U-KISS’ long awaited Budokan performance on September 5th finally draws near. Their first goal of having a performance at Budokan has become a reality, so what might their next goal be? And, they also spoke about the promise they made with AJ, a member who will temporarily stop his activities for a duration of 5 months from August 2012 for his studies.
We’re studying Japanese and would like to challenge ourselves in acting.
Q. I can imagine that you all go through a busy day, day after day, but what is a moment during a single day that makes you feel the most happiness?
Hoon: When I eat food… (laughs). I eat three times a day. During those moments, I’m really happy!
Dongho: What did we eat yesterday? Ah~, cocoichi (Curry House coco Ichibanya)’s curry.
Eli: When we’re at the dorm, I always call for home delivery.
Dongho: We love cocoichi. We can live with even eating only that for 365 days.
Soohyun: For me it’s when I listen to music. Recently, I’ve often been listening to songs alone but, when I imagine the stage while listening to the songs is when I’m most happy.
Kevin: When I’m with the members!
Q. I’ve heard that Dongho received his driver’s license recently, so have you gotten a ride from him yet?
Soohyun: Not yet! That’s impossible! That’s still scary….
Kevin: But, sometimes when he wants to practice, the manager goes with him.
Soohyun: In Korea, every member except Kevin drives. Kevin usually gets rides from his mom, you know.
Kevin: No, I don’t! I use the taxi.
Soohyun: You changed?
Hoon: Aren’t you rich~.
Kevin: If I want to go somewhere, then I have to go by myself.
Q. After this, what are the things that you’d like to challenge yourselves with?
Hoon: I want to become more fluent in Japanese, and appear in dramas for sure. That’s because acting was my dream from the start.
Soohyun: If it’s possible, I’d like to do a collaboration with EXILE’S ATSUSHI.
Kevin: I want to become more fluent in Japanese, and appear in dramas or movies. Then, I want to challenge myself with musicals in Japan.
Soohyun: Yesterday, we took a test at a Japanese school. Dongho was 1st place, then Hoon 2nd. Kevin was 3rd, then I was 4th. Eli and Kiseop were at the bottom. Kevin’s listening was totally awful. He only got 3 answers right, you know.
Kevin: That’s because I just couldn’t hear properly yesterday!
Hoon: From now on, those at the bottom of the ranking aren’t allowed to complain about those at the top (laughs)!
At the Budokan performance, we’ll work hard for AJ’s parts.
Q. September 5th is the day of the Budokan performance you’ve been longing for so, how do you feel.
Soohyun: We have several goals but, this is the day that we achieve our first goal.
Hoon: A Budokan performance was our goal, so after achieving that goal, I believe that from that point, it’s another new start for us. Because of the fans, we grew, and so that we can show them a cool appearance, we’re going to work even harder.
Kevin: At the Budokan live, I think that it’s an opportunity to show ourselves to many more people than elsewhere. Of course, I’m sure that many fans will come to see us but, I think that there will be people that will see us for the first time… So, we’ll show our different appearances, and want them know that U-KISS is this kind of group.
Kiseop: We’ve prepared everything so, all that’s left is to practice.
Q. Do you always practice the MC parts beforehand.
Kiseop: We always do free talk.
Eli: The timing for the talk is settled though.
Kiseop: Also, we have a theme. This time, we mess around with the fans, that time we’ll drink a little water and then greet them, things like that are settled.
Dongho: During the Zepp tour, we had deal with remembering the order of the subjects so, it wasn’t that natural. Even if there were fans that watched all of our 11 performances, our comments were the same. Right now our Japanese ability went up so we’re already speaking freely.
Q. Unfortunately, AJ can’t participate in the Budokan live, right.
Soohyun: We have to work hard as 6 for AJ’s parts.
Eli: To tell you the truth, I’m quite worried. We were 7 when we finished our extra performances in July, but this time we’re 6 so, we have to try and match up our dancing and singing again… I pray that it’ll turn out well. Now, we’re sharing AJ’s parts so, it’s divided sort of like, for Korean songs it’s me, for Japanese songs it’s Dongho so, Dongho’s parts really increased a lot.
Kiseop: But, I believe that we’ll surely do it smoothly. Actually, even before the extra performances, we were worrying like, “what are we going to show them?”.
Dongho: But, before we realized it, it was the final day.
Kiseop: Last time as well, we accomplished it properly so, in this one performance this time, I want us to show our everything so that people can know more about U-KISS.
Budokan isn't the end, it's the beginning.
Q. What did you talk about with AJ before he left.
Soohyun: I told him, “Go study Japanese properly and come back”. At Columbia University that AJ is attending, it seems that if you don’t apply for a Japanese course by yourself, you can’t take it so, he said “Well, I want to become more fluent in Japanese” and I heard that he did apply for it.
Hoon: AJ said, “I believe that you’ll all do your best to cover my parts”.
Kevin: So, I also told him, “Work really hard for your studies, don’t get hurt, and come back home safely”.
Kiseop: When AJ isn’t here, of course he himself feels anxious so, to every single member he gave different advice, like “I want you to do it like this”. Especially, since Dongho and Eli are doing the raps, they have to work hard for AJ’s parts.
Eli: “Let’s meet again after we’ve both matured” is what we promised each other. AJ is the one who made the raps and the songs so, this time he told me what he wanted me to do. He said, “I’ll work hard to study Japanese and write songs even when I’m in America”.
Dongho: With AJ hyung, we have a relationship in which there’s no need to say words because we’ll still understand each other, all I told him was like, “Have a safe trip. I’ll call you”. But, I can even just look at hyung’s eyes and understand his feelings, so I think it’s the same for him.
Kiseop: You understand just by looking at his eyes… (laughs)
Dongho: How many years do you think we’ve been living with each other~ (laughs)
Q. What is U-KISS’ final goal?
Hoon: A Dome Tour, I guess.
Soohyun: Dome is our final goal. If that becomes a reality, I think that we’ll all cry. From start to finish we’ll cry, the end! We won’t even be able to sing our songs (laughs).
Kevin: Before that, I want us to make even cooler songs, and capture the hearts of everyone in Japan.
Soohyun: After that, I’d like us to make songs for the Japanese fans. We’ll put our messages and things we want to convey in the lyrics… Kevin writes lyrics too. You’ve been doing that recently, right?
Kevin: Yes, I am.
Dongho: Our goal is a Dome Tour so, from the Budokan goal we have this time, I believe that our start is coming closer. To finally reach the Arena or the Dome, our first step is Budokan so, I think that’s even more important. The distance between us and the fans, throughout Zepp tour and extra performances, has become closer, and if we raise our abilities, I believe that from Budokan we have to show you everything that we can.
Translated by: ukissjpeng.tumblr.com
Credits: Hanryu TVfan (Source) + YOOKISS @ ROCKETBOXX.NET