I’ve been a Kpop fan since 2011 and this is my first concert experience. First I have to say that I didn’t know much about the group, I knew that they had some great songs but I didn’t know the names of all members even though I had a VIP ticket (birthday present).

The venue wasn’t easy to find because Google Maps led me to a location 500m away from the concert hall and I spend about an hour desperately running the street up and down thinking that I would miss the concert because I couldn’t find the number of the house. I finally made it 30minutes before the start of the show. There were booths that sold posters (signed ones for 30lei aka 5,50Euro, unsigned ones for 5lei, about one Euro – surprisingly low) and other goods and I brought an unsigned poster, relieved that apparently in the end I still got a way to get something signed. I waited for a few minutes and the doors to the concert hall opened about 18:45, 15minutes before the concert. The weird thing was, no one checked for my ticket. I could have been coming without a ticket and would have had no trouble getting in or even standing right in front of the stage.

Then the concert started. First of all, I don’t know what I’ve been expecting, but they all had insanely good proportions.  I was in the sixth row so I can’t say for sure but I thought they looked all in the 170-179 range for height and their faces were really small in comparation to the rest of their bodies and their shoulder-hips ratio was perfect, especially the visual one (though they were all on the smaller/lither-framed side). I wondered how their agency found so many guys with really good proportions though they were so small. They were slim but didn’t look skin-and-bones. The most fitting description would be that they had model-esque builds only without model-esque tallness.

            
yeah, hongseob's first outfit was pretty tragic

I didn’t recognize the first song but the second one was Oasis, my favorite B-side track. The standout was Cory. At the beginning of the concert the girl next to me asked me who my bias was and I said Cory, thinking that he’d be the one I was most likely to recognize. Cue to the concert start and I find myself thinking that two of them look like Cory and I won’t be able to put a name to the face of any of the boys. The next moment their visuals hit me hard and I’m already swooning. For those of you who haven’t seen a Kpop group live yet, the synchronisation and the quickness/fluidity of the  dance moves (at least in this case) are absolutely mesmerizing in the first minutes. Looks way more impressive live than on screen.

The first talking segment is the introduction and the crowd is cheering super-hard whenever a member speaks up. During, I think, Kisu’s turn, Cory asked us why we were shouting after he (Kisu) was speaking since he was pretty sure that we don’t know Korean. Then we shut up whenever the other members talked.

Hui said he hoped the snow would substide once the concert was finished. When Hongseob was beginning his speech, someone shouted 'I love you’ to which he replied 'I love you too’. Two members started with 'Buna Seara’, the Romanian greeting <3

I’m a person who hates body rolls and overly ual dance moves in boy groups but halfway through the concert I started noticing that I was choking whenever Cory rolled his hips (and he did it often). HOLY LORD JESUS that guy is a born performer. I googled 'facts about 24K’ to get knowledge about the group and somewhere I read that Cory was the worst dancer of the group. FIGHT ME! That body rolls were a gift send from heaven and overall, he seemed like he was the most into the choreography. This doesn’t mean that he was the best dancer (I don’t know about dancing but he didn’t have any solo dance parts), but his dancing during everything revolving hip movement came off as a tad more aggressive/exaggerated than the others. During one slower and less choreographed song he was the only one to mildly hip during the chorus. He just came across as born for the stage, like he was absolutely into it and wanted the crowd to be into it, too. He was always moving and comparatively often at the center. I then knew I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

After some more dancing they have a segment where they split into tree teams and dance the chorus of Bingo together. When Hui, Kisu and Hongseob (?) search for a participant from their left side of the stage, they ask the crowd who of them thinks that they are the prettiest in this room. Selected is a boy and one of the members Kisu spend the next segment talking about his beauty. At one point he even goes down on one knee in front of him and raises his hands as if in a proposal!!!1! Turned out there is another girl on team right side who’s far the better dancer though so Hui oop Hongseob (80% sure it was him) goes to the right side in an attempt to change teams and Hui ? pretends that they don’t take them back. Cory then grounds him into the corner of the room with 'Stay!’.

 

After that came the subunit stages. First was Cory, Kisu, the visual guy and somebody else (Hongseob?) singing a midtempo song which I personally found pleasant but generic. Then there was the hip hop stage which was OMG ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS because there was Cory and someone else (probably someone who’s name starts with J) and there was rapping, good rapping and the beat was good too and I became so pumped! It was something aggressive and Cory’s expressions were to die for, and I thought perhaps I actually died and I didn’t know it yet. At the end I was turning to the girl next to me who asked for my bias at the beginning because I couldn’t contain my emotions and shouted 'Oh my god I love him! I absolutely love him!’

Then there was the dancing, it was 1 vs 1, and a third member was holding a sign with 'round 1’ written on it. Changsun and another member were doing some awesome dancing/fighting moves and I would have been absolutely thrilled if the hip hop stage hadn’t been right before it. Afterwards another member danced solo and was then joined by the both of them as kind of back up dancers.

I’m not sure whether it was after these stages but there was also a segment where they said they’ll be now playing songs that everyone knows from other artists. Well, first song starts playing and I don’t know it – and it also doesn’t look like anyone around me does. The chorus was entirely English (I think), I could barely make out the verses. Second song was 'bang bang bang’ but it takes me till the chorus to realize it’s not fxxk it.


poor hui can't get a break

After the solos they had another talking segment where they brought a Romanian flag on stage. Fans (?) had apparently written '24K Romania’ with sharpie on it and it turned out that the writing was wrong (when read from left to right, the colours blue and red from the flag were on the wrong sides, when the flag was correct, the writing wasn’t). Cory seemed visibly bothered/concerned by it and mentioned something about 'not wanting to cause misunderstandings’. I think he was actually ranting for a bit. At a later point in the concert he also told a member who didn’t 'get it’ to turn the flag around so that it showed the 'true’ color order. It kind of felt like he was worried about a witch hunt. We also made a photo with a big heart pose together.

 

After that talking segment 'Superfly’ was played. Another one of my favorite moments of the concert was the unison shouting of 'YANANANAH!” and 'I said follow me!’ in/before the chorus. The choreography was super fly (forgive the bad pun). I was super pumped up, the people around me too and the group was dancing crazily.

After a couple more songs they said that this one would be the last. They started to say their goodbyes and I don’t know, I somehow got really emotional.

              
don't go Jinhong!!!!

Cory was the fourth one, he said that he was actually supposed to go last and that it would probably confuse The Visual One that he’s speaking now but he wanted to say that the whole tour and everything was just possible because of us, the fans (AWWWW!). I know that every group is supposed to say that and all but the way he said it I just found it incredibly touching. I was really anxious about showing up to the meet and greet without an album but at this point I was just like fxxk it, I’m definitely going and I tell them that this here made me become a fan.

During this segment Hongseob was sniffling often. His behaviour was playful and he didn’t look like crying but he frequently scrunched up his nose. It was kind of adorable.

Kisu held his microphone in front of his face like a moustache. When it was Hui’s turn, he said something along the lines that he hadn’t high expectations for Romania (LOL) but he was proved wrong and absolutely liked it here. Two things that stood out for him were a Romanian dish called Sarmale [cue cheering crowd – I personally hope he ate those with vita de via (green ones), since they are even so much more better than the usual ones] and a flashmob that happened that morning. Someone (I forgot who, either Kisu or Jeunguk) also said 'I will now talk in Romanian’ and said a whole sentence, I couldn’t make out what though. Anyway, I’m super happy that he tried!

They performed their last song and went off stage. The crowd then started chanting '24K! 24K!’ and after a few minutes they came back! They performed two more songs and it was absolutely crazy. Cory’s expressions drove me insane.

Someone (dark brown hair but shorter than The Visual One), took a water bottle and dowsed the contents over his head. He started shaking it and droplets flew into the crowd. It was glorious. He did it for a second time and that time water droplets actually HIT MY FACE! I was in row six and I absolutely didn’t expected it! I died for a second time. Non. Nichts. Nada. Finish. There was only a shell of my former self left. I don’t think the encore were title songs, I recognized the second one as a popular b-side. After performing they went backstage and the concert was over for real.


left to right: changsun, jeunguk, jinhong, cory, kisu, hui, hongseob

Now to each member:

Cory’s English was really good to understand, even as someone who has difficulties understanding spoken foreign languages. He was basically the MC of the concert and he did his job so well, it was absolutely amazing. I loved his angry expressions at songs like 'Still 24K’ and his hip hop stage. His voice is very pleasant to listen to SO ABSOLUTELY Y OMG and I felt he always tried his best to hype the crowd. He often dipped his head back and let me tell you, he has a reallllly y neck and adams apple, I absolutely loved it. He also wore the most eye make up. I didn’t care though, I absolutely loved him. I think he’s the most talented, his singing and rapping was the bomb and he actually had a lot of parts compared to the little screen time he’s getting in MVs.

He had at the first talking segment a tissue which he would use to pat his forehead carefully with. In the second talking segment he didn’t have a tissue and motioned one of the assistants behind the scenes to come on stage hastily and give him a tissue which he also used to wipe off sweat from his forehead and neck.
There were a few times when he looked into my direction and I thought that he was really staring at me (i cheered really hard so I don’t think it’s impossible. when they chose a person for bingo it seemed that he was staring right at me for about two seconds and I thought I die and my heart ached in my chest). Hui also seemed to look once directly at me.

Kisu has a really high voice and often stood on the right side and between two others. I remember him having very big eyes and lots of black eye shadow. He did a few antics with the mic. His face looked rounder than on the pictures I’ve googled after the concert and I also think now that he’s terrible at talking selfies because he looked much better in real life.

Changsun was literally ALWAYS SMILING. Like what did you eat to be so happy??? His eyes just scrunched up and tbh my cheeks hurt just looking at him. He had chubbier cheeks than on pictures. He also stood a lot at the far left of the stage so I didn’t saw a lot of him.

Hui is the person that voice I love­ in the 24K songs belonged to! He is the smallest and I didn’t see him much in the center. But I think he was absolutely adorable when he talked (the snow, sarmale - he mentioned specific things about Romania and it made me swoon) and my favorite talker after Cory. The blue of his hair really suited him.

The visual was the tallest member with the tannest skin and hands down, the most handsome face. Like ugh, his face was nearly perfect. He seems to be the official visual, too, since he was often the center and has the first part in Still 24K (I looked it up and it turns out to be Jinhong!) But the search results really don’t show his handsomeness at all. Seriously, he more tanned, has GODLY proportions like how can a person like this exist and his face was so GODDAMN handsome, I’d believe you right away if you told me that he was the nation’s heartrob or the nation’s son-in-law. He was part of the vocal line. In the beginning songs I thought that he’d become my favorite but then came Cory’s hip ing and expression and everything and he was demoted. Still love him, though.

There was one member with a weird parted haircut and at the end of the concert his face seemed the most glistening with sweat. Google search now told me it was Jeunguk. In the beginning I thought his hair wasn’t suiting him but by the end it was falling in his eyes and looked good, especially while he was dancing. I’m not 100% sure but I think he was the one with the water bottle? He is the only one who fits that description/mental image in my mind.
If he was then: that guy was absolutely getting freaky on the end and shaking like crazy. I was in the freaking sixth row and still getting hit by the water droplets that came from his hair. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH HE WAS SHAKING HIS HEAD? It was as if he was possessed and he managed to tear away my eyes from Cory.

Hongseob was another one of my favorites! He sometimes seemed a bit fidgety while the others were talking. I’m also pretty sure he was the one that abandoned his team after the guy couldn’t dance Bingo. He was also smiling a lot and I was sure that he was the maknae just by looking at him because he really seemed younger than the others. He was adorable! He was the most tanned one after Jinhong and also has a really long neck.

The boys had real mics (the big ones) and were singing live with a backing track, I think.

The fans were mostly well-mannered. A lot of them had really fashionable, distinctive styles (hair, make up and clothes). I was right at the middle gangway and of course the fans from the worse seats gathered there instead of staying in their seats. When I entered the concert hall, someone actually had put their clothes on my seat but removed them once I entered. The girl in front of me had a light stick (they were gigantic and looked like they belong to a Star Wars cosplay) but she didn’t wave it. At one point a girl that stood in the pathway sat down/leaned on my seat where I had my poster and jacket. I grabbed my things and she quickly stood up. Overall, they were very loud but most people kept their hands down, even during the more hard hitting songs.

After the encore the concert hall cleared pretty quickly. I was excited to meet the group so I went to the staff in the front. When about 2/3 of the fans were out, I saw two  totally in red dressed paramedics coming from the exit doors, used the side entrace to the stage and went backstage. First I thought that a fan might have fainted because there was a group of fans talking animatedly to the backstage people but it turned out that they just wanted signed posters (I think there had been an issue).

First no one really noticed me, then a man told me to go to a staff member at the side of the stage who was discussing with two fans, one of them sobbing. I went there and found out that meeting the group wasn’t possible anymore! NO ONE told me that – not the woman on the telephone who called me twice to check my ticket purchase, it wasn’t written on the site where I bought the tickets and it certainly wasn’t written on my ticket either!

We pleaded for a photo but the woman said no, they are all sweaty right now. Another man said they couldn’t let us enter because we couldn’t prove that we haven’t been backstage yet (mind you, one girl was crying - and even if that’s the case, THEY had the responsibility to check that every VIP only goes backstage only once, they could have a list with the seats that were backstage already or write something on the tickets, of course we can’t prove we haven’t been backstage). She offered us that we could get letters written from them and I said yes euthusiastically (the other girls also agreed).

Now comes a kind of serious and speculative part because I think one of the 24K members had perhaps some kind of serious health issue after the concert. The staff assistant asked us for our favorites, the first one said Jinhong. The second one named another member, I couldn’t hear the name but the woman said that he’s not available so the fan had to change her pick (she then named Jinhong, too). I picked Cory and in that moment I was really anxious about him being the unavailable one but it turns out that he was okay! She asked us for our names and we wrote them down on her mobile, then I and the sobbing girl gave them out posters for them to sign, too. She went backstage and we waited.



a blurry picture of the empty concert hall while we waited

She came back with two posters for us and Din-A4 papers with our names and an autograph of our biases. I thanked her and went outside while other fans approached her about their issues (I think there were more VIPs that weren’t aware they had to come before the concert). In front of the concert hall was another crying fans and several fans complaining in Romanian. It was a bummer that the concert ended that way.

tldr: Overall, great concert. I was surprised because it exceeded my expectations. Fell in love with Cory but there were misunderstandings with the VIP seats.


 plot twist: my real name isn't actually Sori

Edit: here are more photos