  We calculate the important next-to-leading-order contributions to the B -> pi
K, pi pi decays from the vertex corrections, the quark loops, and the magnetic
penguins in the perturbative QCD approach. It is found that the latter two
reduce the leading-order penguin amplitudes by about 10%, and modify only the B
-> pi K branching ratios. The main effect of the vertex corrections is to
increase the small color-suppressed tree amplitude by a factor of 3, which then
resolves the large difference between the direct CP asymmetries of the B^0 ->
pi^\mp K^\pm and B^\pm -> pi^0 K^\pm modes. The puzzle from the large B^0 ->
pi^0 pi^0 branching ratio still remains.
