[FANACCOUNT] 131012 Kang Seung Yoon’s calloused hands…

Source: amanda at KSY’s Baidu Bar
Translator: hitoritabi
Translation note: People who frequent my blog knows that I only translate for Jongsuk 99% of the time, but this fan report for Team A really touched me. This fan managed to high touch with all of them, and these boys are so wonderful T__T… With only 3 days left until the final vote, I felt like sharing this was top priority.  It took me quite some time to track down the KSY fan who wrote it to ask for permission so take out with all the credits please. ^__^

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Hmm… I want to talk about what happened on the 12th… since I am an A supporter, what I observe is probably quite subjective so I didn’t plan to write a report beforehand, and I was worried about what others might think. But what I say here is the complete truth, truth that anyone at the event can testify to, so I want to present to you a real Kang Seungyoon, a real Team A, even though it may seem unbelievable to some.

This will get very long, so please read for important points =_=|||

The 12th was really an eventful day. Qing and I got to Yeongdeungpo Times Square the night before; though it was the middle of October, Seoul was really chilly at night. When we got there, there wasn’t a single fan, hahaha, they weren’t as popular as we predicted, so our dreams to ‘line up through the night’ for the first time in our lives was dashed. XD We wandered around the cafes nearby, and just walked around and around like hobos until dawn. In the end, the cold wind chased us into the warm circular hall of Times Square; soon, girls carrying all sorts of banners started milling in…

There were a few support banners that were really funny~ one of the first girls who came in had a banner around her neck that read, “Nam Tae Hyun Princess-nim”, and I laughed out loud at the sight of that! So it is not just us Chinese fans who feel like Taehyun is as pretty as an angel, Korean fans also feel that our Taehyun is sassy like a princess~ haha~ There were also two fans of Mino who had a Mino’s name on their headbands and Mino stickers on their faces~ their banners said, “Can we shake your hand, Mino?” This made me want to make something like it for the next event, for example, “Pretty and cute little Seungyoon!”

At about 9am, fans had already flooded the entire circular hall and the security guards asked us to wait outside, so to avoid bothering shop-owners in the mall. Though they were smiling, their tone were quite firm so we had to head out into the cold once again…

After another long wait, we finally got in! Since we were there early, we got really good places~ the first row in front of the stage~ so I took out my camera and waited for Seungyoon and Team A. At around 11am, some female YG staff members moved some boxes into the area! I asked a Korean fan what she thought was in those boxes, and that girl replied, “Kang Seungyoon?” (…..) Yes, thank you for your answer… TUT

Finally… staff members came in, and the theme song of WHO IS NEXT started ringing through the entire hall! The atmosphere become so high immediately! The hall just erupted! With screams! The girls who were at the end of the line started pushing forward like crazy, and almost pushed me and my friends to the ground… the Taehyun fan next to me fell to the ground… so the fans are as easy to push over as their Taehyun Princess >_<

After a while, my pulsating heart calmed down a bit and the event began! Hundreds of fans crowded around a box to draw lots… some drew the tickets for the live event [for the final episode], some for high touch on that day, and some for Polaroids of the members… there were even posters and banners and all sorts of gifts, everyone got something! Perhaps the gods smiled upon me for being there so early and standing there in the cold wind all night, so I managed to get a high touch ticket~ all my feelings went through the roof ~(≧▽≦)/~

The high touch event started on time at 1:30pm, and 300 fansthe lucky chance. As we were lined up according to our numbers, the main characters of today came out from the passageway behind the posters! The screams of girls almost flipped the roof of the five-storey building~ The 11 members all went on stage and stood in a row, can you imagine the screams??!

They all began by introducing themselves according to the order they were standing in. Seungyoon, the first person to hold the mic, was really cool~ ”I say WIN! you say A!” “WIN!” “A!” “WIN!” “A!” Aaah, at that point, he really looked like a star who knew the stage well and is enjoying everyone’s affection. He knows how to show his happiness and how to make everyone have the best time of their lives, these are skills that can’t be trained in a practice room. Following Seungyoon’s lead, everyone became crazy and even Mino’s voice got drowned by screams… so for Jinwoo, Taehyun and Seunghoon after that, all we could see is them holding the mics and saying something and then happily bowing TTTUTTT All the while, the screams continued.

After introducing themselves, they positioned themselves behind the tables and the high touch section began. >__< Fans went up on stage courageously, touched their hands shyly and came back down with a lost look in their eyes… most of them were like that. A few were calm even on stage~ for example, that girl in the hanbok, (she sat right next to me after she came down, so I chatted with her a bit; amongst all the pandemonium, I think she said her name was Minjung, sorry if I heard you wrong T_T)

Minjung is a Taehyun fan and she wore a hanbok that she only wears during the new year to attract the attention of her oppa. She hadn’t planned on giving a big bow before she went up, but the moment she saw Taehyun, she just really wanted to pounce on him >__< but her rational mind tells her that it is not allowed, so she just held her  skirt and walked carefully up to Taehyun and bowed with reddened cheeks, “It was like a dream come true!” Ah, I wanted to have a dream like this too.

My number was 118, so I waited with an anxious heart while taking photos. (I want to say this to the reporter ahjussis! You said that you were only going to film for five minutes but was there for the whole duration, standing right in front of us! We ended up looking at the stage through your legs and the tripods for your cameras! It was so hard to see them, let alone take photos from that strange angle…)

In the time I was sitting in front of the stage, my gaze never left Seungyoon and the Team A kids. Not one of them had any negative facial expressions, they weren’t just pretending to be happy. Every fan who came to shake their hand (which became high-fives later), they held their hands so tightly. Some of them hit their hands lightly, some more heavily, and some even interlaced their fingers and gently swayed with them (TAT), and all five of them complied with everything the fans asked for. Even though some fans really hit their hands so hard, the boys would just massage their hands a little then take the hand of the next fan. Their hands are made of flesh too, wouldn’t they get painful from being continuously hit for nearly an hour… but you don’t see any exhaustion or unwillingness on their faces, just gentle smiles and warm gazes towards every single fan… these are such wonderful kids…

There are many interactions between the five of them, they never stopped smiling or laughing for the hour and a half they were there. Seungyoon kept conditioning the atmosphere — he would laugh and clap so much at everything said by every member, no matter if it was funny or not~ Since he was standing next to Mino both times, they kept chatting under their breath… Hey, everyone is looking at you two~! Stop being so obvious! And the rest of the time, he would be greeting the fans around him and on the 1st and 2nd floor. He was so popular among the fans, and he even asked Mino to wave to the fans with him >_< Seungyoon ah, I called you so many times, I wonder if you noticed ╮(╯_╰)╭

Finally came my turn to go on stage! Since I was told by a staff member at the last minute that I can’t bring my camera, I wasted some time there and couldn’t greet the Team B boys properly before being rushed to Seunghoon! (I managed to high five with Bobby~ Bobby is so polite~ He does 90 degree bows when he greets you~ Please get up, child, you don’t have to be so good to noona TAT）

Let me begin with Seunghoon! Wow! Up close he is such a warm guy~ TvT His smiles turn his eyes into lines~ and his voiceo charismatic, not the kind of rapper swag seen on stage, but the mischievous voice of a overgrown boy~!

It’s Taehyun right beside him…… Hu… let me take a deep breath before I continue speaking…… because Nam Taehyun is really as pretty as an angel… as fantastic as a fairytale. His voice is so gentle, and I interlaced my fingers with his >__< I said, “A Team fighting!” and I swayed around so excitedly that I started jumping >__< then Taehyun jumped with me as well >__< then my phone fell out from my pocket and onto the table because I was getting too carried away with my jumping >__< Taehyun picked up the phone for me and said in this cute way, “Aigoo aigoo”… I was so completely defeated by his cuteness that I blanked out when I shook Jinwoo’s hand… TAT Also, I can confirm that Taehyun’s middle-parted hairstyle is fixed with hair products (≧▽≦)/ at least it had been on that day~ Also, this boy Nam Taehyun has hands that are completely unlike other boys TUT… how are they so slender and so soft! Even the flesh on his knuckles are soft TUT

So the third one down the line was Jinwoo… sorry Jinwoo oppa, I can only remember that your eyes are so beautiful, so clear and innocent, it is like stars live in them~! Then comes Mino… How do I put this… Mino’s smile is really… if I wasn’t already Seungyoon’s fan, I would probably have become Mino’s fan right on the spot~! Song Mino’s smile is really that therapeutic! And his charismatic, earnest voice TAT I can never forget the “fighting!” you said me. (Fighting to you too!) Mino, did you know I wanted to call you oppa… don’t use jondaemal with me, Mino oppa! Even though I am a noona, I don’t want to admit it! Mino! Let us Aries line become close with each other in the future! Hehehehe!

The last is Seungyoon… I want to write a bit about him separately.
Kang Seungyoon has held a guitar since he was young, it has been almost ten years now. But for a guitarist who is serious about his craft, ten years isn’t long. I learned guitar for a short while when I was in high school, and I think anyone who has played it will know, the first step to being good at this instrument is to accurately press the chords. I may be a complete noob at this, but for me, it was so hard to press the chords accurately. I started learning it in my third lesson, and still couldn’t pull it off by my 13th, so my teacher got a little angry, asking me why I can’t do it. I replied honestly, “Teacher, it is too painful to press down on the chords.” My teacher replied that it is natural to feel pain, a rookie guitarist needs to have callouses at least three times to improve. My teacher showed me his hands, and at first it just looked like any other hand of a middle-aged man, but when we looked closely at his fingertips and nails, we see that it is matted with old injuries and thick callouses. These wounds become irrevocable throughout the passing years. I got shivers when I saw those hands.

My teacher’s hands left a strong impression on me, and I still feel rather fearful when I think back on them these days. But on that day, after high fiving with Mino, I walked towards Seungyoon, and our hands touched. In that moment, I blanked out. Are these hands that belonged to a 19-year-old boy? An average 19-year-old may not have hands as soft and smooth as Taehyun’s, but should have hands that are youthful like Seunghoon’s. But what about you, Kang Seungyoon. Why does your hand feel rough to the touch? Why are there callouses on your hands? Why are you hands so red? Did the fans high-five you too hard? Does the wounds on your hand hurt? Or are you already numb? Your hands betray almost none of your youth… they are no different from the people who play guitar or labour all their lives … how long have you been practising like crazy, Kang Seungyoon?

I can’t imagine what it is like for a person with wounded hands to experience a high touch even for nearly an hour, but I think I know the answer. After the two seconds of blank-out, I couldn’t hold back my tears. “Seungyoon-ah, what happened to your hands?” I think Seungyoon was a little taken aback (since this is his first time dealing with a crazy like me), but he immediately recovered, “Ah, what happened? Don’t cry, I’m fine! Hehe!”

So my story ends here, because I was escorted off stage by security. When I sat in front of the stage, I continued to watch him high-five each fan with his reddened hands. He had to rub his hands together between each high-five, but he didn’t show any discomfort on his face. Maybe it’s because I am a noona fan, so I can’t bear seeing him like this… I really wanted to ask him, “Seungyoon-ah, is your hand painful?” but I know the answer will definitely be, “I’m okay!” TTTTTUTTTTT

After taking photos of them for a little while more, the event ended. The members of Team A and Team B all greeted the fans one by one, but you couldn’t hear much because of the screams. The only thing I heard was Seungyoon saying that he was so nervous the night before that he couldn’t sleep. >_< Ha, it has always been youe style to be nervous before major events! Seungyoon also asked everyone to support all 11 members of Team A and Team B, and thanked all the fans for their support. I think they have received all the love given to them on that day~

One last thing as they left the hall. Since the side they got off of was very far from me, I couldn’t rush over, but I hear other fans say that the boys were completely surrounded by the on-rushing fans~ Seungyoon is the last to leave and looked a little nervous to be surrounded, but still smiled happily at everyone >_< Yeah! You should be happy to be surrounded by so many pretty girls!

This is the end of my report~ I am only one among the 3000 people there, and this is a highly subjective report~ Please don’t use this to make any rash judgments, it won’t be any good~ Thank you *bows*~

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T/N: Around 3000 words long but worth the read, since there hasn’t been many fan reports of that day. I didn’t cut it with any pictures, but I hope people still manged to get to the end. Thank you once again to Amanda~

Source: hitoritabi.tumblr.com