Bruno Mars—in 2020, Chinese fans affectionately dubbed him "Brother Mars." He was undeniably one of the absolute top dogs in American pop music, with eleven Grammy Awards to his name and global album sales surpassing twenty million.
His 2014 collab single "Uptown Funk" dominated the Billboard charts, holding the number-one spot for fourteen straight weeks. It even clinched the title of Billboard's song of the decade for the 2010s, cementing an unbelievable legacy.
Of course, looking at it objectively, in 2012—the present moment—Bruno was still just an up-and-coming talent. He'd started gaining widespread attention and had decent popularity, but his status, accolades, and prestige were far from their peak. His market pull wasn't top-tier yet either. A more accurate description would be a rookie on a steep upward climb, steadily working toward his second album.
You could tell from his tour venues and city choices. In 2013, after dropping his second album, his tour hit major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and London—top-tier metropolises.
But right now, Bruno was picking second-tier spots, like New Jersey near New York. Even when he played big cities like LA or Berlin, the venues were smaller, under 10,000 seats. Compare that to his later tours for the second album, where he regularly filled mid-sized arenas with 15,000 to 20,000 fans.
Take New York's famous Madison Square Garden—a 20,000-seat venue. It's not a stage every artist dares to tackle.
But still!
Even as a fast-rising newbie, Bruno Mars was leagues beyond what King for a Day could dream of touching right now.
From that angle, it kinda made sense for Bruno to invite King for a Day as an opening act. Their position, popularity, and recognition lined up well enough. But the bigger question was: how did Bruno even hear about King for a Day? Across North America, there were thousands—if not tens of thousands—of struggling indie bands and newbie singers toiling in obscurity. Why, out of all of them, did Bruno zero in on King for a Day?
Plus, with so many bands clamoring to open for Bruno's tour, why would he personally pick some no-name group?
And get this—just three months ago, Scooter Braun had trashed King for a Day, saying they had no future, no hope, and giving up was their only option. Now, suddenly, Bruno's got an eagle eye for talent and spots them? That's a 180-degree turnaround so wild it's hard not to wonder if the whiplash might snap an ankle.
If that's not absurd, what is?
It's straight-up a fairy tale!
No wonder Alice was so shocked and stunned. Even Ronan couldn't believe a pie this big would just fall from the sky. The words "scam email" nearly slipped out of his mouth.
But here's the kicker: it was so ridiculous, so obviously fishy at a glance, that it made you wonder—could the person on the other end of the computer really be a scammer?
And there they sat, like fools, agonizing over it in front of the screen.
Ronan could feel the disbelief and surprise coursing through him. But more than that, it was about Bruno. After Imagine Dragons and Scooter Braun, yet another name from the music in his ears had stepped into reality. He couldn't help matching those names to the songs in his memory, rekindling the joy and thrill of listening.
Once he calmed down a bit, Ronan caught Alice's gaze again. He thought it over seriously. "How about this? We send them a phone number and see if they call us directly. Whatever's going on, a phone call usually reveals more truth than beating around the bush."
Basically, a direct showdown.
Not face-to-face, sure, but compared to some shadowy figure hiding behind a screen, a phone call was a huge step forward. It could peel back more masks and get them closer to the real deal.
"…" Alice's voice hitched for a second. She hadn't expected Ronan to skip judging true or false and jump straight to digging deeper like this. It wasn't the perfect fix, but it could uncover more clues. "But why don't we just call them ourselves?"
"If we call them, they've got the upper hand. It could be a pre-set trap. But if we wait for them to call us, we're in control," Ronan explained, though he sounded a little unsure himself, hesitating as he spoke. He'd never dealt with anything like this before.
In the end, he gave a small nod to affirm his idea, settling on it with that gesture.
Alice mulled it over but couldn't come up with a better plan. She switched gears. "What if they take the number and use it for something else?"
"If they're skilled enough to pull off a scam with just a phone number, they're way too advanced to bother with small fry like us. Wouldn't it be more worth their while to scam Bruno Mars directly?" Ronan said matter-of-factly. Scams relying solely on a phone number were pretty limited—even in 2020's hyper-connected world, it wasn't that simple, let alone in 2012.
Identity theft scams were always a risk, though.
To Ronan, the possibilities were endless. Sitting there overthinking it all night wouldn't get them anywhere. The best options were either to ignore the email completely, pretending it never came, or to take a swing and satisfy their curiosity.
Hesitating and racking their brains wouldn't change a thing, let alone solve it.
Alice couldn't argue with that. But after thinking it over carefully, she said cautiously, "How about we give them the motel room's landline instead?"
If she didn't scratch this itch, Alice knew she'd be restless for days. She wanted to figure out what the email was really about.
"Might as well give them a payphone number then. That way, they wouldn't even know which room we're in—total stealth mode," Ronan quipped half-jokingly. He didn't expect Alice's eyes to light up like that. He flinched back awkwardly. "…Seriously?"
Alice shot back, dead serious, "Why not?"
"We can't just camp out by the downstairs payphone all night, can we? If it's real, they're probably too busy to sit by their computer waiting for our reply or call us right away. And if we wait till tomorrow, we might miss it," Ronan said, half-laughing, half-exasperated, pointing out the flaw.
This wouldn't work, that wouldn't work—so what should they do?