Beberapa bulan terakhir ini aku punya idola baru. NCT Dream namanya. Berawal dari berita comeback-nya bulan Maret lalu yang bersamaan dengan salah satu titik terendah dan stress dalam hidupku akibat skripsi, aku bertemu lagi dengan boygroup ini. Saat mereka debut 2016 lalu sebenarnya aku sudah mengikuti dan menyukai musiknya. Lagu debut Chewing Gum dengan konsep yang remaja sekali—sangat aku sukai. Unik di antara kebanyakan lagu grup K-Pop yang sering kali diselipi makna-makna yang terlalu 'dewasa' untuk usiaku yang masih SMA saat itu. Terlebih lagi usia para membernya banyak yang seumuran dan tidak terpaut jauh denganku. 

Member kesukaanku saat itu adalah Jaemin—Na Jaemin lengkapnya. Alasannya sih sederhana, karena ulang tahunnya hanya 2 hari lebih cepat dariku hehe. Alasan lainnya, karena Jaemin adalah yang paling menarik untukku di antara member SMRookies sebelum ia debut sebagai member NCT Dream, terutama saat menontonnya di Mickey Mouse Club. Sayangnya baru saja debut Jaemin langsung hiatus karena penyakitnya kambuh. Aku yang saat itu masih sangat suka EXO, langsung tidak terlalu bersemangat lagi untuk mengikuti NCT Dream karena Jaemin sedang tidak ada. Bahkan saat itu, suasananya terasa seperti sangat tidak ada kepastian apakah Jaemin akan benar-benar kembali atau tidak, saking lamanya Jaemin menghilang tanpa kabar. 

Hingga 2018 setiap kali mereka merilis lagu baru aku masih menonton MV mereka. Hanya saja, begitu kuliah dan benar-benar sibuk dengan berbagai urusan, aku tidak lagi begitu mengikuti K-Pop. Bahkan nonton drama saja jarang-jarang bisa sempat.

Kini, kembaliku kepada mereka dengan member favorit yang berbeda. Skripsi adalah tantangan yang sangat besar bagiku dan harus dihadapi seolah sendirian. Tidak ada teman yang menyemangati, tidak ada yang bisa diajak berbagi kesedihan, pun saat itu pandemi. Beruntungnya Bapak Ibu dan keluarga mendukung penuh, baik melalui doa, diskusi, dan segala hal. 

Kesendirian itu membawaku pada keputusan untuk menginstall TikTok. Sekadar untuk membunuh waktu dan rasa bosan yang diselimuti kerapuhan diri dengan segala kekhawatiran dan stress yang menghantui. Scroll tanpa henti, dengan hati kosong, hingga bertemulah aku dengan video lucu adek ini, Zhong Chenle namanya💚

The first video I saw about him was actually not the best side of him, the kind of video that actually will make people to often downplay his achievement. It was a video from a TV program where he let the guests to sleep over his home in Shanghai. So basically the main point was when he didn't know the word "rent-house" in Korean. But for context, it happened on early years after his debut when he was still not fluent in Korean. I am embarrassed to admit this, but I was really entertained by that😞

But from that point, I started to look for fun facts about Chenle. And more facts about his family's wealth came into surface and made me felt stunned. More and more, I found lots of his pre-debut photos. They were all so cute😻More and more, I found his pre-debut singing videos, just to found out that he was already a child singer back then in China. His voice was so soothing and angelic, the type of voice that I really love. He could also play the piano. From that point, I decided that I want to jump deep dive to know him. That was when I dedicated my Twitter second account specially just to follow all latest news about Chenle. And that's even just the beginning. That's when I found this Twitter Celebrity named RizalDo, he is a nurse, but he was hyping Chenle a lot at that time. He posted some quotes said by Chenle during his time being a radio broadcaster. He called himself as LeD. His words was really healing for me that I directly dig deep to find more of his wise words. Sadly, I do not remember what was that quote about, which one is that😭

And yes, I found this special Twitter account @WordsByLeD and also a website that did a very neat and good job in archiving the radio broadcast called Chenle Radio Archive. His words is so magical, like whenever I feel down, I will re-open his radio archive just to read his sweet words and my spirit is back! Like I want to continue my life directly🙀

So yeah, that's the story behind how I met Zhong Chenle. His laughters, his caring shown to his members, his view towards this life, just made my life feels easier. And until now, I still like him for his smile and wise words, and of course his voice💚

This event is the first time I spent money during my time stanning NCT Dream😅 I remember I was taking a short break on my work by scrolling through my Twitter feeds. That's when I saw that the hashtag became trending since the movie ticket war was about to begin. I knew that they were about to release a movie, but I didn't follow the news about when they would start selling the pre-order tickets.

Without any far consideration, I decided that I wanted to buy this ticket no matter what. This is a documentary movie about their concert which means that they would include some performances during the concert too. As a person who will most likely never spend that big amount of money only for concert, I felt that this will be okay. At least, I have ever watched the virtual but still high quality version of the concert. So, I stopped the work timer just to concentrate on buying the tickets. I saw on Twitter that they were already stand by on the CGV Mobile App. So, I downloaded the app too for the first time just to find out that the app already couldn't handle the amount of visitors coming 😊

At that time, I didn't even have the CGV account yet. I kept refreshing the app, hoping that I could get the chance to access the app. But no, even after the time for pre-order had started, the loading animation with error message kept showing. My only thought at that time was:

I already told myself that, it's okay. It's okay if I can not win one of the tickets. At least I have tried my best. I already showed my sincere intention to support NCT Dream. Then I closed the CGV app with very heavy sad feeling. I opened Twitter just to monitor others czennies and turned out that many of them were facing the same situation as me. 

I kept scrolling and holding my tears AND THAT'S IT. That's when I found a Tweet from someone who successfully bought the ticket without any hurdles from Shopee. I still have the hope✨ I rushed to open Shopee and... the schedule was still empty. I kept pulling down the screen to refresh the data and... it worked! The schedule started to appear and I rushed to book the tickets on weekend. 

I already chosen the seat and about to pay when suddenly I noticed and remembered, that this movie provides the 4DX version! I rechecked my ticket details and it was still the 2D version! Oh no! I wanted to experience the 4DX version to know the technology! So I repeated the booking process and found out that the 4DX version was only available at around 4PM and night. NOOO!! I have regular tahsin classes at weekend night. I can't leave the class just for fun right? And I just remembered that weekend is for family time. That means... I had to watch it on my work days. And that means... I should watch on the first day of the movie release! 30 Nov!

I rushed to choose the seat and found that there were only 2 seats available for the 18:30 schedule. And only 1 seat left at the highest row. Clicked! Confirmed! Paid! That's it! Yeah, alhamdulillah ~~ I finally could save the seat! FYI, the image above I took after I secured my ticket so that's why, only one available seat is shown.