Author: LyraDhani
“Can’t even play a joke. Jeho hyung, turn the slide. Hurry!”
Right before my eyes rolled out of my head, the normal PPT ca back. I took a breath and slowly read the words on the screen.
Spark’s Goal: Show a new side
Success Factor of Season 1’s 2nd Competition: Stages with excellent aesthetic elents
Summary: We need a bold song choice paired with flashy, beautiful costus and stage design.
On the right, the text was bracketed and labeled, ‘Cool Spark’. Up until recently, I thought I was raising a tiger cub. It turned out I was wrong. Apparently, I had been raising a unicorn… or sothing like that.
“I get what kind of image you want to show. What song do you want ‘Cool Spark’ to perform?”
Kang Kiyeon cut straight to the point. Lee Cheonghyeon spoke solemnly.
“I’ll be blunt.”
“…….”
“I want to sing a musical number.”
“What?”
Click-man interrupted mid-slide turn. Our reactions weren’t much different.
“Musical is……”
Jeong Seongbin trailed off. He probably wanted to say the vocalization was completely different. However, Lee Cheonghyeon couldn’t possibly not know this fact. Hence, he didn’t feel the need to finish the sentence.
“It’ll be a tough challenge. Honestly, I’m not even that confident myself!”
“But you still want to try…?”
“It won’t be easy, but I’ve made a plan to pull it off.”
The next slide showed a huge August calendar. Everything up to mid-August—the scheduled recording date—was packed and marked.
“We’ll pour all our remaining ti into vocal practice. The blocking won’t be too complicated, so if we base it on our usual choreography schedule, we can learn it in two days. For originality, I’m not planning to rearrange the song, so we have plenty of ti for harmony distribution.”
Lee Cheonghyeon spoke without even stopping to breathe.
“In dance songs, it’s hard for all the mbers to sing the sa long phrase together, right? The parts switch fast, and the lodic sections aren’t very long. Don’t you think it’d be cool to sing together from start to finish?”
The mbers’ gazes turned to .
There was a clear difference between what others hadn’t done and what they didn’t do. And I thought musicals were the latter. There was a reason why renowned idol vocalists received new training when moving to the musical market.
Even if we copied the blocking perfectly, the evaluation wouldn’t be great. In a genre mixing drama and song, what aning is there in just singing without highly imrsive acting?
I agonized over whether it was really right to support Lee Cheonghyeon’s idea, knowing we’d probably get criticized.
‘But if we think about our goal as perforrs, this is the right move.’
Spark, dressed in antique-style costus and singing a musical number, probably wouldn’t happen again. You can’t just strip performance out of a dance group.
So, I also thought there was nothing better than this for the purpose of ‘showing a new side’.
“There are two points to consider. First, Jeho and Kiyeon’s opinions. Second, regarding the results. The burden will be heavy for the dance line, will it be okay?”
“If it’s decided, we do it.”
“I’m fine too. During the showcase, the stage leaned too much into performance anyway.”
Fortunately, the sandpaper dapper gave comndable answers. They beca dance specialists because they danced excessively well, not because they couldn’t sing, so there was no need to worry about skills.
What remains was the result.
“I’m against placing significance solely on doing sothing new. Even if we take on a challenge, the result must be satisfying for the viewers.”
In other words, we couldn’t let people say we were treating musicals lightly or just fooling around.
If we released a song ourselves and it flopped, Spark and UA would take the hit.
But if we ssed up on broadcast, the fans would be the most hurt. They’d see the mockery and criticism in real ti.
Unless it was for self-content that we watched among ourselves, the stage to be put on broadcast must be at a level not shaful for others to see.
And Lee Cheonghyeon imdiately understood my intention.
“I won’t let anyone be disappointed.”
Thus, Spark’s the for the 2nd competition was decided as a musical.
*
Spark got a new vocal coach. From the mont we opened our eyes to the mont we closed them, all we did was sing.
Park Joowoo adapted fastest to this routine. With no ti to work out, he managed his physique through diet and sang day and night like it was second nature.
“I wish it were like this every day…”
He was so happy just practicing the basics that Jeong Seongbin and I worried he might suddenly announce he was leaving for the musical scene.
Lee Cheonghyeon was bursting with energy too. The first ti we all sang the sa phrase together, you could see the excitent on his face.
Conversely, there were guys who beca haggard day by day. Choi Jeho had it the worst. His voice didn’t go hoarse—maybe the vocal training helped—but not moving his body drove him crazy, doubling his irritability. If we hadn’t brought a Smith machine into the dorm, soone would have died caught between Choi Jeho’s frowns.
Though he pretended not to be, Kang Kiyeon was in a similar state. His stifled feeling was visible to the naked eye. When told to go run on a treadmill, he would strongly decline, but after about 5 minutes, he would say ‘I’ll go to the gym for a bit…’ and leave.
“You guys really can’t live without dancing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Originally, we were different species. Now I can understand you guys.”
I worried they’d suggest acrobatics for the next stage, but decided to enjoy the mont.
A stage without dancing, how precious. Sorry for being a hopeless idol……
While basking in happiness, Lee Cheonghyeon called over.
“Hyung, can I see you for a mont?”
“Yeah.”
For once, he looked serious. On his laptop were several performance videos of the numbers we planned to cover.
“We’ve got a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Joowoo hyung’s voice might stand out too much.”
It was a really big problem. Park Joowoo’s tone was like a human electric guitar, a treasure. In Spark’s songs, where parts were clearly assigned and even harmonies had a lead, his uniqueness was a huge asset. But now that we needed blend and harmony, that sa uniqueness beca a liability.
“We can’t just give hyung all the solo parts either.”
“True. We need to think about this.”
We put our heads together to figure out what to do with our proud tone fairy.
“What if we lean into his individuality instead… would that stray too far from the original?”
“Our goal isn’t to copy the performance exactly, so maybe that’s okay?”
“I’m just worried people will say Joowoo sticks out too much.”
I didn’t want Park Joowoo to be humiliated. Watching rack my brain over this, Lee Cheonghyeon said:
“Are you anxious?”
“About what?”
“You’re extrely concerned about getting criticized.You’re usually all about preparing so no one says anything bad. But right now, you just seem worried.”
“…”
“If you can’t shake it, should we change genres now?”
He didn’t look happy suggesting it. He wasn’t worried about the sa thing I was.
This offer was just for . Not for the team or the fans. It was basically asking if I wanted him to back off a step for my sake.
“Do you think I’ve gotten too defensive?”
“A little.”
“Huh.”
“The old hyung was desperate to ensure we had no shortcomings. Now it feels like you just don’t want us to get hurt.”
He wasn’t wrong. My head and heart were full of worries.
Not because I didn’t trust them, but…
‘They say it’s easy to get ntal illness if you beco a celebrity.’
….Mom’s words ca back to .
After having my own ntal state shattered, all I could think was that I didn’t want them to go through the sa thing.
I hadn’t ant to show it, but I must’ve let my guard down. While I was reflecting, Lee Cheonghyeon spoke again.
“Hyung.”
“What?”
“There’s no one trying to be an idol who thinks they’ll never get hate.”
He rested his chin on his hand and looked at .
“Yeah, it’ll be hard when people tear you apart. But it’s not like we’ve never imagined that. If it happens, we’ll say it’s hard. You don’t have to handle everything for us. You know we all get counseling now, right?”
“Not everyone can imdiately recognize when they’re struggling. There might be tis we need help right away.”
“If you’re worried about that, talk more. Either threaten that you’re watching as usual, or since it takes a lot of effort to care about every detail, order us to make regular reports. Don’t use up all your energy alone.”
His black eyes stared at as if piercing through.
“If you’re worried, I wish you’d say you are. After seeing Lee Suhoon, I’ve been thinking about this even more.”
“…”
“I’m saying this because I’m worried about you, too, hyung.”
I forgot for a mont because I had a lot of work. That there was no one who read the mbers’ mood better than this guy.
I laughed bitterly. When did the guy who once ran away because he didn’t want to debut with his own song grow this much backbone?
“Fine. You’re still not checking fan sites, right? If I catch you on any shady forums, I’m telling the manager to switch your phone to a kid’s phone. And you know you’re the one who’s late to team etings the most, right? You keep saying we should talk more, but you don’t show up to talk. I’ll be holding a hearing about that soon, so prepare yourself.”
“Ah, that’s because of work!”
Lee Cheonghyeon protested loudly. His excuses were neatly ignored.
*
Going back and forth between ‘Idol Dynasty Chronicle’ and the drama was surprisingly manageable. Not having big choreography practices when filming got busy helped a lot.
‘If the third round is a position battle, Park Joowoo will go out, so I’ll be free until the end of this month.’
Compared to Season 1, where we couldn’t even breathe, we had more people to prepare and fewer issues. It felt like pure luck.
Thanks to Lee Cheonghyeon boldly announcing, ‘We’re starting a ntal health survey to ease Iwol hyung’s worries,’ we even had a group session to check our happiness levels.
It was quite embarrassing, but since I gained peace of mind and body in exchange for sha, I figured it wasn’t a losing deal.
And with things settled around , there was sothing I needed to check.
I opened the system window and reread sothing from long ago.
[SYSTEM] ‘Final Achievent Reward’ is notified.
▷ Nullification of noona (blood relative)’s death and provision of reunion opportunity
‘System.’
When I called it, the screen flickered for a very brief mont.
About this expression… ‘Reunion’ opportunity, I think you need to explain it clearly.
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