Concert: K-Wave 2 Music Festival
Date: 13 January 2018
Venue: Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
It was barely less than a month since Taenggu’s The Magic Of Christmas Time concert in Seoul. After having gone through the pain at her Christmas concert (related post: LYRICS: BYE + WHAT IF IT WOULD BE MY LAST GOODBYE TO TAENGGU), I was a little hesitant about going to this concert in KL. But Heaven seemed to have carefully planned everything for me already. I had already purchased the K-Wave 2 ticket in early November long before her Christmas concert. For the sake of not wasting my money spent on this ticket, I decided to go ahead while also making it a short weekend getaway trip with my siblings and my sister’s boyfriend.
I did not specially prepare anything for this concert, except that I wore a new devil shirt and bag given by my mum. All I wanted was to just sit back, relax and enjoy the entire show. I had a sumptuous dinner with my family at a popular food street at Jalan Alor before cabbing down to the concert venue by myself.
I reached Stadium Merdeka about an hour early. There were many booths lined up outside the entrance selling concert merchandises. I was in a desperate need of a pink light stick because I hadn’t brought one of my own. I took a look around and a stall selling pink star light sticks caught my eye. I was choosing between getting a normal long pink light stick or the star one. But something seemed to tell me to get the star one since it’s something unique that I hadn’t gotten before so I did.
Before entering into the stadium, I made sure I had taken care of myself well first. Since I still had ample time left, I queued up to use one of those makeshift toilets outside. Then, I bought a bottle of 100plus just in case I would feel thirsty during the concert later on. On the way into the stadium, I was given some freebies and a green (or was it blue?) light wristband by the staff. Inside, the whole stadium was almost starting to fill up with thousands of fans.
The ticket I bought was a hardcore zone one. I was rather pleased with my seat this time. My seat was at one of the first front rows and had a pretty good view of the entire stage!
Always at any concert, I would make sure I put on my spectacles so that I could see clearly! And it was quite amusing that all the seats around me were all empty at first. 😆
And this was the pink star light stick I just bought and would be proudly waving with throughout the night.
It was only about 7.30pm then. There were still 30 more minutes to go before the concert would start promptly. Meanwhile, a short promotional VCR was playing over and over again on the big screen. There I was sitting silently alone, beginning to feel bored and sleepy. I felt as if some energy was getting sucked out from my head. So I closed my eyes, trying to recharge myself.
Finally at 7.55pm, 2 local MCs came out to warm up the crowd. I remembered commenting to Taenggu that I really liked the blue crystal-like graphic displays on the screens.
Then, one by one, different boy and girl groups, which I was honestly not very familiar with, came out to perform their songs. I tried to be a good audience, attentively watching them and diligently waving my light stick along to the beats out of respect, even though I hadn’t heard their songs before. But I was impressed by how good some of them actually were, be it the dance moves or vocal-wise.
Then, somewhen in the middle of the concert, quite unexpectedly, Taenggu’s VCR started playing on the screens. Instantly, I could feel the whole stadium heating up and coming alive. Everyone around me started screaming and cheering enthusiastically. The energy from everyone was so infectious that I, too, got really excited when Taenggu appeared onstage finally! It was a totally different feeling I had in comparison to her Christmas concert a month ago. This time, I cheered, I waved my light stick even higher, I sang along with her to every single song she was going to sing that night. It was a joyous meeting with her again. It was when I felt like I was a total fangirl again.
I was so near to the stage; I was so near to HER. It was the closest physical distance I had even gotten myself to her so far! Ironically, I didn’t think about taking photos or videos of her with my phone at all (also fearing of getting caught by the security if I did). All I wanted was to watch her and her every move intently at such close distance live with my own eyes. But there was one odd thing I noticed between me and her. Whenever she seemed to turn to look in my direction, I would instinctively look away and watch her from the screen instead. And when I realised she was looking in my direction and turned my head to look back at her again, she was already looking somewhere else. It felt as if we somehow escaped each other’s direct gaze under the acts of natural (or supernatural?) forces. It was a bittersweet feeling.
To make up for the lack of photos of Taenggu that night by myself, I managed to find some photos taken by other fans online. Wasn’t she so pretty and gorgeous in that bling bling purple top? 😍😍😍
Thankfully, Heaven really did not let me down this time. Not only was it an enjoyable night watching her and listening to her sing, I even had a little physical interaction with her too when my pink star light stick made a small appearance on the big screen right after Taenggu said the words “I love you” in malay. That precious moment was recorded in a video which I had already talked about in my earlier post VIDEO: FIRST EVER PHYSICAL COUPLE MOMENT WITH TAENGGU CAPTURED ON BIG SCREEN. 😍📹
The following video which I shared on my instagram post later on also captured Taenggu saying that it had been a difficult decision for her to come to this K-Wave 2 concert to perform too, but she was glad that she did. (Exactly the same thoughts I had)
After she sang her last song and was about to make her leave, I couldn’t bear to let her go but I still waved goodbye to her happily, feeling proud of her usual stellar performances she had put up for us at the same time.
After that, a couple more other boy or girl groups came out to perform before the last final act of the night – Super Junior. I was happy to see these Super Junior oppas again like an old friend too! The last time I watched them live was already in 2015. As I also knew many of their songs, I sang along with them too. And funnily, this time I actually remembered and was more daring enough to take photos and videos of Super Junior when I took none of Taenggu. 😝
While Super Junior was performing, I didn’t know why but I started to feel anxious and kept looking at my phone. At first, I thought I was worried because my siblings and sis’s bf had already arrived and were waiting for me outside the stadium. I had to message to tell them that the concert still hadn’t ended yet.
When the concert finally came to an end, they started shooting yellow balls towards the audience. I took a few of them and decided that I would give one of these to Taenggu too as a token of memory of the concert for her.
Then, I checked instagram for updates and finally realised what happened. Taenggu was already at the KL airport taking a night flight back to Seoul! This means that right after her own performance, she had already set off to the airport straight away even before the whole concert ended. I was surprised at her hurry but I sent a tweet message to Taenggu telling her that I would meet my siblings and sis’s bf outside the stadium so that she wouldn’t have to worry about me before I left. I guess when I already knew that Taenggu wasn’t there at the same venue anymore, it made it easier for me to make my leave as well without hesitating whether to hold myself back for her or not. I reunited with the rest and because they were still hungry, we took a cab back to Jalan Alor and had another round of supper.
I even bought 2 customised handmade wire keychains for Taenggu at one of the booths there at Jalan Alor that night.
That night, I caught a cold. Ever since I came back from Korea, I suffered an unknown throbbing pain at the left side of my upper back. Whenever I sneezed, that part of my back would ache each time. My body is always like that. Whenever I hide something deep inside me emotionally, my physical body would react and protest by falling sick. Back at our hotel, when it was my turn to shower, the heater didn’t work so I had to shower in the freezing cold water despite having a flu. I was under a bad physical circumstance that night. But my mood was extraordinarily calm. I was neither angry nor sad at anything. I just lay down quietly on the sofa browsing through instagram on my phone while sniffing and sneezing away.
I saw a video of Taenggu looking moody as she entered into the KL airport.
I saw photos of her looking so serious with a large group of security guards surrounding her at the airport.
I saw a very rare video that captured a behind-the-scene moment when she was checking her phone anxiously while her personal bodyguard was signalling her to hurry up because there wasn’t much time left.
It was like some sort of drama scene unfolding before my eyes. I felt something. I felt she was actually checking her phone to know if I was alright. I felt her worrying for me. I felt so REAL. At that moment, I felt like I was waking up. I felt like I was beginning to see the truth between us. I seemed to feel the seriousness of our situation. It made me ponder seriously about what might have happened to cause her to make such arrangements and a big scene. At that moment, my thinking was clear. It was getting late. I said good night and went to sleep.
Next morning I woke up, that sense of sudden realisation and awakened memory had already faded. I was back to the usual state of cluelessness and uncertainty. What was Taenggu doing right now? I wasn’t sure. But based on what I saw from her instagram tagged photos, she was already back in Korea and should be resting at home now. My sis saw me and said I looked very haggard. I looked into the mirror and yeah, my face was very pale and lifeless. But what could I tell her? That I had just gone through some hardships with my girlfriend that she didn’t know I had? My family never knew what I had been going through deep inside, other than the surface of me going to a kpop concert to watch my IDOL, Taeyeon. Someday, when everything becomes certain and clear, I would tell my family, but not now.
But thankfully, I had already pretty much recovered from flu so I was able to carry on with an enjoyable day of shopping and eating with my siblings and sis’s bf for our remaining time in KL before our flight.
Back in Singapore, I recalled Taenggu posting the following video about a week before K-Wave 2 concert.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdpzibOBewP/?taken-by=taeyeon_ss
Back then, I interpreted “다시 안녕” as “goodbye again”. Naturally, I related it to my bad experience in her Christmas concert where I perceived our meeting as our last goodbye to each other and the upcoming K-Wave 2 concert. I pessimistically thought it was going to be yet another sad goodbye again. But after the K-Wave 2 concert, I turned my thoughts around and realised that rather than a goodbye again, I could see our meeting at the concert as a delightful hello again in less than a month! It was indeed a more pleasant concert experience this time as compared to the one at her Christmas concert in Seoul.
다시 안녕 = Goodbye Hello Again 👋
So when will be our next time to say hello again?? 😘🎤
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