Before filming, just like in Season 1, we went around other groups’ waiting rooms to greet them.

The atmosphere was warm overall. Instead of childish posturing, there was mostly encouragement. It felt fitting for teams that had survived several years in the entertainment industry.

“Why are you all coming around one by one like this? Thank you! Nice to meet you!”

...One group, in particular, showed unusually enthusiastic goodwill. It was Ond.

“Mr. Kiyeon is our school junior! Did they finish building the cafeteria? They said they’d build a new one right before we graduated.”

“With Spark here, the waiting rooms feel packed. How big is your room? Same size as this one?”

“Mr. Jeho, did you get a fixed-cast offer from Unmanned Rest Area yet?”

Ond was the first group to have memorized all the Spark members’ names upon first meeting. We didn’t know what to do with the excessive interest and felt a bit overwhelmed.

The Parte waiting room, which we visited last, was still chilly. The only one welcoming us was Han Gawoon.

“Cheonghyeon, I heard you don’t go home much these days?”

I had no idea where Song Minil heard that, but he tirelessly picked a fight with Lee Cheonghyeon. Even after getting completely destroyed on a quiz variety show, he was still shameless. It made me wonder if his memory was just genuinely bad.

“I barely manage to stay in touch because of my schedule. Still, I hear a lot of news about you through my brother, sunbaenim!”

Lee Cheonghyeon didn’t lose and landed a blow on Song Minil. The guy who used to say nothing when family matters came up suddenly pulled the “Your brother talks about you to my brother?” card.

Song Minil probably fell for the provocation because he knew Lee Cheonghyeon was rumored as the “idol whose whole family attends prestigious universities.” An idol junior saying “Please take care of my brother!” at KAIST—how heartwarming must that have seemed?

It was written all over Song Minil’s face that he wanted to know what had been said. Cheonghyeon just smiled brightly and pretended not to notice.

After returning to our waiting room, I approached him and asked quietly.

“Do you keep in touch with your brother?”

“No.”

That was when I realized Cheonghyeon had been bluffing.

“Ah, did you think what I said to the sunbae was true?”

“Uh...... yeah.”

“It was a lie. He texted a few times, but I didn’t reply.”

Lee Cheonghyeon spoke calmly.

“He seems to be trying in his own way, but like you said, hyung, I’m going to take some time. Not that I hate him or anything, just.”

“Right. Your feelings are the most important.”

When I patted his shoulder, Lee Cheonghyeon grinned.

“For now, I already have four hyungs. If that’s not enough, I’ll think about it later!”

“I don’t think you’ll be lacking anytime soon.”

“Right?”

He joked around, then ran off excitedly when he heard that the custom in-ear monitors had arrived. With how light his steps were, it looked like he was practically floating despite his tall frame.

Not long after Spark’s appearance on Idol Annals of the Dynasty was confirmed, UA suggested getting us custom in-ear monitors.

Clueless about how much Sparkler demand there was for custom in-ears, these guys tried to decline the company’s generosity, saying what we already used was good enough. I practically shouted at the top of my lungs that I would send the desired designs by next Monday.

Me

[bat.ly/re8]

[Link to image reference site]

[Decide on keywords and colors and report by today, attach three reference images each by Saturday]

Cutie Pretty Visually Lee Cheonghyeon

[I can send this right now today]

King of Cuteness Kang Giyeon

[Color Black // Keyword Match or Firecracker or Birthday Cake Candle]

Cutie Pretty Visually Lee Cheonghyeon

[Eh

Too cliché]

King of Cuteness Kang Giyeon

[Let’s see how amazing yours is]

Spiritual Pillar Jeong Seongbin

[Hyung, can I organize and give it to you by tomorrow?

Instead, I’ll do the final compilation!]

Me

[It’s not urgent so take your time~]

Center Emperor Choi Jeho

[Me red]

Me

[You didn’t read my text, did you]

20-Year-Old Metal Marble Park Juu

[Message deleted.]

Me

[Juu, I saw that

You didn’t read my text properly either, right]

20-Year-Old Metal Marble Park Juu

[Sorry...... 8ㅅ8]

After all that chatter, the members each settled on designs they liked. The design team produced clean final drafts, and everyone kept pestering Manager Chanyoung about when the in-ears would be ready.

At last, those in-ears finally revealed themselves to the world. On a TV program capable of dozens of captures filmed with high-definition cameras!

“Wow!”

Admiration poured from Lee Cheonghyeon’s mouth as he opened the case.

“Is this mine? It came out exactly like the mock-up!”

“Yeah, it turned out really nice.”

Jeong Seongbin didn’t hold back his praise either.

Lee Cheonghyeon’s in-ear sparkled as if covered in a hologram, with pink points scattered on a pale blue body. The color theme was hologram; the keywords were round-cut diamond, glitter, and high jewelry.

Park Juu had six small gray dots in a line on a pure white in-ear. I thought he would go with plain white without patterns, so I was surprised he put a design on the right side.

“How is it? Do you like it?”

“Yeah......”

Park Juu nodded at Jeong Seongbin’s words, fiddling with the round gray dots.

My in-ear, right next to his, was black as if dipped in glossy all-black paint. It was an in-ear fitting the philosophy of “Simple is Best”.

At least Jeong Seongbin—borrowing Jeong Seongjun’s mouth—advised that putting a slight point would be better than being too plain, so I added an extremely dark wave pattern. Dark navy waves with thick particles crashed, visible only under light.

Just as everyone was about to take their in-ears, the stylist’s hand blocked us.

“We need to do post-processing today.”

“Pardon?”

Does the buyer do the post-processing, not the company?

This isn’t Hanpyeong Industry, what kind of “labor is cheaper than automation” logic is this?!

Leaving me in shock, the stylists took out a bunch of things. Scissors, knives, and mother-of-pearl stickers printed in the shape of in-ears.

“There’s an opening stage concept, and I thought the picture might be disrupted if everyone wears something different. Usually, we don’t touch in-ears, but considering harmony, giving unity seemed better. Show the new in-ears on the next stage.”

They also added that if we didn’t want to put stickers on the new in-ears, we could work on the existing ones. We gathered and discussed it, but since the newly fitted in-ears had better performance, we decided to use the new products. Stickers wouldn’t wear them down anyway.

Dressed in stage Hanbok, everyone looked like a bodyguard who could hold their own in the neighborhood. The only problem was that we looked like we might dance something other than choreography.

“Have we ever performed with all six of us having black hair?”

Lee Cheonghyeon said, looking around the waiting room.

“No. Because idols—”

“—should act as if they’re going to put every color chip in the world on their heads. I memorized it, I do.”

Kang Giyeon applauded Lee Cheonghyeon for imitating me. It felt like the two of them had teamed up to tease me. I chose to believe it was just my imagination.

Once a well-crafted mask was placed in Kang Giyeon’s hand, all preparations were complete.

Following the announcement that filming would start soon, we moved to the set together.

The set in Season 1 was very ordinary. This time, though, you could tell at a glance that it was different. Compared to the typical survival show sets used before, the effort was on a whole other level.

I expected the production team to have prepared somewhat diligently this time. Because the program got criticized enormously even before it started.

≫ If you don’t have a brain, just read along

You guys didn’t get popular because you did well, you were just lucky as hell

≫ If you know this was almost the cringiest survival concept ever and barely survived,

do better this time, please.

I’ll pretend the first episode was a pilot and let it slide.

≫ Boring as hell broadcast

It’s back, not even dead

The higher-ups seemed to think Season 1’s success was because their program itself was fun, but in reality, it wasn’t.

Season 1 was basically a case of sitting still and somehow having the enemy general’s head roll over to you.

Budget distribution finished, casting done, and broadcast time set, but with the atmosphere shattered, the production team was in a situation where they had to save the program somehow.

Thanks to that, the set’s look and filming equipment improved significantly. Based on what I saw during rehearsal, just adding a window lattice pattern to the background made a huge difference.

I also liked that the seats for the cast were decorated like dancheong (traditional Korean decorative coloring). It was annoying knowing they could’ve done this all along and just hadn’t, but I decided to let it go—at least fans would get to see their groups looking good now.

As recording began, Season 1 winner Parte entered first.

“Are we the first?”

“Hello, we are Parte!”

“What are you doing when no one’s here?”

“I’m nervous!”

Their comments drifted over from beyond the waiting stage. I’d expected them to lean into a confident, second-time contestant concept, but apparently not.

“Did they judge that the MYTH-brand heavenly image and the Joseon Dynasty background don’t match?”

It wasn’t my business, so I didn’t dwell on it. Right now, my conduct was more important than those Parte guys’ new concept. Since cameras were everywhere around me.

Other groups were guided to enter in alphabetical order, perhaps to prevent controversy. Since Spark was the last in order, we had to send off the seniors leaving one by one with cheers.

From the moment Blider entered, Parte’s comments didn’t stop.

“Sunbaenim, it’s an honor to meet you!”

“Is this for real? Seriously?”

“My heart is pounding.”

It’s been ages since the press release, what do you mean for real? Of course, you should be respectful to seniors in the same field to avoid backlash, but still.

Even though being polite was good, a sense of déjà vu kept creeping in. This suspicion peaked when Ond went out.

“Hello, we are Ond!”

“Ond sunbaenims are coming out?”

“Did we come to the wrong place...?”

Words excessively elevating the other party and lowering themselves.

Humility about not being good enough to compete with such seniors.

However, seeing them repeating the same expressions from a certain point because it wasn’t sincere......

“Seems like they caught the wrong concept?”

......I realized Parte ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) had come out with a solidly wrong image.

And it felt like it was aimed squarely at Spark.