“...Hyung.”

As I was sleeping soundly, I faintly heard someone’s voice. I also felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently.

“...?”

When I managed to open my eyes, I saw Park Juu’s face.

“Time to eat...”

“Now? What time is it?”

“6 o’clock...”

“6 o’clock?”

Hadn’t I lain down to sleep at 4?

I shot up and looked out the window to see that the sun was indeed setting. A two-hour nap—such a luxurious way to spend time.

“Sorry, I slept for too long.”

“It’s good that you slept well. Seongbin said not to wake you up, too...”

“What about the others? Are they awake?”

“Yeah, just a little while ago.”

As I went down the stairs, I began to hear a boisterous noise. Lee Cheonghyeon’s decibels were, by far, the loudest.

“I, Lee Cheonghyeon, will for today briefly set aside my idol persona and try out being a mukbang MeTuber.”

“You don’t even eat that much.”

“Yes, I do! Now that I’ve joined the ‘tall line,’ I’m going to aim for the tallest member status.”

Perhaps because they’d had a nap, both Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Giyeon seemed to be in high spirits. Sleep really was important.

All of us, including me, the inconsiderate oldest who came out last, gathered at the dining table. The dinner was a full-on feast.

“Weren’t we just going to grill some meat?”

The table was packed with stew, ramyeon, pre-made ssam with torn lettuce, and well-grilled fruit. The guilt I felt grew uncontrollably. Seeing my trembling pupils, Jeong Seongbin smiled kindly and said.

“It didn’t take long since we all did it together. Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, thanks to you.”

Jeong Seongbin was happy, saying that was a relief.

“You and Juu should just brush your teeth and go to sleep after you’re done eating. We’ll take care of the cleanup.”

“What about Jeho hyung?”

“He doesn’t get tired from something like this, so it’s fine.”

Choi Jeho, who was sitting opposite me, didn’t even glance up at the mention of his name, focusing on eating his meat. But even though I said that, I had no intention of making Choi Jeho do the dishes.

“No, I’m not going to sleep.”

Park Juu, who had been eating quietly, chimed in. His expression was serious as he put down his chopsticks.

“We were supposed to have a jam session...”

Park Juu’s eyebrows drooped about 3 degrees. So that... was it. Right, promises are important.

As a matter of fact, we had packed our instruments and amps into the car to check on our progress so far. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Unlike us, who only needed our instruments and an amp, Lee Cheonghyeon needed a two-tiered synthesizer and Choi Jeho needed an electronic drum set. The luggage had tripled. If Choi Jeho had just bought a drum pad sooner, things wouldn’t have gotten to this point.

“Iwol hyung was practicing so hard. Are we going to see a cool-as-hell bass solo today?”

“That’s because my part is so packed. The difficulty is too high.”

Park Juu, who had great drive in strange areas, had even managed to get the band version of the sheet music for “Flowering” through Lee Cheonghyeon. He said a composer who often worked with Cheonghyeon had gladly done it for them.

The problem was that the composer had exercised an excessive amount of professionalism.

‘It’s a two-guitar song, so why is the bass so busy? What band’s bassist is this noisy?’

‘Same here, hyung.’

As the experienced ones, Lee Cheonghyeon and I had to keep our hands moving nonstop to fill in the gaps that would be created by the band beginners. The three-headed quavers on Cheonghyeon’s sheet music were still vivid in my mind.

Anyway, this vacation was both for rest and our first step to check if Band Spark could be presented to the public.

While the session members were setting up their instruments, Park Juu also appeared fully prepared. He had on a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and a plaid shirt, looking like he had just stepped out of the beginning of a teen rock band movie.

“Hyung, did you prepare that outfit?”

Kang Giyeon asked, mid-motion of slinging his guitar over his shoulder. Park Juu nodded.

“Seongjun recommended it to me...”

“Juu, you have Jeong Seongjun’s number too?”

“We exchanged numbers at your graduation ceremony...”

At Park Juu’s shy confession, Jeong Seongbin covered his mouth. It seemed he was planning to persuade Park Juu to block Mr. Jeong Seongjun’s number soon.

The Flame Band’s first jam session wasn’t a complete success. Even pros struggle to sync right away.

Kang Giyeon flung his pick, and Jeong Seongbin missed about two chords. Lee Cheonghyeon pressed the wrong button on his synthesizer and produced a random organ sound.

Choi Jeho, unconcerned by this whole situation, just kept drumming away. Having engraved ‘steady tempo is everything’ into his brain, he had turned into an unstoppable locomotive that wouldn’t slow down no matter who fell apart around him.

Nevertheless, Park Juu was happy. If we could see a face like that, anyone in Spark would gladly hold a messy jam session anytime.

Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Giyeon did the dishes. Choi Jeho lay sprawled out on the sofa, playing on his phone. Apparently, his family had asked him to send some pictures. The sight of him resentfully choosing from the 1,000 photos Lee Cheonghyeon had taken was quite commendable.

Jeong Seongbin made some honey pear tea and brought it to today’s vocalist, Park Juu. Iwol, the bassist who hadn’t even hummed a tune, also got to drink some tea along with him.

“So, we just rest for a bit and then go to sleep?”

“No, we have to do fireworks outside later. It’s on Cheonghyeon’s wish list.”

“Aren’t we not allowed to set off fireworks at the beach?”

“We’re just going to use small sparklers at the pool. They said it’s allowed on private property, so I got permission from the pension owner in advance.”

The plan was surprisingly well-prepared. Most importantly, my mind was at ease because there were no illegal elements. There are always those people, you know, the ones who, no matter how many times you explain it’s not allowed, say, ‘I’ve done it before, it’s fine. If we get caught, we’ll just pay the fine~!’

“And Cheonghyeon said we have to take pictures.”

“Where are we uploading them? I thought we weren’t going to use this for content.”

“He said we have to take commemorative photos. He even bought six albums.”

Jeong Seongbin rustled through a plastic bag that was next to the sofa and took something out. Inside were a Polaroid camera, a film camera, and six albums for each of the photos.

“You bought all this?”

“Kang Giyeon made me. Kang Giyeon has already collected 6,000 points at the stationery store!”

Lee Cheonghyeon shouted from the middle of doing the dishes. The ears of Kang Giyeon, the person in charge of procuring supplies for Spark, turned red.

I didn’t want to kill the mood, so I didn’t say it, but even if he took pictures with the film camera today, he wouldn’t be able to develop them right away. I’d have to apply for a photo development service soon. I still memorized all the companies that handled that kind of thing.

We finished the fruit Choi Jeho had cut for us, even sprayed ourselves with insect repellent, and went outside. A cool night breeze was blowing.

“By the way, do you guys have a lighter? Giyeon probably didn’t think to buy one.”

At my words, Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Giyeon stared at me blankly. Choi Jeho just stood there with his hands in his pants pockets.

It was then. Jeong Seongbin fumbled in his pocket and took out a fluorescent green disposable lighter. The sound of the wheel turning was immediately followed by a flame, clearly not the work of someone lighting a fire for the first time.

“Here, give them to me one by one.”

“...”

“...?”

A suffocating silence fell between Jeong Seongbin and the rest of us. The sparkler in my hand trembled.

“Seongbin, do you smoke?”

“Pardon?”

“It’s only been 5 months since you turned twenty, and you’ve smoked enough to get used to lighting a fire?”

“What are you talking about, hyung!”

“The only thing I ever did behind your back was play ball-bouncing with Zestralo Erectus, and you’ve been doing this heinous thing behind my back... you, Spark’s vanilla ice cream, the brilliant new ballad star carrying on UA’s legacy, the joint number one vocalist chosen by Sparklers...”

“It’s not like that, Daeyeon hyung bought this for me!”

“What?”

Jeong Seongbin’s explanation barely held me back from fainting.

“Daeyeon hyung said he used to smoke. He said he’s quit now, but when we said we wanted to do fireworks, he bought us a lighter, saying we’d need one. He taught me how to light it, too.”

“So you’re saying you didn’t become a chain smoker in 5 months?”

“Of course not. I’ve never even touched a cigarette.”

I swept a hand over my startled heart. In the meantime, Jeong Seongbin had lit everyone’s sparklers. They crackled and sparked.

“They say you can leave a letter in the air if you take a picture while waving it around quickly like this.”

“Really?”

At Kang Giyeon’s words, Lee Cheonghyeon vigorously waved his arm in the shape of an ‘L’. It seemed he wanted to express the letter ‘L’, but after a test with the Polaroid, the result made Lee Cheonghyeon’s face look like a masterpiece in a frame with a half-broken window.

“If we make ‘LOVE’, what do the other two hyungs do?”

“Tell them to make hearts on both sides.”

Lee Cheonghyeon’s instructions were flawless. Thanks to him, Choi Jeho and I had to wave our sparklers until our arms felt like they were going to fall off.

The peaceful firework-watching time, the kind you only see in the media, came only after the photo commotion was over.

Park Juu and I sat on the sunbeds and blankly watched the small, firework-like sparks. In the distance, we ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) could hear the sound of waves.

“Juu, did you get some good rest?”

“Yeah.”

“This promotion must have been even harder. With you going to school and all.”

“It was hard to adjust after being away for so long, but... it was fun. There aren’t that many classes.”

Compared to middle and high school, the university schedule was quite relaxed. Unless you were in a highly competitive major or aiming for good grades, you could attend college much more comfortably than in your teens.

“How was college life?”

In the past, Park Juu, like many male idols, had enrolled in a cyber university. Judging by the major name, it seemed like he had picked something decent, and the entirety of Park Juu’s college anecdotes consisted of him saying, ‘I have an assignment...’ a few times.

At my question, Park Juu thought for a moment. He had the same expression as when, a few days after Jeong Seongbin had declared he was going to college, he had said he wanted to give it a try too.

“There’s... a lot I don’t really know. I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t been to school in a long time or because college itself is special.”

“So. Was it hard?”

Park Juu shook his head. His black hair swayed gently.

“It’s fun.”

“...”

“I was flustered because there were a lot of classmates, but Seongbin helped me a lot, and there are singing classes, so... I’m enjoying it. For now.”

It didn’t seem like he was lying. Park Juu had a long history of being unable to tell white lies.

“That’s a relief.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the sparkler I was holding went out. It seemed the gunpowder had all been used up; a small white wisp of smoke rose from the sparkler as if to say its duty was done.