@firewater07: Thanks for putting the pics up here. I guess your name is Christine then?
I'll give a rundown of what happened:
Yes my brother took the "paparazzi" shots of Gyuri. We were all in town for a BeachBody conference that weekend. My brother and some of our friends got their earlier in the week. I didn't arrive until late Thursday night because of work. We all come from the Northern VA/Washington DC ARea BTW. So my brother and our friends decided to go shopping at The Grove. While there they saw Hara, Jiyoung, Seungyeon and Gyuri randomly. My brother said no one except them recognized who they were. One of my friends who is half-Korean got a chance to speak to Hara and asked if they could get pictures with them in Korean, but they politely declined and went on with their shopping.
My brother and friends know that I'm a big fan of Kara so they kind of followed them around to try and get better pics, but it was hard because they didn't want to upset them. My friend guessed that maybe they didn't want to take pictures because Hara and Jiyoung didn't have makeup on or they just wanted some peace and privacy.
They saw them later on at Cheesecake Factory. That's when my brother approached their table to try and get their autographs. There was kind of an awkward moment because at their table was a whole crew. It was probably their managers and other handlers and some of the men in their crew were giving him funny looks. See, my brother had to stand there for a little while and wait for them to finish ordering and since there were a lot of them, it took some time.
When the chance came my bro tapped Jiyoung on the shoulder and asked if he could get their autographs for me because I'm a big fan. He said Jiyoung's English was better than he thought it would be, but of course nowhere near a native speaker's level. Jiyoung had some difficulty understanding how to spell my name but she was a good sport about it. My brother said when he corrected her, she was just laughing about it. Probably in her usual cute way.
I believe he said Hara signed and then Gyuri signed as well. When it came around to Seungyeon, she said that she was sorry that she couldn't because of her hand (in English) and then lifted up her arm which was in a sling. What's funny is my brother got a stress fracture in his left wrist two weeks before so his hand and part of his forearm was in a brace and wrap. So when Seungyeon said that, he lifted up his arm and said, "ohh, me too!" He said most of the table laughed, but Seungyeon didn't. I guess her arm was still bothering her at that point or maybe she just wasn't in the mood. I actually went to the festival that Saturday and if you notice, Seungyeon had her arm behind her back pretty much the entire time she was on stage. So I bet it was still bothering her. Poor girl. She's such a pro though.
Overall my brother and friends said Gyuri was the most outgoing and welcoming as they kind of followed her around at The Grove. I mean, she knew they were taking pics of her but she didn't mind so much. Also while none of them are really fluent in English (excluding Nicole) they said Gyuri was the one who attempted the most communication in English. My friend who is fluent in Korean tried to take some video of them using his camera, but totally got caught by Hara and Jiyoung so he felt embarrassed and didn't approach them at dinner.
I got in a few hours after my brother and friends got to meet them. So imagine my jealousy as they tell me their stories after picking me up from LAX. Of course they didn't tell me they got their autographs until later. It was too bad Nicole wasn't with them (as she's my favorite) LOL
Sorry if that was long, but I figured you guys would enjoy hearing about it.
Edit: Oh one more thing, one of my friends who is a girl said that Gyuri "was definitely the hottest" and "the other girls looked so regular". Keep in mind my friend isn't a fan and doesn't really know them at all.