The Fifth Member

Chapter 1: Mission "Make them notice us"

"Sandra your mother will never agree to this, and you know it, besides, I don't really want to go". Sandra, my best friend looked me dead in the eyes. "Emilia, listen, It's the first, and maybe last time ever, they will be here! Besides, my mother surely will let us go, she loves you". I sighed, "yeah, that's the problem, I was scared that I had to come with you". She grabbed my arm and pulled me inside, her mother stood there, smiled at me and hugged us both. "Mama, I wanted to ask you something, so you know that Sons Of The Century are coming right? And I maybe, got some tickets to them" Sandra smiled at her mother, and her mother slowly turned her head to me, she looked at me with a death stare, while keeping her smile. "Will you be there as well dear?" she asked, "Of course, she will! We go everywhere together Mama!" Sandra said, I nodded while forcing a smile. Sandra looked at her mother, waiting eagerly for her response with light in her eyes. Her mother switches to look at us, she then went to sit down at the dinner table. "If Emilia comes to the concert with you, and you don't go do anything stupid, then yes, you can go to the concert, but I require a picture as proof," her mother said. Sandra jumped up with a happy noise and hugged me. I sighed and hugged her back, sharing her happiness even though, it wasn't what I wanted. I looked at her happy face with her red cheeks, she almost cried. "You know what? Let's have a good time," I said while hugging Sandra again.

"We need hoodies and light sticks, or else they won't think we are fans," Sandra said while the screen light from her laptop lit her face up. "But Sandra... I'm not a fan" I say, she looked at me, "Okay so no lightstick, but what about a hoodie? I know you love good hoodies, and it will have good memories" she said while giving me her puppy dog eyes. They annoyed me every time, but I gave in. "You know what? How about a t-shirt? I'll put it on under my jacket, that way It won't be a lot of money, and we can match" I say, she looks at me for a second, deep in thought. "That's okay, yeah let's do it, you want a small or medium?" She asked. "Are they unisex? because then I'll take a medium, I'll be oversized on me that way" She nods, and I heard the "click" when she put it in her basket. "What are you getting?" I asked. She turned the laptop to me, there was a t-shirt for me, a lightstick for her as well as a hoodie. "Ah that's not too bad, good job," I say, she smiles. "I still have my cap, bag and sneakers, so I should be good," she said proudly. "I take it back, not a good job," I said, she hit me with a pillow, and we laughed. "Sandra, when is the concert anyway?" I asked, "oh it's.... it's in a little month," she said, "a month?! How long have you had the tickets?" I asked shocked. She muttered something, I grabbed her face and looked into her eyes. "Pardon? What was that?" she looked down with her eyes. "Half a year" she then said. I removed my hand while I feel my face, frozen in place. Half a year? Did she buy these tickets in the winter? Was that the reason she was working overtime? "It's not bad, I got front row and everything," she said happily. "And what if your mother didn't say yes? What if I couldn't come?" I asked, I could feel myself getting worked up, she often does things without thinking, but this was the next stage of stupid. She just looked down. "Look I know It was dumb, but it worked out, so please stop being mad, okay?" She said. I rolled my eyes, but I could still feel my lips curl into a smile, "your dumb bitch" I said and threw a pillow at her. "I know," she said and then laughed.

When I got home, I laid down on my bed, I thought about the day, about the concert and Sandra's happy face. I really didn't care about the concert but seeing Sandra that happy made me happy. I closed my eyes, but my phone started to vibrate, I had gotten a text. "Hey Emilia, how have your day been? I know it's a little late in your country, but I just got home from work for the day", It was Ash, well he told me to just call him Ash, but I didn't know his real name. "My day has been weird, let me tell you. First Sandra, you know my BFF, told me to go to a concert with her. She loves sons of the Century and got tickets to their concert. I don't really care that much for them, but I agreed anyway. THEN she tells me she got the tickets a long time ago, but only just NOW asked me. Then she really wanted me to match with her, so she bought some clothes and a light stick. Man, this day has been something else. How were yours?" I text back, the only thing I knew about Ash's work is that he makes music, but he has never told me under what name, or if he has ever published anything. "Yeah, that sounds like a strange day haha, but I think Boys of the century are pretty good, maybe you'll like them after the concert you know? My day was chill, just in the studio and fixing some sounds and stuff. My friends got my food, so we are just sitting in the studio, eating right now". I would have asked him for a picture, but after 3 years of texting he has never sent a picture of himself, it's fishy I know but it's fine, we never talk about meeting, we're just pen pals. He's really lovely and I like to text him, he makes me laugh even though I don't always want to, okay that sounded like I have a crush on the guy, but I don't, he is just really nice and sweet. We have never talked over the phone, only text, which I am fine with, I don't normally like talking over the phone anyway, and neither does he. He does know what I look like because he wanted to see me when I cut my hair to my shoulders. All I have seen are mirror pictures of his clothes or pictures of his hands when he has gotten a new ring or bracelet. He did have a very cool style, I liked it a lot. He is from Korea but is fluent in English, we talked about how Korean culture is so different from mine, and how I found Korean culture interesting, together with Japanese culture. I remember he told me, "I would love to teach you and to know about your culture as well" but since we, properly, never will meet each other it'll just continue being a dream and a sweet conversation. "What are you eating? I got pizza at Sandra's today" I texted him. No response. I didn't get mad, I was used to it, I knew he couldn't be there 24/7, but he would answer when he could, which was pretty often. "We have some takeout, fried rice and such" he texted, with a picture of the food. It looked really good even though it was takeout. "Damn, I almost want a taste, it just looks too good not to" I text back. "It is haha but sometimes I miss homemade food, there are a lot of days where I can't get homemade" He texts back. I smiled to myself, Homemade food, eh? Hmm "I'm sure you can get some bomb-ass homemade food soon; I have to sleep now" I text. "Maybe haha, goodnight" is the last text I see before I put my phone away and I closed my eyes.