Finding out where the accident happened was a huge breakthrough.

I even went there at dawn the moment I woke up.

The paint wasn’t peeling as badly as in my memories, and the utility poles weren’t as rusted either.

Seeing a banner declaring the district an excellent place to live instead of one searching for witnesses to a traffic accident felt strangely surreal.

My face had turned red from the winter wind, and my skin had gone dry enough to flake white, so the moment I got into a taxi I started slathering on moisturizer.

Showing up at year-end performances with chapped skin? That was unacceptable for Spark.

After fully restoring both warmth and moisture inside the taxi, I returned to the dorm.

A few lights that I’d definitely turned off before leaving were back on.

“Where’d you go so early in the morning?”

“Walk.”

“You seriously have insane stamina. You just finished a concert yesterday.”

Kang Giyeon, the first member awake among the five, greeted me.

“......?”

His gaze followed me persistently the entire time I walked to the kitchen for water.

“What?”

“Did something happen?”

The sharp lift at the corners of his eyes looked downright intimidating.

Didn’t matter how calm his tone sounded. The atmosphere felt like an interrogation room.

Last time he got like this, he immediately tattled to Jeong Seongbin afterward.

I really didn’t know when his instincts had become so sharp.

“Something did happen.”

“What?”

“We don’t have enough time to prepare for the year-end stage. How many hours do you think we’ll actually get to sleep before D-day?”

“Don’t think too hard about it and just go to sleep when night comes. Worst case, we’ll prop you up in a chair.”

“So your plan is to store me in a corner somewhere?”

“Didn’t you say before that you’d rather retire with dignity than make the members wonder how to pack you away?”

“Your memory’s improved. Is it because of the vitamins?”

“Or maybe it’s the power of repetitive learning?”

Kang Giyeon didn’t let a single comment slide.

Our childish argument only ended when Park Juu woke up looking like the Grim Reaper.

Fortunately, the concert hadn’t ended as just a self-satisfaction event for Spark.

The concert we fought tooth and nail to put together was received with overwhelming praise.

≫ When’s the encore concert?

You could bring the exact same set list and nobody would complain

Please just hold one

└ Seriously, I wouldn’t even care if the comments were identical tooㅠㅠ

└ The set list was genuinely goodㅋㅋㅋ I don’t think people would react badly even if they reused itㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

≫ The sound quality was insane

I’ve been to a lot of concerts, so I don’t say this lightly, but Spark’s concert had the best audio I’ve ever heard

I was confused at first, then I remembered the company and immediately understood

└ There are seriously so many audio reviewsㅋㅋㅋ How satisfied was everyone?

└ Sparklers are basically the only reason UA has survived this long

└ This level of sound quality... at an idol concert...? That’s the kind of quality you hear maybe once or twice at overseas tours...?

≫ I know there were lots of strengths, but I hope people recognize how important it was that there were no safety accidents too!

People always complain about terrible concert safety standards and security treating fans like terrorists, but everyone kind of accepted it as unavoidable

This concert really made me realize that companies actually can prevent a lot of these issues beforehand......

Let’s stop acting like suckers and confidently demand the right to enjoy concerts safely!! We’re paying customers too!!

└ A single flower of hope blooming among event managements that acted like fans didn’t even deserve human rights

└ Even if another fandom tried recruiting me, I wouldn’t even glance their way

≫ Right. Singers are supposed to sing live.

I forgot something that obvious

└ A group that wins with MR instead of AR

└ The harmonies sounded so good...... legendary

At this rate, we might genuinely hold an encore concert around next spring.

Next time, we should reorganize the units.

We already did the anonymous mailbox event, so maybe next time we could prepare mini games or something.

There were events beyond work-related matters too.

Lee Cheonghyeon’s college entrance exam results had been released.

Even though he had schedules in the afternoon, he quietly went to school that morning, picked up his score report, and came straight back.

Then he silently handed a small piece of paper to me and Jeong Seongbin.

≫ So our boy was actually a real genius

A future scientist with STEM blood flowing through him

└ No but Kim Iwol kept going “my kid’s a genius” so I thought he was just being dramatic again

└ Sorry for doubting you, Iwol. You were literally just stating facts

≫ Lee Cheonghyeon is the real deal

He actually took Biology II in science electives......

└ Judging from taking Chemistry I and Biology II, he seriously went all in on memorization + calculations

└ His dad’s a chemistry teacher and chemistry was the only subject he got a grade 2 inㅋㅋㅋ the irony

└ My teacher teaches geography but geography was the only subject I completely bombedㅋㅋㅋ academic ability doesn’t transfer down perfectly through genetics I guessㅎ

≫ Cheonghyeon didn’t have time to carry books around while traveling, so he just memorized entire answer sheets without the workbooks

How does information still go into his brain studying like that...... what kind of brain structure does he have?

└ Once again realizing gifted school entrance exams aren’t something just anyone can prepare for

≫ Seriously, Spark is such a weird group when you think about it

The composing member did two comebacks + a survival show + a concert while preparing for the college exam and still got low grade 1s

But his score is only second place within the team

└ At this point aren’t they just a study group?

└ Still, I hope this flow of conversation doesn’t spread too muchㅠㅠ It could sound like people are downplaying Cheonghyeon. Getting low grade 1s is already insanely impressive!

└ Yeah people should just go “Cheonghyeon did amazing~” instead of “Wait someone in the team scored even higher??” because then fans of different members start fighting

└ Exactly. People are already saying stuff like “2wol only got grade 1 because he studied full-time, but QPB got 1.2 while promoting so the latter wins”...... why can’t they just say both are amazing?

After working so hard he even got nosebleeds toward the end, Lee Cheonghyeon finally saw his efforts rewarded.

He maintained the exact same scores he had gotten on the September mock exam.

When he came back after taking the exam, he acted so calm that I assumed he’d messed it up and deliberately didn’t ask. The little brat was unbelievably shameless.

The night his scores came out, the two of us stayed awake all night narrowing down schools for applications.

He’d already picked out several departments beforehand, so it wasn’t too difficult.

“Write all the dates down properly. Don’t wait until the deadline to apply, and submit everything the very first day applications open if possible.”

“Ugh, okay already.”

Even while grumbling, Lee Cheonghyeon listened surprisingly well.

I wanted to teach him how course registration worked too, but if I went that far he might start getting suspicious, so I held back.

Instead, I promised him I’d sincerely pray for him until acceptance announcements came out.

“So next year, everyone in our team will finally be adults?”

Lee Cheonghyeon asked in an excited voice.

“You wanted to become an adult that badly?”

“Of course.”

“Why?”

“Because all the hyungs are adults.”

“Just because of that? Wait, did you think me telling you guys to sleep early so you’d grow taller meant I was treating you ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ like immature children?”

“Can you say that accurately? You only do that to Kang Gyeon.”

After firing the words off rapidly, he grinned like a kid.

“Younger siblings naturally think everything their older brothers do looks cool.”

As someone with an older sister, it wasn’t exactly hard to understand.

So I nodded immediately.

With the year-end performance concept approaching, Spark threw themselves into meetings with fierce determination.

At a stage where the attention of all K-pop fans would be focused on us, heated debates broke out over what exactly we should show.

“Since we already have an established identity, wouldn’t it be better to emphasize that?”

“Haven’t we already shown enough of the team image? I think it’s time to try something new.”

Apparently still thirsty even after the concert—the planning meetings had started before the concert even happened—the members brought in an absurd number of references.

One of them even wanted to fly on wires.

“Guys, let’s first think about what can realistically be done in four minutes.”

I even reminded them this wasn’t an individual stage...

“Hyung, they said our stage time is eleven minutes.”

...The year-end festival had actually handed us over ten full minutes.

A solo stage too, with absolutely no collaboration performance attached.

The broadcasting station’s message was crystal clear:

Give us something as impactful as the “IRREGULAR” stage.

Since we were suddenly allowed to do basically everything we wanted, the meeting got even more intense.

Additionally, Choi Jeho received an invitation to a special stage gathering the centers of several groups.

Calling it an “invitation” was a bit generous considering it was basically mandatory participation, but since refusing wasn’t really an option anyway, we decided to think positively.

After the announcements wrapped up, I picked up my planner and stood.

Then Jeong Seongbin leaned close and whispered into my ear.

“Sunbae Minil isn’t coming.”

“At all?”

When I turned around, Jeong Seongbin nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t the other seniors get confirmed too?”

Even though only the two of us remained, Jeong Seongbin still lowered his voice.

“They’re supposedly going into a self-reflection period.”

“Official statement? Or speculation?”

“I heard MYTH’s putting out a notice tomorrow.”

Looks like they’d sent a signal saying they would handle things internally, so people shouldn’t escalate the issue further.

“That’s unusual. Normally companies ignore things unless they become huge scandals.”

“It was a huge scandal.”

“Wasn’t their initial response trying to frame it as ordinary senior guidance?”

Parte’s first official response regarding the year-end festival issue had been:

“We will do our best to ensure there is no cause for concern.”

They separately conveyed apologies to UA, but the public apology statement mainly focused on apologizing for making Parte’s fandom, Naos, uncomfortable.

UA and the Sparklers reacted fiercely.

UA especially.

≫ UAㅋㅋㅋ You can literally feel the rage in their statement

Starting off with “we deeply regret MYTH’s announcement”ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ Seriously, Kim Iwol got attacked and Sparklers demanded the apology, so why are Naos the ones getting comforted?

└ I’ve never seen companies openly throwing hands like this before so it’s kind of shocking, but UA...... they may be small-time, but they say what needs to be said. Not polished, but the anger comes through loud and clear

└ Until now sloppy apologies probably worked, but it’s time for industry customs to change...... if you screw up, bow your head properly and pay the price

≫ Write properly what people are actually worried about~~

Write that you’ll strictly control Parte so they don’t pull more crap on Spark, the victim group~~~

└ They’re basically treating all criticism as delusionsㅋㅋㅋ Minil’s side harassed the boys for an entire year and now fans are supposedly “overreacting”?

└ Don’t say “please trust us” (X)

Say “this is exactly how we’ll handle things on the day of the festival” (O)

Take notes

After getting publicly called out, MYTH got dragged twice as hard.

Things stayed quiet for a while afterward, so I assumed they were waiting for the controversy to die down with time.

But apparently not.

‘Just how many faxed complaints did they receive?’

Either way, not having to see that irritating face anymore was good news.

I gave Jeong Seongbin a thumbs-up.