| Episode 96. Event Promotion (1)
The next day, Spark finished filming amicably, looking even closer than before.
If you excluded the fact that I was in a slightly more embarrassed state.
I had written a lengthy message in the staff suggestion box, but since it printed the author’s name along with it, I felt like I’d been caught red-handed.
Since Lee Cheonghyeon, who had already been climbing onto my back readily enough as it was, showed no sign of getting down, I barely held back the urge to tear off my shirt, shouting, “No need to keep secrets anymore, I’m baring my upper body today!”
When we returned after neatly slurping down ramyeon for breakfast—the guys had been a bit downcast after the PD asked if five packets were enough for six people—a welcome gift was waiting.
“Guys, the next album planning proposal got final approval!”
“Yesss!”
While we were in the mountains, bickering and shooting enough self-produced content for two episodes, UA had wrapped up all the preparatory work for the comeback.
Apparently, the staff, unable to bear watching Spark fret and worry, had admirably met what must have been a tight deadline.
Thank you. I will repay this grace with success. Well, not me—the Spark guys.
What enthusiastically welcomed my return wasn’t just the smoothly finished business.
[You.Got on the bad side of industry insiders.. You think you’ll be safe? I’ve never seen arrogant.bastards succeed. That’s your future]
[Anxious because you lack skill? Watching you pull your little schemes behind people who know nothing.. It’s pathetic.. A miserable life.. Don’t live like that]
[You.Better manage your image..hard.. This industry.is smaller than a kid like you could imagine.. Word is already spreading. Do you know..the status.of an established singer and a director?]
[Remember. That there are many watchful eyes in the company. Jang Junhu’s juniors and my acquaintances.. Everyone is watching.]
Yu Hansu had sent quite a lot of texts in just two days.
His spelling was a mess, so they were hard to read too. He sent texts just like Chief Nam; I guess there must be some training somewhere on how to send texts like this.
But more than that, was this guy always this stupid?
At least when he punched me in the face, he’d had the intelligence to call me to a place without CCTV.
Apparently, this guy hasn’t been reported by someone with less power than him very often in his life, seeing how boldly he leaves records that could serve as evidence.
To repay that pitifulness, I carefully screenshotted and backed up all the texts Yu Hansu had sent.
Excluding the Yu Hansu spam text issue, all preparations proceeded smoothly.
Except for one thing: the recording.
Lee Cheonghyeon, whose rap skills had risen insanely after the OJT, directed just as harshly according to his elevated standards.
“Hyung Iwol, should we try stacking a harmony here just once?! Like we’ll do it live! Super excitingly!”
“Seongbin Hyung, couldn’t you hit the high notes just a little more stably than right now? Hyung, you can totally do it!”
The four members, excluding vocal genius Park Juu, had to record while taking a thorough beating from Lee Cheonghyeon.
The maknaes who had been so close fought for three minutes over every single line.
They say you grow while fighting. If that’s true, these guys will hit 190 cm by the end of this week.
That wasn’t all. Now I too was in a position where I had to direct alongside Lee Cheonghyeon, daring to point out the recordings of my dear Spark friends one by one.
“I’ll direct?”
“Didn’t I relay all the feedback through the A&R team back during ‘Flowering’? Going around in circles is inefficient, so Iwol, it’d be good if you directed in person too and got in sync with the kids.”
……And so it happened. Thanks to that, I ended up playing the role of a pitch checker, which was never in my destiny. I also received mountains of new music knowledge.
Still, under the command of the great maestro of music, Teacher Lee Cheonghyeon, the second song, “With List,” was completed perfectly.
“Lee Cheonghyeon, when you made the song like that, you prepared to sing live while dancing too, right?”
“Of course. Surely I wouldn’t have split the beats while only thinking of the song, without considering the choreography.”
Followed by the relentless bloody revenge of Choi Jeho and Gang Giyeon.
It was an incomparably fruitful period. Thanks to that, I could barely remember whether I’d ever truly been an office worker.
I finished checking today’s phone messages while drinking the ion beverage Ms. Nyuri had left in the practice room as a token of gratitude.
Now I just had to return it to the manager as usual.
Once I finished talking to Mr. Polo, that is.
Hellas Polo Sunbaenim
[Iwol-ssi]
[Is Spark making a comeback??]
[I heard they contacted you at Dalbamdae]
Me
[Hello, Sunbaenim!
The detailed schedule hasn’t been fixed yet,
but the press release will be out soon!]
Hellas Polo Sunbaenim
[Oh]
[You’re working hard]
[Well, early debut days are really crazy, right? lol]
While my head was thinking, “Why did this person contact me?” my fingers had already sent off thanks for the excessive praise and how honored I was to appear on the radio last time.
In the midst of exchanging a few more lines like that, Mr. Polo said:
Hellas Polo Sunbaenim
[Will you wear the headband again next time?]
[If you’re going to wear a headband, let me prepare my heart]
Truly befitting an idol who once reached the top. He doesn’t miss a thing once it becomes an issue.
A radio appearance might be special for a guest, but not for the main DJ. It’s something that repeats every time.
Naturally, it’s hard to drive issues with just your main duties alone.
He must have seen a meme somewhere, something like “the scene where I got scammed by a handmade headband during a live broadcast.”
He even posted on his own SNS that he’d bought one as if bewitched after recording, uploading a photo of a doll he’d received from a fan wearing a golden headband.
Respectable. This idol power that doesn’t miss a single thing like this.
Me
[I’ll go beyond what you’re imagining!]
But not a chance.
As if I’d let even a handful of clout be snatched away by a famous DJ.
Then a quick reply came from Polo.
Hellas Polo Sunbaenim
[LOLOLOLOLOL]
[I’ll look forward to it lol]
[Since I remember you coming out in incredible fashion when you appeared on Parte^^]
At the same time, I grew thoughtful.
Wondering if I’d overdone it.
Maybe this person…… just wanted to tease me.
* * *
“Ha.”
Baek Haewon, returning home from school, stuck to the bed like cheese.
“Life’s no fun.”
Baek Haewon sighed.
Baek Haewon, who had gone to a study room over the weekend intending to study, was miserably defeated by post-meal drowsiness, ultimately raising the white flag and coming home in broad daylight.
Wasn’t anyone going to bring something fun from somewhere?
Was there no one who’d shove guaranteed honey-sweet content in her face and tell her exactly which minute and second was delicious……?
Thinking so, Baek Haewon endlessly refreshed her SNS feed.
But new posts weren’t coming up.
That passion to release even a single piece of bait even if the world ended seemed to have gone somewhere; the feed was quiet as a dead mouse.
Right when Baek Haewon resolved to play for just three more minutes before washing up.
After the twenty-seventh refresh, an unseen post appeared.
Uploaded 3 seconds ago. The official account she’d followed after admitting to stanning Spark, and even the blue checkmark next to it.
“Bait dropped!”
Baek Haewon covered her mouth and sprang up like a fish.
Even though individual members’ content had been steadily posted until just last week, Baek Haewon was always thirsty for fresh bait. Such was the life of a fan.
“Please be a comeback, please be a new song……”
Baek Haewon prayed earnestly.
If only the agency were an ordinary idol agency, she wouldn’t have worried like this, but as fate would have it, Spark was the company’s first idol, so there was no shortage of concerns.
≫ @spArk_official
Guys, can you see?
And a single photo with a composition taken from underground looking up at the sky.
Despite it still being April, even an early May date was stamped in the corner of the photo.
Seeing this incomprehensible caption and a photo where not a single strand of a member’s hair appeared, Baek Haewon was certain.
It was bait.
It was a comeback!
UA is giving me a Children’s Day present that even my parents don’t give me anymore. With her darkly faded innocence, Baek Haewon thought so.
The feeds of Baek Haewon’s acquaintances, who had said they were now too old for SNS, also began to regenerate.
I knew it. Baek Haewon started rampaging as she watched her ever-consistent acquaintances.
≫ @minamhunter
No, I can’t see anything
Instead, it kinda smells like dirt
└ No but when were you buried lolololol
└ But the composition was totally like being buried alive
“This is life…… This is life…….”
Baek Haewon smiled contentedly.
To the blood relative making a fuss asking when she’d wash up, Baek Haewon needed time to focus to the point of wanting to say, “Shut up and wash up first or do whatever!”
The blessing of bait didn’t end there.
≫ @spArk_official
Anyone remember what we wrote at this time?
The nostalgia-inducing caption was absolutely killer.
“Don’t remember but I remember.” Murmuring, Baek Haewon checked the photo attached below the post.
Crooked letters written in six different colors were scrawled on an old, crumpled piece of paper.
The letters were all overlapping, and as if written with the left hand, the handwriting was so messy that it was hard to make out immediately.
Baek Haewon basked in happiness while waiting for fans who loved interpreting bait to arrive.
And the very next day, the teaser dropped.
Starting with a booming drum sound, an exciting melody with a different vibe than their debut song “Flowering” flowed out.
Jeong Seongbin standing in front of a whiteboard with “The Great Operation to Have the Most Fun in the World!” written on it.
And a sequence of shots taken from above showing members sitting facing each other across a conference table appeared.
Because of the camera angle, not all members were caught in one frame, but the angle soon switched to another screen.
The screen quickly alternated between group dancing filmed in front of colorful amusement rides and members ransacking their own homes to gather supplies before going dark.
After the blackout, the members appeared standing in a line at the entrance of a vast amusement park.
With very solemn expressions, wearing the world’s flashiest headband that Park Juu had brought.
Over that, a title was written in crooked letters as if with white crayon, just like on the bait photo’s paper.
“With List”
After watching the teaser on repeat about three times, Baek Haewon clapped.
The kids’ visuals: 100 points.
Helium balloons wrapped around their wrists: 100 points for cuteness.
Plus bonus points for a cheerful melody that would make any K-pop veteran perk up.
It was a 300-point teaser on a 100-point scale. Baek Haewon was deeply moved.
Her Minam Hunter colleagues also asked, “Do you have enough bullets, Mihun?” It was the highest praise—that the album was worth spending money on.
But Baek Haewon didn’t rest on her laurels.
Because for a fan, nothing is more dangerous than seeing through rose-tinted glasses. So Baek Haewon knocked on the door of the entertainment community she hadn’t visited in a while.