Chapter 219: Cooking Class
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 219: Cooking Class
There are many types of events where fans gather. Fan sign events, pre-recordings, live broadcasts, fan meetings, and so on.
At these gatherings, there is something an idol must naturally take care of.
"Reverse fan gifts?"
"Yeah. You weren't thinking of skipping out, were you?"
I looked Choi Je-ho in the eye and gave him a bright smile.
Just as he said, the fans who love Spark—a group that is still lacking, flawed, and has a long way to go—were planning to travel all the way to a stadium with notoriously terrible public transportation. All just to cheer for them during the "Idol Unity Sports Day," a six-hour-long event that felt like a world of its own.
"Of course we have to do it. I heard there isn't even a separate lunch break."
Agreeing with me, Lee Cheong-hyeon pulled out the shared laptop. It felt like it took about eight seconds for the laptop to boot up and the minutes page to open. His speed was almost mechanical, as if he were running a macro.
Seeing Lee Cheong-hyeon type the date into the minutes, Jeong Seong-bin added his two cents.
"Since we're on the subject... Cheong-hyeon, could you open the file in my folder labeled 'Lunch Box References'?"
"On it."
The 'Lunch Box References' file was massive. When the file opened, image files filled the Web Cell. No wonder it was so big.
"Types, compositions, drinks... Wow, Seong-bin hyung, when did you organize all this?"
"After our appearance on 'A.Dan.Un' was confirmed. I looked up a lot of reviews."
"If you were thinking about it this specifically, you should have told us sooner."
At my words, Jeong Seong-bin gave a bashful smile.
"Well, it costs money, after all. I was worried it might seem like I was forcing it on the members."
How sweet of him. But I am going to force it.
The current "you" might not know, but even when you bastards didn't show your faces during breaks at 'A.Dan.Un' because of your dead fish eyes, the Sparklers were sincere toward you. Both with their gifts and their cheers.
"So, I was thinking it might be better if I did this reverse gift on my own... Ah, but I'll put everyone's names on it!"
Jeong Seong-bin hesitated, glancing at the other members.
A brief silence followed. Then, the living room suddenly erupted into a clamor.
"You can't do this alone, Hyung. And who would hate the idea of giving back to the fans?"
"Gi-yeon is right. If the six of us pool our resources, we can do more than just lunch boxes...!"
"Exactly. The 'A.Dan.Un' recording lasts for hours; you think we can just settle for a lunch box?"
Kang Gi-yeon, Park Ju-woo, and Choi Je-ho took turns backing Jeong Seong-bin up. I'm glad you guys have your heads on straight; it makes this "Assistant Manager Kim, the Gift Expert" very happy.
The boys began a heated debate over whether sandwiches or rice would be better for the lunch boxes.
At that moment, Lee Cheong-hyeon cut in with a fatalistic gaze.
"Everyone, stop talking."
Lee Cheong-hyeon spoke with grim resolve. Everyone's attention shifted to him.
"Can mere mass-produced goods truly convey our gratitude toward Sparklers?"
His gestures were so flamboyant I thought he was performing in a musical. His statue-like face only added to the effect.
"These are the people who made us number one during our last broadcast. Even if we were giving them sushi, we should be giving them an omakase. If we're giving them fruit juice, shouldn't the six of us be there operating the juicers on-site?"
What a commendable mindset. Finally, someone in this team has started thinking on my level.
However, he is still naive. He knows one thing but misses the second.
"I agree with what you're saying."
"Right? I think it's best if we each pick an ingredient and hand-make the sandwiches..."
"But Cheong-hyeon, think about it."
I looked at Lee Cheong-hyeon and gave a bitter smile.
"Do you think the fans would prefer something made with sincerity, or something that actually tastes good?"
Lee Cheong-hyeon flinched.
If there were anyone in this team who was good at cooking, I would have suggested it first. But there isn't.
"If the fans who came all that way get food poisoning, I won't be able to look them in the eye, Cheong-hyeon."
"I admit my mistake and withdraw my statement."
Lee Cheong-hyeon backed down cleanly. The others, who looked ready to snap on plastic gloves and start wrapping sandwiches at any moment, also quietly returned to their spots.
"Still, I agree with the idea that we need to strongly convey our gratitude."
An idol group that debuted this year had already halted activities twice and been involved in even more rumors.
Not long after their debut, they went on a survival program, and now they were appearing on a long-duration recording program. In the end, it was the fans who supported all these activities every single time.
I know exactly how incredible that effort is.
Therefore, I intend to provide the fans with the absolute best reverse gift. I want people to say, "Our Spark even feeds their fans," wherever they go.
"Let's do our best so our Sparklers can hold their heads high. Got it?"
The boys nodded at my words. From the next day, Jeong Seong-bin began drafting the PPT for the reverse gift plan.
Our efforts to provide the best reverse gift for the fans continued in the gaps between our schedules.
Jeong Seong-bin handled the overall composition, and while I was searching for the best lunch box catering company under him, I got caught by Lee Cheong-hyeon and scolded: "Hyung, why do you keep trying to do everything yourself?" It was no different from when I was trying to rent the gym.
But what can I do when the best vendors are all in my head? Do you have any idea how many types of lunch boxes I've sent to your waiting rooms? Is there anyone at UA who knows as well as I do which places provide service lunch boxes and which ones have less-than-fresh salads?
The drinks were the same. When large-order seasons overlap like this, there's always one place that fails to deliver, leading to a disaster where that team's fans don't get their fresh fruit juice on time. It's better to safely call a coffee truck or pick them up ourselves at dawn.
Jeong Seong-bin took on the role of relaying the vendors I practically foamed at the mouth to select to the company. I think he must have gone through a lot of trouble.
Other than that, things went relatively smoothly. Even though Choi Je-ho and I suffered through the pains of creation once again while writing "Thank you for coming to cheer us on" handwritten letters, only getting the green light on our thirteenth attempt.
'No, Hyung. I told you we're putting the nutritional facts on the bottom of the lunch box anyway!'
'But if an allergic reaction occurs, a very critical situation could arise, so we must emphasize the ingredients...'
I was apprehended by Lee Cheong-hyeon while writing down the ingredient list I received from the catering company.
'How many times are you going to write "Please let us know if it's not enough"?'
'They might still be hungry.'
'I told you all our menus are 1.5 times the standard portion!'
Choi Je-ho, who was worried the fans might starve, got a lecture from Kang Gi-yeon. I should really check if the local community center offers any creative writing classes.
Regardless, the preparations for the gratitude gift event proceeded apace.
And today, the day before 'A.Dan.Un', we decided to spend time baking cookies—the final touch of our reverse gift.
To ensure we didn't ruin the fans' sense of taste, we sought out a professional teacher to oversee the entire process while we made the cookies.
'Compared to lunch boxes, cookies can be mass-produced, and we can hand-pick the high-quality ones.'
The problem was that none of us had any baking experience.
Crushing the butter was easy. The teacher told us to wait until the butter softened before crushing it, but to these "human butter grinders," refrigerated butter was nothing more than a handful of playdough.
The mixing went well, too. A hand mixer was recommended, but everyone volunteered for the hardship, asking when else they would ever get to whisk something by hand. I contributed by rolling up their sleeves one by one so the Sparklers could more clearly admire their arm muscles.
So far, so good. Choosing butter cookies, which are known to be beginner-friendly, had paid off.
The true hardship began with the measurements.
"The life of baking is in the measurements. Please look at the scale and match the ingredient amounts exactly!"
Despite the teacher's warning, we kept creating "too much of a good thing" dough. Only Kang Gi-yeon, who is in charge of moderation in Spark, managed to make a somewhat decent dough.
By the time this footage goes out as self-produced content, it might have a caption like: Spark's overflowing love for Sparklers~☆
"Teacher, should I do this over?"
"Teacher, please look at my dough just once!"
Spark called out for the teacher like baby birds. The best among them was, without a doubt...
"Teacher..."
...Park Ju-woo, whose apron was a mess of powdered sugar.
Our main vocal, who had been building up his arm muscles along with his vocal cords, sent powder flying in every direction with a single whisk. He froze with a look of utter despair.
Not that I, who was talking so big, was in any better shape. Kang Gi-yeon, who was waiting for his turn, approached and asked.
"Hyung, why is your dough so runny?"
"The eggs looked a bit lacking, so I added more, and it turned out like this."
"Didn't you used to cook a bit, Hyung?"
This is the end for someone whose only culinary skill is making ritual offerings. For skewered pancakes, if the eggs are lacking, the ingredients all fall apart. That memory came back to me, and I just...
The dough was becoming a mountain of trouble. While adding cake flour and starch, Spark was being dyed white. The sports day hadn't even started, and the group had already turned into volcanic ash. What kind of bad omen was this?
Fortunately, with the help of electronic scales and a wonderful teacher, Spark succeeded in making six large lumps of dough. The teacher might come down with a fever from exhaustion after we leave today.
"Next, we're going to put the dough into piping bags and pipe them out. The dough is stiff, so it'll take a lot of strength. Especially since you said you're making many cookies today, everyone, please distribute your strength well!"
The teacher cheered us on kindly.
And Spark, whose many talents included using brute force, finally began to look like human beings.
"This is actually easy."
The leader in this field was definitely Choi Je-ho. The idiot who couldn't even zero out a scale was gone, replaced by the visual of a skilled pastry chef. Butter cookies were produced non-stop from Choi Je-ho's piping bag.
"Je-ho hyung, the, the shape is..."
"Ah."
Except for the fact that too much force was applied intermittently, making the butter cookies look lumpy. I'm going to report all of this on Bubble Pop.
On the other hand, I received praise for being number one in uniformity.
"Iwol-ssi, your cookies are like something out of a textbook!"
"Thank you."
To think I had a talent for panning. I've lived for over thirty years and I'm just finding out now. Truly, you never know until you try.
After that, we baked the cookies, filled the gaps with jam or coated the surfaces with chocolate, and finished baking the cookies for the fans while devouring the burnt ones.
And before we knew it, the night of individual packaging had arrived.