The next day, Spark wrapped the shoot on a warm note, looking a little closer than before.
Except for the part where I was the only one left a little more embarrassed.
It felt like I’d written a long message for the employee suggestion box and they posted it with my name printed right beside it.
Lee Cheonghyeon, who had been hopping on my back at the drop of a hat, just wouldn’t get off, so I barely held myself back from ripping off my T-shirt and yelling, “No need to keep secrets—I’m baring my upper body today!”
When we came back after demolishing ramen for breakfast—there are six of us and the PD asked if five packets would be enough, which made the punks a little gloomy—a welcome gift was waiting.
“Guys, the final approval for the next album plan came through!”
“Yesss!”
While we were up in the mountains bickering and cooking and filming enough self-content for Episode 2, UA finished all the prep work for our comeback.
Looked like people inside, unable to stand watching Spark fret and flail, heroically met a deadline that even they thought was tight.
Thank you. We’ll repay this favor with success. Not me—Spark, those punks.
It wasn’t just the neatly wrapped-up tasks that were thrilled to welcome me back.
[Do you. think you can survive.. after getting on the wrong side of industry people? I’ve never seen arrogant punks. succeed. That’s your future]
[You’re anxious because you’ve got no skills, right? Watching you hide behind people who know nothing and pull tricks.. is just pitiful.. Miserable life.. Don’t live like that]
[You’d better.. work hard on your image management.. You can’t even imagine how small this scene is.. but people like you.. word gets around fast. Do you know.. what kind of status a pro singer and a director have?]
[Remember there are a lot of eyes at the company. Jang Junhu’s juniors and my acquaintances.. everyone is watching.]
Yoo Hansu sure managed to send a lot of texts in just two days.
His spelling was such a mess it was hard to read. He even texts exactly like Deputy Nam—do they have a class somewhere teaching people to text like this?
More than that—was this guy always this dumb?
At least when he slapped my face, he had the brains to call me somewhere without CCTV.
I guess in his life he hasn’t been reported by many people with less than he has. Considering how he’s boldly leaving records that are going to be evidence.
To honor that pathetic display, I screenshotted and backed up every text Yoo Hansu sent.
Aside from the Yoo Hansu spam-text issue, everything else moved smoothly.
Except one thing: recording.
Since OJT, Lee Cheonghyeon’s rap skills had skyrocketed, and he directed as harshly as the standard he’d raised for himself.
“Hyung Iwol, should we stack a harmony here just once? Think of doing it live too! Make it super hyped!”
“Hyung Seongbin, could you make the high note just a little more stable than now? You can totally do it!”
The four of us, except for vocal genius Park Juu, had to get smacked around by Lee Cheonghyeon while recording.
Those maknaes who’d been so close fought for three minutes after singing one line.
There’s that old saying about growing while you fight. If that’s true, these punks will hit 190 cm by the end of the week.
That wasn’t all. I’d ended up in a spot where I had to co-direct with Lee Cheonghyeon and, daring to, point out the Spark friends’ takes one by one.
“I’m... directing?”
“You relayed all your feedback through the A&R Team during 『Flowering』, right? Talking through multiple people is inefficient, so it’s better if you, Iwol, direct in person and get your breathing in sync with the kids.”
......That’s how it went. I spent a while playing pitch inspector, something never written in my fate. And got a mountain of new music knowledge poured into me.
Still, under the baton of maestro Lee Cheonghyeon, the second track, 『With List』, was completed perfectly.
“Lee Cheonghyeon, when you make a song like that, you’re prepared to sing it live while dancing, right?”
“Of course. You think I split the beat without considering the choreo because I only had the song in mind for the moment?”
And then came the blood-soaked revenge of Choi Jeho and Kang Giyeon, hammering away.
Couldn’t have asked for a more packed period. Thanks to that, I can barely remember whether I was ever an office worker.
I finished checking today’s phone as I drank the ion drinks Ms. Newri had put in the practice room as a ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) thank-you.
All that was left was to hand it back to the manager like usual.
Once I finished my conversation with Polo.
Hellas Polo sunbaenim
[Iwol-ssi]
[Is Spark making a comeback??]
[I heard Dalbamdae reached out]
Me
[Hello, sunbaenim!
The detailed schedule hasn’t been finalized,
but a press release will be going out soon!]
Hellas Polo sunbaenim
[Oh]
[You’re grinding]
[Well, the debut phase is really crazy busy, lol]
While my head was thinking, “Why did this person reach out to me?”, my fingers had already sent thanks for the excessive praise and a note about how much of an honor last time’s radio appearance had been.
After a few more messages back and forth, Polo said:
Hellas Polo sunbaenim
[Are you going to wear a headband next time too?]
[If you’re going to wear a headband, I should brace myself]
As expected of a one-time top idol. Never misses anything that became an issue.
To a guest, radio appearances are special, but not to the main DJ. It’s something that repeats every time.
Naturally, it’s not easy to stir up buzz with the core duties alone.
He must have seen some meme like “live on air, getting sold on a handmade headband.”
He actually posted on his own SNS afterward—a photo of the stuffed toy a fan gave him, now wearing a gold headband—with a caption that he’d been bewitched into buying(?) it after the recording.
Respect. Idol power that doesn’t miss a single thing like this.
Me
“I’ll go beyond what you’re imagining!”
But no chance.
Like I’d let a famous DJ snatch even a fistful of headline fodder from me.
Polo replied fast.
Hellas Polo sunbaenim
[[laughs]]
[I’ll be looking forward to it. [laughs]]
[I remember when Parte came out and you showed up in that outrageous fashion ^^]
At the same time, I had a lot of thoughts.
Maybe I overdid it.
Maybe this person... just wanted to tease me.
“Ha.”
Back from school, Baek Haewon melted into the bed like cheese.
“Life is no fun.”
Baek Haewon sighed.
Over the weekend, determined to study a bit, Baek Haewon went to a study room and was brutally defeated by food coma, finally raising the white flag and coming home in broad daylight.
Won’t someone bring me something fun from somewhere.
Isn’t there anyone who’ll shove guaranteed-delicious content at me and tell me exactly which minutes and seconds are delicious...
Thinking that, Baek Haewon endlessly refreshed the SNS feed.
But new posts just wouldn’t go up.
Where did all that passion go, the kind where people swore they’d drop at least one crumb even if the earth ended—the feed was as quiet as a mouse.
Right when Baek Haewon vowed to mess around exactly three more minutes and then go wash up—
right after the twenty-seventh refresh, a post they hadn’t seen popped up.
Uploaded three seconds ago. The official account name Baek Haewon had followed a little while back after admitting to self-converting into a Spark fan, plus the blue check next to it.
“Crumbs dropped!”
Baek Haewon clapped a hand over their mouth and sprang up like a live fish.
Up until last week, the members’ individual content had been going up regularly, but Baek Haewon was always thirsty for new crumbs. That was the life of a fan.
“Please be a comeback, please be a new song...”
Baek Haewon prayed earnestly.
If the company were just an ordinary idol company, there wouldn’t be this kind of worry, but Spark happened to be the company’s first idol, so there were a dozen things to fret about.
≫ @spArk_official
Guys, can you see?
And a single photo shot from underground, camera pointed up at the sky.
Even though it was still April, they’d stamped an early-May date into the corner of the photo.
Seeing this inexplicable line and a photo without a single strand of any member’s hair, Baek Haewon was sure.
It’s crumbs.
It’s a comeback!
UA is giving me a Children’s Day present my mom and dad don’t give me anymore. With a childhood heart dark-faded and shining, that’s what Baek Haewon thought.
The feeds of Baek Haewon’s acquaintances—who had said they were too old now to have energy for SNS—started to regen.
Of course. Watching those ever-consistent acquaintances, Baek Haewon went into overdrive.
≫ @minamhunter
I mean I can’t see anything
but I kinda smell dirt
└ Wait when did you get buried lol
└ But the composition really was live-burial
“This is life... this is life...”
Baek Haewon smiled, satisfied.
When their own sibling wouldn’t stop nagging about when they were going to wash up, they were ready to snap, “Shut it and either you wash first or perish!”—that’s how much focus time Baek Haewon needed.
The blessing of crumbs didn’t end there.
≫ @spArk_official
Anyone remember what we wrote back then?
The nostalgia filter on the caption was absolutely killer.
“I don’t remember, but I remember.” Muttering that, Baek Haewon checked the photo attached under the post.
On an old, crumpled piece of paper were crooked letters written in six colors.
All the writing overlapped, and whether they’d written with their left hands or what, the handwriting wasn’t neat, so it was hard to read at a glance.
Baek Haewon basked in happiness while waiting for the fans whose hobby was crumb-decoding to arrive.
And the very next day, the teaser dropped.
Starting with a thump of drums, a fun melody flowed out—different in feel from the debut song 『Flowering』.
Jeong Seongbin stood in front of a whiteboard that read “Operation: Have the Most Fun in the World!”
Then came a shot from above, looking down at the members seated across from each other at a conference-room table.
Because of the camera angle, not everyone fit into one frame, but the angle soon switched to another shot.
The screen cut back and forth quickly between group choreography filmed in front of colorful rides and the members raiding their own homes to pack supplies, then went black.
After the blackout, the members appeared lined up at the entrance to a vast amusement park.
With very grave expressions, wearing the most outrageous headbands Park Juu had brought.
Over that, like the crumpled paper in the crumb photo, a title scrawled across as if in white crayon in crooked letters.
『With List』
And after watching the teaser about three times in a row, Baek Haewon clapped.
The kids’ visuals: 100 points.
The cuteness of the helium balloons wrapped around their wrists one by one: 100 points.
Plus bonus points for a bouncy melody that any K-pop old-timer would want to groove to.
On a 100-point scale, it was a 300-point teaser. Baek Haewon was moved.
Minamhunter’s colleagues were asking, “Mihun-nim, do you have enough bullets?” The highest praise: that the album was worth spending money on.
But Baek Haewon didn’t rest on that.
The most dangerous thing to a stan is rose-colored glasses. So Baek Haewon knocked on the door of an entertainment community they hadn’t gone into for a while.
