TO SHOU WITH LOVE

43 - PK

On the day of the fourth match recording, when Sailub arrived at the studio, the staff were busy adjusting various equipment.

The audience hadn’t entered yet, and at the moment, musicians who were waiting for the rehearsal were sitting in the audience seats.

Sailub scanned the area but didn’t see the three members of the Asperatus Band.

Instead, he noticed the Urban Collapse Band, with whom there was a conflict the other day.

When other musicians saw Sailub, they waved and greeted him, but the three members of the Urban Collapse Band avoided eye contact, seemingly intentionally ignoring him.

Sailub approached a musician from his own team whom he was familiar with and asked, “Has the Asperatus Band arrived yet?”

The person shook their head. “Haven’t seen them.”

“Probably chickened out and withdrew from the competition,” quipped the bassist from the Urban Collapse Band sitting in the back row, followed by laughter from the other two.

A slight discomfort flashed through Sailub’s mind, and he glanced in the direction of the three individuals.

He had only glanced briefly before and hadn’t noticed, but now he saw that the three of them seemed to have thick foundation makeup on their faces, presumably to cover the injuries they received from Thanapon and Topten that day.

The three members of the Urban Collapse Band were average-looking at best.

Previously, they could at least rely on their appearance to make an impression, but now, with their injuries, their already limited attractiveness was further diminished.

Even with the heavy foundation to cover up, it still couldn’t change much and made them look somewhat odd.

The stage’s lighting technician was adjusting the lights when suddenly a cold white light shone towards their direction, making the foundation makeup on their faces appear as if it were a thick layer of putty on a wall.

Unable to bear looking closely, Sailub turned away, recalling the famous quote by P'Alan – “For ugly people, close scrutiny is a kind of cruelty,” and couldn’t help but find it amusing, thinking that his obsession with appearance was truly incurable.

Jennie, who had been watching the rehearsal from the side of the stage, hurriedly approached Sailub.

“P'Sai, Asperatus Band hasn’t arrived yet. Did Thanapon say anything to you?”

“No,” Sailub turned his head, looking at the phone in Jennie’s hand, which showed repeated calls to Thanapon going unanswered. “Can’t reach Thanapon?”

“Mmh, he’s not answering the phone. What’s going on…” Jennie frowned and muttered, “Director Ping just heard that Asperatus hasn’t arrived yet and was getting angry.”

Sailub furrowed his brows slightly—could Thanapon be in trouble again? Is it related to that Uncle Max?

After a few seconds of contemplation, he took out his phone, told Jennie, “I’ll try,” and then dialed Thanapon’s number.

The waiting tone echoed in the receiver for quite a while with no one answering.

Just when Sailub wasn’t expecting much, the call suddenly connected, and Thanapon said, “Hello?” on the other end.

Jennie looked surprised and asked in a low voice, “Connected?”

Sailub nodded and made a gesture to Jennie, indicating that he would step aside to make the call.