sang for him. He was also very surprised when the cake came up and GOT7โs leader, JayB, was the one who brought it out.
The reason he was surprised was that all of the members told him that they were busy with their individual schedules so they couldnโt come. It was fun to see JayB handing Youngjae a card, telling him to buy anything that he likes, but turns out it was just a fake credit card with JayBโs face on it.
After a wholesome banter between the two, unfortunately, the event had to end. As Youngjae was saying goodbye, he told everyone to stay seated since he had additional prizes for everyone.
Meeting Youngjae
So I stayed seated and thought that the staff would hand us additional goodie bags as we exited the venue. Imagine how shocked I was when the exit doors of the first floor opened and Youngjae came in with big boxes of flowers. Not only that, he started handing it one by one to everyone there!
This is the moment where I started panicking, not knowing what I should do as I was minutes away from meeting my idol face to face. I thought about all of the things I wanted to say to him and what I should really say in the span of 30 seconds of meeting him.
Five minutes later, the staff told us on the second floor to get ready to exit. Trembling, filled with disbelief and on the verge of tears, I tried to calm myself down and I descended the stairs to see Youngjae at the end of it.
Finally, the moment came. I was looking at him straight in the eyes and his eyes looked into mine. He was taller than I thought he was. He handed me the flower and all I could say was โI love youโ in Korean as the staff tried to usher me out. With a smile, Youngjae actually said โI love youโ back and waved at my camera as he saw me recording. Of course, the proof is here:
After that, I had to exit the building. I could not process what just happened. My legs were weak, I was trembling, and I couldnโt help but smile all the way back home.
It truly was the best fan service I could have ever gotten and one of the most precious moments Iโve ever experienced in my life.
Want to learn more about Kpop idolsโ birthday events in Korea? Click here to read about Seventeen Jeonghanโs Birthday Exhibition, a fan-created event!
