Magical Tea

Fateful Friendship

March 2020. Nationwide lockdown was observed by the entire country. Countries worldwide had also closed down their borders. Global leaders are in panic as they try to cope with the pandemic. Severe measures had to be observed and followed to curtail the growing number of death counts due to the unprecedented virus outbreak that shook the entire world.

As days turned into nights with the lockdown of borders imposed all over the country, people had nothing much to do but spend their time completing household chores, watching dramas and movies on tv or on YouTube, browsing the net almost nonstop, etc.

For Maria Jiselle Silvana, singing along to her favorite music online completes her day. She found an app, StarMaker, while browsing the Play Store on her phone and from then on she had posted a lot of covers of her favorite songs on the app. On one of her video covers, she received a beautiful comment from a profile which she noticed to have been following her for quite sometime now.

She visited the profile and noticed that it had already sent her a friend request before. She accepted the friend request and sent it a greeting. A message immediately popped up in response to her sent message, followed by a close up picture of a beautiful thirty-something-year-old woman. The woman introduced herself as Mina Jang, a 35-year-old Filipina who got married with her online Korean chatmate 15 years ago and have a 14-year-old teenaged son and currently living in Korea with her son and husband.

Feeling touched by the friendliness of the younger woman, Maya as she named herself on the app, told Mina also about herself.

Maya is turning 46 this year, very much married to her husband of 22 years and with three grownup daughters, her youngest at 16 years of age and her eldest at 21.

The two hit it off at once and decided to exchange phone numbers and FB messenger accounts and talked everyday over video chat. They created numerous duet covers together that they posted on the app everyday and earn lots of coins and several positive comments of how good their combined voices sound and the likes over the days.

As days passed by, their friendship grew stronger. Never a day passed by without them two chatting together. She proudly presented to her family the covers they both made and her daughters were amazed at how their mother and her online friend got closer to each other despite the big distance between them and the age difference between the two women.

As for her husband, as long as his wife is happy about it, he didn't find it a bother to see her giggling away in front of her phone as she video-chat with her online female friend. He once butted in on their conversation out of curiosity and Maya proudly introduced her to her friend and he had gotten introduced to Mina's husband who was also beside Mina that time. Her Korean husband could speak English so they exchange a few pleasantries and joked each other for a bit about their wives' friendship online.

Over the days, Maya had already introduced her family members to Mina and her husband but never had a chance to see Mina's son because he was living in a boarding school even before the pandemic outbreak began and never got the chance to come back home when the lockdown was ordered over Korea. Mina herself got to talk to the boy on video chat only.

One day, on a weekend, Maya accepted a video call from a teary-eyed Mina. Worried, Maya tried to talk it out with her friend what could be the cause of her distress.

"Mina, what happened?"

"Ki Young and I had exchanged some heated words towards each other earlier. He must be feeling so stressed having to close down our family business for quite a period of time while everything is still in chaos around here. His parents needed money and being their only child, he worries that if the lockdown gets longer we won't be able to cope up with his parents cost of living and also pay our bills. We also needed to send money to pay for Min Ki's tuition and living expenses at the boarding school," Mina confessed.

"Oh, Mina! How difficult it must be for a breadwinner like Ki Young to feel so helpless at this period in time. Just be patient with him and try to be more understanding. You are his source of strength right now, so, just let him rant and talk it out of his chest. Just listen to him and be there for him to lean on to," Maya advised.

"If only he won't drink a lot and break things around the house, I can take it and be patient, beshy! But he is turning into a man I barely know as the days go by and he lets himself wallow in despair and heavy drinking. He doesn't seem to even listen to his parents anymore," Mina wailed with her eyes drenched now in tears.

"Beshy, I wish I can be of more help," Maya sighed in frustration as she looked at her best friend bawling her eyes out on their video chat.

"Talking to you like this is such a big help now for me, beshy! I feel so lonely and depressed at a time like this. I can't talk about this with Min Ki for he might get too worried, and I don't want to think what my teenage son would do if he hears about what's happening with us here. I can't let my son suffer as well, especially that he is too far away to do anything about it anyway," Mina continued.

"Wipe your eyes now, my friend, and let me pray over you for a few minutes," Maya urged Mina. With their eyes closed and their hands outstretched towards each other on the screen of their laptops as they had began to video chat on their laptops nowadays, Maya asked for the Holy Spirit's protection and blessing for her sole online female friend she now considers as her own sister. She asked for peace and harmony between the couple in front of the crisis they both faced due to the pandemic and the uncertainty of their economic future because of it. She ended the prayer with all the positiveness in her voice she can muster for the well-being of her friend.

Mina ended the conversation with a brighter smile and a hopeful conviction that things will be much better between her and her husband in the following days. Maya was also happy to say bye to her smiling friend then and cutoff the call with a lighthearted feeling to be able to make her friend feel much better and give her some hope over that heartfelt prayer.