For the benefit of you TLDR people. Here’s the table of contents so you can skip to whatever section you want.
Now this is where things took a detour into an unorganized mess. Those of you who have attended K-pop shows before are familiar with the basic after-show routine. For the uninitiated, those with benefits are corralled into a designated area, either inside or outside the venue, to line up for high-touch and photo opportunities, or whatever the benefit may be. In the case of Vancouver, ideally, there would be two lines. One for those with hi-touch only, and everyone else who opted for both hi-touch and photo ops. That wasn’t the reality.
It took a while for the venue staff to communicate which line people should be in, causing a slight delay in getting started. Hi-touch, after all, is just setting up a table and lining the members in a row to receive your grubby hands. So, yeah, put some hand sanitizer on before you touch those idols, people.
Anyway, once the line situation was sorted, we were instructed to place our bags on the left and use our right hands to do the hi-touch. Don’t grab on to the members, don’t do some silly sports high-five or anything stupid. Simple enough.
As usual, the hi-touch was a speed run to see who could burn through the members the fastest. Think of the recent $100+ IVE benefit at KCON 2025 as an example of what this was like. Having experienced too many of these situations in both Japan and the U.S., I knew that to get any value out of this benefit, I needed to slow the line down enough to look each member in the eye for a few extra seconds. So that’s what I did when it was my turn. Of course, I got yelled at to speed up, but hey. I paid for this benefit; I’m going to make the most of it.
The main event of the after-concert was the 1:1 photo ops. If the hi-touch was fast, this was twice as fast. I learned firsthand when I got my first picture with Lynn. I didn’t even have enough time to say a word to her before the staff was going trigger-happy on the shutter button. I’m lucky the picture turned out good, but it changed my entire game plan for subsequent photo ops. So no light banter like in Houston, or at least not significant light banter. Just enough to say hello, demonstrate the pose, and GTFO. Thanks for the money, weab.
Since I had photos with all 8 members, I had time to adapt, and my other photo ops with the other 7 didn’t feel as rushed as the one with Lynn. I’d say my longest interactions were with Nien, Shion, and Yooyeon. Nien saw that I was wearing the Come True tour shirt and gave a quick, “Thank you”, so it gave me some extra time before I could think of something to do with her. With Shion, it was basically spending time explaining the pose until we both got it right.
Yooyeon, I saved for last because I had 3 pictures. If you think she’s unreal on screen, seeing her in person up close is even more impressive on many levels. I found that with multiple photos, the staff actually gives you time to chat a bit instead of trying to boot you out of the booth as soon as possible. So it was nice not to have the money spent on the bias go to waste. That was my sense, anyway; I don’t know if it would be universal for all fans.
I was happy to get my three planned poses in. What I didn’t expect was for her to lean in on the last one. It was unnerving, but I didn’t lose my cool or have any involuntary bowel movements, so praise Jebus. I totally get why Soomin goes full-on gay for Yooyeon.
Of all the 1:1 photos I took, I think the three with Yooyeon and the one with Jiyeon turned out the best. But really, I was grateful for the rare opportunity to be in the presence of any tripleS member, no matter how short the time.
I’ll offer some suggestions for next time for all the extracurricular activities for anyone with some modicum of decision-making ability regarding these tripleS-related activities who may be reading this wall of text.
The first is to please secure and announce fan zones/cafes, or other similar events, earlier, and consider locations where having more than 10 people inside does not constitute a fire code violation. These small cafes or bakeries are not ideal.
Or here’s a better idea. How about holding the VIP benefits the day after the concert in an appropriately sized venue that can accommodate high-touch interactions, photo ops, and any activities with the fans, such as Q&A’s and objekt trading? At least with a full day dedicated to these things, no one is getting rushed. I mean, it works for Japanese idols, so why not take a play out of their book? I don’t know. I’m just brainstorming.
Anyway, meeting Yooyeon ended my tripleS concert experience on a very high note, and I basked in the afterglow for the one-minute walk to my hotel, where I immediately backed up my photos to the cloud while packing for the trip home the next day.
I think, at the rate tripleS is growing in popularity, they will surely come back to North America. Whether they return to Vancouver is uncertain. However, I hope their next touring unit makes a stop there. Us West Side Canadian peeps, are always thirsty for K-pop.
