please stop time

Before the Fansign

Although it was a holiday (November 30 is Bonifacio Day), I couldn’t relax because the next day was a school day and I had to prepare myself to get called to present a 60-minute case on HIV and study for my pediatric surgery finals. Just thinking about those made me so anxious already because I knew I had to sacrifice one or the other. I woke up a bit later than I planned (I was also tired from school the day before), so I spent my morning studying without breakfast.

It was nearing noon when I was getting ready to leave and booked an Uber right when I finished dressing up. The driver was about 20 minutes away, which was okay for me because I’d still be a bit early anyway. As I was waiting, well, my app decided to crash and my booking got magically cancelled! At that moment, it started to rain so hard and I couldn’t book in either Uber or Grab. Just my luck.

Finally, I finally got another Uber, but it was taking so long probably due to the sudden downpour. I went downstairs to my building lobby. As the driver was finally approaching my building, I stood up, took one step, and my shoes fell apart!!! I was mortified and quickly dragged my feet back to the elevator to change my shoes. Thankfully, the driver was nice enough to wait for me.

Anyway, all that worry about being late to the 2:00pm fansign was for nothing. When I got there, the queue hasn’t moved. It took an hour and a half wait ‘til we started moving. Fortunately, the girls I was next to were so friendly, and we found out that we were all OT5 fans. Some were older fans like me, while some were relatively new. I’m still really amazed that there are people who become fans of all 5 even after their breakup!

At the Fansign

The fansign was held just at the hallway of Araneta Coliseum. We had to stay in line, and there was a barricade to block the view of all the other fans in queue, and security would let 5 fans at a time go past it. When it was finally my turn with the handful of fans, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was staring at Jaejoong in the flesh, first about 10(?) meters away from me, then nearer and nearer as told by security.

Finally, it was my turn. After the unnie ahead of me left, he turned his attention towards me. Like a professional, he never left eye contact with me as I approached him, me giving my best smile and rehearsing in my head what I was about to say to him.

I stood in front of him, and he said hi, and I swear his eyes were sparkling and his smile glowing. I said hi back, then he proceeded to sign my poster. I confidently said, “Oppa, mom josimhaeyo!” (which I just learned now is informal, oops [tr: take care of your health]) and HE LOOKED AT ME AND LAUGHED AND SAID “THANK YOU!” SO HAPPILY AND IT’S LIKE I WENT TO HEAVEN.

He finished signing, then handed the poster to me, and said another thank you, and at that moment I couldn’t think anymore. I could’ve said a bit more but I was already hyperventilating inside so I kind of panicked and just said “thank you” back.

I tried my best to keep my composure as I walked away.

It was the best moment of my fangirl life.

At the Fanmeeting

There are tons of better photos and full videos from the Manila fanmeeting on Youtube/Twitter, so I’ll just go over the important details in bullets:

JJ said a LOT of English words and phrases as well as Filipino ones, which made me so happy because it showed that he put in much effort to communicate with us! I also saw through his facial expressions that he was just as overwhelmed seeing us for the first time.

It was so cute how he was trying to cover his eyes/face when the fan wearing red satin PJs was on stage lmao

The dance segment was HILARIOUS never in a million years would I have imagined that I’d see him dancing the otso-otso and spaghetti in this lifetime lkajldfjdf

I screamed my lungs out when he danced to Rising Sun T____T he really, really loves his fans

How he was able to catch the tunes of the Filipino songs for the game by ear was AMAZING. Idk if he really did hear those songs for the first time but either way he sang/hummed so well.

After the program, I honestly thought he’d sing only 2-3 full songs but he sang more!!!?!?! omg he even sang Run Away!!!

The way he performed Good Morning Night while interacting with the audience was really world-class. He handled the crowd so well and got every person in the coliseum jumping and cheering with him. It was such an experience. It made me want to go to a full concert of his even more.