Day 1: Coachella Valley

// Music: I Can Be Somebody ft. Erin McCarley – Deorro //

“Wow this place is huge!” Sunny, my best friend, and the driver of the day gawked at the view outside the car window.

“Yuri, you brought the tent right?” I asked the tanned beauty behind me who was re-applying her sunblock for the nth time.

“What? I thought that was included in the VIP package?” Yuri sprung out of her seat, “we paid extra bucks for that,”

“Yeah I know that, but just in case,” I trailed off.

“Just in case what, Tiffany?” Yuri had this knowing smirk, and it feels like she was boring holes at the back of my skull.

“You know what never mind I asked.” I sunk into the car seat, avoiding further questions.

“Ha! I know that look! Don’t tell me your boyfriend will be coming tonight with his boys too?” Sunny glanced at me through the mirror.

“Oh? I thought you two broke up already?” Sooyoung interjected, munching on some fries from In-N-Out beside Yuri.

“We didn’t, okay? We just haven’t been talking on the phone that much,” I said defensively. That wasn’t the truth, in fact, we haven’t spoken in 3 days already. I crooked my neck to the side, trying to appreciate the view. I unlocked my phone to see if he had ‘miraculously’ texted or called. There is none.

The lights were blinking angrily and the smoke was very visible in the night, be it smoke from the smoke machine, smoke from the cigarettes, or the smoke from whatever the people were smoking, it added to the hazy atmosphere of the place. Adrenaline is high, the crowd is wild and I can barely hear myself over the loud blaring of music. This night is a moment to remember. It was my first time attending Coachella after all. We were lucky enough to get the passes, it’s not cheap and the lineup was no joke too. And of course we would choose to be in the main stage first.

I was having so much fun with the girls, dancing in my floral crown, bohemian kimono, white tank top, short shorts and comfortable sneakers. No matter how mainstream I looked for Coachella, no one’s going to stop me from going all out tonight.

But I have someone else in mind. Who am I kidding? Why would he text or call me to say that he’s here? He doesn’t even know that I’m here too.

“Dude you gotta check this place out, it has neon lights and cool trippy stuff, I heard that they...” A familiar voice trailed off and it caught my attention, was that him? I sighted a back of a tall brown haired male walking off at a distance. I mean, that has to be him right? The back looks like him, and he sounds like him too? Am I hallucinating? The girls must’ve slipped something in my drink when I wasn’t looking.

“Hey Sunny, I’m just going to pee,” I told Sunny who was holding up a beer in her hands. She just nodded without even looking me in the eye. This woman’s alcohol tolerance is insane.

“Excuse me,” I followed the direction to where I heard the voice, hurriedly, bumping into random people, only to get lost in a sea of crowd. “Sorry, excuse me,”

I sighed. Giving up, I went to a less crowded place at the back and I was about to reach for my phone but… “! I swear it was just in my pocket!” I cussed out loud, terribly anxious, looking around the pale grasses hoping to have just dropped it near the location. Wow, a night to remember indeed.

“Hey miss! You dropped your phone!” a woman with a short grayish blonde hair sporting a black tank top, flannel shirt, jean shorts and timberlands was running towards me, panting, like she just went through a marathon. Guessing solely on her appearance she looks no more than 18 years old. I thought they didn’t allow minors inside?

“Oh my god! I swear, thank you so so much!” I went to reach for my phone not as much giving the stranger a second look. I was relieved, but when I tried to open my phone, it didn’t. “Oh no,”

“Why? What’s the matter?” the stranger approached me and I just noticed that she had a British accent. She was looking over my phone curiously.

“I don’t know, it doesn’t open, maybe its busted or something,” stress was beginning to catch up to my face as panic ensued me. Gosh, just thinking about how I am lost in this place, and now I broke my phone too.

“It did fall when you bumped into me earlier, could be that, or maybe it’s just low on battery,” she looked at me reassuringly, if every stranger was as nice as this woman the world would be a much better place.

“Well that made me feel better at least,” I said with my voice almost cracking from the rush. “...but I don’t have my charger and the tent is like miles away from here, and I need to call my friends to tell them where I am.”

“I know a charging station not far from here, I can show you where it is,” she paused. “…but if that doesn’t work then you can borrow my phone.” the stranger scratched her head, I had a feeling she was trying to be careful.

“Thank you..” I paused, not knowing what to call the woman in front of me. “I’m sorry, what’s your name?” I said sheepishly.

We started walking amongst a sea of strangers. I’ve calmed down now, knowing that someone would help me out in a situation like this.

“My name is Taeyeon, Erika is my English name but you can call me Taeyeon,” she smiled and held out her hands. Well that sounded like a Korean name.

“I’m Tiffany,” I shook her hands, “So, I’m guessing you’re Korean?”

“I’m guessing you too?” she said as she rested her hands in her pockets.

“You’re right, I am. Born to Korean parents but lived here all my life, you?”

There were a couple of drunk people in front of us so we had to halt, and I noticed that we were walking slowly so I tried to fasten up my pace. The music is a blur from here now, I wonder how far I was from the gals, there’s no turning back now.

“Born in South Korea, went back and forth to England when I was little, somehow ended up in London after high school.” she said all of that in Korean. I was glad I know a little bit of the language.

“Oh?” my eyebrows perked curiously.

“Why?” she switched back to English.

“I thought you were still in high school.” I hid my laugh, she must’ve noticed since she turned her head slightly to my direction.

“Ah no worries, I get that a lot,” she laughed, that kind of easygoing laugh where you throw your head back a little. I found it a bit amusing to see such actions coming from a stranger. “I’m still in college, I major in Architecture and I’m currently in my last year at the University, how about you?”

“Oh, I just graduated last year. I majored in Interior Design, I’m working for a small company now actually.”

“Hmm.. I see,” she did a slight nod a small smile after that.

“So Taeyeon, you come here often? In Cali?” I turned to look at her side, taking a full view of her tattoo, a Pisces symbol on her neck area just behind the ears.

“I’m here for Disneyland and music festivals like this during breaks, but I also have some relatives here,” she was looking straight ahead, “it’s really beautiful though, I can see why many people from all over the world visit the place,”

I turned to look at the direction she was looking at to see a huge butterfly mascot looking so bright and glorious under the night sky. It was a combination of blue, white, purple, yellow, orange and red. It looks alive, it was beautiful…but to say that is an understatement. It was magical, mystical even, like you are being drawn into it. A bunch of people were huddled near it and I can say that it was the most peaceful thing I have seen this day. I actually prefer this ambience more than where I came earlier.

“Hey Tiffany, we’re here.” Taeyeon broke my train of thoughts and pointed at the charging station.

“Oh right,” I almost forgot what I was supposed to be doing. I chuckled and went in to charge my phone.

“How did it go?” she went over beside me, resting her back on the wall.

I just sighed as a response and shook my head. It didn’t work.

“Well that’s bollocks, I guess you have to use my phone now,” she fumbled with her small bag for a few seconds before offering her phone to me like we already knew each other for a long time. “here, you can use it to call your friends,”

- - -

 “Yo Sunbuns, where the hell is Tiffany?” Sooyoung said over the blasting bass of this famous DJ currently playing.

“She said she was just going to pee, and that was like half an hour ago.” Sunny continued dancing to the beat. “She must be lost or something,”

“She’s a big girl now, don’t worry ‘bout her she can take care of herself,” Yuri said almost tripping over someone at her back for dancing too hard. “Oops, sorry,”

“They’re still not answering, it’s been 15 minutes….gosh what kind of friends,” I sulked, playing with my palm tree necklace.

“You and your friends agreed upon some kind of a time and place right? In case you would go off by yourselves…”

“Yeah, but… it’s not even 8 pm yet,” I checked my wristwatch, “and we agreed getting back to the tent before 11pm.”

The phone vibrated signaling an incoming phone call. “Oh?” I handed back Taeyeon her phone upon seeing a registered name, feeling slightly disappointed. “It’s your call.” scratch that, I meant majorly disappointed. I searched for the nearest seat feeling exhausted but it was occupied by a couple. I didn’t want to stall away from Taeyeon so I just stayed put.

I observed my surroundings. This place looks like a park, there were swings and sea-saws. There’s a small crowd gathered in the middle who was watching a guy playing a ukulele. Everybody here is with someone else, everyone seems so happy, and I feel kind of lonely. My eyes searched for Taeyeon who was still on her phone.

“No, I’m still here, I’m not pissing around I’m near the charging station, ha-ha very funny. Have you eaten yet? Well…okay, yeah yeah whatever I’ll get back tomorrow morning. I gotta go, love you.” she chuckled after that.

“Boyfriend?” I asked out of curiosity. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,”

“Huh? You mean my mom right?” Taeyeon turned her head to me slightly, still going over her phone.

“Really? At your age?” I pretended to gasp and put out my hand to cover my mouth.

“Hey, 23 is not that old, and that was my girlfriend silly.” she said a pitch higher, laughing at my reaction.

“Oh..” I honestly didn’t know how to react. I mean, I should feel guilty for having Taeyeon spend her time with me, a total stranger, when she actually has a girlfriend, right?

“I was kidding!! She’s just a good friend. But please tell me I didn’t creep you out with that.” she looked at me intently, like she was eliciting some kind of a reaction from me.

“No, I’m pretty fine with that!” I said defensively, it feels like I had offended her or something. That’s the last thing I wanted to do with a nice stranger helping me out. “…in fact, one of my best friends is openly a lesbian and I go with her during pride parades. I’m an ally.” I said.

“Well that’s brilliant! I’m not trying to hide it though, I’m pretty open myself.” Taeyeon said, adjusting her flannel sleeve and showing me a tattoo of a two female symbol above her wrist, one pink and one purple.

“Wow! Just how many tattoos do you have?” I said excitedly, going over to touch her tattoo by instinct, because it was pink, my favorite color, duh. She flinched a little by the contact and I retracted my hand. I wanted to apologize but no words came out of my mouth.

“Hmm… four? I got one on my back when I was 21 and faced with my mates though, it was a really funny story,” I noticed that her eyes were slightly twinkling, or was that just the lights? I don’t know, but I find her eyes mesmerizing especially when she talks. “ah how time flies,”

“Really? I’ve always wanted one,” I said in a low voice, almost like a whisper, remembering that I was supposed to get my first tattoo with my boyfriend. He promised me he’d get a matching one with me when we had our first anniversary. God, I miss him, where should I look for him in a place as big as this? I know we had a fight, and it’s partly my fault too for trying to accuse him of cheating that he so hardly denied, but I just wanted to see how he’s doing.

“What’s wrong? You look gutted,” Taeyeon broke my train of thoughts for the second time this day, wondering if I should tell her what’s on my mind.

 “Taeyeon..” I paused for a little bit. “I think I’m eating up too much of your time, you should be having fun with your friends but…”

“Cheer up a little will you?” she didn’t let me finish. “We’re supposed to be having fun here. Me and my mates agreed that our first day would be our venturing alone day, but I guess I’m not really alone right now so I kind of cheated.” she smiled a little.

“Really?” I said still feeling slightly guilty. The girls aren’t really looking for me right now and I feel secluded, but with Taeyeon here with me, I don’t know. I just feel glad that I’m not alone in this.

“Yes really, no need to feel guilty Tiffany.” she was spilling comfort all over the place partnered with the quiet hum of music, like her presence was reassuring enough, making me feel fragile but also secure, screaming ‘you’re not alone, I’m here’. And it’s really weird to be having thoughts about a stranger like this excessively, like I already knew of her existence before. It doesn’t feel foreign to me for some reason. Is it because she’s also Korean? That must be it right? Sunny and the others are also Korean so I must be feeling this way because of that.

“Why are you so nice to me…” It wasn’t really a question but, more like a thought that accidentally slipped out of my mouth. I guess the fatigue is catching up to me causing me to become a blabbering idiot. I don’t think before I speak.

“Do I have a reason not to be?”