Come Back to Me - RM
Six Months Later
After the success of the SixJays launch, Lia’s next project was Trip Fest, a one-night event where the label could basically flex the skills of their current lineup in a festival setting.
One of Lia’s favorite decisions had been about the venue.
She’d been given quite a few options. Any arena was too expensive, so they were immediately out.
There was the open field in Makati, which, for a summer event, was going to be hot as all hell.
No. There were several smaller venues that hosted regular events, cafes that had teeny stages, and a glasshouse on a rooftop that required stair access.
No, no and no. This event was a bit more special than a regular gig, and she wasn’t going to make people cram into a venue with a single exit that wasn’t even wheelchair-accessible!
They needed a space that was comfortable for people to stay all day, easily accessible for commuters, and had enough pedestrian foot traffic to really introduce the bands to new people.
Which was how they ended up at the Ayala Triangle Gardens.
Lia loved that the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed, with the park’s winding walkways, hilly grass areas, and lights already installed in the trees.
And she was right, for the most part. The band’s audience was mostly millennials looking for a relaxed time, and the park had been a great choice.
Also great was her companion’s choice of a viewing area.
Andi had come to the event armed with a banig (purchased from a small social enterprise, and available to purchase at the venue), light-up scrunchies (in lieu of light sticks, from the merch table) and a spot under a tree on top of a small hill, with a direct view of the stage.
After muttering “tabi tabi po” a few times, they settled there just before the show started.
“I love women in music!” Andi exclaimed.
It was a hot summer night in Makati, but neither Lia, Andi nor the music festival crowd seemed to give a fuck, not when the band’s opening act, a new band Triptych had signed called Laya, was performing the best song from their new pop rock album.
The song was a fun, bubbly pop song that wouldn’t be out of place in the early 2000s, except the band played every note live.
It was the kind of music you could nod to, or if you were Andi and Lia, jump to and sing every word.
“My knees aren’t built for this.” Lia laughed, shaking her head as her laughter overtook her. “But this is great. Better than being in the sound booth for sure.”
“Told ‘ya!” Andi exclaimed, swaying along to the bridge. “Teddy gets stressed out when I try to enjoy the show from there, he says I’m likely to pull out a wire.”
“He’s more likely to pull out his back first, his posture is terrible.” Lia snorted, rolling her eyes. “Speaking of your boyfriend, where is he? He promised me he would steal Pocari from the green room for me.”
“He said something about meeting with a new act they want to sign.” Now it was Andi’s turn to roll her eyes. “Honestly, asking him to turn his work brain off is like…asking you to turn your work brain off.”
“Hey, I can turn off my work brain!” Lia gasped in mock offense, but Andi’s knowing smile clearly said she thought otherwise.
“I’ll believe it when I see it!”
But Lia couldn’t help it. Ever since she’d landed back in Manila six months ago, she’d hit the ground running with the new job.
The learning curve had been steep, but it helped that she was working with Mon and Teddy, who were as honest as she was about admitting that they didn’t know what they were doing.
It made a huge difference to her mindset, that it was okay to take it a little slower, to make a few mistakes.
Yes, she spent most of her weekends at events and monitoring some of their activations, but it was time she was willing to spend.
Her job was also one that had the bonus of being incredibly slow on the weekdays, meaning if she and Andi decided to drive to Katipunan to have a two-hour lunch, it was no problem.
The funny thing that ended up happening, though, was that Lia had suddenly become friends with Teddy’s friends.
She and Mon liked to read similar books, and he always had a recommendation ready for her.
She had always liked Teddy’s girlfriend Andi, but as soon as the two of them divulged their secret love of the girl group formerly known as Jellie Ace, they hit it off easy.
That Andi rented part of Triptych’s office space as her art studio meant that they were practically officemates.
It was funny how quickly Lia’s life had changed, and how completely different it was from the one she'd had before Korea, but it was a life she was happy to have.
Of course, it still had its downsides—she was living in the Philippines, after all—but they were downsides she could manage better, more confident that she could take it all on.
There was just one little thing that could make it better. But a quick glance at her phone told her it wasn’t happening today. Not when her notifications were at a highly efficient zero.
Lia
Link: @Cobolt Rehearsal Hits: Lightning Strikes with Steven Bae on drums!
Does Steven smell as good as he looks…
Cal
Sandalwood and sexiness, confirmed.
I smell like sea salt and wood sage, just fyi.
She scrolled down to the last messages they exchanged.
Cal
Can you tell that I’m crying in this N Countdown pic?
Lia
Yes. But you deserve it! My triple crown kings!
Wish I was there.
Cal
Me too. Soon. <3
It was the perfect time of day, when the sun was setting low on the horizon, the heat giving way to a much cooler night.
Everyone was relaxed and just buzzed enough post-merienda to keep the show going, and people who had taken shelter from the heat at the nearby restaurants were emerging from their air-conditioned hidey-holes.
“Oh fuck, I forgot the Pocari,” Teddy said, coming up on their little hilly spot. “Sorry, Ate. It got a little hectic with Ava and everything…”
“Your lawyer? Did something happen?” Lia asked, catching on quick. “You didn’t tell me, again!”
“No, just needed one more copy of the contract than we had.” Teddy waved it off easily. “But it’s all fine. I swear I’m not being intentionally evasive about things, it’s just…”
“You signed a new group?” Lia asked, curiously. And for once, her brother was being obtusely evasive. He was never great at pretending to keep a secret.
Lucky for him, however, Laya’s set just ended, and the hosts they hired for the night hopped up onstage to introduce the next group.
The discussion on the lineup arrangement had taken Mon, Teddy, and Lia three nights and three orders of dim sum to sort out, so she was pretty familiar with it and knew the SixJays were coming up next.
Except…who was that coming on stage?
“Did SixJays get a new roadie?” Lia asked, willing her eyesight to get a little sharper through her glasses by the power of a squint. “That guy doesn’t look familiar.”
“Er…”
There was a very loud, audible gasp in the crowd as the band appeared from the side.
Lia’s jaw dropped as three very familiar figures jogged up to the stage, the three of them wearing jackets like it wasn’t thirty degrees Celsius in Manila.
Excited murmurs turned into excited cheering, especially when Cal Ahn came up to the microphone and looked right across the venue and straight into her soul.
“Hello, Manila,” he said in a low voice. He took off his jacket to reveal that he was wearing only a black sleeveless shirt inside. “Happy to see me?”
And then the band went straight into Lightning Strikes, and Lia realized it was the first time she’d ever heard the song live.
It started with a crash of Soobin’s cymbals, then the marching tune of Cal on keyboards.
The song’s main melody was played mostly on a piano and a bass drum.
He asked everyone to clap along, Siwan raising his hands over his head as they did.
In classic Pinoy fashion, the crowd followed along perfectly.
Cal started singing the verses, in Korean words Lia didn’t understand but knew perfectly well.
I never thought lightning could strike
But you hit me twice
Straight to my heart
Baby I light up for you
They hit the pre-chorus, and the guitar and the bass came in to fill in the sound.
The electric guitar was clean but had moments where it seemed to catch on itself, an intentional effect Lia was sure.
Siwan was fully playing now, his fingers dancing over the neck of the instrument as he sang the background vocals to the chorus.
Soobin had somehow managed to find the time to roll up his sleeves in between the quick drumbeats.
And above all of that, Cal’s voice, filling the entire park and drawing the crowd in.
Suddenly, her knees found the strength to jump along as she surrendered herself to the song, even if she did manage to get a couple of “what the fuck!” exclamations at Teddy in between.
The song hit the bridge and went a little EDM-inspired, much to the audience’s delight.
The whole band seemed to nod in unison at the bridge, and not a single time did the clapping break.
It wasn’t until they sang the chorus for the last time did Lia take it in. CoBOLT was here. Cal was here.
The music mellowed out to the piano playing solo, all three boys leading the crowd to sing the “oh-oh-ohs” of the outro.
There was a moment where Lia wondered if the answering fan chant “we waited for you CoBOLT, light us up, CoBOLT!” was just a figment of her imagination after watching too many fancams of the band, but she could see them—a few clusters of fans, shouting it out and smiling like this was the best day of their lives.
“Wait,” she said, grabbing the front of her brother’s shirt as the band let the song hang in the air.
Cal had strapped his guitar back on, then they began to play Love Is Always, the song he’d been writing on the couch when Lia had been in Seoul.
“The new artist you signed just now. The being secretive. Don’t tell me. ”
“I won’t.”
“Teddy!”
“I held on to this for three months, Ate, let me have this moment!” Teddy exclaimed in a surprising fit of pique.
“He decided he wanted to do this almost as soon as we left.
And it took a while to figure it out. But as of today, Triptych is officially managing Cal Ahn's solo career. We had to do it today because Damask signed off on it just last week.”
Lia had known Cal was thinking about going solo—they talked about it on their nightly calls.
Soobin’s drama was about to start shooting finally, Siwan had landed a part for a movie…
it was the perfect time. Of course, he would always put CoBOLT first, but a solo career in Manila was a challenge, a place to grow.
Lia had been looking forward to flying to Korea to see him and talk it over, but her boyfriend found a way to beat her to the punch.
And while it wasn’t the big, expressive, grand movie moment of running through the airport, Lia did run backstage, flashing her lanyard at anyone curious enough to ask why she was so breathless.
But it did help that while the band played the last few notes of “Bolt of Blue,” he turned his head and saw her standing backstage.
It helped greatly that, the moment Cal finished the song and sang the last few lingering notes of the outro, he took off his guitar and set it aside.
Then, with a smile that made Lia feel like she was in the middle of a pleasant August day when they first met, Cal took three steps out of the stage and into her arms. He lifted her up by the waist and spun her around.
Lia didn’t care that they were both breathless, that they were both sweaty, that Cal had just let the band keep playing behind them.
Well, she cared a little.
But she really wanted to kiss him first.
“You know I once wrote a fanfic that ended just like this,” she told him, smiling. “I have to say, though. I prefer this happy ending.”
“I can’t believe I flew thousands of miles just for you to tell me a fanfic joke.”
“Two thousand six hundred and twenty miles, to be exact. And I love you for every one of them.” Lia’s cheeks were starting to hurt from all of her smiling, but she didn’t care. “I love you, Cal.”
“I love you too, Lia.” He grinned. “Should we do the encore?”