| Episode 6. The Boomer System (5)
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[SYSTEM] ‘Task’ has been completed.
▷ Reward: EXP(20) granted
▷ Accumulated EXP: 60
▷ Accumulated Points: 0
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Up to here, things were fine. I was gradually getting used to the painfully scarce points.
What pissed me off was the message that popped up next.
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[SYSTEM] A work order from ‘Manager’ has arrived.
▶ The newbies these days don’t know how to do a single thing. Back in my day, even if my senior didn’t teach me, I tried to learn somehow by watching over their shoulder. Work has gotten pretty easy, huh? Assistant Manager Kim, you should step it up too. Be grateful there’s someone giving you advice like this.
▷ Consolation: EXP(40) granted
▷ Accumulated EXP: 100
▷ Accumulated Points: 1
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Consolation payment, my ass.
Anyone could tell it was telling me to pull myself together after being publicly humiliated.
This bastard was definitely enjoying this situation.
Still, I was the one at a loss. I had no choice but to scrape together every last bit of humiliation consolation and invest the single welfare point I’d earned into Dance Proficiency.
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Performance Evaluation (100)
— Vocal Proficiency: 4/20
— Dance Proficiency: 2(▲)/20
— Self PR: 12/20
— Attendance Management: 18/20
— Organizational Adaptability: 10/20
Accumulated EXP: 0
Accumulated Points: 0
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The effect of the 1-point increase in proficiency showed immediately in the subsequent individual practice.
Even when following along to a video, I could now turn in the right direction.
I, who used to flail around even while watching mirror mode!
‘You can’t even remember the hand you eat with?’
‘What kind of sense is it where you copy exactly when I show you the normal video, but do the opposite when I show you mirror mode?’
It was the moment Choi Jeho’s relentless persecution medley finally ended. I was moved to tears.
While I was happily watching the video the trainer had filmed for me before leaving, feeling the joy of growth, Park Juwoo approached me.
“……Does it make a bit more sense now?”
Park Juwoo asked in his characteristic relaxed tone. Then he crouched down next to me.
“I swear I’m not saying this to be funny, but not at all.”
If you asked whether I understood it in my head, that was a solid okay. I could roughly see how each move connected after watching a few times.
But whether that translated to my body was a different story.
Just because you see something doesn’t mean you can copy it.
If I could do something just by watching, I would’ve done something other than foot mats at Hanpyeong Industrial.
While I was bitterly reflecting on my career path, Park Juwoo spoke.
“If there’s a part you’re struggling with…… I’ll teach you from there.”
The rookie in me was slightly moved by the guy’s Silk Road-like character in how he treated a clumsy trainee who had suddenly barged in.
But I wasn’t an immature adult shameless enough to steal the precious time of a growing dream sapling.
Even if we were mortal enemies, there was a line of propriety to keep.
Park Juwoo wasn’t someone who should be managing passing acquaintances like Kim Iwol, but a talent who should be devoted to practice, honing his flame high notes.
So I politely refused Park Juwoo’s offer, where every minute and second was precious.
It’s not like Park Juwoo would want to teach a beginner filled with nothing but hostility in his heart, right?
“Nah, I only inconvenienced you yesterday, too.”
“……Then just once section.”
With that, Park Juwoo fiddled with his spare phone and played the video.
“Here, move your left foot, one, two…… Yes, like that.”
“Really? Is this how you do it?”
“The move is…… correct.”
In the silence that followed ‘The move is,’ his complicated feelings were fully felt.
No matter how much I tried to stay positive, Park Juwoo’s words sounded like nothing other than ‘you have a hellishly long way to go.’
To a guy who sings well and dances well, someone who can’t sing and dances even worse must have a future that looks pitch black.
But this was really tremendous progress. Because until yesterday, just moving my feet twice took over thirty minutes.
Even when Choi Jeho and Gang Giyeon held me from both sides and moved me. Thanks to that, I got the full puppet experience.
‘Can a person really improve this much from just 1 point of proficiency?’
For all my complaints, the system really was a cheat key for life.
I reflected on how I’d been whining that my life was the hardest thing ever just a few hours ago.
As I completed one step while swaying my body like a newborn giraffe, Park Juwoo asked.
“Isn’t it hard?”
“Just looking at your face, you look more tired than me.”
“Hyung, really…… you have great stamina.”
Despite looking completely drained, Park Juwoo smiled awkwardly.
Maybe because he was still young, he reminded me of a happy puppy you’d find at a country house.
But I couldn’t forgive him for his five lines on a fifty-minute radio show with just one 1:1 training session and a single smile.
If time and opportunity permitted, I would surely take revenge on him with thirty hours of smile practice.
Still, today’s practice ended fairly smoothly. Because I’d drastically lowered expectations and showed noticeably improved form.
Just like yesterday, I practiced two more hours and finished the long day.
Overtime compensation didn’t pop up again, but it couldn’t be helped.
Being able to move just two feet wasn’t going to be enough for a debut.
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The only time I could deeply think about the system was at dawn.
During the day, I was busy rolling left and right, so I had to hold onto my sanity for dear life.
At night, I had to stay behind alone, watch the practice room, and sway along to the dance music playing from my spare phone.
“Hoo.”
So I collapsed onto my assigned bed right after washing up. I needed time to sort out my cluttered head.
‘The system said I was set as the producing member.’
Then it was highly likely this point had been considered even at the street casting that led me to become an idol.
In fact, Spark had never had a member in charge of producing in the past.
It was a problem that UA also had no experience producing idols, if that was a problem.
I still remembered the post that went up the day UA had absurdly surprise-dropped a comeback promo live.
≫ UA has zero fucking sense, right? When all the other boy groups do solo lives, Spark is five years post-debut and still can’t go live without staff? If you’re gonna be like this, just announce a monthly live schedule. Stop pissing people off by slapping on [Surprise] and turning on broadcasts without notice.
If the company had just posted a few pictures of Spark eating, they would’ve only gotten cursed out to the tune of ‘UA has no loyalty, just no work sense.’ It was truly a company that was incompetent beyond belief.
I didn’t know what they saw in me to give me this position, but to debut safely, I felt I needed to aim in the producing direction the system had assigned.
I wracked my brain, unable to even remember the last time I’d used it. Turning the dusty brain of a salaryman required great effort.
The one fortunate thing was that Lee Cheonghyeon would later take charge of composing for the team.
Though there was no way I could do it, the fact that I wouldn’t have to come up with ideas, write songs, write lyrics, and set the concept all by myself was a great comfort.
Of course, I couldn’t guarantee that anything I wrote would be listenable.
They say even if the sky falls, there’s a hole to rise through, and that saying fit perfectly.
While recalling Spark’s dizzying concepts passing through my mind, the system appeared again.
Still, I didn’t rage when the system popped up now. I think it was because I had started viewing the system as a welfare points alarm.
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[SYSTEM] A work order from ‘Manager’ has arrived.
▶ I don’t care what Assistant Manager Kim did before. Kids who did some half-baked internship somewhere always come back with bad habits. Throw away what you did before and start fresh. Refresh yourself. Got it?
[SYSTEM] A ‘New Task’ has been assigned.
▷ Verify current personal information
▷ Consolation: EXP(60) granted
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Nope. I’m fucking furious.
It takes real talent to say shit like that. Fury welled up inside me.
But more than anything, the ominous part was the whopping 60 EXP.
And it was specifically classified as ‘consolation.’
Thinking that something worse than the public humiliation in dance class was about to happen, my vision went dark.
At this rate, by next month I might end up shouting ‘I love you, guys!’ from the UA rooftop.
Unless they exempted me from seven-day overtime for four weeks straight, there was no way I’d be shouting love for Spark.
‘What am I supposed to check in my personal information?’
On the back of the resident registration card I’d checked yesterday, there was an address sticker for Spark’s current dorm. It meant the change of address report had been completed.
My resident registration number was the same, and my name had been properly changed, too.
‘Name, resident registration number, address, education, military service, career history……’
As I went through the basic personal information one by one, my thoughts stopped at one point.
It was education.
‘What day is it…… now?’
February, nine years ago—that is, the second week of February in the year I had just turned twenty.
That week was when I got street-casted on the way to meet my sister at our promised spot.
It was the week I borrowed 15 million won from my sister.
It was the week I completed my early admission registration for university.
‘No way.’
My mind went blank.
The phone I opened with trembling hands showed February 13.
Unfortunately, if my memory was right, this date was two days past the early admission registration deadline.
Calling upon every god I knew, I borrowed a laptop from Lee Cheonghyeon.
And accessed the early admission registration confirmation screen.
After a few clicks, the same acceptance confirmation page I’d seen nine years ago appeared.
My exam number on the screen had been switched to registration forfeited.
No matter how many times I refreshed and repeated logging in and out, the situation didn’t change. The academic background that had at least gotten me into Hanpyeong Industrial was gone.
Additionally, I learned something I’d rather not have known.
The 15 million won I’d borrowed from my sister was still sitting in the account under my name.
‘My three years of high school have become a blank slate.’
My head went numb.
There was a penalty for failing to debut as an idol: re-employment at Hanpyeong Industrial.
When I first saw that, I thought it was the worst possible ending to my life.
But they say there’s a basement beneath the ocean.
At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to go back to Hanpyeong Industrial even if I wanted to. I wasn’t that exceptional of a talent.
If a talentless nobody like me didn’t even have a small, cute degree, what company would hire me?
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[SYSTEM] ‘Task’ has been completed.
▷ Consolation: EXP(60) granted
▷ Accumulated EXP: 60
▷ Accumulated Points: 0
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Tears welled up, and I raised my head.
It was a despair so deep that a paltry 60 EXP couldn’t console.