- Hi, I'm Steven,
and I recently made a video
where I train with a K-pop star for one week.
In that video, an actual K-pop star, Amber Liu,
sent me advice from Korea,
and today, I finally get to meet my sensei.
We're gonna hang out.
We're gonna eat some good food,
and see what a day in a life
of a K-pop star really is.
Let's go.
(Screaming and applause) (creaking)
(upbeat music)
Welcome to Buzzfeed.
- Thank you.
- So, what are you doing in LA right now?
- I came to see you.
- Oh.
- And, to eat tacos.
- That's it?
- Yes.
I'm actually here for KCON.
Been going every year.
Artist's come from Korea to perform.
All around the world,
like France, Dubai, New York.
- You were in France?
- I was in France.
I'm going global. [Steven] You've got the life.
- Yeah, international, baby.
(claps) Mm.
On the side,
I'm shooting a show called Ranting Monkey
- [Steven] So you have your own show.
- [Amber] Yeah, my own show.
- [Steven] That's dedicated to you.
- [Amber] Because I'm fabulous.
- I actually asked my Twitter followers
what they want to ask K-pop stars,
like are you getting enough rest?
- Because I'm so passionate, and I love what I do,
I don't think about sleep, I don't think about eating,
my team, they tell me "Amber eat",
I'm like oh, okay.
- What's your favorite food,
let's go get your favorite food.
- Can we just get Jack-n-the-Box tacos,
I really like Jack in the Box tacos.
Dude, two for a dollar man.
- Two for a dollar, you're a K-pop star!
- It's a great deal, get 20 tacos,
get a bag full of taco sauce.
- Let's do it, alright let's go.
Let's get out of here.
- Out!
So like, apart from my K-pop life,
I use to work at my friend's taco shop.
- What, when?
- I actually can't cook, so I can't fry an egg properly,
so I went in everyday.
- [Steven] To? - [Amber] To work.
- [Steven] Wow. - [Amber] And make tacos.
I really missed out living the quote in quote normal life.
- [Steven] Yeah, you're elevated in society.
- So I try to surround myself in an environment
where I don't have those privileges,
because everything that I do is a blessing.
You know, I sing and dance for a living.
There's so much more to this life than just my world.
- Yeah.
I can't believe I'm at Jack in the Box right now.
- I want to, can we like 10 of these.
- Can we get like 20 monster tacos please?
We went all out, go big or go home.
(upbeat music)
You have an crazy fan stories?
- I don't have those crazy fans that people talk about.
They're called sasaeng type fans.
Sasaeng is like your private life.
- [Steven] Oh.
- I don't control sasaeng fans fans,
because they are stalking you.
I have a lot of other celebrity friends who have
sasaeng fans, I do not know how they function.
As a friend, I want the best for whoever I like, right?
Say, like if I have a dating scandal or whatever
with somebody, and they hate on my boyfriend.
- Not me, don't hate on me.
- Respect their private life.
- You have good fans.
- My fans are the best, I'm so proud of you.
(cheering)
- I want you to meet a friend of mine.
- Okay. - Her name is Jen.
- Okay.
- They say she is the Amber of Buzzfeed.
- Ooh.
- And most importantly, she's a tomboy.
- Ooh, I love tomboys.
She must be very sexy.
- Hi!
- Oh my God, I know who you are!
I really like her, she's cool!
- Come here!
Nice to meet you!
- Come on over!
- I see you on the internet!
- Jen's my best friend here at Buzzfeed,
and we just wanted to talk to you,
but first we have a present for you.
(Amber squeals) - Hot cheetos!
- Do you like hot cheetos?
- I love hot cheetos.
- Dude I eat hot cheetos every morning.
- I'm very happy right now.
- I gave y'all these snacks because I want to talk about,
about you more so now.
We don't want to hear about K-pop.
You're famous, whatever, like yeah that's cool.
You guys are beautiful women.
- [Jen And Amber] Thank you.
- And you guys also don't dress as what people
traditionally think as female, like historically.
Can you tell me a little about that?
- I have a big phobia of public bathrooms.
I've been harassed a lot, like verbally harassed.
Someone would be like "Oh, girls bathroom."
like "Oh, I am a girl."
They could just leave it at that, that's fine.
You don't look like a girl, (mumbling).
Like, how dare you come into the bathroom,
and then I don't believe you!
- Oh my God.
- I don't blame people for being surprised,
I just don't know what to do when they over react.
Do you want me to show you?
(giggling)
I don't know what else to do.
Just because I dress a certain way,
they think "Oh Amber wants to become a boy."
I just like comfortable clothing, I like sports,
and I just happen to have short hair.
- Everybody's sort of held to a certain gender expectations,
and I think if you deviate outside of that,
people don't know how to respond.
- Even for guys, like be a man.
That just sounds very pressuring.
We should respect the person for their individualness
rather than okay, just because you're this,
you're just mph.
- Be yourself. - Be myself.
- Yo, what are you playing?
- Pokemon Go.
- Did you play Pokemon when you were younger?
- Yes, I have all the cards.
- Oh my gosh, I played--
- Wait, quite quite quite.
- If you think you're that much of a Pokemon fan girl,
we're going to play a spelling bee of Pokemon.
- Exeggcute. - Oh my God, EGGE--
- [Steven] Wrong! - What? What the hell?
- Aerodactyl. - AR--
- Nope. - AY--
- Nope. Kangaskhan.
- Oh my gosh. KANGASKHAN.
- Woah! - [Amber] Kangaskhan.
- [Steven] Kangaskhan.
(upbeat music)
We're here at some random skate park.
- [Amber] Yes.
- Amber said she's gonna skate.
- Yes.
- Cause I've never done this before.
(guitar music)
You actually live like a pretty, not like a normal life,
but you do enjoy a lot of the things that people do.
- There's so much cool stuff in the world,
I just want to experience as much as I can before.
(guitar music)
Skateboarding is all about overcoming your fears.
- [Steven] Huh.
- Whether it's skating, eating tacos, going on stage,
like life is awesome.
- Literally after this, you're about to get on stage.
- [Amber] Yeah.
- What doe it feel like to perform in front of hundreds
of thousands of people?
- It's still really something I can't really fathom
at the moment, you know, you're going from
getting ready, and news interviews, fan greets,
and then you go and do the show,
it just feels like a euphoric,
like you see the fans and they're all smiling
and singing with you.
- They allow you the opportunity to do what you do.
- Even if you meet just one fan,
each experience is extremely humbling.
I've been doing this for seven, eight years now.
It's awesome, but how do I respond to all this?
Someone like me, in my position, you can definitely
get big-headed really easily and forget a lot of things
to be thankful for.
Every moment is precious, and there's no time to hate
or judge people, it's just like "You're cool.
Let's do something cool."
- Every fan's dream right there.
To hear that they're cool from their favorite K-pop star.
(cheering)
(upbeat music)
- Oh my gosh, you were so good.
You were like "What's up LA", everybody's like ah!
You're like (mumbles) and their like ah!
I still have the producer's schedule,
now I'm going to film, so life of a K-pop star, yeah!
- Congratulations, performing in your home town.
- Thank you, and thank you for coming!
- You're welcome.
- Oh come on for more hugs, hug, y'all have funs.
(cheering)