Parte’s teaser began with a sleek group logo.

Soon after, pretty boys in striking makeup showed their faces one by one.

The matching black outfits on everyone and the smoke lying thick across the floor were impressive.

Under a blood-red moon CG they formed up in formation, and the short teaser ended.

Aside from the bit of awkwardness on their faces as rookies, it was a fine piece.

"...Strong."

Choi Jeho said it. A characteristically terse review.

"What concept would it be? Since it’s the moon, are they werewolves?"

"Feels like the underworld. The group name itself is taken from the Parthenon, so maybe they’re going Greek-myth concept from the start?"

I said that as I dragged the seek bar back to the beginning.

I didn’t have the bandwidth to watch other idols because I was stanning Spark by proxy, but when the concept is this clear you can’t miss it.

"We won’t know for sure until the next teaser drops. Did the next release schedule come out too?"

"...They say next week."

Next week was the week Jang Junhu’s music video would be released.

Ours had no teaser to speak of; it would go straight out.

I couldn’t tell if we simply didn’t have a proper promo plan, or if we were trying to pool even the firepower that would have been dispersed across teasers into the MV.

Even accounting for the difference between an idol group and a ballad singer, comparison was inevitable.

Even though it was only once, having seen a set in person, I could roughly gauge the scale of their set just from the teaser.

So this must be why they say if you’re going to be a servant, serve a great house.

I scrolled down to check the comments.

They hadn’t even debuted yet, but maybe they already had overseas fans attached; half the comments were in English.

Even the Korean comments scattered in between suggested the mood wasn’t bad.

≫ This is why you stick with a major company

≫ The sweet taste of capital

≫ Minil, congrats on debut ♥ Let’s walk only on flower paths!

≫ How does MYTH keep bringing in faces like that... every day there’s a new handsome kid

I could confidently say our team wouldn’t lose anywhere on visuals either.

Led by alabaster-skinned Lee Cheonghyeon, Spark’s strength was that not one of us lagged in looks.

You could accuse me of my vision being blurred after making more than twenty Spark cup-holder sleeves, but I can vouch for this one thing.

Spark has never received those lurid, malicious comments saying we have a “visual hole” anywhere.

What’s a shame is that with a pure civilian like me joining, this group might not even be granted that honor.

Then the obvious problem would be capital.

As trends grew more important in the entertainment business and the scale of investment in idol projects changed, the public’s relative evaluation bar climbed every year.

It was good we’d moved Spark’s debut schedule up to narrow the gap with early movers like Parte, but comparisons between groups were unavoidable.

≫ Honestly Spark’s MV... pretty lame. UA looks like it is spending, but it still looks cheap

≫ I can accept saving money on stage outfits, but please don’t skimp on the MV ㅠㅠ You can’t keep coasting on the kids’ faces forever

≫ The company just doesn’t want to spend money on anything unnecessary ㅇㅇ Even if they shoot it like sh** and put it out, fans will praise it, so why spend lol This is all a mess the fandom brought on itself

└ Wow, blaming the fans for this? lol └ㅇ┐

And this was just from the comments I saw while compiling Spark comment-collection clips.

And now a head-to-head comparison with a major-scale rookie?

I could already see people pasting four or five background screenshots from the MV in a row and gleefully blasting them around the community under the title “Reality of a mid-small company.”

The “mid-small” image itself wasn’t bad. If a company is actually small, what can you do.

And it’s not like there are no cases of debuting from a mid-small and succeeding.

But repeatedly planting the image that “the company doesn’t invest in the group” was dangerous. That alone makes fans feel fatigued.

I might be someone who’ll leave before long, but Spark is a group meant to run for seven years. In times like this you have to think long-term.

Which meant getting a budget out of the company somehow was crucial.

If push came to shove, I was going to beg them to pour into the MV every won we saved by having Lee Cheonghyeon write the song and Choi Jeho and Kang Giyeon make the choreography.

Otherwise, forget seven years—how would we even last seven weeks.

F***... thinking back on disbanding at the seventh anniversary still makes my blood boil.

Whoops. Thinking too hard about the group’s future dredged up memories I didn’t need.

Time for deep breaths to find peace.

For mental stability I handed over the phone, and Kang Giyeon and Jeong Seongbin started reading the same comment window I had open.

Lee Cheonghyeon joined immediately; the three of them read the comments with faces growing stiffer.

"They get hate comments even when they’re this cool... and it’s still just a teaser."

"This is a love-it-or-hate-it too? Was I the only one who liked the sound?"

At the same time, they were grinding down their mental fortitude.

Left alone, they looked ready to spend all night leaving positive comments under Parte and then get interrogated about whether that was viral seeding.

Kang Giyeon’s face in particular had gone ashen.

"If they get this many negative comments even before debut... after debut..."

"Hey, give me the phone."

"Ah, okay."

"And starting from debut day you’re banned from monitoring and from searching your own names. Got it?"

"What?"

That was close. Monitoring another team and almost dragging our whole team into the swamp.

I decided to carve three high-risk monitors into my brain.

Even if I get dry-eye syndrome reading comments, I’ll do the monitoring myself.

"Lastly, please share your resolve going into this stage."

"I’ll do my best. Please cheer for {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} us...!"

"Cut!" 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

When I called cut, Kang Giyeon in training clothes swept a hand over his chest and let out a sigh.

The two of us were, as always, in the middle of the smash-hit nightly “Kang Giyeon mock-interview special.”

And after a whole four weeks and three days, Kang Giyeon had made remarkable progress. A midsummer-night-dream kind of miracle.

"You know this was the first time you made it through the interview to the end without your hands shaking once?"

"Really?"

Kang Giyeon looked surprised. I told him to check for himself and played the recording.

Diction good, volume good, lines good. That’s a big step forward.

His gaze was a little unsteady and the answers were mechanical, but those are things we can fix with practice.

▷ Content: Help a member grow

▷ Reward: EXP (10)

▷ Accumulated EXP: 95

▷ Accumulated Points: 0

+

See? Even the system counts it as a success.

That was clear proof Kang Giyeon’s stats had gone up.

Maybe he could see the change himself; he couldn’t take his eyes off the camera screen.

"There’s still a lot to fix. You know that, right?"

"Yes. Especially my gaze... it’s almost on the floor."

"Practice will fix it. Starting tomorrow, let’s try it while paying attention to other things too."

After pointing out the next tasks, I folded up the tripod we’d set on the floor.

Maybe I should get a broken camera from somewhere and set that up instead of a phone camera next time.

Even at Jang Junhu’s MV set there were multiple cameras. The pressure from those lenses can’t be compared to a smartphone’s fingernail-sized camera.

I was even starting to long for the camera Manager Nam bought because he wanted a commemorative photo at a summit stone when, from behind me as he was putting away chairs, Kang Giyeon spoke.

"Uh, hyung."

"What?"

"Where did you learn this?"

"Kh-hem, huh?"

When I turned, Kang Giyeon’s face was pure and innocent, with not a hint of malice.

He didn’t even realize he’d stabbed a returnee’s weak spot with a blade honed a hundred times.

My heart thrashed like it had been jabbed with an awl.

"Learn... I didn’t learn it. I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t practicing in conditions close to the real thing help?’ and worked out a bit of a plan."

I did learn it. By taking my boss as a negative example.

But Kang Giyeon didn’t let it slide so easily.

"For that, you point things out awfully meticulously. And the points you pick change every time."

"Maybe I just have good eyes? Everyone always says I seem to have a good eye."

"Hmm."

Try onboarding several dozen new hires and running orientation. Your pupils will split.

Still, I couldn’t be honest, so I brazened it out instead.

"What, you don’t trust my training policy? Want me to put on speech-training videos from MeTube starting tomorrow?"

"I’m sorry."

Thankfully, Kang Giyeon backed off right away.

Maybe my character has degraded a bit, but it couldn’t be helped.

What if they figure out I know what’s going to happen and then drain me for information and toss me.

Can’t have that. I’m going to stick to you like a leech to the soles of your shoes.

"Do you think you can handle plain shooting, not interviews or stage? The profile shoot is coming up."

Right.

The profile shoot that would go up on portals after debut was coming soon.

If not for that, I wouldn’t have kept the badly sleep-deprived, still-growing Kang Giyeon here this late.

"If it’s just taking photos, I think I can manage to some extent. I did fine when we took ID photos at school."

Ah.

That photo where you couldn’t find a smile even if you washed your eyes and looked again?

I thought of the high-school ID photo from Kang Giyeon’s student days that would later become famous as the never-again Grand Duke of the North of the ID-photo world.

If he himself likes that kind of stern impression, then it doesn’t really matter how the photo comes out.

Fans like any photo as long as the features are clear.

But he himself didn’t really like those kinds of photos.

This bunch is all like that, but he has the kind of face that’s easy to misunderstand if he keeps his mouth shut.

"Are you sick? No, Sparkler. I’m in a good mood today. ...Does my expression look really stiff?"

"No, Giyeon! Don’t lose heart! It’s just the camera quality is bad today! Right, everyone?!"

I could see Lee Cheonghyeon trying his best to comfort Kang Giyeon whenever expressions came up and Giyeon drooped.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll let him off just because that’s how his face was born.

As long as he wants correction, I’ll hook a rubber band to the corners of his mouth and make him a smile machine. I’ll engrave the hardships of social life onto his face.

I was about to make him "greet the members every morning with a smile," when Kang Giyeon said:

"I’ll practice taking photos by myself some more."

"Think you can do it?"

"Yes. You should go in early today too, hyung."

For a second I wondered if he was being considerate and telling me to turn in early, but this was that Kang Giyeon.

The guy who left me sprawled on the practice-room floor until 11 p.m. wasn’t about to bestow sudden kindness.

Well... early or late, I’ve got work wherever I am.

If I stay long in the practice room I practice more, and if I go back to the dorm I work, so my actual rest time doesn’t change.

"Alright. Let’s call it a day."

I couldn’t just send the kid off alone, so I wrapped up practice around then too and packed my things.

A few days later, I had no idea Kang Giyeon would come back wearing a radiant smile.