Isn’t that friend also the music producer for EGP? And KST? Am I delusional? Does this mean…comeback soon???
Clearly he’s there on a PRIVATE schedule stop sharing the pics!
TWO
WINGS - SO! YOON! FEAT. PHUM VIPHURIT
When Lia was 21,a fresh graduate, a new adult, a baby girl finally taking her first steps into the adult world, she attended a concert for the first time. And the only reason her overly strict parents hadallowedtheir adult daughter to go was that?—
She’d lied and told them it was a requirement for her internship at an events management company and
Because Megan was also going, and her parents expected her to go with Megan.
Lia knew the minute she met Megan they were going to be inseparable—they had been like two peas split from the same fangirl pod back ever since they met at freshman orientation. Lia would have described it as meeting a kindred soul, a friend that she was always meant to make. They were both from the same not-so-large high schools in Metro Manila, both all-girls Catholic. Both were the only students from their respective high schools at this fancy new Big 4 school. They had both seenOuran High School Host Club, and were both in love with Shun Oguri.
Lia had been the one to find CoBOLT, mid-marathon ofAngels Fly High, the KDrama that Frankie insisted they watch together. Cal had shown up in the school drama’s sports festival episode as a guest star, which led to the question that changed the course of her entire life—“sino ‘yan?”
The rest, as they say, was fangirl history. Lia found out who he was, that he was in a band. Lia fell in love with the band’s music, and then she got to know the other members. Then she started watching them on various variety shows, music show performances, commercials, parodies, and collabs.
So when CoBOLT announced an Asia tour with a stop in Manila, there was no question. Lia and Megan were going to see them live together.
Lia had been stunned when the four boys first walked onto the stage. She needed Megan to shake her and scream every word of “Bolt of Blue” with her, needed her best friend to hold her hand through Cal crooning sorrowfully to songs like “Lie to Me,” and jumping to “Coffee Baby.”
Before then, she didn’t know how powerful live music was, how life-changing it could be to hear your favorite band play your favorite songs right in front of you. She didn’t know how exciting it was to feel the bass of the music under your skin, to feel the way the room vibrated with the beat of the drums, and to feel how cathartic it was to singwiththe band.
Cal had been electrifying onstage. He’d only been twenty-two then, but he was the leader of Korea’s biggest idol band and could command the audience, no problem. He knew how to hype up a crowd, to use his voice to fill the entire Araneta Coliseum without breaking a sweat. He jumped around the stage, ran around with a guitar strapped to his body, no problem. Hecertainly knew how to make Lia feel like he was singing just for her.
And she had fallen in love, for what felt like the very first time in her life. With music, what it made her feel. She understood her brother spending hours locked up in his room just listening to music, how her older sister could sit in front of a piano and glare at pieces like a thousand-piece puzzle and painstakingly learn each measure. Lia never had that irascible (irascible?!?) thirst for knowledge, or the patience like her siblings did, but she did know why they loved it.
“I never wanted the show to end.” Megan had sighed, clutching her Bomseok poster as Lia cradled her copy ofThunder Blueto her chest. “I’m so glad we went together.”
Lia loved that she didn’t have to say things out loud sometimes, because it felt like Megan said it for both of them. Because really, same. And as they walked across the street to the McDo where her Dad was supposed to pick them both up, she decided that this was what she wanted her adult life to be. Surrounded by good music, a band she loved, and her best friend.
It didn’t turn out that way, though. Not at all.
Lia was dreamingof the night of her birthday. She dreamed of the melted frosting on her buttercream cake, with a ‘happy birthday’ she’d dedicated to herself. She saw Megan’s text, and that stupid cat GIF with teary eyes playing over and over again.
Sorry, traffic eh. Katamad haha.
She dreamt of herself staring out of her open condo window at the choked sounds of her sobbing. She dreamt of herself at the lowest point in her life, when not even the person who knew her the best of all wanted to be with her.
