Catalyst’s next live show came a little over a month after the day that Ellie met Jae. It was apparently a pretty big deal, too; they were performing at the Wiltern, in the Wilshire Center area in Los Angeles, and were the headlining act for the night.

Naturally, Jae wouldn’t leave Ellie alone until he was absolutely sure that she would be able to go, but Ellie had no plans of missing this concert; she had been fascinated by the idea of Jae performing after seeing him sing at the café. He couldn’t give her a ride into the city on the night of the concert, as he was going straight to rehearsal after work; Ellie decided to make use of the shuttle (which seemed to have turned into the Catalyst party bus for the night) to get her into the city, and took a cheaper Lyft from there.

The doors of the Wiltern were already open when Ellie got there, and it dawned on her that people had bought tickets for this concert, which was at an actual venue, not the club or bar that she had been expecting. A ticket was waiting for her at Will Call, but there was no designated seat listed on the ticket; it seemed like this concert was first come first serve. Ellie inhaled deeply as she stepped into the venue, taking in her initial surroundings. There were two levels to the spacious venue, but the vast majority of the people who had come had crammed themselves in the pit area right in front of the stage. Ellie had never enjoyed crowds, and this one looked like it was going to be a monstrous one; she opted instead for the mezzanine, where several seats on the first row were still open and available. She watched as more and more people filed into the venue, filling first the pit downstairs and then reluctantly travelling up to the second level to secure seats. Several people were wearing shirts bearing the same logo for Catalyst on the front, and Ellie couldn’t help but feel like she had walked into the twilight zone. She had already known that Jae was popular, but was he a celebrity? As she spotted a woman on the first floor bearing a neon JAE headband, she seemed to find the answer to her own question.

It wasn’t much longer after her arrival that the lights dimmed, earning a surge of deafening cheers from the crowd; suddenly Ellie was the only one left sitting and she followed everyone’s lead in standing to her feet, turning her eyes to the stage, which five people had taken over. Her eyes moved from the right side of the stage to the left, taking in the slender, brown haired keyboardist, the ridiculously-gorgeous-even-from-the-mezzanine blond bassist, the broad shouldered, dark haired rhythmic guitarist, and the dark haired drummer, but as her gaze finally reached him, she couldn’t look away. He had done nothing different – he stood on stage in true Jae fashion, glasses and all, but there was something about the fact that he dared to put his true self on stage for everyone to see that amazed her.

It seemed like the rhythmic guitarist, who was just as handsome as the bassist but in a very different way, was the leader; he introduced Catalyst and engaged the audience in little conversation before beginning with the songs, and from the moment picks touched strings, fingers touched keys, and they opened their mouths to sing, Ellie was completely captivated. It fell right into a genre she listened to, and while she knew that Jae was talented on his own, it was magical to see the piece he contributed to the band; he toned his voice down for the sake of their songs but his fingers truly brought the electric guitar to life, and Ellie found herself leaning forward against the mezzanine railing in an effort to get closer to the sound.

For an hour and a half, she was completely captivated, and was cheering fully by the time the encore came; as Catalyst left the stage she sat back in her seat for a while to bask in how impressed she was, holding her bag in her lap as fans got up to leave. Her phone was buzzing, and it took her a while to realize it; with a start Ellie pulled the phone out of her bag, opening the two messages waiting for her.

You’re here right?

Go back to will call.

With a curious frown Ellie stood from