To commemorate the upcoming Special Olympics going to be held at Yongpyong Pyongchang, Simply Kpop's team brought the show to Yongpyong Ski Resort as a special New Year's episode - and our boys are invited, so off I went too. (Simply K-pop did not provide me transport or pay - I went on my own. If not for A-JAX, I really won't have bothered... T_T)

FREEZING COLD is the word for it... - 16 degrees... first time in my life!
Given the cold, they weren't required to do any rehearsals - just a walk out to the stage, have them test the stage ground for sturdiness and slipperiness (leader and Sungmin and Hyojun jumped up and down on it for a bit, lol), then they were told by the PD that they can return to the waiting room - Hyeong Kon literally blurted out happily "Oh, that's all!?". Haha. And once he stepped on stage, Jaehyung looked around, spotted me waiting below the stage, and waved at me - FINALLY, I was a bit worried there that he was annoyed by me being there again, so with this, my mind is put at ease - he held back in the waiting room only due to my 'unique' position. (see below)

For an idea of just how cold it was... look at the white puffs emitting from their breath and look carefully at the slightly teary eyes of Hyeongkon, Jaehyung, and Seungjin - poor boys really worked hard for this. Seungjin himself told a fan at the fansigning the day after, that he caught a cold from this. T_T I was in 5 layers, including a down jacket, so my body was fine but my extremities were feeling like they really got frostbitten (I only had leather gloves on...) and I could not even feel the shutter button after being out in the cold waiting for A-JAX's turn (sat through 4 other teams and a long MC - 'omg Hanbyul-ie, please hurry up!') and the boys were out for a shorter time but they were only wearing their performance outfits - for Hyeong Kon and HyoJun and Seungjin, 1 layer, for the others, 2... so generally we were all dying. But they couldn't grimace, they had to bear with it... oww.

The place was 3 hours away from Seoul, the boys left at about 3pm and got there at about 6pm, and didn't eat, all there were in the waiting room were cookies and chocolate pie snacks... they must have been pretty hungry, when they heard there were snacks they quickly came out and started hunting for something to munch on... and there was only 1 heater, so after freezing out there for about 20 minutes, they went back in, made a beeline for the heater, got video-interviewed, and after that I remember HyoJun furiously trying to thaw out his frozen toes.. they only wore normal socks and leather shoes. (I was in motorcycle boots and woolen socks and still thought my toes were gonna fall off)... I was too busy trying to hide my face from the video camera while thawing myself out at the same heater to pay much attention. (The managers knows me and don't really like me (a fan) being there as staff but I had to do my job AND stay alive too... so I generally just stayed out of the boys' way as much as possible and didn't take photos of them backstage. And the boys knew too (I wrote to Jaehyung about it in a letter and I guess he told them?) so they avoided meeting my eyes too. AWKWARD. Instead I could chat with the Big Star and Ledapple members normally... though I went to a a few Ledapple events and the boys saw me before... the manager doesnt recognise me I think, he only knows me as Simply K-pop staff, phew. So he greeted me happily...)

Good job guys.... at least the performance itself went off without a hitch, which is more than I can say for some other teams...

P.S. Seungyeop was grinning like a lark in most of my pics, I asked him at the fansign why he seemed so happy and relaxed, he said he like the cold. O_o This boy is weak when it comes to dumbbell-lifting but his insulation power is daebak...!! Haha.