#now my korean is basically non-existent i can tell you a few words and phrases and can maybe get the gist of a couple sentences

[lloydfrontera]

i mean this in the least weird possible i promise but. i think that you get an extra layer of delight in reading tged and 약 파는 황태자 if you're used to consuming korean content. i'm not saying you're missing something important from them if you don't do this but,,,, i do think there are certain little details and humor that probably don't hit quite as much if you're not familiar with some of the culture and humor lol

it's just the little things, like lloyd calling javier "this punk" or "this guy" even while talking directly with him, because it feels sorta awkward in english, but if you're used to watching series or movies in korean you can almost hear the tone in which he's saying it.

or when javier is teasing lloyd and he hits too close at home and lloyd just goes "hey" but you can almost heart the "야" which is very close but not quite. or this little 'haah' he does when he's kind of frustrated or thinking hard about something.

or that you don't quite get why it's such a deal that julian started calling lloyd 'older brother' cause the translation doesn't use the word 'hyung'. or that the point of javier and lloyd's bet was that if lloyd lost he would call javier, someone younger than him, 'hyung' which would imply he's older and is a form of showing respect or affection. which is completely different from the 'master' they used in the translation. or how sweet and kind of sad it is that theodore still calls rakiel 'hyung' even when the whole court expects them to be against each other.

or just in general the way the dialogue flows feels much more natural when you consider that it was originally written in korean and not in english

it just,, small things that you don't quite notice unless you already have experience in dealing with a different language than the one you were raised with akjshdkja

[authorsdenbyorihime-may]

How I Write Baybayin (Handwriting and Straight-cut Nib Calligraphy) Subtitle: This is a freaking long-ass post so be warned now

You can read the entirety of this post as is, or you can go straight to the calligraphy portion. It’s at the end of the post (sorry dunno how to link that portion here).

Writer’s Note: First and foremost, I will advise everyone who reads this somewhat master post that I am not an authority when it comes to how baybayin is written, as what you shall be reading is just based mostly on my own experiences on how the characters are written and comparing them with other writing systems that are based on syllables rather than individual letters, like the Japanese Kana and the Korean Hangul, among others. This is because baybayin are not technically letters (individualized, can’t stand alone, only comes either as vowel or consonant but not both, you get the picture), but rather are syllables (i.e. the consonants have free vowels with them lol) that form words.

Also, as far as I know regarding how the baybayin texts are originally written pre-Hispanic colonization era, some of the written texts in the Philippines (or at least, those that survived, or I remember seeing in old history books) were written from right to left, top to bottom. This also coincides with other writing methods in some parts of Asia that also read from right to left. The technique of writing and reading from left to right may be a Western invention, in my opinion so I just did some of the strokes in the baybayin characters go from right to left, except for the straight-cut nib section. Again, I am no authority so I’m just doing what I think makes sense to me, as there is no existing ANCIENT written rules on the stroke order of the baybayin. Other people may disagree with my stroke orders here due to various reasons, but if you’re into what I did then feel free to learn from them, for free. *heart*

This author’s other notes: I won’t be elaborating the history of baybayin here because that would take around (counts how many years I spent in school) 5ever as it basically intertwines with the “current” history of the Filipino people. I put quotes on “current” because every decade or so, some written histories get re-written based on some evidences or what, and I totally respect that. It’s like in scientific papers: legit today, debunked tomorrow. And it’s completely OK, because THE MORE YOU KNOW~

Also this author’s note: I keep calling baybayin alibata, because that’s what they were called when I was a kid and how it was taught by history teachers before the process called “being politically-correct” became the norm. It’s because alibata was supposedly an incorrect term which signifies that the characters were letters based on Arabic, but apparently it wasn’t so.. Yeah. I’m just saying, so the kiddies would know. And if you’re like me who also refers to baybayin as alibata, let’s get a high-five! (Cause you’re also old, but gold =D) Some biased history FTW lol ok let’s get started.

Handwriting Alibata Baybayin Strokes with a Bamboo pen (or Ballpen, or Pencil, w/e floats your boat)

OK, before I start I would be first putting here the somewhat traditional ordering of the baybayin, which is:

A BA KA DA E GA HA I LA MA NA NGA O PA RA SA TA U WA YA

As well as the borrowed/loan syllables (which correspond to C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X, and Z were apparently added some 6-7 years ago, in which I didn’t get the memo x__x)

CA FA JA ÑA QA VA XA ZA

OK, now that’s out of the way, it’s time for the actual stuff. For ease of practice and recall, I’m grouping the letters based on how I write them and in turn, their forms. This would make sense as the pictures move along, don’t worry. The forms are built sequentially, I tried making that a bit obvious in the diagrams, but there are red arrows in case I wasn’t that clear. For those that only have one picture or arrows in the sequence, I would be implying that the form is built on a single stroke.

Group 1: A, MA, PA, YA, FA, JA, VA

OK, let’s start with A:

Then MA:

PA:

YA:

FA:

JA:

VA:

Group 2:  E/I (more on that later), KA, DA, HA, RA, CA, QA, XA

I’ll start with HA because it’s a foundational stroke:

E:

I looks structurally like E, but only with a vertical stroke on its hat.

It’s because originally, E and I were the same character and whether it should be read as a syllable from the E or I line depends on how the reader would read it and the dialect used in writing the words, like it’s a fill-in-the-blanks kind of thing.  It’s also the same with O and U, so if you see that part yeah they look alike. This is also the reason why revisions on writing the E-I and O-U consonants were made, but that would be for a later part. Just be patient for now. =D

Ok, moving on, we’ll go to KA:

DA:

RA:

A short note on DA and RA: In olden times, these two were only one character, and are used interchangeably based on word usage, thus for words such as doon/roon, which both mean way over there one is used for passive and one is used directly (sorry not a speech comm person). This is also the case for marami and ang dami (both meaning “there are many/there is much” but one is active and one is passive. Madami is, IMHO grammatically incorrect. But then again, I’m not a speech comm person so sorry if these are wrong. I’m just saying).

CA:

QA:

XA:

Group 3: O/U, GA, SA, ZA

Just like in E/I, O and U are also structurally similar. To make an O:

To make it a U, just put a vertical line on the right side:

GA:

SA:

ZA:

Group 4: LA, NA, TA, ÑA

I grouped this bunch based on having a downward stroke in the middle of the form. The initial strokes are written as a single stroke from left to right, like in the first group.

LA:

NA:

TA:

ÑA:

Group 5: I have no idea where to put BA, NGA, and WA so I just made a miscellaneous group lol but they deserve just as much love OK?

BA:

NGA:

WA:

How the E, I, O and U lines are written:

In writing E, I, O and U (as in the case for the example below, which is GE, GI, GO, and GU), the original positions of the additional marks (such as the vertical lines for I and U) were kept but in order to differentiate E from I and O from U, the marks were made to be further distinct. For instance, GE is basically GA which has a horizontal line above it, while GI has a dot above it. As for GO, it has a dot below and GU has a horizontal line. 

GI and GO can have either a hollowed dot like in the sample, or can also be filled like the samples below. It’s based on personal preference. Also I used G for the samples because it looks nice, fun to write, and most other examples of alibata on the internet use BA as their examples for this portion. Whoops, I meant, baybayin. XD

Vowel Killers: Invented by People who Needed It

I’m not entirely sure why vowel killer was the term used but it does tell it exactly what it does: it silences the vowels in the characters (because baybayin is composed of syllables) in order to make separate letters. It was invented by some Spanish friar who couldn’t properly write the native words because words that have consonants at the end were written incompletely. I.E. the word DOON (over there) was written as DO-O in baybayin. It was such a drag that he decided to introduce the Spanish/Latin alphabet by making baybayin characters that acted as alphabets, which is essentially killing all the vowels and leaving the consonant behind. So instead of using dots, the friar made a cross underneath the symbol which they called a kudlit (for obviously non-secular reasons), so that the words with consonant ends can be written and read as they were. As per the revision that was instated a few years ago, in order to make the baybayin a bit more secular, more forms of the vowel killers were made, which in my opinion look better than the original kudlit, because they look more organic with the forms.

As you can see in the pic of the letter G above, the first on the left is the original kudlit, which is shaped like a cross. The next one has an X, or sinawali (it’s literally based on the patterns of hard, woven rattan walls called sawali which look like X’s), the next one is called a kawil (sorry dunno where that came from) and the right-most one has a pamudpod (which may have come from the word “pudpod/pudpud” literally meaning grinding or repeatedly striking something on a hard surface or on a whetting stone till it disappears or becomes flat/dull, so pamudpod is the surface that makes the item pudpod like a used pencil or eraser. Do I even make sense anymore? Oh well, YOLO).

Stringing them All Together

My personal preference is using a kawil on horizontal writing (left to right) and using a pamudpod when writing vertically. I think the overall impact is better. But then again, it’s just my personal idea. Using any of the vowel killers are, like the filled or hollow dots on I and O are personal preferences, as long as there is consistency in usage.

If you can read the above and understand where the reference came from, you probably also call baybayin as alibata, and we should totally get some tea together. XDD It pretty much means “What is there, yonder?” smth idk but yeah, it sounds like that. Old and formal Filipino/Tagalog.

Langit -  sky or heaven, Lupa - ground or earth, Araw - sun, and Buwan (or Bulan in Ilokano) - moon

Soliman - A variant of the name Sulaiman/Solomon 

Amihan - the northeast monsoon, the nice wind that brings in cool, dry air around November-March. Or if you watched the old and new Encantadia, she’s the protag. XD

The third sampler is a phrase (I ran out of space it was supposed to be a sentence), and vertical double bars are used to end the sentence. I just made them into diagonal slashes to make them look cool. Also I ran out of space. x__x It’s transliterated as a wailing mom looking for her child: Ai anaku (bunga) - Ah, my child (fruit). No space for fruit so it ain’t there.

Author’s extra rant note: Of course, some early Filipinos didn’t wanna use the kudlit due to being comfy with whatever they had at that time, but eventually they gave in. Fast forward to a century later and the baybayin was pretty much dead, as it was for the next 4 centuries or so. Romaji became the norm (except for some of the native tribes that have their own awesome writing systems), but then again some Filipinos didn’t forget it entire time, as many of the revolutionaries’ battle flags had the syllable KA, which is the first syllable of Katipunan, their group which can also be transliterated as “the entire group of the people who meet and come together”. I can’t say more because this is a long-ass post and it’s not about Philippine history. But we can talk about that if you want. Just hit me up with an ask. Warning though: I might just say “thanks for asking but please ask something else” lol j/k XDD

Writing Baybayin using a Straight-cut Calligraphy Pen/ Dip pens with Straight/Oblique Nibs

For this portion of the post, aside from posting pictures of the baybayin in black and white ink I would be pointing out that the techniques I used here are based on Western traditional calligraphy techniques used by scribes of the past, so some of the stroke patterns would be a lot different from the handwritten strokes above. But then again, if you clicked the link to get here straight away instead of reading the previous portions, well you won’t be having that much problems then. Also I will assume you already learned how to write baybayin so I’ll leave you at that. For the black baybayin, I used a calligraphy fountain pen with a 2mm straight-cut nib from the Visual Deck Set – Calligraphy box, not sure where you can buy it online but I bought mine at the National Bookstore because nobody wants to buy it. (Should’ve also bought the other calligraphy set while they’re on sale. LOL Just saying XDD). The surface is just the back of old calendars because I was just testing the strokes. For the white baybayin, I used a Speedball™  C-2 oblique-cut nib and for the ink, it’s glittery silver poster paint from Reeves™ (diluted with dH2O), and the surface is some random paper with nice surface and sizing which my father got from the office. (Apparently you can’t print anything on it so it aged well there until my father disturbed the papers’ sleep and brought them home. Now I ran out of both the calendar and the weird red paper so business is halted for a bit. XDD) Again, these are all based on how I write stuff so it’s pretty much a personal opinion, it’s not absolute but it certainly works for me so here you go.

Group 1

A:

MA:

PA:

YA:

FA:

JA:

VA:

Group 2:

E/I: I’m just putting I here because E and I basically have the same strokes. To make E, just omit the final vertical stroke.

DA:

HA:

RA:

CA:

QA:

XA:

Group 3

O/U: Same with E/I, I just placed U here because O is practically the same, minus the vertical stroke on the right.

GA:

SA:

ZA:

Group 4

LA:

NA:

TA:

ÑA:

Group 5

BA:

NGA:

WA:

E, I, O, U Lines

Vowel Killers

I didn’t make any full sentences or words because I ran out of nice papers, so maybe I’ll post some next time. Sorry. ._.

Author’s final note on writing using baybayin: I’m still on the fence in using the loan letters C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X, and Z because in my opinion apart from having redundancies with some other letters, they were just invented to spell out proper nouns that are foreign in origin. I wouldn’t even spell my full name using baybayin, except my nickname and would just rather use the Romaji/Latin Alphabet for ease. As for using baybayin to write foreign words, well, that can be as tricky as using kana to write foreign words. Both methods boil down to localizing a foreign word into how it would be pronounced based on the original language that the writing system belongs to. For instance, the Japanese waifu (as in “My waifu”) is the Japanized form of the English word “wife”, but because their spelling system is a bit different they had to estimate which kana would be suited to approximate how the word would be pronounced and in turn, be spelled. It is also the same case for some Filipino loan words that got Filipinized (and bastardized because long words are hard lol not kidding tho) such as the word istambay which originally came from “standby” and is now shortened to “tambay” which means “just loitering and doing nothing” or in how the young ones use it now: to hang out with friends (and probably just loiter and do nothing lol don’t kill me ok?). Thus, the usage of baybayin (or kana, or hangul, or Arabic because I think their writing is very lovely or whatever writing system you like that works as syllables more than letters) in writing words from another language would take extra steps such as following the rules of the written language or localizing the word first before writing them in whatever letters or syllables that you want. It’s like using what you have then making do with it/winging it out.

The End!!!! No just kidding. But it’s the last part.

To be honest there are a lot of stuff in the internet about baybayin so I’m not that entirely sure if what I have here is pretty much redundant or not. There are a lot of sites so just use your Googling skills to find what you need, although it may be a bit difficult for readers/users who simply try writing and not understanding the entire language so just use with caution. It’s hard to end up with THAT tough guy who has a kanji tattoo that actually spells “poop” instead of whatever it was supposed to be. I actually saw a guy sporting a tattoo that reads FUUBEN in Japanese, which translates to inconvenience. I lol deep inside but the guy seems happy with that so I just let him be.

Well, I hope this long-ass post helped you a lot, or at the very least the stuff made sense to you and it was worth your time reading. Please leave an ask if you have other questions, I’ll try to answer them if and when I can. Have a great day and may the force be with you. =D

[star-hoya]

170304 – INFINITE Rally III Fanaccount

So those who follow me on Tumblr would know I flew to Seoul to attend the rally on the 4th of March. The atmosphere outside Jamsil Stadium was awesome as usual. Fans were mostly decked out in their cutest outfits, many braving the cold to go through with short skirts and no leggings whatsoever, there was even one fan that went wearing only the pyjamas Woohyun wore on his Lie Down V App #cute. Orderly lines formed with different fansites giving out freebies at different points in time. It was very important to check Twitter by the minute or just run wherever the crowd went to see a new line formed. Fansites were mostly sitting around in cliques, so you’ve got the Hogam/Laile/Turning Point/Honeytree/Yeolna (I think) at one area, Springrain/Monodrama/MadeinL and Royal (I think) at another end and many others scattered around. There was also a photo taking area with the boys’ standees and also containers with the boys’ outfits displayed (x). 

(Warning: This fanaccount is really really long with photos too)

The fan meet would start at 5pm, so we entered the venue at around 4pm. They were having this event whereby inspirits could send in their photos they took at the venue via MMS and it would get displayed on screen when they did their last song, however as much as I tried, I couldn’t get my MMS to send so sadly, I didn’t get to participate in this. MVs of past INFINITE songs started playing and fans started getting energetic and riled up.

The boys started punctually with ‘Bad’, rising from under the stage to ground level and cheers emerged. Dongwoo did the solo dance today and it was a whole new level of hot! He was grinding the floor at one point and I went OMG. At this point, I have to say I got a seat at the last row of Level 2, but pretty close to the stage nonetheless, especially to the extended stage and the big screen. There was nobody to my right, but to my left sat the cutest Korean inspirit. We couldn’t understand each other but many times we just looked at each other and laughed and cheered together while waving our lightsticks, and covered our eyes when our boys were being too cheesy. I guess that’s the true meaning of how music bonds people together!

INFINITE started their ment at this time, because of how cool Dongwoo looked during his solo dance, the boys tried to make him dance the same thing to Woohyun’s Nod Nod! So they just randomly sang the chorus on stage and Dongwoo attempted to follow it through before falling onto the floor laughing (I think?) A few of the boys introduced themselves as different types of candies following Sungjong’s ‘I’m your lemon candy Sungjong’ and Woohyun even said he’s ‘our heart Woohyun’.

‘Between me and you’ was next and Sunggyu introduced this song as one he really really liked. The boys didn’t have those elevated stages this time so they just stood on different steps. There was this cute part where Myungsoo blew at his fringe after acing his high note.

They had their second ment here, they brought out the chairs so I knew it was gonna be a long chat. And I’m not sure why but I wrote in my notes that they were talking about ‘Bad’ here? Oh well, anyway they said for ‘Bad’ there was this part at the start that goes betting on you~ and Sunggyu said that they actually did a few different lyrics changes to it sometimes (didn’t really get this part) and he asked Dongwoo to tell us what he changed it to. Dongwoo said he’d sing it as Sajangnim nice~ lol. They then made Minseok sing ‘The Eye’ to which he did a fantastic job! They were laughing at something (I can’t remember what haha omg what’s wrong with my fanaccount) but Dongwoo almost fell off his chair!

They talked about the world tour (haha, that was a year ago but I guess they really enjoyed it) and they said how they would split into different teams during their private time. Sunggyu/Woohyun/Hoya were the opera team, Dongwoo/Myungsoo/Sungyeol were the walking around (visiting landmarks) team and Sungjong was a team on his own (oh baby why don’t you wanna join the others?) But Sungjong said he actually liked doing things alone in a different country. I think the boys teased him about having more staff following him for one person than them when the smaller teams went out. I think he had three staff with him while the teams only had two? I don’t know my Korean language skills are pretty non-existent. But there was once Howon actually went to Disneyland with Sungjong haha #hojong.

And since they were on the topic of world tour, Woohyun made them speak in different languages! Basically doing some simple self-introductions. Sungyeol started with Thai, Sunggyu was designated to speak in Chinese, Myungsoo to speak in Japanese, Woohyun asked Sungjong to do it in Korean #lol, and he tried making Howon do it in Bahasa Indonesia but Howon didn’t know so he put his mic to his mouth and tried mumbling while looking pretty embarrassed twice #cutie. Dongwoo then spoke in English and he got too excited because he was standing and stuff so Woohyun asked him to ‘sit down’ in English! I think at some point Minseok commented the boys could speak pretty good English and Dongwoo said yes or something and they talked about stuff, presumably about breakfast and Dongwoo just said ‘Morning rice’! They also mentioned their sleep routine or was it their skincare routine. I don’t know what happened but Woohyun also spouted out English and said ‘Music is my life, you know what I’m saying’ #lamehaha For how vocal Howon normally is, he was pretty quiet the entire time, maybe tired from filming?

Minseok then commented (read off his cue cards hahaha) that Sungjong did really well in Knowing Brothers and Woohyun came out and said that Sungjong wasn’t trying to be funny or comical by pretending he didn’t know how to control the soccer ball, he honestly tried to do it but failed and it turned out looking so funny. Then, a soccer ball rolled onto the stage from the side lol and they made Jongie try it out once more to bounce the ball off his chest. As expected, he hit it with his head again and the ball flew towards the standing section lol.

They also talked about Sunggyu’s solo album, and about the double title tracks and how every member like ‘The Answer’ however Sunggyu pointed out that he along with Howon really enjoyed Kontrol more. The boys also asked if Minseok had any questions he wanted to ask himself, because he was conducting the session based on questions off the cue cards, and Minseok was like ‘I have absolutely nothing to ask because I know everything’. Minseok then went to the edge of the stage and held his microphone out to a Myungsoo fan at the standing section to ask if she had any questions but I think she was too star struck because she didn’t say anything. Continuing on with questions, they were asked to point out who would really have it hard without the rally (as in who really really needed this rally) and almost everyone pointed at themselves except Dongwoo. Sunggyu then asked ‘is it okay for you to not have this rally?’ lol.

They made Howon do the acrostic poem with ‘Mu-Han-Dae-Jib-Hoe’ as in ‘INFINITE Gathering’ and there were a few words whereby Howon paused extensively to think but he made a really good one judging from the reactions from the fans. Woohyun then asked if they should go on to their next stage now and fans said yes and he said he could see fans signalling him that he was talking too much and the session should continue and fans did the cross sign with both their hands to ask him to stop talking (I’m sure he was joking at this point haha)

A video came out while the boys went backstage to change and it was of them wearing suits and looking so so handsome. It was the suits the boys did their V App in previously. And I think they played a few games in the video to decide who would be king for the games they’d do on stage! The games came in the order of:

1. Noraebang (They sang Come Back Again but only got 83 points haha, Sungjong sang The Answer, Dongwoo got Shot, Woohyun did Nod Nod and got 99 points),

2. They had counters attached to different parts of their bodies and they had to shake it to get as many counts as possible! It was hilarious seeing them shake with all their might,

3. They had to eat something, I think it’s spicy? I’m not sure about this one,

4. They were given a word of phrase each and one member had to do the actions while other members guessed what word/phrase that was,

5. They were give a can of coke (I wonder if it’s because they’re no longer Pepsi’s endorsers so they chose coke on purpose haha) and had to finish the whole can without burping perhaps (but many boys gave up halfway). 

Anyway, Woohyun was selected as king through the games! We got DNA Korea version as our next stage and I was such in awe because when they did that dance move where they swung their hands that was so powerful!

They stayed on stage for their next ment and chatted about That Summer 3! One part they were talking about the Busan concert and Woohyun said he had a runny nose then he really needed to wipe his nose because he could feel it coming out and Dongwoo said he could’ve done it to the dance moves during Be Mine and demonstrated it on stage lol. Minseok also did a Come Back Again dance move and fans went ‘wowwww’ and immediately Woohyun went ‘It’s not right he didn’t even do it correctly why are you wow-ing for’ lol what an idiot XD.

The King throne/chair was moved out and they started the missions with inspirits! I think there’re lots of fancams for this so I won’t elaborate too much. Dongwoo was first to spin the wheel, and while Woohyun had the crown and was sitting comfortably on the throne, Dongwoo managed to spin to the crown sign on the wheel and the king changed to him! He was so happy whereas Woohyun looked confused and shocked, kinda like ‘I haven’t even started having fun and I already stopped being king???’ Jongie was next and he had to do 2X dance play. He went in front of standing and asked who knew how to dance to ‘The Chaser’ and the crowd just swarmed in front so he picked a fan wearing glasses and the security literally carried her over the barricades and onto the stage. She did pretty well considering it was 2x! She was a Jong fan and Jongie hugged her in the end. Sunggyu was next, and his mission was to gift a fan his hoodie and Dongwoo chose standing section for Sunggyu to gift his gift to! I think Myungsoo was next and he spun the wheel to get the same mission as Gyu. He chose to gift his tumblr jar to a lucky fan on Level 3! And I have to say I was super super lucky because where I sat, that was the route he took to head up and down the stairs onto Level 3 so I got to see him up close and personal. God Myungsoo, he smiled and waved while heading up.

Sungyeol (I think?) was next and he had to dance to girl group dance and it was TT he had to dance to! He did it on stage it was cute. Woohyun was next, he got the mission to re-enact a scene off ‘Goblin’ and he was also chosen to go to Level 3, and once again he took the route Myungsoo took so I saw him really close too. Woohyun and the fan were really cute, they were so shy the first time round so they had to do it one more time and the fan burst out crying at some point. And Woohyun was hugging her and patting her head. Then Howon was next and he kept spinning the stuff other members had already completed so he had to keep spinning the wheel. Finally, he got a new mission and it was to wear couple tee with a fan and he made everyone scream. At first, he wanted to go to Level 2 and Yeollie said ‘since your mummy is on Level 2 you should gift this to her’ and Sunggyu said ‘you can take a selca with her too.’ He eventually went to standing C. He was in front of my section too so I saw him quite close and he’s so handsome and looked so sweet when he said he wanted to take a selca with the fan too while wearing the shirt. I think one side of the shirt said ‘pretty’ and Howon said he’d take that and gave the fan the other shirt lol. When the fan took out her phone, he was quick to note that the display screen was Woohyun lol #mypoorbaby After the mission, he sent the fan off and when she turned he did the action of wanting to hug her but she didn’t see it so he just wrapped his hands around his waist and pretended he was hugging himself lol.

They then ended the ment and continued with songs, this time ‘Love of my Life’ in Korean too, the one Myungsoo did for his solo at IEA. Howon was still wearing the couple tee at this point so it was cute.

We got another video where the members summarised their last 7 years with their thoughts and memories and I got so emotional I was tearing up at this point because look at how far we’ve come!

The boys came back out again and sang ‘One day’ which will be one of my favourite stages to witness live!! Another ment here and they made all the members do Sungjong’s neck movement from ‘Bad’. I remember Gyu doing it like how he’d do his morning aerobics #grandpagyu. Woohyun kept saying he’d prefer doing Jong’s other line ‘이제 깨닫는다’ more and he kept imitating it saying Sungjong would pose there and wink. Howon did a super sexy improvised version of the song. He also did the action to the first line of ‘One Day’ haha. Sungyeol said he’d do a 100% imitation of Jong’s movements and even Jongie was surprised and he went ‘oh am I really like this?’

They said ‘The Eye’ would be the last song and proceeded with that stage. They went backstage and inspirits started chanting Dorawa dorawa Dashi Dorawa~ and this has got to be one of my favourite parts of the fan meet because inspirits chant it tirelessly and we know the boys will be out with another amazing part of the program. After about 3-5 minutes, the screen showed the comeback teaser for May 2017!! I know I told my inspirits-only admins before that the video was safe to watch but boy I was wrong. Watching it on the big screen and seeing the boys’ faces up there was amazing!!!

The members gave us another song ‘As good as it gets’ this time coming down from different doors of Level 2 #Ifeltsoblessed. Honestly towards the end, I was on my feet most of the time with my cute Korean inspirit seating mate since we were at the last row and nobody sat behind us and I enjoyed the ending part so much I couldn’t really remember much of the end heh. But the members shook a lot of peoples’ hands before going back up on the stage for what would be their ending ment (except it wasn’t as we already know). We did Myungsoo’s birthday support banner then when it was his turn to speak and the place just lit up with white banners for him and it was beautiful. We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him and Woohyun was like ‘okay can we have the cake now please’ except the cake his fansite prepared didn’t get wheeled out not sure why #awkwardpause. Haha, we chanted for Myungsoo not to cry when he wasn’t crying. And then the members went chanting ‘please cry please cry’. Myungsoo said something like we were his happiness these seven years and he was so sincere in it it was very touching.

When Hoya did his ending speech, the stadium was particularly quiet because everyone was listening earnestly to what he had to say. Then suddenly from standing we could hear the staff shouting really loudly ‘Come out’, presumably to an inspirit who was taking shots of the boys. It would’ve been really awkward for the fan, so Howon stepped up and joked ‘you want me to get out?’ and the members also joked about it a little and then Howon and Woohyun and Sungyeol were apologising to the staff to let the fan off the hook. They’re such angels. During Sungyeol’s ment I think he also mentioned something about 7 years and I can’t remember what he said but a fan shouted 7000 years and Yeol was like ‘I’m not the Goblin okay?’ For Woohyun’s Ment, he was talking and then suddenly a fan said ‘arrasseo~’ and he was like that sounded like a primary school kid’s conversation, like how he would chat with his friend. Then, after that every sentence he said the members and fans replied him with ‘arrasseo’.

Right now as you know the boys were supposed to just end it with one last song. However, the boys being the boys with their love for us and for the stage and because the atmosphere was so so high. They asked if they had time to do a few more songs as service for us!! On Woohyun’s side the staff said no, but at Dongwoo’s side the staff said okay so the boys went ‘alright we’ll do it as what the staff (on Dongwoo’s side) said! :D’ We wanted songs like ‘The Chaser, Be Mine’ however I think they couldn’t find the tracks for it as we settled for ‘Entrust and Cover Girl’ first! The boys again went out onto the extended stage and also onto Level 2 so I was quite close to see their faces clearly too. They were enjoying it so so much!!! They did ‘Nothing’s Over’ next (completely random but because they didn’t want it to end) They were apologetic because they couldn’t find the AR for it only the MR, and we went ‘Of course the MR is fine!!!’ You could hear how well and stable and loud the boys sang. Kings, talented kings only INFINTE!!!

They were so hyped but they knew the staff wouldn’t find any more tracks for them so our sing-along karaoke session started! Medley after medley of songs where the boys just sang together with inspirits. The feeling to be part of that was the best really especially to see yourself surrounded by others who shared the same passion as you! My Korean inspirit partner and I were just waving our lightsticks and singing all that we could! Woohyun, Dongwoo and Hoya were especially good in starting new songs for inspirits to sing along and I was particularly surprised because Myungsoo too, started a few songs!!! He was so into the whole thing!! The boys even said they wanted to bring their after-party onto the stage they just needed some alcohol and they could continue partying with us even if they’re drunk and can’t stand properly. They even sang ‘Monster Time’ and at this point Sunggyu was on the floor laughing at how ridiculous and amazing the whole thing was. Towards the end, they also sang the theme song of Digimon and Pokemon!

Last (yes, the final one) ment here but I can’t remember what they said before concluding their stage with ‘Thank You’. Myungsoo cried at this stage and Dongwoo rushed to give him tissue. The boys went to both sides of the extended stage and did 90-degree bows before heading back onto the centre stage for one final bow. Still a lot of them were teary-eyed and took long looks at different sections of the stadium, trying to soak in on everything.

The fan meet felt more like a concert and INFINITE made me realise how lucky I am to stan the right group. I know I always say how each concert I attended was the best, but seriously, because I wasn’t expecting so many songs for this fan meet, I really can’t express the feeling to be there, to love them. 44,000won for almost 4 hours of a dream come true? Thank you INFINITE!