Invisible Moon
Chapter 4
The Moon Behind The Cloud
"Invisible Moon...might be the moon that shined behind the cloud"
#WINisWIND
If you asked what P'In was like, everyone might say that P'In was like the Invisible Moon.
But for me, P'In was like the light that didn't have to be seen, but could feel.
After finishing the freshmen welcome ceremony — today was the first day so there weren't many activities — I bought the take-away meal and came back to my dormitory. Then, I just played on my phone as there was nothing else to do.
It was my first time using Instagram to follow celebrities. Before, I just signed up and that was all. I didn't open it that much — zero followers.
But today, I was just interested in P'In. I wanted to know how a person like P'In posted on his million-followers Instagram.
I found that his IG was distinctive, not like other celebrities'.
His Instagram was extremely beautiful, even without any of his selfies or portraits.
Most photos were trees, flowers, birds, animals, nature, buildings, something that everyone could see daily, but he took a shot in a beautiful view that many people might not notice.
For instance, the picture of grass that I saw every day, but he took a shot of the grass leaf with the dew, in the background of morning orange sky scenery. All the colour and tone was harmonic. Also, sometimes he took a photo of the building or tile on the floor or the pipe cap, with the contrast of the beautiful light and shadow. Even more, something that most people overlooked, such as the stain of the floor which created the beautiful patterns.
P'In posted photos on Instagram without any caption and never replied to any comment.
However, his IG could release people from stress and boredom.
What kind of person was P'In? The person who could see the common nature in such a beautiful way, P'In must be very gentle and exquisite, just he had never shown off.
I eventually understood the meaning of 'update thrice a day' that P'In had said. Every Unistar member should update their IG or Twitter at least three times a day. Most members would update photos, tweets, or posts on Facebook fan pages. However, P'In had never tweeted or posted by himself. Also, even though he had hundreds of thousands of followers on IG, P'In didn't follow anyone.
Almost all the posts on P'In Facebook fan page might be posted by admins or staff from his agency, some posts were about Unistar news, activities and live events. And in his Twitter, he didn't tweet anything as well, only retweeted others. He mostly retweeted for helping other people such as missing dogs or cats, donated money to support patients in need or various charitable foundations.
In the past, I had an attitude that all celebrities were very lucky - good-looking and always got attention. But P'In completely changed my mind for now.
One thing I could say was P'In didn't become an idol because of any popularity or reputation.
P'In did it for something.
I was curious more about P'In, so I searched on hashtag #InvisibleMoon which was full of tweets from many fans. There were many interesting posts that wrote something like:
This world is In
The donation of the Intrakorn funding to develop careers in rural communities has already reached a hundred thousand baht. Thank you all DomKati for cooperation. We will keep supporting Nong In. #InvisibleMoon
'DomKati' was a name of P'In Fanclub, since P'In loved to eat all the foodstuff that had coconut milk (Kati) as an ingredient, so his fans love to eat that too. Some fans even opened shops selling food or dessert made from coconut milk, hoping that someday P'In might become a customer. P'In did make Thai traditional food and dessert become more and more popular without realising.
One more thing about Intrakorn funding, I found that it was established by P'In fanclub. This project was created after P'In had an interview on a TV program. He was asked something like: If you have a lot of money, how are you going to use it ?. P'In answered that he wanted to help rural people earning income within their community, so they didn't have to leave their hometown to work in the city. P'In also said that he lived with his grandmother in the countryside since childhood, many villagers were very skilful in local art, crafting and culinary but they didn't know how to do marketing.
P'In just had said that and his fans themselves made this project become reality. P'In also helped to promote.
I found one video where P'In was interviewed about the Intrakorn funding project.
"I was just thinking, but my fans made it, thank you very much."
"P'In is a very strange person," I muttered after I finished watching.
P'In just talked shortly, didn't show off, and didn't even seem to want any reputation from this. P'In gave it all to his fans.
So P'In became popular because of this reason? I couldn't help but wonder.
And this wasn't the only one project, there were plenty — his fans created them without P'In said any word as well — including almshouse, food giver, animal protector, elderly and disabled caregivers, donating funding for Thai cultural foundation, also reforestation and environment conservation, and so on.
I was still curious why his fans were willing to do these charity projects for him that much. I continued searching and finally understood that because P'In did all of these regularly, he was communicating to his fans without using words or advertisements, just only by his action.
P'In is nirvana
My brother is a veterinarian, he met P'In carrying an injured stray dog — crushed by a car - to the animal hospital. Oh! if I knew earlier I should have asked my brother to take P'In photo. #InvisibleMoon
Kati jaa
Please see this photo, is that P'In? Someone found P'In was buying the flowers to help a poor blind elderly. #InvisibleMoon
Invisible Husband
This morning my friend saw a very handsome college student was giving the food to a homeless — around the pedestrian nearby XU - that student must be P'In! #InvisibleMoon
loving playing music
Yesterday I was trying to find the donors for my Thai musical band funding. Suddenly, I got a thousand-baht banknote from nowhere. One woman nearby said there was a handsome college student who gave it to me, but he was just gone after that. Is that P'In? *scream* *happy* #InvisibleMoon
After reading many tweets, I didn't know how to feel.
P'In himself had never told, posted, or promoted, he only had done many things without telling anyone. Others knew it because they accidentally saw it. P'In wasn't invisible for me, but most people couldn't see because P'In tended to stay in the blind spot, blend in the surrounding. If some people didn't have isolated or observing habits, or were there when he didn't intend to hide, they might not see P'In at all. Seeing him in public was such a lucky coincidence.
Nevertheless, even if it was only coincidence, there were still many good stories about P'In. I couldn't imagine the fact of how much good thing P'In actually did.
I thought of when P'In did the cleaning job alone, and no one knew.
What kind of person was P'In? the more I found the more I became interested. P'In wasn't like anybody that I had ever met.
I scrolled on twitter continuously and found another tweet.
hubby Intrakorn
Tmr at 6 a.m, DomKati shall meet in front of the temple nearby XU. Pls dress appropriately and keep manners. This giving alms to a monk is really important to Nong In. We must respect this, please follow the rule. #InvisibleMoon
P'In will give alms to a monk? I thought.
I could conclude from the comments that it wasn't that easy to meet P'In in daily life. If it wasn't a special event or fan meeting, that would be considerably difficult, as P'In was the Invisible Moon. Only except for every morning that P'In came to give alms to a monk, P'In would appear for 5-10 minutes — like a shooting star that appeared only a few seconds — which was a good chance for the fans to enjoy.
Someone took photos which could see a large group of fans praying for blessings with P'In - no one bothered him. All the fans let P'In gave alms to a monk and made a libation peacefully until done - he didn't even need a bodyguard.
The reason that his fans acted politely this way, even though they all yearn for seeing P'In, this could be explained, because once there were some fans who didn't keep manners and got blamed.
IN FC
Bored with some rude fans. You don't know? P'In gives alms for dedicating to his pass-away parents. If you don't respect your idol, you should at least respect the deceased.
"P'In doesn't have parents anymore?" I mumbled. That might be the reason why P'In was always emotionless.
Although I was a fading person in the family, at least my parents didn't forget to give me money or food. I also could discuss with them sometimes, my life wasn't that difficult, but P'In who didn't have parents anymore must be really sad.
After using my phone for a long time, I laid down on my bed. Tomorrow I would have a freshmen welcome ceremony again. I must join the activity at 10 a.m., it might take so long and end in the late afternoon.
What about going to see P'In?
Since I just slept in this dormitory for the second night, I was still unfamiliar with the place, so I kept awake during the first night. And again, today I awoke around 5 a.m. I remembered that P'In would give alms to the monk every morning. I was lazily lying and rolling on the bed for a while, but couldn't continue to sleep. So I decided to get up.
"Just go for a stroll, won't cost anything," I told myself. It was good to get up early and go for a walk. When the semester began, I wouldn't have free time like this anymore.
So I got ready and got out of the dorm. There was a small temple near my university, and many pedlars were selling food around. People could buy food here for breakfast or for the monks' alms.
What surprised me was the dozens of young women were waiting here. Some also carried the light plates —'Intrakorn FC' and 'DomKati', but most were buying the food for alms.
Because I was a fading person, so I could put myself into this group easily. It was so long ago that I had participated in giving alms for the monks, the last time probably in the Buddhist ceremony at my old school. Since I already got up early, I bought some food for the monk's alms, I chose my all favourite — sticky rice with shredded pork - and waited for the time.
Would P'In really come? I thought. But the fans were attentively waiting.
"Do you think what dishes P'In made for the alms today?"
"Well, the day before yesterday P'In made coconut milk noodles, and yesterday he made sticky rice desserts. Look so yum!"
"Does you mean P'In looks yum?"
"That's right. Ah~"
"I wanna taste P'In, oops!..the meal P'In made."
"Yeah, I watched the TV program 'Moons in the kitchen', when I saw P'Wayu ate P'In's dishes, Oh my god, my saliva almost leaked!"
Listening to them, P'In cooked by himself every time? He might need to get up at 4 or 5 a.m. every day. Oh, and P'In was actually able to cook? The fans just said the TV program named 'Moons in the kitchen'? I must watch it when I had time.
"P'In has come! Arhh~"
Suddenly, the fans screamed, then I turned to look.
Oh, P'In actually came.
P'In wore casual clothes, not a uniform as the college hadn't started yet. However, it was the casual cloth of the Maxwell brand — subsidiary of MW Inc. - which Unistar was the brand ambassador. I doubted that the company might send the clothes as complimentary, so he couldn't wear other brands except only the university uniform.
I saw P'In was carrying the plastic bag, inside there were nine boxes of appetising food — Thai rice with green curry and fried ground pork.
"Must be green curry with coconut shoots."
"P'In mainly cooks coconut milk dishes."
"I wanna be 'green' in the curry, so P'In can 'carry' me. Ahh~"
"What was that homophone joke? Did you copy P'Wayu?"
"Please be quiet."
The fans' babble voices became silent when P'In put his prepared food in the monk's alms bowl.
After he was done, the fans also did the same, many monks were waiting for the alms in front of the temple.
Generally, when giving alms to one monk, that monk would pray blessings after that. However, P'In and his fans might come here too often, as it seems that every monk was waiting for everyone to finish before starting to pray the blessing.
Then, I joined giving alms.
P'In was also waiting. Some of his fans greeted him with a smile or waving hand, but his face was still emotionless, only a few reactions — nod slightly. But only this could give his fans excitement.
After the fans finished, every monk was preparing to pray. All fans bent their body down and raised hands in salute to pay respect. P'In also.
"Please pay attention to the blessing." One monk said.
"Believe me, about the merit, who does it, who gets it. Please don't do it to wish for becoming his girlfriend or get married to him. This is all about destiny. If you two are soulmates, then you would become a couple. If it isn't, it just isn't. It's not what we can decide. When you give the alms, it is for making the merit. You do the good thing, then the good thing will come to you."
This monk sermoned quite long and then began to pray for blessing. P'In attentively raised his hands to pay respect, at that moment, I heard his fans whisper.
"Oh no, his sermon hit my weak spot."
"Yeah, how does the monk know that we want P'In?"
"Even if we do this for a thousand days, if we are not P'In soulmate, then there is no hope at all?"
Well, I thought the monk probably saw P'In and the same group of fans every day, he sermoned to hope that the fans might realise the truth. So they would do a good thing without too much expectation and feel suffering.
After the monks finished praying, P'In was gone already. Many fans were looking for P'In and failed, so they departed. However, when I looked carefully, I found P'In was pouring water for libation behind the big tree near the fence.
While I was looking at P'In, I heard the fans were talking.
"Will you go to the Maxwell event this evening?"
"Of course! I wanna see P'In again. Ah~"
"Yeah, go to see my husband walking on the catwalk, he must be so shining."
Oh right, I saw on the UNISTAR official page that today all Unistar members would join the event at the city center mall, launching a new fashion set as they were the Maxwell brand ambassadors.
I didn't know what time the freshmen welcome ceremony would end today. I usually wasn't interested in celebrities, so I couldn't understand why I was so interested in P'In.
Where is P'In going?
I saw P'In walking to another tree and took the two plastic bags, inside one was two more boxes of prepared meals, but the other bag I couldn't see. Then, he walked across the road.
Is he going to give another alms? I thought. But might be not because he was already done. Then, where did he take the meal?
I saw time on my phone - it's only half-past six. The freshmen activity would start around 10 a.m. I still had time.
Since I was already here, just following him a little more, might be alright.
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