Kang Giyeon doubted his ears.

The gentle voice and warm eyes were strange enough, but the conversation topic Park Juu had chosen was exactly the kind of thing you’d hear at a fan signing.

It was so natural he might have memorized the whole script, but there was one problem.

Kim Iwol rarely wore accessories.

"Is he going to nag me again about losing focus...?"

Startled, Kang Giyeon hurriedly checked Kim Iwol’s hand.

Contrary to his worry, on Kim Iwol’s left ring finger there really was a thick silver ring.

It was the fashion ring their manager, Chanyeong, often wore. Looked like he had borrowed it for today.

Brazenly, Kim Iwol kept up that happy energy and said,

"Gasp, how did you know I bought a new ring?"

"It suits your hand so well... Was it a recent purchase?"

"Yeah, I picked it up to wear today."

It was unbelievable.

Who would have thought the day would come when Park Juu and Kim Iwol would talk about silver accessories with lines like "I wore it for you" and "It looks good on you."

For a brief moment, Kang Giyeon worried that today might be the day the earth ended.

After that, during the three minutes they measured with a timer, Park Juu and Kim Iwol had a dense, productive conversation.

When the timer’s alarm finally rang, Kim Iwol stood up and clapped.

"Juu doesn’t need any more practice. Go home."

"Really...? Thank you, hyung."

"Hyung! What about me? I worked hard too!"

"Lee Cheonghyeon, you’re getting points deducted for not voluntarily bringing the mascot hat while Juu was delivering his lines."

Faced with Kim Iwol’s cold stance, Lee Cheonghyeon couldn’t push back and withdrew.

In that moment, every member of Spark except Park Juu thought the same thing.

There goes sleeping in a bed at the dorm tonight.

The ominous feeling didn’t miss.

Kim Iwol could look like an angelic fan and then in an instant turn into a fiend and wring the members out.

He hit his peak when it was Choi Jeho’s turn.

"What’s with the silence? You don’t feel like talking?"

"Wait, just a second..."

"Do I look like a joke, the guy who made twenty questions because I wanted to talk with you and even practiced in the hallway so I wouldn’t leave you on read? When I said Cheonghyeon was handsome earlier, did you relax because you thought I was Cheonghyeon’s fan? If I’m not your fan, I can’t be a Spark fan either?"

He’d been harsh before, but the feedback aimed at Choi Jeho was especially biting.

Choi Jeho sniped back that he was being too much, but Kim Iwol didn’t yield.

"You think I don’t know you don’t get hit by words at this level? And other people will say worse. If it’s something you can fix, improve it before anything blows up."

Choi Jeho clicked his tongue. Probably because nothing in what Kim Iwol said was wrong.

But your head and your mood are separate matters.

Choi Jeho frowned. You could see him holding back a sigh.

Kim Iwol stared quietly at him. And when Kim Iwol’s lips parted again, Kang Giyeon tensed up.

What was he going to swing this time?

Was it going to be, You couldn’t even hold back your frown for a moment? Or, If you hate it that much, quit?

Either way, it was hard to imagine a picture where the practice room atmosphere improved.

But what came out of Kim Iwol’s mouth was completely unexpected.

"It’s not like you don’t have anything you’re curious about for the fan. Why are you keeping your mouth clamped shut like that?"

He was clearly certain. Not a guess.

Kang Giyeon quickly traded looks with the teammates sitting next to him. None of them understood what was going on.

But Choi Jeho only faced Kim Iwol with a crooked look.

After a few seconds, he raked his hair roughly and spoke in a testy tone.

"My sister told me not to go around asking useless stuff."

"Your sister?"

"She’d come home every day ranting that she XX hates people who pry weirdly at school or work. She especially nagged me to watch my mouth... Ha, just thinking about it makes my skin crawl."

He was calling that an excuse? Kang Giyeon was appalled.

Now there would be no mercy—Kim Iwol’s thunderbolt would fall. And they would turn to ash and drift in the practice room air...

"Aha. I get what you mean."

...?

Listening quietly, Kim Iwol stroked his chin and nodded.

Was he a hyung generous enough to accept that explanation? That Kim Iwol?

Kang Giyeon had no idea how Kim Iwol was understanding Choi Jeho’s line of thinking.

And that question was answered by what followed.

"The annoying types your sister was talking about were people who hit on her or seniors and juniors she didn’t care about, that kind of thing, right?"

"Yeah."

"They come at her with impure intentions and keep pestering even when she says she doesn’t like it, so it’s sleazy."

"Right."

In short, fed up with repeated approaches, Choi Jeho’s sister had given him a special order: "Don’t live like that, and especially keep your mouth, which is dangerous, shut," and Choi Jeho was trying to carry that out faithfully.

"It’s not like I was sitting there with an empty head. It took me a long time because I was thinking hard about whether this question was a proper question."

"I like that one thing. But your sister said that because the other person crossed the line with questions out of lust for her, right. Are you some punk who’s going to lust after a fan? Or are you planning to lose all sense of place and blurt out whatever at the event? I ought to just—"

"How does that connect to this?!"

"Otherwise, talk with gratitude, and put sincerity and interest into it. If someone crosses the line, I’ll police it."

Then the two of them went right back to the signing rehearsal like nothing had happened. And with a very serious attitude.

Kang Giyeon thought the oldest hyungs were out of their minds. But he felt relieved that a fight hadn’t broken out, and he was grateful to learn that Choi Jeho could ask gentle, steady questions too.

I was standing in the middle of a familiar campus.

Students hurrying past, the sun beating down, boisterous laughter ringing from afar. Even the pleasant weight on one shoulder.

I walked into the student union out of habit, and there was the club room where I spent the most time after classrooms.

As always, loud chatter from the seniors leaked through the door.

When I opened it and went in, the seniors beckoned me in like any other day.

Even though it was a band club, the small talk was long here. We talked as much as we played instruments.

And everyone was very interested in the junior who wasn’t cute.

"What did you come to the business department to do, Iwol?"

I had come to university, but I wasn’t studying hard, just doing private tutoring and convenience store shifts all day.

Other than that, I would sit in the club room and pluck the shared bass endlessly, which must have looked very strange to people.

But I had never thought deeply about the future. People struggling just to live the present end up nearsighted.

I opened the bass case and answered.

"I’ll apply anywhere that hires our major, won’t I?"

"You’re not thinking about taking the civil service exam?"

A senior asked again.

News about department people grinding for the civil service exam came almost daily.

I didn’t have months or years to prepare, or money for living costs, and when I got home I was busy collapsing into sleep, so it wasn’t a place I could even covet.

So I answered with an awkward smile.

"Not just anyone can be a civil servant."

"Hey, don’t put ideas in the kid’s head. He should go on an audition show like the ones Ennet does and become a singer."

"Aren’t you the one putting ideas in the most?"

The vocal hadn’t even come to the club room, but the seniors surrounded me and cornered [N O V E L I G H T] me.

They heatedly debated how far I could go if I went on an audition program and what I should choose to maximize my chances.

After going on like that for a long time, the seniors always reached almost the same conclusion.

"All right, enough. Iwol just needs to go out there. Nothing to worry about."

"Iwol, if you debut later, you can’t forget me, okay?"

"Because of you, when Iwol becomes a top star he’ll say in interviews that he endured the seniors’ oppressive discipline and grew musically."

"What are you talking about, it’d all be because of you."

There wasn’t much for me to say among them.

All I could do was perfectly set up the bass a senior who did a late "cosmos" graduation had handed down.

As usual, I finished the ensemble setup, and the moment I was about to say let’s practice now—

An alarm rang by my head. At the same time my eyes opened.

The wooden ceiling inches from my face told me what had just happened was a dream.

It’s funny. The memory is vivid enough to show up in a dream, but the current me can’t even go into that club room.

"The funniest thing is I actually ended up debuting."

I might not become a top star, but the long-awaited debut day had dawned.

Not by enduring seniors’ oppressive discipline, but by growing under the system’s bloodcurdling unfair contract.

As if it knew today was contract expiration day, that damned system showed up at the crack of dawn.

 [SYSTEM] ‘Supervisor’ has sent a work directive.

▶ Assistant Manager Kim, you know today is the performance review deadline, right? Don’t feel too pressured. If you’ve done well so far, your review will be good, and if not... things just go around, you know. I hope it goes well. Don’t forget I’m always cheering for you, Assistant Manager Kim.

 You thought I’d get mad again if you said it like this, didn’t you?

Too bad, you’re wrong.

Right up until yesterday I turned debut song practice, signing practice, and fan meeting practice into a routine and ran them to death, so now I’m actually looking forward to debut.

Come, sweet debut.