I went through many emotions when watching the recent Star King – elation, exaltation, happiness and pride.Being as I have those emotions whenever I hear Filipina star Charice sing, this was to be expected. What I didn’t expect was how I felt watching the following sequence of events take place.

Charice made her triumphant return to Star King last week. Star King was one of the first programs to expose her to a national audience, before even the Big O (Oprah) discovered her. At one point, Charice recounted how she was discovered by David Foster, who basically took the role of her mentor and helped produce her new Billboard-charting album.

At that point, who is to speak up, but the lovely Luna, vocal songstress and underrated member of f(x). Luna said something to the effect of , “Maybe I will get a chance to debut on Billboard if David Foster hears me now.” Luna, I’m not sure it works that way…aw heck, at least we get to hear you sing.

And sing she did, a lovely rendition of the song “One Moment In Time.” It was all very nice until Kang Ho Dong says, “Why don’t we have Charice sing the same song?” Luna gets the biggest ‘oh sh*t’ look on her face and I don’t know if this idea was Dong’s or some PD’s but whoever you are – that was messed up.

So Charice immediately puts on her game face and well…it’s best you listen for yourself (4:27)

I would love to hear Charice sing live, because just hearing her on video is…it’s surreal. I think part of the reason for that is that aren’t as many diva belters (Whitney, Mariah, Celine) in the music industry as there used to be, and for someone that is 18 Charice has not even hit her peak yet. So everyone’s mouths hang open, it’s unbelievable, Charice stabs and dismembers the song – she killed it, basically. And then we see Luna crying. Oh, Luna.

This is the part where I started having those feelings that I understood but couldn’t quite explain. That uncomfortable feeling at the pit of your stomach when something good has happened, but you know it will be spoiled by what happens next. Luna was bested on (Korean) national TV, if even unintentionally. In fact, I say it was intentional because they knew that there was no way she and Charice would match up vocally. Luna reassures the tears are not of sadness or embarrassment, but it seems doubtful and Charice and gives the girl a pep talk. Luna will be ok, they hug, everything is sunshine and flowers and the PDs get the Moment they want. And I came out of this still wanting to support both girls. Charice, because she is amazingly talented and Luna, because she got set up on TV by a dick PD.

On a related note, it was heartwarming to see how happy and supportive Leeteuk (Super Junior) was of Charice. I’m not a die-hard Suju fan so that’s probably why I did not notice before, but he’s so smiley. It kind of makes you want to smile and give him a great big bear hug just for being special. I never had an imaginary friend, but if I did it would be Leeteuk in a bear suit.