After ended his song Ares glanced at the chat casually. His eyes skimmed past the usual hearts, emojis, and confessions. Same energy. Same phrases. Same noise.
Until one line stilled him.
"Hi. I don't wanna scream or ask you to love me. I just hope you're smiling today, even if nobody asked."
Ares blinked. His fingers froze on the keyboard.
"Wait… what?"
The words hit differently.
It wasn't loud. It wasn't asking for anything. No hearts. No fangirl energy. Just… sincerity. Almost like it was whispered straight into his chest. For a moment, he forgot there were 80,000 people watching.
His hand paused over the mouse. Ares frowned slightly, rereading the comment again. 'That's new', he thought. He read it again. Slower.
"…hope you're smiling today, even if nobody asked."
A strange warmth spread in his face. His lips parted, caught somewhere between a laugh and a sigh.
"…No one ever asks that," he muttered.
He didn't usually reply unless his manager nudged him to—but this time, he typed back before thinking:
"Thanks. I am, now."
He hesitated.
"Should I send that? Is it weird?"
Too late. He already hit enter. Then the comment disappeared, swallowed by the flood of emojis and marriage proposals. but somehow, he knew she'd see it. That day he sat there, staring at the screen for a second longer than usual.
"Who even says stuff like that anymore?" he whispered, almost to himself. "Who are you?"
Thousands of miles away, in a tiny apartment in Bled, Slovenia, Eira nearly dropped her phone.
She stared at the screen.
Eyes wide. Heart thudding.
"…Wait. He replied?" she whispered.
She reread it.
"Thanks. I am, now."
It was short. Simple. But he saw her and she knows he replied to her. Eira clutched her phone to her chest and let out a breathy, stunned laugh.
"Okay… calm down. Don't be dramatic. It's just a comment. It doesn't mean anything… right?", "but he replied me", She was screaming in bed with pleasure. Then she flopped back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling.
But her heart kept whispering:
"He replied"
"He smiled because of me"
The next night, Eira didn't plan on watching his live again.
I don't wanna be weird. He probably forgot already. I'm just another name in a sea of usernames.
But there she was.
Lurking quietly behind the glowing screen. Wrapped in her blanket like a cinnamon roll of nerves.
He was already halfway through a song. Hair messy, sleeves pushed up. Voice raw and soft.
Her fingers moved before her brain caught up. He wasn't even looking for it this time, yet her message blinked up like fate tapping his shoulder.
"You seemed tired today. Hope your music gives you peace like it gives us."
Ares glanced toward the screen again. Eyes slightly unfocused.
Then his expression shifted.
He smiled. Not the practiced one for cameras—an involuntary curve of the lips that his assistant would call "rare."
Just looked. Long enough that Eira saw it. Saw him pause.
Her breath hitched.
"He saw it."
Her chest tightened.
"Maybe it didn't mean anything", she told herself, fingers hovering over the screen. She wasn't here to fangirl. She just… liked being honest with people who had the world and still looked lonely.
Back in Seoul, Ares was still staring at the comment, biting his lip slightly.
"Hope your music gives you peace like it gives us."
He leaned back in his chair and mumbled, "You have no idea how much I needed to hear that."
But… he didn't reply this time. Instead, he stared. Watched her comment disappear under the digital wave.
"Did she expect an answer?"
But still, he didn't type a reply.
Because... he didn't know what to say.
What if he made it weird?
He exhaled.
"Who even are you, Eira? And why do your words hit harder than the stadium screams?"
That night, Eira couldn't sleep. In a quiet apartment, she blinked at the screen, curled up under her blanket. Her heart was warm, but confused.
The next day, without really planning to, Eira opened his profile. Her thumb paused over the message button.
"This is insane," she whispered. "He's a celebrity. You're a nobody."
But her fingers moved anyway.
She typed.
Deleted.
Typed again.
Then, with a deep breath, she typed:
"I don't want to be another fan who worships you. I just want to be someone you can talk to—about anything. Without filters. Without judgment. Even if that's selfish of me."
She stared at it for a while, then hit send. "He'll never see it anyway."
After few minutes staring at the screen. She was like
"Why did I send that?
This is dumb, I am dumb, I need sleep."
She turned off her phone and rolled away from it like it was radioactive.
Three days passed.
Nothing.
No "seen." No "typing…"
Eira pushed it to the back of her mind. Or tried to.
Until that night her phone buzzed at 1:43 a.m.
Her eyes fluttered open. She reached for it lazily.
Then froze.
One new message.
From: AresOfficial
Her hands trembled as she unlocked the screen.
The message simply read:
"What if I told you… I've been waiting for someone like that for a long time?"
For a moment, her breath caught.
She sat upright in bed, staring at the glowing screen.
Her heart pounded against her ribs like a drumline in a thunderstorm.
"Is this real?"
She reread it.
Again.
And again.
And that's when their story began—quiet, honest, and unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Because behind the fame, the cameras, and the noise...he was someone just as lonely as she was.
But neither of them knew...
That this wasn't just celebrity and fangirl conversation.
And that soon, one of them would have to choose between their world…
And their heart.
*In a sky full of stars, he found the one who wasn't trying to shine.