Explain Yourself (1)

When Valentina woke up, it was to thousands of notifications on her phone. It seemed that she had underestimated the influence and devotion of the Fallen Angels fan base. Over the nine hours that she slept, the music video had garnered over 40 million views on YouTube and was rapidly climbing. It was on track to cross over a hundred million views in less than 24 hours, breaking the world record with time to spare.

Additionally, because the official Fallen Angels account as well as Rio and Shawn had reposted the official video which tagged her, as well as the story and post she had shared on her account, her followers had grown from a little under ten thousand followers to over 500,000 people and it was rapidly increasing. Yuri's followers had directly crossed over 1 million and was still increasing as well. All in all, she was experiencing a rapid increase in social media fame.

Her social media direct messages were now filled with fans either claiming to know her, asking for money or a favor, or abusing her and wanting to know who her surgeon was. 

The comments under her posts were a mixture of people claiming she had plastic surgery, praising her beauty, and asking for intimate details about the Fallen Angels. A few of them praised the video as well as she and Yuri, but the majority of the comments were fan-girling over the Fallen Angels while demonizing her and Yuri.

Honestly, it was very overwhelming, and Valentina could feel herself becoming stressed out and wanting to shut down in her room. Although she had worked on big campaigns in her previous life as a marketer, she had never been the face or at the center of attention, so having so many people suddenly intruding on her life was a new and stressful experience. Although she knew she should have expected it, having it suddenly happen was a different matter.

As she planned on shutting off her phone she saw a call coming in from Rio's number. Hesitantly, she picked it up.

"Hello?" Her voice was hesitant and soft with a bit of stress causing Rio to feel bad for her.

"How are you holding up with all the newfound fame?" Rio asked in a gentle tone as he tried to calm her down.

"It is…very overwhelming. But I'm sure you're used to it Mr. Famous Fallen Angel. I've seen the comments from the fans." Valentina replied with a small smile.

"Please, drop the Famous. All my friends call Mr. Fallen Angel. I give you permission to do the same." Rio joked back, gratified when he heard her bell-like laughter. 

"You'll get used to it over time too. If you ask me nicely I'll give you some tips to get through it?"

"And if I don't? Your tips are unsolicited after all Mr. Fallen Angel." Valentina couldn't help but tease him.

"Don't be shy Miss Fallen Angel. I'll help you out anyway since I'm such a kind person, unlike a certain somebody who is rude first thing in the morning." Rio teased her back, glad that she was calm enough to joke around.

"Who called who this morning?" Valentina asked in irritation before sighing, "Anyways I'm listening. By the way, you're on speakerphone. I'll be doing my morning routine if you hear anything." Celeste put him on speaker and walked to the bathroom before starting to brush his teeth.

Rio: "…."

Why did he feel that she wasn't taking him seriously?

"First off. I recommend that you do not take a single step outside for the next week or two unless it's for work and under your agency's protection. Order delivery, order groceries, and do not pick it up until the person has left. Even then cover up with a mask, glasses, the works. I'll admit that my fans can be a bit....creative as they try to dig up details about you. I would hope your agency will take this seriously and up your security and move you to a more secure location. Understand?"

"Yep. Don't leave the house except for work and cover-up. Got it. Also calling your fans creative is putting it mildly considering they're literally called the 72 demonic pillars. Just call them crazy. Don't be shy." Valentina flippantly replied as she washed her face. With her living in the Grayson house, none of those were a concern for her. Once she moved back to her apartment, she would deal with the issue then. Hopefully, the hype would have died down by then.

Rio: "…." Although there was some truth to her words, when he heard them said out loud it sounded a bit....bad. Anyways.

"Valentina, this is serious." He couldn't help but warn her. He knew about her situation at Black Rock Entertainment which is why he wanted to have her be more careful so nothing would happen to her.

"I'm taking it seriously. I value my life the most I promise. I don't want the demonic pillars to destroy me and my life." She assured him.

"...Okay. Next up, change your social media settings. You're going to need extensive filtering to remain sane. I'll email you some more complex settings, but for now, set your messages so that only people who are able to message you are verified over a certain follower count. Then you need to really utilize your circle and close friends. That way, 90% of the noise will be filtered out. Got? And make sure you don't go reading the comments. Just mind your business and enjoy your life. Ideally, your manager and team would help handle this but since you don't have one, just ignore it! Even if you think you're mentally strong, online abuse can get to you. Got it?"

"Yeah yeah." She agreed while gargling.

"Val are you listening?" she could hear him sigh.

"I'm listening stop nagging."

Knock. Knock. Somebody knocked at her room door.

"One second," she called out.

"Val, did you not hear a word I said!"

"Muting you," she told Rio as she walked over to open the door.

It was Kaiser dressed as if he was headed to work in his typical all-black suit and tie. However, when she checked the time it was quite late for him to be leaving.

"Good Morning Valentina."

"Morning Kaiser. What's up?"

Kaiser looked at the woman in front of him as she casually leaned against the door jamb, her face slightly damp and flushed. She was wearing simple pink pajamas, and her long curly hair was pulled up in a messy bun with a few curls hanging down.

In her hand was her cell phone still on a call. Although her fingers covered the name, from the distant voice he heard earlier, he had a feeling that it was a man.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your call. I didn't know if you have had time to view things online, but I believe it's best for you to not step out at this time. And if you do, I ask that you don't take Luca out and consider taking the driver and security which I'll be leaving around the house."

"Ah no worries, I won't be stepping out at all. I do plan on ordering some things online for delivery though I plan on using a different name just in case," she reassured him.

"Just let Matteo know and he'll handle everything. Please try not to go out."

She found it quite funny that both Rio and Kaiser were so concerned about her safety that they both spoke to her first thing in the morning. She knew the basics of protecting herself okay? Still, she couldn't be ungrateful.

"Thank you for the tips. Have a great day at work."

"Thank you. You as well. Congrats once again on a successful release." Kaiser began to walk away before turning back once more.

"Oh and Valentina?"

"Hmm?"

He gave her a mischievous smirk, "Your phone isn't muted by the way. Have a good day. I'll see you later"

As Valentina walked away, she could hear Rio ask in a calm voice, "Val? Who was that talking to you?"