Chapter 271: First Time in Korea, Quiz on the Block (3)
Right before she went to bed, Grace did a news check as she usually did.
While her current focus was on Pop Star Academy and promoting Ari, she still kept track of other artists, both new and old, in the entertainment space, and even published updates on her blog based on the latest trends.
Naturally, she had seen the fan site that had been posting photos of some of the sleeping pop star academy contestants on the plane and had been reporting the account in hopes that it would be banned because of the sheer invasion of privacy that was happening with the fan site owner bragging and even taking requests for donations.
But right now, there was a crossover of two worlds that she couldn’t understand.
In the middle of watching a fan-taken airport video of the Golden Generation group, instead of the expected Golden Generation team members, she was staring at two very familiar Pop Star Academy contestants who also looked surprised.
Jamie was dressed in a vintage navy tennis sweater, a white shirt peeking through, matching navy joggers, white sneakers, and had his long blond hair loose around his shoulders.
With the large, slightly beat-up black guitar case hanging on one shoulder and his usual bright smile and sparkling blue eyes that radiated pure happiness, he looked like a preppy college boy on his way to music classes.
"I always forget he’s a rich kid because of that damn cowboy hat," Grace muttered as she read through the comments, which were praising his outfit as stylish, calling him an adorable giant with muscles, while decoding the brands he was wearing.
The general consensus was that everything was expensive, and he looked like a posh prince.
Standing next to him was somebody dressed completely opposite.
It seemed that Ari had reverted to his goth phase, as he was wearing black techwear-style joggers with chains, black boots, a black sweater featuring bones, a black bomber jacket, and his fur hat clipped to a black backpack.
With his black sunglasses holding his red curls back and exposing the sparkling blue earrings in his ears, his vivid, fox-shaped green eyes, which seemed to have black eyeliner around them from his long lashes, he gave off a sharp, feline appearance.
Even if she wanted to deny it, Grace had to admit that Ari was almost rage-inducingly pretty.
As a girl, it was annoying to see, especially because she knew he literally woke up looking like that without putting a single drop of effort into it.
Even the person recording the video stopped her screaming to whisper ’so pretty’ in Korean as she zoomed in on Ari’s face.
"He really looks like a panther. If his hair were black right now, I can only imagine how crazy people would be going. But what the heck is he doing here? Where are the other contestants?"
She hadn’t seen him in the airport clips that had been posted by the Pop Star Academy’s official account and had originally assumed that the PD had left him out for a petty reason.
Although she had several questions, it seemed that they would go unanswered for now.
Instead, she watched in real time as Ari’s expression shifted from slightly surprised to his classic face of judgment, his eyes quickly moving from left to right before he dragged Jamie off to the side.
Then the person holding the camera turned to actually focus on Golden Generation as they walked out as a group.
"Ari, please, your face. You need to fix your facial expressions. Smile. Smile like Jamie. They’re merciless in Korea. You need to smile." Grace groaned as she replayed the clip while reading the comments.
While some Knets praised his style and beauty, others bashed him for his facial expressions being rude and for daring to block the doorway when the Golden Generation was coming through, simply because he was a little handsome, with a small argument taking place beneath the video as people argued that fans shouldn’t be recording random people and stalking idols at the airport.
Elsewhere, others who were trying to identify who Ari was found out that he was in Hongdae, where he was caught filming for one of the most popular variety shows in Korea that interacted with foreigners, and was soundly beating the Korean youths in the trivia contest alongside Jamie.
There was even a short clip of him speaking perfect Korean, and for a second, Grace wondered if Ari actually needed her help to promote himself and if all her efforts mattered.
After all, he had been in Korea for less than 24 hours and had already interrupted a K-pop group’s airport photo shoot, had begun trending for his beauty and facial expressions, and somehow, met famous people and was randomly filming for a TV show on the streets of Korea.
Even as she refreshed her timeline, she could see people making gifs of him along with Jamie’s, with the caption: My cat when I come home vs my dog when I come home and by the looks of it, it would probably become a staple.
On the surface, everything seemed to be fine, so she let it go for now and quickly updated herself on what was going on with Levi.
By the time she finished that and did a final sweep, the troublemaking account she had been watching was back at it again.
The person behind the account was always insinuating that Ari was secretly rich, selling his body, lying about his foster family situation, and expressing other dirty sentiments.
The posts first started at his TV OFF performance when people noticed that he was wearing designer clothing, and now it was getting worse as more and more clips of him not wearing his brown tracksuit appeared, giving some credence to those weird accounts’ posts.
Grace wished that she could explain that Ari had received those things from a photoshoot or that the photoshoot would be posted as soon as possible, so people would stop speculating but for now, all she could do was continue reporting the account so that the posts would stop building steam and prompting toxic discussions that even she had a hard time stopping as the head of Ari’s Angels community.
Seeing another post pop up, Grace pressed report with a sigh.
"Ari, just get back to practice and performing. And please, whatever you do, don’t be like Levi and mess with these crazy fan site owners. That situation is currently a mess. Just go live in the practice room and perform peacefully and spectacularly. Please. And stay away from him. Okay? Let’s not taint your reputation."
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"Did the two of you have fun?" PD Ji-ho asked the two little rebels who were standing before him, one with a happy expression and a large bag of goodies from a popular chain store, and the other with the calm expression he usually had.
"Actually, yes! Today was surprisingly fun!"
".....we were left at the airport and had to find our way here."
"So you took the long way back, and while coming, did an interview, performed for the public, went shopping, and then came here?"
Ari just stayed silent since it was clearly a rhetorical question, while Jamie nodded enthusiastically.
"Exactly!"
PD Ji-ho glanced from one face to the other and, seeing that neither of them looked particularly contrite, sighed and tiredly rubbed his eyes behind his glasses.
"Okay. Honestly, I should have expected this, and it’s our fault you were left at the airport. Rooms have been sorted, and your luggage has been put there, so walk around until you find your name. One of the staff members can take your food order for the evening. James, since you’re 19, you are free to move about as you please, but please note that we’re waking up bright and early to get a tour of the Soundwave Music building. Ariel, since you’re a minor in Korea, you need to be back on premises by 10 pm or get permission from an adult if you’re out later than that. Understood?"
"Yes."
"Good. You’re free to go."
"Okay."
"Thank you."
At the surprisingly lenient sentence and no harsh scolding, both Jamie and Ari waved at the PD before following directions and heading to where the room assignments were.
To their surprise, they were rooming together, along with Daniel, Levi, Suzuki Rei, and Rex.
Inside the room were three sets of bunkbeds along with one bathroom, and all the beds were empty except for one that was occupied by Levi sitting on the top bunk with his headphones on while scrolling on his phone.
His eyes briefly met Ari’s before he looked away, and Ari shrugged in return.
Seeing that it was only 2 bottom bunks that didn’t have things in them, Ari took the one beneath Levi while Jamie took the other one and began digging in his suitcase.
Several moments later, Jamie had a backpack in addition to his guitar and stood by the door.
"I’m ready!"
"Okay."
Ari turned to leave, but seeing Levi stare at him again, felt bad leaving without saying anything, so he called out.
"Oi kiwi head."
Levi: ಠ_ಠ
What was with him and this stupid name?
"...what?"
"We’re going to karaoke to try and make a song for a TV show. Wanna come?"
Ari asked, fully expecting Levi to say no or just to ignore him, but to his surprise-
"You’re inviting me?"
"Otherwise? You think I’m talking to the ghost in the room? Coming?"
"...Sure."
Levi hopped straight to the ground with a thud and looked at the two of them expectantly.
"Lead the way."