Lost Fools Who Dream of Stars

5

That's when Chubi realized he missed the opportunity to go with them. It was only then that Chubi realized that he missed that opportunity to go with them. He glances at Paco who's tapping his fingers wildly on the table, his eyes staring blankly at the window. Chubi stealthily fishes for his phone in his bag with the full intention of pretending that his mother texted him to go home when Paco suddenly turns towards him. It's the first time Chubi is able to see Paco's features more closely; his jet black hair, his strong eyebrows, and his droopy eyes, framed by his apparently long eyelashes. Chubi starts wondering if Paco is just tired, or if that is his default expression, like he doesn't give a damn about everything else.

"Have you heard of Kailan?" Paco suddenly asks.

Chubi blinks twice, suddenly aware that he's been staring at Paco's face for quite a while. He quickly looks down at his notes, and taps his chin. "No. I haven't heard of it before," he whispers.

"It's a good song," Paco says as he gets up with his backpack slung on his shoulder. "Try to give it a listen."

Chubi stands up as well and walks behind Paco, noticing the slight hint of sandalwood coming from him. They continue walking together, with neither one of them saying anything until they finally reach the main gate of the University.

"I'm coming back to the campus. I left my motorbike there," Paco says.

"Ahhh..." Chubi responds, not knowing what else to say to that.

"Take care on your way home."

"You too," Chubi says Paco walks away. "I'll listen to Kailan," Chubi says belatedly, not sure if Paco heard it.

But right before he crosses the road towards the jeepney terminal, Chubi catches Paco lifting his right hand as if acknowledging his parting words.

Later that night, Chubi lays on his bed with his earbuds stuck in his ear, listening to Bamboo's Kailan over and over. As he's trying to make sense of Bamboo's angsty lyrics, the events from earlier that day keep replaying in his head, from the moment Paco entered the org room until their parting in front of the university gate.

Never in his life has he met someone like Paco. If this is a movie, Chubi is positive that Paco would be the main character who's on his way to achieve his lifelong dream to become a filmmaker. While he would play the role of some extra who would probably appear in one or two scenes in Paco's epic biographical film. And it seems that Paco's life movie is already on its way, since he's already working as a wedding videographer as a stepping stone in his destiny to usher in the millennial golden age of Philippine Cinema. Chubi starts to wonder if he would be lucky enough to witness Paco's journey while he is still with him in BCMO.

"Ping!" A notification pops in his phone, interrupting his thoughts.

Chubi picks up his phone from his stomach and checks the notification bar. It's just Junemarie sending a thumbs up to Sheena's notes on their meeting. Everyone has seen the message, except Paco.

"He must be really busy," Chubi mutters as he clicks on Paco's FB, his profile picture a black and white side view photo of him bending a little while holding a DSLR camera. Despite only the profile of his face being seen, Chubi spies a small grin on Paco's otherwise serious demeanor.

Beside his profile photo, there's nothing much to be seen on his public profile except wedding videos he has shot. If he's not mistaken, those are called Same Day Edit videos that are pretty much a staple in weddings nowadays. He overheard from a classmate one time that shooting SDE's were challenging because of the very tight schedule that needs to be followed. Not to mention meeting the expectations of the clients for the most important day of their lives. Chubi cannot imagine handling that much pressure. He would likely break down if he was put in that situation.

It's also the same reason he prefers to do any production way ahead of the deadline. In BCMO, it's pretty much the culture to delay the shoot until it's only days before the deadline because of everyone's belief that cramming will produce a great output.

Chubi is not able to voice out his opinion earlier because he's nervous to go against the seniors in BCMO, but he kinda agrees with Paco on the shoot the following Saturday. He knows it might be difficult to get everything ready within a week, but if what Paco says is true that they only need one actor with a few location changes, then maybe things might work out. Once the one day shoot is done, they'll have plenty of time left for editing or revisions, just in case.

And despite Sheena's concern about the need to give head-ups on the core staff to process the permits, and securing the equipment, he's ninety nine percent sure that the core staff will give them the go signal as soon as they inform them of their plans. They were never nitpicky anyway, unless McCoy would let his negative feelings of Paco get in the way of his supposed impartiality.

Chubi starts to wonder what if he expressed these thoughts earlier at McDonald's. Can he really speak out against Bogs and Sheena to support Paco? He recalls Paco's restlessness after Sheena and Bogs left. Was it because things didn't go the way he wanted? Or in the smallest possibility, maybe he's starting to have doubts in his concept because of the things Bogs and Sheena pointed out?

Feeling a bit guilty that he didn't try his best to become a better team mate earlier, Chubi adds Paco as a friend on FB, then shoots him a personal message. "I listened to Kailan and it's pretty good. I can see why you were pushing for it." Along with that message, he silently promises himself that he will support Paco next time. Paco's bold declaration earlier at the assembly makes him want to cheer on him. Even in little things like this.

After checking the group chat, where nobody else has added on Junemarie's message, Chubi proceeds to browse mindlessly on FB. He's watching videos of golden retriever puppies munching on vegetables when the messenger notification pop-up on his screen. He quickly swipes it away without checking who it was and continues watching the asmr of puppies. Anyway, he's pretty sure it's his friend Samboy who keeps on sending crass memes as always.

As he's watching epic fail videos of kittens, another message pops out again. Annoyed at Samboy's persistent messages, he's about to tell him off when he sees Paco's name on the screen.

He jolts up on his bed and double checks the notification. It is indeed Paco Coronel who sent him a message,"Right? Right?? It's just the kind of song that makes you want to wake up from your slumber and just do kind of action about frustrating stuff in our world."

His follow up message is an attachment of Kailan's official music video from youtube. Chubi immediately checks it out and sees that the music video is actually a professional shot of Bamboo rocking out the song with his band.

After skimming through the video, Chubi hurriedly types, "Wow. I guess we can make an unofficial music video of Kailan then. Something with a story like you mentioned earlier."

To Chubi's shock, three dots appear from Paco. It appears and disappears, as if he's spending so much time editing what he has to say back.

"Exactly. The song's message was too good. Although the official mv was nothing to sneeze at. I thought they could do better than that. Like they could put any advocacy message on the song and it will still fit."

Chubi is about to type something in response when Paco sends another message. "The first time I heard the song, I immediately imagined a scenario where a guy rushes pass different situation that has images of boredom, then indifference and then chaos."

Ping! Another message from Paco, "Suddenly, he'll grind to a halt and look back at every situation he passed through. He'll have an epiphany that he needs to do something about them."

Chubi is about to add to the scenario, when Paco sends him another message, "Then, he'll return to each situation to make a difference and make them all better! He'll take action right now!"