Chapter 482: One Day Part Timer (2)

≫ Kim Iwolㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

I’ve never seen a concept suit someone this poorly beforeㅋㅋㅋ

└ Hey quiet down our Iwol is trying his best to max out his cuteness

└ At this point he didn’t max it out he took out a loan for it

└ That’s too cruelㅋㅋㅋㅋ

≫ Iwol-ah, making money must be hard

But the viewers are having a great time

Sorry for being this kind of fan

└ He did the hand hearts, wink, and aegyo perfectly, so why is this the one that’s so funnyㅋㅋㅋ

└ Usually whenever he has to do this kind of thing he tweaks the lines or gestures a little to fit his own style, but since he was just a substitute he couldn’t do thatㅠㅠ He had to follow the script exactlyㅋㅋㅋㅋㅠㅠ

≫ A shy performance from a man wearing a leather cropped bolero...... thank you for the meal

└ If I were Kim Iwol I would’ve cried after reading this comment

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋWhat’s the point of dressing him in pure menace when his role is basically an aegyo clap-botㅋㅋ

≫ Did he fail to immerse himself seriously in the role? X

Did he mess up because he couldn’t memorize the script? X

Did the people around him fail to pick up his cues? X

Was he personally awkward? X

Was it hilarious? O

└ The writer frantically rewriting the script after a sudden cancellation, the rookie MC going into a live broadcast without rehearsals, and the other MCs raising their energy even more than usual so there wouldn’t be dead air—all of them trying their absolute best somehow made the whole thing even funnier

≫ A dark stain on Kim Iwol’s previously flawless idol career

I’ll remember this forever

└ Honestly if he’d frozen up I would’ve just thought “yeah, the script probably caught him off guard too,” but he committed so hard to the personality transplantㅋㅋ Sparklers who know Kim Iwol’s actual personality literally couldn’t stop laughingㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

My MC debut caused a huge uproar.

A genuinely huge one.

Soft and fluffy maknae Kim Iwol earned the glorious honor of constantly being compared in split-screen edits to the black-and-silver slicked-back-hair Kim Iwol fancams from that same day.

Compilation videos of comments even started appearing. I refused to watch them because I was confident I’d burst into tears within three seconds. I’d always thought Lee Cheonghyeon was incredible already, but now he felt like a being from another dimension entirely. Truly, God built him with a completely different operating system from the start.

“Cheonghyeon-ah, I respect you.”

“I respect you too, hyung.”

“You don’t have to comfort me out of pity.”

“I mean it. Cheonghyeon is ‘so excited to see what hyung does next that I can barely stand it’!”

“.......”

Lee Cheonghyeon landed a fatal blow and vanished. I was left alone clutching the gaping hole in my chest, staggering around trying to soothe my injuries.

Thankfully, the flood of schedules and reactions helped the painful memory fade with time......

≫ Wait no

Kim Iwol 씨ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Congratulations on becoming an official MCㅋㅋㅋ

Inheriting the will of the senior MC who stepped down for a speedy recovery, I ended up receiving the grand new title of permanent MC.

“Alight” promotions left Spark with several major records.

Despite being a full album with a high retail price, it once again achieved a career-high sales figure. The digital chart rankings proved its mainstream appeal. The group successfully transformed its image, and more.

Trying out a wide variety of visual changes also worked in our favor. Every member changed hair color at least once during promotions, with some changing it up to three times. At a time when the trend was shifting toward wrapping up music show promotions in just one or two weeks, “Alight” earned high praise for “reviving the dying cross-edit fancam market.”

Spark’s bastards already didn’t have much fat on their faces to begin with, but by the final broadcast week everyone looked sharp enough to cut people with their jawlines. We’d already been managing body fat consistently, so I thought there wasn’t much left to lose, but maybe because the choreography was so intense, everyone’s faces had become visibly sharper.

‘Hyungs, are you secretly eating something while we sleep?’

Kang Giyeon had even asked suspiciously. Apparently the fact that only Choi Jeho and I still looked normal was suspicious.

I told him if he was so curious, he could follow me to the gym at dawn. Then he actually did. It was both funny and pitiful, so I took him to a twenty-four-hour pork cutlet place and bought him sweet potato cheese pork cutlet.

Normally, once promotions started winding down, the buzz gradually quieted too. Most content got released during comeback week, and after that things shifted toward fan-centered events.

But another incident reignited everything once more.

≫ The long war against the cyber-wrecker channels finally ends as authenticity is recognized

The trial had ended.

It was a perfect victory.

Mom and Dad couldn’t withstand the multiple civil and criminal lawsuits. They didn’t win a single case. In the end, after dragging things all the way to the appeals court, they now had to deal with inflated legal fees, settlement payments, and even bail money if they wanted reduced sentences.

They claimed they had no money, so my lawyer and I gathered all their Mitube donation records and estimated membership profits and reported that they actually did have money. Apparently tax investigations happen once suspicions of tax evasion pop up around Mitubers. Well, at least they won’t be bored in old age with all the investigations waiting for them.

Just let them try delaying the settlement payments. I’ll keep filing lawsuits until they beg me to cut ties with them once and for all.

The trial didn’t end with merely resolving my personal issues either. Since it became a nationwide news story, the results spread everywhere too.

And on top of that, it was the kind of refreshing ending people craved in a suffocating world......

So both I, the center of the controversy, and Spark received congratulations and support from all directions.

We had prepared our promotions well, and once the issue weighing on my mind was resolved, my physical and mental condition recovered perfectly. The synchronization rate was high, so accumulated fatigue only fluctuated slightly around ten percent.

People around me also started saying my face looked more relaxed. If I’d known exorcising Manager Nam would be this effective, I would’ve confronted him much earlier.

With my stamina fully restored, I poured everything into variety shows. Whenever appearance offers came in, I grabbed whichever one or two Spark members had open schedules and dragged them along tucked under both arms without even asking questions.

Normally, most programs idols appeared on during promotions were arranged before the comeback even happened. Since broadcasts needed at least a month of preparation time to line up comeback promotions, surprise casting was even rarer in such fierce competition.

But once your recognition passed a certain level, I realized waiting lists became meaningless. Every channel willingly cleared schedules to capture walking sources of buzz.

Spark never turned down incoming offers. We did every trending challenge that came our way—revealing the fruits of the brutal training we’d gone through in the basement practice room—and if someone called us, we showed up. The commercials we’d filmed before the comeback also started airing one after another.

At that point, Spark itself became a category.

Among the countless K-pop idol groups out there, the name “Spark” alone had become enough for people to recognize us.

≫ Spark seriously works so hard

They’re literally everywhereㅋㅋ

└ Seriously, every time I change channels they’re there

≫ Everyone else is doing the “Alight” challenge but our boys are out here doing weird random stuff instead

Guys the point is to promote the challenge

└ They should be filming random play dances with their own songs but instead they’re obsessed with random play dances for legendary songs of the year and don’t care about promotion at all

└ Did they spend the entire break just dancingㅋㅋㅋㅋ They know every songㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ If their synchronization is this insane even with other people’s songs, how much did they practice?

≫ Every time a Spark fancam gets uploaded it becomes a top post

Their buzz is insane

└ Whenever posts about them go up I click at least onceㅋㅋ I always want to see what the outfits look like

└ I thought competent stylists were mythical creatures......

└ The outfits suit them well, but they also show off the dance lines really clearly so it makes you want to watch the fancams more oftenㅋㅋㅋㅋ The fact they style each member to fit their personalities is cute too

└ Kang Giyeon wearing a million fake piercings was legendary instinct

≫ Holy shit this is hilarious

I’m not that interested in my sibling’s idol stuff and usually only casually watch a few famous variety shows, but whenever Choi Jeho appears I’m like “well I have to watch the variety cheat code......”

└ The dignity of the center

└ Kim Iwol cover your ears

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ How is the visual center the variety member

≫ Every time Spark finishes filming something, either immediately after or a little later, there’s always verification posts or staff 후기 uploaded

They must seriously have good personalities

└ From a T perspective I think posts mentioning Spark just get a lot of engagementㅋㅋㅋ But since the content is always positive they probably really do have good personalities

└ Even celebrities mention them oftenㅇㅇ Look at Polo. But honestly if a junior came onto my radio show carrying custom DJ headbands they made themselves I’d find them fucking adorable too

≫ I think I finally get why Spark became successful

The idol industry right now is basically:

tons of groups can’t sing live so one or two main vocalists hard-carry + dance standards alone have risen overall + lots of trainees come from wealthy families who can fully support them financially, and trainee periods have gotten shorter overall + fandoms have become softer so even if idols mess up people usually look the other way

Isn’t that basically the situation?

If someone’s reasonably attractive they’ll debut them even if they’re awkward, then after receiving a few luxury brand gifts they stop seeing fans as wallets and start treating them like nuisances

But Spark has live performance skills as a basic foundation. Their trainee period was longer than most groups that debuted around them too...... okay that’s partly because UA was dirt poor but still

Even with dance, early on only Kang Giyeon was a little stiff, but they never had hopeless filler members because he still handled his own responsibilities properlyㅇㅇ

Honestly yeah maybe I do have boomer mentality. But it’s also true people prefer and root for hardworking people over lazy bastards who coast through life. If one idol constantly shows up late even though their manager drives them everywhere, while another attends idea meetings regularly because they’re worried fans might get scammed buying sponsored products, who would you support?

I’m not saying idols should destroy their joints working themselves to death. I trust everyone understands what I mean

└ I agree with most of this but not the part about fandoms becoming softer. Isn’t sending protest trucks and statements every time something happens basically idol fandom culture?

└└ Protest trucks and statementsㅋㅋ Back in the old days it was blood letters and package attacks

└└└ Don’t speak if you never witnessed package attacks...... agency entrances literally got blocked

└ Whether it’s a main vocalist or main dancer, the members who secure main positions in groups are usually good at acting or variety too. They’ve experienced working desperately hard at something...... Obviously people shouldn’t be exploited under the excuse of “wanting to see passion,” but hard work still deserves recognition

└ If you watch their planning meetings and self-produced content, it’s obvious why none of their concepts have flopped so far. They work insanely hard on monitoring and understanding audience demand. Even if it hadn’t happened now, they would’ve blown up eventually

They had multiple songs that became mainstream hits.

The public knew who sang those songs.

The public could distinguish the members of the team that sang them.

And the members themselves built achievements and influence across multiple fields.

Once all those conditions were fulfilled......

≫ There’s no debate anymore when it comes to Spark

They’re unquestionably top tier

......The scale people used to acknowledge Spark’s influence had changed.

Top tier.

A meaningless title often dismissed as nothing more than a fandom-made fantasy league with no real authority.

Yet at the same time, an indicator the industry could never ignore.

A symbol of mainstream success.

The final gate before reaching the Grand Prize had opened.