| Episode 155. Job Analysis of Another Department (1)
Every Sparkler knew that Spark was a somehow strange idol group.
At first glance, all six of them were men whose physiques went beyond decent and straight into jaw-dropping.
But if you looked just a little closer, every one of them had… well… something unusual about him.
Just take Choi Jeho, the center who could be called Spark’s face.
『I left a mark on the dining table. What do I do about this?』
『Didn’t you have a table mat? You’re supposed to put it underneath.』
『I did. It went through the mat too.』
Because he possessed the ability to destroy contact paper, table mats, and dining tables all in one blow, Choi Jeho was treated like a farmhand every time.
Maybe it was because whenever there was firewood to chop, he was used to doing all the ax work alone while his fellow members shouted, “Choi Jeho, the time has finally come for you to work!”
The cold, tallest center with a steel-like impression had been reduced to things like a drink-cap opener, a firewood machine, and a human compressor.
Beside that Choi Jeho, there was another member quietly growing into Farmhand No. 2.
『Kang-gyeon, your skills have improved a lot, huh?』
『Maybe it’s because there are a lot of things I want to slice.』
『That isn’t me, by any chance, is it?』
Kang Giyeon had better balance than Choi Jeho, who had dumped all his stat points into Strength.
However, thanks to being armed with an even more coolheaded mind than Choi Jeho, the way he treated the members was becoming rougher by the day.
『Aw, look how fresh and innocent our Seongbin-hyung is!』
『Huh……?』
『He’s so cute I could die. I should paste his photo on huge, like a front door.』
The way Lee Cheonghyeon treated his same-age friend Kang Giyeon as an older brother wasn’t exactly normal either.
Compared to Kang Giyeon, there was more affection in it, but Lee Cheonghyeon’s method of expressing affection was—to borrow the fandom’s words—a little twisted. Meaning, it was unusual.
Even now, Lee Cheonghyeon was folding his fiftieth heart out of colored paper, saying he was going to attach them to the slogan. He also added that gold-colored paper wasn’t a waste if it was for his hyung.
Once all those hearts were pasted on, Jeong Seongbin’s photo would end up looking like a frilled-neck lizard.
『Juu, what are you going to write?』
『……Should I write that I’ll support him to death?』
『Mm…… Let’s soften the wording just a little.』
There was also Park Juu, who made outrageous statements with a gentle expression and a peaceful voice.
He had a generous personality in all things, but Park Juu would show incredible obsession in strange places.
Just by looking at his all-white bedding or his sneakers clean even down to the soles, you could sense a certain conviction of Park Juu’s.
『No. What I wanted wasn’t a slogan as measly as this!』
『Then what kind of slogan did you want?』
『A classic slogan that asserts its presence even when it’s caught in a group shot on camera.』
『Things like that exist?』
‘But the strangest one is still Iwol.’
Seeing him energetically making a placard, it seemed like he had recovered, which was a relief, but Kim Iwol still looked tormented. All because the slogan hadn’t come out to his liking.
Except for dance, Spark’s official “seasoned assistant instructor,” Kim Iwol, who was reliable no matter what he was asked to do, tended to be fanatically obsessed with idol-like things.
After much anguish, Kim Iwol eventually began the major construction project of changing the three syllables of Jeong Seongbin’s name from fluorescent pink to fluorescent yellow-green. It was a scene one couldn’t watch without tears.
A bunch of rough young men making cheering tools together was an endless series of hardships.
Choi Jeho cut out the vowels backward and turned Jeong Seongbin into “Jang Sangbin,” while Park Juu’s placard was filled with some sort of… ominous energy and ended up being discarded.
Spark’s trial and error was transmitted vividly to the viewers as well.
≫ Choi Jeho is confirmed a Strength character
└ A man like you, destroying everything with an innocent expression…… You’re the best, so thrilling
└ The idol scene’s first farmhand type who doesn’t look like he’d be won over with plain rice alone
≫ Our baby Giyeon, what do you want to slice so badly?
Just say the word, noona will bring it to you
└ Giyeon, don’t step up, noonas will slice everything for you
└ We won’t let a single drop of blood get on our Giyeon’s hands
└ So romantic
≫ Cheonghyeon’s madness is worse than Sparklers’
└ It’s not easy to show off member love harder than Lee Cheonghyeon
≫ Juu is kind of that
The honor-student type obsessed man
└ What kind of “Cheonghyeon’s beauty has withered” nonsense is that?
└ Even if your character interpretation doesn’t match mine, isn’t that comparison something you shouldn’t make? I’ll sue and fight you in court forever
└ I’m sorry but your character interpretation really doesn’t match mine, I’ll be watching to see how far you go
└ = means they’re going to keep each other on the TL until they die
└ I brought popcorn thinking they were fighting, but it turned out to be a wedding
It was true that since Awangsil, real-time mentions had increased greatly. Baek Haewon’s heart was filled with happiness.
Even after they sent off one placard that seemed less like love had been put into it and more like the love had been aged, the handmade vlog continued.
Spark, being pro idols, did not forget to fill the silence with comments even while focusing on their work.
Kim Iwol spoke with a serious expression.
『If you took out a loan with Seongbin’s voice as collateral, you could buy a Han River-view apartment.』
『If it’s around the Han River, wouldn’t LTV regulations apply, so you wouldn’t get much of a loan?』
『Not a mortgage loan. If it’s a Jeong Seongbin collateral loan, it’s possible.』
『True.』
Lee Cheonghyeon nodded in agreement.
“What’s LTV?”
At the appearance of a term she had never heard in her life, Baek Haewon headed to SNS, the sea of information.
≫ “True.” < They’re really like this……
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ But if you take out a loan with our Jeong Leader’s voice? LTV 90% totally possible
≫ At first I thought only Kim Iwol was insane, but Lee Cheonghyeon is insane too
If you look closely, the one agreeing with everything hyung says is always Lee Cheonghyeonㅋㅋㅋ
└ The two of them kind of seem to be on the same wavelengthㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ If something weird comes out and they start bantering, it’s those two
└ Jujeongz
└ That’s so meanㅋㅋㅋㅋ큐ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└ Hey, our kids are sober, okayㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
There, the coldhearted working adults were laughing among themselves.
And here they’d been saying they were all five-year-olds and that ten was too heavy so they left it at home. Baek Haewon felt a deep sense of betrayal.
After wandering around the green search portal, she did learn that LTV had to do with mortgage loans, but Baek Haewon still had to feel as though she hadn’t fully understood what her kids were talking about.
All she could arrive at was the useless conclusion that “to laugh together with Spark, you have to study real estate.”
That said, the video wasn’t filled with nothing but nonsense.
Even amid a battle of craftsmanship so intense that viewers wanted to tell them to compromise with reality, there were moments that made one’s heart ache.
『Iwol-hyung, is there anything else to cut out?』
Kang Giyeon, who had been concentrating on cutting far away from the camera, came into the living room and asked.
When Kim Iwol said there wasn’t anything in particular, Kang Giyeon picked up a bundle of contact paper and returned to the kitchen table.
『Why are you guys doing that over there? Come here and make it.』
『We’re coming now.』
Kang Giyeon, who had his back to the living room, answered lazily.
Soon after, Kang Giyeon was caught in a tiny corner of the screen, hiding the utility knives he and Choi Jeho had been using behind the trash before going into the room.
One camera followed Kang Giyeon inside.
Kang Giyeon opened a small storage cabinet in the corner of the room.
Beneath Kang Giyeon’s sleeve, neatly organized tools could be seen.
Blades, screwdrivers, small pliers, and the like.
‘Damn it, why is Kang Giyeon so admirable…….’
Kim Iwol, the person actually involved, didn’t seem to know why Kang Giyeon and Choi Jeho had deliberately stood in the kitchen and only brought over the materials after cutting them. That made it even more touching.
Only after they had turned the living room into a complete mess did Spark’s slogan-making story come to an end.
『We believe our Seongbin will do well. Go show them the grit of a leader!』
『You’ll get good results as much as you prepared. Fighting.』
『I’m proud that my friend is standing on such an amazing stage. Congratulations, and I’ll cheer hard for you……!』
『Don’t do too well where I’m not around. I’ll get jealous. You know I love you, right? Our hyung is the best! Do well and come back!』
『Don’t be nervous, and do well. Leader, fighting!』
The members’ warm-hearted cheers played in the cookie video.
For the first time in a very long while, Baek Haewon had a moment to return to the world of pseudo-family, the homeland of her heart.
* * *
Even during the off-season, idols do not rest.
Whether performing at regional events or appearing on a few MeTube channels and variety shows, schedules continued to be arranged in their own way. Aside from that, they spent time practicing on their own.
Originally, around this time, I had planned to push hard and plan a digital single too, but……
‘This time, the company will really give you full support! Don’t worry!’
……UA said they would handle all the preliminary work, so there was nothing left for me to do. These days, I’ve only been attending interim meetings.
Of course, just because one task disappeared didn’t mean there was no work at all. There were piles of delayed English worksheets, data backups, and PT sessions I hadn’t received yet.
As I was organizing my completely tangled schedule, one memo caught my eye.
Acting class rescheduling needed
‘Right, there was this too.’
In modern society, idols had to be able to do everything. That “everything” included acting.
UA spared no support when it came to education. Acting lessons for better expressiveness were included. Because of this, who knew how much I’d suffered between Choi Jeho, a genius of emotional expression, and Lee Cheonghyeon, whose learning ability surpassed a sponge?
‘But wasn’t there no one in Spark who actually worked as an actor?’
An idol’s acting career was always a hot potato. Among the few issues Spark, who had dragged every issue there was around with them, had never gone through was a “new challenge as an actor.”
If we weren’t going to act in earnest, I wondered if it would be fine to cancel these lessons. It felt like we were spending additional money and time on something we could learn sufficiently from our dance teacher.
However, this acting class tripped me up in a completely unexpected way.
“A drama audition?”
To me, whose only acting skill was “imitating Department Head Nam when he’s dead drunk,” the CEO and our manager dropped a shocking declaration.
To summarize what the two of them said, it was roughly as follows.
1. While a certain drama was about to begin production, casting had run into difficulties because it was the work of a rookie writer.
2. As the volume of the main and supporting roles shrank and casting kept getting delayed, the possibility of scheduling the drama decreased, so the production company hurriedly threw itself into casting.
3. Idol casting came up as an option, since it could cover the low recognition of the leads and secure even a small number of loyal viewers.
4. Due to budget issues, the production company hoped for idols with low pay, but the role had very little screen time and the appearance fee was also modest, so even that was not easy to find.
5. In the middle of all that, an audition offer came to me, and the company asked how I’d feel about auditioning. The end.
I had organized it, but to be honest, I couldn’t accept it. My head kept denying reality.
“It’s only a proposal, so you don’t have to accept it. Your condition is the most important thing, Iwol.”
Just as I was about to back out with, “In that case, I’ll……” something sparkled before my eyes.
No way.
No way!
At this point in time!
+
[SYSTEM] A “new task” has been assigned.
▷ Participate in the audition for the drama In My Office
▷ Reward: Memory Data (1)
+
Fuck!
“What do you think? Should I give you time to think it over?”
“I’ll do it.”
Because the system told me to. My condition has now become completely irrelevant.
The reward was even a memory. I didn’t know what kind of structure data had, but for me, whose head had more holes than basalt, it was a necessary reward.
If all I had to do was go to the audition, it would be fine. Given the system’s personality, if it intended to give me more tasks related to the drama, it would have set the new task as “pass the audition” from the start.
“You’re giving me an opportunity, so of course I’m grateful. I’ll work hard!”
“You can work a little less hard. Then I’ll tell them you’ll audition, okay?”
Autumn, the exciting season.
The thrilling preparation for a working adult’s job-change interview had begun.