"WELCOME TO TEARING IT UP!!! THE ONE PLACE WHERE YOUR CAN GET THE TEA, THE MUSIC AND THE GAMES DONE IN STYLE!!!"
P'Tear opened his show with the usual greeting. The fans went crazy with the applause then got quiet with expectation.
"Now as many of you know, It's Christmas day! We decided to do a special show for all our fans around the world by inviting some special guests. I need to tell you a bit about them. Elevation is three years old roughly, has five members who all play instruments. The lead singer and de facto leader is Noh, with Ohm on bass, Flex on drums, Dye on Keyboard and Ex on everything else. They have a huge underground following not only here in Thailand but throughout Asia. About a year into performing they were offered a contract by a big company... and declined! This company wanted them to radically change their image!" He paused and the crowd booed as was expected.
"Recently they won our famous Battle of The Bands competition and won a recording contract with a huge Korean based company. You can get their surprise single out on iTunes now called Together With Me (Dance Blast Remix) and they'll be dropping a surprise for us on New Years. Lets put our hands together for Elevation!!"
They walked out on signal with Noh hopping in the rear to thunderous screaming and applause. Even P'Tear looked a little stunned. They greeted the audience with waves and winks and flying kisses. It set another round of screaming off and Noh even spotted Sempai Mel and a small amount of her crew in one corner.
"Thanks for having us P'Tear. We actually watch your show a lot!" Ohm opened since he was closest.
"Mostly online but sometimes we get to see it live." Flex agreed.
"Well I heard you were so excited to come, one of you almost died." They all stared at Noh who covered his face as he laughed hard. Dye patted him on the arm.
"Tell us your version before we roll the clip Noh."
"Oh, God. So we were on vacation... A working one kinda, sorta, and Secret woke me up when he came back from grabbing breakfast at the main cabin. So I'm the guy who checks his social media and messages as soon as he wakes up. One of the messages said we were going to your show. I lost my shit immediately."
"Yes we can tell. Here you are driving up like a bat from hell," And he did look like he had been speeding in the clip. He could hear Ohm shouting about him speeding up the road. Then he slowed and spotted them. Noh knew what happened next so he looked out at the crowd and absorbed their every reaction This was a once in a lifetime chance. He never got to see how they truly responded to the clips the band put out. This wasn't the best since they would have all seen it already but their reactions were still pretty good.
"So who is this girl? We all want to know."
Flex explained about Mick and his family having to join them on vacation unexpectedly. "Min had no clue what was happening. She was just coming back from her run. That's what makes it so wild."
"Wild is an understatement. So how long is the cast for?"
"A couple of weeks. I have to go in to check it out next week for a progress report and if things are good then it will come off the week after."
Well that's awesome to hear and I'm glad it wasn't much more serious. Now you mentioned a person earlier named Secret. Who is he?"
So Noh explained everything from the love contract to their decision to keep things to themselves for a while.
"So he is literally a secret, hence the name."
"Yes, kinda, sorta. Shit." The crowd laughed as Noh blushed.
"But you don't intend to keep him a secret forever?"
"No. Never. He is my most important person and I think to do that would be disrespectful and cheapen just how important he is to me. The thing is, I don't think of his as a secret. I just go about my day as normal with him. I'm not that big on PDA naturally so we're not like out there holding hands and stuff because of me. I'm a bit tsundere, I admit it, so I would be the one who puts up a fight. He gets me so he sort of has these 'fair game' places like home or any private spots where he would steal a kiss or hold my hand. Then you have the no contact rule that we had. So for three years we were completely absent form each others lives."
"You must have gone at it like rabbits for the reunion." P'Tear stated slyly. Noh blushed a deep red and buried his face in his hands as the rest of the band shouted loudly and the audience screamed in happiness at seeing him in this state. He didn't know how but he was playing right into P'Tear's hands.
"What does he think about all this?"
"Actually he's ok with it and he would tell me if he wasn't. It's like a honeymoon stage for us right now. We just want to be alone for as long as we can."
"I understand that very much. The honeymoon stage is a very selfish stage," P'Tear said to the crowd. "That's when the possessive behaviours and the hibernation and bed play really gets all out." The audience went wild as Noh ducked and waved his hands over his head for mercy.
"Ok just one more question from me. Is he here right now?"
"Yes. He's back stage." There was an excited susurration from the crowd.
"Actually he has a job. Noh's leg pains him a bit at night especially after he moves around during the day. That guy is the only one who can stand him when he gets grumpy and sleepy so he has to keep him company when we play." Ohm explained. "I've been friends with this guy for ages and I still can't stand him sometimes."
"Please. I barely tolerate you as is." Noh shot back.
"Um hum. Anyway. So with this guy here, we don't have to worry about him whining and complaining."
"Damn it! He's too far away for me to rap." Noh grumbled and everyone laughed, knowing the famous smacks they gave each other.
"And they are always like this?" P'Tear chuckled out. If he wasn't careful these guys would run house on his program.
Dye flashed his sharp canines in a smile. "Oh absolutely. It's like dealing with siblings who love to hate each other."
"Ok. It's time for a question from the audience. We'll be taking three in total from audience members who were picked before hand. Where is Sunhima?"
"Here! OMG!!!"
"Breath Darlin," Ohm said sweetly and her eyes wheeled in her head making Flex nervous. "What did you want to ask us?"
"Um... um. Sorry I... I wanted to ask what was Noh like before and after Secret came and how did you all feel about him?"
"Can I answer that?" Ex asked and the others nodded. "The best word to describe Noh back then was chill. He came alive in front of people and on stage but in between he just... chilled. As time went by, he got more internal and though he was never cold, he was difficult to connect with. Imagine you have a friend and you don't know his birthday, or favorite colour, or number or whatever. As time goes by he's there but he seems to be moving further and further away."
"Did that bother you?" Tear asked with a compassionate look.
"Oh yes. You see, in the beginning Noh was present. I got to know him and I liked him a lot. I felt secure and I had a lot of hope for our future. I also knew going in that there was this silent person walking with him and driving him on. Still it's not enough to have this silent figure there. You think of them often and you miss them. You want to share things with them and in this case you can't. You just have to be satisfied with looking at their image and hoping for a post or an update from them. Just some small way to connect."
The audience moaned and sighed as they felt Noh's pain of separation.
"It was hard for all of us too and most especially for Ohm. I would go to Flex and tell him we need to support Ohm and I would talk to him and ask him what we can do to help."
"I'm not like Ex though. I'm not the one to go out there and nurture and worry. I have a lot of faith in Ohm and Noh's friendship and for me it was the place I would look to judge the situation we were in with Noh. It never wavered so my faith in Noh never wavered. That's the kind of person I am."
"So you worried, and you watched. What about you Dye?"
"I was left out of the loop apparently but I'm not mad. Actually that's a good thing. I'm a very decisive person. If Ex had come to me, I would have thought about things, then made a decision. I most likely would have talked us into a direction that took us away from the Battle like going away on some bonding trip or performing for places that would keep everyone distracted and help the time pass by for Noh. That's me."
"Wow. That means you most likely would not have been here with us tonight. You may have even missed your chance for this huge contract. Can you imagine that guys?"
"Nooooo!" The audience chanted.
"I honestly had my eyes on you guys since you turned down that very expensive contract. I've been following your music and I knew you would be sitting on my chair one day. I just never expected it to be this soon. Then I watched your performance at Battle and I was blown away. I knew I had to get you guys here as soon as possible."
"Oh my gosh, thank you."
"Your welcome. Now who is going to answer the rest of that question?" Ex took up the retelling.
"Now the moment we got news that an event was being organized so that Secret and Noh would be able to cross paths, there was a marked difference in this guy. He was still chill but suddenly he got irritated and annoyed and happy and sad and frustrated and all the things we had been missing from him for the last couple of years." Ex looked over at Noh who was blushing slightly as he scowled. "But most importantly you got excited Noh and that's the one you tried so hard to hide. I feel ok in saying it now. You being excited was the thing I needed to reassure me you were ok. That I had nothing to worry about. I didn't even think about Secret falling for anyone else. It never crossed my mind."
"Are you sure about that?" Noh teased with a raised eyebrow.
"Ok I was a tiny, itsy bit worried but it was this much, I swear!" Ex admitted and he held his thumb and index fingers about 2 millimeters apart.
"Next we have Timmi! Where are you?" A sweet looking teen stood and took the mic. He was very soft spoken and polite. The band almost didn't hear him.
"I really want to know how the reunion was organized? Did any of you plan behind Noh's back? Thanks."
"Your welcome and I like what you did to the hair Timmi. That colour really suits you. Actually, we had plans to kill Secret and hide his body if he messed with Noh. You heard it here first." Dye stood and bowed then sat back down.
"Honestly, we were going to wing it. This wasn't the kind of thing you plan for easily. We kept in contact with Phun, a mutual friend of Ohm, Noh and Secret. He was the one organizing on Secret's end because they were close and we were going to have to help him out too since we were picking up his girlfriend on the way as well."
"So you were working out a quid pro quo situation?" Tear was leaning forward now. He was sucked into the story and totally invested.
"Yes. Secret was already at the house Phun organized and we snuck his girl in with the instruments when we arrived. When he came home that night she was waiting and Noh and Secret had already disappeared. Other than meeting him when we came, we didn't see the guy until the next day!"
Now P'Tear and the audience were wooing and screaming in excitement, Noh had his face buried in a cushion and Ohm was laughing his fool head off.
"Hi my name is Coral!" She squealed. Her hand had been waving for the longest while and one of the directors finally picked her. "I want to know if the Kings were telling the truth and P'Secret really is gorgeous!?" That brought out more screaming from the crowd and P'Tear had to raise his hands for silence.
"I would totally go bi for him. Like, I even get why Noh went bi for him." Flex stated plainly. "He's one good looking son of a gun. He's strong too and he gets Noh. Like I didn't know this guy could be so tsundere until Secret showed up. He cracks Noh's touch exterior and just exposes all the cotton candy inside. It's actually really sweet."
"I do not have cotton candy inside."
"Um hum." P'Tear humored Noh before he looked to the stands. "Which brings us to the last audience question. Where's Mel?"
Oh shit, Noh panicked for like two seconds before he composed himself. He needed to be ready for whatever she came up with because she was nuts!
"Hi! I just wanted to know if you could explain what you meant when you said Noh went bi for P'Secret?"
All the members looked at Noh. P'Tear stared at Noh. The audience turned to Noh. He took the mic.
"Up until Secret, I have always been strait. I never had any interests in another guy. I dated girls. I still like girls. There were guys who were interested in me and I'm not kidding or exaggerating. I went to an all boys school and I'd been hit on a time or two. I always felt surprised and annoyed, or flattered depending on whether it was a friend or not but I never felt swayed or interested to know what it would feel like to be with one of my peers. Then this person came to me asking for help and since we were already friends and I'm a sucker, I agreed.
"I never saw him coming and he never saw me like that either and that's the truth. We were just supposed to fool a few people so he could get some breathing room because his family is strict and he figured if he went so far out the box, they would be too shocked to react."
"Ahhhh. I see. That's an interesting direction." P'Tear stated but Noh shook his head.
"It's actually called desperation. He just wanted to be free and I realized that I wanted to help him. That meant we had to open up to each other and lower our defences, be intimate without intimacy." Noh took a deep breath. "In doing that I found the one person who completes me. Gender has no factor with us. It's not about how we were made but about how we fit and we fitted perfectly. The only problem was we had to acknowledge that and all the people who would be affected by that connection. That was the most difficult decision I have ever made in my life."
"My God." P'Tear breathed out. "So what happened?"
"Hum, I think I'll save that for another time but I will tell you it was a long and heartbreaking process. Flex says I'm bi for him but I just call it soulmated..."