“I heard we already had enough footage.”
Once it’s edited, you’re lucky to salvage ten percent, never mind half, of what you shoot.
Let alone content of rookie idols /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ just riding rides for fun?
Even if you cut only the fun parts, it won’t even hit ten minutes. And a minute and thirty seconds of that will be my precious greatest-hits moments.
But a surprise segment here?
That’s a nice twist. It even ties into the MV pretty well.
“I never thought in my life I’d be rescuing Park Juu at an amusement park.”
The only combo of Spark and an amusement park left in my memory was that nighttime live at a park where Spark got stuffed in as a fill-in right before a famous rapper.
That live was unforgettable in a lot of ways.
Would it have been easy to sing with passion where there were hardly even “members’ fans” to answer back? Well, that’s as much a question of their professional spirit, so set it aside.
Indifferent crowds who didn’t care about the bait-idol they’d dragged in, a track that wasn’t properly prepped, flimsy sound—everything was rough.
Compared to that, this was way better.
Our seniority is lower now than back then, though. Go figure.
“You didn’t tie Juu hyung up somewhere like the Viking, right? He might pass out!”
Lee Cheonghyeon squawked. Come on, as if the crew would do something that heinous. If they did, starting tomorrow Park Juu would have to use my shade of foundation.
“If you don’t rescue Juu soon, that might happen.”
“What?!”
“So focus, everyone! You need to go play with Juu!”
The PD clapped and gathered our eyes.
Right—can’t leave our main vocal alone.
The rules were simple.
First, find hint slips hidden all over the park.
Second, we all have to gather where Park Juu is by the time limit, 8 p.m., for it to count as a success.
The time now was 6 p.m. It looked like we had wiggle room, but considering the crowds and the size of the park, it could be tight.
“Before we start looking for slips, should we talk about how to search?”
Jeong Seongbin spoke up first. After months of having him run group meetings, his facilitation just flowed.
Then Kang Giyeon, Choi Jeho, and Lee Cheonghyeon each offered takes in turn.
“Shouldn’t we split into teams? Five people moving together seems inefficient.”
“Isn’t more eyes better than missing stuff while we’re split?”
“There’s that, and since we all have to regroup in the end to clear the mission, maybe it’s better to move together.”
Mmhm. Good posture. I’ve got nothing to add.
If I just fold my arms, nod, and listen like this, then do what the kids decide...
“Then maybe we should start together from the entrance, just in case? Let’s be thorough so we miss as little as possible!”
...Juu will end up waiting alone at the park until 8 p.m. and then go home, you clowns!
Thinking of Park Juu standing all by himself in this sea-like amusement park, I felt tears well up even in ducts I thought were dried out.
I swallowed a sigh and stopped them when they looked ready to bolt for the gate.
“I’m thinking it’d be better to sweep the inside of the park first. What do you think? How about we split in two teams and have one cover the attractions and the other cover the rest areas?”
“Would that be better after all?”
“Yeah. Your points make sense too, but we’ve got a time limit. Whether we need every slip or just some, we can decide after we’ve read a few.”
Usually, to hedge against search failures, they hide lots of dummy hints, so we probably won’t need all of them.
The crew isn’t expecting us to find every single hint either.
“Then how do we coordinate mid-search? We don’t have our phones.”
A very good point from Choi Jeho. It was the question I’d been waiting for.
“Use a runner.”
“Huh?”
“Each team agrees on its movement plan in advance, and one person keeps shuttling between them.”
“Isn’t that too harsh on one person?”
Kang Giyeon sounded alarmed.
But it’s fine. I’m going to be the runner.
This way I can yield the key role of finding hints to the members while still checking both teams’ progress myself.
Above all, I’ll be on camera less. My footage from this park is already plenty as Screaming Kim Iwol.
“Decide fairly with rock–paper–scissors. We can’t just make hyung do all the running.”
“Seongbin, what was the second virtue of an idol?”
“Doing your main job well.”
“Right? Then who on our team has the best stamina?”
Jeong Seongbin couldn’t argue.
“I’ve memorized the park map, so let’s split into teams, lock the routes fast, and spread out.”
The kids answered with energy. The curtain was lifting on the long campaign to find Park Juu.
The first haul came from the Lee Cheonghyeon–Kang Giyeon unit that headed for the attractions.
The slip the maknaes found by the bumper cars’ exit said:
【Why do sparks fly from the ceiling of the bumper cars?
Difficulty: ★★★★】
“So it’s a quiz show, not a hint?”
“Yep. When we got it right, they gave us this.”
Then Kang Giyeon handed me another slip.
【To the aquarium!
Difficulty: ★★★★★】
The location on the slip was the aquarium, deeper in the park than the bumper cars.
If you solve a hint’s question, it tells you where the next slip is hidden; the higher the difficulty, the closer the spot it gives you to the destination.
It was a fun structure. You could manage time with it, in its way.
But...
“You got this right?”
“Yeah. Cheonghyeon did.”
I read the question again.
Looked like it had been a short-answer.
When I glanced at Lee Cheonghyeon, he winked and said,
“Hyung, I’m the Rube Goldberg device designer from Bolt High, remember!”
“Right, you’re the best.”
I gave the punk a thumbs-up and ran to relay the good news to Choi Jeho and Jeong Seongbin.
Ah, correction. I did ride the kiddie train once on the way.
Those two were waiting for me in front of the Honey Butter Corn stand where we’d agreed to rendezvous.
“What’s with the balloon?”
Choi Jeho pointed at the helium balloon tied to my wrist.
“Cheonghyeon strapped it on me. Says a runner needs to be easy to spot from far away.”
“Unbelievable.”
While the two eldest traded pointless nitpicks, Jeong Seongbin came over.
He was holding a white slip too.
“Hyung, we found a hint as well, but...”
【What’s the unit used to measure the sugar content of corn and fruit?
Difficulty: ★★★】
“Brix.”
“Oh, correct, Iwol!”
“Huh? That’s right?”
Jeong Seongbin, whipping his head between me and the PD, clapped belatedly.
At this point I wondered if Hanpyeong Industries making me search every holiday for high-sugar fruit every year was intentional training.
【To the churros stand!
Difficulty: ★★★★】
“Aren’t there a ton of churros stands? I think I saw a few on the way.”
Choi Jeho frowned at the slip.
“The kids’ destination is the aquarium, so we can eliminate any stands in the opposite direction.”
“What kind of question did they get there?”
“Science.”
At my answer, Choi Jeho exchanged a look with Jeong Seongbin.
I could practically hear their conversation.
Something like, “You confident in science?” “No.” Pray you don’t get a problem about calculating sugar-water concentration at the churros booth.
The quiz-fest disguised as a treasure hunt continued for about an hour.
Thankfully, the churros stand asked about the cause of dust explosions instead of sugar-water concentration. Thanks to news-hound Jeong Seongbin’s performance, those two also made it as far as the cotton-candy shop near the aquarium.
But I can say with certainty, today’s MVP was Lee Cheonghyeon.
The brat even nailed a five-star question at the aquarium.
“What was the question again?”
“The scientific name of white coral.”
“And the answer?”
“Corallium konojoi!”
I was genuinely curious. How on earth had Lee Cheonghyeon come to memorize the scientific name of white coral?
Turned out I wasn’t the only one wondering.
“How did he get that? We set it to be a trick question!”
After five minutes of rummaging through his brain, when Lee Cheonghyeon pulled the answer out, the entire crew was aghast.
The person himself, though, was unbothered.
“I read Slippery Sea Creatures Illustrated Book a ton when I was little.”
“You must’ve really read it a ton...”
We applauded with sincere respect.
Thanks to all that effort, the five of us combined the hints from the aquarium and the churros stand and made it to the park’s central garden.
“The last hint must be somewhere here, right?”
“Probably. Honestly, I thought this would be the final spot.”
Watching Lee Cheonghyeon look around, Kang Giyeon spoke sheepishly.
Past seven, it was already getting dusky. So I also figured Park Juu would appear from somewhere in the garden scattering petals of success.
“It seemed like they wanted to stretch a bit of time... but did it need to be this complicated?”
It didn’t look like the crew saw this corner as just a filler mission to pad runtime.
You could tell from the difficulty of the questions and from the structure where solving a hint only told you the next location and you still had to find the slip yourself.
So to draw it out a little, we even took the kiddie train in the middle.
I just didn’t expect they’d plan for even the remotest “what if” by setting quiz difficulty above typical variety levels.
The result: with the end time right in front of us, we were combing the garden like lice.
That’s when it happened.
“Found it!”
From a distance, Choi Jeho shouted.
