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[English Version] SHINee’s KIFF Incident Clarification by SHAWOL INDONESIA

Indonesian SHAWOLs have been under pressure after critiques and accusations came up on cybernet regarding the SHINee incident happened last October during the KIFF (Korea-Indonesia Friendship Festival). Speculation above the excuse of  injury suffered by one of the members, Jonghyun, caused by fans who are too violent (as posted by allkpop quoting SME) seems to be the most controversial talking around the country.

Various responses and expressions were shown as we posted a translated journal taken from fan account of Fallissa several days ago, intended to clear all the speculation during the incident as well as shared the 2-day emotional adventure of stalking SHINee under her nose. All I’m saying is: INDONESIAN SHAWOLS ARE NOT TO BLAME for whatever may happened to SHINee members and all, the scene intense situation merely happened because of the fans excitement to see their idols coming to the country. Please show your respect without pulling out any prejudice and low judgement, and open your eyes to the whole truth.

The whole thanks I gave it (again) to Fallissa for her concern letting me reposting her journal, it’s going to be a long day to read, so prepare yourself^^ (count it that you’ve been warned -red)

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Before you read the story, please take note of this first. What I’m going to say in this fanaccount is the truth and nothing but the truth. If it is a rumor or something unconfirmed, I will state so. I have several very much trusted friends and I assure you that they are reliable sources. Secondly, and most important if all, I do not accept bashing upon unreasonable reasons (yes, that’s redundancy for you). If you’re only going to bash and get jealous, go be a fantard an immature fan somewhere else. I’m here to share the fun, especially for those who were not able to see SHINee in Jakarta. Thank you.

One more thing. I have actually received news on SHINee coming to Indonesia a couple of months before the concert. But it was only around three weeks before the concert I got the confirmation. I have to be honest. The organization and coordination between Arirang and IDK (the local organizer) were quite bad. Information changed all the time, and I was quite surprised upon hearing that the show would be free. It would only end up in chaos. Right I was. A lot of fans was screaming, crying, (and threatening to commit suicide) because they didn’t get tickets. I personally think Arirang underestimated the situation and enthusiasm towards K-Pop in Indonesia. They were shocked to see the mega interest regarding SHINee coming to Indonesia. IDK had warned them before about it, but it wouldn’t be fair to tell them ‘I told you so’, would it? I had tried and experienced it myself that it was really hard to get the tickets (2,500 indoor tickets and around 1,000 outdoor tickets). That’s why I’m really, really, really grateful to those who had helped me in getting tickets for me and my friends. Thank you so much to those who had provided me with useful information on SHINee’s whereabouts during their trip in Jakarta. I owe it to a lot of people.

So, yeah, here’s my stalking experience.

MONDAY
The day before, a friend of mine inside the event organizer team informed me of when SHINee would arrive in Soekarno-Hatta airport. She asked me to bring a few people so it would look like that SHINee were greeted by fans. However, the news got leaked by a fansite and it spread like wildfire.I arrived there around 2PM, a couple of hours before they landed. There were already many fans, but to tell you the truth, it was not that many.

When SHINee arrived, it looked like they wouldn’t come out of the usual terminal. I contacted my sources and I was told that SHINee would come out of the 2D terminal instead of 2F, because the bus and police cars were parked there. By the time I went to that terminal, girls were already screaming, and so I ran. I almost missed it. Or maybe I did miss it. I couldn’t see anything. I spot the top of Jonghyun’s hoodie and Manager Jin (cos he is REALLY tall) [*I think she meant it by manager Gyeongsik], but I couldn’t see the rest. I followed them on their way to the bus. Fangirls were swarming around them like bees. SHINee moved really fast and got on the bus just fine. I caught Taemin’s backside and Minho’s side-profile. I couldn’t catch Onew though. Then a silhouette came towards the window, the girls screamed. But the guy only pulled the curtains down. LOL I caught a glimpse of Key waving to the crowd though. He was so nice! 

The minute SHINee’s bus drove away, my friends and I got on our car too. We saw the bus parking at the edge of the airport exit, but the police shooed us away. So we drove first and parked at a gas station, waiting for the bus pass. However, we saw the bus circled the airport once again. We figured it was waiting for the coast to be clear. After waiting for almost half an hour, we still saw nothing. We knew they were going to Ritz-Carlton, so we decided to reach the hotel before them and catch them there. It was only later I found out that in the middle of the highway, SHINee changed vehicles from bus to a car. That’s why when we got to Ritz-Carlton, we couldn’t catch them, because we were stalking the bus. We managed to catch a glimpse of them getting into the hotel though.

We parked our car in hotel basement and went inside. We went straight to the press conference room. Of course we couldn’t get inside. In fact, the security asked us to go, because the floor had been privately booked by Arirang for the occassion. It was a good thing we went on a private car. A lot of fans who didn’t have cars couldn’t get in and ended up waiting in vain in front of the hotel, unable to get in. So when the security asked us to go, we went upstairs and had a very late lunch in the restaurant. God knows we were so hungry. I couldn’t eat anything, because I was afraid I might throw up upon the possibility of meeting SHINee.

I kept checking whether the press conference had started or not. Once it actually did, my friends and I went down to the deserted floor only to find the conference room being closed and guarded by a couple of guards. There were several fans, including us, peeking through the big glass door, trying to catch a glimpse of SHINee. I squeezed between them and… there they were. SHINee themselves.

I can’t really explain the sensation of finally seeing them with my own eyes, because up to this day, I still can’t believe it myself. I saw them sitting next to each other; Taemin, Onew, Jonghyun, Minho, and Key. Taemin didn’t smile much and glanced at us outside the door once or twice. Onew also didn’t smile much. He looked really tired. Jonghyun kept glancing at us, though he didn’t smile much either. Maybe he was curious what the hell were we doing flocked up outside the door. LOL Minho looked relaxed and talked a lot with Key. I spotted a MinKey moment once. Key picked something on Minho’s lips and I felt like squealing (OTP is great OTP). Key also didn’t glance at us much. He kept drinking the mineral water like Onew. Jakarta was really hot that day. But there was this one time when Key glanced at us and smiled. Good God, I’m loving this boy even more already. He’s so nice. >.<

The press conference didn’t last long. They immediately disappeared when the event was done. I knew there would be a gala dinner, and I had thought of the possibility of SHINee attending it. However, the event organizer cleverly spread a word that SHINee were not going to the gala dinner. Fans thought SHINee were going home, so they went to Mulya hotel, the hotel that SHINee were rumored to stay in. However, I took the word with a pinch of salt. My sources hadn’t said anything about SHINee leaving Ritz-Carlton, and there was just no way SHINee wouldn’t attend the gala dinner. It was an embassy event, it would be impolite of SHINee if they just skip it. So I waited and waited. Even as my friends who stalked SHINee in the airport went home, I chose to stay with the crazy noonas and waited for information on SHINee’s whereabouts. Oh, here’s a fun encounter. When I was in the toilet, my friends messaged me on BBM like crazy, and when I got out, it was already too late. They saw Minho walking on the second floor corridor. They called him and Minho looked at them before going straight to the ballroom for the gala dinner. Damn. There were also some fans who encountered Taemin, and the magnae gave them a heart sign with his bony fingers. Aw <3

Anyway, it was confirmed that SHINee was in the gala dinner. By then, Ritz-Carlton was much less crowded, because the fans had moved to Mulya hotel. My friends suggested me to go home already, because the dinner was for invitees only, but I refused to give up. I just had a good feeling that day. It was still a couple of hours until the gala dinner ended and I thought that anything could happen. Who knows there might be someone who pity me and give me an invitation to the dinner, right? Two of my friends with invitations were already in, and they messaged me saying “ONEW IS 5 METRES AWAY FROM ME!” and I felt like crying. So I gathered my guts and went up to the ballroom. Thank God I wore a decent outfit that day. I learned that in stalking you have to dress nice, because you won’t know where your idols might go to. So I went upstairs and blended in with other people. My heart was beating so fast as I stepped through the door. Next thing I knew, I was inside.

I froze for about five seconds, waiting for the security to tell me to get out. But there was no one. I was still inside. If I didn’t remember where I was, I would already be screaming up and down around the ballroom. I quickly told my friends outside to get inside, because really, YOU COULD GET INSIDE THE DINNER GDI! When my common sense was back, I scanned the ballroom for my friends, but it was hard because they were wearing black attires. But oh thank you God so very much for Taemin’s blonde hair, because it shone so brightly in the dark and I saw immediately that SHINee were sitting on the front table. I went there and there were my friends, staring starstruck at SHINee in front of them. LOL My feet trembled all of a sudden and I just had to sit down.

Unfortunately, the only available seats were the ones at the very back of the room. All of us sat there and enjoyed the performance by Naomi and the Korean martial arts team. But to tell you the truth, I didn’t really care about it. I was staring wide eyed at SHINee like this 

Then it was a comical martial arts performance of Jump. I was told that it was a really famous show in Korea and it was difficult to watch because the ticket was expensive. The point is, we were really lucky to be able to watch it for free. But guess what? I DIDN’T CARE! xD LOL All I saw was Minho watching the performance so seriously and I had an AAAAAAWWWWW moment silently inside my chest. I mean, he was so engrossed in the performance and I was just so glad to be able to witness that Minho was such an attentive person. He would laugh his ass off when the performers did something funny and looking at his laughter was just so precious. *CRIES*

After a few moments of collecting my courage, I dared myself to go to their table and take pictures. I pretended to take pictures of the performance, when in fact I was taking picture of them. I turned off the flash light so no one would notice. I actually thought of turning around to the front so that I could snap pics of them from the front, but my courage was not that much. So I satisfied myself with just taking pictures of them attentively watching the performance.

OMG they were truly in front of me. I could hug them from behind if I was crazy enough to do it. THEY WERE FREAKING IN FRONT OF ME! I could see how Onew was so exhausted. I could see how Taemin cracked up when there was something funny in the performance (it’s in Korean. I had no idea what they were saying). Taemin would clap his hands and jumped up and down in his seat. OMG HE WAS SUCH A KID! <3

I saw how tired Key was. He talked to Jonghyun once in awhile, but other than that, he just stayed quiet. Jonghyun was also quiet. I think he was tired. He would stretch his back once or twice. There were times when Jonghyun and Key turned around in their stretchings, and I immediately hid my camera. I was so scared Jonghyun would recognize me, because I was there in the press conference and I was there again behind them in the gala dinner. Oh, that’s why they call it stalking.

But the most heartwarming moment was when I watched Minho watching the performance. There he was. In person. Watching so attentively. His laughter was so precious. When he laughed, his lips would part wide and he would turn around to Jonghyun, discuss the hilarity of it, then turn around to watch again. Yep. JongHo is real. LOL

ANYWAY, here comes the most exciting part. When the Jump performance was done, SHINee suddenly stood up and I was in panic because the camera was still in my hand. I immediately hid it behind my back, and GOOD GOD SHINEE PASSED IN FRONT OF ME. I felt like passing out right then on the floor. OH MY GOD THEY WERE SO CLOSE TO ME I COULD SEE THE BAD COMPLEXION OF ONEW’S FACE. Yes, it looked like Onew’s skin was in a bad condition due too much make up. He looked really tired. So did Taemin. Key also passed in front of me and there was nothing girly about him. Seriously. Key is MANLY. He stood up tall and he walked like a soldier. I suddenly had no idea where his diva image came from, because there was nothing diva-ish about him. Minho still looked relaxed, it made me wonder if he was ever in a bad mood. There was a small smile on his face and he just walked like that, hands swinging beside him. Then Jonghyun passed right in front of me.

Holy crap my heartbeat went crazy when Jonghyun passed in front of me. HE. WAS. SO. CLOSE. IN. FRONT. OF. ME. I could even kiss him if I wanted to. But that was not why my heartbeat went nuts. JONGHYUN IS SO GORGEOUS IN PERSON. Like seriously 

 Minho looked good in person, but Jonghyun looked STUNNING. Yes, he was not as tall as the others, but there was something about the way he walked, the way he stood, the way he bared his shoulders straight, the way he put on a poker face the whole day that attracted me to him. He was such a man and I could hear my heart falling and it wouldn’t stop falling. Jonghyun’s chest looked so comfortable to rest on and his complexion was REALLY SMOOTH. I always thought that Jonghyun’s skin was kinda yellow in videos. However, when he passed in front of me, he was freezing white with a tint of pink on his cheeks. There was also stubbles on top of his lips, it only made me want to kiss him even more >.< Seriously. I fell in love with Jonghyun that night.

Okay, back to the stalking. I saw SHINee walked in a parade of bodyguards to the table where the Korean ambassador to Indonesia was sitting. They bowed then went out of the ballroom. I honestly thought they were going to the backstage to have a performance, so I stayed where I was. Only one friend of mine followed the parade. After a few minutes, she messaged us inside “I talked to Minho.” I swear I felt like crying.

Turns out SHINee would not perform that night. They went home and I felt like crying cos I didn’t see them to the door in addition to lose the opportunity of talking to Minho. I asked my friend to tell me every single detail of it. She pretended that she didn’t know what parade it was. She was sandwiched between Onew and Key. Suddenly, Onew stopped and allowed my friend to come through before him. OH MY GOD ONEW JUST PERFORMED THE ‘LADIES FIRST’ ACT HE WAS SUCH A GENTLEMAN I FELT LIKE SPAZZING! My friend tried so hard to keep her cool, smiled and said thank you to Onew. Onew smiled back at her. There were several fans waiting to take pics of SHINee. There was also this over-excited girl wanting to take pics of Minho, yelling “MINHO-SSI! MINHO-SSI!” only to get pushed aside by SHINee’s manager. My friend reminded and told her “Hey, don’t do that.” Minho heard it and looked at my friend. He told my friend “Yeah, don’t do that.” In English. Can I just die now?

Then SHINee went home and I felt like crying again when I remembered I didn’t see them to the door 

 However, after several minutes, there was another parade and HOLY CRAP IT WAS SHINEE PASSING IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN. Onew still looked tired, Taemin put on his earphones, listening to his iPod, and looked tired, Jonghyun still had his poker face on, Minho still looked relaxed, and Key still looked tired too. Each one of them was carrying a bag or two and they all went back to the ballroom. I thought they were actually going to perform. So we followed them inside only to see them getting out of the side door. They didn’t come back again.

Later, it finally came to me that SHINee spent the night in Ritz-Carlton, not Mulya hotel. The latter was a decoy. Damn, Arirang is smart.

TUESDAY
I pretty much already had got what I wanted in the gala dinner. I only wanted to see them, and see them I did. So I didn’t have another desire to stalk them, because really, stalking is exhausting. A few people asked me if I was going to stalk them during breakfast and I told them flatly that I was at school. The most important thing I was after on SHINee’s visit here was not the performance, but the real and personal them. And I already witnessed it with my own eyes. A lot of people told me proudly how they managed to touch SHINee during the commotion in the airport, and truthfully, it disgusted me. It’s really rude to touch people without their consent. If I were SHINee, I would cringe at people trying to touch me. Isn’t seeing the real them enough? I seriously want to know what these fans were thinking when they raced to touch SHINee. It really makes me shudder.

Anyway, I went to the concert venue right after my classes were finished. I was caught in traffic, because 3,500 fans were all going to Senayan to see SHINee.

When we were finally inside the venue, they gave us K-Pop MVs to watch while waiting for the show to start. People were SCREAMING everywhere. The scream got louder when they turned off the light and started the show. Before the show started, we were told to not stand up on any occassions. I tried my best to follow the rules.

The show was quite nice actually. There were performances from both country, Korea and Indonesia. They played us videos about friendship between Korea and Indonesia that’s been established since more than 40 years ago. There was a Saman dance performance from the same kids that danced Saman with Taemin in Star King. Then there was a Pendet dance performance, which weirdly received so many screaming. Turned out that Taemin went out of the backstage to take a peek at the Pendet dance, and fans saw him.

When SHINee was actually performing, they all went nuts. They all stood up. They even stood up on the chairs. Since I needed to take a fancam, I had no choice but to stand up on my chair too. Holy crap the screaming was deafening. SHINee performed Ring Ding Dong, and honestly, I felt nothing special watching it. First of all, it was clear to see that they were tired. Secondly, I was already satisfied on the gala dinner. Thirdly, I had seen the real them, and I knew all the smiles were just acts, because the truth was they were tired. That’s why I was impressed so much by Key. He deserved his own paragraph.

Even though Key was tired, he broke the ice. He screamed, shouted, cheered the performance up. He was truly the life of the stage. When it was time to introduce themselves, Onew and Jonghyun didn’t talk much (they usually do). It was Key who did the talking, probably because he was the only one with decent English. When the others just introduced themselves shortly, Key shouted his identity proudly, “Hi everyone! I’m SHINee’s Key!” Good God, I love him so much. I admire his work ethics. He was such a professional. He brought fire to the stage. It was his all own doing. And he looked REEEEEAAAALLLLLLYYYYYYY good. Goddammit he looked so handsome, I was torn between looking at him or Jonghyun.

Okay, back to the performance. When they were finished performing Ring Ding Dong, they made a line and Key greeted the audience. He said, “You want more? You want Lucifer? Okay! HERE IS LUCIFER!” And they started to perform Lucifer. OMG Jonghyun sounded so good. T____T Even with the bad sound system the organizer provided, Jonghyun still managed to pull an amazing performance and I was truly blown away by his voice. And have I mentioned that Key look REEEEEAAAAALLLLLLYYYYYY good? Then there was Minho, who still had that relaxed expression on his face. He just made me love him even more because what I saw from him in person matched with what I saw from him in videos, radios, and interviews. He was indeed a hardworker. Minho always smiled. He never looked bored or pissed. OMG he was almost perfect. >.<

When Lucifer was done, the hosts went to the stage and asked SHINee to introduce themselves. They all talked a little bit in Korean, and I couldn’t really catch what they were saying. Mostly it was Minho that did the talking. Next thing I knew, Onew was screaming “I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!” and the whole venue went nuts. All of them introduced themselves shortly, then prepared for the next performance. It was the last performance. They performed Hello and smiles were plastered on their faces. There was one time during Hello that Onew went out of tune once. I think he couldn’t hear his own voice, because the sound system was just that bad. But the performance was still alright. To tell you the truth, I think it was a mediocre performance. But the sensation of watching them live was just WOW and it beat anything else. But seriously, it wasn’t good, because they were tired.

When Hello ended, they gave us their last bow as balloons and confettis fell from the ceiling. Taemin tossed a balloon around for awhile, then they went out of the stage. As they were walking out of the stage, Key shouted “I LOVE YOU! I LOVE INDONESIA!” before disappearing. OMG I love him even more. It might be just fanservice, but it was his effort to make the fans happy that got my respect. I have a full fancam of everything. I’ll upload it once I figure out how to upload the 14-minute-2-GB video to Youtube.

And here comes the part that has made everyone going bananas. The ‘fans incident’. I was there, though I did not really see it. But my friends were there. I have also crosschecked the stories with others’ stories and they matched. So I’m pretty sure this was what really happened at the time.

Yes, the fans went crazy when SHINee were going out of the venue to get into the bus. Most of them were the fans that could not watch indoor, so they were really desperate to see SHINee. I’m telling you that Key, Minho, and Jonghyun got into the bus untouched. Some of the fans succeeded in pulling Onew’s and Taemin’s clothes, but they were pushed aside by the security. The rumor about Onew’s hair being pulled by fans is unconfirmed. However, it is true that they pulled on Onew’s and Taemin’s clothes. Jonghyun, Key, and Minho were untouched. Regarding Jonghyun’s injury, according to the event organizer,Jonghyun hadn’t been fit since his arrival in Jakarta. When I watched the performance, I did think Jonghyun did not look well. But then again, everyone looked really tired. This is an information we got from the bus driver. The situation was so intense, it gave SHINee difficulties to get into the bus. Jonghyun couldn’t see the ground he was walking on and ended up tripping on the gutter. When they arrived in the airport, again, Jonghyun slipped and I think it only made his injury even worse. That’s why he needed to be carried, and eventually piggybacked by the manager, into the airport. The others were untouched there.Yes, the airport was also packed with fans. They were all trying to touch SHINee, but the security did well in protecting the boys. The conclusion is, whatever injuries SHINee members had were NOT caused by fans.

I am so angry upon reading AllKPop’s article regarding this issue. Especially when they quoted SME that Indonesian fans were the ones who hurt SHINee. It is not true. Though what caused Jonghyun’s injury is not confirmed, no one touched Key. I heard a lot about Onew and Taemin being pulled, but there was NONE about Key, Jonghyun, or Minho being harmed. I am so angry at SME for blaming Indonesian fans like that. Of course they would blame Indonesian fans. SME wouldn’t admit that it was exhaustion that caused Jonghyun and Key to get ill. I admit that Indonesian fans were out of line, but they were NOT the ones who hurt SHINee.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m angry at SME for giving Indonesian Shawols a bad name, but I understand why they did it. They were only covering their asses too. However, I do ask you to think logically upon the whole situation and believe what the fans who were actually there say. The situation was bad, but it was not Indonesian Shawols who hurt them. The security pushed them away before they could. This whole commotion truly breaks my heart. 

But anyway, SHINee arrived at the airport safely, and according to eyewitnesses, they all looked fine. They didn’t look pissed or something. I’ve also seen the pics and I think they looked okay, except Jonghyun of course. I wish Key and Jonghyun a whole recovery. I wish SME would take care of their artists more. SHINee went to Indonesia with 5 bodyguards, what the hell was SME thinking.

Thank you so much SHINee for the two-day adventure. I miss you already. <3

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credit to: fallissa@shineee.net

sc: http://shineetown.tumblr.com/