Chapter 67: Public Business Registration
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 67: Public Business Registration
I went hungry often when I was young.
It wasn't because of poverty. I had already realized our family wasn't poor when I saw our income bracket for the national scholarship.
It was simply that none of the adults in the house cared whether a child ate or lived.
Back then, if even a single snack an adult man wanted to munch on while watching TV went missing, or if the ingredients in the fridge decreased, I would be subjected to every curse word in the world.
The space called "home" in those days was full of things I couldn't understand.
Why is there food, but I’m not allowed to eat it? Why do I get hit for saying I’m hungry?
No matter how much I agonized over them, the questions remained unanswered, and my stomach remained empty.
So, I repeatedly snuck around, boiling cup ramen behind the adults' backs and surreptitiously taking the trash to the apartment’s recycling station. I kept doing that until I started earning my own money and could settle my meals outside the house.
Since then, "hunger" became a word that evoked very complicated emotions in me. How should I put it? It just weighed on my mind.
Even though there wasn't an adult here screaming that they were just wasting food, I felt a bit sorry for these guys having to starve like this.
It wasn't as if they were the type to eat their fill and then just shamelessly slack off, either.
After a moment of thought, I glanced at them and spoke.
"…Then order one and share it among yourselves."
"What?"
Jeong Seong-bin looked at me, his eyes wide.
"Roasted chicken only. And you drink water instead of soda. If you're okay with that, order it."
"Oh, of course we're okay with that!"
Lee Cheong-hyeon shouted, regaining his vitality as if he had never been gloomy in the first place.
Jeong Seong-bin looked skeptical for a moment before diving into a full-on market research session for chicken brands.
In the end, scraping together the last of their conscience, they ordered exactly one charcoal-grilled chicken from the place with the fastest delivery.
It was a stark contrast to my former colleague, who would put three packets of instant coffee mix into a tumbler every morning while claiming they were really going to cut back on caffeine.
While the guys were fussing about setting the table, I opened the chicken box that had arrived first. Then, I fairly divided the steaming chicken onto five plates.
I was in the middle of carefully distributing the pieces when the kitchen grew noisy.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
When I asked, the boys surrounding the table turned to look at me.
Lee Cheong-hyeon called out to me in a trembling voice.
"Um, Hyung."
"Yeah. What?"
Lee Cheong-hyeon reached into the bag Jeong Seong-bin was holding.
What came out in his hand was… a bottle of cola.
"The owner said he included it as a service, so we can't exactly not eat it… What should we do?"
"Nice try. Don't pull that on me."
And so, we had a late-night chicken party, complete with an unexpected gift.
Ah, I didn't eat, so I should correct "we" to "them."
Still, I’d done my best by joining them for the Han River run. In fact, I ran the longest, so that says it all.
That night, I had the rare experience of sneaking out to the recycling station with others, rather than alone, to throw away the remains of a late-night snack.
I went to sleep hoping the Spark members weren't the type whose faces bloated easily after eating a few pieces of salty chicken.
Things proceeded smoothly with Yu Han-su out of the picture. Since the Spark brats weren't causing any trouble for once, everything was satisfying.
—I-wol, I heard you had a hard time lately?
—I'm fine now, thanks to the company's consideration…
—You really went through it. Man, I didn't think Yu PD was that kind of person…
Except for the fact that being pitied by everyone was a bit burdensome.
Because of the incident with Yu Han-su, no matter what meeting I entered, I had to hear a word of concern before we could get to the main point. It was more attention than I deserved.
It was the same in the meeting room today.
So many people patted my shoulder, telling me to speak up whenever things got tough. I barely had time to lift my head because I was too busy bowing at ninety degrees to thank them.
I was returning to the practice room after receiving a shower of warm gazes when Lee Cheong-hyeon suddenly waved at me.
"Hyung! Perfect timing. They say our teaser is out!"
"Teaser?"
I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
Those words were exactly what Lee Cheong-hyeon had said when Parte's debut teaser came out. Though it felt like an eternity had passed since then.
"Really? How was it?"
"I don't know. I haven't watched it yet."
As he spoke, Kang Gi-yeon stepped aside slightly to make room.
"You haven't? Why?"
"Because we thought you'd be here soon."
Could it be they were waiting to watch it with me?
I glanced around and saw they were busy chatting, saying things like, "Should we play it now?" and "Should we watch it on the laptop?!"
I didn't understand. Usually, wouldn't you want to see your own debut teaser as soon as possible?
I told them to do as they pleased and took a seat in an empty spot.
Once the restless atmosphere settled, Jeong Seong-bin spoke.
"Okay, I'm playing it."
As Seong-bin hit the play button, the dark screen split horizontally.
Through the gap, Lee Cheong-hyeon’s ankles appeared as he ran in mismatched Converse shoes with untied laces.
Next were Choi Je-ho’s hands; he hesitated while putting nippers into a bag, then picked up a hand hammer and tucked it inside instead.
Then, the back and shoulders of Park Ju-woo, wearing a backpack, were shown as he stood still in front of a fire extinguisher in a large supermarket. A lo-fi, noisy instrumental track played in the background.
Immediately after, Jeong Seong-bin’s eyes were captured on screen as he focused intently on reading something.
The scene shifted.
Kang Gi-yeon was shown dumping out a bin of cans and bottles at a recycling station behind a school, followed by my hands tearing pages out of a notebook and throwing them on the floor in a dark space.
The moment Jeong Seong-bin reappeared and inserted a key into a padlock on a warehouse door—
The screen cut to black with an effect as if it had been abruptly shut off.
Soon, with a crackling sound like a match striking, a small white flame illustration appeared on the black screen before scattering like ash and vanishing.
"Oh…."
With Lee Cheong-hyeon’s small exclamation, the boys let out groans and pulled away from the small phone.
They all seemed nervous. It was a bit late for that, considering how much monitoring we’d done on-site.
Still, it definitely looks different after going through a professional's hands.
The atmosphere was exactly as intended. My trust in the experts rose once again.
"How is it, I-wol Hyung? Does it look the way you imagined?"
Jeong Seong-bin asked cautiously.
"Yeah. It's appropriately vague."
"What?"
"I mean it turned out exactly according to plan."
To put it nicely, it was a classic teaser featuring rebellious characters.
By showing only parts of the body, it emphasized mystery and visual beauty, and the sound design was excellent.
To put it bluntly…
≫ I came here after watching Jang Jun-hu’s MV lol. Cheering for you, Je-ho!
≫ I came here after seeing the profile photos, but which shot was Lee Cheong-hyeon’s…? Cheong-hyeon, please show your face. I’ve watched it three times and I still don't know where you are….
It was a teaser that lacked any real impact. The extreme decision to omit the group choreography scenes played a part in that.
"I'm going to check the comments before joining you, so everyone start practicing first."
"Can't we just watch together and then practice?"
"I’m pretty sure I told you, Kang Gi-yeon, that you’re banned from monitoring."
There was no need for them to have their self-esteem chipped away before they even debuted.
I herded them toward the mirror and sat in an empty corner. Placing the laptop on my lap, I slowly scrolled down.
As expected, there weren't many posts related to the teaser in the comments section.
It wasn't like music videos depicting wandering, adolescent youth were rare in the idol market.
Especially in today's market, where intense concepts are the trend, it’s even harder to draw attention with a pure, coming-of-age concept.
If this teaser made people expect a mundane music video, then it was a huge success.
Actually, this part is more surprising.
I re-read a comment I found while scrolling.
≫ Guys, you’re finally debuting! ㅠㅠㅠ Everyone, please show lots of love to Spark, the visual kings! ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Stay tuned, stay tuned!!!
Kim I-wol ♡ Choi Je-ho ♡ Jeong Seong-bin ♡ Park Ju-woo ♡ Lee Cheong-hyeon ♡ Kang Gi-yeon
I had expected a few people to pick out individual members since the press releases had been sent out.
However, I didn't expect someone to leave a comment like that for a group whose only known information was six ID photos that might have been heavily edited.
Furthermore…
Why on earth is my name at the very front?
I toyed with my name listed before Choi Je-ho’s.
The names the author wrote were in order of our age and birthdays. They must have looked up the birth dates registered on portal sites and compared them one by one.
The oldest member of Spark I knew was Choi Je-ho. Naturally, the fans' cheers always began by calling his name.
Perhaps that was why a comment that didn't start with Choi Je-ho felt so alien. Like a comment directed at something other than Spark.
A wave of guilt washed through my heart.
I didn't know how to manage the complicated emotions that surfaced every time this happened. This, too, was a task for me.
Is it better to be at the front than to be stuck in the middle and then awkwardly disappear later?
I lightly covered my name with my left thumb.
Then, as if wiping dust off the screen so it wouldn't look strange to anyone else, I pressed down and rubbed over my name.
≫ Guys, you’re finally debuting! ㅠㅠㅠ Everyone, please show lots of love to Spark, the visual kings! ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Stay tuned, stay tuned!!!
♡ Choi Je-ho ♡ Jeong Seong-bin ♡ Park Ju-woo ♡ Lee Cheong-hyeon ♡ Kang Gi-yeon
"…Yeah. This is how it should be."
A hollow laugh escaped me at the familiar sight. Was it because of the heat? My fingertip stung.
I checked all the few comments there were, turned off my phone, and stood up.
"Hey, visual kings. Can I join you now?"
"Of course!"
Still, I should give it some thought.
When I eventually leave, what three-letter word would be most natural to put in the fan chant where "Kim I-wol" used to be?