International Airen Tori’s Fan Account of SeungGi’s UK Trip, Part 2-ii

A big thanks to Tori for continuing to share the stories of her amazing adventure despite her computer woes!

I must have gawked at him too long yet again (I really need to stop! I should only focus on oppa~) as he awkwardly tried to pick the conversation back up by ensuring me that if I didn’t manage to catch oppa, then he would personally hand it to him for me~ I was close to tears again but this time from being so touched by manager-nim. It was a small gesture on his part but it meant so much to me- with him giving the letter it meant that oppa would be more inclined to read it (hopefully!). To show him my gratitude I really wanted to give him a huge hug but then decided it wasn’t the best idea- I mean if I was him I would be freaked out by having some crazy fan hug him. So instead of jumping on him I kept bowing and saying, “Thank you!” in Korean, over and over again. He constantly bowed back, replying with “It’s okay~ Don’t worry.” Scared of losing my letter, I carefully placed it back into my bag and suddenly remembering what I originally wanted to find out, I asked manager-nim when oppa would be coming. He informed me that oppa would be running at 2.44pm on the dot and so should be arriving at around 2.15pm for the interviews and a short briefing. I got my phone out to check the time- I still had about 20mins until oppa arrived~ Flicking through the airport photos I took of oppa the day before, I realized I didn’t have any with or of manger-nim. I thought it would be nice to have a photo to go with this fond memory of him and so walked up to manager-nim with my phone in my hand…

As I got close to him, my mind went blank. I didn’t know how to ask him if he’d mind taking a photo with me- I mean, it’s such an awkward thing to ask since he isn’t a celebrity himself. Going through a few worse case scenarios, I began to get nervous again and so in an attempt to get rid of this feeling, I took a deep breath. When I was right behind him, I quietly said, “Oppa~” He didn’t seem to respond so this time I shouted “OPPA!” He immediately jumped which made me jump too! I was just as shocked as he was and let out a little nervous laugh~ He gave me a questioning look so I started to speak again. I kept stuttering on ‘sa-jin’ (photo in Korean). Being so embarrassed from my clumsiness, I began to stutter even more! In the end I just covered my face with my hands and gave up. Instead, I mumbled ‘Samsung’ and looked at manager-nim with an awkward smile. Confused by my randomness again, he looked at me as if I’d gone mad- I don’t blame him! In need of help, I looked around and luckily spotted the Samsung batons. Pleased by the reversal of the situation, I pointed at one and asked with a huge smile on my face, “Please can you get me one?” I actually could have gotten it myself but it was my only means of escaper from this awkward situation! Happy that his attention was elsewhere, I did a little celebratory dance in my head- yay!

I watched him as he walked to one of the Samsung stands and shared a short conversation with the staff. Looking towards me, he pointed at the batons to confirm whether that was what I wanted or not. Nodding in response he came back with something hidden in the palm of his hand. I thought manager-nim had left to get a baton so curious as to what he had got instead, I gave him a questioning look. He told me to wait a second. After a bit of huffing and puffing, he revealed the newly inflated baton and gestured for me to take it. I was pleasantly surprised, it was cute how he personally blew up one for me when he could have simply gotten one from the stand. I grabbed my fresh baton and started waving it about- I must have looked like Harry Potter! Kekeke~ Lost in my own little moment, I didn’t notice he was staring at me. It was so so awkward when we made eye-contact! Trying to escape, I pretended to casually walk over to the Samsung stand. Looking over my shoulder at manager-nim, I jumped when the staff suddenly asked, “How can I help you?” Quickly making something up to disguise my escape, I just grabbed a few of the little Samsung flags and made my way back over~

At first I was quite shy and awkward but now I felt reasonably comfortable around him. Gazing at manager-nim I realized that I had never introduced myself! As I was thinking about how I could do it in a more natural way, it suddenly came to me that I didn’t even know his name! Steadying my already really fast heartbeat, I decided to just go ahead and ask him. Attempting to be casual whilst walking towards him, I asked, “Oppa, what’s your name?” He didn’t respond instantly so I quickly added, “If you don’t mind me asking~” Busy beating myself up for asking such a personal question in such a blunt way, I almost didn’t catch his reply. Unsure if I heard him right, I repeated his name a few times. Happy with my pronunciation, I told him with a big smile on my face, “JJ oppa it’s nice to meet you~ I’m Tori!” After hearing that, he asked me in Korean, “Oh like Victoria?” He looked rather pleased with himself, nodding and repeating my name, when I told him he was right. Kekeke so cute~

Remembering what I wanted to do before, I asked him, “Oppa can I take a photo with you?” I guess I dropped the more formal title of ‘manager-nim’ and went for ‘oppa’ instead, partly because ‘manager-nim’ took too long to say and I felt closer to him too~ I think he was a bit startled by my request because he took a bit of time weighing up his options. He finally came to a conclusion, saying “Yeahhh sure.” I think he was expecting a camera as he looked at me as if he was waiting for something. To prevent any further prolonged pauses, I quickly put the front camera of my phone on and snapped away~  I looked through the 3 photos I took with manager-nim peering over my shoulder. I decided to delete all of them as they didn’t really look good and he seemed happy enough to take another photo. Thinking I was going to use my phone again, he stood next to me and I tried to stop my laughter~ Confused about my laughter he looked at me puzzled, I pointed at my digital camera and said in Korean, “This one, not the phone.” This time he seemed to understand my attempt at the language and looked around for someone to take the photo for us. He asked one of the Samsung staff to take the photo and so standing slightly awkwardly side-by-side, we took one more shot at getting it right.

Manager-nim and I

Manager-nim retrieved the camera for me and we both expressed our thanks to the kind staff who took the photo. Satisfied with our photo, I gave him a quick hug without even thinking(!)- I immediately said in Korean, “I’m so sorry!” Thankfully he didn’t seem too taken back and even laughed a little~ I seriously wanted to curl up in a corner to hide my bright red face and get away from the major embarrassment! Trying to think on my feet, I pretended that I had a call from someone and made a quick getaway back to the crowd~ I think he knew what I was up to because when I turned around after running away, I could see him chuckling to himself. I couldn’t believe what I had done, it was really silly of me as I invaded his personal space- he must’ve felt really uncomfortable. That’s not even the end of my awfully embarrassing ordeal! About 5mins after avoiding him, one of the Samsung vehicles started blasting out “Smile Boy”. It’s really rare to hear foreign songs being played out loud in a public area- it felt weird~ Not a bad weird, more like a good weird, I was proud of Seung Gi for getting this far in the industry. Encouraged the catchy tune and his voice, I joined in swaying side-to-side with the beat~

“Happy in your smile 더 크게 웃어봐

나는 법을 잊은 것뿐야

날개를 펴고 가슴을 펴고 힘껏 날아올라봐

내가 있잖아 영원히 함께할 내게 꿈이 있잖아

힘을 내봐 용길 내봐 너라면 할 수 있어~” ♫♫

Singing and dancing whilst waving my flag about and baton that manager-nim blew up (kekeke~), I was totally lost in my own little world. Just as I was about to start the “Ohhhhh~” at the end of the chorus, I heard a familiar deep chuckle coming from behind. Hoping to death it wasn’t who I thought it was, I stopped singing/dancing/waving and snapped my head around to see who was laughing at my fan girl moment. I caught a glimpse of manger-nim walking by, almost dying of laughter. Slightly bent over with his hands covering his laughter. He was cracking up, he kept trying to keep a straight face but failed. I just stared at him mortified, was I meant to be annoyed or embarrassed or what? (I don’t even know if he was laughing at me or something else. I hope it was the latter. Seriously, why does he have to pick on me? I’m sure there are other fans just as crazy or even more than me! He always catches me when I’m doing something stupid. Actually, it’s not even his fault- Why do I always make a fool of myself? I really hope he didn’t tell Seung Gi oppa about this, I don’t think I would ever be able to live it down!  The stupid question, letter situation, inappropriate hug and now the dodgy singing. It couldn’t have gotten any worse.)

Moving swiftly on, after unsuccessfully hiding from manager-nim, I decided that the best thing to do would be to just pretend nothing happened and find a nice spot to wait for Seung Gi oppa. Wandering around aimlessly, I realized it was now pretty much impossible to find a space, let alone a good one. Talking with manager-nim meant that my previous spot at the front of the railing was long gone~ The pavement was so over-crowded that quite a few people had to stand on the road~ The other side was filled with the media- the staff and all the cameras took up all the space over there so that was a ‘no-go’ area too. Just like ‘Smile Boy’ being blasted behind me, it felt surreal seeing Korean news reporters out and about here in the UK. I mean where I live, it’s very rare to even see a Korean person, let alone meeting one. I was slightly in awe seeing all the press setting up and running about looking very busy. I gave up with trying to find a space hoping that I’d be able to slip in later on and decided to just stand next to the Samsung vans away from all the fans. It was interesting to witness just how fast the place became crowded, about 30mins ago it was pretty much empty. In a short space of time, everyone seemed to have flooded in and taken their spaces. I stood on my tip-toes to see just how many people had come, it was amazing seeing the stretch of fans along the road. After experiencing this, I truly understood what ‘a sea of people’ meant. I was happy for the fans as they were able to watch him take part in this historic event and happy for Seung Gi since so many people came to support him~ I really hope he could feel the amount of love and support I could from all the Airen on that special day~

I unknowingly drifted back over to manager-nim and started chatting again~ It was really nice of him to keep me company when he was obviously very busy. Every once in a while he would walk away to answer a phone call or ask a staff something. But after he was done he would hover back over and pick the conversation back up. He made all the awkwardness from before go away and although my Korean was awful, he would still encourage me to talk. We did have a language barrier since I couldn’t really speak Korean and he couldn’t speak any English at all, whenever he spoke he would slow it down for me and make little hand gestures- I guess body language made up for most of our conversations. I haven’t met any other managers of Korean celebrities before but I can guarantee he’s one of the most caring ones out there. He made sure fans were okay and even talked to quite a few. Manager-nim didn’t shoo any away when we asked about Seung Gi oppa’s schedule, he simply explained why he wasn’t in the position to share this kind of information- he even apologized! He could have left me by the crowd, but he chose to wait for oppa with me~ He was so kind, especially with my request regarding the fan letter and Samsung baton. I understand why Seung Gi oppa and him have been best friends since high school- like Seung Gi oppa, he has a heart of gold~ I know I’ve talked about him quite a lot in this fan account, it’s only because I think he deserves the special mention. Manager-nim zzang! Anyway back to the torch relay~ Standing beside the wall, talking and joking with manager-nim accompanied by ‘Smile Boy’ in the background, time seemed to fly by~ The next minute I know all hell breaks loose!

Fans are screaming their heads off. Everyone’s jumping up and down. People are waving their arms about. I mean a few seconds ago I was just having a quiet chat with manager-nim- now that became impossible with the level of noise. To avoid being crushed, I ducked and weaved between the crowd. I got whacked a few times along the way and my feet were stood on countless times but I didn’t care- I just wanted to see what was going on! I had somehow, rather miraculously, ended up right at the front of the railing again with the best view. Checking to see if manager-nim was okay, I stretched my neck and peered over to see him being basically plastered to the wall by the mass of fans. (Kekeke~ it was quite a funny sight to be honest.) Since shouting wasn’t going to work, he mouthed to me, “Over there!” and pointed towards the road. My eyes followed the direction he was pointing in. I could just about see a shuttle bus making its way over the hill and down towards us~ The front flashed ‘Olympic Torch Relay’. Knowing this meant only one thing. My body went numb and my heart went into over-time. I kept trying to take in short breaths to calm myself but my heart just wouldn’t listen and was rapidly speeding up~ Seriously, I was going to run out of oxygen and faint anytime soon if I didn’t do something about it. This time instead of trying to collect myself, I just went all out crazy!

Not caring about what a mad woman I looked, I started to scream anything and everything in Korean. I bet none of it made sense, not that that matters hahaha~ Seung Gi oppa wasn’t even out of the vehicle yet and I was already throwing my arms about, shouting at the top of my lungs and jumping as high as I could. I was constantly being squished into the railing by the just as excited crowd, but you know what. I couldn’t care less. Lee Seung Gi was in that shuttle bus and it was slowing down right in front of me. The only thing between oppa and me was the stupid railing, security, the door of the shuttle bus and a few torchbearers- nothing too difficult to push through.

Stay tuned for the Chapter 2. Part (iii)!

P.S. Just to answer a few people, I’m keeping manager-nim’s name private just in case he doesn’t want it to be disclosed. I know you all want more Seung Gi, I’m getting to it, I really am, I promise the next part is going to be all about him. Please look forward to it~

I know this has taken forever to be released and for that, I’m truly sorry~ My excuse is that my computer decided to play games with me and basically didn’t save all of this part when I was about to submit it. Annoyed and angry I was going to give up, but then I felt bad on everyone who has supported me. So I’m back- ready to share my experience. The really irritating thing is that I will be away for a week with no Internet or computer access so I can’t do my fan account. Looks like it’ll be another long wait~ I’m making more and more excuses now. *sigh* I need to stop. Thank you again for your patience~

As compensation, I’ve included some photos as a preview to the next part~ Sorry Airen!
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Getting off the shuttle bus

Side view

Side smile

SeungGi and Manager-nim

Polite SeungGi

Far-away

Close-up

P.P.S. All the photos in the fan account are taken by me~

-TO BE CONTINUED.

TORI♥