Idols live with long waits.
Recordings run late all the time, and plenty of calls assume we’ll sit around forever from the start.
In that free time, Spark has done a whole lot of things.
Studying, coloring, working out, learning other artists’ new choreo, competing over who kept the waiting room cleaner...
And eventually, we got here.
[Juu: Wine, whiskey, vodka—none of it quenches my thirst.]
[Juu: My throat is dry—pour your soul along my lips...]
[Cheonghyeon: Ugh, the height isn’t enough. Jeho! Grab the pad on my bed!]
[Jeho: Which pad?]
[Cheonghyeon: Gray one with the Pikakchu sticker on the back!]
- Lee Cheonghyeon opens a piano app on a spare phone or a tablet and plays accompaniment.
[Giyeon: (Putting his whole soul into keeping time)]
- Kang Giyeon lays down the beat by tapping whatever’s at hand—on that day it was a duster handle—against chair or table legs.
Then I...
[Iwol: Doom-doom-doom-doom, do-doom, doom.]
...play the bass with my mouth. Bonus: air-bass with my hands.
This chaos has been going on for a while, so I didn’t realize, but seeing it on screen—there’s no one more unhinged than me.
As if to mock me, a flashy caption popped up:
[☆ Limited-Time Band Live — NOW PLAYING ☆]
"I’m so mortified right now."
"I get why you would be."
"You should be, too..."
I stopped short. Right, what would Lee Cheonghyeon be ashamed of? Unlike me, he didn’t play an instrument with his mouth—he just did a little headbanging.
And I learned while watching the broadcast that this punk, Jeong Seongbin, was filming on the side.
[Seongbin (19 / a leader who loves his members)]
What part of that is a leader who loves his members? He’s a leader who clutches their weak points to use them.
[Juu: ...Can I do one more?]
[Cheonghyeon: Of course—our band exists for you!]
In this situation, Lee Cheonghyeon was even doing a skit with Park Juu.
[Giyeon: What are you doing—pick the next song already.]
They’ve all lost their minds. Truly possessed.
[Iwol: All right, let’s go!]
And me, too...
Even after the frenzied band live, Spark kept serving shock value.
Kang Giyeon went in to shower and, out of habit, only took bottoms—then walked out proudly with his torso bare; Choi Jeho tried to sip bone-broth soup and fogged up his lenses so badly our center looked a little ridiculous for a second.
My spoon-and-chopstick set finally appeared on screen, too. Staring at the "Lovely... ♡" caption, I gave up on thinking.
After dinner, the black comedy exploded.
[Cheonghyeon: Anyone want to take my test for me?]
[Iwol: Should I? But then you can’t go to college.]
[Cheonghyeon: I was wrong, hyung.]
[Iwol: No, I mean cheating’s not allowed, so you can’t go;;;]
[Jeho: Why is this so janky?]
[Iwol: Me? I didn’t do anything.]
[Jeho: Not you—the power strip.]
[Iwol: Ohhh. Right.]
It was basically my stand-up set, but still. No idea why we were like that that day.
Maybe because they saw an idol’s raw reality a little too raw—the fandom was in tears.
≫ Okay first off I get that the kids don’t care about image at all
𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 └ Faces sexy, brains pure—idol of contrasts? Actually love that
≫ Our Iwol’s cutlery is cute... did you seriously pay money for that?
└ absolutely unhinged lololololol
└ Babies do use those sets, yes indeed they do
≫ I need five thousand characters on how only the eldest ended up with that cutesy set
≫ I barely held it together through Lee Cheonghyeon’s double-piano, but I broke at Kim Iwol’s mouth-instrument
Do you guys play like this when it’s just you?? 😭😭😭
└ At first I was like "our eldest, thank you for entertaining the kids 😭" but later he’s wiping sweat like he’s refreshed... who’s entertaining who here
≫ I changed my icon to this
(photo of Choi Jeho with fogged-up lenses)
I couldn’t help it
└ I said I like Jeho in glasses but didn’t expect the full A to Z of glasses lmaooooo 😭
≫ F— Kim Iwol don’t get discouraged
You’re our best klutz
└ You’re the worst
Is this what it feels like to burn white-hot and crumble to ash? Everything combusted and only debris remained. My body was fine, but my heart was tired.
After the broadcast of shock and awe ended, while we were chatting, Jeong Seongbin asked,
"Hyung, filming ends soon, right? Should we start..."
"Yeah, because of the comeback, right?"
I’d been checking the groundwork in between shoots. And now it was time to dive into comeback prep for real.
By Sparkler standards, the ultimate klutz, Kim Iwol, would be dancing again for the first time in a while.
Since the "appearance" on "In My Office" is what the system counts for proficiency gains, as long as the release doesn’t get delayed, my dance proficiency will keep ticking up during comeback. That’s enough.
"Good thing dramas drop all-at-once these days."
Otherwise I’d be stuck waiting for 0.nn percent bumps, little by little. Pre-produced shows are king.
"How’s the choreo this time? Really hard?"
When I asked, Kang Giyeon hesitated.
"Hard... if it’s hard, easy if it’s easy?"
"Who told you to bring me a drink that’s ‘sweet but not too much sugar because of blood sugar’?"
Seeing my deadpan, he scrambled to explain.
"It’s a concept we’ve never done. Whether it fits you or not—we won’t know till you try."
"What about you and Choi Jeho?"
"I’m not sure. As for Jeho..."
He shrugged. No need to say it.
Right—if Jeho doesn’t fly in this concept, we have a problem.
It’s prefaced with the word "restraint," but it’s still Spark’s first "adult concept."
Concept-heavy genres are always hit or miss. Push too far and a small set of fans goes ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) wild while the general public looks away; flood it with water because you’re scared, and nothing remains.
Up to now, Spark has put forward the brisk clarity of a winter night. Through palace meet-and-greets and fan meetings, we’ve monitored the fandom’s appetite.
The conclusion from me and the dedicated team was this:
"A change of style—just once—is necessary."
We keep our core, wholesome, lungs-clearing mood. But style-wise, something has to feel different. That was the consensus.
"I know fans want a sexy concept. But I don’t think we should overdo it."
"Huh?"
"Both Giyeon and Cheonghyeon are still second-years in high school. Seongbin and Juu are minors, too. I don’t want to push anything too heavy on kids."
Hence the concept: "grown-man sexy in suits."
It isn’t that Spark can’t do boyishness; it’s that we look a few years older than our age without even trying.
Wrap the kids up tight and handle Choi Jeho just right, and the balance will hold. I believe in you, workout man.
Slapping suits on us would make Sparklers happy anyway, but since it’s our first comeback in a while, we decided to put more work into the concept.
Secret agents. Hacking doors, riding wires, breaking in.
Everyone’s bodies are already in shape; the dedicated team just needed to assign roles well.
The moment he heard the concept, Lee Cheonghyeon worked like a madman for days. He listened to hundreds of samples to add virtual instruments and, like a woodpecker banging his head on the wall, carved out the bass line.
"I’m putting every session I couldn’t fit into the OST in here."
He muttered that with bloodshot eyes. Like a resentful spirit possessed by all the ballads he couldn’t finish. I was too scared to poke him.
With the first pass from Cheonghyeon, Choi Jeho and Kang Giyeon burned the midnight oil in the practice room, meeting nonstop.
Sometimes voices seemed to rise, but by the time they came back to the dorm, it looked like they’d worked it out. Watching Jeong Seongbin’s soft, moved smile hurt my heart.
While the dance line argued over "where does sexy come from," Cheonghyeon battled the A&R team to nail the final version.
Guide vocals went to Park Juu, who’d been a little idle compared to the others lately and gleefully tracked doubles and backing vocals. That bumped up everyone’s parts.
Part distribution fell to Jeong Seongbin. I’d been fired from that duty after the "Delete Kim Iwol’s lines" incident, and Cheonghyeon gave full authority to Seongbin because he had to write the B-side. Even as the fired guy, I answered kindly whenever Seongbin asked my opinion.
All of this happened while I was filming "In My Office." They’ve done this a few times now—the pace was lightning.
What’s left now: the final_final arrangement for the title track, choreo practice, vocal drills and recording, MV shoot, album photos, B-side recording... whew, a lot.
"Hyung, you should start managing those dark circles."
"My dark-circle management is always in progress."
Cheonghyeon didn’t buy it. Instead, he handed me a jar of moisturizer after skimming off his share.
As I slathered my face, I thought,
"What will we post for concept photos? Photocards should get close-up shots. If we have everyone hold something in their mouths, the composition might—oh, this cream’s good. Hydrating without the grease."
While I was rehydrating my desert face and brainstorming what to stick in Spark’s mouths for the shot, the mattress jolted.
Cheonghyeon was in my face like he was about to tackle me.
"What the—?!"
"Now that I think about it, it’s really weird."
"What is? I told you not to pop up like this. Especially with your face—if you shove it in suddenly, it could be a cardiac event. Did I say that or not?"
"Sorry about that, but I mean your dark circles."
He pressed his thumb into mine. A serious face with unserious hands.
"Why are they not showing any signs of fading?"
"That’s how I’m built, why."
"You know how much the shop’s cream costs. More precisely, there are ‘almost no signs of improvement.’"
"What?"
"Think about early trainee days. You barely slept. And when you were hospitalized—your condition was bad, so of course they were worse. But now, when you rest more than before, it feels like they never improve past a certain point."
"..."
"You don’t have rhinitis. So why does the tone stay the same, regardless of condition?"
Hearing it, it was strange. Even I haven’t always lived with dark circles.
When I exercised often and overtime was low, there were definitely stretches when I didn’t have them.
"Is this the system again?"
I’d only noted they were lighter than when I was twenty-nine and didn’t think about it. After everything I’ve gone through, even this felt too fishy to brush off.
There seemed to be a long explanation about accumulated fatigue—I'll reread the manual soon.
Still, if you shove someone into being an idol, at least tweak this. Do you not know idols should start with porcelain skin?
Failing to get a useful answer out of me, Cheonghyeon climbed back onto his bed.
Then he stuck his head over the edge and said,
"Don’t go drinking too much at wrap parties just to test it. You’ll drop dead before we confirm anything."
"I’ll manage. And minors shouldn’t even say the word alcohol."
"Right. Sleep well!"
With a final wave, he vanished beyond the ceiling.
My hand went to my eyes for no reason. I fiddled under them for a while and fell asleep.
- Kang Giyeon lays down the beat by tapping whatever’s at hand—on that day it was a duster handle—against chair or table legs.
