Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols-Chapter 219: Cooking Class

There were various events where fans gathered. Fan signings, pre-recordings, live broadcasts, fan meetings, and so on.
At these events, there was something idols should always take care of.
“Fan return gifts?”
“Yeah. Don’t tell me you weren’t planning on it.”
I looked into Choi Jeho’s eyes and smiled brightly.
Just like you said, the fans who support Spark—still lacking, flawed, and far from perfect—are going to make their way to a stadium with terrible transportation. All that just to cheer us on at this over-6-hour-long ISD field day.
“Of course we have to do it. I heard they don’t even get a proper lunch break.”
Agreeing with me, Lee Cheonghyeon pulled out the shared laptop. It felt like it took only about 8 seconds for the laptop to boot up and open the meeting notes. It was as if he had a macro running set up.
Seeing Lee Cheonghyeon write the date in the meeting notes, Jeong Seongbin added,
“While we’re on the topic… Cheonghyeon, can you open the file in my folder labeled ‘Lunchbox References’?”
“Sure.”
The ‘Lunchbox References’ file was massive. When it opened, a flood of image files filled the spreadsheet. No wonder the file was so big.
“Types, compositions, drinks… Wow, Seongbin hyung, when did you put all this together?”
“After we decided to appear on ‘Idol Sports Day’. I looked up a lot of reviews.”
“If you had this much detail in mind, you should’ve told us earlier.”
Jeong Seongbin smiled sheepishly at my words.
“Well, this sort of thing costs money. I was worried it might seem like I was pressuring you guys.”
So kind. But I
will
pressure you guys.
You guys don’t know this now, but even when you were spacing out with dead fish eyes during breaks on ‘Idol Sports Day’, Sparkler fans still gave their all for you. Both with gifts and support.
“So I thought maybe I should just handle the return gift by myself… But of course, we’d put everyone’s name on it!”
Jeong Seongbin hesitated, gauging the members’ reactions.
A brief silence followed. Then the living room became noisy.
“Hyung, you can’t do this alone. And who would dislike giving return gifts to the fans?”
“Kiyeon’s right. If all six of us pitch in, we can do more than just lunchboxes…!”
“Yeah. The ISD recording is several hours long, how can we just give them one lunchbox?”
Kang Kiyeon, Park Joowoo, and Choi Jeho all voiced their support for Jeong Seongbin. I’m glad you guys have such upright mentalities. This makes this reverse gift expert very happy.
The debate soon turned to whether sandwiches or rice meals would be better for the lunchboxes.
At that moment, Lee Cheonghyeon intervened with a dramatic look.
“Everyone, stop talking.”
Lee Cheonghyeon said solemnly. Everyone’s attention focused on him.
“Can we really express our gratitude to Sparkler with mere mass-produced goods?”
His gestures were so dramatic, it felt like we were watching a musical. His face, like a work of art, amplified the effect.
“These are the people who got us to first place on our last broadcast. If we’re going to serve sushi, it should be omakase. If we’re doing juice, shouldn’t all six of us be cold-pressing it right there on-site?”
What a commendable mindset. Finally, someone in this team was starting to think on a similar level as me.
But he was still naïve. Only seeing half the picture.
“I agree with you on that.”
“Right? I think it’s best if we each choose an ingredient and make the sandwiches by hand…”
“But Cheonghyeon, think about it.”
I looked at him and gave a bitter smile.
“Do you think the fans would prefer something made with sincerity or something delicious?”
Lee Cheonghyeon faltered.
If there was someone on this team who was good at cooking, I would have suggested that first. But there wasn’t any.
“If the fans, after coming all this way, end up getting food poisoning, I won’t be able to face them, Cheonghyeon.”
“I acknowledge that and retract my statement.”
Lee Cheonghyeon conceded gracefully. The others, who looked ready to put on plastic gloves and start making sandwiches, quietly returned to their seats.
“But I agree that we need to express our gratitude strongly.”
This year, this idol group had already had two hiatuses and even more controversies.
Not long after their debut, we participated in a survival program, and now we were appearing on a long-term recording program. It was ultimately the fans who had supported us through all of this.
I knew how much effort that took.
So I’d make sure we delivered the best return gift possible—something that made people say, ‘Spark treats their fans right’.
“Let’s do our best so Sparklers can save face. Got it?”
At my words, everyone nodded. The next day, Jeong Seongbin got started on a full presentation for the return gift project.
* * *
Our efforts to provide the best return gifts for our fans continued in between schedules.
Jeong Seongbin designed the overall composition, and I, while searching for the best lunchbox caterer, was caught by Lee Cheonghyeon and scolded with, ‘Why do you always try to do these things yourself, hyung?’ It was no different from when we were renting the gym.
But what can I do if all the top vendors are in my head? Do you guys even know how many types of lunchboxes I’ve sent to our waiting rooms? Who else at UA would know where to order to get extra service items or which place has salad that’s not fresh?
It was true for the drinks too. During peak seasons like this, there was always one place that messed up the delivery, and the fans of that group ended up not receiving their fresh juice on time. It was better to safely order a coffee truck or pick up the drinks ourselves at dawn.
Jeong Seongbin’s role was to relay the vendors I painstakingly selected to the company. He must have had a hard time.
Other than that, everything went smoothly. Although Choi Jeho and I once again suffered the pangs of creation while writing ‘Thank you for coming to support us’ letters by hand, finally getting approval on the thirteenth attempt.
‘No, hyung, the ingredient list is already attached under the lunchbox.’
‘But allergic reactions can be very serious, so we need to emphasize the ingredients…’
I was apprehended by Lee Cheonghyeon while writing down the ingredient list provided by the lunchbox vendors.
‘How many times are you going to write ‘Let us know if you need more’?’
‘What if it really is not enough?’
‘Didn’t we say all portions would be 1.5 times the standard?’
Choi Jeho, worried that the fans might go hungry, was reprimanded by Kang Kiyeon. Maybe I should check if our community center offered writing classes.
Anyway, the preparation for the thank-you return gift event progressed smoothly.
And today, the day before ‘ISD’, we decided to bake cookies, the final touch for our fan return gifts.
To avoid harming our fans’ taste buds, we decided to bake the cookies under the watchful eye of a professional instructor.
‘Compared to lunchboxes, cookies can be mass-produced, and we can carefully select high-quality ingredients.’
The problem was that none of us had any baking experience.
Crushing the butter was easy. The instructor told us to wait until it softened before crushing it, but for human butter crushers like us, cold butter was no challenge.
We did great with the mixing too. Though we were advised to use a hand mixer, everyone insisted this might be the only chance to try whipping by hand, so they embraced the struggle. I helped them roll up their sleeves one by one, to make sure our fans could enjoy a better view of their arm muscles.
So far so good. Choosing butter cookies, known for being beginner-friendly, proved worthwhile.
The real ordeal began with measuring.
“The key to baking is accurate measurement. Look at the scale and measure the ingredients precisely!”
Despite the instructor’s advice, we kept ending up with overly enthusiastic batches of dough. Only Kang Kiyeon, the most restrained member of Spark, managed to create something close to decent.
By the time this footage aired on our self-produced content, it might be captioned ‘Spark’s overflowing love for Sparklers~☆’.
“Instructor, should I redo this?”
“Instructor, please take a look at my dough!”
Spark chirped like baby birds, calling for the instructor. And the most frequent caller was…
“Instructor…”
…Park Joowoo, whose apron was covered in powdered sugar.
Our main vocalist, who had been building his arm muscles along with his vocal cords, sent powder flying everywhere with a single whisk. He froze with a bewildered expression.
Even though I was acting all smug, things weren’t going so great for me either. Kang Kiyeon, who was waiting for his turn, came over and asked:
“Hyung, why is your dough so watery?”
“I added more eggs because it looked like it needed more, and it turned out like this.”
“But hyung, you know how to cook, don’t you?”
This was the fate of someone whose only cooking experience was making ancestral rites food. If you didn’t use enough eggs in skewered pancakes, all the ingredients fall apart. That memory just came rushing back to me…
The dough situation only went from bad to worse. As we added cake flour and starch, Spark gradually turned white all over. The sports day hadn’t even started yet, and our group already looked like it had been buried in volcanic ash—what kind of bad omen is this supposed to be?
Fortunately, with the help of the digital scale and the wonderful instructor, Spark succeeded in creating six giant lumps of dough. The instructor might end up bedridden after getting off work today.
“Next, we’ll put the dough into piping bags and pipe it out. The dough is stiff, so it will require a lot of strength. Especially since you’re making a lot of cookies today, everyone, please pace yourselves!”
The instructor kindly cheered us on.
And Spark, who, among many things, also knew how to use their strength, finally started to look competent.
“This is easy.”
The leader in this field was undoubtedly Choi Jeho. He had shed his clueless image of not being able to zero a scale and was now showing off the visuals of a skilled baker. Butter cookies flowed endlessly from Choi Jeho’s piping bag.
“Jeho hyung, the, shape…”
“Ah.”
Except for the occasional moments when he used too much force, making the cookies come out lumpy. I had to this to Bubble Pop.
On the other hand, I was praised for the uniformity of my cookies.
“Mr. Iwol’s cookies are textbook perfect!”
“Thank you.”
I never knew I had a talent for piping. I’d lived for over 30 years and I just found out now. As they say, you never know until you try.
After that, we baked the cookies, filled empty spots with jam, coated them in chocolate, and ate the burnt ones.
And before we knew it, the night of individual packaging had arrived.