Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols-Chapter 263: Pre-release (1)

“You’ve worked hard. See you tomorrow.”
“Yes, Manager, you too, get home safely!”
With that exchange, Manager Daeyeon closed the dorm’s front door.
At the same time, I recalled it all—Manager Daeyeon’s attitude, which ranked in the top 10 of the most well-mannered people I had ever met in my life.
His attitude of not speaking casually just because I was younger—I would have normally told him to speak comfortably first, but I was waiting for the right time, thinking Spark needed time to get used to the new manager—, the advance route guidance that a polite taxi driver would show, the considerate inquiry about playing music.
And finally, his note—so detailed it revealed the kind of meticulousness every working adult needed.
If that memo had been a job application, I wouldn’t even have held an interview…
No, an interview was necessary. I would have decided to hire him right away after a five-minute interview.
Moreover, behind the list of caffeinated foods was a list of non-irritating café drinks.
That was probably for Park Joowoo. Which somehow made the gesture twice as touching.
The intuition of a (former) HR manager rang throughout my body. This person is the real deal.
“Why are you just standing at the entrance and not coming in?”
Lee Cheonghyeon, who had come out to get water, asked.
“Our Cheonghyeon, your sound source work is done, what are you doing up so late?”
“I’m hydrating for vocal cord management.”
“A valid reason. Go on in.”
“Okay.”
Lee Cheonghyeon really did just drink water and go back in. I quietly took off my shoes so as not to wake the other guys and made a resolution.
I’m definitely holding onto Mr. Pyeong Daeyeon.
And making him one of Spark’s people. At least until one of our contract extension intentions expired.
* * *
‘I’m screwed.’
Baek Haewon thought to herself. No matter how she looked at it, the odds of acing her final exams were not in her favor.
What is Spark doing! Not even making a comeback!
Sure, MISSION had just aired not long ago! And sure, the Chuseok special self-content dump made her blissfully happy! And yes, Indenia gave out full sets of photocards and mini posters, which was amazing!
But a Sparkler without Spark was just a lone soul in darkness!
‘Sob… give me Spark…’
As soon as the thought came, Baek Haewon typed it out with lightning-fast fingers:
≫ Sob… give me Spark…
└ Have you seen Iwol’s Bubble Pop? It was so cute
└ My blood Spark concentration is not enough with just that
└ I shouldn’t have said anything
Life had no joy left. Haewon collapsed onto her bed with an empty heart.
‘Now there’s nothing left to do but vote for the rookie award.’
Other fandoms were forming alliances and helping each other out, but Spark didn’t really have any group to team up with. Their fandom was on bad terms with Parthe, and though the Spark members were friendly with Berion, they were rivals for the rookie award.
The joint support team had tried reaching out to girl group fandoms, but that didn’t work out either.
≫ I heard there’s talk of a boy group × girl group song swap at this year’s music festival. Does anyone know where this rumor came from?
Because a gloomy rumor that was depressing just to hear had been circulating.
F*ck, please stop putting boy and girl idols together as couple MCs! Don’t you know boys and girls shouldn’t sit together after the age of seven? If you’re going to make them do a song swap, do it by lottery or assignment, not by nomination!
Thanks to that, with alliances and whatnot all frozen, Sparklers were now in a position where they had to win the rookie award for Spark through their own self-reliance.
The kids had done their part. Five comebacks in one year, went on a ton of variety shows, went viral, and even won first place on a music show, albeit only once.
All that was left was voting, and only voting.
Under the threat of ‘If you want your friend to receive the rookie award that he can only get once in his idol career, you will do as I say,’ Baek Haein also joined the voting frenzy.
Now, Baek Haewon’s days were filled with vote-pushing, rewatching self-content where the members appeared in the background, rewatching entire episodes, reading every fan video upload from the past week, cleaning her room, studying for her absolute trash finals, and…
≫ @spArk_official
spArk 2nd Mini Album 『OUR』 Activity Schedule
…enjoy the comeback.
‘…Comeback?’
Comeback?!
Baek Haewon shot up. Then, doubting her own eyes, she touched the pop-up notification to read the full text.
≫ @spArk_official
spArk 2nd Mini Album 『OUR』 Activity Schedule
Hello. This is UA.
On December XX (Mon), Spark’s second mini album 『OUR』 will be released
Please refer to the image below for the activity schedule and album pre-order/specifications
Thank you for always cherishing and loving Spark
.
.
Mom… my boys are having five comebacks in one year, not including the survival program…
At the appearance of truly devoted idols, a first in her life, Baek Haewon couldn’t suppress her overflowing heart.
But were their health okay? Was it okay for them to work like this? Should she go and plaster UA with post-it notes?
As Baek Haewon’s hands were full of worldly cares, her phone vibrated. It was a Bubble Pop notification.
≫ Iwol
Miheon-nim, did you see our comeback announcement? I’ve only said I’ve been busy lately, but we can finally tell you why…
≫ Jeho
We’re coming back
≫ Jeho
You already read the whole announcement?
≫ Jeho
Why are you so fast?
≫ Seongbin
The comeback announcement is finally out! It was hard to hold back from telling youㅎㅎ
≫ Joowoo
We’re making a comeback~ Were you surprised? 😀
≫ Cutie Pretty Visual
It’s finally outㅠㅠ The comeback announcementㅠㅠㅠ We’ve been so strict with the embargoㅠㅠ
≫ Cutie Pretty Visualry
Everyone’s on Bubble Pop now? Miss Miheon, be honest. Which number was I when you read mine?
The members in Bubble Pop seemed very happy. They talked about who to look forward to, seeing fans more often during year-end shows, and more.
‘Right, as long as you guys are happy, that’s all that matters.’
Baek Haewon wiped her tears. At that moment, Kang Kiyeon’s most recent message caught her eye.
≫ Kiyeon
Do you like the album? I hope you do.
Did she?
I’m sorry, Kiyeon. I haven’t even seen the album design yet. Because you guys talk too much…
Baek Haewon finally came to her senses. Kiiyeon asked if she liked it, so she had to check it out quickly.
The detail page was made with a very red image that gave off a strong year-end vibe. Though because of the group name, it did bring to mind a burning revolutionary torch.
The album title was Our. It was divided into two types: ‘Note’ and ‘Story book.’
At a glance, the Note version’s cover gave the impression that it was made of leather. Though upon checking the specifications, it was confirmed to be thick paper.
The size of the Note version was like a small notebook. Below it, there was a description that it included a QR album.
‘Accordion book style rolling paper
[1]
Rolling paper means a sentimental message collection. It’s usually a sheet, notebook, or set of papers where multiple people write short, heartfelt messages to a specific person — often for a birthday, graduation, farewell, debut anniversary, etc. for each member…? The format is insane.’
On the other hand, the Story book was a square size similar to a regular children’s book. The cover design also had a high-quality paper manuscript feel, unlike the leather notebook-like Note version.
‘They’re editing the rolling paper in a handwritten manuscript style and putting it behind the photo album?’
So no matter which version you bought, you’d get the rolling paper. Baek Haewon breathed a sigh of relief.
Until she saw the words ‘Photo Card (24 types)’ right below it.
Two album versions? Fine. They were pretty. In this digital age, it might be better to buy a QR album than to contribute to environmental destruction by only releasing paper albums.
But 24 types of photocards? With only six members?
Baek Haewon recalled a time when her former idol group had released a total of 77 types of photocards. The atmosphere of the fandom at that time, to put it bluntly, was a mess.
No matter how the agency had explained that they were capturing the seven jewel-like moments to commemorate the lucky seven,  the outrage had not died down easily.
Compared to 77 types, 24 was nothing. But still!
As Baek Haewon was agonizing, a small text belatedly caught her eye.
≫ Photocard (24 types)
Note ver. Photo Card 2 sets (12 types / 6 types each)
Story book ver. Photo Card 2 sets (12 types / 6 types each)
1 photo card set (6 types) per album
In other words, if you buy one album, you get one set of photocards. One for each of the six members.
This made the situation much better for people who had a favorite member than when there was one photocard per album and they had to trade. The number of types had increased, but the burden of collecting them all would decrease.
Only then did the blurred images of Spark’s photocards become visible.
The Note version had one set of them wrapped in a red cloth around their necks, as if wearing red scarves together, and one set of them in blurry brown outfits, striking various poses.
The Story book contained one set of close-ups with dazzling colors, as if something tremendous was happening, and one set in common outfits presumed to be group uniforms.
Moreover, one of the dazzling version cards was almost white. It was so white that you could suspect it to be a printing error.
‘What on earth is the Storybook concept? Are they making a children’s book?’
The photocards were so blurry and flashy that even Baek Haewon, who had been trained by years of fangirling, couldn’t tell who was who.
At that moment, Baek Haewon seriously contemplated. Not whether to buy the album or not, but how many she should buy.
* * *
As the release time for the Winter Night music video approached, Lee Cheonghyeon grew anxious.
“What if… the reaction is bad?”
He even started biting his nails. Kang Kiyeon tried holding his hands down, but it was useless. Lee Cheonghyeon started shaking his leg.
Lee Cheonghyeon had never put a slow-tempo song at the forefront before. The ones with the slowest BPM were The Third Letter and Starlight, but the former was a digital single in the style of a fan song, and the latter was a cover.
An easy-listening song with an undeniably slow tempo. Perhaps because of that, Lee Cheonghyeon was greatly agitated for the first time since making thee debut song.
“Iwol hyung, even if this doesn’t chart, you’ll let me live, right?”
“Stop saying things that sound suspicious.”
I answered in a joking tone, but Lee Cheonghyeon’s two clasped hands were truly pitiful.
“After this activity ends, I’m going to hibernate every winter.”
Finally, Lee Cheonghyeon even declared a seasonal hiatus. It was a firm resolve to never listen to carols again.
“Enough of that.”
I sat next to Lee Cheonghyeon. Spark’s Metube channel shone brightly on the tablet.
And the moment I refreshed with a few gestures.
“Aack! I can’t watch!”
“Everyone, gather around. Let’s watch the music video.”
Spark’s year-end pre-release song, the music video for Winter Night, was uploaded.
1. Rolling paper means a sentimental message collection. It’s usually a sheet, notebook, or set of papers where multiple people write short, heartfelt messages to a specific person — often for a birthday, graduation, farewell, debut anniversary, etc.
Author's Thoughts
Hi, starting this week, the amount of chapters released will be reduced from 6 times a week to 4 times.