“Can’t even play a joke. Jeho hyung, turn the slide. Hurry!”

Right before my eyes rolled out of my head, the normal PPT came back. I took a breath and slowly read the words on the screen.

Spark’s Goal: Show a new side

Success Factor of Season 1’s 2nd Competition: Stages with excellent aesthetic elements

Summary: We need a bold song choice paired with flashy, beautiful costumes and stage design.

On the right, the text was bracketed and labeled, ‘Cool Spark’. Up until recently, I thought I was raising a tiger cub. It turned out I was wrong. Apparently, I had been raising a unicorn... or something like that.

“I get what kind of image you want to show. ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) What song do you want ‘Cool Spark’ to perform?”

Kang Giyeon cut straight to the point. Lee Cheonghyeon spoke solemnly.

“I’ll be blunt.”

“.......”

“I want to sing a musical number.”

“What?”

Click-man interrupted mid-slide turn. Our reactions weren’t much different.

“Musical is......”

Jeong Seongbin trailed off. He probably wanted to say the vocalization was completely different. However, Lee Cheonghyeon couldn’t possibly not know this fact. Hence, he didn’t feel the need to finish the sentence.

“It’ll be a tough challenge. Honestly, I’m not even that confident myself!”

“But you still want to try...?”

“It won’t be easy, but I’ve made a plan to pull it off.”

The next slide showed a huge August calendar. Everything up to mid-August—the scheduled recording date—was packed and marked.

“We’ll pour all our remaining time into vocal practice. The blocking won’t be too complicated, so if we base it on our usual choreography schedule, we can learn it in two days. For originality, I’m not planning to rearrange the song, so we have plenty of time for harmony distribution.” 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Lee Cheonghyeon spoke without even stopping to breathe.

“In dance songs, it’s hard for all the members to sing the same long phrase together, right? The parts switch fast, and the melodic sections aren’t very long. Don’t you think it’d be cool to sing together from start to finish?”

The members’ gazes turned to me.

There was a clear difference between what others hadn’t done and what they didn’t do. And I thought musicals were the latter. There was a reason why renowned idol vocalists received new training when moving to the musical market.

Even if we copied the blocking perfectly, the evaluation wouldn’t be great. In a genre mixing drama and song, what meaning is there in just singing without highly immersive acting?

I agonized over whether it was really right to support Lee Cheonghyeon’s idea, knowing we’d probably get criticized.

‘But if we think about our goal as performers, this is the right move.’

Spark, dressed in antique-style costumes and singing a musical number, probably wouldn’t happen again. You can’t just strip performance out of a dance group.

So, I also thought there was nothing better than this for the purpose of ‘showing a new side’.

“There are two points to consider. First, Jeho and Giyeon’s opinions. Second, regarding the results. The burden will be heavy for the dance line, will it be okay?”

“If it’s decided, we do it.”

“I’m fine too. During the showcase, the stage leaned too much into performance anyway.”

Fortunately, the sandpaper dapper gave commendable answers. They became dance specialists because they danced excessively well, not because they couldn’t sing, so there was no need to worry about skills.

What remains was the result.

“I’m against placing significance solely on doing something new. Even if we take on a challenge, the result must be satisfying for the viewers.”

In other words, we couldn’t let people say we were treating musicals lightly or just fooling around.

If we released a song ourselves and it flopped, Spark and UA would take the hit.

But if we messed up on broadcast, the fans would be the most hurt. They’d see the mockery and criticism in real time.

Unless it was for self-content that we watched among ourselves, the stage to be put on broadcast must be at a level not shameful for others to see.

And Lee Cheonghyeon immediately understood my intention.

“I won’t let anyone be disappointed.”

Thus, Spark’s theme for the 2nd competition was decided as a musical.

Spark got a new vocal coach. From the moment we opened our eyes to the moment we closed them, all we did was sing.

Park Juu adapted fastest to this routine. With no time to work out, he managed his physique through diet and sang day and night like it was second nature.

“I wish it were like this every day...”

He was so happy just practicing the basics that Jeong Seongbin and I worried he might suddenly announce he was leaving for the musical scene.

Lee Cheonghyeon was bursting with energy too. The first time we all sang the same phrase together, you could see the excitement on his face.

Conversely, there were guys who became haggard day by day. Choi Jeho had it the worst. His voice didn’t go hoarse—maybe the vocal training helped—but not moving his body drove him crazy, doubling his irritability. If we hadn’t brought a Smith machine into the dorm, someone would have died caught between Choi Jeho’s frowns.

Though he pretended not to be, Kang Giyeon was in a similar state. His stifled feeling was visible to the naked eye. When told to go run on a treadmill, he would strongly decline, but after about 5 minutes, he would say “I’ll go to the gym for a bit...” and leave.

“You guys really can’t live without dancing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Originally, we were different species. Now I can understand you guys.”

I worried they’d suggest acrobatics for the next stage, but decided to enjoy the moment.

A stage without dancing, how precious. Sorry for being a hopeless idol......

While basking in happiness, Lee Cheonghyeon called me over.

“Hyung, can I see you for a moment?”

“Yeah.”

For once, he looked serious. On his laptop were several performance videos of the numbers we planned to cover.

“We’ve got a problem.”

“What is it?”

“Juu hyung’s voice might stand out too much.”

It was a really big problem. Park Juu’s tone was like a human electric guitar, a treasure. In Spark’s songs, where parts were clearly assigned and even harmonies had a lead, his uniqueness was a huge asset. But now that we needed blend and harmony, that same uniqueness became a liability.

“We can’t just give hyung all the solo parts either.”

“True. We need to think about this.”

We put our heads together to figure out what to do with our proud tone fairy.

“What if we lean into his individuality instead... would that stray too far from the original?”

“Our goal isn’t to copy the performance exactly, so maybe that’s okay?”

“I’m just worried people will say Juu sticks out too much.”

I didn’t want Park Juu to be humiliated. Watching me rack my brain over this, Lee Cheonghyeon said:

“Are you anxious?”

“About what?”

“You’re extremely concerned about getting criticized. You’re usually all about preparing so no one says anything bad. But right now, you just seem worried.”

“...”

“If you can’t shake it, should we change genres now?”

He didn’t look happy suggesting it. He wasn’t worried about the same thing I was.

This offer was just for me. Not for the team or the fans. It was basically asking if I wanted him to back off a step for my sake.

“Do you think I’ve gotten too defensive?”

“A little.”

“Huh.”

“The old hyung was desperate to ensure we had no shortcomings. Now it feels like you just don’t want us to get hurt.”

He wasn’t wrong. My head and heart were full of worries.

Not because I didn’t trust them, but...

‘They say it’s easy to get mental illness if you become a celebrity.’

....Mom’s words came back to me.

After having my own mental state shattered, all I could think was that I didn’t want them to go through the same thing.

I hadn’t meant to show it, but I must’ve let my guard down. While I was reflecting, Lee Cheonghyeon spoke again.

“Hyung.”

“What?”

“There’s no one trying to be an idol who thinks they’ll never get hate.”

He rested his chin on his hand and looked at me.

“Yeah, it’ll be hard when people tear you apart. But it’s not like we’ve never imagined that. If it happens, we’ll say it’s hard. You don’t have to handle everything for us. You know we all get counseling now, right?”

“Not everyone can immediately recognize when they’re struggling. There might be times we need help right away.”

“If you’re worried about that, talk more. Either threaten that you’re watching as usual, or since it takes a lot of effort to care about every detail, order us to make regular reports. Don’t use up all your energy alone.”

His black eyes stared at me as if piercing through.

“If you’re worried, I wish you’d say you are. After seeing Lee Suhoon, I’ve been thinking about this even more.”

“...”

“I’m saying this because I’m worried about you, too, hyung.”

I forgot for a moment because I had a lot of work. That there was no one who read the members’ mood better than this guy.

I laughed bitterly. When did the guy who once ran away because he didn’t want to debut with his own song grow this much backbone?

“Fine. You’re still not checking fan sites, right? If I catch you on any shady forums, I’m telling the manager to switch your phone to a kid’s phone. And you know you’re the one who’s late to team meetings the most, right? You keep saying we should talk more, but you don’t show up to talk. I’ll be holding a hearing about that soon, so prepare yourself.”

“Ah, that’s because of work!”

Lee Cheonghyeon protested loudly. His excuses were neatly ignored.

Going back and forth between ‘Idol Annals of the Dynasty’ and the drama was surprisingly manageable. Not having big choreography practices when filming got busy helped a lot.

‘If the third round is a position battle, Park Juu will go out, so I’ll be free until the end of this month.’

Compared to Season 1, where we couldn’t even breathe, we had more people to prepare and fewer issues. It felt like pure luck.

Thanks to Lee Cheonghyeon boldly announcing, “We’re starting a mental health survey to ease Iwol hyung’s worries,” we even had a group session to check our happiness levels.

It was quite embarrassing, but since I gained peace of mind and body in exchange for shame, I figured it wasn’t a losing deal.

And with things settled around me, there was something I needed to check.

I opened the system window and reread something from long ago.

 [SYSTEM] ‘Final Achievement Reward’ is notified.

▷ Nullification of noona (blood relative)’s death and provision of reunion opportunity

 ‘System.’

When I called it, the screen flickered for a very brief moment.

About this expression... ‘Reunion’ opportunity, I think you need to explain it clearly.