“You got a job? Where?”
In the distance, Lia heard someone shout in Korean, and the rest of the world filtered back in—people moving behind them, people speaking. She was pretty sure she could hear Siwan speaking to the tone of making some kind of lazy excuse. She could hear the fans filling the gaps of noise even backstage, asthe entire hall felt more full, and energy was just starting to fill it. She and Cal looked at each other like they both accepted the truth.
CoBOLT had a show to do.
“You have to go.” Lia took her glasses back and brushed a stray bit of lipstick off of Cal’s chin. His stylists were not going to love her. She wiped at her eyes, grateful that she had glasses on so people wouldn’t notice.
“I know,” he said, and that determined, almost stubborn insistence that things will work out the way he wanted was endearing. He came in close again, planting another hot, searing kiss on her lips, and Lia didn’t want to let him go. Her fists curled into his shirt, keeping him where he shouldn’t be. “I need to go.”
“I know,” she agreed, kissing him again.
“We’ll talk later,” he murmured, pressing his hip against hers. “Please, Lia. We’ll talk later, I promise.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “Congratulations, Cal.”
“CAAAAALLL hyunggg!” Soobin called from a short distance away, and Lia wondered if she was imagining the laughter in his tone. “Come get mic-ed, please!”
Cal yelled something back in Korean that Lia didn’t catch, but he turned back to her, as if waiting for her permission for him to go.
“Go, go,” she said, smiling. “Thunder, CoBOLT, fighting!”
Cal blew her one of those happy, thrilled-to-be-here stage kisses she saw on fancams, and just like that, the leader of CoBOLT was back. He jogged backward toward the greenroom, a cocky grin on her face, and winked at her. Then he smoothly turned around and headed back.
Lia wrapped her arms around herself and took a moment to feel the rush of sadness that pulled at her. She took a deep breath. Two. Three. But the show had to go on.
“Ate?”Teddy asked as Lia made her way back to the audience pit, her brother now standing in the back. To be fair, the room was full of people—enough for the energy to sustain its steady rising, and but not too full that it was uncomfortable. And she had no idea what expression she had on her face, but it seemed like it gave him everything he needed to know. “Fuck. You’re sad.”
Damn it. But there was very little use hiding the truth from her little brother, because Teddy was a firm believer in ‘we listen, we don’t judge.’ Unless, of course he was with his older sisters, in which, he judged harder.
“I’m not sad.” Lia shook her head. “I just want to enjoy the show.”
She shifted where she was standing, already feeling slightly uncomfortable just standing. The house lights were dimmed but not fully off. She noticed that many of the fans were already leaning against the barriers, and others were sitting on the floor.
“They should have chairs,” Lia said, and Teddy asked her to say it again. “Not to be a tita, but I’m pretty sure the average age in this room is thirty. It wouldn’t be so un-rock and roll to give people places to sit.”
“I think they’re trying to make a point,” Teddy said, scanning the venue in an assessing way. “I picked up a few things from the strategy meetings. Cal wanted to push the band to try going for a more indie rock image than a flashy, KPop one. So underground venues, standing rooms. They were talking about festivals, too.”
“That’s great.” Lia ignored the pang in her chest. “It makes perfect sense. You reintroduce the band as a band. They’ve beenaround. They know what they’re doing. But they really should have the basics down first.”
“Which are?”
“Merch for every fan event. You want your audience to always show up in something you sold them. I would say only two in every ten people are wearing official merch? I don’t blame them, their websites are all in Korean, and the translation makes no sense.” She shook her head. And she should know, because that entire week, she’d tried. “And light sticks! I know it’s trite, but it’s part of the branding! I agree it makes sense to push the fact that the boys really play their instruments, but they should be able to do that on TV, too.”
She was on a roll now. If anyone saw her, they would think she was a hater, but honestly, she was just making an unprofessional observation from someone who had worked in retail marketing strategy for ten years.
“I think that if the goal of this comeback is to get old fans to come back, then they have to keep doing what they’ve always done best. Have fun. And let people have fun along with them.”
Maybe that was why Lia had fallen out of love with them. To love CoBOLT felt like such a natural act to her—sure, I’ll stream the thing! Yes, I’ll scour the internet for fansubs! I don’t mind pirated merch, I wouldn’t know where to buy the real thing anyway!
But eventually she lost touch with that, and then they couldn’t reach her anymore. She stopped looking, and they had been impossible to find. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. But surely there was more that could have been done.
“Anyway.” She said, remembering that Cal already knew all of this, that he had the means to make it all real. “It won’t be BINJ’s job to do all of that. Not for long."
The lights dimmed completely before Lia could say anything, and a photo of the three-man band appeared on the screen.The audience went wild around them, wrists adorned with blue scrunchies shaking as phones went up. Lia took a photo and posted it on her socials, with a blue heart and a lightning bolt as her caption, before she tagged the band’s official account.
Losing the lights made the building’s energy feel at its peak, reaching a breaking point. It buzzed on Lia’s skin, like a part of herself was falling away to make room for this new experience. She held her breath. There was absolutely no moving her from this spot. Not until she saw all three boys emerge from the back, their faces looking serious. But it was a fragile kind of serious, like they were one pun away from breaking out into laughter.
The crowd around her cheered, and Cal raised a hand to say hello. His eyes sparkled, with a love and happiness she’d seen him give a random old woman on the street. While his stylist clearly tried to repair some of the damage Lia had caused, he looked a little less serious and scary. He looked like he’d been kissed, and kissed really well. Wink wink.
