—

≫ What the hell is even happening right now?

So, PRT was acting all buddy-buddy with AO while trashing SPK, and PRT’s fans kept shielding them until they finally jumped ship, threw salt on their way out, and deleted their accounts??

└ They basically just blew up everything they’d been turning a blind eye to

└ The remaining fans are saying it’s disrespectful to the artist they once loved, but the idols were the ones who were disrespectful to the fans firstㅋㅋㅋ I totally get how those ex-fans feel

≫ Spark must have been so freaking frustrated this whole time

The ‘didn’t greet seniors’ incident → Got trashed due to fake testimony + media play

Appearing on Idol Annals of the Dynasty S2 → Not by choice, got dragged there by the hair, then got trashed again for supposedly making the previous season’s winner’s position awkward

Concept and stage got stolen → then the issue got blurred and public opinion manipulated so only Spark fans looked oversensitive, and they got flamed again for ‘acting like only they get to use youth’

└ At this point, their entire promo period is just getting unfairly screwed over

└ On a side note, it’s honestly impressive how they managed to thrive despite getting hate so regularly

└└ Their mental strength is no joke... Except for Banana and Octopus, the others don’t seem that tough

└└└ Seeing stuff like this makes me realize that for a group to last long, the eldest or the leader really needs to hold the team together. Look at AO—the oldest member is out here doing drugs

└ It’s not a ‘miracle of a small agency’; it’s a miracle that a small agency managed to get them. UA should be grateful Spark is their idol group

≫ I seriously don’t know what MYTH was thinking

Did they lose all their big-company pride? Copying Kim Pep’s one-trick bomb move and not even feeling ashamed?

└ Naos are truly something else. Acting like they did nothing wrong and blaming it all on the ‘agency with no pride that copied a small-company junior group’;;;;

≫ Minil, if you’re that envious of UA, just change your stage name to Minilwol and ask them to take you in.

Who knows? Maybe they’ll let you debut as Spark’s junior group

└ ???: You want to come to our company...?

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ it’s just an imagination but I can already see Spark’s awkward facesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That’s cruelㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

—

Except for a few posts saying ‘This sudden switch is disgusting’ and ‘Spark isn’t even that great’, the overall mood completely flipped.

≫ What is this, I stayed quiet and stuff just keeps floating my way

└ A gentleman’s revenge doesn’t even take ten years

Only the Sparklers, who had been sighing in relief because their boys weren’t doing drugs, were left bewildered. Once they realized the full story, the Sparklers started a festival using all sorts of party memes.

“Thank goodness...”

Park Juu, who had just downed some calming medicine, breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been able to calm down ever since he was pressured by the swarming reporters.

It was a relief he was feeling better after resting for a few days. If he hadn’t, I would have staged a one-man protest in front of the newspaper office, even if it meant getting my face plastered on the front page of internet news. I saw all the agency stickers on those cameras, I knew who they were.

“What will happen to Idol Annals of /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ the Dynasty?”

Kang Giyeon asked.

“It’ll probably proceed as planned, right? No one was caught doing drugs in this season. The place identified as the ‘drug exchange hub’ was another broadcaster’s year-end stage, so that station might be the one skipping this year’s end-of-year show instead.”

For us, our names were cleared, so we had nothing to lose. Besides, we traded our entire second-half comeback for this activity. If it collapsed halfway, it’d hurt us too.

“The sunbaenims might voluntarily drop out.”

Those who knew the inside story would know the blame wasn’t only on Parte. It was common knowledge that Parte had been operating without much autonomy, and it was hard to believe the agency’s influence wasn’t involved.

However, the public’s perception was different. To them, it was simply: ‘So you’re saying you copied another group’s work!’ nothing more, nothing less. The public opinion they had been happily using as a shield was now blowing back as a headwind.

It’d be great if they dropped out on their own, but if they insisted on staying till the end, it would turn into a battle between agencies. I was ready to accept either outcome.

To skip to the conclusion: Parte did not drop out.

It seemed they thought quitting the program at this point would look like an admission of guilt. Besides, their overseas votes weren’t looking too bad.

Whether it was for comparison, out of spite, or to support their bias, people watched Parte’s videos a lot, which resulted in high view counts for their position battle fancams. Han Gawoon, who took first place in the vocal category, gave his acceptance speech with great difficulty.

“Thank you for taking good care of Seongbin.”

When I greeted Han Gawoon as he headed back to the waiting room, he gave me a small smile.

Back at the dorm, I hesitated for a long while before calling out Choi Jeho.

“What?”

“There’s something I want to ask.”

Judging that it wouldn’t be a short conversation, Choi Jeho pulled out a chair at the dining table. I looked at him and asked,

“You know that hotel staycation you went on?”

“Yeah.”

“Did your sister like it?”

Choi Jeho’s expression changed to, ‘Why are you asking that?’.

“She liked it, I guess. Though she did nag me for spending money on weird things.”

Even if he didn’t know the reason why I was asking, he answered sincerely.

“...What, you planning on going to a hotel or something?”

Is that the question you want to spit out after looking like you were going through fifty thousand existential crises?

I wanted to ask just how low my credibility was in his eyes, but out of gratitude for the guy who made a big decision for the team early on, I answered kindly.

“If I find my sister, I want to send her there too.”

“...”

“I heard Ms. Jukyung went with her classmates recently, so it seems like a popular thing to do. I don’t know much about that stuff, and a review from someone who’s actually been there is the most reliable. You go with your friends often, right?”

Choi Jeho, who had been slouching indifferently, straightened up. He asked for my phone, pinned a hotel location on a map app, and handed it back.

“Don’t know which floor, but they’ve got a big pool.”

“An infinity pool?”

“Dunno. My mom, noona, and Choi Miho went together, and they said it was nice.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

“In a world where dating rumors sprout just by stepping into a lobby, what kind of talk do you think would start if I went to a pool?”

Common sense actually came out of Choi Jeho’s mouth. I was shocked.

“You’ve really become a celebrity, haven’t you?”

“Just how much of a hopeless case do you think I am?”

Choi Jeho snapped at me. Even so, he provided a detailed review by his standards.

“The bed is good. Great nap.”

“Is it noisy?”

“I was asleep, so I don’t know. Ordering food to the room was meh though.”

“Why? Was it expensive?”

“No matter what you ordered, they gave you a portion the size of a fist.”

“That must have been disappointing.”

I wrote down everything Choi Jeho said in my planner without missing a single detail. He waited until I finished writing, and once I closed the planner, he left, saying he’d head out if that was all.

Gu Jahan:

[I heard some idols got caught doing drugs?]

Me:

[Not many, just some of them.]

Gu Jahan:

[I heard they were people you were on a program with.]

Me:

[We weren’t on speaking terms with them!]

After the incident settled down, I suddenly got a message from Gu Jahan.

Gu Jahan:

[Wild stuff]

[There are a lot of crazy people]

[Be careful]

For a moment, I wondered if he was doubting me, but fortunately, that wasn’t it. Please, don’t make my heart drop with texts like this. I checked every messages three times like I was playing Bubble Pop because I never knew when or where a screenshot might start circulating.

Still, I couldn’t deny that he was looking out for me in his own way, so I expressed my gratitude with a long message.

“Hyung, can we start the meeting?”

Right after I sent the text, Jeong Seongbin gave the signal to assemble. It was time to prepare for that headache of a department store performance. Given the gravity of the situation, we held an emergency strategy meeting before the broadcast filming.

Despite their passion, the members’ complexions were sallow. It seemed they had all tried to find a solution, but coming up with a countermeasure wasn’t easy.

“The dedicated team narrowed down potential filming locations. They said this kind of event is more common overseas, so there aren’t many candidate department stores in Seoul.”

“Did they look for references globally...?”

Park Juu tried to phrase it kindly. From my perspective, it just looked like sloppy research. They probably watched a few outdoor performance videos and threw something together.

We reviewed the materials the team had gathered. After the videos finished, Kang Giyeon spoke with a worried voice.

“If the vocal hyungs hit a high note, it feels like a piece of equipment will tear itself apart.”

“If I shout while rapping, the mic’ll probably explode, right?”

Faced with terrible audio conditions, the guys put their heads together. Watching this, Park Juu opened his mouth.

“...Would it be a ‘cheat’ if we just didn’t sing at all?”

Following Lee Cheonghyeon, whose way of thinking had become almost identical to mine, Park Juu had now reached the same conclusion.

To overcome a poor environment, one of the things you must do is strip away unnecessary elements. No matter how good an orchestra is, it’s not easy to hold a concert in the middle of a traditional market. Where would you get the chairs, and where would you put the instrument cases?

There are many causes for bad audio, but if proper audio support is difficult, it’s right to reduce the elements you need to worry about.

The MR track might skip, now imagine all six of us using handheld mics. We’d be lucky if we didn’t end up passing mics around mid-performance.

“If we’re worried about the MR cutting out, shouldn’t we be singing as much as possible? Even if the MR stops, if we keep singing, people will call it a ‘live vocal flex’ instead of a broadcast accident.”

“You can prove live vocals even without a broadcast accident. An accident is an accident. I think it’s right to minimize variables as much as possible.”

“But I don’t think we can ignore the possibility of the MR cutting out. It happens quite often.”

Jeong Seongbin said while jotting down Lee Cheonghyeon’s feedback.

“We’ll need a site visit and coordination, but... we just need to choose the equipment with the lowest probability of failing.”

“Don’t we have to use the equipment Idol Annals of the Dynasty provides?”

At Choi Jeho’s point, Kang Giyeon nodded.

“There’s something better than that. Something easier to operate and capable of producing volume on a much larger scale.”

“What is it?”

I looked at Lee Cheonghyeon, who was ready to write, and answered.

“The department store’s Public Address system.”