Fan gets to play games with K-pop star Choi Siwon

Lady Luck smiled on K-pop fan Lam Juhui not once, but twice.

Six months ago, she won a contest and the prize was a photo opportunity with Choi Siwon on stage when the K-pop idol was in Singapore to promote his action flick Dragon Blade.

Yesterday, she got a chance to get up-close with the superstar again when she was chosen to play games with him on stage during a public fan-meet at Marina Bay Sands (MBS).

The Ngee Ann Polytechnic student received a hug from her idol who put his arms around her shoulders and even fed her while she was blindfolded.

It made the 800 fans present turn green, which incidentally, happened to be the colour of Miss Lam's hair.

Said the 18-year-old: "I can't believe that I am so lucky. I was very surprised as I didn't expect him to put his arm around my shoulders the whole time. I thought he would just stand beside me.

"My friends were all very jealous, so they hugged me because Siwon hugged me. To them, it's as if Siwon indirectly hugged them."

Choi, 28, of boyband Super Junior fame, was in town with Hong Kong director Dante Lam to promote the new cycling movie To The Fore, which also stars Eddie Peng and Shawn Dou.

The $16-million movie tells the story of three competitive cyclists (Choi, Peng and Dou) who eventually end up as rivals. It opens in cinemas here today.

Miss Lam said she and her friends had been at MBS from 8am, even though the fan-meet was due to start only at 7pm.

Describing her mind as "blank" when she was on stage, she said: "Siwon is really very nice to his fans and treats them very well. He is very caring. I felt so nervous."

'AWESOME'

Other than Miss Lam, Mr Bobby Ow was also chosen to go on stage to be paired up with director Lam.

Mr Ow, who is in his 30s and works in the hotel industry, said: "My idol is director Lam. It was awesome to be on the same stage as Dante and Siwon. It's my dream come true as I got to shake hands with them." Predictably, Choi and Lam got the mostly female crowd screaming their lungs out when they took to the stage.

Choi, in particular, showed his ability to work the crowd, at times even speaking in Mandarin.

"Don't you feel my Mandarin has improved?" he teased.

"I learnt Chinese because I want to pay back my love to all of you here."

And when he was feeding Miss Lam, he said: "Yes, I like all the food here but I like you the most."

That drove the fans to scream in excitement.

To cap it all, Choi also used his mobile phone to take a wefie with the fans, saying: "I'll post this on Instagram tonight."

Malaysian student Chia Tian Xin, 19, woke up at 8am to take a bus across the Causeway with her two friends, accounts assistant Connie Leck, 21, and student Ng Jyy Ling, 20, to catch a glimpse of Choi.

Miss Chia said: "He is so handsome that I wanted to cry on seeing him. He is so talented and not pretentious at all.

"I just want to tell him, 'I love you, Choi Siwon'."

He felt naked in cycling outfit

Squeezing into skintight outfits is just one of the things Korean superstar Choi Siwon had to do for his role in sports-action movie To The Fore.

“I felt naked,” Choi said and laughed when asked about his body-hugging cycling outfits.

“The first few times I wore them, I felt a little shy. But I got used to it and it wasn’t embarrassing after that. It was very comfortable.”

Choi was speaking at a press conference at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands yesterday.

The singer-actor, who plays a top cyclist in the movie, said he also had to shave his legs for the role.

“When I shaved my legs, I felt like I became a woman for that moment. It made me really respect women because they have to shave their legs in the morning every day. It’s so difficult.”

CO-STAR

The K-pop idol sang praises of co-star Eddie Peng (left), 33.

“When I first met Eddie, I felt that he was so awesome. He is a good source of motivation and inspiration for me.

“I really like him as my ‘oppa’ (affectionate Korean term for older brother). We became really good friends.”

When asked who among the three hunks — him, Peng and Chinese actor Shawn Dou — did he think was the “hottest”, Choi smiled and said: “Can I not answer this question? Next question, please?”

When pushed further, he replied: “Three of us are very different.

“Shawn is very manly and tough in real life. He likes motorbikes and is quite casual.

“Eddie is manly, too, but he has his sensitive side. He can be very sweet when he says something to you.

“As for me? Well, that’s a secret.”

jocelee@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Aug 06, 2015.
Get The New Paper for more stories.