Kind hearted Park Juu apologized the very same evening after the argument. Since they were in the middle of promotions and overloaded with schedules, he seemed unwilling to drag negative feelings out for long.

But whenever the cameras were off, Park Juu looked gloomy. Even though he tried not to show it, he couldn’t completely hide the discomfort on his face. How many years did he think I’d spent watching Spark?

“Park Juu, you’re not eating?”

“Yeah...... I’m not really hungry.”

Choi Jeho urged him a few more times, but Park Juu skipped the meal in the end.

≫ 2X03XX Sanho Art Hall fan meeting

Bright era Juu is going down as legendary visuals

└ The Juu you photograph is always the best

└ ㅠㅠㅠThank you for always taking such pretty pictures of Juuㅠㅠ He looked so beautiful this time I didn’t want to miss a single moment, so I’m happy I can see all these!! ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

└ He captured his peak at Sanho Art Hall! He is in his prime!

└ Park Juu is the idol of Sanho Art Hall. Everyone loves him.

└ Park Juu is the best. Have you seen Park Juu’s “Bright”?

└ The exposure must be insane if even the blue check AI accounts are swarming the fansite;;;;;;

≫ So this is what adulthood looks like

So this is what a grown man looks like......

└ Feels like sexy and gentleman are split exactly 3:3

└ Kim Choi Park : Jeong Lee Kang

└ Kang Giyeon looks the most delinquent out of all of them, but the second you put him in a suit he turns into a ridiculously cool male lead and it drives people insane

└ What the hell happened to Park Juu

└└ This concept suited him absurdly wellㅠㅠ I usually only watch dance line fancams but for “Bright” I watched Juu’s fancam the most

└└ He didn’t even have weight to lose, but looks like he slimmed down more...... Is his health okay?

≫ Forget everything else, their atmosphere is cheating

There are six unbelievably unique faces you almost never see in the idol industry, each with different individual colors + a shared overall vibe so they still feel unified

But honestly, their greatest blessing might be the fact that despite looking like that, none of them are delinquents

└ That last line is the point

└ Guys, it’s not too late yet. Don’t regret it later. Just stan them now.

└ There’s always a reason older fans love them

Even amid all the praise, Park Juu slowly continued losing weight. If the manager forced an energy stick into his hands, he would spend the entire day sucking on a single packet. Only after Jeong Seongbin personally watched him finish it would Park Juu finally be released.

Once an issue gained momentum, no individual could stop it anymore. All of us understood that too much attention had become poison for Park Juu, but Spark had already reached the stage where each member individually received the spotlight beyond just group promotions. Park Juu could no longer avoid it either.

≫ Spark’s Park Juu certified by a former classmate

I thought he looked familiar and turns out we went to the same elementary school

First time someone I know became a celebrity. Kinda wild.

└ A classmate of Rock Juu......? What kind of good deeds did you do in your past life

└ Rock Juu made it this farㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ Rock Juu is a legend

Among rock music fans, Park Juu was already known by the nickname “Rock Juu,” and now his previously hidden school life began surfacing through testimony from a former classmate.

≫ I’m the one who made the Park Juu classmate post

I had no idea this would blow up like this;;;;;;;

There are tons of comments asking how I didn’t recognize Juu hyung sooner, but honestly his personality wasn’t like this back then

He was insanely quiet and always alone (another classmate who’d been in the same class said they never exchanged a single word all year), so everyone who knew his name thought it was just another person with the same name

Some people barely remembered him because he hardly came to school

But one thing’s certain, he definitely did NOT have the personality for idol lifeㅋㅋㅋㅋ The school wasn’t even that big, so I ran into him a few times and never once saw him smile. Guess he had an unusual aura even back then

≫ I literally showed the album already, what more proof do you idiots wantㅋㅋㅋㅋ Damn

My friend stole the class photo

Is this enough now?? Nobody believes a damn thing, all suspicious for no reasonㅋㅋㅋ

People are calling it an “unusual aura,” but honestly like someone else said in the comments, he was closer to being socially maladjusted

There’s a reason his classmates barely remember him

Logically, if you attended school together for six years, you should remember someone at least a little

The moment a label attached itself to someone, the words of the people pushing that narrative gained power. Even people who knew nothing about the situation found it easy to throw in comments as they passed by. In this case, “socially maladjusted” became the keyword.

As soon as schedules ended, we gathered in the dorm living room because of the newly ignited controversy. Even within that short time, the number of posts had exploded.

≫ Honestly the classmate isn’t even wrong

Park Juu really does suck at socializingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ ? What are you basing that on?

└ Sorry, I don’t talk to solo stans ㅈㅅ

└ At least solo stans are still fans, why are you dragging another idol into this after abandoning your own fave?

≫ I’m surprised so many people are shocked hearing Park Juu has poor social skills......?

I thought everyone knew and was just pretending not to notice

Shocking...... You guys didn’t all secretly agree on this without me, right?

≫ Don’t people whose bias is another member all know why Juu can be kind of a painㅎㅎ

Always gets hair and makeup done last

Permanent passenger seat privilege

Got a solo stage in the survival program finals

└ When you live in a group, people naturally make sacrifices and accommodate each other sometimes. And this is what you turn it into......ㅋㅋ You’ve never lived with other people before, have you?

└ Then why does only “one specific person” keep receiving all the accommodations~

└ Stop insulting him like this over the fact that cosmetics make his skin itch so he gets makeup done later

└ The members decided all that among themselves and people are nitpicking anyway...... Don’t call yourself a Sparkler anywhere

└ The members themselves say Juu is the /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ most considerate one, so what kind of bullshit is this...... Have you even watched their self content?

└ Do you have any proof besides those three things? Feels like someone who’s never even bought a Spark album got bored and started dogpilingㅋㅋ

└ I joined the fandom during “Third Letter,” and everyone suffers equally, but only one person keeps getting babied, so I’m speaking up^^

└ Funny how people saying this always claim they joined during “Third Letter” like they rehearsed it together...... Do they think people will believe they got emotional over a fan song and joined the fandom? Who becomes a fan after watching exactly one concert clipㅋㅋ Especially someone who wasn’t already a fan listening to a fan songㅋㅋㅋ What would they even know about the group’s storyㅋㅋㅋ And it’s hilarious they picked a digital single no one can physically verify owningㅋㅋ

└ They completely erase the fact that the members practiced instruments for an entire year just to perform as a band and call it a “solo stage”ㅋㅋㅋㅋ So who exactly is downplaying whose efforts here?

It was true that Park Juu had some unusual tendencies. But those were simply personal traits. So what if Park Juu sat in the passenger seat because the others didn’t get carsick? So what if he did his makeup a little later when commute times were all the same anyway? These people probably never even considered that Park Juu was the one tolerating the more oblivious members.

The others felt the same way I did. They gathered around Park Juu, comforting him, telling him not to take those opinions too seriously.

Then Park Juu answered calmly.

“......They’re not wrong.”

“What?”

Choi Jeho asked back.

“I said they’re not wrong.”

“.......”

“I really am socially maladjusted.”

Park Juu’s completely casual response shocked Jeong Seongbin more than anyone else.

“Why would you think that? What exactly haven’t you been able to do all this time?”

“I couldn’t even go to high school. If it weren’t for you, Seongbin, I probably wouldn’t have gone to college either.”

“Juu.”

When I called his name, Park Juu looked at me.

“Not everyone has to go to school and learn the same things. Some students replace compulsory education with homeschooling, and lots of people never attend college at all. You know everyone lives differently in society.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

Park Juu bit his lip.

“I’m talking about being pathetic enough that if it weren’t for contractual relationships, I wouldn’t be able to make even one friend, and how I don’t want to do anything alone. That’s all...... my problem.”

“.......”

“Is it normal to refuse using blankets that aren’t white, hate anything spicy or salty, or feel like I have to tear apart the entire dorm to clean it? Is it normal that before I can wear a bracelet, I have to put a band around my wrist first......?”

Park Juu tugged at his bracelet with his fingertips before letting go. Every now and then, when he wore only the bracelet without the wrist band underneath, scratch marks still remained on his skin.

“Not everyone needs to make lots of friends. Everyone has colors they like and foods they hate. What matters is whether you’re living well.”

“Even when you hyungs and the younger members get hurt because of me?”

Maybe because his emotions had surged, Park Juu’s voice rose.

“Most people can’t understand. The members only understood because they’re nice. Even I know that much.”

“It’s not because they’re nice. It’s because there was never anything serious enough to clash over.”

“.......”

“Everyone makes that much compromise for each other. That’s how group living has worked this whole time. You do the same thing too, Juu.”

If the dorm didn’t meet his standards of cleanliness, Park Juu chose to move himself. He always asked for understanding first, then personally handled the cleaning and laundry. The members becoming a little cleaner themselves was a change too, if one wanted to call it that, but everyone was satisfied with the cleaner environment now.

And despite being that sensitive, Park Juu always slept wearing an eye mask so Choi Jeho could turn the lights on at night if needed. None of the members had forgotten how Park Juu cooked hangover soup for me after I filled the dorm with alcohol smell insisting on drinking whiskey, or how he rushed all the way from Daejeon to Seoul because he worried about Lee Cheonghyeon despite becoming completely exhausted whenever he rode in cars.

All of us knew how kind he was.

So why didn’t he?

The others crowded around Park Juu. They told him they had never considered him a burden, and that they knew exactly how hard he worked for both the members and the fans in countless different ways.

In the end, Park Juu burst into tears.

Not tears from hurt feelings, but tears because he could not shake off his guilt.

That was what made it even harder to watch.