feather fragments # 15: tenth star

(14th february 2009)

'let's hear you rap something.'

I was thinking of the pre-chorus at that moment. We were in my kelisa. But there was no background music and rapping over silence equals babbling. Moreover, i was greedy, i wanted her to react to it. By complementing the pre-chorus with the supposed chorus. She might not know what the hell i was babbling. She might not know the lyrics to the chorus. Idea scrapped.

'ha. very weird la like that.'
'why weird?'
'your musical background is classical. very ban men nong fu if u were to ask me.'

No doubt, it's like showing off how well you can play NeedForSpeed in front of Micheal Schumacher. Although i wanted to impress her with how i beat the last stage in NeedForSpeed, the timing was not right.

*******
(15th February 2009)

I brought Siren into Red. Toby and Fung were enjoying some booze and playing some card game. Siren headed to the restroom before taking a seat. During her absence, Toby asked me how did i fare with her. I frowned and shook my head. He seemed to understand, and made no further inquiries regarding that matter.

Red is like a public karaoke lounge. All of the customers can hear the singers, and it's gonna go bankrupt if the most of the customers are people like me. Anyhow each tables can only submit two songs at one time. It didnt feel right to pick that song yet.

While waiting for our turn, we played more socializing-type games. One of them is something like chain rhyming phrases and players have to memorize every word each player had rhymed. Among the group, usually me and Siren were the last ones standing. From this, i deduced that she could remember things well provided she has interest. So, from oh sorry i dont remember, my rejection is natural. i think.

It took two hours before the mic reached our table. It was late and we were very dissatisfied. Fung recalled us of the karaoke session on Sunday and asked for our attendance. We agreed.

Alone with her for a short moment again. My brains weren't functioning properly from the slight fatigue. I knew this for a fact because i asked her if she would remember me as someone who pursued her before. It was awkward. She said she didnt know how to answer me*. When she left my car and walked into her house, she just walked into her house without waving-until-i-left like she did before during oh sorry i dont remember. At least she didnt threw away the flowers in front of me.

*Anyhow, from what is going on now, she answers me already, i wont remember.

*****
I saw her again. That blue blouse. Fung was fetching us and we were late because they went to have lunch. Siren thought we would be eating together so she didnt take her lunch and waited. So i get to accompany her to buy food, alone. Err. Hurray? Anyway, we chatted like nothing happened yesterday. Well, nothing happened anyway.

Then we headed back to RedBox. Fung informed us that he had another group of friends who can sing well too and there will be an unofficial 'PK'. In order words, a singing duel. (wtf haha)

*******
'Ehhhh.. who pick my song?'
'Huh? What song?'

I feigned innonence but i knew my smile would give me away no matter how hard i try to hold it. I was the only one responding to her so naturally she looked at me, with her finger pointing on the upcoming songs list.

'di shi hang xing. who knows i like that song?'
'i picked the song. it's actually called di shi xing xing. you sang it the last time.'
'you know the song mieh?' (as in how to sing it, i think)

And now she became the one who was wanting to smile but trying to hold it. I was as excited as a dog seeing his master. So excited to the extend i had to lie to myself that i sensed, or assumed her happiness from that little reaction she gave me.

'you help me sing some parts lo.'

I smirked. And looked away, trying to be the coolest person on earth. Of course, i failed miserably. Finally, the moment that i had been waiting for. A duet with Siren. What's more is that i can do it properly without shame. I'm no singer. Kudos to myself.

The song consists of more female vocal part and only a small period of rap, during the pre-chorus. However, the latter was performed in a rapid pace such that following the beat smoothly without running out of breath requires practice. I had heard the song quite a number of times to know when the male backup vocal comes in and imitated it the best i could. Because usual listeners wouldn't bother to listen to the backup vocal part, i got it correct so many times it surprised Siren and she broke into a wild laughter during the second chorus. It felt like i just confessed to her again because the way she laughed after i confessed was similar to how she did it now. She even laid to the side as if she was bowing down towards me. Somehow the feeling of triumph unexplainably surged into me.

Nevertheless, i kept my cool and sang her parts on the times when her laughter prevented her singing. The bridge of DiShiXingXing is composed to have two voices singing the same lyrics but the backup vocals overlap from the first word of the line after the main vocals are sung halfway during a line. After seeing that see positioned her mic back to her mouth, i reverted back to covering the back up part. She sang somewhat forcefully though, trying to finish the song without laughing again.

After some time, when neither of us are on the mic, she nudged me.

'ehh.. you download the song to listen ar?'
'yeah'
'no wonder it sounded a bit like the original song. you can do all the parts ah xin did.' (i dont think he did that part though, his vocals in another song that he sang alone didnt sound alike)
'haha no. i wished i knew guitar.'

Yay. She complimented me. I think. It ain't fair, though. What i did flattered her.

***********

Now about the duel. I fainted. Hence i was labelled emo by my so-called opponent. He then trashed me badly with some song by GaryChao. Siren was having a mild sorethroat but her reputation doesnt allow her to bail out like that. She did a JoeyYung song and maiden listeners were utterly captivated by her singing. Her so-called opponent was good too but what she sung didnt register in my memory.

OngBak2 is a horrible movie. Dont watch it at all cost.

Siren was locked outside her house without her key in. Fung had to turn back and drop her at Gurney where her friends are at.

At night, she called me a number of times but i wasnt around my phone to answer. So i decided to feel happy about it and called her back only to find out that she was just calling to ask for directions to go to Gardens and she reached already when i called her kthxbye T_T.

tbc..

p.s: which ringtone nicer?