It was Kevin and my turn to go in. In my head I was going AHHHH OMG OMG OMG ohhhhh shoot, but I looked 90% at peace on the outside. XD So I entered the room first, and the girls were on the left side of the room, waiting.
I felt like a child who did not know what was behind those mysterious doors but continued to draw closer, ever-so-slowly. I purposely took little steps so I could process what in the world was really going on..because I wanted to greet the Wonder Girls with a clear mind. Then Hana noticed us and welcomed us–“Here are the girls!” I smiled at them and waved “hi!” (ee pabo!!!) But instead of returning the same treatment, Leader Min extended her arms to welcome me.
I don’t think I could express my gratitude for her welcoming heart; it was the first and the warmest greeting I have ever received from a celebrity. And after the hug, she said “nice to meet you!” So I just went down the row, greeting Yeeun-unni, Sohee, and Sunmi each with a hug. Right after Sunmi, I rushed over to the right to hug Yoobin-unni lol. She had this look on her face that was like, “That’s right, girl. Come to meee~” rofl.
After greeting all the girls, I was going to start asking them questions. But right before I could say anything, Hana asked if I had a camera with me for the photo-op. So Kevin handed her my camera while I turned toward the girls, pleasantly surprised that Yeeun was motioning me to stand next to her (typical Yeeun, though I’m still happy about it =p). By this time, my adrenaline had completely built up…I was not shaking, but my heart was pumping blood like crazy. XD In addition to all that, I smiled like an idiot and Kevin looked stoned:
I asked for permission to give presents to the girls and gave them each a white T-shirt from Mardel’s that reads “WONDERFULLY MADE” with a verse from Psalms on the bottom. I briefly explained the whole “Wonderfully made/Wonder Girls” connection, and they looked pleasantly surprised like me earlier. By the way, their thank-you’s were extremely cute. :3 After T-shirt time, Yeeun-unni was like, “Let’s take a picture!” And I was thinking, “Didn’t we just take one?” LOL and she caught herself and said “Wait, did we take a picture already? …Yes, we did!” Then she playfully slapped herself in the forehead and laughed it off. So cute. XD
Then it was time for me to ask questions. I had at least one for each of them, like “Sunmi! If you could say one thing to Taeyeon-unni (from SNSD) right now, what would it be?” and I wanted to tell Yoobin-unni how amazing her rap is for Ga Jyeo Ga (Take It), how I want to rap Nobody (Rainstone Remix) with her, etc. XD But I had a feeling I didn’t have much time, so I asked them one selfish question I’ve been dying to ask since March. Back then, I had handed over some CDs I made for the Wonder Girls, including one original song, to a backstage worker after the OC show at La Mirada, California. Since then, I had no idea if he ever handed them over or if the girls ever heard it.
So addressing the whole group (though it might have looked like I was only speaking to Yeeun-unni because she was right in front of me), I said, “I don’t know if you still remember..(^__^; <– with this facial expression) but I bothered you a lot about the blue CDs, titled ‘This is Why’…” Yeeun-unni, who was listening to me very attentively, started thinking very hard as soon as I mentioned “blue CDs.” She paused for one second exactly after my question, and the light bulb went on. :DD She immediately responded, “Oh, yes..I remember. Yeah, I remember! It was about the reasons why you liked the Wonder Girls, right?”
And you won’t believe how AT PEACE and EXCITED I was both at the same time when I heard her response. In the back of my head, I was playing my own little victory chant lol. I said, “Yeah, that’s it! So you did receive it!” And Yeeun-unni suddenly caught on XD, “!!! Are you the one who made it?” And so I shyly nodded and replied with a “yes~” Yeeun-unni’s eyes widened again and said, “Wow…*freeze* Thank you sooo much,” with the sincerest voice.
By this time, I was finally able to step back from my own little world and actually realize that the rest of the girls got kinda lost starting from the way I worded my question. However, Yeeun-unni really saved me that day. She started to spill some Korean here and there with the rest of WG and basically explained what I’d just told her. Some of them still looked kind of lost, but Leader Min smiled at me again and thanked me. I have to affirm: Yeeun-unni really does have a great memory.
As Kevin and I were running out of private time with the Wonder Girls, Hana asked us if we had any items to autograph; we were limited to one item only. So I just grabbed the Korean version of Nobody for the girls to sign. Aaand, it was over, but we stayed in the same room as the girls with the rest of the FAN*TASTICS. I relaxed on the sofa to process what had just happened, and stared at WG for as long as I could before the meet and greet was over.
And I guess that will be it for today! There is one more part to day one of the road trip, so please stay tuned for a detailed report on passing out fliers to promote the Wonder Girls and the variety of American response to the girls.
-Ines
PPP55 