Lovable SHINee, 100731 Mucore
I went to Seoul last week for holiday, and yes, before I even went to Seoul I already planned to watch Music Core at MBC Dream Center. MBC Show! Music Core is holding on every Saturday and I went there. I’ve already made some preparations to go there; including prepared my SHINee Lucifer CDs, both of the A & B types. On Saturday, I woke up at 7 AM, took a shower, had some breakfast, and after that I went to the lobby and met up with the hotel’s concierge to get some info about how to get to MBC Dream Center. He said that I could go there by subway or by taxi. I chose to go by subway because for simple reason: because it’s cheaper than going by taxi. The concierge said that I have to take a subway to Line 3, to Jeongbalsan Station, and it would take one hour of journey. Thank God I stayed at Grand Ambassador Hotel, and it is near by the Dongguk University Station, which is also on Line 3, so I didn’t have to transfer or go to the Seoul Station. After asking the concierge and preparing the subway map that had been given by the concierge, I left the hotel at 8.30 AM, and walked to the Dongguk University Station, alone.
After one hour, I finally arrived at Jeongbalsan Station, and I found the sign “Exit 2 : MBC Dream Center”. I went out from the station and felt clueless. I tried to search the “MBC” logo on many buildings but I just couldn’t find it. I also looked at the big map that was been hanging on the park but it was useless. It was already 9.30 AM and I was hopeless, especially that I went there alone and I didn’t know anything about the city. So I asked some people there with my beginner Korean language. After 30 minutes of searching and asking many people, finally I found the MBC Dream Center side gate, but no one was there. Again, I feel more depressed, I was afraid that the show had been started. Not long after that, there was this one girl who was holding the SHINee Lucifer A CD and ran towards the side gate, I immediately ran to her and asked her with my beginner Korean language “죄송해요 (Sorry), MBC Dream Center? SHINee?” I also gave her a sign that I am a Shawol and showed her my CDs, and she seemed understand. She then grabbed my hand and took me to the front gate, running together. Turned out that the front gate was already full with many fans, mostly are Shawols.
Without thinking I immediately queued on the SHINee fanclub. One of the fanclub leaders (I don’t know how to call them, but yeah, I think they are indeed the fanclub leaders) came to me and asked me to show her my CDs, then she asked me to show my wrist and she wrote “S5-67” on it. After that, I waited for 3 hours, and I had to wait and sit outside the MBC Dream Center building. For some info, I must say I’m amazed with the waiting and queue system. It was neat and well-organized. There were artists’ name boards in front of the gate, to make the queue easier I guess. And all of the SMTown artists’ fanclub leaders (There were only Shawols and SONEs, because SHINee are still promoting and Tiffany and Yuri of SNSD are hosting the show) wore the “SMTOWN Artist Supporters” tags, so yeah, I must say SMTown rules (such SM biased, I am)!
Anyway, after the long hours of waiting, the fanclub leaders suddenly asked us to stand up, this is it. The moment I’ve been waiting for. We went inside the MBC Dream Center building and went in to the MBC Music Core studio. The studio isn’t particularly that big, and the stage was smaller than I expected. I sat on the middle row and I could see people’s faces, it means that my sitting location was good. People were so busy holding and fixing the lightings and everything. It was such a busy atmosphere but yet exciting. Meanwhile, the fanclub leaders gave us each of the SHINee balloons and I immediately took out my phone and took a picture of the stage, turned out I was caught by the fanclub leader and she seemed upset. She told me and the other fans to not take any pictures or otherwise we’d get kicked out from the studio, after that I put my phone into my bag and kept silent for the rest of the time.
After 30 minutes (and I already half-closed my eyes because I was so sleepy and tired of waiting), suddenly the fans screamed. I immediately woke up and see what was going on. I saw this familiar face who was peeking out from the backstage wall, that person was SHINEE MAKNAE TAEMIN. Then he came back to the backstage and I couldn’t see him again. After 5 minutes or so, he came out again, NOW WITH THE REST OF THE SHINEE MEMBERS. All of the fans screamed and waved their balloons, while I was still freezing, I opened my mouth wide, I couldn’t think properly.
I’ve just seen SHINee with my own eyes. Onew then ‘greeted’ us by saying “La!”(Onew condition at Yunhanam repeated all over again), and at that moment I was pretty sure I’ve seen SHINee. Then led by Onew, they finally bow and greeted us, “안녕하세요, 빛나는 샤이니 입니다 (Hello, we are shining SHINee)”. I must say it was a pleasant and funny sight to see them doing the rehearsal; all of them were so dorky yet adorable.
Jonghyun was teasing us by dancing to some Lucifer dance moves, along with Taemin, not only dance to it, but Jonghyun sang Lucifer all the time. Taemin couldn’t stop dancing and he would do some little dance moves when he walks (LOL). Onew was so funny, he kept saying “YES” with such low voice when he answered the manager’s questions, which made us fans laughed. As for Key, he was so flawless and he acted cool, he didn’t do a particular thing that I remembered but he was so cool for me, the way he walked and waved to the fans was just too cool. But I must say I put my eyes on Minho, very much. He came a little bit late than everyone else and he walked slowly, probably his foot was still hurt, and he immediately sat at his place on stage, waved at everyone (what a nice boy, he is). And he always accompanied by at least one of his members. At first Key sat beside him and pat his shoulder, and they talked for a little bit, then the rest of the members also sat beside him, surrounding him and played around with him. Don’t know why but I got teary when I saw this moment, the members surely love Minho very much, they never leave Minho alone.
Taemin then teased us by showing some Replay dance (even though it was only 2 seconds but it was so precious). Onew and Jonghyun even sang some of their parts of ‘Your Name’ (and yes, it is one of my favorite SHINee songs so I went incoherent when I heard them sang that), as for Minho and Key, they acted cool and patiently waited for doing the pre-record. And suddenly, a familiar face came and walked towards SHINee. My God, it was THE epic Rino Nakasone, SHINee’s choreographer! She then greeted SHINee, and they seemed happy to see her and greeted her immediately. Rino took some pictures of them, after that she took a picture with SHINee themselves, Jonghyun then said ‘Thank You’ (yes, thank you as in English, not Korean) and Rino walked out from the studio.
After that, they were doing the rehearsal. With the music on, they sang but they were not dancing in full energy, they were just doing some simple key moves, probably saving their energy for the recording. And the fans were practicing our fanchant, too, so yeah, I was also shouting the fan chant during the rehearsal. During the rehearsal time, I kept my eyes on them and mostly, Minho. I could see that he wanted to dance with the rest of the members, he kept glancing on the stage, and his hands were doing the handcuffs dance moves, he tried hard to dance with his hands although his feet couldn’t move. And oh, during this time, Onew cracked his voice during the “machi yuriseonge gachyeobeorin ppiyeroman dwin geot gata” part, but he continued it with smile anyway.
After that, they rest for a bit. The cordi-noonas then came and fix their hair and everything, and Onew finally put on his epic headband. Finally, the recording started. The fans prepared their balloons and their loud voices, so were the boys. As the music started, the fans screamed out loud and gave out the best fanchant, while they were also sang and dance with full energy. The atmosphere were so cool, the boys were truly gave out their best, while looked great and charismatic. Then the recording ends. Then they stood in line, and bow to us and said “감사합니다 (Thank You)”. And they finally left the stage, but the fans kept shouting their names. The lights dimmed off and I couldn’t see a thing, I only saw Minho bowed to us and waved. Then I saw them came back for a little more, and yes, I saw Minho was being carried by Taemin, and Taemin also waved at us (PRECIOUS MOMENT IKR), and I couldn’t remember anything again, then they left the studio for real now. Then suddenly the fanleaders asked us to leave the studio and I was like “WHAT?!” I want to watch the full show not just only SHINee. Turned out that the fanleaders only asked the fans on the middle row but not on the front row, maybe the front row fans were the official SMTown artists’ supporters, because before I went in to the studio there were some people who were holding their fanclub cards and those were the people on the front row. I feel like not to argue with the fanleaders so I stood up and left the studio with heavy heart T_____T but still, I feel very blessed with this whole situation. Who would’ve thought I could watch SHINee that day? Not to mention I’ve seen some precious moments there; knowing that SHINee are indeed very nice and entertaining and most of all, lovable. I walked to the subway station while holding my pearlescent baby blue balloon, went back to the hotel with a big smile all over my place :)
When I got back home to Indonesia and checked SHINee’s schedule, turned out they were also having “KBS Open Concert” schedule on that day, so they have to pre-record the performance instead of doing a live performance, and they did the same thing for Sunday’s Inkigayo. So yeah, lucky enough to catch them on Music Core :)
