Episode 191. Preparing for the Follow-Up Project (2)
UA had spent quite a lot of money on this comeback. It seemed as though they were trying to pay off Awangsil’s debts, or perhaps they had finally realized that one had to strike while the iron was hot.
That was why Spark had to wear two outfits each, but only for the group dance scenes. In other words, scenes that normally would have been handled with a single outfit had been divided up in meticulous detail so they could properly show off their good looks.
Why am I suddenly bringing this up?
“Everyone, go change your clothes! Make sure you check your name tags!”
“Giyeon, don’t forget to change and get your hair restyled!”
Because I had been handed an utterly ridiculous idol outfit called a cropped jacket.
One that was supposed to be worn over my bare body.
‘A crop top?’
When I first saw the outfit concept art in the conference room, I thought I was going to faint.
There was even a seam down the back of the jacket. A very large one, right down the middle.
They had probably designed the style with the intention of exposing the erector spinae muscles. The problem was that if I wore it, it would turn into a grand showcase of my scars.
Beside me, Jeong Seongbin silently mouthed something.
Should I ask to switch with Choi Jeho? But he was wearing a bare-body harness under his jacket. Either way, wouldn’t I end up humiliating myself?
Would it be better to expose my back and stomach, or my chest?
I thought until my head felt ready to burst, but no answer came.
In the end, I cautiously raised my hand.
‘I have scars on my back. Is it all right if they’re exposed in the music video or on broadcasts?’
‘Scars? If you don’t want to show them, we can cover them up with makeup! We can erase them in the music video.’
‘No, it’s just that…….’
Without thinking, my hand went to my back. If I asked them to erase all of it manually, the person in charge of video editing would probably want to kill me.
They say seeing is believing. I called Jeong Seongbin over and pulled out the shirt I had tucked into my pants.
With his help, I lifted my top in the conference room and made my position very clear: ‘I can’t wear the cropped jacket.’ And then……
‘Should we avoid outfits that show your back from now on?’
‘That isn’t strictly necessary. I don’t really mind! As long as it suits the team’s overall image…….’
‘Then let’s cover it with stickers.’
‘Pardon?’
……We decided to put a bouquet-of-flowers tattoo sticker on my back.
Flowers on the back of a man like me seemed a little indecent, but when they said the fans would absolutely love it, I had no choice but to agree.
Jeong Seongbin had discreetly asked if I was really all right with it, but I didn’t particularly want to hide the scars themselves, so I didn’t care either way.
“Yiwol, we’re going to spray water now! Stay still even if it’s cold!”
Actually, maybe I did care.
It was so embarrassing sitting half-naked on the sofa by myself, clutching a blanket while they stuck the sticker onto my back.
I couldn’t tell whether the stylists were spraying water or my tears. It was also mortifying to think this would be uploaded as behind-the-scenes footage.
It was a styling experience I had never once imagined while living as an office worker.
Back then, I had thought the only part of my body that would ever see sunlight was my forearm. Once again, there was not a single thing in this world one could state with certainty.
“Wow, hyung, isn’t this your most revealing outfit ever?”
Lee Cheonghyeon approached and asked.
He was wearing a mock turtleneck with a harness, so why was I…… No. Let’s not get jealous over something like this.
“It is. And the embarrassment is also at an all-time high.”
I applied the body oil handed to me by the makeup staff and wept endlessly inside.
Whether I was sobbing internally or not, Lee Cheonghyeon gave me a thumbs-up.
“But it’s cool and totally idol-like!”
“Thanks.”
Choi Jeho watched Lee Cheonghyeon and me’s heartwarming exchange from a distance. To the representative of Spark’s exposure department, this must have been a thoroughly unsatisfactory conversation.
Led by exhibitionist Choi Jeho and me, a newcomer to the world of exposure, Spark began filming the second group dance in more daring outfits.
It would have been troublesome if accusations of favoritism arose because I was the only one with flowers on my bare body, so we decided to decorate the others with dried flowers, tattoo stickers, chain accessories, and the like as well.
Thanks to that, my vision kept flashing the entire time I danced under the lights. I thought we were in a jewelry store rather than a studio.
After dancing until our footsteps matched the strong beat, we finally received the approval signal.
At the same time, I bent deeply at the waist. My arms instinctively covered my stomach.
“What’s wrong, hyung? Does your stomach hurt?”
Jeong Seongbin approached me. It wasn’t a serious enough reason to deserve such concern.
“It’s not that…….”
“Then what is it? Is there some other problem?”
Jeong Seongbin kept pressing me. With the grief of a hamster whose hidden sunflower seeds had all been confiscated, I said,
“I want to change clothes already.”
“Why! It looks great on you!”
Lee Cheonghyeon teased me, but when I bent over, my jacket naturally rode up, so he discreetly tugged it back down for me.
* * *
By the time we finished filming all the drama scenes, the date had changed. Several times, in fact.
Most of the members collapsed from exhaustion, leaving only Jeong Seongbin and me standing.
Choi Jeho seemed to have passed out unusually for him after filming all the wire-action scenes, while Jeong Seongbin…… He was probably enduring through sheer force of will out of a sense of responsibility. He would collapse the moment he got in the car.
“Hyung, aren’t you tired……?”
Park Juwoo asked, his head lolling. I slipped a neck pillow around his neck and answered,
“I told you I’d fully recovered. My condition is the best among us now.”
“I guess you really have…….”
Park Juwoo smiled drowsily. Since it was me, I counted it as a smile. If anyone else had seen it, they would have said his expression was still blank.
People really needed to understand that this was what his smiling face looked like.
I smiled back at him as well.
“I don’t lie.”
Kang Giyeon stared fixedly at me. Maybe it was just my imagination, but lately he had occasionally been looking at me like that.
“What? Are you planning to object?”
“……No.”
I had asked jokingly, but Kang Giyeon showed no particular reaction.
Maybe exhaustion had knocked a few screws loose in his head. He and Choi Jeho had filmed every action scene there was.
“If you’re really tired, should I bring you some energy tonic?”
“I’m fine. You should rest too, hyung.”
“I’ll rest when I get tired. I’m still fine.”
“……Really?”
“Of course.”
More importantly, what would it look like if the six youngest people on set were all sprawled out? Not very good, would it? Everyone here had been suffering for days.
Today, at least, I would be the endorphin of this set.
“Spark, we’ll check all the footage one more time and then wrap!”
“Got it!”
At last, it was time for the final, final, final check.
I answered energetically on behalf of the exhausted members. Behind me, I heard them diligently getting to their feet.
* * *
After we returned to the dorm, everyone collapsed one after another.
Even Lee Cheonghyeon, who had been so lively, said, “Hyungs, I love you. See you tomorrow……” and then fell asleep before he had even managed to get his feet onto the bunk bed. That pretty much said it all.
As expected, Jeong Seongbin passed out the moment he got in the car. He didn’t open his eyes even when the manager carried him upstairs.
For the first time since I had started nagging him, Park Juwoo fell asleep without drying his hair. The light sleeper didn’t even wake up when I brought over the hair dryer and blew warm air on him.
Only after Kang Giyeon had fallen asleep, and even Choi Jeho had turned his back toward me and gone to sleep, did I finally have room to breathe.
I had been waiting for this moment. There was something I wanted to check.
‘Where did I read the explanation about accumulated fatigue again?’
I intended to properly read the information about the side effects that I had skimmed over in the past. No matter how distracted I had been by the strange phenomena I was experiencing, it was still true that I had read the explanation carelessly.
Soon, the system displayed the familiar explanation.
+
[SYSTEM] ‘Additional Work Support Service’ is being notified to ‘Party B.’
.
.
.
▷ Physical side effects may occur for various reasons, such as when the period of service use becomes prolonged, when fatigue accumulates excessively, or when temporarily deducted fatigue exceeds a certain level.
+
“Physical side effects may occur for various reasons.”
Wasn’t that an incredibly vague way of putting it?
But after reading it more closely, I realized this had nothing to do with my dark circles. I had already had dark circles immediately after regressing.
The unusual part was elsewhere. The words ‘physical side effects’ were sparkling brightly.
As if possessed, I pressed the words, and a new entry appeared.
+
[SYSTEM] ‘Physical Side Effects’ are being notified to ‘Party B.’
▷ Physical side effects is a term that includes the physical manifestation of damage, ‘Party A’ unilaterally synchronizing ‘Party B’s’ previous body with his current body, and so forth. (Current synchronization rate: 33%)
▷ Physical side effects may occur when ‘Party B’ commits an act that infringes upon ‘Party A’s’ authority, when ‘Party B’ violates confidentiality requirements, and so on.
▷ When ‘Party B’ uses the Additional Work Support Service, physical side effects may manifest in various forms.
+
‘You’re telling me there’s more than one way to shorten my lifeline?’
Simply put, there was an overarching category called physical side effects, and one of its subcategories was the side effects that occurred when I used the Additional Work Support Service for too long.
I had been using that Additional Work Support Service by turning it off and on repeatedly. That was probably why, when my fatigue accumulated, things had only gone as far as a few nosebleeds…….
I had no idea what it meant to synchronize my previous body with my current one.
Wasn’t the situation already similar enough? At worst, I was just a little less physically fit than I had been in my early twenties.
‘The synchronization has already progressed, too.’
There was no further explanation about the synchronization. And then, if something else happened, they’d belatedly say, ‘Assistant Manager Kim, you should’ve listened to me from the beginning,’ and give me grief, wouldn’t they? I knew it all too well, you damn bastard.
Or perhaps my dark circles were also the result of the synchronization. Then I would have to determine whether the 33% translated directly into dark circles, or whether dark circles were merely included within that 33%…….
My head throbbed. Who would have thought I’d be taking the painkillers I used to pretend were vitamins at Hanpyeong Industries this often here as well?
I opened my résumé again and checked my accumulated fatigue. Perhaps because of the music video shoot, the number had risen slightly above normal, and it stood out to me.
If I took things easy, I had no idea when or how something might happen to my sister. If I didn’t rest, I had no idea how the system would work me.
At times like this, I wondered whether things would be different if only I were a little wiser.
There had to be a better way than this. There had to be someone more rational than me who could overcome the problem.
Similar thoughts kept circling through my head.
Still, I wasn’t as depressed as I had been when looking at the memory data. Perhaps this was what it meant for the negative emotion recognition rate to be lowered to its minimum. It was quite convenient.
I swallowed a sigh.
What could I do about the fact that I had already traveled back in time?
I had to do my best. I shouldn’t complain. I had to work harder.
I steeled my resolve. So many things I needed to do filled my mind that I couldn’t fall asleep.
* * *
Baek Haewon spent the night wide awake.
The concept photos that had been released one after another over the past few days had left Baek Haewon like this.
And Baek Haewon wasn’t the only one in an uproar. Spark’s name had appeared on every community imaginable.
≫ Just saw the youngest’s turquoise hair and briefly visited heaven
Yiwol was absolutely right that the nation can only survive if handsome men dye their hair
└ Seriously weird. Giyeon is ten years younger than me, but I want to call him Director
└ Beep boop. You are normal
≫ Male idol who bleached his hair white and appeared today
Subject: Spark’s Juwoo
He was famous among fans for frequently having light-colored hair,
but this time he came out with genuine, genuine, genuine white hair
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White hair + white shirt + white gloves, the all-white styling is insane
His eyes are light-colored too, so he seems even more atmospheric
└ Wow, isn’t his hair damaged? He’s got blessed follicles
└ Blessed folliclesssssㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ What’s the transparent thing he’s holding in his mouth??
└ Probably a syringe cap?
≫ The dilemma of the century has arrived
Black Cheonghyeon vs. Gold Cheonghyeon
└ I, Kim Firecracker, hereby withdraw my support for Gold Cheonghyeon as of today. Gold Cheonghyeon and I are not one body from this day forward, but if you attack Gold Cheonghyeon, I’ll consider it an attack on me
└ I’m no longer afraid of live-action romance-fantasy adaptations
└ Wow, the highest praise
≫ Emperor Jeho’s reputation remains unmatched
I’ve been looking at this once every hour
I can’t go about my daily life; he keeps floating before my eyes like the last plate someone gave up on at a buffet
Looking at the leather glove he’s biting, I keep spreading the wings of my imagination and wondering, “Who did he bury today?”
└ As expected of him……
└ “Who did he bury today?”ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Those thick eyebrows are truly so “manly.”
└ His shoulders don’t even fit entirely in the concept photo, but it’s seriously insane that you can infer they’re Pacific-wide just from the angle of his shoulder line
└ As expected of the man who wears a size 115 top
And above all…….
≫ Hey, Yiwol, what on earth is the role you’re playing?
……The moment Baek Haewon saw Kim Yiwol’s concept, he forgot every single thing his homeroom teacher had begged him to memorize, saying it would be on the test.
Assistant Manager Kim hates idols.