Finally, the day I had been waiting for, for as long as I can remember. Getting to see Jeon Wonwoo up close at a fansign was number one on my bucket list ever since I started becoming a fan of this warm-hearted boy.
I entered the venue and found my way to the seat I was assigned to. I was in the third row and very thankful that the person in front of me was much shorter than I was. I took out my dslr camera and started setting up since the boys would be out on stage any minute. I did open up a fansign for Wonwoo but it was not as great as the others.
I actually don't reside in Seoul. I flew out here a week ago from LA because of Seventeen's promotions. Since I had a dslr camera and photography might have been a possible major, I didn't see why not I couldn't open up a fansite for him. After a few nerve wracking moments, the handsome boys started showing up on stage one by one.
This was the first time I was seeing Seventeen in person and my expectations were all met the second I layed eyes on them. The first member that walked out on stage was Mingyu following all the way to the very last member, Vernon. I quickly looked at all of them but my eyes stayed on Wonwoo the longest. After all I was seeing the boy of my dreams in real life and I had to savior every second. The boys waved at the fans and introduced themselves one by one.
Camera shutters were heard every second and looking around me, I saw the other fansites taking their jobs very seriously. After the boys finished their introductions, they were seated and were waiting for the fans to start going up to them. I was extremely anxious because my Korean wasn't the best. I attempted to teach myself how to read, write, and speak in Korean. However, I was afraid that the second I stepped in front of those boys, I would forget everything that I had practiced.
While I was sitting down, waiting for the other fans to finish, I tried to calm myself down. In order to help I started to take some pictures of Wonwoo. I had a little placard with his name above my camera. Since I wasn't too far from the boys, Wonwoo noticed the small sign and kept making eye contact with me. That day was so far the best in all my years of being alive. After our little interactions, which I had memorized and locked in the back of my head, it was time for my row to go up. I put my equipment away and fixed my hair. I wanted to look as good as I possibly could when I went up to those boys.
Before standing in line I tried to think about what I would tell the members, and especially Wonwoo, with my limited Korean. First up was Mingyu and I thought the staff had a desire to kill the fans right then and there because why else would they put one of the visuals first in line. I calmed down my breathing and smiled at the giant boy. He understood that I was from LA and tried his best to communicate with me in his broken but adorbale English.
--
The time had finally come and I was in front of the boy that I had been fangirling over through a small screen for the past year. Seeing him up close with all his amazing features was the best gift that I had received from God. My heart had seemed to forget how to function normally and the butterflies in my stomach that I had worked so hard on containing, had been released out of nowhere. I took a deep breath and smiled at him.
"Hi Wonwoo! It's so great to finally meet you in person!" I managed to say with the least amount of stuttering. "Hello! It's very nice to meet you! What's your name?" He asked me, giving his famous grin. Gripping the album in my hand I looked down quickly to regain my normal mental state and introduced myself. "My name is y/n." I said and looked back into his brown eyes again. "That is a very pretty name y/n! Where are you from?" He asked leaning towards me. His deep voice was like music to my ears and I never knew that hearing him saying my name would become the best thing in this world for me.
"I'm from LA!' I decided answer in English and his face lit up. He started talking in his adorable broken English and my heart rate started increasing. "Ah I figured! I saw you taking pictures of me and I was guessing you were a fan of mine since you had a small sign for me. But I had never seen you before and now it makes sense because you aren't from here!" He said laughing. "I flew here because I like you a lot and you are my favorite artist in this whole entire world. I'm so glad I made that decision and I'm so glad I'm here right now to see you " Realizing how crazy and weird I might have sounded I suddenly leaned back from him.
"You flew all the way here because of me? Wow, thank you! This really means a lot to me!" He replied with a genuine smile and I wasn't embarrassed anymore.
I handed him my album and he signed quickly also writing something else on the same page. It was hard for me to read what it said because his hand writing isn't the best in this world. Also he closed the photobook so quickly, almost as if he didn't want me to read it then. "I'm glad you came here today! You seem like an amazing girl with a great taste in fashion" I looked down at my grey t-shirt and my black ripped jeans and smiled. "Thanks a lot Wonwoo! This means so much to me!" I replied satisfied with myself. He nodded handing my photobook back when he got a paper cut. He whinced in pain like a little boy. I quickly remembered I had a few band-aids in my purse. Taking it out from the packaging with the least amount of clumsiness, I looked up at Wonwoo who was staring at me with a pout. I grabbed his finger and wrapped the little band-aid around his wound.
"Thank you so much! Wow what would I do without you?!" He said with a small laughter which immidetely made me laugh as well. "Well y/n had to come to the rescue!" I said and he nodded, holding up his finger to inspect the rilakkuma band-aid. "Sorry, those were the only ones I had." I said embarrassingly. "No worries! I think it's quite cute!" He said grabbing my hand and intertwining our fingers."Thanks for coming today! It means a lot to me that you flew from LA just to see us...just to see me!" His words were going into my brain but I couldn't process them correctly because I was shocked at the fact that we were holding hands.
His hands, which were bigger than mine, were as soft as I had imagined them. It felt like I was on cloud 9 at the moment and I did not want to come down. I nodded at him and thanked him for giving me the best few minutes of my life. He chuckled and let go of my hands because it was time for me to move on to the next member. "I hope to see you soon!" He replied which gave me hope. I waved at him quickly and moved up to Vernon.
--
After Vernon I had to sadly leave the venue. All the things that had happened with each member were surreal, but of course the most surreal part were my interactions with Wonwoo. I looked back at Wonwoo as I was exiting and we both made eye contact. I waved at him for the last time and he did the same in return.
Walking towards my temporary apartment, I looked through my photobook and stopped in my tracks. Wonwoo had left me a small message that I was not expecting at all. "I hope to see you when we come visit LA!" My smile was wider than usual and I kept repeating what he had written down for me. I had to look around at my surrounding to check and see if I was dreaming or not. I lightly squished my cheeks and I was left with a little bit of pain but a big grin on my face because I was definitely not dreaming.
