Was this music always the kind that lodges in your ears like this?

I wound the three-minute track back and hit play again.

There were a few parts in the middle that felt overdone, but overall it was more striking than before.

“Nice.”

“Really?!”

At my words, color returned to Lee Cheonghyeon’s face.

“I’m not someone with tons of musical training, but I like it.”

Lee Cheonghyeon let out a breath of relief. Even so, I couldn’t relax yet.

If his talent had just bloomed and he’d jumped ahead of the Lee Cheonghyeon I knew, great.

But if, even though past-timeline Lee Cheonghyeon had written a song like this, it had still been arranged or processed into the version I know that eventually got released?

That would be a problem. Taste ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) is personal, and you only know how the public will react once you put it out there.

In that latter case, no matter how much I said, “Uh, I personally think the Lee Cheonghyeon version is better!”, it would be useless unless I could persuade the entire company.

I just joined — I’m not about to move the whole A&R team. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

I prayed this situation was the former.

Maybe even a klutz’s praise feels good, because looking relieved, Lee Cheonghyeon grabbed the mouse.

“Please listen to this, too. This was the first melody I came up with.”

The new file he played sounded exactly like the song I knew.

“Was there a reason you revised from your first version to the one you just played?”

“Do you remember the three of us talking about the concept with Juu last time?”

Your collective chaos taste? Of course I remembered.

“At first I only thought, ‘Something exciting would be nice~.’ But I wondered if it’d be better to have a more concrete image. Once I tried imagining things, the direction changed.”

“What kind of specifics did you think through?”

“A six-meter-tall metal fanfare!!”

Lee Cheonghyeon gave me a big thumbs-up.

It does feel like things are popping off. Although the purpose of setting off that fanfare seems closer to destruction than celebration.

If the change in the melody came from our conversations... then there’s a chance this melody will stick as is, right?

I needed to hear others’ opinions, but personally I preferred the revised version he’d made.

I patted the shoulder of a Lee Cheonghyeon who had grown this far on his own.

“You must’ve been wiped getting it to here. Nice work.”

“The road ahead is miles and miles, you know.”

True. Compared to what he still had to do, the melody was basically prepping ingredients.

Still, bringing back this much fresh material is something. After a full week of effort, I happily sent him off to his room.

He must’ve been pretty beat; he told me to get some sleep and went straight back.

Up to that point, I had no idea.

That someone was watching our slapdash little composing adventure.

During group practice, we got a five-minute break after fifty-five minutes of work.

I was going to review movements in front of the mirror when Jeong Seongbin came over and asked,

“Aren’t you tired, hyung?”

“Hm?”

“It seems like you and Cheonghyeon are doing something every night. I was worried you might not be getting enough rest.”

I was about to say we were working on a song and hurriedly deflected.

“Just talking music. Were we loud in the living room? Did we bother you?”

Given that even playing his song for others embarrassed him, I doubted he’d like us chatting about him.

But my worry was needless.

Grabbing his water bottle, Lee Cheonghyeon cheerfully told him, “We’re talking composing!” and stepped out of the studio.

If you were going to be that casual about it, why were you so nervous yesterday?

As I stood there a bit dumbfounded, Jeong Seongbin asked again,

“Composing?”

“Yeah. Cheonghyeon seemed interested, so I told him to try it — he’s working really hard.”

“Ahh. Still, don’t overdo it.”

Checking up on my health, Jeong Seongbin went back to his spot.

Watching his back, I thought:

Worry about your own health when you’re carrying updates on all five of us...

No one looks after your health for you. If you don’t have a guardian or they’re far away, even more so. All the more reason to take care of yourself.

I was debating whether to teach them that youth isn’t an infinite battery when someone else came over.

This time it was Park Juu.

“If it’s composing... is it related to the concept we talked about last time?”

“No. It’s just something Cheonghyeon is writing on his own.”

“Then you’re...”

“A pacemaker with the whip function upgraded.”

Honestly, all I did was listen and hit like.

Still, he asked, so I answered properly — but even after hearing it, Park Juu didn’t leave and kept talking.

“Um, hyung.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“I know you’re busy, but... could you help me with my song choice, too?”

“For the month-end evaluation?”

I asked on a hunch, and he nodded.

There was only a week left. Even if he doesn’t need long to learn a song, settling on one now was cutting it late.

Has he been wrestling with it all this time?

Since quick picking matters, Seongbin would probably be better than me. Carefully, I floated an alternative.

“Did you ask Seongbin? I feel like he’d help more than I would.”

He shook his head.

“...It’s a little hard to bring it up with Seongbin.”

Just then, Seongbin called us back — break was over.

“Want to talk at dinner? Let’s practice first.”

“...Okay.”

He agreed readily, like he wasn’t anxious about being late on the pick.

After that, until dinner, I trembled my way through Kang Giyeon’s merciless coaching.

The first-floor lobby at dinner was very quiet.

Most of the staff seemed to have gone home.

Since we’d said we’d eat separately, the dinner crew today was just me and Park Juu.

I sat at the table, peeled the plastic off my salad, and waited for him to speak first.

As always, he set the oriental dressing beside the plastic container and said,

“...I told you I wanted to try a strong concept.”

“You did.”

“I’ve been thinking since then, but... no matter what I listen to, nothing screams ‘this is it.’”

“Finding a song that fits your taste isn’t easy.”

“After a while, it even got fuzzy what I was looking for in the first place.”

It sounded like he’d gone pretty deep with that brief topic from a few days ago.

But part of it puzzled me.

Was he the type to cling to taste this much?

Post-debut, the side he showed was closer to “it could be this way or that way, either’s fine.”

Unlike most of the members who matched what I remembered, today’s Park Juu felt a bit unfamiliar.

“When it comes to picking a song, what’s bothering you most right now?”

“...I don’t know.”

“Option one, you couldn’t find one you liked. Option two, you couldn’t find one that reflects the feedback from the last evaluation. Option three, other. Pick one.”

“Three...?”

We’re sunk. That means I have to guess.

I went through what might have been scrambling his head lately.

The biggest change from before is me — UA’s top unruly klutz.

I doubted the fight between Choi Jeho and Kang Giyeon affected him.

Which left one thing.

Lee Cheonghyeon’s composing.

He was definitely there when we talked about it.

I didn’t know the exact causal chain, but if I was right it’d help, so I asked:

“Did watching Cheonghyeon compose make you feel any different?”

After wrestling with it, he answered with difficulty.

“...I think so.”

In that moment, my brain produced a trashy drama stitched together from the current situation.

Lee Cheonghyeon, a minor, bewitched by a few flimsy compliments, staying up late grinding his soul away on the hobby that will become his future job...

And Park Juu raging, You get to find yourself while I can’t even sing what I want?

Ha. If debut doesn’t go up in smoke, we’ll be lucky.

Probably pale as a sheet, I listened as he carefully added:

“Cheonghyeon tries other genres so well... I feel like I’m the only one who still can’t get a handle on things.”

He lowered his gaze. With classical-only Lee Cheonghyeon writing pop now, he seemed to think his own dilemma was nothing.

I tore open the plastic on his unused fork and asked,

“Getting antsy?”

“...I guess so. Like I’ve been thinking too complacently... I’m embarrassed, too.”

Honestly, a moving mindset.

Not once at Hanpyeong Industries did I ever worry I might be working too complacently.

It’s not even a debut track — it’s just a song for a vocal test.

To be frank, for an evaluation piece you could just pick something decent.

But knowing I’d once staked my life on song choice, and that a serious attitude about everything pulled these kids all the way to debut, I couldn’t toss off words lightly.

Instead, I emphasized that this was purely my personal suggestion and said,

“The strengths of the songs you like might be the message or the concept, but what if you looked for other strengths, too?”

“Strengths...?”

“In one song you might like the guitar riff; in another, the drums.”

“...True.”

“If you increase the elements you like, it might get easier to find a song that fits your taste.”

“...Right.”

I used that method and still couldn’t find a single good thing about Deputy Manager Nam, but anyway.

“Who knows? There might be an idol song written by a composer who’s a rock maniac.”

I lobbed a silly joke, and he finally smiled.

Feeling lighter, I asked him,

“By the way, can I ask why you couldn’t talk to Seongbin?”

“Oh, that...”

I worried I’d poked something sensitive about teenage friendship, but he answered calmly.

“Seongbin asked if I’d consider trying idol work together, and that’s how I changed paths to become an idol trainee.”

I know. When he first joined UA, he was preparing to be a solo singer.

“I like preparing to debut with the members, and I made the decision to do idols after thinking it through, so I don’t regret it now... but when I’m listening to rock, Seongbin gets self-conscious.”

“So our Seongbin feels guilty for roping a friend in.”

He nodded. He must feel genuinely sorry that his friend watches him for cues.

No wonder he couldn’t bring up his song-choice worries.

Still, having a friend like that in the group looks like a good thing. A friend who considers the other person’s position — that’s wholesome.

Of course, I don’t really have friends, so I can’t say I relate.

For some reason I felt like I’d lived life a bit wrong.

March really flew by.

We baked bread and did recording trials.

We resolved conflicts between members, cheered on writing songs, did mock evaluations to fight nerves, and consulted on song selection.

 [SYSTEM] “New Task” has been assigned.

▷ Join the debut team

▷ Reward: EXP (20)

 After a month lived that diligently, the March month-end evaluation began — the one that would decide Spark’s debut lineup.