Episode 97. Event Promotion (2)
It was only their second comeback, but there were already changes in the community.
Back during their debut, you could only spot a few users with fixed nicknames, but this time, there were quite a few posts mentioning Spark.
≫ Is Seongbin the class president again?
└ LOLOLOLOL look at you feeling sorry for him lol
└ Class Prez Seongbin again...
└ Class Prez Seongbin again LOLOLOLOL
≫ Spark, looks like it's another youth concept this time
It's fascinating. How do they pull this off when there's no youth in their faces?
└ LOL they said there's no youth in their faces
└ That's too much, teacher. Except for our oldest hyungs, our kids are all real high school boysㅠ
└ It's the kind of youth that's hard to find in the idol scene these days, so I love it
└ Most concepts these days are intense, which gets tiring, but I think they nailed it by going the opposite direction
≫ Is Lee Cheonghyeon a genius?
I only listened briefly but the melody is insane
└ Cheonghyeon is really someone you grow prouder of the more you see himㅠㅠ His composing career isn't even long, but I really think it's amazing how he brings good songs every time
└ Isn't *** just pushing him?
└ Being jealous of a kid is ugly, friend;;;;
≫ Yuei is working hard
They seem to be adjusting the comeback cycle well so the momentum doesn't drop
└ If they don't push hard in the beginning, when else would they?ㅠㅠㅠ Now is definitely the time to push them
└ Real talk, you gotta hustle hard as a newbie to have even a slightly higher chance of survivingㅠ If they don't blow up even after a year passes, it's incredibly hard to revive
Perhaps because haters hadn't latched on yet, the board was mostly filled with good posts.
Times like these were what made stanning an unknown idol worthwhile.
'Keep up this form... No, get famous... Let them taste the sweetness of success... But don't get too famous...'
Baek Haewon turned off her phone, her thoughts impossibly contradictory.
If she read any more related posts, she felt as though her heart would burst from the overwhelming emotion.
'I wish the MV would come out quickly.'
Like a child making a wish on Christmas Eve night, Baek Haewon prayed earnestly.
And not long after, the MV was released like a gift.
* * *
As the video began, Jeong Seongbin walked into frame wearing a gray hoodie against a backdrop of birds chirping from afar.
Passing the deserted school and climbing the back mountain, Jeong Seongbin stopped in front of a certain tree.
Then he rolled aside the large stone pressing down on the tree roots, opened the backpack he was carrying, took out a trowel, and began digging into the damp soil.
After the sound of digging dirt was heard a few times.
With the sound of something hitting the tip of the shovel, Jeong Seongbin's movements stopped.
The angle switched to underground, showing Jeong Seongbin's hand brushing off dirt and the wide-open sky.
With Jeong Seongbin's hand motion as he pulled something out, the camera was lifted up from underground.
Jeong Seongbin tapped the cookie tin he had dug from the ground to shake off the dirt and opened the lid.
With the sound of the stainless steel tin opening, the title appeared and the song began.
'Alarms don't wake me, yet my eyes open
Just seeing the morning sun puts me in a good mood
Today is that kind of day'
As the first verse began, the screen switched to the whiteboard scene from the teaser.
Jeong Seongbin, who had written 'Operation: Have the Most Fun in the World!' in large letters, stuck old colored paper taken from the time capsule, and beside it attached a large printed amusement park pamphlet.
'That's right, the day we promised!'
The moment Jeong Seongbin looked straight ahead, his part flowed out, and soon after, a group dance scene of the members appeared.
The members' hair colors dancing in front of the merry-go-round were dazzling.
Among them, Jeong Seongbin's bright golden blonde and Park Juu's light pink hair particularly stood out.
'To play properly
We have to prepare properly
Phone turned off
Small wallet and sunglasses too
Did you bring everything?
Ready to play perfectly, are you?'
Gang Giyeon secretly putting an expensive-looking camera into his bag from a glass cabinet in the living room of an old-fashioned house, and Lee Cheonghyeon breaking open a piggy bank.
Choi Jeho laying out multiple sets of clothes one by one on the bed, and Gim Iwol packing drinks into a bag, passed by in sequence.
Ending with Park Juu trying on various animal headbands in front of a mirror, the video cut back to the group dance sequence of the chorus.
'Playing is the best, isn't it
At a place with good scenery
Eating delicious food to my heart's content
Doing only what I want to do
I want to live every day like it's vacation'
Soap bubbles poured out behind the members smiling brightly.
As it moved into the second verse, the members enjoyed the amusement park to the fullest.
'For good children, the gifts they wish for
For cool adults, the best vacation
That's right
Time spent with you too!'
The screen showed the members riding all kinds of rides, Gang Giyeon filming his friends, and Jeong Seongbin buying six helium balloons and tying them to his friends' wrists.
Soon, the screen was covered with photos taken wearing ridiculous sunglasses and members eating food sold at the amusement park.
After the happy time ended, the members left the amusement park with the parade behind them.
While the flow of the melody organized itself and gradually built up toward the chorus.
Led by Jeong Seongbin, five members—Choi Jeho, Gim Iwol, Lee Cheonghyeon, and Gang Giyeon—visited a small hospital in the countryside.
In the hospital room they visited, Park Juu lay with his eyes closed.
'It's a dreamlike wish
But just once
I want to share fun stories
Put on a happy smile
And live every day like a movie'
Jeong Seongbin fastened an amusement park admission bracelet around Park Juu's wrist, and Gim Iwol placed the headband Park Juu had kept on the lying Park Juu's head.
While Lee Cheonghyeon tied helium balloons to the foot of the bed, Choi Jeho wrote the message 'One wish achieved for Child Park Juu!' on the balloons.
And Gang Giyeon showed Park Juu an album where he had photoshopped Park Juu into photos taken at the amusement park.
Park Juu's face with eyes closed fit naturally into the photos, as if he had intentionally closed his eyes for the shot.
The members, who had decorated Park Juu playfully, sat around Park Juu's bed and chatted joyfully for a while.
'Right now, just like this moment!'
With the final chorus, the focus gradually moved away from the hospital and soon showed the blue sky.
'With List'
The title reappeared on the brightened screen.
A large circle was drawn over that title, and the video ended.
* * *
From the moment the MV was released, the community was fairly ablaze.
≫ From today, Spark is the synonym for youth
So it is
└ Perfect narrative with just one MV...
└ If you look into it, it's a really sad story, but I liked how they maintained a bright vibe until the end
└ Right, it wasn't a melodrama but the feeling that they naturally believe their friend will wake up is so goodㅠㅠ
≫ I'm sorry for saying they're rehashing their concept when they just debuted
Stay youthful forever
└ LOLOL look at you changing your tune
≫ Is the title With List because it's With you + Wish list?
Ha, goddamn
└ Looking for someone to go fulfill Child Park Juu's wish (1/1)
≫ Summary of this Spark MV's content/hints (to be updated)
1. The place Jeong Seongbin visited was the elementary school the kids used to attend + The item Jeong Seongbin dug up was a time capsule they buried together during their school days
2. In the meeting scene, only Park Juu wasn't captured on screen
3. In the scenes where the kids pack their things, they're all wearing high school uniforms or packing high school student IDs, but only Juu has 'Middle' written on his uniform vest
4. Among the phones the kids check the text to gather at the amusement park, only Park Juu's is a 2G phone (suggesting he had an accident before smartphones became common)
5. The kids all wore the headbands Juu had kept = Juu had prepared them in advance because he wanted everyone to go to the amusement park together when the time capsule was opened, and the kids who later learned of the headbands' existence somehow brought them to the amusement park
6. In the MV and album photos, only Park Juu's wrist doesn't have a free admission bracelet
7. Juu has his eyes closed in all the photos → Personally this gave me the most chills, but Juu's hair length and the members' positions are slightly different each time (not photos taken at once). It seems the kids who took selcas with Juu each time they visited him took photos at the amusement park and photoshopped them one by one
└ Around the 32-second mark, the time capsule says 'Open at twenty years old'... It's so sad and poignant that they opened a time capsule made when they were babies who didn't even know spelling, now as high schoolers on the verge of twenty, saying they'd wake their friend
└ Ah, so that's what it was (facepalm)
└ ***, Juu-ya...
≫ Spark, anyone listened to the new song?
The song is really good, yeah
I do wonder if it's possible live LOL but listeners will have fun
└ Could it be that Mr. Park Juu actually fell ill while recording?
└ That's the one
└ Above comment LOL that's the one LOLOL
The reactions were good. Moreover, they were largely positive.
Just looking at SNS, there were noticeably many recent posts about Spark.
Perhaps because they filmed about half of the MV at the amusement park, the captured stills were quite beautiful as well.
Whether it was the color or the composition, nothing was lacking. Perhaps because they dyed their hair in pastel tones, even the members looked like part of the amusement park.
Above all...
≫ The seasonal vibe is insane
The more I listen, the more I just want to drop everything and play LOL
└ Right, it fits May to early summer so well LOL and the song is exciting
└ This is kinda like a reality escape song for students with midterms right around the corner
...From the release timing to the song's atmosphere, everything meshed together perfectly, just as planned.
Thanks to that, they received a great response from students facing exam periods and office workers who weren't children but had waited eagerly for Children's Day.
A group with as little recognition as Spark had to row when the water came in. And they had to row until their arms fell off.
It meant they had to constantly feed content so that when someone who watched the MV thought, "Huh? These guys are pretty good?" they wouldn't leave and the group could appeal to them.
Usually, the MV and music were released at 6 PM. Even if they performed on the earliest music show the next day, far too much time would be left in between.
'It's about time the marketing team uploads the video.'
I checked the time displayed at the bottom of my laptop.
6:05. It was around the time those who played the MV at 6 PM were finishing watching the video.
And timed to this hour, as requested in advance, boisterous rural self-produced content was uploaded to Spark's official channel.
* * *
Baek Haewon felt like she was going crazy.
It was partly because her midterm grades had completely tanked... but also because the flood of hints was shaking Baek Haewon's heart this way and that.
Baek Haewon, who had been replaying the five-minute music video continuously, figured she might as well run an MV stream while watching, so she started streaming and was now on her 50th minute of watching the MV.
'The kids' faces are insane... The song is insane too... But really, their faces are insane...'
Tears flowed continuously from her heart. The afterglow of the ending wouldn't fade.
When had she last felt the pride and elation of stanning geniuses at their main jobs?
Baek Haewon realized that happiness wasn't far away.
Baek Haewon took a deep breath to quell the affection bordering on madness.
And she began to carefully select her expressions so that as many people as possible could accept her gushing without resistance.
If even just one of her many acquaintances would join her in stanning Spark, she would have no regrets even if she died.
With a determined heart, Baek Haewon returned to SNS, which she had temporarily left to watch the MV.
New posts she hadn't yet read welcomed Baek Haewon.
≫ @spArk_official
The Adult Children's Operation to Have Fun!
Let's go on a mountain village experience together!
Adult child who emptied wishes: Gim Iwol
Special note: An adult child with an old man's taste
[Spark] 2X05XX Let's Go to the Mountains, City Friends ep.1
In the attached thumbnail, six members wearing flashy floral pants were looking up at the camera side by side.
'If it's ep.1, that means they're giving us episode 2 too?'
If they release ten minutes per episode after this, I'll report them for the crime of exciting this frantic high schooler.
Baek Haewon, having firmly resolved this, pressed the video link.
Then, a massive episode spanning a full 53 minutes welcomed Baek Haewon.