25 South Korea (1/2)
The rest of Hayden's Friday and weekend was spent on recording videos that would last until the New Year's eve. In this timeframe, his Streamlink account regained its momentum and started surging again, now having 15 million supporters.
Meanwhile, his social media accounts were steadily gaining followers, it grew to the point of needing him to be verified so as to not have any impostors. On Saturday, Hayden's classmates were bragging how they were classmates with him, and those that took pictures with him during the School Festival were posting the pictures with captions such as 'With Supremacy,' and all that.
As he expected, his basketball skills started to go back in the spotlight, with clips of him doing all those 'sick' plays that awed people in the trending list. With that, he made headlines in the news, articles were written about him, and the Global Gaming Channel had their attention focused on him.
Hayden was absolutely stupefied by the events. As aforementioned, he underestimated the impact of this revelation, and was now facing the consequences. Overnight, he became an instant celebrity. Luckily, his address was still kept a secret.
However, his Chatbox was blowing up, with Daniel, some of his relatives, and his classmates being interrogative, which made Hayden's head ache.
”Ahh…” Hayden shook his head. He knew that he heavily miscalculated for this one. ”Tsk, how am I going to be able to reject those interviews…”
If anybody were able to hear what Hayden said, they would've beat him up. Most people want to become celebrities, and you're here, trying to avoid interviews? Fuck off!
…..
Sunday night, Hayden prepared his bags for their trip. His bag contained winter clothing mostly as it was winter in South Korea. The next day, Monday, 4:00 AM, Hayden took a shower, and checked to see if he forgot anything.
He also checked his Space Rings if the contents were complete, along with the uploads he made on Streamlink. At 7:00, their family set out to the airport. They arrived at the airport at 7:50.
The second they alighted the taxi, Hayden attracted the attention of many people. Women were admiring him, men had a glint of admiration in their eyes, it was a new feeling for Hayden, one that he didn't like. While waiting, a few people started to come up with him and asked to take a picture with him, surprising him. It was fortunate that there were not that much people from the press, making Hayden's trip in the airport still relatively peaceful.
Well, to be honest, even if he was annoyed with all this attention, he couldn't afford to be rude to any of those that wanted to take a picture with him as this would destroy his reputation. All he could do was suck it up, activating Divine Perception to not let his annoyance get to him.
Finishing eating their breakfast in a nearby fast food chain, at 9:00, they boarded the plane. It was a convenient thing that when the World Government was formed, visa was unrequired when going on an international flight. As long as one's Identity Number had criminal clearance, or at least 10 years of not committing any crime, then one is eligible to go to any country if they had the money.
As Hayden didn't get much sleep during the weekends, he slept in the entire three hours they were traveling from Manila to Seoul. Landing, Hayden's family ate at a restaurant nearby.
In the restaurant, his parents were stunned of Hayden's fluent Korean, with him translating the menu to them.
”When did you learn Korean?” His mother asked while they were eating their lunch. They have never seen their son display his talents in front of them, thus, they didn't know that, on top of being able to speak Korean, he was able to speak a total of 27 languages, and that he could play almost anything on a keyboard.
”Well, I started learning when I got into k-pop music when I was in seventh grade,” Hayden felt a little awkward, coming up with a small lie. He couldn't possibly divulge this secret of his, can he now? ”The site for learning languages created by the World Government was really handy.”
His parents dropped the matter as they have seen Hayden's inclination to listen to k-pop themselves. His phone was literally riddled with k-pop music; in which they were able to witness Hayden muttering strange Korean words as if singing to the song when he's listening to it, when in fact he's not.
”By the way, son,” his father was the one who spoke this time. ”Are you planning on to continue on studying, or not?”
”Well…” Hayden scratched his temple. Honestly? He was simply trying to live day by day, trying not to get killed by assassins sent by Kamay ng Lagim. Consequently, he hasn't thought that far into the future. ”I guess I can balance my education, my gaming career, and basketball career… So, my answer is yes.”
Ultimately, Hayden decided, at this moment, to go through with going in college. As his father used to say, knowledge is power. Also, he understood full well how high his father held education in regard. His father literally threw a party, inviting all of his relatives, when Hayden got into the Scholar Academy, the first of such occurrence in the history of their entire family.
Needless to say, he found studying kind of bland and unexciting, contrary to his other lifestyle of being a wielder. In all honesty, if Hayden merely possessed Indestructible Devil, he would've dropped out of school for a long time, it was all Divine Perception that kept him from doing so.
”Son…” His father stared at him with a solemn expression. ”You don't have to force yourself to our standards if you don't want to continue on your education. I mean, sure, it would be a waste of your intelligence, but, you don't have to do it if you don't want to do it, okay?”
”Well…” Hayden seriously considered not applying for college at this moment. He found studying a waste of time as he could literally acquire any knowledge as long as it's in a book, and with the current standards of education in the world, almost everything has been published into a book. ”Well, I still want to do it. It will be a back-up for my future, plus, knowledge is power, right?”
”Right.” His father showed a sincere smile, one that Hayden has never seen. He even saw his father's eyes wetting. ”Just, you take care of your health, okay?”
”Okay,” Hayden smiled, continuing on with his lunch. When the trio finished eating their lunch, they hired a cab and went to the hotel that Hayden has booked, the Summer Dawn Hotel, a 5-star hotel in Myeongil-dong at Gangdong-gu (1). Hayden went to the room he reserved for himself, while his parents went to the room beside his.
Putting on winter clothes, Hayden ventured outside. Prior to that, he sought his parents to inform them of this venture of his. Hayden had three purpose in doing this, one was to reserve seats for a restaurant he saw online called Nanlo, or Fireplace in English, a 2 Michelin-star restaurant. The second was to find a mall nearby, planning to give his parents a little gift of shopping. Lastly, and the most important reason, was to familiarize himself with the geography of Seoul.
With this in mind, Hayden wandered around Seoul, sightseeing by himself.
…..
Meanwhile, in Gimpo International Airport, there was a large commotion. The place was filled with people holding cameras, with others on the side holding up signs.
Exiting a plane was eleven women. It was CHORUS returning from their tour in Japan! The eleven women were smiling here and there while talking to each other. Clearly, they were used to the attention they get whenever they're at an airport.
Exiting the airport, they boarded executive vans. Inside one van was Kim Eun-ha, Makio Mieko, Miyazato Sayuri, and Sung Chung-hee. The four were simply chatting as Mieko was watching something on her screen.
Unpredictably, it was one of Hayden's videos of War of Honor! A few moments, silence ensued. Eun-ha, who was beside her, peeked a little bit, her curiosity being whetted.
”Who's that guy?” Eun-ha asked when she saw Hayden. ”Isn't that the guy from the Global Gaming Channel's headline?”
”Oh, you watch the Global Gaming Channel?” Mieko turned to Eun-ha's direction. ”Well, yeah. Can you believe this guy's 16 years old?”
”Really?” Taking a look at Hayden's face on his face cam, Eun-ha was confused. ”Well, he does look young, why is that surprising?”
”No, I mean, he is this good, and he's only 16 years old!” Mieko explained as to why Hayden being a 16-year-old was astonishing. ”His skills are amazing. Plus, look at this. Since you don't play games, well, at least not War of Honor, I'm sure you don't understand this, so…”
Mieko exited out of the video that she was watching, typed something on the search, and tapped on a video. It was a basketball video.
”How is this exactly going to enlighten me?” Eun-ha asked, bewildered. ”How is gaming related to basketball?”
”Wait for it…” When the video loaded, Eun-ha saw a person. When the camera zoomed in, she saw Hayden. The video was of Hayden's National Youth Competition's championship highlights. ”Oh, so this is what you mean…”
The video contained of Hayden's amazing basketball skills. Doing feints, shooting three pointers without missing, dunking, passing, blocking, stealing, and performing thought to be impossible plays. From this, she finally understood what Mieko meant of 'can you believe this guy's 16 years old?'
”He is good.” Eun-ha nodded, fully agreeing with Mieko's statement. She chanced upon basketball matches during her days as a high school student and could fathom just how impressive Hayden's plays were. The so-called high-leveled standards of her high school can be considered as dogshit when compared to Hayden's!
”Plus, he's pretty cute.” Mieko added, changing to Hayden's social media. Pictures of Hayden, wearing clothes outlining the golden ratio of his body popped up. ”He can definitely pass as an idol.”
”What you doing back there?” At this moment, Sayuri rotated her head. Then, she squeezed herself between the two. ”Oh, he's cute. Who is he?”
”Hayden Emperador.” Mieko said, changing her phone back to the video she was watching beforehand.
On the way, Sayuri pestered Mieko and Eun-ha. Naturally, as all three of them were friends, they didn't really mind. In addition, they were already pretty used to Sayuri's attitude. Half an hour passed, and they arrived at the building of KTM entertainment.
…..
”Girls, you did well.” Kim Taehyung applauded with a beaming smile. ”You eleven have done well. Rest for tonight, tomorrow we celebrate at Nanlo!”
”Really?” The eleven of them became excited. Nanlo was, after all, one of the most famous restaurants in South Korea. ”Thank you for the treat!”
”Okay, okay, go back to your dorm for now.” Kim Taehyung's amiable attitude has always been popular with the employees and idols alike. This was his 'off-work' attitude. ”Rest well, all eleven of you. Again, you did well.”
With that, the eleven of them boarded the executive vans once more and returned to their dorm, which was a big mansion somewhere in Gangnam-dong.