"I’m back."
As soon ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ as I returned from the variety show meeting we’d film before the drama airs, the guys in the living room swarmed me.
"Welcome! Give me your bag!"
"Everything go okay?"
Jeong Seongbin asked.
"Yeah, nothing special."
In line with the concept of seeing the stock market ahead of time, we’d supposedly go get our fortunes told together. I’ve never had my fortune or fate read, so I’m curious.
Even if the soccer forums call me "an idol more accurate than a fortune-telling octopus" and "Iwol, please channel the spirits one more time," there’s no way the fortune-teller will scold me just because I joked to the members about the ancestors a few times... right?
"But why are all of you gathered in the living room?"
"Our dorm vlog part 2 goes up today. We were getting ready to watch together."
I’d nagged that the follow-up content should drop as early as possible, so we’d decided to upload three days earlier than usual.
I remember that. What I don’t remember is...
"Don’t each of you have things to do?"
As far as I know, none of you are this free.
Choi Jeho and Kang Giyeon needed to finish the new-song choreography.
Park Juu’s cover-song cooldown was up, so he had to prep for filming the vlog segment, and Lee Cheonghyeon needed to start arranging the B-side.
And Jeong Seongbin, a college-prep student, is busy without me saying it.
Yet you dare to sit around and watch MeTube together?
I wasn’t standing by to soothe worries about these punks. I should rip the password off the shared laptop right now and straighten out this complacent group—
"Schedules are moving fine. We’re pacing things so nothing gets dropped, so don’t worry."
"Huh?"
Jeong Seongbin smiled.
"Really. We’ve been sharing a timetable and checking it—there isn’t a single delayed item."
"You made the timetable yourselves?"
No one here even has an OA certificate and you did cottage industry planning? All but one of you are delicate high-schoolers whose main asset is muscle. Do I need to storm UA again?
I was about to shove my shoes back on like I might flop down and stage a protest when Jeong Seongbin grabbed my arm.
"No! We suggested it would be nice to have, and a dedicated team built it for us. They even did all the data entry."
"Back when you told us not to spread platforms around, we just added a page to the Dotion we were already using," Lee Cheonghyeon added.
They work well, communicate well with the company, and don’t cause trouble.
"At this rate, they won’t disband without me."
Maybe this time I’ll actually get to watch Spark’s seventh-anniversary live. In its way, that’s moving.
But a well-running group is one thing; I still need to get what I’m owed.
"So, what’s the shared laptop password? Isn’t it time you told me?"
At my question, their eyes flicked to each other. Final say went to the leader, Jeong Seongbin.
With a half-enlightened, can’t-be-helped smile, he said, "000000. Six zeros."
"It was that easy?"
"Honestly, I thought you’d try it at least once. But you really never did," Lee Cheonghyeon said.
My pride took a hit.
Kim Iwol’s instincts are dead. I may look like this, but I’m the guy who’s cracked passwords on PCs locked by people who quit.
"I tried the debut date and a bunch of things, but nothing. Why 000000? That’s way too weak."
"The shared laptop hardly ever leaves the dorm. If it’s complicated, Jeho will forget and we’ll have to put a sticky note under the laptop," he said.
"You guys talk trash about me to my face now?"
From the room came Choi Jeho’s voice. Like a bionic ear. He always hears perfectly when it’s about him.
"Anyway, Spark is 6-1=0. So six zeros!"
Lee Cheonghyeon shouted, bright as a bell.
6-1, huh. Not 5-1, not 5+1.
I thought the five of you would do well. So in your heads, that premise still hasn’t formed.
"...Why do you look like that?" Park Juu asked carefully, eyes on my face.
"Oh, it’s just... I’m bad at arithmetic."
Especially subtraction.
All the more so in relationships.
I never know who to subtract, or how to fill a spot when someone drops out.
So I wish 6-1 were 5. No commentary required.
The Dotion timetable they’d made was clean and easy to read. And the members didn’t have to check boxes—the manager would confirm them in batches.
"At this point we should add another manager."
Since I’m often out on external shoots, Manager Chanyeong’s load has grown. As Spark gets busier, one manager won’t be enough.
I write job postings like a dream, but I’ve vowed to cut company work unless it’s necessary. So I shelved it for now.
Right on cue, news hit the official account.
≫ @spArk_official
Already leaving?
Since you’re here, stay for dinner!
Hang out a little longer.
We’ll show you tons of fun stuff.
[SPARK] 2X10XX Come Over to Our Dorm ep.2
"The video’s about to drop."
"For real. Jeho, get out here! Vlog time!"
Lee Cheonghyeon made a huge fuss calling Choi Jeho.
And Jeho obediently crawled out of his room again.
...I’m still a bit awkward with him.
Whether I’m uncomfortable or not, Jeho pushed up his glasses with his usual calm face and sat on the far end of the sofa where he always sits.
I sat on the floor at the diagonal farthest from him. Displaced from my usual spot, Park Juu wandered, then settled where I usually sit.
"Where did we leave off last time?"
"The room tour."
"Exactly halfway, then."
Just like Kang Giyeon said, after Spark’s vlog opening, a quick "Previously on" showed us having breakfast, working out, and exploring the rooms.
"What did we... do after that?" Jeho muttered like he honestly couldn’t remember.
With a resigned air, Giyeon answered, "We did a lot of weird stuff."
"Us?"
Spark, the quiet, chic cold-prince idols, would never do something like that. He must be mistaken.
The on-screen clock read 2 p.m. The living room had a mountain of laundry for six, piled high. We’d stripped the drying rack to hang a new load.
On the monitor, Spark took positions like figures at a village wash-place in a folk painting and started folding.
[Iwol: Shouldn’t we throw away this rec-league soccer towel? Who brought this?]
[Giyeon: Chanyeong hyung (Spark’s manager).]
[Iwol: Let’s tell the manager and toss it. On principle, it’s time to let this guy go.]
Under my face, staring at a towel as dry as tree bark, a caption popped: "A kind idol who even thinks about a towel’s feelings: IWOL."
A couple of punks couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. I guess the beautification of my tender heart is hilarious.
[Cheonghyeon: We’ve been getting animal socks lately—whose are these?]
[Juu: Sorry, mine...]
[Cheonghyeon: I’m not judging your taste! I just think they’re too cute for our dorm. Cute is already covered by Cutie Pretty Visually Lee Cheonghyeon.]
The camera cut to me again. Under my chilly expression, a new caption read: "Iwol (21 / saves members as ‘Cutie Pretty Visually’)."
"Was this a special on me that only I didn’t know about?"
"No way. Your highlight reel just stands out," someone said.
"Stand out? I didn’t do anything, but it keeps cutting to me."
Unbelievable. My chest was tight with frustration.
[Cheonghyeon: You can tell Jeho’s tops by size alone. What size do you wear?]
[Jeho: Me? About 100.]
[Giyeon: 100? No way. Doesn’t Lee Cheonghyeon wear 100?]
[Seongbin: I heard our stylist say he wears 110 to 115.]
[Giyeon: Since when was 100 a thing for you?]
[Juu: Wasn’t that in high school...?]
[Iwol: Don’t go clothes-shopping alone.]
There was another issue besides Jeho’s top size. A shot of lint flying everywhere because someone ran black tees with towels in the same wash.
[Iwol: Anyone know where the tape roller is?]
[Juu: I do...! One sec!]
I didn’t expect the editors to add the formal name right there. Somehow I felt even more mortified. This really is my public-embarrassment special.
Only after we’d folded every last piece did Spark start drifting to our own corners.
First into a room was Jeho. Earbuds in, watching b-boy videos—exactly like usual.
Around the same time, Giyeon crouched in front of the manga shelf to deliberate. Then, as if making a firm decision, he picked a book and headed to bed.
"Giyeon, I told you not to crouch."
"Force of habit... but I’ve cut back a lot lately."
"Let’s get better. Think of your legs as Spark’s legs."
While the on-screen Giyeon stretched Spark’s two legs out straight and began his manga appreciation, Park Juu took a pillow to the balcony and beat out the dust.
Then he came back satisfied, started straightening the bedding, stared at Giyeon, and asked,
[Juu: ...Giyeon, want me to dust your pillow?]
[Giyeon: Huh? No, I’ll do mine.]
[Juu: I’m doing mine anyway. You just keep reading...!]
Then Juu went out to the balcony with Giyeon’s pillow in his left hand and Jeong Seongbin’s in his right and thrashed the dust with incredible power. Hard to tell if he wanted to dust them or burst them.
"...Did you two do something to Park Juu?" Jeho asked.
Seongbin and Giyeon couldn’t answer right away. The pillows looked on the verge of exploding.
Thankfully, Juu quickly explained he had no ill will toward his roommates.
Seongbin organized schedules at the dining table; Cheonghyeon worked on a track.
And I...
[Iwol: The bathroom... I should clean the bathroom.]
[Cheonghyeon: Leave it. I’ll do it later!]
[Iwol: Then give me something to do! Anything!]
...I wandered aimlessly because there was nothing to do.
Another caption appeared under my hollow expression.
"Iwol (21 / working hard at recovery)."
So UA is pressuring me not to work now, too. In a way this embarrassing.
I wanted to die of shame, but the fans loved how real it felt.
≫ If you ignore the amount of laundry, that was just my house
Whole family folding together is so familiar
└ @@: Mom, these socks don’t match—what do I do?
└ @: Set them aside. The other one will come out in the next load~
└ [laughs] and it actually did
└ You know you have to roll off the lint with a tape roller, right~?
└ Ugh, Mom, I’m close-quitting*
(*"close-quitting": joking threat to quit the family chore)
≫ Choi Jeho wears a 115 top???????
└ Spark’s tallest, Choi Jeho, wears 115?????
└ Spark’s tallest center, Emperor Jeho, wears 115??????
└ Spark’s tallest center, royal-meeting wrecker, colossal troublemaker Emperor Jeho, wears 115??????????
≫ Why do the youngest two even know each other’s shirt sizes?
Sometimes I really wonder how far your friendship goes
≫ Park Juu looks like a silent gunslinger from the snowfields, with those solid forearms that make people feel things—and of course it only shows when he’s dusting pillows
└ Juu’s three vein-pop moments: 1) singing (neck) + 2) when he’s hot (temples/forehead) + 3) pillow-dusting (forearms) [NEW!]
≫ Why does Iwol get so anxious when he has nothing to do
If you have nothing to do, rest, Iwol...
└ Who turned our kid into a workaholic like this... UA, wake up
Since Spark rarely shows its unfiltered side, that’s probably why we got reactions like this.
But what followed was even fresher. Fresher than fish straight off the boat.
[Cheonghyeon: I’m about to get filled with soul—give me some air-bass.]
[Iwol: You want mouth accompaniment?]
[Cheonghyeon: Of course.]
For some reason, it didn’t get edited out—Spark’s music-play time made it into the video exactly as is.
