Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols-Chapter 254: Back in My Day

『My CSAT experience?』
Kim Iwol asked with a bewildered expression. He looked like he didn’t understand at all why the fans were curious about such a thing.
But Kim Iwol needed to know.
Currently, in the idol scene, Kim Iwol was…
≫ First-tier scores hit differently
It’s only natural that he ended up winning
└ If I know ‘sinecure’, can I also get top marks in English?
└ Be careful you might end up sine nomine—off the pass list entirely
≫ Seongbin, hold hyung’s hand and go take the CSAT together
└ Wait a minute, that’s too harsh for a high school senior who’s about to take the CSAT
└ Ah… Cheonghyeon, next year, hold hyung’s hand and go take the CSAT together
≫ Wasn’t all exam knowledge supposed to evaporate after the CSAT?
Kim Iwol, it’s troublesome if you keep giving professors hope like this
The professors are trying so hard to see us as talking potatoes, and if you do this, our position becomes awkward
└ That’s what I’m saying, I don’t even remember one cosine tangent
└ How can you remember cosine but not sine, my friend? ㅠㅠㅠ
└ Wow, I didn’t remember either until the comment above said itㅋㅋㅋㅋ
≫ But what should we call Iwol?
There’s a kind of intelligence that’s different from just having strong academic basics
I can’t express it in words because my intelligence is lacking, but anyway, that’s how it is
└ Sort of like… highly intelligent (reaches limit of expression)
└ My oomfs have serious vocab issues, who wants to start vocab training drills with me starting today?
└ Me
└ Teacher, the shredder ate my homework… I really finished it though
└ Teacher: Bring all the shredded paper by tomorrow, I’m checking
≫ Iwol is smart, but… a bit strange
Makes a deduction cooly → Let’s resign together and make the company go bankrupt!
Solves the final problem coolly → Just looks around with a ‘why did I win?’ expression
Plans an album coolly → Gets super shy for being the only one in a crop top, wraps up in a blanket, and hides red-faced in the corner of the couch
└ Why are all these anecdotes about Spark?
└ he looks so worldly and cool, but when he’s flustered, he becomes all ㅇxㅇ. He’s the GOAT
└ Speaking of goat, I remember Jeho looking at the chat during a live stream and asking, ‘Why do you guys like goats so much?’
└ Only Iwol and Seongbin got the joke and tried not to laugh—it was iconic
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Kang Kiyeon in the back: Did our symbolic animal change to a goat or something?
└ It’s actually shocking, an idol whose symbolic animal is a goat
≫ Kim Iwol, please use your big brain again
Make another MV like ‘With List’
Release more self-introduction content for each member
Go on IDC and build lore
But make UA do all the chores, you just have to give instructions
And this is just my personal wish, but please play doubles table tennis just once, Spark, I’m begging you, Iwol, you’re watching, right? Noona is really desperate, please make it 40 minutes of self-produced content—I don’t care if it’s boring or even if no one’s mic’d. Just play one match when you’re bored at practice. Noona will send table tennis outfits to UA, please
└ The surging interest in table tennis since ISD…
└ But seriously, how did that even pass content screening?
└ A question for the ages
…And so he was being marketed as.
The fact that the eldest hyung was not only capable but also smart had become a great source of pride for the fans.
It was fine for an idol to be imperfect, but if they gave off an impression of being too ignorant, it was a bit much… right? For example, using a single ‘ㅅ’ (s) where a double ‘ㅆ’ (ss) should be used.
(TL note: using a single ‘ㅅ’ (s) where a double ‘ㅆ’ (ss) should be used -> I imagine it’s like when people use ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’.)
In that sense, Kim Iwol was a model idol with no glaring faults.
He never went on TV and bragged, ‘I got into S University!’ when he didn’t even enroll — she didn’t want to use this expression, but Kim Iwol’s anti-fans always used it — nor did he act condescending. And whenever he got praised, he always made sure to credit the people who supported him.
Good-natured. Polite. Smart too. How could anyone not love an idol like that? At least Baek Haewon didn’t know how.
Anyway. In this situation, Kim Iwol’s hit CSAT experience was naturally a matter of interest for the fans.
With a member also gone to take the CSAT, chat messages poured in, asking him to share some stories. Kim Iwol’s remarks of the past were precious, after all.
『Hmm… There wasn’t anything special. Let me try to remember.』
『When the exam ended, did you get that ‘this is definitely a top score’ kind of feeling?』
Lee Cheonghyeon asked, oozing the class of someone used to ranking high in nationwide mock tests.
『No. The exam was difficult, and there were problems I guessed on, so I didn’t think I’d get top grade.』
『Don’t you keep worrying if you mess up one section?』
『You have to change your mindset to make up for it in the next subject.』
Kim Iwol answered Kang Kiyeon’s question nonchalantly.
So that’s how you get a top score on the CSAT. Not by checking answers during every break like she did…
The conversation didn’t stay totally on track. Sometimes, Choi Jeho would throw in strange questions to satisfy a curiosity he’d somehow developed.
『Do kids who study a lot really get nosebleeds from studying?』
『I’ve never had one because of studying. But you can’t generalize from just me.』
『I have! A long time ago!』
『See, even Cheonghyeon has.』
Lee Cheonghyeon touched his nose. It was quite cute how he immediately took his hand off his face upon receiving Kim Iwol’s gentle gaze, but… who made young Lee Cheonghyeon study until he got a nosebleed? Die, world.
After that, Park Joowoo, who was diligently reading the chat, threw a new question as if he had discovered something.
『Why did you apply for business administration…?』
『I  vaguely thought it’d be easier to get a job. I didn’t realize how many majors there were in Korean universities.』
『If you were to apply for a new department at this point! Is there anywhere you’d want to go?』
『To be helpful for our activities, shouldn’t I go to a department related to cultural content?』
『Not practical music?』
Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Kiyeon successively bombarded Kim Iwol with questions. And Kim Iwol was taking all of them seriously.
I like that side of you, but! Kim Iwol, stop turning everything into a study session! It’s great that you’re a genius producer, but I’m worried that one day you’ll suddenly launch a new idol group under your name and neglect your main job! I know you won’t, but still—I worry!!
Baek Haewon bit her lip. Losing Kim Iwol to another group?
Absolutely unacceptable. It would be met with bloody retribution…
After that, the talk shifted away from the CSAT to lighter things—like what to eat using the CSAT as an excuse when Jeong Seongbin came, or how it would be a relief if Jeong Seongbin didn’t immediately check their practice amount upon arrival, came up.
Finally, heartwarming CSAT support messages from the members followed.
『Sparklers, by the time you’re seeing this, you’re probably already home after finishing your exam. You’ve really worked hard. Have a great dinner tonight, and sleep soundly without thinking about anything.』
See you again soon.
With those words, Kim Iwol waved and said goodbye.
* * *
In the afternoon, everyone went together to pick up Jeong Seongbin in front of his school.
Just in case, we took a van instead of the car we usually rode in, and thankfully, no one paid any attention to the khaki-colored van.
Beyond the front windshield, we could see rows of packed cars and families of test-takers standing outside the school gate.
“Gosh, they must be so cold.”
Lee Cheonghyeon murmured as he unconsciously rubbed his hands together.
“Right? It would be nice if they waited in their cars or a cafe…”
Park Joowoo added.
“I don’t think there will be any seats anywhere right now. Look at the crowd.”
Kang Kiyeon, with a serious expression, slightly lifted the curtain installed on the window. The franchise cafes visible across the street were all full.
“That’s just how much they want to support their children, I guess.”
For once, Choi Jeho made a humane comment. Everyone’s gaze focused on him.
“What? What’s with you?”
“No, I’m just surprised you’re capable of understanding human emotion.”
Choi Jeho frowned at my words.
“Mom went to pick up noona when she took the CSAT. Happy now?”
Aha. So he learned this through experience.
“Did you go too, hyung? When Jeyoung noona took the CSAT, you were living in Gwangju, right?”
Lee Cheonghyeon turned around completely to ask. Choi Jeho also had a significant age gap with his older sister.
“She told me to come if I had nothing to do, so I went.”
No wonder this impatient guy hadn’t complained once about how long Seongbin was taking. You really do have to experience things to understand them.
‘Though I myself don’t really know, even though I was the one taking it.’
There had been no emotional family hug, no sense of relief that everything was over, nor regret that I could have done better. It felt like just another mock exam had ended, as people often say.
I had left the crying and laughing students behind and went to a restaurant with a ‘test-taker discount’ sign to eat dinner. Then I had gone to a PC bang, searched for universities I could get into with my expected grades, and then gone home.
Fortunately, the card I received was better than expected, so I chose the best option available to me.
Cold November passed, and March arrived. I’d earned the right to attend a place everyone involved took pride in—somewhere I’d worked for years to reach. A new life on my own, away from home.
My twenty-year-old self, who didn’t seem happy just because that was all there was.
In the distance, Jeong Seongbin appeared. Even among so many people, there were students who recognized Jeong Seongbin.
While our manager, who darted out like an arrow, brought Jeong Seongbin over, the kid was just smiling brightly.
The car door opened. Everyone welcomed Jeong Seongbin.
“You worked hard!”
Jeong Seongbin smiled awkwardly, saying he hadn’t even studied properly, so what was the big deal. Then he opened his bag zipper and took out the lunchbox.
“I finished all my food!”
The proud look on his face wasn’t any different from the students standing in line outside the van.
How much had all those waiting families outside longed to see a smile like that? Such an innocently bright smile.
“You did well.”
Finding it absurd, I let out a chuckle too.
Today had been more nerve-wracking than my own CSAT.