Due to some mishaps that happened with the travel bus on my way to SG that morning, I ended up reaching the venue just in time for the soundcheck. Yes, for the first time in my life I GOT A SOUNDCHECK PASS!! THIS IS PROBABLY THE BEST VIEW OF THEM PERFORMING I'LL EVER GONNA GET. But the sad part was... after literally saving as many freebies tweet as I can on my Twitter, I ended up not hving any time at all to look for them. I was so upset by that cos like I've NEVER GOTTEN ANY PENTAGON PHOTOCARDS BEFORE 💔💔 I was so ready to get as much as I can during the concert haiih 😭

SOUNDCHECK

So back to the best parts. I made a friend while redeeming my soundcheck pass and so we sat together. I couldn't record anything but boi, I ain't joking when I say they were only 2 meters away from me. It's like being 2nd row in class and staring right at the teacher in front. Except that there are 8 hot teachers in front. I sat on the left side and chose the 3rd row. 

So let's talk about my impressions. Shinwon's poker face scarred me. He turned up in a boyfriend outfit - brown tees with denim jeans and his messy lion mane's hair and just looking at us hopelessly. He was the closest to our side. I - in fact, we all - kept smiling at him and waving but his reaction was literally ded. But maybe that's just how he is during rehearsals. Then compared to Yeo One, omg I hv never felt so smitten by someone's smile as much as his did. It's a basic no-teeth smile but he was able to keep it on throughout the whole time, in fact throughout the entire concert as well. Such a genuine happiness that just melts my heart. My heart was captivated by him the whole night.

Another one that never seize to make me smile was Jinho. He is such an adorable mat-hyung and I enjoyed him fooling around on stage and giving his all even during soundcheck. He was a pleasant sight to see. This bias made me proud of his efforts then came Kino and Hui. I was wearing a '키노' headband that I made but he didn't even look or wave at me... so sed.

Hui on the other hand, reacted to my call for his name lol. You know that time when the crowd is silent and the person on stage was tryna say smtg, I got to be the annoying person who screamed her bias name out of the blue for attention. Hehe. Hui looked at my side tho. Then I just said ANNYEONG lol. Idiot me. At least say la formally. Tsk. But he didn't reacted after huhu.. at least HE HEARD ME. Hongseok's hair was legendary as well. He recently dyed his hair bluish, and bcos it was rehearsal time, he haven't styled his hair and he just let it down covering half of his face. He performed in that look and he reminded me of some furry monster on one of my childhood cartoon show. Hot monster indeed.

CONCERT

After soundcheck, was obviously show time. From my assumption, bcos the concert had so little crowd, they "upgraded" our seats from the top tier to the bottom level. I got the furthest seat in the entire hall lol. 

Honestly, after all the trouble in the morning with the bus and long travel, I was drained... even before the concert started. And I even came in late cos yo girl only had 15 mins to eat after finding a place to pray after the soundcheck ended. I was already disappointed that people were holding freebies that they got which I couldn't get and bcos I was so late... I didn't even manage to collect the fan project banner. This day really has its ups and downs. 

Due to all of the reasons above, when PENTAGON came on stage and performed the first 3 songs, my mind was elsewhere. I couldn't even remember which song but bcos they sang one of the songs I was DYING to see live, that made me slap myself back to reality and started enjoying my time. Kino even asked us to stand up (cos the venue was all-seated) and the tired me was lowkey just wanna chill. But later on kinda glad I was able to stand up and jam along.

Another thing I thought would be a bummer is the fact that we couldn't record cos usually concerts in Singapore are like that. But after observing the ppl around me, there are few that record and to my surprise, nobody stopped them. Even when I thought they are walking up towards me to ask me to stop (like what security ppl do), they weren't. So I was contemplating on whether I should carry on recording bcos yknow... does it even happen if you don't record? So I did half-half. First half, I barely record anything. And I recorded most of the 2nd half. Also bcos the later ones are more of my favs. I mostly recorded halfway just bcos I wanna be able to throw my hands out and be in the moment also.

The only thing I was a bit bothered by is the fact that they didn't hv an upclose shot when the members were singing most of their main titles so I was hving a hard time seeing their faces. The place only had one screen which is behind them and as they were performing, the screen only showed the edits they usually play in the background. But also it was somewhat great to be forced to see them literally live with your own eyeballs bcos then you wouldn't be torn between looking at the screen or the stage. To me, it'd be nice to still see the upclose shots cos it just felt different when there is and isn't. Some songs do hv the upclose shot and the emotions were just more felt in my opinion.

Usually, ments are boring to me. It always felt lengthy and just them fooling around a bit but this time it was different. PENTAGON are genuinely cracking me up with their humour on stage. They are so spontaneous with their jokes. So many inside jokes. They made me feel that strong connection between them and their fans. Their bond with each other is also what makes them so comfortable on stage. Hongseok, PENTAGON's Master of Variety legit forgot that Singapore has only 1 season bcos of how spontaneous he was being when translating Shinwon's words. And Hongseok had lived in Singapore before wth. Kino was so Kino when he forgot the title of the song he just covered. Haih my boi must've been so tired. But Kino's fan interaction on stage was DA BOMBS. No complaining there... he was funny and energetic as usual. Hongseok recommended to Kino and Jinho 'air bandung' (my go-to drink when ordering one) and they liked it. They even talked about how Hongseok didn't join the members to eat crabs last night and that Kino also ate with his sister. Apparently his sister came to Singapore and even to the concert with his mum but he told us not to look for them lmao. To which Hongseok responded, "I got a family to visit too" hahah. PENTAGON's ments are now my fav memories of them.

Hui's English is the most precious thing. He was trying hella hard and we could feel his effort through every stutter. The look Jinho gave him also warms my heart. The hyung-giving-silent-support look. I love how the crowds went legit silent as Hui was tryna convey his thoughts in English. He makes me appreciate who he is a lot more. The members giving him the chance to speak also shows a lot about them.

For the fan project, it was during 'Beautiful' and as the crowds were raising the banner written 

"UNIVERSE ❤ PENTAGON

LOVE YOU VERY MUCH LAH!!"

Jinho acknowledged it while performing by saying "It's beautiful" but I love how Kino added to that with saying "Love you very much lah" and laughed. Or else we couldn't be sure whether they've read it or not... You can clearly tell from the crowd's cheer after that as if it was the achievement we were all been waiting for. My thoughtful biases 😪

Jinho and Hui's high notes made me wow again and again. I kept getting impressed bcos I was able to distinguish the voices from the BGM. And their harmonizing was so perfect. Jinho and his adlib were my favs. Even Wooseok and Yuto's rap sounded so crisp that I went wow countless times. I always like to hear a different version than what I've been so used to listening when I come to concerts. And more than anyone else, PENTAGON does that so well. Since they are missing 2 members from the tour, listening to Yanan and E'Dawn's part happens to be a great surprise when other members cover it. Like a new life was given to an old song.

I tried my best to do their fanchants but I only memorize 3 or 4 so I butchered everything else. I had fun nonetheless, bcos the girl beside me also tried hard to say the chants. It made me feel much more hyped about it even though I sang as I like more than reciting the chants lol.

HI-TOUCH

Ok so done with the concerts. Then came the hi-touch. My row was the last one to do it excluding the people who won Group Photo, bcos I was seated so behind that is. And I actually had prepared things to say like right after I bought the tix which was on the ticket sale day haha. So I had words that are being kept for 5 months in my notes hoping I won't just say useless things to them. But guess who got overwhelmed in the end? ....Me.

Hi-touch was held at a room backstage. So we were taking turns coming in and out of the room. Kinda like go in through the front door and out on the back door. Bcos hi-touch is made for everyone and I was the last of the row, I was preparing myself with gloves towards the last minute. I wanted to wear gloves cos like sis tryna be a good Muslim but lowkey rebelling also wanna touch touch all. But I decided to only wear it on the hand I wanted to hi-touch them with - my right hand. Obvs nk salam org mestilah tangan kanan kan? 

Few seconds before my turn, as I was finally walking towards the precious hand hidden behind the open door, the staff told us "You use your left hand ya.. left hand to hi-touch". AND AT THAT MOMENT I FREAKED OUT. 

BUT I- MY GLOVE IS AT- 

I was starting to leave gaps in front of me and the Korean staff in front of the door was gesturing me to come forward faster. I was like hesitating tryna walk through the door cos I don't want my boys to see me struggling putting on the damn glove ugh. So as I was changing my glove to my left hand, I walked in with a "잠깐만요.. 잠깐만요 😦" then I looked up and saw an angelic smile on Yeo One's face. Ohmygod... mana tak hilang smua benda yg dah practice. It was the smile I've been obsessing with since the soundcheck. The perfect warm smile. And he gave me that (also probably to the other hundreds of audiences) while reaching his hand out. I could barely feel my hand touching any hands cos of the glove, but I remember their faces and how it had impacted me.

First up was Yeo One then it was Wooseok. The tallest member is second in line, yes my neck got into a shock. I almost broke the eye contact cos of my habit of not looking straight up especially at tall dudes. He had to bend down to hi-touch me so that made his face closer. He looked at me so lovingly like I forgot he was my age for a second. Why do they give the flower boys all at the start of the line... my heart couldn't handle it. Then it was Kino. He tak layan me as if he was ready for the next person instead. Kino's skin though... it was like a baby's bum. He has such a flawless face irl. Though my bias didn't even smile at me, after that was Hongseok and I remembered what to say to him - get him to come to Msia next time! So I said that and repeated to the person beside him which was Shinwon. Beside Shinwon was Yuto and all I remembered from Yuto is that his brown highlights looked really good on him. Then it was Hui. By the time I got to Hui, he gave me not a smile but a warm stare. I was SO STARSTRUCKED that amongst the stutter, I said "I love you" in the most dreamiest eyes I could give. I could feel myself giving him that look. Then it was Jinho and I just had time to stare back at him. Didn't remember what I uttered at all. His imperfection was what I would like to appreciate. His face was always full of makeup and I knew I'd wanna see how his face is irl... but I only saw a cute man who is about the same height as my friends. Lol better luck next time, Amelynn. So that was my hi-touch straight off my memory.

I learnt that during hi-touch, you really just wanna see them. PENTAGON didn't say a single word to me... they just smiled, but the way they smiled at me was enough to make me feel like the luckiest bij ever. I thought all I wanted was to meet them and let them know my existence by saying things that stands me out. But really, I just wanna see them for myself. Looking at them and stare for a good 0.5 secs was all I need to fall in love with them all over again. Notice things I didn't before and overall just appreciating them a lil bit more bcos this chance might nvr come again. But if they do come again, I'll just go with the flow and be in the moment. It felt special cos I was in the moment when it happened. People say it was fast and it did happened fast, but some moments felt slow to me cos I was that much immersed into them.

Then while I was waiting for the bus back, they posted the group photo and I could see myself in it!! I decided to do a heart since that's the only way they could see you from far and I was right! I spot myself so easily since I was also at the far back. I was so happy cos for iKON's concert last time, the pic they took of us wasn't taken or smtg and I was nvr in any group photo since I'm always out of frame for concerts. Being in a group photo takes luck as well yo.

FINAL VERDICT

This concert is officially the best one I've ever had. It was a longer experience than just a concert bcos of the fan benefits and I'm so damn glad I had it with my ultimate group. Despite everything that upsets me like the bus delay, not hving time to eat properly and me not collecting any freebies, my PENTAGON boys really just made my mood from 0 to 1000. Best memories of Singapore since my last time. So far Singapore had been treating me so so well. Always a pleasure coming here and if there's a future concert that I'd wanna go to in Singapore, I'd rather stay overnight and make sure I hv the budget for those things also. Ain't doing a one-day trip like this again... sucha headache man. The bus la especially.


Dropping by,
Melynn.