Aug 5, 2006

Satovic Meets BYJ 2005 Chapter Three

Chapter 3 Is it a Dream or a Reality?

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Maybe he’s just trying to be nice, I thought, but even when his meal was served, he held the translation in his left hand while holding a fork in the right, and kept on reading. It would be fine if it was because the story was too good to put down, but if he’s doing it out of obligation, it would mean that I had bothered him…. oh no, I should have given it to him after the meal….. many thoughts went through my mind, but he was turning the pages at a steady pace, and the meal seemed to have no effect on him. He just kept going. In the meantime, my tray was served too, but I was in no condition to digest anything, so I gave it up. As he was reading, once in a while he would talk to Sohn-san who was sitting next to him, but towards the end, he read it through without stopping. Just before he was finished, a Taiwanese reporter walked up to President Sohn and started talking with him, and waiting for Yong Joon to finish reading, he started to talk with him, too. So, when Yong Joon actually finished reading, he merely held the book over his head and signaled to me “I’ve finished ~!” and immediately turned to the reporter.

After awhile, I asked him,
“How did you like it?” and he answered, “Che missoyo” – it was enjoyable. Well, I guess that was a pretty stupid thing to ask. Here is the author herself asking for his comment, who would have the nerve to put it down? But I was still worried about the Korean fans’ opinion, so I asked him, “There may have been things in there that offended you – were you upset reading them?” Laughing, he said “Anieyo~” – no, I wasn’t. Here again, there’s no way he would say “yeah, I was furious” to my face, so it was actually no use asking. I really wanted to talk with him about so many things, but I knew I shouldn’t bother him, and to avoid saying anything more stupid, I said, “I will be praying for the success of your film”, and went back to my seat.

After that, he went back to the book he had brought with him, but soon later put the book down, and started to browse through the album of the exhibit and the translation of the suspense story I had given him. All the sudden, he made a gesture like “oh, I know what!” and taking my book “Yon-sama Gekijo (Theater)” out of the pocket in front of his seat, he said something to President Sohn in an amused way, and slowly stood up. He seemed so lively then, like a junior high school student who just came up with a mischievous thought.

What was he doing? I had no idea as to what was going on then. As he stood up from his seat, I could see the muscle of his chest from the opening of his black shirt which was open widely, and a few necklaces swaying on that chest. Then, he went by Sohn-san, crossed the aisle, and …… what ? Is he really walking towards me????

My mind was blank for a second not comprehending what was happening, but soon, two things came to mind. (“If I sat here like this, is he planning to come to my seat? NO, I can’t let that happen! I wouldn’t be able to escape if such a thing happened!”) and the other idea was, (“I can’t let Yong Joon walk to me! I must go to him”).

BUT, BUT….. I can’t get up…..!!! But the two thoughts I had were both telling me to walk towards HIM, so I somehow stood up dizzily, and saw him trying to tell me something. I was in such a daze, that I really don’t remember much about him.

But the friend who was sitting in back of me called out to me saying, “Satovic-san! Autograph! Joon wants your autograph!”

what! What ! WHAAAT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!
I literally lurched.
With my arms spread out wide, I jumped back about a meter and flattened myself against the wall of the cabin. You’re probably thinking, “oh come on, don’t try to be funny!” but I discovered that humans really DO act like that when they are put in a spot.

ME? Ah.. are you sure you want MY autograph? I think I was looking at him when I was asking this, but I don’ remember anything. What, what shall I do?
As I was stammering, ヽ('Д`;≡;'Д`)丿, I realized that I was holding the book and the marker in my hand, so he must have handed it to me. But I DON’T remember. I know…what do you MEAN you don’t remember Bae Yong Joon handing you something, right? But my soul had flown away from my body…….

By then, I realized that everyone in the business class area was looking at me. Because all I could do was stand there, a staff from BOF opened his table for me so I could sign the book. I remembered what my Indonesian friend Inekke had told me. how he had squatted down on the spot, and gave her his autograph…. And here I was squatting down myself, opening the book on the table before me. But then, I didn’t know what to write.

I really wanted to write in Hangul, Bae Yong Joon-ssi ege (translator: Youngsun, please help!) but of all times, I was getting the characters mixed up. The words of my Hangul teacher flashed in my mind – she had warned, “never put a dot on top of the “Joon” because that would make it “Yong Chun” which is most unfashionable…” The more I thought about it, the more confused I was – to dot, or not to dot? Oh, how should I know, I only had 5 lessons!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

No, no, no…..I couldn’t do this in Hangul…. as I was panicking, I could sense the time going by.
I couldn’t waste Yong Joon’s time any longer! But since I have terrible handwriting, it never occurred to me to sign for him in Japanese.
When I later asked a person who witnessed this event, she told me that all during this time, Joon was squatting in front of me with his elbow on the table, and far from being irritated over the loss of time, he was enjoying himself like a mischievous boy smiling the whole time. BUT, I was beside myself, so I didn’t notice a thing.
I was just staring at the pink of the back cover of the book and the tip of the marker, panicking. I wish I had the nerve to turn to him naturally, and ask him “So, what would you like me to write?” with an elegant air!

I didn’t even know where he was. And he was in front of me the whole time…(T_T)
So, I finally gave up writing in Hangul, and started to write the horizontal line for “TO”, but, NO !!!!
NO, NO, NO!! I didn’t want to address him in a simple expression like “TO”! I wanted to tell him how much I cared about him, but how can I write it? I couldn’t come up with a good idea, and it felt like only time was drifting past me. It was probably only a second, but for it me, it seemed like forever.

Oh, I give up; “Dear” will have to do! But I’ve already written the horizontal line… so, I ended up reforming this horizontal line to write “Dear”. Out of desperation, I traced over the horizontal line and made it into a “D” and continued to write “Dear Mr. Bae Yong Joon Love forever satovic” in one breath. Oh, the “D” turned into an arrow like thing, and it was probably the most reckless autograph I ever wrote in my life. O~~~~~~H, how I had wanted to put my heart into it~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~! (tears)

Then it came to the point of writing the date, and after writing “2005. 8”, I couldn’t remember what date it was (I’m terrible with numbers to begin with). I thought it was the 21st, but I didn’t want to make a mistake, so I looked up from my book and looking around me, asked “21? 21? 21?” about 3 times. Everyone was laughing and would not tell me.
HEY GUYS!!!! Don’t stand around laughing, TELL MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Just then, I came to a fuzzy realization for the first time, “oh, someone who seems like Yong Joon is sitting left of me”.

But I was too scared to look in that direction. At the same time, not any of the people around me like the BOF staff, and the faces of the people who were surrounding me like they were looking into what I was up to did not come into sight either. The only thing that I was able to see was Sohn-san’s face, which was right in front of me.

I was so confused that I thought the hand that held the marker was starting to shake.
I knew that if this continued any longer, I would have a heart attack. Right then, I felt something warm touch me twice.
“21, it must be 21.”

Because no one would answer me (maybe someone did, but I couldn’t hear a thing), I murmured this to myself, and finally wrote 21. At that moment, my “little alter ego satovic” said to me,
“Hey satovic! The warmth you felt on your back just now might be Joon’s hand, judging from the direction. Maybe it was Joon who was patting you on your back”, he said.
Ohh, my god! After I wrote the date, I shut the book, and confirmed that true enough, it was Joon on my left side. Oh, this can’t be happening! Just at that moment, that Korean phrase popped out of my mouth. “Aigoo, ige kuminya senshinya?!” (help again Youngsun!) Seeing me drop to the floor, with my face turned up towards heaven, and hearing me say this as I banged my hands on the table, the audience who understood Korean burst into uproarious laughter, and those who didn’t laughed any way because they probably thought I was acting in a hilarious way. As I saw that Joon was laughing too, the whole thing was very “AIGOO!” but I was happy, and I was so overwhelmed that I cried again.

I was able to make Joon laugh! Oh, I was happy beyond words! When I stood up to hand him the book, I still couldn’t look in his direction.
But it bothered me that I had lost the cap to the marker, and I kept thinking things like I can’t lose Joon’s cap, I can’t… I guess that was a pretty trivial thing to be thinking about at a time like that ….

(to be continued)

11 comments:

bbmag said...

hilarious...!

although i had read the story before, and even had satovic tell me about it, it's so different reading it like this.... blow by blow...

so funny!!!

i almost burst out laughing at the “Aigoo, ige kuminya senshinya?!” :p

what an awfully exciting experience! and to have yong joon sooooooo.... close to her! and touched her not once, but twice! this stuff is to die for man... satovic, why didn't i think to go with you to seoul??!! boohoohoo...

p.s. it is so true, you know. it's happened to me as well. nothing so dramatic or eventful, but still very precious to me... i realised that i can remember the parts just before and after my encounter with him. but what really transpired during the actual encounter is all a blur. can't remember a thing, coz you simply can't focus on 'normal' things when he's near!

guess the saving grace is we didn't burst out in tears :p

i just love satovic, she's so animated :p

and thank you so much for allowing us to share her experience, flowerbossa. wonderful translation there, thank you thank you :)

Anonymous said...

Wow this is so unreal! Wonder how long it took Satovic to recover from that dreamy encounter? Sorry but I still don't understand what she said that made everyone bursted into laughter. He's such a kind, gentle and considerate man.

I love your translation, especially the description of that few seconds of shock and confusion Satovic experienced. Just marvelous!

bbmag said...

haiyo, jaime... go re-read the earlier chapters...

satovic mentioned that aigoo thingy earlier on when she was talking about what text to put in the banners...

believe she said it's a local dialect, sort of a very very very exaggerated manner of kneeling and having your face turned heavenward, all the while slapping the ground with both hands and muttering those 'aigoo' words... sort of like this cannot be real....

something like that la... or at least that's what i'd understood from it.

so our dear satovic sort of said that and done that in the business class cabin lor... so funny right?

Anonymous said...

thanks bb, now I get it. Those words from the banner "am I seeing illusions?". Wow, things he caused a normally controlled and sensible woman to do : drop on the floor, bang her head on the table? The effect of Yonsama!

bb, I remember you had a picture taken with him. Were you also in a state of emotional "breakdown" when you saw him? Have you seen him to, flowerbossa? Was it Satovic's reaction as well?

flowerbossa said...

Hi bb,

Couldn't have given a better explanation to jaime - thank you!

It must of been QUITE a sight!

No one could beat satovic when it comes to entertainment♪

flowerbossa said...

Jaime,

We were on the same island when he visited us here in Japan - that 's the closest I have come to our dear prince/king-to-be to my knowledge.

But then again,like satovic, I'm not particularly interested in seeing a android, nor in standing around helpless when he is being mobbed.

So,we're pretty much on the same boat.

Anonymous said...

Dear flowerbossa,

Thank you for your hard work translating these pieces. “Che missoyo” to read your translations too.

ginnie

bbmag said...

jaime,

during the photo-taking encounter, actually i must have appeared perfectly normal, so normal that haha, maybe he was thinking i can't be that big a fan.

i got off from the vehicle with my four other fans/friends. a couple of them were running towards him, i strolled. yes, can you believe it? i actually strolled my way towards him. nothing was going through my mind then, i had no idea what i was going to do when i did go up to him. i was just following what the rest in front of me were doing :p

then a few of them in front of me took turns to go up to him for their pictures, then it was my turn. like i said, i was just following what the rest were doing. believe my brain must have left me then. but strangely, i was very calm. thinking back, everything i did was quite slow and steady.

it only hit me that i'd seen him up close and had a picture taken with him after the encounter.

and i could remember the parts when we first saw him at the hotel, the parts when we followed his vehicle to the big carpark... then nothing... everything's a blur from then on.

if not for the fact that i saw the picture with him in my friend's camera, i would have pinched myself to make sure i wasn't daydreaming :p

so my experience was quite different from satovic's. i was oddly calm.

my advice? do think about what you want to say to him when you do get to meet him. coz when it happens, there's a high chance your senses would have left you and you wouldn't know what you want to say or do. you really don't want to stammer or get all flabbergasted when you do see him, ya?

Anonymous said...

Wow bb, thanks for sharing your "calm" encounter with him. My big question is, "HOW COULD YOU STAY SO CALM?!" I mean after thinking, reading, writing and dreaming about him every day for a few years, you finally met him face to face and you STROLLED your way towards him? (I was thinking along the line of throwing myself towards him!) Ok ok, I'm not that senseless (but close), besides his bodyguards will throw me back anyway!

One commonality I heard so far is the sister does not remember the moment of the encounter, it is always being described back afterwards by the other sisters who are present. What is with him that causes memory blurred? If calm, logical and sensible bb could not remember what happened, how can shy, weak and irrational jaime expect to remember anything??

Anyway, thanks for the advice (as if I ever have a chance to see him!) and I'm happy that you had a picture taken with him, so you can share it with us.

bbmag said...

yea... it was the same with the other gals... they all can't remember their own encounters, had needed others to describe to them what had happened... funny huh?

i've no idea how come i was that calm. i swear i didn't feel extremely excited or anything. maybe it was just the surprise. we had gone to samcheok not planning to see him or anything like that. i mean, hell, filming wasn't even supposed to start yet, so we didn't think we would see him. maybe it was the surprise of it all that made everything seem so unreal. i dunno, or maybe i was just too dazed to think, say, or do much, that's why i was so calm. to this day, i still cannot explain why i didn't run towards him. i strolled. funny lei...

ah, whatever, at least i got a picture. doubt there'll be another chance to have a picture-opportunity ever again. it's hard enough to see him from far these days, let alone up close, and what more, have a picture taken with him...

sighs...

p.s. actually i've major doubt that jaime is shy, weak and irrational... i've a feeling you're quite like me, more shy and quiet in person, but livelier and chattier online....

and i also believe that head upon your shoulders... is probably a very good, sensible head :)

anyhow, do start getting prepared for your own BYJ moment... so, what would you say? haha, first things first, better decide what language... remember satovic struggling to decide if she should speak/write in korean/japanese/english???

p.s. sorry flowerbossa, using your space to 'chat' :p

flowerbossa said...

ginnie,

Welcome to my blog!
Thank you so much for being an avid reader.

It's been fun sharing satovic's story with you all ♪