COSMOS

Red cosmos: pure love

Just like how good food tastes immensely better with good wine, let's try to pair our eyes with some music and a story. If you ever have a chance to admire red spider lilies blooming on a rocky mountain, please take your time to see through their beauty with Liszt's Liebesträume No. 3 (Dream of Love).

The piece sings about the sorrow for the death of a poet's loved one, expressed ingeniously through dynamic changes. It is split up by a cadenza section, an elaborate passage that represents drifting in and out of reality. The first cadenza leads the poet to a joyful dream state, where he can be reunited with his loved one. The second cadenza takes the poet back to the cold reality, where he is alone. In the end, the piece ends very quietly, almost like a sigh after waking up from a happy but heartwrenching dream.

Now while the music is playing, turn your attention to this peculiar red flower in front of you. You will notice its thin crimson petals sprouting from a long slender neck without leaves. The flower might whisper a sad legend behind its strange appearance. If you don't speak flowers, I will tell you now.

Once upon a time, there were two elves. Manju guarded the flower and Saka guarded the leaves. Although they longed for each other, they could not meet because the red spider lily never bears flowers and leaves at the same time. One day, they defied the god and met, uncontrollably falling for each other. God punished them and separated them for all eternity.

This is why red spider lilies are often used in funerals. They say these flowers bloom along your path if you meet a person you will never see again.

***

Brett never really liked clubbing.

Sure, once in a while, it was fun; the rumble of the bass rattling his bones and the beat of the drums torturing his ears. Strangers' bodies rubbing into each other, seeking temporary connections. Ironically, the more he stayed in the flowing crowd, the more he felt alone in this world. Brett could never explain coherently why he felt this way. He just did.

Brett stood awkwardly on the floor, pretending to dance. All he could really do in this compact space was to nod his head once in a while and wish he was drunker. Brett was contemplating if he should get another drink when a voice called him from behind.

"Hey."

Brett turned his head. Flashing purple and pink lights from the mirrorball illuminated the figure he knew too well -

"Eddy."

Eddy crookedly smiled at Brett, moving his body to the beat. The swarm of people around them pushed them further to the corner. The smell of alcohol and cigarette burned in the air. Following Eddy's moves, Brett shyly started dancing with Eddy, closing his eyes ever so slightly. Everything seemed to fade out to the darkness and it was just them - the drum of the heart and the sweat, the anticipation. Their dance was nothing too provocative or pretentious. They were just casually swaying together to the beat, laughing at the absurdity of their moves once in a while.

Brett's face turned warm when Eddy moved in closer, their groin barely touching each other. Eddy's large hands swiftly landed on Brett's shoulders as he pulled Brett toward him. Eddy whispered in his ears -

"We can go somewhere more private."

A red cosmos sprouted inside Brett as he indulged himself in his sinful dream.

***

Brett woke up, feeling impossibly ridiculed. Before he could even process his dream, Brett coughed furiously into the pillow. His lungs ached as he gasped for breath and he staggered to the kitchen, clutching his chest.