Watched: Community

      January 22nd, 2009

January 22nd, 2009

Sitting in the way back of the Girls' Generation van, Echo heavily leaned onto Seohyun's side, eyes half-closed.

"Why didn't we take a plane?" Hyoyeon groaned, on the other side of Echo. Her head rested on the palm of her right hand as she looked out the window at the quickly passing by trees.

"Because that's money the company didn't want to spit out," Sooyoung rolled her eyes, in front of Seohyun. "And because we had time in between this and ShimShimtapa to drive for over five hours."

"At least the busy members can sleep," Seohyun smiled, gesturing to the knocked out (and drooling) Yoona and Taeyeon.

Hyoyeon and Echo sent the maknae pointed looks, to which she blushed and snapped her head forward to look out the driver's window.

"How many fans do you think will show up?" Sooyoung asked.

"Couple hundred?" Hyoyeon guessed as she mindlessly played with a strand of hair.

"How many do you think will come to our line?" Echo dryly joked, the other two laughing.

Girls' Generation wasn't even three years old, and yet it was obvious who the popular members were. It was either you're popular, or you're not. There was no in the middle. Taeyeon and Yoona were obviously the most popular within the group, then came Jessica and Tiffany, and then came everybody else.

It was a sad truth in the world of Kpop groups. There were always the popular and the unpopular members.

It wasn't as if the other girls hadn't tried either, but a lot of the time whenever it came to broadcasts with all the members the editors were more prone to keep cuts of the popular members and cut out those of the less popular members, making it harder for them all to show an equal amount of their personas charm. And whenever only a few members showed up it was typically the most popular members (who didn't already have a schedule), with the occasional less popular member being added in (who still didn’t get that much screen time). You were simply a Girls' Generation member, unnamed, only with a title.

"I really wish I had my phone," Yuri groaned, on the other side of Seohyun, leaning her head back to close her eyes.

"I wish I brought my book," the maknae frowned. "It was just getting to a good part too."

"I wish we would get there faster!" Hyoyeon exclaimed, throwing her hands up only for her fists to painfully collide with the roof of the van. She cursed through the pain, holding her still balled up fists to her chest.

"How many times does that make it?" Sooyoung questioned, an amused smile on her lips.

"Six this month," the main vocal laughed in the back, not even stopping when the dancer shot her a dirty look.

"For a dongsaeng you're very cheeky," she scolded, with a hard look.

Echo simply shrugged. "I'm foreign," was her excuse.

"And yet you've been in the country for how long now?" Yuri smirked, not backing down even when the younger member sent her the evil eye.

"Honestly, I think you were better when you were a trainee," Hyoyeon nodded along to her own words.

"Seriously?" Jessica popped into the conversation, from the front row of seats. "She was so foreign it was almost painful. It didn’t help that her and Tiffany were attached to the hip, it was thanks to Taeyeon those two learned anything."

"At least I could speak Korean!" the younger girl bit back.

"You could only understand half of what was going on around you though," Tiffany laughed, thinking back to their trainee days together. Echo's nose turned pink at the announcement, the other members chuckling as they thought back that far.

"You used to have such a thick accent with certain words," Hyoyeon pointed out. "When I first met you in China I was terrified that you didn't speak Korean at all it was so bad."

Echo jabbed a finger in Tiffany's direction saying, "I wasn't as bad as her!"

"No one was," Taeyeon mumbled, waking up from her sleep when the car was pulled to a stop. It was getting darker out, but still bright enough that the girls could see as they hopped out of the van and took a back entrance to enter the Busan college.

"Her mom actually spoke Korean at home though," Tiffany frowned. "I was all on my own here!"

"And your Korean still ," the leader laughed, affectionately pushing the other with her shoulder.

Within the next ten minutes the girls were brought to the backstage area of a large student auditorium, they were already dressed in their proper outfits and got last second add on's to their makeup.

The members walked onto the stage, curtains closed, smiling as they heard the loud cheers behind the thick red curtains. Getting into position the curtains were pulled open, Gee pumping through the speakers as the girls danced to the choreography.

"Hello, we are Girls' Generation!" the girls greeted, smiling as they bowed to the cheering audience. The MC appeared to introduce them and ask a few quick questions as the staff moved behind them to pull in the needed tables for the meeting.

As they were led to two foldaway tables donned with light pink table cloths, the girls squished together in the ten seats, the fans eagerly lined up at the base of the stage, some hopping on the ball of their foot in anticipation.

Echo found herself shoulder-to-shoulder with Hyoyeon and Tiffany.

As the screaming fans were allowed on stage Echo was careful not to look towards Tiffany, she still felt awkward around the elder and was praying that the perceptive fans wouldn’t pick up on something.

Echo had never been to a fan meeting, always the one being met. She remembers pre-debut she always thought that the idols would begrudgingly meeting fans, too exhausted to appreciate those in front of them. But the idol learned that no matter how crappy she felt she always grew strength from the fans cheers, always being almost as giddy as the fans themselves when she greeted them. It's one of the most fantastic feelings in the world; up there with performing.

Behind the girls a handful of staff members worked tirelessly behind them to place stacks of special merchandise just for this fan meeting to give out to the fans.

Brightly smiling, Echo cheerfully greeted her first fan, a scrawny looking male student with wide rimmed glasses. The poor kid was terrified and shacking as he pulled out a clammy hand. "Hello," Echo greeted, shaking his hand while the other held out one of the pre-signed rectangle pictures of herself.

"Y-you're really pretty," he stuttered out, his eyes bulging as he shakily held onto the picture like it was a life line.

"Thank you," the member smiled as the boy walked away, looking like he was in a daze.

For certain members the line felt never ending, while for others they had short breaks in between fans. Some of the fans go to each member while others only go to their individual bias. The lines in front of the more popular members were crowded compared to the less popular. Although Echo felt like she was getting more breathers than she liked. She didn’t want to admit to jealously, but she wished she could know what it feels like to have Yoona's popularity for a day. To have an unending wave of adoring fans, some crying in their excitement and joy to be within arm's length of their favorite idol of all time. It didn’t mean she loved her fans any less but is it selfish to want more? In comparison to her other members?

The singer was kicked out of her train of thought when she felt Hyoyeon elbow her in the side. Shaking her head she looked up with her perfect idol smile, briefly taken aback when she realized it was an uncle fan in front of her.

As any female group Girls' Generation has their fair share of uncle fans, but none of them have ever approached Echo before. They usually go to Yoona and Jessica. The weirdest thing about him was the fact he was dressed extremely well, in a sleek Canali suit. His graying hair was slicked back, when the man reached out his hand Echo noticed the man had a customized Patek Philippe watch. The weirdest thing was the fact Echo didn't get the typical creepy vibes that accustomed every uncle fan.

Her eyes continued to bulge out when the man held out a Neiman Marcus bag, its contents hidden by fluffy tan tissue paper.

"My daughters a really big fan of yours," he explained. Echo smiled up at him, Now this makes sense. "I'm happy to hear that, I hope I continue to make her proud."

With a final glance the man was gone, Echo swiftly turned to hand the present to one of the staff members behind her before greeting another fan; this time it was a young female.

The fan meeting ended up lasting a few hours, the members all had a great time meeting their fans, and the fans obviously had a fantastic time meeting them.

It was when Echo was back in the familiar van, the Neiman Marcus bag on her lap, that she finally got a breather.

"You got something?" Hyoyeon asked, taking her seat next to the singer and window.

"Yeah…" Echo trailed off. She's gotten presents before, but it was usually hand made things. She wasn't influential enough with the fans to ever receive something so costly.

"From Neiman Marcus?" the dancer continued to give the younger girl a shocked look. "Open it!"

Without any hesitation Echo pushed the tan papers out of the way, at the bottom of the small department store bag was the a simple black jewelry box.

The idol gently pulled it out, popping the box open to reveal a thick bracelet. It had multiple gold and jewel encrusted rope like designs, connecting to a clasp in the back.

"Holy , that's real!"

The singer blinked and the bracelet was out of her hand, looking up she saw it was Tiffany who grabbed it. It seemed the idols swearing grabbed the other members attention, since they were all looking at the bracelet with wide eyes. "It's real gold and diamonds!"

"No way!" Echo scoffed, grabbing the jewelry back from her member. She turned the item over in her hands. "Why would an uncle fan give me something this expensive?"

"Since when do you have uncle fans?" Sooyoung blinked, now even more confused. None of the members have received something this expensive before.

"He said his daughter is a huge fan," she shrugged.

"And he gives you a bracelet that costs the same as a car?" Sunny questioned, raised eyebrows hidden behind brown bangs.

"It's not the same as a car," she rolled her eyes. Who on earth would give an idol something so expensive?
 

Was anyone else at the fan meeting today? It was AMAZING!

Girls' Generation are so pretty in person! Especially Yoona! True goddess!

The girls have such an amazing bond, I'm really jealous of their friendship.

Classes start in two weeks. Aknlenfneclwnelv guys I'm not ready >.<