It had been thirty minutes since the only sounds in the room were the scratch of writing, the rustle of pages turning, and the tapping of keyboards.

Baek Haewon, about to stretch, caught sight of a chat window completely flooded with “ㅋㅋ”.

≫ Jeho, that’s enough now, seriously, stop already

≫ ㅋㅋㅋㅋGiyeon, get up and go grocery shopping, say Sparkler told you to

≫ How do both of you lose focus in under ten minutesㅋㅋㅋㅋ And me too......

On the screen, Choi Jeho pushed up his glasses every five seconds, his brow furrowing each time. The page didn’t seem to move at all.

Kang Giyeon wasn’t any less intense. One hand pressed to his forehead, the other holding a pen, he looked more serious than anyone. The pen shook mercilessly in his right hand.

≫ What is it about English that makes people suffer like this

≫ Choi Jeho, it’s not too late, switch books

≫ This live... how long is it even going to last

≫ The Produce line isn’t moving at all

≫ You guys can do it ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

≫ If Seongbin had studied like this, he wouldn’t have just won a gold medal

Those watching the lonely battle from afar were busy eating popcorn. Everyone was only interested in who would be the first to drop out.

The glorious title of “Spark’s Least Compatible With Studying” went to...

"Hey, what did you say you wanted to eat?"

...Kang Giyeon.

Surprisingly, Choi Jeho merely cleaned his glasses for the third time and kept his gaze on the book.

"Pizza."

"How are we supposed to make pizza right now? There’s only cabbage in the fridge."

"Pizza."

"You need to suggest something realistic. And the calories—"

"I’m taking the CSAT!"

"You think I’m not just because I don’t want to?"

Only after being hit by Seongbin’s glare did the younger ones quiet down. With a single sigh, Kang Giyeon stepped out of frame.

≫ ㅋㅋㅋㅋGiyeonㅋㅋㅋ He’s looking up recipesㅋㅋㅋㅋ

≫ That posture is basically MasterChef judgeㅋㅋㅋ

Far away at the kitchen table, Kang Giyeon stood with both hands planted on it, staring down at his phone. Even from a distance, his shoulders looked as wide as Baek Haewon’s kitchen sink.

‘A lot of you said you wanted Giyeon in animal pajamas, so I looked into it? I even bought one, but there was a shoulder issue, so we couldn’t put it on him. The shoulder line didn’t fit, the seams popped upward. Giyeon’s shoulders are wider than they look.’

Kim Iwol’s «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» long-winded explanation from some past live—“Just how wide are Kang Giyeon’s shoulders?”—suddenly came back to mind...

Heaven could be so unfair. Why was it that the online lecture he’d watched just two hours ago didn’t stick at all, but a live stream from three months ago was this vivid?

Baek Haewon pulled himself together. Thankfully, the other Spark members also returned to their tasks without idle chatter.

At some point, the dorm’s front door opened. Curious, but Baek Haewon stayed focused on his Korean history workbook.

And after a while—

≫ ㅋㅋㅋㅜㅠㅠ Our Jeho is stretching dough behind himㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ큐ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Having finished organizing his wrong-answer notes, Baek Haewon looked up—and saw Kang Giyeon, half-hidden behind a massive shopping bag, and two thick arms in midair pulling at dough.

In the short time Baek Haewon had been immersed in studying, a lot had happened with Spark. So much, in fact, that the chat alone wasn’t enough to understand it—you had to rewind and watch.

Choi Jeho, who had seemed quietly pleased at Kang Giyeon’s early elimination, dropped out immediately when the fifteenth foreign character appeared.

After a hurried discussion in the corner of the screen, the two left together. An hour later, they returned, arms full of groceries.

In the meantime, Park Juu had finished all his homework. With nothing left to do, fans suggested he translate lyrics from songs he liked.

The problem was that Park Juu was a true rock enthusiast who had memorized the lyrics to every song he loved. When it came to rock, there wasn’t a single song whose lyrics he didn’t know.

It seemed like he wanted to share tasks somehow, but rather than disrupt the concentration of the three glaring at their work, soft-hearted Park Juu chose to step back.

On his way to the empty kitchen, he stopped at the table and picked up a memo.

The surprise note, also shown to Sparklers, read:

Next person to drop out

Could you lay some parchment paper on the table?

They said we need to roll the dough.

Park Juu diligently spread parchment paper on his own. He even took out a large bowl.

After wandering around for a while looking for something, someone fast-forwarded—and at some point, he was wrapping plastic wrap around a cardboard tube.

With absolutely nothing left to do, Park Juu wandered around holding the gleaming tube under the fluorescent lights—some viewers found it a little unsettling—when the dance line returned from grocery shopping.

At 10 p.m., while half the members studied with burning eyes, a pizza party began in the kitchen.

The three communicated entirely through gestures. It seemed they didn’t want to interfere with the purpose of the broadcast. That was why Baek Haewon hadn’t noticed anything strange for so long.

While Kang Giyeon repeatedly shrugged both shoulders as if asking what was going on, Jeong Seongbin rubbed his eyes. He stood up, grabbed some eye drops, and trudged back.

"If your eyes hurt, stop there. Lost eyesight doesn’t come back."

Kim Iwol firmly pulled him out. Seongbin uploaded the compiled notes to the group chat and shut off his tablet.

The camera shook briefly, then the angle changed. Now only Kim Iwol and Lee Cheonghyeon were shown, sitting straight on, focused on their work.

Soon after, a notification popped up: Spark’s live had started.

Checking it revealed a cooking live from the pizza team. Seongbin whispered:

"Since we’ve got more dropouts, we turned on another camera so you can see everyone. If you like quiet studying, watch Iwol hyung and Cheonghyeon. If you need ASMR, watch us!"

"Can’t you watch both at the same time?"

"Iwol hyung said you can use the multi-view feature."

While Choi Jeho and Jeong Seongbin chatted, Baek Haewon calmly turned on his charging tablet. The screen was already small—what was the point of splitting it? Good things should be watched big.

Silent or noisy, it didn’t matter. Just don’t leave me alone in this barren land of studying...

Spark was serious about making real pizza. While Seongbin washed the cloth, the sound of Jeho mercilessly kneading dough pounded against Baek Haewon’s eardrums. If not for the soothing sound of Park Juu slicing paprika, he might have had nightmares all night.

Kang Giyeon took full command of the scene. His determination to gift his friend the best homemade pizza was obvious.

Whether Jeho tossed dough into a stainless steel bowl or not, Kim Iwol and Lee Cheonghyeon didn’t budge. The typing sounds remained steady—neither increasing nor decreasing. Some even wondered if they were just practicing typing.

≫ Don’t people usually pause when they think?

≫ Even in typing practice, you make mistakesㅋㅋ

≫ This is insane, neither of them even looks away once

≫ So this is what it takes to get top grades...

≫ My mom must never see this

≫ Please never appear on my parents’ algorithm again

≫ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

≫ Let’s ace the CSAT~~!

While Lee Cheonghyeon read the answer key and Kim Iwol typed away, the dough went into the oven.

"I’ll run it on fermentation mode for about 40 minutes."

"What should we do while we wait...?"

"Should we take some questions for the first time in a while?"

At Seongbin’s suggestion, the three tried to head to the youngest members’ room—but—

"Isn’t there no space in their room...?"

—Park Juu’s comment forced a change of location. Two sat on the floor, two on Jeho’s bed, and they began reading the chat.

"They’re asking if Jeho hyung changed his glasses."

"Yeah. Was it the day before yesterday?"

"It was three days ago...!"

"Jeho hyung stepped on them and they snapped in half!"

Listening to this incredibly entertaining episode through audio alone brought tears to Baek Haewon’s eyes. They had agreed to study together—no one said anything about leaving him to study alone while they had tea time.

Even as he felt betrayed, he also felt happy. Watching himself like this, Baek Haewon memorized vocabulary.

contradictory... contradictory...

While the older and younger members stayed focused, the remaining ones held a full Q&A party. Over forty minutes, the viewer count swelled like dough in the oven. Even fans who had planned to just watch highlight clips flocked in for the cooking content.

With his hoodie sleeves rolled up, Park Juu pushed the dough with the plastic-wrapped tube, while next to him, Jeho began stretching dough with his bare hands. It was the exact scene Baek Haewon had witnessed after finishing his notes.

"Aren’t you being too stingy with the cheese?"

"It’s promotion season... Doesn’t it still look like pizza?"

"It looks like something made by a stingy owner."

At Kang Giyeon’s comment, Seongbin dumped a heap of mozzarella onto it.

"We can’t look stingy in front of Sparklers...!"

Park Juu hurriedly added more toppings, looking slightly flustered. It seemed he feared it might turn into a triple-cheese explosion pizza.

And on the other side...

≫ Guys, please look at Jeho too

≫ Choi Jeho, the master of cooking

≫ The owner is generous, and the pizza is thick

≫ This place is actually famous for Chicago pizza

≫ I want the pizza baked by that owner

...Choi Jeho—the master of cooking, a man who had mastered the essence of Chicago pizza, a generous chef who had never once made a pizza lacking toppings—was, with all his might, creating a rapidly aging monstrosity of a pizza.