· @mnyoongis
29th Jun 2014 from TwitLonger
140629 Bangtan at LAX Fan-account
NOTE: I’m starting from last night to when my friend and I left after seeing them.
As many of you know my friend and I went to LAX to see Bangtan arrive since it was said they would be coming here to LA to work on a new album with American producers. Some of you know I made cards for each individual member with some messages from you. I’ll tell you now I was unable to give them to the members (the explanation for this will come later in the “story”). I stayed up all night making the cards and putting people’s stuff in while writing my own message to each member. I didn’t sleep at all and then around 7:20AM I picked up my friend Kadi. She came with me to Walmart because I wanted to buy them gifts. We ended up buying 2 shirts (1 tank, other short-sleeve) for the 6 members to share and I bought Yoongi a nice short sleeve button-up/down (idk) since he’s been wearing those types of shirts lately. We also bought them Beef Jerky, Sour Patch Kids and some other type of candy because we wanted them to try American snacks and candies. After buying those plus gift bags (I took a picture of one of the bags; it had the Avengers on it but I picked it because of Taehyung and his weird thing for Iron Man) we made our way to LAX. We would have technically arrived around 8:45AM had I not made a wrong turn.
We ended up driving around for over a half an hour trying to figure out how to get to the parking that was closest to where Bangtan would be flying in. Finally we got to the parking and got into the airport around 9:20AM (or something along those lines). We were the only people there besides this one other girl who’d obviously been waiting there even longer than we had. For the longest time there were only 3 of us. We wondered if Bangtan would be flying in on the 10:10AM flight from Incheon airport, which would have been really nice because no one was there; but of course that wasn’t the flight they were coming in on. So we waited another hour and fans started to slowly drift in, some even talked to us, asking us who our biases were, etc. While we were waiting the 11:30AM flight from Incheon airport, it kept getting delayed. The delay time kept bouncing between 12:10PM, 12:15PM, 12:17PM so we were never sure. Eventually 12:17PM was the delay time for a good while then it changed back to 12:15PM. As 12:15PM passed they didn’t come out. We were then waiting some more until around 12:45PM, the board that has all the international flights finally changed the status to “arrived.” Then we had to wait some more, of course because Bangtan along with the staff needed to get through customs plus get their luggage (keep in mind that’s 7 boys plus all their staff, managers and stylists) so it made sense why they weren’t there right away.
Suddenly girls started screaming and when I looked over I saw Yoongi walking up the ramp from the terminal. He was pretty much by himself and when he realized the others weren’t behind him, he turned around and headed back down. Then within a couple of seconds Namjoon, Taehyung, Yoongi, and Jungkook (with his luggage cart) appeared along with I want to say it was Manager Hobeom. Then Jin, Jimin and Hoseok came up and joined the members. They hovered there for a bit speaking to each other. People were yelling and calling their names but none of them did anything. Someone yelled “J-Hope you’re my hope!” (something along those lines) and he smiled and waved slightly. He was being his typical ball of sunshine despite even from a distance looking noticeably tired. They began to move toward the exit of the building and Taehyung was standing and looking at all of us. People called his name but he didn’t say or do anything and went back to facing Bangtan. (He was not being rude, I think he along with the members were so drained that in the moment they just didn’t have the energy to respond). Someone yelled “Jimin!” and he gave a really small gesture… I can’t really call it a wave cause it wasn’t. He also seemed genuinely tired. (He and Taehyung were wearing matching glasses or glasses that were really similar to each other). Yoongi and Jin were both wearing sunglasses. That was the last time I saw Jin.
They then began to continue to move toward the exit and once they were out of that sort of restricted area for non-passengers, fans mauled them. I saw them and then they were gone within a flood of fans. People were yelling names, saying “Oppa I love you!”, etc. etc. My friend and I stayed back and watched the scene unfold. She told me to go and try to give one of the members my gift; the first member in the group being Namjoon. He looked so uncomfortable as people were pressing their phones in their faces and yelling. He kept bowing slightly but wasn’t smiling. And by kept bowing I mean continuously, every time he took a step he just bowed. They had no security, it was weird and the security that was there were waiting at the door for them to exit. There were no boundries, nothing, people were just all over them, taking ridiculously close pictures. Kadi and I moved towards the exit, which surprisingly no one was hanging near. I guess they were too busy taking pictures of the members. This is when Namjoon was slowly making his way by (at this point he was still sorta at a small distance from me) and I called his name and kinda held up the gifts and asked if he would take them. Then he got closer and at that point I finally noticed how exhausted, semi-upset and uncomfortable he looked and I didn’t even bother trying to see if he’d take them. I think he saw me glance at the fans all over the remaining members cause when I looked back at him as he passed, we had eye-contact for a couple of split seconds and then he gave me the smallest and saddest smile I’ve ever seen. If I could have captured his face I would have just to prove to people who are making claims that fans were calm and whatever that that’s not true. I’ve never seen him so sad and tired looking. My heart broke and I knew I wasn’t going to even bother trying to give them gifts, not in the conditions they were in. (Note: staff had apparently told them they couldn’t take gifts [I just found this out through a friend, thanks]) Namjoon has REALLY flawless skin… he looks like a porcelain doll.
The next member to whiz by me was baby Jungkook and his luggage cart. I got a good glimpse of his face and as many of you now know he does have acne, but what teenager hasn’t at least had some acne? (unless you’re genes are amazing) He kept his head down the entire time. I couldn’t even call his name gently; my heart was in my throat (this is a metaphorical statement). I could feel myself start shaking with anger and sadness. He looked like he wanted to just get out of there. Next came lovely Yoongi. He’s more attractive than in pictures. He’s pale and handsome. He was wearing sunglasses so I couldn’t tell what his facial expression really was but from what I saw when he walked past me (you know how you can sometimes see eyes from the side angle if people are wearing sunglasses), he looked tired and a bit frustrated also. The next three members I got a glimpse of were kind of a blur since fans suddenly rushed out after them. I got a small glimpse of Hoseok (who’s really really handsome in person), Jimin (pictures don’t do him justice. He’s gorgeous) and I saw Taehyung up-close for a millisecond (he’s also really attractive…. They all are). I sadly did not get to see Jin up-close. I didn’t take pictures at all. My phone was in my pocket the entire time the members rushed by me. I couldn’t bring myself to take pictures and be like the crowd. Suddenly though the crazy pack of people bolted outside chasing after them. At this time I was still somewhat shaking and I honestly wanted to cry, I felt so embarrassed and frustrated for Bangtan. Kadi and I remained back as the group basically circled around Bangtan and were getting way to close, shoving their phones and cameras in their faces. And by remaining back we were at a distance. I could see Namjoon the most and I got another good glimpse of Jimin and Taehyung. I also saw Manager Hobeom in between the movement of the fans. He’s much younger looking in person than in pictures!
One of their staff members was trying to keep them bunched together by putting his hand on Namjoon’s back and his other arm near one of the other members. The fans kept crowding in though and yelling. To be honest I would have hated to be any member of Bangtan during all of this.
Kadi kept telling me to go and try again with the gifts but I kept saying “no” especially after Namjoon without words said “no” and kept going. We ended up going and talking to one of their stylists. I recognized her from Bangtan Bombs and stuff… she’s really cute and has broken English but she understood what we were asking. We asked if she could give the gifts to Bangtan but she responded saying “I’m [a] stylist. I can’t.” After that we asked her one more question and asked if any of the other staff could take it and she said, “I don’t know. I can’t.” And we assumed that meant the other staff wouldn’t take them either; but it never hurts to try right and it wasn’t like we were pressing her to take them. We said, “thank you” and sat down on this kind of stonewall thing and watched the fans surrounding Bangtan (from where we sat we had a good angle and view of what was going on).
Finally Bangtan’s van arrived and Manager Hobeom was trying to get them into the van but they were having trouble getting the members in because fans were being obnoxious and rushing in front of them and stuff. Namjoon began to bow again occasionally while trying to get into the van. EVENTUALLY THEY ALL GOT IN THE VAN. Fans practically ran up to the side of the van still yelling and screaming. The van finally drove away and the fans finally began to die down noise wise. It’s funny because when Kadi and I were sitting on the wall, I pointed out how tired ALL the staff and stylists looked (they also brought pretty much their entire stylist team). They also looked super irritated and not amused by the behavior of the fans.
We hung around for a couple more minutes while the fans finally began to leave. Then we left too.
In the end I can say I’m super disgusted about how people acted. I know it’s something you can’t control but it was RIDICULOUS. I don’t understand why Bangtan didn’t actually have security even if it was just a couple extra people to help lead them through the crowd. I mean Namjoon seemed like he was basically barreling his way through people and Jungkook was making it through because of his luggage cart.
I apologize to Bangtan for the behavior, as I am mortified. Honestly they’ll most likely remember the LA fans as being pushy, all up-in-their-faces, disrespectful to their personal space, rude and loud (this also is my personal opinion of how I felt people were having observed from the sidelines). I can’t imagine what KCON will be like.
In conclusion, I can say that ALL the Bangtan members are more handsome and gorgeous in person. But I can also say that they looked ridiculously tired. So for the European fans and Brazilian fans who’ll be getting Bangtan soon enough, please treat them like they’re humans who need their space and respect. Thanks.