At Heathrow airport, as the three young women clustered around JD, smiling, the boy who was with them now was behind them with a pissed face on. He wasn't enjoying this. He had their attention, and all of a sudden, upon setting their sights on JD, it shifted completely, although he knew JD cause he saw a video he made with Luna, but that didn't make him ease up. He felt a bit intimidated by him cause even if he wanted to deny it, JD was handsome and he could sing, so yes, he felt jealous and a bit left out.
That was when a tall man in a cap brushed past him, leaning close enough for only the boy to hear. "Make him sing," the man muttered, slipping a folded note of at least five hundred dollars into his palm. "Push the girls. Tell them to get him to perform. There's more where that came from if you can do that."
The boy's eyes widened. He turned to look back, but the man had vanished. He stared at the money again to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Easy cash. He didn't care much for JD anyway, and this required little effort. He tugged at one of the girls' sleeves and whispered just loud enough: "Isn't that JD? The JD then one that sang with Luna? If you're really fans, you should ask him to sing for you. I mean, come on, this is once in a lifetime. You might not get to be this close to him again."
The suggestion made the girls' eyes widen. 'Why didn't I think about that?' Soon, the girls turned to JD with wide, eager eyes. "Can you sing something for us?" she asked, her friends chiming in with teasing encouragement.
JD chuckled, scratching his neck. His flight wasn't boarding yet, and he was someone who wouldn't pass up any chance to perform, regardless of the crowd. Having been bound in his past life, he cherished his fans here and would happily sing. "Aight, no problem," he said, taking the guitar from one of them. "I'll sing you something special. I'm sure you already know this one, it's for all the beautiful ladies out there."
All three of them had already brought out their phone to record the moment.
He strummed the guitar, soft chords rippling out into the terminal. Then his voice flowed, warm and calm.
"Shine, girl, you don't even try,
Like sunlight breaking through the sky.
Every step, the world turns slowly,
With every smile, the room will glow.
Beautiful lady, don't you see?
You're the song the world wants to sing
Not the crown, not the fame, not the gold,
But the story in your heart that's never told."
The girls froze in awe. People nearby began stopping what they were doing and coming closer, phones rising to record. JD's voice carried with effortless grace, a mix of power and intimacy, like he was singing directly to them and yet to everyone at once.
He swayed slightly with the melody as he stood up, approaching the crowd that had formed around him with the guitar ringing bright under his fingers.
"Beautiful lady, you light the dark,
Every beat is just your mark.
Hold your head, let the world all see,
You're the art, you're the melody."
By now, a small circle had formed around them, comprising travelers, staff, and even guards. Applause rose between verses, gasps of surprise and admiration mixing within it, as if the whole airport had stopped to listen to JD sing.
As JD reached the last note, a clean, resonant chord, silence fell for a second, then the place erupted. Screams, cheers, claps, phones flashing. The girls squealed with joy, jumping on their toes. One whispered breathlessly, "That was… unreal."
"OMG, that sounded better than the original."
"Yeah, I swear, thank you so much, JD," another of the girls said
"Oh, it's nothing, you all are too beautiful for me to say no to."
This earned him another laugh from the lady and the crowd.
JD then handed the guitar back with a smile. For a moment, it felt like pure magic.
Then it happened, a sensation he had not felt in a long while, 'Danger', and his instinct kicked in.
From the edge of the crowd, two men surged forward. One swung a box cutter, its blade flashing, aiming straight at JD's face, coming in fast.
Instinct kicked in. JD moved fast, pulling the curly-haired girl behind as she was about to be hit by the box cutter, which was meant for him. The blade sliced across his forearm. Pain shot through him, hot and sharp, but he held firm. Gasps rippled through the crowd as blood spotted his sleeve.
The crowd screamed and panicked. Phones shook as people captured the chaos, while some ran to call security.
The second man charged with a wild swing of a heavy belt buckle, the metal end whistling through the air. JD ducked, the buckle cracking against the bench where he'd been sitting a second earlier.
JD's eyes sharpened. With one swift motion, he trapped the first attacker's wrist, twisting until the box cutter clattered onto the floor. And gave him a knee to the gut, the man folded over, sending him stumbling back.
But the second attacker was already on him again. JD spun, his elbow crashing into the man's jaw. The attacker reeled, but swung again in desperation. JD blocked with his injured arm, gritting through the pain, then swept the man's legs. The attacker crashed onto the floor, then, before he could rise again, JD sat on him with a final blow to knock him out.
All of this happened in less than half a minute.
Then the girls huddled close, trembling. One whispered, "JD—your arm—"
He gave her a quick smile, even as blood streaked his sleeve. "Better me than you."
Security swarmed in at last, shouting commands, tackling the attackers to the ground. The terminal was still in chaos, but the cameras didn't stop rolling. Every angle of JD shielding the girls, bleeding but standing tall, was already in dozens of live streams.
An officer guided JD toward a secure passage. "You're lucky," the man muttered, half in awe. "Or maybe just trained. Either way, you just turned an airport into a movie scene, and sorry for not being there on time."
JD gave a tired grin, flexing his hand despite the sting. "Guess old habits die hard, and there was nothing you could do at the time, as you all were working, so no problem."
The man was taken aback a bit because he knew Dayo was a celebrity, and to him, most of them normally would already be screaming about suing the airport and all. "You're so much nicer than the media paints you to be, anyway, my daughter is a huge fan. Can you sign an autograph after we are done?"
Dayo smiled, " Oh really, I would like to hear what the media thinks about me, and no problem, I would sign that for your daughter, do tell her to keep supporting me."
The man smiled as he escorted Dayo to go for treatment.
Behind him, the terminal buzzed with a mix of fear and awe. He had shielded a girl and taken down two attackers in minutes, moving with the calm precision of someone who had clearly done this before. In that instant, the way people saw him changed—not just JD the rookie the media mocked as arrogant, but a heroic figure.
And every second of it was captured by countless cameras.