As Ari looked at all the contestants lined up by group, he thought they resembled injured soldiers from a war zone.

Bandages, bruises, and ice packs were plentiful, making them all look a bit pitiful as they stood there, waiting for the profound announcement that was supposed to make the day's suffering worthwhile.

Nobody looked excited, and despite the production team and Red Lace team members' urgings, the forced smiles and lack of enthusiasm just looked bad on camera.

They were all sick and tired and just wanted to eat some good food and go back to sleep.

PD Ji-ho was aware that this didn't paint the best resolution to his field day extravaganza because he rushed them through the closing ceremony before loading them onto the bus after Justin, who now had a cast on his foot, and Jamie returned from the hospital.

Once they arrived back at the building, they were rushed out of in a terrible fire prank. Some people went to shower, others went to find food, and after showering, Ari went to change before grabbing Levi, who was the only person who was awake in their room.

"Cover for me, please. I'm going to get a physical."

Levi looked him over slowly before responding.

"…feel sick?"

"I feel fine, but I think I should get one after fainting. Especially since the PD didn't bother to take me to the hospital."

"Should I come with you?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Okay. Save the receipt and give me a copy."

"Why?"

As Ari gave him a curious look, Levi just glared at the door.

"Evidence. These people are irresponsible."

"Fair enough. I'll be back."

Putting on his fur hat, Ari used his phone to navigate the train system to the nearest hospital.

After sitting in the waiting room for around 30 minutes, he went up to explain what he wanted in slow, careful Korean before moving to a new space as directed.

And unbeknownst to him, his face was currently being spread all over the internet.

********

It started with an innocent post shared on a Korean plastic surgery community.

[I came to get my birthday double eyelid surgery at the general hospital and saw this beautiful specimen of a man waiting there. I usually don't like foreigners, but this is the most beautiful foreigner I've ever seen. Tall and slim, his legs were so long, and his fingers were perfect. More importantly, that face. He looks unreal and better than any idol (and I've seen lots in person). He spoke Korean with a sexy accent, and I think I'm in love. I wanted to ask him about the procedures he had done and how much he had spent in total, but I was too nervous, and he went inside. Plastic surgery experts, could you please advise on what procedures I need to undergo to achieve a similar appearance? I think it would look good on girls too. (image attached, video attached) Also, does anyone know who this is? Please share his social media; I want to follow him.]

As people viewed the attached photo and video of Ari, interest grew, and self-proclaimed experts emerged from the woodwork to begin diagnosing his face.

- Although he looks pretty young, you can never tell with foreigners because they age badly and need to do a lot of work to maintain that youth. From what I can see, he's gotten cat eye surgery for that specific eye shape, rhinoplasty for the nose bridge and shape, slight botox in the forehead and fillers for that plump youthful look, lip filler in the top and bottom lips, v-line surgery to shave down the jaw and make it more angular, and a curly perm to start.

- he's gotten keratopigmentation and an iris implant to achieve that clear green eye color—either that or very natural circle lenses.

- Seconding the Botox and fillers. You can see the way his face twitches a bit as he frowns, that it's not quite a natural movement. Although he looks very young, it's definitely artificial.

- He's gotten a lip blushing procedure as well. That color can't be natural. I wonder what shade he used.

As Grace checked her phone before school, scanning through American entertainment and the Korean one, the first thing she saw was a picture and video of Ari's face trending on Naver for some reason.

With shaking hands and heart as she wondered what had happened now, she went to check the post and saw that Ariel was currently the poster child of Korean plastic surgery, as he had been pictured at a plastic surgery clinic by a random person.

Ariel!

Why are you there!

Hoping with all of her heart that this would stay local to Korea, that hope was dashed when she saw that somebody had made the connection to him being seen at the airport with Golden Generation and filming Quiz on the Block with people discovering his identity and connecting it to Pop Star Academy.

And when she checked the Pop Star Academy community-

Each time she refreshed, a new post about Ari appeared.

With a resigned expression, Grace clicked the one with the most comments.

[Contestant Ariel's face done by plastic surgery confirmed.]

- I just want to say that I'm always on the right side of history! I knew that his face couldn't be achieved by natural means, and I was proven right! For those who don't know, South Korea is called the "Plastic Surgery Capital of the World". The contestants have been in Korea for less than a week, and he's already getting plastic surgery to fix his botched face. I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Look at all the procedures he's gotten done to his face! I've never even heard about some of these, but your number one visual, the most handsome contestant, basically lived at the plastic surgery clinic to get that face! No wonder he wore a mask for the first couple of weeks; he was recovering!

Skimming over the comments that included photos, screenshots, and incorrect translations from the Korean plastic surgery community, Grace simply closed the tab and messaged Ari directly.

[Bossy NewsReportPRJournalistYappertronic3000 GC: The streets are saying that you're getting plastic surgery?]

The response came almost immediately.

[Green Eyed Coworker: ?]

[Green Eyed Coworker: Why would I get plastic surgery? With what money?]

[Bossy NewsReportPRJournalistYappertronic3000 GC: They're saying you're an ugly child who needed to fix his face.]

[Green Eyed Coworker: I've been pretty since I was a child, and I'm very satisfied with my face. There's nothing to fix.]

[Green Eyed Coworker: …maybe my lashes, but is there a surgery to reduce the curliness and length? I thought I had to trim it forever, but I will look into that.]

[Green Eyed Coworker: Why would you think that? Had some weird dream again? Who's they?]

Grace quickly sent him the photos that people had taken of him.

[Green Eyed Coworker: Effrayant. Why would someone take a photo and video of a stranger? It's not like I'm a celebrity.]

[Green Eyed Coworker: I'm not getting plastic surgery, I'm getting a physical, and this was the closest clinique. I fainted today from heat stroke, and the PD didn't send me to the hospital, so I came by myself because I'm concerned about my body.]

[Green Eyed Coworker: I'll wear a mask when I leave.]

Ariel!

Although I'm concerned about the fainting, it's too late to wear a mask!

Your face is already trending all over the South Korean internet!

You've become the ideal photo to take to surgeons, and people are dissecting what procedures you supposedly got!

Sending thousands of curses at the PD and the entire production staff, since they were the root cause of this issue, Grace reopened the community, hoping that she would see somebody with some sense.

But like sharks who smelled blood, those who had been lurking and waiting for an opportunity jumped into the fray, adding to the rumors and continuing to bash Ariel.

The issue of the fansite owner who was accusing Levi of assaulting her and destroying her property was temporarily forgotten as everyone wanted to weigh in on Ari's face.

Some people admired the beauty and wanted to know the surgeon who had done the work.

Some were insulting Ari's character while insinuating he was truly ugly and should just say the truth, while others just poured oil onto the situation.

People were even bringing up the fact that he wasn't poor and had just been cosplaying as a poor person while feeling sympathy for Analise Crouch and her family.

It was a complete dumpster fire, but without a doubt, everyone was talking about Ariel.

While she was happy that he was popular, this wasn't what she wanted him to be popular for!

Even though she roughly knew of his family situation, Grace quickly asked Ari to send her the receipt and report of his physical and, if he had any childhood photos, to show the internet as proof.

[Green Eyed Coworker: baby pictures? C'est dificile.]

[Green Eyed Coworker: You know I was adopted, right? The orphanage I lived at probably doesn't have any, since so many kids go through it, and I was adopted over a decade ago, so things have probably been wiped out of the system. My parents were very insistent on not having any of my photos online until I was an adult, so you definitely wouldn't find any, no matter how hard you looked. And the Crouch family got rid of all of the photo albums my parents had. Physical or otherwise.]

[Bossy NewsReportPRJournalistYappertronic3000 GC: Any yearbook photos? Class photos? Something?]

[Green Eyed Coworker: Someone might have a class photo out there, but I doubt it since I usually wasn't around for photo day. There might be one or two from primary school in France, but I'm not sure. I wasn't close to anybody. Don't worry about the issue. It will die off, or it won't. It's not the first day that people have talked about me. They'll get over it!]

"Arghhhhhhhhhhh!!! Ari! It won't die off!! This is the number one question people ask all the time! And now they have proof of you at a plastic surgery clinic! Why are you not self-aware about the handsomeness of your face, huh!!! Why would you go there of all places!"

Grace screamed while slamming her hands on her desk before quieting down.

"Grace Choi, stop screaming and get ready for school!"

"Sorry!"

Quickly thinking the situation through, she asked an invasive question, hoping that Ari wouldn't be offended, but he simply sent a reply and told her not to worry about the issue again.

That it would be resolved in a couple of days when they switched to another topic.

Since Grace had no faith in that, she planned to do some work on her own side.

Staring at the string of French words and the foreign phone numbers, Grace swallowed her tears and opened Google Translate in one tab and checked her bank balance with another tab.

It seemed that it would dwindle a lot since she had several international calls to make to the French foster system.

She needed to find out if anybody had a photo of a child who was adopted 15 years ago.

"Ari! If you make it, you owe me half! Half of the money! You hear me! Half!!!!"

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