K-Bops in K-Pop

This took forever to post and I’m so sorry about that! We had some issues with our little kitty and I had to tend to him for the last few weeks to make sure he was okay. Everything’s fine now, so I should be back to my regularly scheduled posting.

Convention

I didn’t realize how much of the convention is the experience of actually going out and doing the panels and seeing the special guests. Because I didn’t really have any interest in going to any of those, I just took advantage of the second day to get to the free stuff I didn’t get to on the first day. For the second day, we decided to try out the Bibigo dumplings and oh! my! god! They are so good! I legit got back home from KCON, went to Costco, and bought a pack because they were so delicious. My friend and I also went back for seconds at the Melona stand because I cannot emphasize enough how amazing that ice cream is.

After we’d mostly tired ourselves out, I finally settled on getting a t-shirt from the merch stand as well as the collectible Ryan plushie (because I loved his little hoodie) and I found out that they only had X-Large t-shirts left. So! If you are planning on buying merch, definitely go check it out the first day (or online beforehand) so that you get exactly what you want.

I was fortunate enough to get an audience pass for AB6IX (because my best friend gave me hers because she’s an angel) so I left the main convention area to go to that. The line was not terribly long but it was a really tedious process getting into the actual room where the boys would be. It’s also a free-for-all. That means: whoever runs quickest gets the closest spot to the stage. This didn’t matter a whole lot to me because I just wanted to have a good time, not see every pore on Daehwi’s face, but if it matters to you: be prepared to haul up there.

We watched the music video for Breathe about five times before the boys finally came out. They apparently had just gotten off the plane and had been whisked directly to the venue so they did look a little tired but they were still really positive and sweet. Woojin was injured so he wasn’t in the happiest of spirits, but overall they looked happy to be there. They answered some questions from the fans (via the translator) and then they set up for the hi-touch. The whole thing went by in a blur from the moment it started and I was honestly a little disappointed. I really didn’t like the fact that there was no seating. Like, I understand that, logistically, that would be difficult but I feel like that would help all the fans be able to see and behave more appropriately in the crowd.

After that, I met back up with my friend and we took some pics before heading out to the LINE store before the concert.

Concert

This was the night that I’d been waiting for. SF9? AB6IX? SEVENTEEN??? I was literally bouncing in the hotel room the night before listening to music in preparation for the day-of. Since my friend and I took a detour to K-Town before the concert, we were able to walk over just before the start of the show. Just as we were walking up to the venue, we saw them. At first, I had zero clue who they were but I could tell they were idols so I did what any logical person would do and took pictures of them as they walked by. They were waving and smiling at us and they were almost supernaturally handsome.

After we had composed ourselves and the handsome idols had walked away, we headed into the venue. I took a seat and went to Twitter to see if anyone else who had seen them knew who they were, and I found out they were the World Klass trainees.

The concert itself was incredible and it started with a couple of different performances by the rookie groups. Vernon and Jeonghan were guest hosts which was incredible. I was also super psyched about the fact that Vernon and Joshua performed Rocket which is EASILY one of my favorite songs of all time. I was bummed that Seventeen got such a short running time given how much time Nu’est got the night before. I think the reason was because EVERGLOW dropped out and they had to restructure the setlist, but that’s just speculation.

The line-up was as follows:

• fromis_9
• VERIVERY
• AB6IX
• SF9
• (G)I-DLE
• SEVENTEEN

Honestly, both nights were pretty amazing. The performances were really well done and I could tell, even from the crazy distant seats that I had, that they were in perfect sync. I took tons of pictures but none of them could really capture the experience of being there.

If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. That said, now that I know what it’s like, I would definitely only plan on one day of convention for the next time. That way, I could spend more money on merch and possibly getting a hi-touch.