Everything was perfect on the day we left.

Clear skies, refreshed conditions, a lineup that put my mind at ease, and a destination where no unexpected incidents were likely to occur. There wasn't a single thing to worry about. Even if Choi Jeho wandered around wearing FF6600 pants, who was going to notice?

That was why I didn't nag the members while they packed.

I only packed my own clothes...... ah, I did tell them to bring sunscreen and skincare products. But unlike before, I didn't roam around the accommodations screaming myself hoarse.

"You're not bringing towels today?"

Lee Cheonghyeon looked at my backpack with confusion. Normally my bag was stuffed to bursting, so apparently this felt strange to him.

Meanwhile, Lee Cheonghyeon himself had brought an entire suitcase. God knew what he'd packed in there.

"I just packed a few clothes and essentials."

"That's unusual. You're always worried about getting soaked."

"Didn't seem like there'd be any reason for that this time."

Whatever was so funny, Lee Cheonghyeon grinned and left.

After spending all day shooting pictorials, he declared he would recharge in advance so he could play later that evening, then immediately climbed into the deepest corner seat of the van and pulled an eye mask over his face.

"Park Juu, are you sure all of us can really go?"

Choi Jeho glanced around the packed van as he spoke.

Honestly, I was a little worried too. The apartment was large, but Spark wasn't exactly small either.

"It's okay. If there isn't enough room, I'll sleep on the balcony......."

"Not us on the balcony?"

"How could we do that to guests......."

While we carried on the conversation completely seriously, the car continued onward and eventually passed through the tollgate.

After dropping us off, the manager left again for another long drive, apparently to eat grilled shellfish for dinner.

"Juu!"

"Noona......!"

There was the familiar reunion overflowing with affection, and since it was our first time seeing his aunt after the concert, we also gave her a gift to thank her for inviting us.

"No, seriously, what are you eating? Why do you get taller every time I see you?"

"I didn't grow any more, noona!"

Heo Sihu stared at Lee Cheonghyeon in admiration.

Judging from the fact that my radar wasn't going off, even if he had grown, his height probably hadn't changed by a full centimeter yet.

"I watched the April Fools broadcast! You all suited it so well!"

Along with her compliments, his older sister piled Kang Giyeon's arms full of "King. Caf. Ter." merchandise.

"It's not merch from ~Another~, it's from the original series. But I had duplicates!"

"I seriously don't understand why you buy two or three of everything every single time."

"Mom. How many times do I have to say it? For merch, one for use and one for collecting is the standard."

Park Juu looked like he wanted to add something from the side but stopped himself.

Judging by the untouched condition of the merchandise packaging, he was probably about to say something like, You've never even used the 'for use' copy though.

Kang Giyeon carefully tucked the gifts into his bag.

For lunch, we all made sandwiches together.

It was a simple ham-and-egg sandwich they'd apparently eaten often since childhood. No spicy ingredients like onions, and no simultaneously drowning it in ketchup and mayonnaise.

'They probably adjusted it to Park Juu's tastes.'

Blanched sliced ham with the grease and salt removed, low-sugar strawberry jam spread thinly, soft milk bread.

Everything was chosen to be as mild and non-irritating as possible.

Though things changed if someone like Choi Jeho slathered spoonfuls of jam all over it before piling on ham and cheese.

Suddenly, I remembered making sandwiches at daycare.

Was it right after Season 1 of "Idol Annals of the Dynasty" ended?

Compared to back then, these idiots had really grown up.

Both visibly and invisibly.

And on top of that, every single one of them was an adult now.

'Time really flies.'

How many KPIs had we resolved in the meantime?

And how many small missions had there been?

And beyond all that.......

"Jeho hyung, your sandwich genuinely has no soul."

"What exactly are you supposed to do to give a sandwich soul?"

......the amount of time I'd spent with these guys was starting to surpass the time I'd spent stanning them from behind a screen.

It was a bizarre feeling.

"What are you thinking about so deeply?"

Jeong Seongbin held out a sandwich from beside me.

Taking a bite of the bread, I vaguely answered that it was nothing.

After eating, under Heo Sihu's leadership, we all went to a PC café together.

The teams were divided mainly around the experienced players, Jeong Seongbin and Kang Giyeon.

"I'm nervous about Seongbin hyung though......."

Perhaps sensing the aura of a powerhouse, Kang Giyeon requested consideration so that Heo Sihu could coach his side. Jeong Seongbin agreed without complaint.

After completing their rapid crash-course training, Spark sat with their backs turned to each other for the first time since debut.

Civil war broke out in the vast cyber world.

The result was catastrophic.

"Seongbin hyung, that's your smurf account, isn't it?!"

"How'd you know?"

"How could anyone not know?! That's cheating! At least match the ranks!"

"This isn't a situation where rank matching is even possible."

According to Kang Giyeon, Jeong Seongbin was ridiculously skilled.

And considering Heo Sihu—who wandered between us commentating live—said the same thing, Kang Giyeon clearly wasn't making excuses out of bitterness.

"Hyung, you were always stuck in the practice room. When did you even play games?"

"Mostly before I became a trainee. After joining the company, only occasionally when I went home and played with Jeong Seongjun."

"Wow...... how did you not lose your touch?"

Lee Cheonghyeon, who actually understood games, sounded genuinely impressed.

Meanwhile, Choi Jeho and I understood absolutely nothing and merely collapsed face-first into grassy fields or spun in circles in place.

Jeong Seongbin's overwhelming skill wasn't limited to a single game.

Whether it was racing games or games involving exploding water balloons, Jeong Seongbin always dominated.

"Choi Jeho, your character's vomiting."

The defeated characters from the team battle spewed water dramatically from both their eyes and mouths.

Modern game characters really grieved intensely these days.

It was a little sad.

"Hyung, take off your gear."

"No. This is the symbol of my glory."

"Limited items are cheating!"

"There may be honor in the martial world, but no master willingly gives up their inner energy, Giyeon."

Even so, Jeong Seongbin readily removed his golden shoulder pads and his bizarre bug-eyed pony cart.

Heo Sihu explained that the weirder the design looked, the better the item usually was.

If the real world operated that way too, Cyber Spark would've won the grand prize that year.

Honestly, I couldn't tell whether reality was good or bad.

"But Juu performed really well."

"Yeah, Juu hyung was unexpected."

"That's because I trained him early."

At Heo Sihu's words, Park Juu smiled shyly like a little kid.

Apparently there was a reason Park Juu was so good at finding hidden items in bushes, cornering expertly, and escaping water-balloon traps on his own.

It seemed Heo Sihu had taught his younger brother a lot.

After the PC café experience, we split into pairs and spent time according to our personalities.

Lee Cheonghyeon took local resident Park Juu to a bakery to buy the bread he'd regretted not getting last time, while Choi Jeho and Kang Giyeon headed toward the riverside for a run.

I was perfectly willing to join the bakery trip, but......

'You're seriously going there......? Keep the group small.'

'Is it that serious?'

'You need to move compactly. And absolutely do not think about filming anything there. If you want to post a review, do it after you get home. Juu, you understand what I mean, right?'

'Yeah.......'

......Heo Sihu gave that warning with such a grave face that we decided to obey.

The two of them left in a taxi, saying they'd stick to areas with fewer people.

As for what Jeong Seongbin and I did?

"Sir, we'd like to order!"

We went on a food tour.

For round one, we ate spicy braised tofu and mung bean pancakes. Then, after digesting a little, we planned to hit a noodle shop for round two.

Personally, I belonged to the "one meal is enough" faction.

Jeong Seongbin was simply the one who wanted both.

We squeezed into the deepest corner seats and waited for the food to arrive.

Jeong Seongbin hummed to himself. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"You wanted this that badly?"

Apparently he'd come to this restaurant years ago. Since then, he'd never had the chance to return and had regretted it for ages.

He added that even during the Kaisuit schedule, there had secretly been plenty of foods he'd wanted to eat.

"Back then, uncle asked us, 'When are you kids going to grow up enough to drink soju with me?' But now both Juu and I are adults already."

Jeong Seongbin said something very similar to what I'd been thinking earlier while making sandwiches.

People said autumn inspired contemplation, but within Spark, spring fever was spreading like a plague.

"Still, no outdoor drinking. You know that, right?"

"It's not even about indoors or outdoors. Hyung, you honestly shouldn't drink at all if possible."

Jeong Seongbin's expression turned serious.

Thank god the "ginseng means death" notebook was back at the dorm.

I made absolutely sure with my own eyes that Jeong Seongbin wasn't carrying it around.

We demolished the food in no time.

After walking back and forth along the riverside in our hats to help digestion, we went to the noodle shop and ordered kalguksu too.

Jeong Seongbin, who handled spicy food surprisingly well, happily devoured kimchi that literally had warning labels attached.

"It's been a while since I've seen you eat this well. Since the potluck party, probably."

"Well, we've had nonstop schedules lately."

"You know we're going back to university festivals soon, right?"

"Kgh......."

Jeong Seongbin choked mid-bite and immediately started coughing while searching for tissues.

I hurriedly yanked tissues out and handed them over.

They said even dogs weren't disturbed while eating, and yet I nearly killed a whole person.

"Sorry. Eat comfortably. You can exercise once we get back to Seoul."

"That doesn't make me feel comfortable at all......."

Jeong Seongbin clutched at his clothes.

When I started making a huge fuss about going to buy digestive medicine, he calmed me down, saying he was fine and telling me to sit, before picking up his chopsticks again.

It didn't take long for news of Spark being scattered all over Daejeon to spread across social media.

Stories spread in real time about Lee Cheonghyeon standing in a bakery holding tongs while Park Juu manipulated him from behind like a dark wizard to choose bread, and about Choi Jeho buying drinks for Kang Giyeon from a vending machine before trying to walk away without taking the change, only to get scolded relentlessly by Kang Giyeon.

Basically, everyone had been spotted all over the place while running around to their hearts' content.

No wonder the group chat had been so quiet for once.

Since we couldn't let even larger crowds gather, Spark's surprise outing officially ended there.

Jeong Seongbin and I, having somehow eaten two meals, were the last to return home.

"Why'd you buy this much bread?"

"Soohoon hyung bought it for us......."

An unexpected name came up.

Apparently the place Park Juu and Lee Cheonghyeon had visited was near the school.

"We contacted him while we were there just because, and he actually came out. He definitely has no friends."

"So what? Hyung deliberately came out to see you?"

"He looked like he was just going to pay for the bread and leave, so I made him buy drinks too."

Grumbling, Lee Cheonghyeon carried the bread bags over to Park Juu's aunt.

While he proudly showed off what they'd bought to the aunt and older sister, Park Juu quietly whispered to me:

"Cheonghyeon paid for the drinks himself......."

"At least it's good that hyung got to see you this time, since he couldn't come to the concert."

"Yeah."

Park Juu smiled.

From far away, I could hear Kang Giyeon asking which bread was the bakery's signature item.