| Episode 72. Anniversary of My First Day at Work (3)
The stage version of Spark’s debut song, “Flowering,” began with the sound of a heavy iron door opening.
As I turned my body to the beat, I saw the back of Lee Cheonghyeon, who was in charge of the intro that would open the stage for our debut album.
Lee Cheonghyeon was probably kneeling on one knee, propping up his chin and looking toward the camera.
He would surely be wearing a meaningful, mysterious smile—one that had a hint of playfulness without going overboard.
I knew even without looking. I had watched him through the mirror as we practiced together countless times.
And then…….
『Shall we begin?』
Lee Cheonghyeon’s voice, almost like narration, announced the beginning of the song in a clear, refreshing tone. At the same time, the stage lights came on brightly.
A bright, cheerful accompaniment rang out. It was the part Lee Cheonghyeon had worked on painstakingly for days on end.
‘Hyung, could you bring out a refreshing feeling like summer sunlight while keeping the image cold?’
‘Reference…… No, pick out a few images and try working while looking at them. Like a picture of a blue sky over a snowy field.’
‘Whoa, you’re seriously a genius, hyung!’
He didn’t even realize that he was the genius himself. One had to be a genius to write a song like this—something like a warm iced Americano.
I danced to the song I had listened to thousands of times and wondered:
Were my movements properly synchronized with the members’ right now?
Did I unknowingly miss a note during my part just now?
Why are we still only on the first verse? It feels like we’ve already gone through about a hundred and thirtieth verse.
I was anxious that I might be the only one making a ridiculous fuss. The Spark guys were doing just fine on their own, which made it even worse.
Lee Cheonghyeon’s song was graceful yet dazzling.
Jeong Seongbin and Park Juwoo didn’t miss a single note, and Kang Giyeon carried out his part without a hitch.
Choi Jeho was flawless beyond compare. Even to my eyes, after I had moved to the very back of the formation, Choi Jeho standing in the center looked as large as if he were right in front of me.
I was the only one. The only person who didn’t belong on this stage.
My heart was pounding. At this point, I was almost proud of myself simply for managing to find the cameras with their red lights on.
But failing to regain my composure was not a good thing. A state of instability could cause an accident at any moment.
‘Stay calm.’
I took advantage of a gap while moving along the choreography and quietly steadied my breathing.
‘You know there’s no way you’ll get anything wrong if you just do what you practiced.’
Then I muttered inwardly as if reciting a mantra. Even that was shoved out of my mind in an instant, lest I forget the lyrics.
The little more than one minute passed before I even had time to keep my mind together. I felt dizzy, as though my head were spinning round and round.
It was hot.
I couldn’t breathe.
I shouldn’t get in their way, but I felt like I was going to become a hindrance to them…….
Just as those thoughts began rising with my breath—
When all six of us gathered into formation, and the melody reached its climax—
That is, at the very moment when every member had to sing the first chorus of the song together—
The fans I had spoken with briefly a little earlier entered my field of vision.
Their slightly flushed faces and both hands clutching their slogans tightly.
I couldn’t hear them because of my in-ear monitors, but their mouths were unmistakably shouting encouragement amid the indifferent fans around them.
And then…….
[Congratulations on your debut]
There was even a paper banner with those five words emblazoned across it in large letters.
My stomach churned. An emotion difficult to put into words swirled inside me.
Perhaps because of the lights, my face felt hot……
『Until the world heats up and grows hot!』
The melody Lee Cheonghyeon had struggled all night to create was seeing the light of day for the first time.
My heart began beating faster again.
『Look this way; I’ll show you a once-in-a-lifetime magic.』
Why did the lyrics I had to sing have to be like this of all things?
It would have been nice if they drew attention to the other members instead of me.
The song, the stage, and the audience were all for those guys.
As I was lost in those thoughts, the chorus returned as naturally as the order of things.
I tightened my grip on the hand holding the microphone so I wouldn’t drop it.
Then I stepped forward with force and sang.
『Let the warning sirens ring, let the cheers explode.』
『Until our hearts boil over and overflow!』
The harmonies, which the six of us had recorded by pouring in our very souls until we were completely drained, and for which we had only found the best combination at the very last moment, fit together with thrilling perfection.
Now it felt as if I could hear the cheers through my in-ear monitors. Perhaps I really could hear them.
That there were lyrics for someone like me to sing, that they had included me in those cheers, that there was a place for me in the layers of melody—
All of it was so unfamiliar yet so kind that, for a fleeting moment, it felt like I was living through a long dream.
* * *
The stage was a success.
Park Juwoo and Jeong Seongbin perfectly handled high notes sharp enough to split ice, while Kang Giyeon fulfilled his role without getting a single lyric wrong.
Lee Cheonghyeon, who had always been born for the stage, had practiced well but performed even better in the real thing.
If we had debuted with a ballad instead of a dance song, we would never have been able to make this much of an impact at the time of our debut. Thinking that, I regretted UA’s past decision even more.
Choi Jeho was practically flying all over the stage by himself.
Even amid that chaotic situation, I could feel the audience’s attention gathering around Choi Jeho. He really was something else.
After we finished our first recording so splendidly, the area beneath the stage turned into a sea of tears.
The moment a staff member gave the signal, “Yes, good work, everyone!” half the members burst into tears, as though they couldn’t believe they had managed to endure everything from the rehearsal through the actual recording.
Kang Giyeon shed tear after tear only after watching the video Manager had filmed over and over and confirming that he had finished the stage without making any major mistakes. Lee Cheonghyeon teased his friend with glistening tears in his eyes.
And then there was Jeong Seongbin’s sobbing, after finally making his debut at the end of such a long wait. The area beneath the stage was not merely moist but practically drenched.
I wondered whether I had any right to soothe such an overwhelming rush of emotion, so I silently patted their backs and herded them toward the waiting room like a shepherd driving a flock of sheep.
That was when Choi Jeho spoke to me.
“You’re not crying.”
“I haven’t suffered enough to cry, have I?”
“Is that so?”
“Why? Were you going to comfort me if I cried?”
“Are you insane…….”
Choi Jeho shuddered in disgust and went into the waiting room by himself.
What a cold bastard. Just you wait—I’ll never let you see me cry in front of you again.
* * *
Baek Haewon, a South Korean high school student, was lying on her bed during vacation, reflecting on her life.
As Baek Haewon lay on her pink bed, wondering how a person could become an adult without going through their senior year of high school—
Her phone vibrated repeatedly, desperately calling for its owner.
It was a familiar social media notification.
Baek Haewon hadn’t posted anything recently. That meant there was no reason for a notification to go off.
With a puzzled expression, Baek Haewon picked up her phone. Someone was summoning her.
≫ Ah, but don’t you think they might be @minamhunter’s type?
It was an invocation too tempting to ignore.
Baek Haewon immediately checked the post she had been tagged in.
≫ I haven’t seen such insanely handsome men in forever, so I clutched my heart and fled to my private account;;;
└ You said you were going to attend an Mnet recording…… Did you land a big catch?
└ Y-e-s…… I think I’m going insane. I feel like I’d get stoned if I started talking about this on my main account, but I can’t keep this to myself either.
└ Ah, but don’t you think they might be @minamhunter’s type?
There, Baek Haewon’s longtime friends were making merry conversation.
They had once formed a bond over their shared enthusiasm for the looks and charms of some boy group.
In other words, they had become online friends while fangirling over their boys on social media.
Their love for their baby and their friendship seemed as though they would last forever.
But the only things that lasted forever were the name of the agency managing the group Baek Haewon followed, the three-letter name of her bias, and their friendship.
An agency that had done its job like crap for four years straight.
Her bias, who had lost all trace of his former glory and was aging faster than Baek Haewon because he received no proper management.
The decisive blow came when she saw her baby, who had previously appeared only in the entertainment section, turn up in the news section.
Baek Haewon had never agreed so strongly with the statement that an idol who made their fans this embarrassed deserved to fail.
Did she really have to stan this hard?
Baek Haewon and the rest of the fans underwent a harsh reality check.
And after much soul-searching, each of them decided to abandon their former group.
But even those who sold off the albums they had bought several copies of, along with the posters and merchandise they had painstakingly collected, had one thing they couldn’t throw away.
Their comrades—the people who had cheered for their baby alongside them, cursed out the people who badmouthed their baby with them, and now cursed out their baby together with them.
Hardship and adversity pushed them one step beyond merely calling each other fandom friends.
≫ I know it’s kind of funny to say this when all the fans are leaving…… But honestly, I don’t want to lose you guys. Where am I supposed to meet such fun people again……
└ Enough. Everyone make a private account.
And so Baek Haewon……
No, around thirty bandits, including “Mihnam Hunter,” began roaming the vast entertainment industry like outlaws in search of a genre as sweet as a pot of honey.
The process was not smooth, either. On their main accounts, they each suffered over their own men—they could be real people, pieces of paper, or 2.5D characters—and only chatted about all sorts of things in their private accounts, which embraced every part of them.
But then.
In a place that had recently only been filled with information like where the best pancakes could be found—
Someone had summoned Baek Haewon and announced that an idol matching her tastes had appeared.
These were people who knew better than anyone that Baek Haewon had spent the last few years picking out only the visual members of each group and stuffing them into her pockets!
Baek Haewon immediately sent a reply.
└ Then why did you tag me without telling me who they are? Is this all our friendship amounts to? I’m disappointedㅡㅡ
As expected, a lightning-fast reply came from the other side.
└ I thought you’d already put them in your net, Hunter.
After a little push and pull, Baek Haewon managed to obtain the name “Spark.”
The information network in this group was trustworthy. At least, these people didn’t rashly judge real people based solely on heavily edited photos.
With her heart pounding, Baek Haewon typed “Spark” into the search bar.
And then she found them.
The perfectly symmetrical, sculpted faces of astonishingly handsome men set within neat and clean profile pictures.
Baek Haewon immediately saved the photos from the portal site and rushed to social media.
≫ I’m on the verge of fainting right now.
This isn’t false advertising, is it????? If they look different in person from how they appear on-screen, I’m suing every one of you for fraud.
└ Ah, we’ve got a live one~
└ False advertising? They’re the real deal.
Everyone laughed, but Baek Haewon was serious. Of course, so were the girls.
Bolstered by the words of her trustworthy comrades, Baek Haewon even managed to find a newly uploaded stage video.
‘Wow. They only have one performance video, their first broadcast?’
There was no rookie group more rookie than this.
But her surprise lasted only a moment. Entranced by the thumbnail featuring an incredibly handsome man in close-up, Baek Haewon played the video.