Much to her delight, T-ara’s Jiyeon was given time off to spend a day with her parents at home recently, her first visit in more than four years.

Living in shared accommodations and keeping a jam-packed schedule means such outings are rare for T-ara.

“Finally my dream has come true,” the 19-year-old said on Twitter Thursday. “I’m back home with my parents again after four years apart. Today I’m going to ask my mom to cook me some spicy rice cakes.”

Her father also surprised the star at an autograph signing event recently, prompting Jiyeon to shed tears.

Fans that encountered the tweet were quick to congratulate her by saying, “I hope you have a great time with your family,” “enjoy the rice cakes” and so on.

But it’s already back to the grind, and an official fan meet is scheduled for today. The event gained a lot of press coverage a few weeks ago when the group decided to waive admission fees for the event.

Just two weeks to go, T-ara offered refunds of 10,000 won ($9) per seat because it didn’t want to “burden the fans.”

By Carla Sunwoo@koreajoongangdaily