The other group going out was good-really good!!There were flips, twists, turns, and little tricks that I couldn’t even begin to describe as they used the hype of the audience to fuel their movements. As soon their song was finished, they pointed to Tae and his dancers in a challenge, “Go, Punk!!”

I was sitting between Ji and TOP in the very front row, and we stood and screamed our loudest as Taeyang came out in solid response to the other team with s- as the song “We Run This” by Chris Brown came out over the speakers, Tae looked at our section (Seung-Ri and Daesung were holding homemade signs and screaming like true fan girls, Ji-Yong and I somehow acquired pompoms that matched perfectly with the color of Tae’s Team colors, and TOP raised the universal thumbs up) and winked, right as the beat kicked in.

BAM- Taeyang may be shy sometimes, but on the dance floor, it’s something completely different coming out of the performer- the spotlight on him, he danced all the way to the top!! There were kicks, smoother transitions of beats, and to seal the deal, Taeyang launched into a backflip/cartwheel number that had all of us torn between cheering to nosebleed proportions or to call the paramedic on standby!!

“Well…..we have seen some pretty wild dancers tonight, didn’t we?!” A cute girl MC stood between the breathing hard teams, and we all yelled our agreement. “Sah~ well, according to the judges, it all comes down to points, and well, the winning team had the best overall score in all catergories!! This year’s Korean Hallyu Street Team Dance Off Winners are………Taeyang and the Solar Team!!!”

There was pandemonium- the audience on our side jumped up and cheered, and some ran for the stage as Taeyang and his comrades shook hands with their opponents before jumped/cheered/screamed/fell to their knees in the moment. I was surrounded by the surge of onlookers, partying and opening champagne and the like, and in my line of vision I could see the staff trying for crowd control, but failing miserably.

Someone grabbed my hand in the chaos, and I turned to see a smiling Taeyang looking at me and pointing backstage in the ‘follow me’ gesture. Quickly, I tapped Yong and TOP( who were closest to me, being borderline trampled by fans and signing random autographs), and signaled to them the best I could were I was heading. Under the guise of being manhandled, jostled by shoulders, cameramen and staff hurriedly moving to avoid the masses of people now dancing on stage as the Solar Team held up individual trophies, Tae and I jogged behind the curtain, slightly winded, and giggling all the same.

“You were absolutely amazing out there tonight~ congratulations, Tae-hyung!!” I hugged him excitedly, as soon as I felt like my lungs weren’t going to drop out my back. “It was like whoosh, bam- shibazz!!” I tried mimicking his dance moves, but I failed miserably. Taeyang laughed as he stood up straight, “Thanks, Taren-ni, but you know…….you know, I wouldn’t have won tonight if, if you weren’t here to support me,” he said shyly, looking at me fully in my eyes as he took out something from his pocket and took my hand, putting it gently in it.

“Whaa~” I opened it carefully to see chocolate diamond ear studs. “Whoa~ these are beautiful- thank you!!” For the second time that day, I could only exhale as  the crooner laughed, saying, “Don’t you remember? You favorite ice cream is Rocky Road, and since they don’t have that pattern at the jeweler’s, I had to get the plain chocolate,” he finished, smiling warmly at me. “I didn’t earn this gift, it’s so cool…” I took one out slowly and looked at it, then grinned at him, “I’ll never take them off!!” Tae took a few steps closer to help me slide the studs into my ear lobe, “They look even more amazing, now that they’re on the person I care about…”

Tae looked into my face then, and he leaned in closer to me, kissing me on the cheek gently, and then as he took the last step to my lips……..Blackout!!!! “What the hell?!”