The Prince of K-Pop || Bang Chan FF

Chapter One

          It was with great trepidation that Natalia Higuera walked to the First-Class lounge. Something inside of her screamed that she was going in the wrong direction but the ticket pulled up on her phone said otherwise. In all of her thirty years of living she had never flown First Class. She had also never had a trip completely paid for but it was clear that this would be the start of many firsts. Once again that "thing" spoke but the message was an old tape repeating how much she did not deserve these firsts.

          Beep.

          Somehow Naty had gotten to the door of the lounge and her trembling fingers held her phone still enough to grant her access. Whether she did deserve it or not, she was there. She immediately took a video clip.

          It was always with great nervousness that she took her videos but it was the videos that got her where she was. Exactly two years ago she began her journey as an "influencer" and two months ago it put her in the hands of a huge sponsorship—TripExclusive. Naty couldn't take all the credit for getting TripExclusive's attention. She had an aggressively loyal 100k following that watched her grind until she turned the $0.01 in her bank account into a paid trip to Greece. Back then she did silly BTS reaction videos but now she focused on travel and so she owed her followers a glimpse of her success and advice on how to get there themselves.

        The issue, she found, was that specific grind was actually a grind for content that constantly took her out of the moment. It wasn't until she looked through her photo album that she realized how nice the First-Class Lounge actually was. Naty's mind replayed the last few moments she missed. She came in, was offered a plethora of free stuff, sat down, was immediately given water and offered complimentary drinks. It was epic!

          The lounge was larger than expected and designed with an obvious sense of luxury. The colors were gold and a deep red that made her feel regal. The seat she sat in felt like a cloud while the water tasted like it was straight from Mt. Everest. She expected the place to be lavish but she did not expect it to be so busy. The young influencer went to work on editing the videos to obscure identities.

          The videos in question weren't just for the large sponsorship. In addition to that one, Naty had a haul of others she needed to make content for. The video editing app was one, the headphones she wore, travel tripod she positioned on the table in front of her, the wallet in her carry on, the comfy travel shoes she wore, and so many others she kept detailed in her notes app. All of them expected to see content of their items holding up during her travels and so she got to work filming enough tidbits for each sponsorship to be pleased. By the time she finished, an hour had already passed.

          She looked at her watch—another sponsorship—with a huff. It was time to go live.

          Naty set her phone on the tripod and directed it close to her for the privacy of others in the lounge. She had been using the head phones for over a week and so she knew it would cancel out everything but her voice. In the live section she typed out the title "What's new!" and fixed her hair in the screen. She took in a calming breath then preceded to launch.

          Immediately 500 people tapped into view her trip.

          "Hey everyone!" she spoke quietly but enthusiastically to her followers, "Chels, Sierra, Bo, Sonia, Anika, hi, hi, hi, hi!"

          Naty tried her best to name the ones she remembered until an older guy behind her groaned about stupid "influencers."

          "I made it!" she said in a quieter tone, "It's so lovely here and TripExclusive has made everything so easy. I literally just had to show up. And yes, I did get here four hours early. I am Latina."