≫ The Living video's views are insane
Their momentum is crazyㅋㅋㅋ
They're gonna hit 1 million views in no time
└ People say band arrangement videos are their own niche, but if they're pulling numbers this good on videos even casual viewers watch, then you can't really say they lack public appealb proud
└ And as I say this, they just hit 1 million~~!!!! Congrats Spark~!!!
≫ Living really put effort into this too
Three songs for a band liveㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Don't they usually only do twoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
≫ I've only been looking at Visualri shooting ads, Pretty openly acknowledged by the members, and Bubble Pop Cutie, but now seeing Lee Cheonghyeon actually doing his real job makes me want to die
Rapping over nothing but drum beats should be illegal. You're gonna get arrested at this rate, Cheonghyeon
└ Since he's the type who aims to make his rap blend naturally into Spark's songs, I liked how well it fit in their tracks, but there were times I wished he'd go harder, so seeing him properly let loose like this was AMAZINGㅠㅠ
└ There are definitely people still unable to move on from Lee Cheonghyeon during the position battle and mission in Royal Secretariat Season 1. Starting with me.... How am I not supposed to love the maknae whose face looks like a nobleman but turns into a gangster the second he starts rapping?
≫ Choi Jeho and Kang Giyeon sing really well too
Maybe it's because they're made in UA
└ My lifelong wish is for Kang Giyeon to do sleazy styling and perform a trashy-ex-boyfriend-vibes rap
└ The cover video uploaded last week had exactly that feeling! Highly recommend if you haven't seen it!
└ nope. That "only his face looks sleazy" unfinished delinquent vi-be is not enough to satisfy my desires.
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
≫ Jeong Seongbin looking down under red lighting should be banned
Flirting with Sparklers when you're not gonna marry us should also be banned
└ When cute members from other groups make sexy expressions it's just funny and adorable, but Spark members are still Spark no matter how cute they act, so it's not funny at all and instead my heart gets XX painfully wrecked. You guys are sexy just by keeping your mouths shut
└ The day Spark fully commits to a sexy concept, I'm genuinely worried whether I'll survive to see it
≫ Ah, Park Juu's personal color is literally band sound
No objections accepted
Casuals get out
└ I'm genuinely curious, but are there actually people claiming Park Juu's personal color isn't band sound?
└ Even if there were, Kim Iwol probably wouldn't let them live
≫ The truly evil thing about Kim Iwol is that he looks like he'd be completely cold and distant, but in reality he's kind, barely talks unless necessary, and then only softens his voice when he sings
Look at him today. He shows up dressed in all black like he has zero humanity, then starts smiling brightly while holding the mic with hands that look like they should only ever be gripping a Zippo lighter, and suddenly we're all making comparison gifs between his hands and the microphone
└ Grandma, please stop already it's been 70 years!!!!!
└ Be honest, you're writing self-insert fanfiction, aren't you
└ The truly evil thing about Kim Iwol is that he turns bright red from a single compliment, but never gets embarrassed saying he loves the fans. I'm sincere, you're sincere, and the fact we still can't be together feels like the real lie here
Look at him today too. He's throwing double-hand hearts and flirting nonstop, but he still won't crawl out of the screen. If this isn't betrayal and deception, then what is? Did I ask for a lifetime contract? No. I just asked him to stay by my side and sing until the exact moment I die, nothing more nothing less
└ The fact this wasn't self-insert fanfic but handcrafted content is insane
The long-awaited "doing their actual job" moment uploaded through an outside channel received an explosive response. Thankfully everyone loved it. We were planning to re-record the band versions and include them as bonus tracks on the next album anyway.
UA handled the arrangements too so there wouldn't be any copyright issues. It was basically a spoiler disguised as not-a-spoiler, but seeing the positive reception put my mind at ease. It felt like a thousand-year-old blockage had finally cleared.
Taking advantage of the momentum, the members' individual activities slowly started up as well. Not to the point of running two schedules a day like before, but enough to stay busy at a manageable pace with proper gaps in between.
If I had to pick one particularly memorable activity, it'd probably be Jeong Seongbin and Kang Giyeon's one-day part-time job at a puppy kindergarten. Watching the leader and maknae get buried beneath piles of fluffy dogs triggered an explosive response from the fans.
Lee Cheonghyeon also managed to finish a new song before the semester started. He even competed against tracks from outside composers in a blind test and confidently secured the title track spot. After firmly planting his own song as the title, the bastard left without regrets for the second semester at school.
I alone was the exception to all this activity.
My entire range of movement still consisted only of the dorm, UA, the gym, and action school. The most exciting thing I'd done lately was folding boxes out of pearl paper in an empty conference room while making album mockups and looking around at our seniors' albums displayed throughout the company.
Other than that, my daily routine became wandering around the office where the dedicated team worked, messing around in the instrument room playing bass, then drifting back to the practice room. It was a little boring, but after acting however I wanted the entire break, I decided not to complain anymore.
"I'm practicing the cover song we're uploading next week.... Want to hear it?"
"Sure."
If I stayed still, the Spark idiots would bring me content on their own anyway. Getting early previews of Park Juu's new song or Kang Giyeon's cover dance was an enormous privilege.
"What about Choi Jeho? Is he still with Teacher Junhwan?"
"Yeah. He said they're staying late today."
Outside of advertisement shoots, Choi Jeho poured all his remaining time into choreographing. It got bad enough that I found myself reflecting on my past behavior, wondering whether I'd accidentally acted like some nightmare client when giving feedback.
'Still... it finally feels like we're making a comeback.'
Starting in September, Spark spent nearly two months recording, creating choreography, adding choruses, and developing formation drafts for group dances.
Since the number of songs had increased, everything took two or three times longer than usual. Living like this, we were already approaching the end of October.
And then there were the jacket shoots. Since we wanted to film self-produced content and casual photocard sets during the season with the best clothes, we went out shooting at least twice a week.
Just last week, we all visited a farm together to film ourselves harvesting pumpkins. We rented a studio far in advance too because we wanted to properly set up and shoot the concept photos and album inclusions.
'If we took 1,000 photos and 900 came out amazing, shouldn't we use those photos somewhere somehow?'
"Even so, we still need to narrow down which photos go into the album, Iwol."
In the end, I tearfully selected only the best shots. Once promotions ended, I swore I'd empty out UA's external hard drives and release everything to the world. (After obtaining legal approval, of course.)
I checked the promotion schedule too.
More specifically, I snooped.
I secretly logged into Dotion and got scolded for acting like a squirrel hiding acorns. I wanted to ask what kind of neighborhood squirrel was this huge, but I held back because they'd organized the promo plans so thoroughly.
'Once the choreography gets finalized, we'll film a dance practice video in the practice room, review whether we can upgrade the album inclusions any further... Ah, can we make the fan-sign announcement images flashier?'
Now that I finally had time to breathe, an endless stream of ideas kept popping into my head. It felt like the creativity I'd thought was dead had at least sprouted a tiny shoot again. Maybe this was why people always said getting fresh air mattered.
While I was lost in thought, Park Juu finished setting up the MR.
And after listening to it, my conclusion remained the same as always.
Our team's main vocalist was the best.
Content was always uploaded regularly to Spark's official MiTube account.
Naturally there were videos during promotion periods, but even during breaks, Spark steadily uploaded their own updates.
First came the individual member videos uploaded during off-seasons. Whether covering songs or playing instruments depending on personal taste, this content had survived from debut days all the way to the present instead of fading into distant memories.
Then there was the self-produced content.
Every idol group had self-produced content these days, but Spark still uploaded long-form episodes over thirty minutes each even during inactive periods.
Waiting-room footage and commute vlogs were categorized separately, while the self-produced content stuck strictly to proper web-variety formats. Because of that, among Sparklers there were times with "less content," but never times with "no content."
Today was no different.
The moment Won Chaehui saw the thumbnail for the Halloween-week upload titled "Spark Can't Miss Lantern-Making Season Either ─ Let's Make Jack-o'-Lanterns," she doubted her eyes.
"Do people normally start by harvesting the pumpkins themselves?"
The image of Spark huddled together in a pumpkin field holding ripe pumpkins felt wildly disconnected from the title.
How was this idol content in any way? It looked more like promotional material for some local-government youth farming relocation project.
The video was over an hour long too.
An intro styled like an old documentary combined strangely with a sentimental rearrangement of one of their album tracks playing as background music.
『Part 1. Harvesting Pumpkins』
"Look at the subtitles being in Gungsuh font...."
Even time travel probably wouldn't feel this bizarre. Won Chaehui wasn't from that generation, after all. Even for someone in his late twenties, the retro atmosphere radiating from this self-produced content wasn't just strong — it was overwhelmingly thick.
The young men who'd left at dawn climbed out of an old van, each grabbing work gloves and pruning shears before heading toward the field.
『Kim Iwol (23) It's the tail end of harvest season... so we came to pick the last remaining pumpkins.』
After surviving farming variety shows and Let's Eat Together, Kim Iwol had developed a genuinely convincing farmer aura. He looked exactly like the grown-up son of the pumpkin farm owner returning home during break to help out the family business.
『Choi Jeho (23) These pumpkins are huge.』
Standing beside the country boy Kim Iwol looked Choi Jeho, who naturally gave off the exact energy of the elementary-middle-high-school classmate from next door. If there'd been an interview with a passing neighbor, they absolutely would've said Choi Jeho "grew up eating pumpkins he raised himself and never got sick a day in his life."
『Jeong Seongbin (21) Hyung, are pumpkins supposed to be this heavy...?!』
Jeong Seongbin walked over carrying a pumpkin the size of two of his faces combined.
Jeong Seongbin was... exactly the type of junior Kim Iwol would've met after moving to Seoul for college.
Meanwhile, Park Juu — wearing a wide-brimmed hat while diligently harvesting pumpkins nearby — perfectly suited the role of the kind junior and friend who followed along because his classmate did. The two city juniors split up to opposite ends of the field, working hard to help Senior Iwol.
And of course, every peaceful countryside scene needed a familiar neighborhood character.
『Lee Cheonghyeon (20) Hyung! Are we getting snacks too?!』
Cousin Lee Cheonghyeon from the city trailed after Kim Iwol nonstop. The difference between an ordinary cousin and Lee Cheonghyeon was that despite chattering constantly without pause, Lee Cheonghyeon still carried Kim Iwol's mountain-sized pumpkin piles to the truck without showing even a hint of exhaustion.
The pumpkin harvesting continued for a long time. The unhurried footage, completely untouched by fast-forwarding, flowed by like a healing video.
『Kang Giyeon (20) Everyone, they said to come eat!』
From the distance, Kang Giyeon appeared carrying a yellow kettle in one hand and a tray stacked with plates in the other.
Won Chaehui checked the video's title again.
Then wondered why this upload wasn't called "Celebrating Farmers' Day."
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