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"
Eira buried her face in the pillow, letting out a squeal so soft it barely qualified as sound—but still full of disbelief and delight.
"This is ridiculous," she mumbled, kicking her feet beneath the blanket like a kid high on stardust. "I'm literally giggling over a stranger."
But oh, what a stranger.
The moment glowed in her chest like a secret lantern—soft, golden, and too lovely to explain to anyone else.
She rolled over and looked at the ceiling again, smiling to herself.
"I made him smile," she whispered.
As if saying it out loud might make it more real.
Outside, the stars blinked quietly above Bled, as if they too had paused to listen. And somewhere in Seoul, a boy who had forgotten how to feel seen… was still staring at the screen.
Neither of them knew what this moment would become.
But something had shifted.
And the universe?
It was smiling, too.
*She didn't want his fame. She just hoped he was okay. And for once… he was.