#seamonsterink

by seamonsterink

Hey Anon! So sorry this got lodged in my inbox and I forgot about it for a lil while! <3Sometimes stories in which Jinki is a nerd fall a little flat with me, depending. Nonetheless, I remember a few good ones and I can try to help you out uwu. I went hunting a lil bit, just wish I could remember more.

— I was thinking about this and of course the first fics that come to mind are the Dumb and Dumber series by seamonsterink and also her Syndicate AU (&part 2). I’m assuming one of those is what you meant you read already!— I think Bully by katrinawritesthings fits the bill. Lil intense for a bit though so warning for the unsuspecting. uwu— Similar in concept is That’s Not in the Script by mintyfresh1, though Jonghyun’s less a ‘bad boy’ and more a ‘straight boy’, but he has a little of that attitude.— Maybe even this drabble by wishyounew, where Jong’s not necessarily a bad boy but there’s a definite dichotomy. And this OnJongHo fits well too.— And uh, I can’t really think of any more :( But there’s an OnTae fic by linnhe called diaphonous in which Taemin skateboards, Jinki’s an astrophysicist, and they’re both stoned, and it’s great too. At least Jinki’s nerdy and Taem isn’t, lol.

If anyone else has recs, please chime in!

We left the house at something like 8:30 in the morning and made it to the venue probably about 10:30 or 11. I don't remember exactly what time because I was too excited seeing the artists were arriving. We managed to stand up by the fence in front of the artist tents and we saw a few people go by -- the first thing I saw when I got to the venue was Taecyeon waving at everyone. He looked very tall.

We managed to find out which section was SHINee's and were standing there when their van pulled up. Girls were screaming every time they saw a manager, just in case it was someone famous. BUT THEN I SAW KIBUM'S FAMOUS HAT He is so fashion I swear he is grace and elegance personified

They all came out and wooow they are gorgeous. Jonghyun was in that navy blue sweater with the white star on it, and a snapback. Key was in the aforementioned hat and some capri jeans which was adorable. Taemin was wearing a dark denim jacket and his hair was so long and cute and then Jinki, way in back -- I barely saw him but he was in one of the white jersey-type shirts and I saw his hair and I was screaming the whole time. My legs were shaking too. I feel a bit like a creeper but jeebus. (If you didn't know, Minho wasn't there. I thought it would feel more like a gaping hole  in OT5 but honestly I was so excited to see all four of them it was okay. It just would have been one more level of amazing if Minho was there too.)

We stayed for about an hour. Jonghyun kept going in between tents so we saw him the most, and I honestly think he might have partially been enjoying the attention, at least. When he walks he swaggers. I was so blown away by that, oh my god. He is -- words. I can't describe him. There is no question how much I like him jfc. He is also so tiny and cute I just flibbled all over myself like a dweeb. My heart was aflutter. We saw the members come out to get food, and Key came out a few times. The most interesting thing was that once he had taken his hat off, I got the distinct impression he was a bit more shy! Like his hat holds all his intense power and without it he's a little shy thing and it was really cute. seamonsterink (who, yes, I was with this whole time wow she's an amazing person) was taking pictures as well. At one point Key came out and one fan yelled very distinctly, "KIBUUUUUMMMM!" and he turned and WAVED AT ALL OF US. The rest of them seemed tired and like they were trying to have their privacy, so we eventually left to go to the festival. But I remember seeing the side of Jinki's neck and it's rly pretty lmao. Poor tired things. Poor beautiful, tired things.

(Side note, Infinite was very friendly and waved a lot when fans yelled at them. Also at one point, Yonghwa from CNBlue came by and blew the slowest, cheesiest air kiss at the crowd. I was cracking up, and then he walked directly into a Porta-potty. I'm not even kidding. It was great.)

The festival itself wasn't that crowded when we first went in, but there were still huge lines. We got programs and saw they'd be doing Lucifer and FREAKED OUT but I had to go charge my phone because it wasn't holding any battery charge at all. So we were out of the festival and when we came back we heard that we could have gotten in to see SHINee's sound check but the fan I talked to said we missed it. I'm super bummed about that especially because of the seats we had for the actual concert. It would have been nice to get something extra. Maybe I should have checked myself but it was so hectic the whole day we couldn't do much.

The festival got really crowded leading up to the concert so we spent a long time in line to get food and then lined up for the concert. And I met our fourth party, who got my extra ticket, whom I will call M. She is wonderful and we chatted the rest of the night! Some older gentlemen next to us moved over so she could sit with us and that was really cool. (These older gentlemen recognized me from when I stood in line to get tickets last week. They had brought in secret flasks of alcohol also. This concert had tons of tiny funny moments like that.)

The concert itself was really fun for the most part. Our seats were at an odd angle and far away, so most of the stage was blocked by this giant speaker tower. And that made me really nervous about SHINee's set because I didn't want to miss it.

One thing before I start talking about the good performances. There was one girl who I think might have been a local trying to make it, who performed something like halfway through. And it was so bad lmao. And AT THE END

A VOICEOVER BOOMED, "LA OFFICIAL DOT COM."

And the camera focused on her face an extreeeemely awkwardly long time as she just breathed and posed for like 20 or 30 seconds. It was so funny holy crap. I felt so weird watching it. Very strange.

The performances were in general really amazing. Taecyeon as an MC was hilarious, because he kept messing up his English lines and ad-libbing awkward phrases instead. He was smiling and kind of laughing at himself for it though, he was great. He did a duet with I think Baek Ji Young? And he wore this vinyl pepto bismol-colored shirt, it was hilarious and very Ken Doll. There were a lot of special stages and collaborations like that. I said to seamonster at one point, "I wish SHINee would get special stages!" AND GUESS WHAT BAM THEY DID

THEY DID COLORFUUUUUUULLLLLL It was so beautiful it didn't feel real. I was screaming my heart out, way too excited to process anything. AND ON TOP OF IT

I had been saying all week long "ToHeart should perform, they'll both be there. I'm sad they won't be performing." WELL I SWEAR THAT IT'S DELICIOUS I SWEAR THAT IT'S DELICIOUS

I was screaming along and calling love nutritious so hard. It's really all a blur because I was too excited to remember anything, which is my biggest regret.

I'm not a 2pm fan, but I really like Hands Up and that was their first song so it was one of my favorite non-SHINee performances. Dynamic Duo was also really good and got the crowd up. Infinite was great and since there are so many of them I could see some of the choreo on the edges of the stage around the speaker tower. But it was hard to see anyway because they were so tiny and far away, lol. Sorry this fanaccount is all over the place. But! After 2PM it was SHINEE TIME.

During Beautiful, the first song, I was screaming so hard any time any of them came on to sing. I looooved Jonghyun's hair, it was parted to the side and he looked super handsome. Key was fierce and I'm sorry but there's really no other way to describe his stare or his energy. I was really flustered trying to look between the screens (the cameras messed up a lot for every performer, it was weird. They usually showed one member 75% of the time and didn't show the choreo, and missed cues, etc.) and trying to see the stage, where a big chunk of it was blocked by the tower and the rest was so far away I couldn't really make out anything except their white shirts kind of waving as they danced. So I feel that if I could go back I would be less worried and just try to enjoy it more because in trying to see as much as I could I didn't see very much at all! But it's okay because there were a few highlights and I'm just so glad I got to be there.

The best parts:

Kibum's mile-long stare at the camera. He was so intense and he was the member on screen the most. 

Jinki, at one point, was STUMBLING ALL OVER during why so serious. He flailed around and beamed and it was amaaazing I think I yelled "THAT'S MY BIASSSSSSSSSS"

I could see Taemin doing some choreography at certain points and wow he moved like a whip, just flying around everywhere so precisely.

Kibum lowered his jacket over his shoulders during Why So Serious and I diiiieeedddd. He wanted that attention. Just wow. It seemed like he loved how much people screamed.

The choreo I saw most clearly from my lil spot was Jonghyun lying down on the stage at the beginning of Why So Serious and then raising up, but I barely saw him for the most part :c

It all went by very, very fast. I was screaming and singing along the whole time, but I was very very flustered and feel like I don't remember most of it, which like I said is my biggest regret. I think I got so worried about this whole thing and then I felt guilty afterwards somehow for not being able to see better? Like I should have been more attentive. But it still doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel like I actually got to see them perform, because it was all a blur of tiny bodies (mostly blocked by a giant black tower!) and my worry and me being frazzled and excited and loving them.

Why So Serious is really good live, just as my friend had told me. It's got such a good energy and the song just sounds much more fun when it's blasting in a stadium, so I have a new appreciation for it. I wish I could have seen the choreo more. I mostly saw little white blobs moving around very elegantly and then closeups of their (SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL) faces onscreen.

Kibum talked some in English and he rapped Minho's parts. He was really on fire like I said. He talked briefly about how they'd been touring South America and then just said which songs they were doing. I wish he had more confidence in his English because it was really cute.

I screamed along the entire time to Lucifer (wow I know the words I guess?) and the stadium was just alive and light sticks were waving everywhere. I shook my little Onew lightstick for all it was worth. Afterwards I was exhausted and very spacy still. I remember saying a Darth-Vader-esque "Noooooo" several times right as Lucifer ended because I knew it was over and I was in shock. I said "Nothing will ever be okay again!" Because how does life go back to being normal after SHINee?

At the end one of my favorite parts was I saw Jinki flailing around on the last few beats of Lucifer and then very clearly made out how he waved and did a ninety-degree bow. I just really really love him. I wish I could have followed his moves the whole time.

After the concert I briefly finally ran into minearebigger for about two minutes, but I acted like an awkward fool and she had to run off very quickly. I was so out of it. I'm really sorry :( I didn't say what I meant to at all.

People were lining up by the artist tents again as they were leaving. SHINee had already gone, but we saw 2PM walk by and wave (Wooyoung's hair was so tall?) and then Hoya and another person from Infinite -- maybe L? I couldn't see very well and I don't rly know all of them -- stopped very close to the fence and danced for about 20 seconds for the fans before they left. It was very cute.

THEN THE REAL ADVENTURE BEGAN. This is not about the concert. This is about our very eventful drive home, so if you don't care about that, then you can stop reading. But I'll put up a final paragraph at the end to summarize my concert impressions. Anyway.

So. Seamonster had driven us up in her car, and as we left (cars having honk-offs in the garage for fun the whole way? Like dogs barking back and forth in the neighborhood) we stopped to get gas. The battery light was on, which was weird. Two separate guys came up and started cleaning the windshield which was awkward because we didn't really have cash for them because -- oh yeah, event parking was 25 dollars whaaat. Anyway. I only mention this because I think what happened next may have been the result of a curse they put upon the vehicle for not wanting the windshield cleaned.

We got on the highway and within probably ten minutes, the music shut off and the car just died. We pulled up onto the shoulder and it woudn't even crank. Uh oh.

We called my parents and they started arranging a towing thing but in the meantime, the Highway Patrol showed up. These two guys were amazing. Cracking jokes the whole time. They decided to give us a jump and the cop said "Give me back up, I'm going in," as he dived in with the jumper cables. When the car started the other cop started singing "Sweeet Caroliiiiine," and we drove off into the sunset (or so we might have, if the sun had been setting instead of down for several hours and if the car had not immediately died again.) The highway patrol officers came back when we pulled over for the second time. This time the officer said "We're gonna jump you. We'll jump you. No, wait, that sounds wrong. We're gonna jump your car." And they did it again and gave us specific instructions to help us exit. We thanked them and just baaarely made it off the highway before the car died again and we had to pull over illegally into a Bus Zone.

At this point, the alternator on seamonster's car looked dead and we were in a shady-ass area of Paramount. Industrial buildings, a trolley station, no place open to go except we saw some neon lights at a Liquor Store and florist nearby. Thankfully the Triple A guy who came to tow us was suuuper nice and helpful. We ended up sleeping in the parked car at the nearest repair shop until my mom showed up at 4:30 in the morning, after driving two hours, to drive us back home again. She is superwoman. I dunno how she stayed awake, because the rest of us conked out before we got out of the greater LA metro area.

** So here I am today, still not feeling like I really saw SHINee, because it was surreal and so very brief and far away. I wish I could have seen more and I feel like part of that is because my brain spazzed out so much I didn't know where to look. It would have been nice to get a feeling for how they are live, but the other people with me confirmed they feel the same way because our seats were not great. So at least it's not just me. 

I'm so grateful I got to see SHINee, especially the stuff by the artist tents, because that was the closest I got by a long shot. I still feel guilty about how everything went down, but I did my best. I just really need to get good tickets to a SWC. I love them so much. They are really great performers, I just wish I got a better impression to match that (: