Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols-Chapter 304: 1st Anniversary (5)

Image was important for an idol. From the concept, sales points, advertisements, to projects. The image truly determined everything about an idol.
Spark’s image could be defined by words like youth, vitality, healthiness, energy, and force. Their last album had come out with a softer vibe, but aside from that, they’d mostly been promoted as robust, energetic young men.
But what if the image changed here? The great era of Spark’s youth would be gone, and a mishmash concept of unknown identity would emerge. I’d rather double my own workload than see that happen again.
Unaware of my inner turmoil, the guys gathered around Lee Cheonghyeon. And they started chattering about whose image had changed the most.
“It’s Seongbin hyung. That hyung was like soft tofu in the early days of our debut, but now he’s completely pan-fried tofu.”
“No, Seongbin was already pan-fried tofu even in the past when he was practicing…”
“Now, when he’s practicing, he’s like mapo tofu.”
Lee Cheonghyeon, Park Joowoo, and Kang Kiyeon launched into a heated debate titled ‘Jeong Seongbin: The Evolution of Cooking Methods’. Jeong Seongbin, who had suddenly become mapo tofu, gave an awkward smile.
“Hasn’t Jeho hyung changed a lot?”
With Kang Kiyeon’s remark, a new candidate emerged. Choi Jeho stared at us blankly.
Choi Jeho indeed had changed a lot. He’d probably changed more than the mountains and rivers in 10 years.
“Didn’t you join UA because of Jeho hyung, Kang Kiyeon?”
At the newly released tidbit, gasps were heard from all around. Kang Kiyeon scratched the back of his head with an awkward face. Choi Jeho just blinked his eyes with a dumbfounded face.
“It was just….”
Kang Kiyeon mumbled his answer. The fans of the dance line, who had read the sincerity in his slurred words, went wild.
“Why?”
However, Choi Jeho was not a considerate enough guy to spare a person’s feelings.
The straight ball Choi Jeho threw landed heavily in Kang Kiyeon’s solar plexus.
In place of Kang Kiyeon, whose face was flushed red, Lee Cheonghyeon stepped in as a substitute to explain.
“Kang Kiyeon watched a lot of your videos in middle school! You all know, right? Jeho hyung’s past videos!”
“Of course!”
“Oh, I thought it was something else.”
Choi Jeho dumped a whole bucket of cold water over the heartwarming story. Tonight, I would definitely whisper the idol’s code of conduct into his ear again.
“Jeho hyung’s personality has softened a lot. He takes good care of his dongsaengs too.”
Jeong Seongbin said, trying to calm down Kang Kiyeon, who was on the verge of exploding. Perhaps because I had seen the past data a while ago, I agreed with Jeong Seongbin’s words to some extent.
At that moment, Park Joowoo, who had been quietly mulling over a Post-it in the back, said.
“…For me, it’s Iwol hyung.”
“Me?”
“Isn’t that hyung the same as always?”
Lee Cheonghyeon and I asked almost simultaneously. Park Joowoo fidgeted with the Post-it and answered.
“Iwol hyung… hasn’t changed much since the early days of our debut, but he’s very different from his first impression.”
What on earth was my first impression like?
I recalled the first day when I had returned after regressing.
I remembered that I had been very angry because of the system, my eyes were unfocused because I was out of it, and I was terribly clumsy because I couldn’t dance for my life.
“You were really scary in the beginning, hyung…”
“Me?”
Curious gazes flew from the audience and landed on me. Why was I scary? I ate the jjolmyeon they gave me and I practiced hard as they told me to.
“When we saw you for the very first time? Yeah, you were scary.”
“Because I didn’t know he had this kind of personality. You all probably can’t imagine it well either, right?”
Kang Kiyeon said. I belatedly realized which Kim Iwol these guys were talking about.
The Kim Iwol of that single day, after receiving the business card, who had left home and entered UA, but before the regression.
‘Didn’t they say Park Joowoo couldn’t even eat?’
I couldn’t remember well what I was like after the college entrance exam. People rarely remembered themselves objectively anyway. Still, I tried to console myself, thinking that a person’s personality didn’t change that much and that I must have been more or less the same, but…
“You were really scary, hyung. You barely said a few words.”
“He would just nod his head when you explained something, but his gaze was scary.”
“And since you’re tall, hyung…!”
“He seemed like a very tired and sharp hyung…”
…the revelations poured out as if they had been waiting for this moment. They all looked so antsy, I wondered how they had held it in all this time.
The final blow was delivered by Choi Jeho.
“Never thought you’d actually be sociable.”
If even Choi Jeho was saying that, then my first impression must’ve been terrible. And yet they still accepted me. Or, were they just unable to kick me out?
“I’m not like that now, right?”
“Not at all.”
When I asked, feeling anxious, everyone except Choi Jeho shook their heads. Choi Jeho also just shrugged his shoulders with a ‘Not really’.
* * *
As soon as the fan meeting ended, we returned to the company. It was for the evening live schedule.
Spark’s first birthday schedule was too tight. People were wishing for them to grow up healthy, but if they still ended up disbanding after 7 years, I wouldn’t let them off the hook.
During today’s live, a major announcement was scheduled to commemorate the 1st anniversary.
“Everyone, you’ve waited a long time.”
“Finally, our light stick is coming out!”
After one year since debut, Spark’s official lightstick was finally set to be released.
It had been a truly long and difficult time. If I were to unfold the meeting minutes leading up to the release of the light stick, it would be endless.
Among them, the point I had most strongly emphasized was…
‘We don’t need anything else. Just guarantee the light-emitting power.’
…the intensity of the light.
Nobody wants a lightstick where you put in three batteries but the glow is so faint you can’t tell if the stick is defective or if the batteries are.
We needed brightness powerful enough that even one stick shone like three, with saturation so vivid that it stood out even among dozens of others, visibility that made it distinct from afar, and a sense of unity you could feel across the venue. That kind of brilliance was what Spark’s lightstick needed.
‘For the internal parts, if it’s possible to implement, a firework shape would be the prettiest, but if it’s difficult, a regular flame shape is also fine. But you must firmly establish the center point of the light.’
‘When requesting a sample, could we request both a regular dome lid and a cut lid? I want to see how the light reflection differs.’
In addition to this, I diligently notified them of the defective cases that had frequently occurred in the past. As a result of tapping away at Dotion day and night, we were able to obtain a satisfactory design.
“It’s our first time seeing it in person too, right?”
Kang Kiyeon said, leaning his body towards the center. He had pretended to be uninterested when Jeong Seongbin and I were putting up notes on Dotion, but it seemed he was quite curious himself.
A black pouch came out of a box plastered with ‘Flammable’ warning tape. The lightstick itself hadn’t even appeared yet, and already Lee Cheonghyeon was squealing.
The light stick that Jeong Seongbin carefully took out was not much different from recent idols’ light sticks. An easy-to-grip handle and a spherical head were the standard for light sticks.
Instead, the body was treated with a black matte finish, and a transparent dome with a brilliant cut shape was placed on top. I wanted the parts to be clearly visible when the light was off and for the light to scatter like a brilliant lamp when it was on, and it came out better than I thought.
The fireworks design had been implemented impressively. It could have easily become a torch, which was the backup plan, but as expected, technology is the best.
While Park Joowoo was putting batteries in the light stick, Choi Jeho turned off the lights. For the first time since their debut, Spark disappeared into the darkness in front of the camera.
And the moment the light was turned on—
≫ Wow what is this
≫ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ is the brightness power even realㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
≫ You could probably see this from a satelliteㅋㅋㅋㅋ
≫ It’s… bright
≫ It’s dazzling
≫ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ performance pass
The room was dyed in orange. The members’ expressions, hairstyles, and even the pattern on the cushion behind us could all be seen with the naked eye. It was brighter than when passing through a tunnel in a car.
“It’s so bright! It worked!”
“It really works.”
The guys who had checked if the light was clearly visible with a secondary device cheered. Like primitive people who had discovered fire for the first time, we turned the light stick this way and that.
“It’s not just because it’s ours—this is genuinely beautiful, right?”
Lee Cheonghyeon beamed, grinning from ear to ear.
UA decided to sell this incredible artificial sun at a quite unconventional price. In a positive sense.
‘Iwol, our light stick’s specifications are better, if not the same, than other groups’ light sticks. From a corporate perspective, considering the profit, even if we sell it at a similar price to the market…’
‘The cost price is less than 20,000 won. Even factoring in labor and shipping, the profit margin is excessive. If we were going to use this light stick for a lifetime, it might be a different case, but if there are plans to release a new light stick with a different design later, I am against setting a high price.’
I could have argued more. Could UA deliver as quickly as other companies that sell expensive light sticks (of course, this was the logistics company’s responsibility, but in any case, control was still in the company’s domain), had they secured loyal customers who would bother buying expensive light stick, could they guarantee a schedule that would allow the fans to use this light stick often, had they built enough trust to give the impression that they didn’t see the fans as mere ATMs… and so on.
But I didn’t go that far. Perhaps because they hadn’t completely ruled out a ver. 2 of the light stick, the company readily adjusted the price. If they said they’d sell ver. 2 for 80,000 won after this, I’d burn down UA and everything else.
After announcing the preorder date, it was time for well-wishing. We decided to encourage each other to work harder in commemoration of becoming 2nd-year idols.
“Shall we go in a circle to the left from where we’re sitting?”
“That’s all good, but can’t we add an informal speech time?”
Lee Cheonghyeon asked, raising his hand.
“It’s well-wishes, after all, so a subordinate can’t give them to a superior!”
“Since when were you a subordinate?”
Choi Jeho grumbled, but Lee Cheonghyeon wasn’t wrong, so we decided to exchange well-wishes under the concept of ‘we’re all friends!’
The first to start was Park Joowoo. The person to receive the well-wishes was Choi Jeho. Those two seemed to be paired up unusually often when filming this kind of content.
“Jeho.”
“…Yeah.”
“Thank you for being a good roommate. Because of you, every day is fun…”
“Right.”
“Thank you for showing me the invert too…”
“You guys do that stuff in your room?”
Kang Kiyeon couldn’t hold back his question. I know, right. What on earth are you two doing in your room? No wonder Park Joowoo was dragging a yoga mat into his room.
The person Choi Jeho was to give well-wishes to was Jeong Seongbin. Jeong Seongbin swallowed. He seemed full of determination to accept whatever nonsense Choi Jeho would spout.
But Choi Jeho had always been a guy who defied expectations.
“You’ve worked hard.”
At the warm words that came in a flash, Jeong Seongbin’s lips trembled.