The sound came from a small plaza where a fountain runs in summer.
There, Choi Jeho had his feet in a little water channel.
Wait.
A channel?
“Where exactly are you standing right now?”
“This was in the water, what was I supposed to do.”
In Choi Jeho’s hand was a zipper bag dripping wet. Through the clear plastic, I could see a neatly folded slip.
“So you just went in there?”
“They said it’s fine to step in—it’s where kids play with water. And I took off my shoes and socks.”
It is important to check it isn’t a restricted area.
Still, even so—don’t his feet feel cold?
I took a handkerchief from my pants pocket and handed it to him.
“How’d you find this, Jeho? That’s insane.”
“It was just visible.”
He answered like it was nothing, but “just” didn’t cut it in these conditions. It was getting dark, and with the fountain off there was almost no light in the channel.
It’s easier to assume this guy’s instincts are on an animal level.
We went under a light and unfolded the slip Jeho had fished out.
Inside, it said:
【Come to the place where we all smiled and took a photo!
Don’t be late!】
“Do you think they mean where we shot the thumbnail?”
“Or the spot where we took that group selfie earlier?”
Jeong Seongbin and Kang Giyeon offered takes in turn.
But something didn’t sit right. I mean, it wasn’t off enough to call it outright weird, but—
“Usually these are written in a more colloquial style, aren’t they?”
“The ‘place where we smiled and took a photo’...”
I mouthed it a few times, but it wouldn’t sit on my tongue. Maybe “the place where we took a photo while smiling.”
In cases like this it’s one of two things.
Either it’s really nothing and I’m barking up the wrong tree, or it’s intentional.
A few scenes flashed through my head.
But there’s nothing good in overconfidence, so I summoned Spark’s official electronic brain, Lee Cheonghyeon.
“Cheonghyeon, do you remember what scene we had in the third-verse chorus of the ‘With List’ MV?”
“The third-verse chorus?”
If my memory was right, the backgrounds for “like a dreamlike breeze,” “still at least once,” and “sharing a happy chat” were the studio where the members’ solo cuts were shot.
And then, in the next lyrics...
“‘Wearing a happy smile’... had the Ferris wheel!”
Realizing my intent, Lee Cheonghyeon lit up and answered.
At the same time, I looked around at the others and shouted,
“You heard him? Run!”
It was a pretty long way from the garden to the Ferris wheel. Which meant we had to sprint until our lungs were at our throats.
After we tore across the park like a flare cutting the night sky—
“Juu!”
“Hyung! Guys...!”
We had a tearless reunion with Park Juu in front of the Ferris wheel after he’d waited alone for two hours.
“You must’ve been cold waiting until sunset.”
“No, I’m okay.”
“Okay nothing! Come here. The maknae will give you a hug.”
With the utmost care from Jeong Seongbin and Lee Cheonghyeon, Park Juu merged into the middle of our line.
“So then—we cleared the mission?”
And Kang Giyeon neatly checked our success. Seriously, division of labor is airtight with everyone but me.
“Before that! What were the mission clear conditions again?”
“Wasn’t it to find Juu before eight?”
Choi Jeho asked back, resting a hand on the crown of Juu’s head.
That’s when it happened.
Somewhere, a bell rang—like a church chime striking the hour.
At the same time, we heard something slicing the sky.
“Hyung, behind you!”
When we turned, beyond the Ferris wheel, grand fireworks were blooming.
“What do you want to do if we go to an amusement park?”
“Yeah. You’re the main character of this MV, Juu—lay it on thick.”
“Since we already talked about riding rides... if I pick something else I want to do with the members...”
What Park Juu in the MV wanted to see with his friends...
“I want all six of us to watch the fireworks together.”
And what Park Juu outside the MV wanted to watch with the members, as if by magic—
“I think the me in the MV... would want that too.”
Shooting stars in every color poured from the night sky.
The sight was so huge and beautiful I almost imagined the crew’s congratulations on clearing the mission and wrapping promotions as voices far away.
And just like that, our second promo cycle ended.
When “With List” wrapped, UA granted our first vacation.
Since entering UA as a trainee, I hadn’t taken a single day off practice for a year and three months. In my heart, tears of gratitude were flowing.
I’d never used all my annual leave even at Hanpyeong Industries. But having no vacation at all was a different matter.
I wanted to file immediately with the Ministry of Employment and Labor for a new idol job code to sustain the K-Pop industry and a mandatory paid vacation system. Still, we got a full week off in a row, so I’ll let it slide.
“It’s been forever since we had an entire week off—what’s everyone doing?”
Jeong Seongbin asked, face bright, as if he couldn’t remember the last consecutive days off. Right, a guy who works like you deserves to get away.
“I’m going to my parents’.”
“I’ll probably go home too.”
The dance line’s destinations were the same as at the holidays.
Come to think of it, these punks have had every kind of issue blow up, yet never a club or casino issue. Maybe I should be grateful I don’t have to worry about them roaming the wrong places.
Ah, one guy’s destination had changed from the holidays.
“Me too! This time... I’m going home.”
This vacation, Park Juu had decided to go to his aunt’s. I could practically hear her voice through the phone saying she’d be waiting with galbi-jjim.
For the record, Park Juu even invited me to go to his aunt’s with him. I turned him down.
“My aunt told me to bring you...”
“No, I’ll stay here and practice hard.”
I was thrown just by Jeong Seongbin’s parents visiting the dorm—me, going to a stranger’s house?
That would 100% turn into Amazing Clutz. It’s far better to never create that kind of situation.
“Huh? Then Iwol hyung will be alone at the dorm?”
At Lee Cheonghyeon’s words, everyone looked at me.
“Looks that way?”
“Then I’ll stay too.”
“Why would you stay, Seongbin? Do I seem like the type you can’t trust alone at the dorm?”
“No! It’s absolutely not that!”
Jeong Seongbin waved his hands.
“I’m twenty-one. I can definitely be by myself.”
“It’s not that...”
“Not what?”
I asked again, but no one rushed to speak up.
It’s not like I don’t know what they want to say. Leaving one member with nowhere to go behind while you head home feels wrong—that sort of thing.
But like I ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ said, I’m an adult.
Not just twenty-one—twenty-nine... no. Since I’ve been “younger” for over a year, if you go by time aging up, I’d be thirty.
A thirty-year-old man can’t be alone for a week? I’ve got the pride of a longtime head of a one-person household.
“I appreciate the thought, but even if I had somewhere to go, I’d stay at the dorm this time. There’s something I want to practice.”
“Practice?”
asked Kang Giyeon. His eyes had a little sparkle, like he was interested himself.
“Yeah. But I’m not letting you in.”
“Why not?”
“Think about your current dance break. If you don’t rest now, your cartilage will beg for mercy.”
I’ve been working on ankle injury prevention since last year; I’m not going to ruin my knees.
Though he didn’t hide his dissatisfied face, Kang Giyeon accepted what I said. I’m grateful not to have a pointless argument.
Just when I thought the mood had settled, the unusually quiet Lee Cheonghyeon slapped the table to get our attention.
“Why has no one asked me where I’m going?”
“You’re not going home?”
“I was debating, but I just decided. I’m staying at the dorm with Iwol hyung!”
“With me?”
I was thrown. I really had been planning to flail my legs and spend hellish solo dance time.
“You don’t have to do that, Cheonghyeon.”
“No, this is the choice that benefits both me and hyung.”
“Why?”
To my question, Lee Cheonghyeon smiled with unfocused eyes and answered,
“Even if I go home, it’s midterms for my hyung and my little sibling, so I won’t even be able to breathe...”
“Aha...”
“So! I will spend an amazing vacation with hyung!”
“Do whatever’s comfortable for you.”
After a long talk, it ended up being me and Lee Cheonghyeon for the week.
But I didn’t expect...
“Hyung! Unreal! Did you just see that seagull take off with a whole bag of anchovy crackers?!”
...that within that week we’d end up in Busan.
I looked at the kid racing back, thrilled after a seagull stole all our snacks.
And I thought:
“How on earth did I end up here with him.”
The story goes back to the day before vacation started.
Starting with Choi Jeho, whose parents’ place was farthest, the members left the dorm one by one.
Even then, the ever-worried Jeong Seongbin left only after making us promise to contact him if anything came up.
And so the dorm was down to two: me and Lee Cheonghyeon.
“Hyung, you going to practice?”
“Yeah. Rest if you want.”
“Come on, if hyung sets the example, how could the dongsaeng slack off!”
Up to here was according to plan. As usual, after finishing night practice, we came back to the dorm.
“Hyung! What do you think about watching a movie before bed?”
“Aren’t you tired?”
“Thinking that vacation starts tomorrow keeps pumping dopamine. I’m in full alert mode.”
The kid who’d been so exhausted he could’ve glued himself to the floor perked right up and grabbed the remote.
I told him to put on whatever he wanted to watch and came out with my laptop from the room. I’m not much for videos, so I was going to sketch out some plans while he watched.
But when I came out, what was playing on the TV wasn’t a movie purchase screen—it was a documentary.
In small letters in the corner: “National Environment: Mysteries of the Sea.”
Without moving a muscle, Lee Cheonghyeon stared at the ocean on the screen, eyes shining.
“Did he always like the sea?”
His line about reading Slippery Sea Creatures Illustrated Book hard as a kid hadn’t been empty—his eyes sparkled as much as the waves on TV.
In that moment, I made a choice that would be a hassle.
I’d already been doing everything under the sun to give him composing experience anyway; during the break, I’d let him soak up inspiration to his heart’s content with some real-world fieldwork.
