Comeback to Me

Chapter 1

ONE

LOST! - RM

“Oh my god.” Lia Mertola blinked away the last of the eyedrops that she’d used to soothe her dry eyes. She reached out blindly for her younger brother’s arm, gesturing for him to hand her the other thing he was holding for her while taking the eyedrops from her.

Lia pressed down on the head of the spray bottle.

The moisturizing mist was cool and very lightly scented, and she could feel her parched skin soak up all that delicious moisture, even if it was only a temporary fix.

It was in fact, so delicious that she sprayed her face one more time, moving the mist across her face evenly with her wrist.

“Oh my god,” she repeated, finally feeling like she could take a deep breath without her skin shrinking back into itself. “Smeeeellll.”

“What?” her brother, Teddy, asked beside her, one sarcastic eyebrow raised as he watched his older sister.

“You don’t know smeeelll?” Lia repeated, exaggerating each syllable nasally as she sprayed her brother’s face.Teddy’s skin must have been really dry too, since he didn’t flinch or jerk away, he simply let the moisture hit his skin while glaring at his sister like an annoyed cat.

She sprayed him again. “Teddy, we just landed in Korea, you don’t know smeeellll? ”

“Ate stoop, I don’t know smell!” Teddy flapped his hand in front of his face like he could swat away all that tea tree-scented goodness.

“I need to expand your second gen KPop education.” She tutted her lips and shook her head. “Parodies were a thing, and this one needs to live in your brain like it does mine.”

“The plane was not that dry.”

“My entire face would beg to differ.” Lia sighed dramatically, as she handed Teddy the face spray to put back in her travel kit, then retrieved the nasal spray. “Ate Frankie was so right. Things just start to dry up in your thirties.”

“Dry up…?” Teddy asked the thin air, but he dutifully placed the face spray back in the kit and handed it over to his sister. “What is happening.”

“And plane travel just makes it all worse.”

“Why are we talking about this?”

“It happens in the most random parts of your body.” Lia put the nasal spray back in the kit and took out her lip balm. “Your face, your nose, the skin on your legs, your vagina…”

“Am I dead?”

“And not to mention our reliance on caffeine,” Lia continued, finally zipping up the kit and squeezing her baby brother’s cheek before putting the entire thing away.

“Also, we’ve both been up since 4AM. Probably a good idea for us to eat something before we get coffee.

Remember Teddy, we’re both in our thirties now, and our stomachs are a delicate garden of probiotics, and—”

“I must be dead,” Teddy said like he hadn’t heard a single thing his sister said. “Does this mean you go to Seoul when you go to hell?”

“Does this mean me coming with you on this trip is hell?” Lia wiped down her glasses with a proper lens cleaning cloth before putting them back on. Wow the sky was really that grey, huh. No wonder white people got seasonal depression. And this wasn’t even peak autumn yet!

“No.”

“And are you going to tell me who your secret KPop client is?”

“No,” Teddy repeated, pushing the cart that contained his luggage, her luggage, and some of his equipment, which had about fifteen “fragile” stickers stuck to it despite Teddy hand carrying the thing. Music producers. Can’t live with them, can’t understand why they need to bring so much stuff.

Although Lia couldn’t really complain—she had come to Seoul on Teddy’s invitation, his saling kit for this particular work adventure.

She didn’t know much of anything about this trip, which was rare.

All he told her was that he’d been hired by a second gen Korean band to work on a big comeback, that it would be a while, and how did one apply for a Korean visa?

“Why do you keep asking? You said you weren’t a KPop fan.”

“Just curious,” Lia lied, pulling her denim jacket closer to herself and stuffing her hands in her pockets, which gave her an excuse to not look at her brother.

She definitely needed more layers than this.

She was an old hand at denial, that long, long river in Egypt that she’d been sailing on for—what, five years now?

It wouldn’t help to tell him that there were only a handful of second gen South Korean bands fully active on the KPop side of the industry, and even less who were due for a comeback.

And East Genesis Project was currently filming a vacation special in Palawan.

She didn’t say any of that, of course.

“It’s not every day your siblings conspire—I say that with love—to get you on a sad girl vacation.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” What was there to talk about, really? Her life was life-ing itself outside of her control, and she wasn’t dealing with it well. It was something that happened to everyone (probably) and she just needed to not think about it. Hence, Korea.

She lost her job. Which, after ten years of steady rising through ranks and the stability of a salary (less taxes and contributions, which was a lot), was terrifying in this economy.

Then there was—ontop of the usual things—friends on social media getting engaged, getting married, having kids, having lives, unprecedented times, shitty presidents, living in a country where politicians could give less of a fuck about their people.

Lia could hardly blame herself for not wanting to leave the house some days.

And then there was the birthday thing, which Lia could barely explain even to herself.

Ask her about practical things, things that have concrete answers. She was good at those. But talk about how she felt? Who had the time? Certainly not her very busy brother.

She could almost feel Teddy’s eyes on her, could imagine the conversation he and Ate Frankie had prior to offering the middle Mertola to be his extra luggage on this trip.

“I know you said you already won at therapy,” Teddy said, and Lia tried not to wince at that. That was the Lia of a year ago who had gotten a promotion and was high on a happy crush, was meeting with friends weekly and generally crushing it at life. “But if you need someone to talk to…”

He looked away so Lia couldn’t see the expression on his face.

She smiled, even as her heart squeezed in her chest. She was used to being on the other side of this non-versation, the one who assured Teddy that she would be there when he was ready.

It touched Lia deeply that he was trying to switch the roles up a little bit this time, in his own cautious, awkward way.

She wasn’t planning on taking him up on that offer. It was kind, but he had other, more important things to think about. His own life to live. What she felt (or didn’t), wasn’t worth dumping on someone else.

Generational trauma? Oh, the Mertolas knew that well.

“I appreciate you saying that.” See, that’s not a lie! Lia leaned her cheek on her taller brother’s arm as she stood beside him. “But don’t worry. Companies close up all the time. People get busy. It’s just seasonal. I’ll figure this out.”

“Does that include saying yes to the SixJays anniversary project?” Teddy yanked at a loose strand of her hair, making her jerk down and over correct to stand back up, letting him go. “Mon was really excited to hear your ideas. He knows you listened to that album on repeat when I was a kid.”

“Pfft. We were fully teenagers fifteen years ago. Also, you’re being nice, it’s weird.” Lia shuddered.

“I’m doing something for you, which you are uncomfortable with.”

“Olé.” She meant to say touché, damn. “I haven’t said yes to Mon yet.” Mon was Teddy’s business partner at Triptych Records, whom Lia had known since he was a dorky Lit major one batch after her. “The stakes are too high.”

“You like high stakes.” Teddy pointed out, which was true. “Managing projects was literally your job, and you love Dawn.”

“The album is my favorite. But—“

“And a project couldn’t hurt, since you’re about to spend your net worth on pastry, perfume, and skincare.”

“There is no shame in taking care of your skin.”

“I didn’t say there was. I believe in you. You always have great ideas, Ate. You’re cool, and you’re good at this.”

It was a sweet thing to say. So sweet that tears sprang up unexpectedly, and she had to blink them away in the guise of “eye drops kasi.” And Lia knew that it was true, that if you wrote a list of the things she’d achieved in her life, she was by no means a loser.

But the fact was, she still felt like one, which made that list mean…not that much.

“I’m intrinsically valuable, and I’m a good person, I know.” The words still felt empty, but saying them out loud might make her feel that much better about it.

“Oh. Ate Frankie’s video calling,” Teddy announced, making Lia look up to see him opening the call on his phone. Both Lia and Teddy’s faces lit up when the person on the other end turned out to be a five-month-old baby, with more cheeks and eyelashes than was allowed on a human face. “Sam!”

“Oh my gosh, who’s Ninang’s favorite baby? Who?” Lia cooed at the phone as baby Sam screamed excitedly, bouncing in his mother’s tight hold. Then the camera panned to the eldest Mertola’s face. “Yes, you! You self-loving, valued member of this family!”

“What?” Teddy asked.

“I’m trying to get him to not value his looks.”

“Wow, you guys look exhausted,” Frankie observed, and both her siblings’ faces visibly fell.

“Oh, hey Ate.” Lia said.

“That’s a great way to greet your Ate, Li.”

“Can’t you just show us Sam again?” Teddy asked, and Frankie rolled her eyes. “He might forget who we are.”

“He’s five months old. He doesn’t really know who anyone is.” Frankie pointed out to her siblings. “And really, the two of you are in no position to bargain for baby video call time when neither of you told me that you had already landed! What if your plane crashed?”

“Ate, it’s more dangerous to ride a car than it is to fly in a—”