130708 - Star King Recording - FINALLY A VIEWABLE VARIETY SCHEDULE WITH MY BOY!
As usual DSP failed to announce the boys' schedule, I was informed a few days earlier by a kind korean fan that some members of A-JAX would be recording for '1000 Song Challenge' and 'Star King' on this day... I guessed that the vocalists+leader would be sent to 1000 Song Challenge and the rest to 'Star King', esp. the visual, and I was right... Jaehyung and Seungyeop are the ones down for Star King.

Anyway I spent my whole Saturday sitting in for some food-topic talkshow that I had to fight the zzz monster throughout for, in exchange for entrance to Star King... we were supposed to meet at 12pm at SBS for the recording, I arrived at 1145am and wanted to catch them going in (for photos), but it turned out to be raining cats and dogs - I knew that they would drive in and parked straight in the underground carpark... so I just gave up standing in the rain and went to the SBS entrance gathering point - and guess what? I thought they had arrived earlier, but they actually came strolling up from the underground carpark staircase that leads right into SBS lobby and I can see everything through the glass door... kekeke. The actual recording started somewhere... near 1pm? I'm not sure because Star King has tightened its security drastically from when I last went a year ago - they now conduct bag searches to make sure you do not bring in cameras, and they ask you to hand over your cellphone and they will only return you at the end of the recording... O_o. (I don't have a watch so I rely on my cellphone to tell the time...) Apparently someone (reporter?) went in took pictures inside and uploaded them with detailed account of the entire show BEFORE the broadcast so SBS got damn pissed and so all this security measures came about...? I'm not sure what's so bad about some spoilers but... T_T... (I did manage to sneak my DV in but I only tried to fancam after dinner at 830pm and within mins i got caught while trying to zoom and adjust the camera to capture our boys... and got a earful for it from the oppa in-charge of the audience. And the guard even took my SD card and did not want to return it, he only finally gave him after I pleaded him for it back it's 32GB, freaking expensive at nearly 50USD... T_T... How do I explain to them that I am doing this only because our boys are stuck in the recordng for 7-8 hours but they are going to get only 10-20 mins airtime and there are so many interesting and precious moments that will be cut out but I want to preserve and show the other fans who could not be there?? I'm perfectly fine with releasing the video AFTER the broadcast, but they're not ever going to accept this as a reason... T_T... there should be a director's extended play cut for recordings like this damn it...)

When the boys came onstage, before the recording started, first thing I asked Jaehyung... "Have you eaten?" and he was nodded and smiled faintly... I wrote on my trusty whiteboard "oh you changed your hair ... T_T" but after that I pointed at his hair, indicated "cut, cute!" then wrote - "is your new concept 'cute'!?" but he just smiled mischeviously and shrugged. Naughty of him to keep me in suspense haha.... but yup, he stops and squints whenever I wave my board at him to show I've got something to say... oh and by the way there was another Jaehyung fan behind me. That was all. No more A-Lights in the entire recording... T_T. Him and Seungyeop smiled and waved in our direction, Jaehyung even randomly suddenly did a finger heart at me after I caught his eyes for the N-th time... and I winced and mimed a camera and a big cross after a quick glance in the direction of the oppa-in-charge of the audience - I can't take photos today... T_T. Oh and another observation... the boys kept studying their scripts... yes... Star King... the idol guests and MC's lines are all scripted... so yes... lots of things to memorise.... and... Seungyeop kept fidgeting and bending backwards to try stretch his back... Jaehyung to a lesser extent... why is the 18 year old having a stiffer back than the 24 year old... haha....  

Ok first guests for this recording were some members of the Michael Jackson Memorial Cirque De Soleil crew, the opening tap dance wowed everyone and I had a good time laughing at Jaehyung and Seungyeop's amazed and admiring faces... Right from the onset it was obvious that the 2 are really close, Jaehyung kept grabbing and touching Seungyeop whenever he got excited, and at a few occasions he even put his head on Seungyeop's conveniently-taller shoulder... Haha. And somewhere during this part of the recording, for whatever reasons (I can't remember), Jaehyung stood up at his seat, did some combination dance that even included the Girls Day's suspender dance (yes he was wearing suspenders! hahaha.) And I remember when the dance crew did Gangnam Style Jaehyung and Seungyeop were enthusistically dancing along in their seats... lol.

The next guest was a female singer who was active in 1990s and really popular then, she retired but came out recently to sing again because she has a son with mental disabilities... at 16 (?) he had the IQ of about a 6 year old... and to make things worse they lost their home in a fire last year so she needed to earn money... she talked about the pain of raising her son, how she worries about how he will live on without her to look after him when she passes on... practically all the female guests started sobbing, even Kwanghee went for tissues, Seungyeop was seen dapping at his inner eyes too, and Jaehyung looked really touched, gritting his jaws and was trying to hold back tears too... I felt bad staring at this point but I couldn't take my eyes off him... his compassionate side that we normally don't get to see... I felt so blessed to be in this recording.

3rd guest for today is the "Human Snake Lady" from China... Her entire body flows as if boneless... just watch the broadcast... she actually did the reverse down- the-staircase walk... you know... the famous scene from Exorcist... OMG it was soooo creepy.... then she just twisted and turned and even did a human compass/spider move that defies description... I was torn between watching her and watching the boys 멘붕ing (mental breakdown-ing)... the two of them took turns clutching their hair and ears... and wincing/shrieking... believe me, I was shrieking along with them... it was really traumatising to watch... but morbidly fascinating... after her performance they asked some idols to come demonstrate their flexibility... mainly the girls... but Jaehyung was called up too... he sorta... supported himself on just his hands with his body off the floor, legs in lotus-like position then clapped his feet together... omg they made him do it 3 times... as in 3rd attempt is to do 3 consecutive claps... I was reminded of the 2MYX dumbbell practice video... Jaehyung might be skinny but his arms pack some serious wirey strength...! (Yes I tried it after I got home and no I can't keep my feet off the floor long enough to even clap once hahaha...) Then they tried to make him do the "inverted U" on all fours, he can get off the ground but it was in a ㅠ formation instead because his back is not flexible enough to curl up into a U.... he sorta hopped in place a few times to try to get into the U shape and I nearly died torn between laughter and worry because I mean, how and in what way do you think hopping is gonna suddenly make ur back snap backwards!?!? - and worry because I was afraid his arms would give way and he would knock his head onto the floor as he landed for one of the hops.... and for the last part of this segment everyone tried to bend and flex their way across a maze of lasers w/o touching them (remember the killer laser corridor in Resident Evil?) and both our boys did a cool/funny rendition... I hope it gets broadcasted, really! (At this point we were given a dinner break...)

The last set of guests are a professional competitive skating display team... they rehearsed first and I was half-hoping/expecting our boys will pop up in skates... and lo-and-behold I was right! Jaehyung suddenly appeared in skates RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY SEAT and stared at me (waiting for my reaction) and I just gave him the 'amazed and delighted' look... and he just smiled knowingly... for Seungyeop it was apparently the first time he's ever skated so he was really hesitant and jerky... like me on skates... Jaehyung was a lot better.... he can do all the basic moves (skate confidently fast forwards, skate backwards, spin-and-sudden-stop) during rehearsal/practice and I opened my mouth to yell for the first time in the entire recording.... "재형아 멋있다~" and I gave Seungyeop some encouragement too... "Seungyeop-ah Hwaiting~". But when the actual recording started they were supposed to weave their way across a series of little cones set out on the floor, Seungyeop went first and fell flat on his ass, got up, moved a bit and then promptly fell forward onto his kneees instead... he did try to save it by falling onto 1 knee in a dramatic pose haha. I thought Jaehyung would succeed, but my boy was so eager to prove he can do it, he kept going too fast and knocked over the cones instead... he almost fell once and my heart practically jumped out of my throat. And that's not all, the guests performed 'long jump'... over the idols and fixed Star King regulars lying flat on the floor... they first practised with only 3 - the 2 MCs plus 1 ahjusshi regular (sorry I dunno his name) and they were all freaking out already - then they said they would try with 4.... first-come-first-served. Clever Jaehyung volunteered himself first, dragging Seungyeop along with him, because the one that volunteer last would be left with the outermost, most-endangered position... but he pushed Seungyeop to the safest innermost position, and took the outer one beside him... by rights he should be #2 then right? But no, Kwanghee jumped in and said he dun wanna be the outermost! So he pushed Yeopie aside, ie Jaehyung became #3! My heart nearly stopped as all the 4 guest skaters lined up to go, and as they flew over the 4 prone bodies I screamed with each 'leap' - if even just one of them screws up... someone could have been seriously injured coz all that weight landing on a person via hard skates would cause some serious injury... good thing it went off without a hitch.... ><'' And I remember being worried yet proud of Jaehyung for being a good hyung and protecting his dongsaeng... ^^;

At 2230 or so, we finally finished the recording... today, I watched him for about 7 hours, I am really really glad I came for this recording because this is the first time I could see him so well and for so long (ISAC he was too far most of the time, plus he was just sitting around bored... today he was laughing and exclaming most of the time) The girl beside me said I had an idiotic grin on my face constantly... which I knew was the case because I was watching him and his reactions more than the guests performances, to be frank. The audience is not really caught on camera for Star King so I just had to verbally whoop and clap when required... It's like, major Jaehyung cuteness overload... ><'' There is nothing he does that I don't like, even the desire to show-off and succeed during the skating demonstration which I found manly haha... Plus oh my god he looked so cool in skates. T_T I didn't manage to get a single photo of him in skates. T_T Sorry everyone... I only have 1 shot that I sneaked with my DSLR when the person-in-charge was looking down and Jaehyung at that moment spotted me and V-ed at my camera plus pointed me out to Seungyeop and whispered something and both of them just looked at me and grinned... I just winced and "wiped sweat" at them to show that I'm about to emit cold sweat ninja-shooting them, I was so nervous about my DSLR getting caught too... haiz... but... somehow I feel closer to Jaehyung after this recording... like... I have gotten to know a bit more of him.... (keke that reminds me actually I did ask him if he can ice-skate before, he said yeah~ so I shouldn't have been so surprised that he can skate decently...).

And oh yes actually after dinnertime the other Jaehyung fan left because she said it was too difficult sitting there for hours just watching the recording and being deprived of a cellphone to entertain herself throughout... so I was alone... kinda awkward because during the skating part I was the only one cheering madly for your boys... T_T... And when the boys got off work... I decided to stay at the carpark entrance to wait for them even though I was alone... in the rain without an umbrella.... in an attempt to fancam them.. some 'legal' material for the fans to see...... because Jaehyung is bound to open his window when he sees his own fan waiting... although with the drizzling rain I wasn't really 100% sure... but... to my surprise... not just Jaehyung, even Seungyeop opened his and waved to me... yelling a "BYE!"  ^^;;  I just yelled "Sugohesseoyo" and "See you on Thursday! Fighting!"