The introduction to jazz dance was not easy. Park Juu, Lee Cheonghyeon, and I frequently failed at the movements where we had to roll on the floor and stand back up, ending up in a tangled mess like a clump of matted hair. Jeong Seongbin would often have to suppress his laughter as he came over to rescue us. It was a mystery why Park Juu struggled so much after even helping create the choreography.

Regardless, we eventually pulled it off. Maybe not elegant enough to be called refined, but we succeeded in becoming swans, at least. The joy of completing the entire piece for the first time without a single mistake was indescribable.

Having put out a result born of blood, sweat, and tears, I naturally found myself scanning the audience’s reactions.

“How was our stage?”

Jeong Seongbin, who was the first to grab a microphone, asked the question. Small voices of support saying they loved it drifted toward us. It wasn’t a common sight, so everyone shared a silent smile.

“The song you just heard was ‘Hi’ by Milly Frown, released in 1998. As you heard, instrumental tracks without vocals are frequently found in jazz concerts. I’m glad we could show it to you in such a unique way.”

After a short music introduction and closing remarks, the fourth competition was over. I finished my assigned lines against the backdrop of calm music suitable for an exit.

“I hope you have a day filled with the joy of the present. Thank you for being with us.”

As I bowed and then lifted my head, I finally caught sight of the railings on the upper floors looking down into the hall. Beyond the safety marshals, people were packed tightly around the railings.

Realizing that busking performances made it impossible to prevent spoilers, the IDC production team uploaded the official fancams the very next day.

New regulations were also announced, stating that duplicate voting—the center of controversy every round—would be banned and invalidated. It seemed they realized that if they took any more hits to their reputation, the program might actually be canceled.

Thanks to this, Won Chaehee was able to enjoy the new content that had piled up during her overtime work with a slightly less irritated heart.

When new content dropped, fandom reactions usually followed a certain pattern. Won Chaehee, who had unknowingly become a veteran Sparkler herself, now understood these habits perfectly.

First, they aggressively appreciated Spark’s transformed visuals.

≫ Who dipped our boys in a gold mine and pulled them out?

There’s gold dust sparkling on their faces?

Their hair has turned yellow?? They look like the secret gold bars of a jewelry shop owner who’s been in Jongno for 70 years???

└ I saw the ‘gold dust’ comment and thought, ‘Oh, just typical fan exaggeration~’ but is there a German word for the embarrassment I felt when I saw actual gold dust in the site photos?

└ The clothes are simple, but the glitter is SOOOOO flashy that the ‘beauty of empty space’ the outfit was supposed to give has completely vanished.

≫ I love Jeho, but I never once thought bright silver hair would suit him. After seeing Ash Grey Jeho, I feel like I’ve wasted 20 years of my life... Why haven’t you given us bright hair until now?

└ I love Kiyeon, but I never imagined platinum blond on him, ah...... Kiyeon, was our loyalty really only this much? Are you telling me Iwol never once suggested platinum blond to you? There’s no way Iwol wouldn’t

└ Sparklers have told you time and time again that if you listen to your hyungs, you’ll get jjolmyeon even in your sleep

└ A Sparkler has run out of space to nag

≫ Brown-haired Seongbin Protection Society is back

The blond ombré in the middle is so good I might actually die

└ Jeong Seongbin’s hair needs to read the room and grow back brown

└ Seconded, and Lee Cheonghyeon’s hair needs to read the room and grow back gold...

└ I thought I wouldn’t see blonde Cheonghyeon after the mission, but thank you for coming back with an even brighter gold... I love you...

≫ So you’re saying the people who went to Hyeondae Department Store yesterday saw that for free?

They didn’t do ticketing, didn’t pay money, and didn’t wait in the audience queue? Does this make sense??

└ Calm down and tell us what you want

└ To whoever took the previews, please upload them immediately

≫ I’ve been staring at a single photo of Juu for over 30 minutes. Is this normal?

└ The concentration required to observe one photo for three hours...

└ The concentration required to observe one photo for three hours...

└ The concentration required to observe one photo for three hours...

└ You guysㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s scary, stop sending the same mentions!ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠㅜㅠㅜ

Next come the unfiltered emotional reactions from people who actually saw the stage. These posts rarely formed complete sentences.

≫ Ha.

≫ I can’t believe my eyes.

Even on Won Chaehee’s private account, it was the same. Everyone communicated using forehead-slapping emojis, sighs, ironic profanity to express joy, or rough memes screaming immense love.

Coherent posts only appeared after this period. People clutching their throbbing heads would desperately try to explain why and how they were so overwhelmed.

≫ Jazz served by Spark? You can’t see this just anywhere

This closet jazz maniac is crying... I thought I’d never understand the phrase ‘being full without eating’ but I understand it today

└ More than anything, the fact that Choi Jeho choreographed the pair dance is way too stimulating for my heart to handle

≫ They’re not kids who don’t know that it’s hard to get intense reactions with a lyrical song, so seeing that fearless challenge alone is amazing

And the fact they pulled it off this well makes me proud tooㅠㅠ I’ll be a Sparkler forever

≫ It looks like they dubbed the audio over the video, but could people hear the sound well on site? This looks like a dance you absolutely have to watch while listening to the music.

└ Looking at the reviews, the atmosphere on site was super quiet. They said it was almost like a radio broadcast.

└ Radioㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

There was one peculiar thing, though. Pictures of Kim Iwol were appearing much more frequently than usual.

In performance-heavy stages, Choi Jeho and Kang Giyeon usually took the spotlight. Even during the group reveals, the boards were plastered with Kang Giyeon’s middle school videos, trainee videos, and his IDC Season 1 random play dance.

But this time was different. There had already been talk that Kim Iwol wasn’t bad at dancing anymore, but the posts now were clearly on another level.

≫ When did Kim Iwol become a man......?

Wasn’t our Iwol the Snow Queen of Spark, Seongbin’s loyalist, the master of handmade notebooks, and the lazy grasshopper of the Firestorm High baseball team?

└ Something that isn’t human is tucked into the end there. But seriously, when did Kim Iwol become a man...?

≫ He said they’d do a sexy concept only after the younger ones’ ID card ink dried...

I guess he wanted to do it all himself. You greedy guy

≫ No matter how I look at it, the outfit and choreography aren’t aiming for sexy, but watching it feels strange

It’s a really weird video... I lie down to sleep and I keep thinking about it

└ Why isn’t there a solo fancam for Hi?

└ They said because it was busking, they’re only releasing the stage video this time.

└ Tasteless b*stards, these people don’t know how to farm views.

Kim Iwol with ash blond hair, performing a slow dance and owning it like it was made for him, caused a massive ripple among Sparklers. Three way split gifs with slow motion effects and perfectly captured screenshots of his languid expressions poured out nonstop.

‘Did he go into secluded training or something?’

Won Chaehee knew well that Kim Iwol didn’t have time to go all in on dance practice. It hadn’t been long since she saw his Bubble Pop message saying the Exclusive Report filming was over. It was impossible they weren’t monitoring the situation, too.

He was relentless. The fact that he showed no sign of hardship, yet conveyed just how much effort he put in without saying a word. And the fact that Kim Iwol himself probably wouldn’t want that kind of reaction.

‘Kim Iwol, I hear you loud and clear.’

As soon as Won Chaehee got off the subway, she bought two cans of high caffeine drinks at the convenience store in the station. She downed one can immediately in front of the convenience store trash can. Holding the remaining can, she ran diligently.

‘Tonight, I’m going to turn you into the main masterpiece of an art fair!’

That night, Won Chaehee truly managed to salvage twenty moments as precious as gold amidst her blurry vision.

From those, four carefully selected photos were elegantly packaged, using her sleep hours as fertilizer. With less time to shave jaws and smooth skin, she poured all her effort into blowing out the background and preserving natural color tones.

Won Chaehee was only able to fall asleep with two hours left before sunrise. These photos would, in the near future, ascend to the honorable position of ‘photos found with suspiciously high frequency in idol fan galleries.’

During Idol Annals of the Dynasty Season 1, the contestants lived together in a dorm leading up to the final stage. This event was intended to be the same for this season.

However, the communal lodging plan was scrapped a week before filming. In a way, it was inevitable.

They couldn’t skip gathering the cast since they had to film the 4th competition ranking announcement, and since the live broadcast schedule was set, they couldn’t skip filming content to be aired before then.

So the IDC team decided to proceed with separate group only content after the ranking announcement shoot.

First, in the 4th competition, Spark took 2nd place by a narrow margin. Slay, who showed a massive performance with dancers in Daehak ro, took 1st. It was a year end stage level spectacle.

Parte took 5th place. Compared to the firepower their fandom had shown previously, it was a significantly low ranking. However, Song Minil didn’t voice any complaints even after the slate was struck.

After the ranking announcement, we headed to a large tent decorated with fairy lights. It was a bit contrived to have six tents just sitting there indoors, but since filming outdoors in this weather would turn us into rotisserie chickens, we decided to accept it quietly.

Ond, a 9 member group, resisted strongly, saying, “Humanly speaking, shouldn’t you give our team two tents?!” They threatened to make the two people who lost at Rock Paper Scissors sit outside, but fortunately, everyone was able to fit into the large tent.

Even for us, a 6 member group, we couldn’t exactly use the space lavishly.

“Should we all fold our legs a bit? Kang Giyeon, you can stretch your feet out!”

“Uh, it’s cramped, so you should fold your legs into three sections.”

“Cheonghyeon said that because he’s worried about your knees, not because of your height, Kiyeon...!”

Park Juu stopped Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Giyeon from bickering. He used to panic whenever sharp looks were exchanged between members, but recently he’d been trying to mediate. This guy, who had finished his growth spurt, was growing every day. I’m proud of ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) him.

A lamp shone brightly in the middle of the tent. From a corner of the flickering light, Jeong Seongbin pulled out a small envelope.