| Episode 76. Performance Review—Peer Evaluation Edition
The first radio show Spark appeared on as a full group was “Conversations Under the Moon,” hosted by a member of a famous idol group.
The DJ of Conversations Under the Moon, who had been leading the program for several years now, and Polo, the rapper of MYTH’s flagship group “Hellas,” was…
“Then, our Iwol-ssi… pfft. Oh, I’m sorry! No, it’s just that all of you have such handsome faces, but then you came in wearing such cute headbands!”
Every time he looked at us, he couldn’t hold back his laughter. I thought he’d be a professional. What a pity.
“Those of you watching the visual radio right now will know this already, but the Spark members have come wearing adorable headbands with their names on them.”
“We wore them with rookie spirit!”
“Did the company make you do this?”
“No, Iwol hyung…”
Park Juu, whom I had trusted, tattled in response to Polo’s question. After all the jeon I fed you, how dare you sell me out?
“Do you buy headbands like this custom-made? If you give them your name, do they make them like this?”
“No, I made them.”
“You made these?”
“Yes. We had materials at the dorm.”
Drawing on my experience making supplies for the school talent show of the Hanpyeong Industries CEO’s son, I had crafted them stitch by stitch with care.
“Iwol-ssi, unlike how you look, you’re incredibly frugal!”
“Right? Our hyung looks like a total young master, but he’s super frugal!”
At Polo’s words, Yi Cheonghyeon excitedly chimed in.
More importantly, young master? Wouldn’t that be you?
Even after that, Polo and the guys went out of their way to read comments like, “The headbands are such high quality!” and continued their pointless conversation throughout the entire first half.
The headband talk didn’t end even during the commercial break.
Polo clasped his hands together, rested his chin on them, and looked over at me as he asked,
“I’m asking because I’m genuinely curious, but why do you have materials like this at your dorm?”
“They were left over from when we bought them to make props for our self-produced content.”
“You make props too? That’s amazing.”
At first, I thought he was making small talk because there wasn’t much to discuss with a rookie group, but no matter how I looked at it, this person seemed thoroughly fixated on my handmade headbands.
I watched for about three minutes to see whether his interest was genuine or an act, then said,
“I wasn’t sure, so I made one for you too, sunbae-nim. May I give it to you now?”
“For me? Don’t tell me it’s a headband?”
“Yes.”
“Really?!”
If he wanted one that badly, then I hoped sunbae-nim would wear one too. With that thought, I took out the golden headband I had left in my bag outside the recording booth and handed it to him. Polo clutched his stomach and laughed.
“Mine is gold?”
“You’re the DJ of Conversations Under the Moon, after all. I modeled it after a shining yellow moon.”
I spouted some nonsense wordplay and clapped as I looked at Polo wearing the headband. It was my habitual flattery, saying it suited him well.
Kang Giyeon, who happened to be sitting next to me, whispered in my ear,
“When did you make sunbae-nim’s?”
“I made his first. You’re supposed to take care of your superiors first.”
I straightened Kang Giyeon’s slightly crooked headband, then tidied up his stray hairs. The second half was about to begin.
“We’re back from the commercials. And in the meantime, everyone, I got a name headband too!”
“Wow!”
Maybe because they’d trained so hard on reactions, everyone’s response speed was top-tier. Of course, I also smiled and joined in enthusiastically.
“In the second half, we have a segment where we’ll get to learn a bit more about Spark! We’ve prepared a member quiz!”
The format of the quiz was simple. The member sitting across from you would ask questions related to themselves, and you had to answer as many as possible within the time limit.
For this, we had received preliminary questionnaires from the writers before the broadcast and filled them out.
The problem was that I didn’t think these guys would be able to answer even one of my questions.
In quizzes like this, TMI related to the members basically comes out. Things like birthdays, number of siblings, favorite songs, and so on.
And I had never told the members these things. Which meant they had no way of knowing the answers.
I considered tipping off Jeong Seongbin, who would be sitting across from me, in case we got so few right that rumors of discord started, but if he answered too well, people might say it was staged, so I held back.
‘At least it’s a relief there aren’t any questions about siblings.’
In my current state, where my voice wouldn’t come out and my mind went blank whenever I tried to talk about my older sister, if I got that question, I might end up causing the unfortunate situation of saying I was an only child despite having a sister.
The first pair to take on the quiz, Park Juu and Kang Giyeon, each got four or five out of ten questions right, showing a decent level of interest. Their many years as roommates had finally paid off.
The other roommate pair, Choi Jeho and Yi Cheonghyeon, wasn’t bad either.
Although Choi Jeho scored poorly with only three correct, Yi Cheonghyeon displayed remarkable spirit by getting seven right.
“Jeho hyung, aren’t you way too uninterested in me?”
“No, how am I supposed to know what color socks you’re wearing today…”
“I even got the color of hyung’s shoelaces right!”
“…Sorry.”
Still, three was an amazing improvement. When I saw him last time, even in their third year, he only got two right.
“Now, finally, it’s Iwol-ssi and Seongbin-ssi’s turn. Seongbin-ssi, please say a word of determination!”
“I’ll do my best! Hyung, let’s do this!”
Jeong Seongbin, sitting across from me, looked at me and shook his fist as if cheering me on.
And Jeong Seongbin performed fairly well, befitting his determination.
“What video have I watched the most recently?”
“Our music video.”
“Then which member do I think fits this concept the best?”
“Cheonghyeon!”
He got a whopping four questions right. I was genuinely surprised.
I wondered if he had guessed, but Jeong Seongbin had his own conviction.
“Cheonghyeon-ssi must have matched this album concept well?”
“Ah, Iwol hyung really likes Cheonghyeon’s face!”
“I do?”
Don’t tell me this was because I called Yi Cheonghyeon handsome when we were practicing for the fan signing event? The basis for his certainty was so flimsy that I was flustered.
“Now Iwol-ssi has to get at least five questions right. How do you feel? Are you confident?”
“I’ll do my best!”
When I answered energetically, Jeong Seongbin clapped. I wondered what this whole situation had come to.
Regardless of the deep sense of disillusionment settling over my heart, Polo continued hosting with great vigor.
“Great! Then, begin!”
“I don’t know if hyung will know this one… Hyung, what’s my go-to karaoke song?”
“Seongdo sunbae-nim’s ‘Where the Sun Shines.’”
“Correct! What class was I in last year?”
“Class 3?”
I answered the second question as if I had to think about it a little, but in truth, I was confident I could answer no matter what question came up. Unless they asked me to recite the last digits of the members’ resident registration numbers, anyway.
“What’s my favorite color?”
“Purple.”
“Please tell me the title of my favorite movie!”
“The Last Performance!”
Beside me, Kang Giyeon muttered, “Hyung, what are you…?”
Come on, of course I’d know this much. How many years did I listen to Spark’s radio appearances?
With one question left, the one minute ended in the blink of an eye. Exclamations of admiration burst out from every direction.
“Iwol-ssi, you got a total of nine correct!”
“Hyung would’ve gotten them all if he’d only had more time, wouldn’t he? Are you JandiWiki or what!”
Yi Cheonghyeon attempted a long-distance high five. I also waved my hand in the air appropriately.
“Wow, Iwol-ssi must be incredibly interested in the members!”
“Fortunately, the questions were ones I knew. I think I was lucky!”
I had to say it like this to prevent myself from being consumed as “Kim Iwol, extreme Jeong Seongbin fan.”
I wished the system would quickly recognize just how desperately I was trying not to be exposed alongside the members. Then it could hurry up and approve things.
Thanks to my nine correct answers, Jeong Seongbin and I took first place as a pair.
Since the first-place mission was to take a friendship selfie, I even held the camera in place of Jeong Seongbin, who was god-awful at taking selfies. It was a monumental schedule.
* * *
Even after that, the system showed hardly any response.
Was it not only its way of speaking that resembled Department Head Nam, but its approval speed too? Had it synchronized with him? Anger welled up in me.
The system returned to me one day before our final broadcast.
In the car on the way back from filming a MeTube program, our manager surprised me with a completely unexpected remark.
“The school uniforms we actually wore?”
“Yeah. Since it’s the final broadcast, we thought we’d try going with a more realistic concept! The company’s already in agreement that it sounds good.”
With our final broadcast now only a week away, it seemed the planning team had come up with the idea of, “Let’s show what our kids really looked like back when they were students!”
“Manager-nim, I didn’t go to high school, so I don’t have a high school uniform…”
“Th-then would your middle school uniform not fit, Juu?!”
My head started pounding on its own.
Bringing our own uniforms was an idea I had thought of too.
But I hadn’t put it into action. Because not all six of us had uniforms.
Even setting aside the day I somehow fell into Spark’s dorm with a single suitcase.
Park Juu, who hadn’t gone to high school, wouldn’t have a uniform that fit, and Choi Jeho, who had graduated high school long ago, would have his uniform in his family home, far, far away.
Still, since there were already two guys without uniforms right now, I wouldn’t have to worry about my own uniform—
“I’ll ask my family if they can send it by courier.”
“Then Jeho hyung is fine. Juu, what about wearing regular clothes that give off a school-look vibe? Manager-nim, if they’re each our own uniforms, they don’t necessarily have to match in color, right?”
…Somehow, the situation was taking a strange turn.
Choi Jeho was saying he’d ask his family for a favor, and Jeong Seongbin was even taking care of someone else’s outfit.
“That should be fine. Then everyone won’t have any problems preparing clothes, right?”
I do.
I have a huge problem!