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TL: FoodieMonster007


『A performance got scheduled, so my departure has been delayed…』

Park Joowoo said regretfully. Sleepiness filled his voice, and exhaustion was written all over his face.

His face seemed to shrink by half with every video call.

"Are you feeling okay?"

『Yeah… but I miss the dorm.』

"Should I go tell Choi Jeho to make some steamed eggs? Choi Jeho is your personal comedian, after all."

Park Joowoo laughed at my solemn proposal. Choi Jeho's presence was just that powerful.

『How are you doing…?』

Even though he was working far away in a foreign land, Park Joowoo worried about my situation. He probably knew what was happening from reading articles about UtopiA and MYTH. I nagged him, asking what was so fun about watching old folks fight.

"I've been an outsider for a while now. I'm far from the issue, so don't worry. Is this really the time for you to be worrying about stuff like that?"

Park Joowoo just laughed carefreely despite my scolding.

"How's work? Is it manageable?"

His eyes widened at my question, as if asking if it wasn't obvious he should do well. I had drilled into him that a pro should handle their work without issue, but I hoped Park Joowoo would gain more than just results from going abroad.

"Is it fun?"

Until now, Park Joowoo had always yielded opportunities to others. He never got greedy. This was a job that same Park Joowoo, the one who always stepped back and said he would wait, had jumped into himself. So naturally, I hoped he was satisfied, regardless of the results.

『Hmm…』

Park Joowoo chose his words carefully, his old habit of swaying while he thought still present. The only difference was that he had stepped outside the fence on his own.

『It's fun,』

Park Joowoo smiled.

『I'll tell you what was so fun about it when I get back.』

That answer was enough. Now, all I had to do was wait for Park Joowoo's safe return.

However, Park Joowoo couldn't return on the postponed date. His return kept getting pushed back.

≫ Reetlamp―Joowoo 『SYNDROME』, Dominates Global Music Charts

Park Joowoo became a global star in a single day. With just one song. I believed anyone could do it, but I never imagined it would actually happen.

sep

"Hoo…"

Park Joowoo came out of the bathroom with a towel over his head. His body felt heavy and his eyes kept closing. Steam rose from his skin from the long, hot shower.

I'm tired…

Park Joowoo flopped onto the bed with his hair still wet. It felt strange not to hear a thunderous nagging.

The original schedule was just a duet recording and a one-day music video shoot. The timeline was short, so he practically lived at the company, practicing from the day he got the demo until he left the country.

It was a good song, a track that perfectly matched Park Joowoo's pre-debut tastes. He even tried a singing style he hadn't used in a while. The new music sounded best with a raw voice.

The task was quite enjoyable.

Recording with the new director was unfamiliar but manageable. The tips Jeong Seongbin gave him from his guide vocal part-time jobs were helpful. The composing and mixing methods he learned from Lee Cheonghyeon were also useful. The song had more parts than spArk's songs, but that wasn't a problem for Park Joowoo, who had originally planned to debut solo. Besides a few guide tracks being exchanged, the recording went very smoothly.

However, one schedule led to another. After the recording, they asked if he could spare time for a meal after the music video shoot. After the meal, they offered to have him join a scheduled performance.

As a member of spArk who never turned down work, Park Joowoo willingly accepted every offer. He approached each task with sincerity. It was no different from his usual routine, except for his team members.

Up to this point, everything was within a range Park Joowoo could handle. It wasn't a matter of setting a limit, but rather the extent of the variables he could imagine. He had experienced work piling up on-site during world tours and overseas performances before. To Park Joowoo, the schedule so far felt just like that.

Then, the situation changed drastically when the song was released. Until Lim Chanyoung told Park Joowoo he was proud, his only thought was, 'It went well. That's a relief.' Even when he left a message in the group chat with the band and staff saying, "Congratulations. It was an honor to work with you," Park Joowoo was calm. He simply didn't know what was happening outside.

He was commenting on his members' promotional social media posts when he got a call from Kim Iwol. He didn't even have a moment to appreciate the kind video call. Congratulations poured in the moment he answered.

『The song is really good!』

『You worked hard, Joowoo!』

『Good job.』

『I enjoyed the song, Joowoo!』

『Joowoo, it's amazing!』

Park Joowoo felt a little embarrassed by their competing shouts. He was also relieved his members weren't disappointed. While not to the same degree as when he first saw his friend's solo debut, he had wanted to create a work he could proudly show his colleagues. It seemed he had achieved that small goal.

"Thanks. I'm glad you liked it…"

Park Joowoo smiled, satisfied, but the smile completely vanished from Kim Iwol's face.

『'Glad you liked it'? Joowoo, this isn't that kind of success.』

Kim Iwol's characteristic high praise followed. He spewed a string of sentences with unknown origins without batting an eye. Overwhelmed by the speech, Choi Jeho and Kang Kiyeon gradually drifted away on the screen.

"You're being too generous… I can do well on my own, so you don't have to hype me up so much to encourage me."

Park Joowoo tried to reassure his thoughtful members, but his intention didn't seem to get across. Kim Iwol still looked at him in disbelief.

『Joowoo. Don't you have any thoughts on how this song is doing?』

"It's good. It was my first time really singing pop-rock like this, so that was nice. The directing was fun, and also…"

『No, no.』

Jeong Seongbin smiled next to the flustered Kim Iwol. He seemed to know what Kim Iwol wanted to say.

『Joowoo, you'll soon find out what Kim Iwol wanted to say.』

His friend was right. Love calls flooded UtopiA the moment the call ended. The English spelling of his name trended in real-time, and songs by the young Korean vocalist were re-examined. While Park Joowoo packed his suitcase, the world began to change without him.

<What a surprising reaction…>

Park Joowoo said this on the day they gathered to discuss performance details. Amidst the excited atmosphere of sharing chart results, he even clapped lightly. When he looked up at the sudden silence, everyone was staring at him.

<Oh, you really are consistent,> the frontman of Reetlamp said, laughing.

<Is it because my facial expressions don't change much?>

He was clumsy with his facial muscles compared to others. He had struggled to master the intense gaze for the 『MooNStruck IOve』 promotions. Not wanting to be misunderstood, Park Joowoo tried to explain it wasn't intentional.

<Of course not.>

But no one reprimanded Park Joowoo. Instead, they seemed to find the situation interesting.

<You mean pulling off something magical with an unfazed face. As if it's no big deal.>

Park Joowoo couldn't quite understand what they were saying, perhaps because it wasn't his first language.

He sensed no bad nuance, so he paid it no more mind and moved on.

Having sung alone on 'Genre-Swap', Park Joowoo could stand on stage without spArk this time too. He heard it was a small performance, but the overseas audience was as large as a decent-sized festival.

As a guest, Park Joowoo's mission was to sing the duet and leave the stage. Under a summer sun that seemed to swallow his vision, he held the microphone and sang with all his might, as always. The air wasn't as humid as in Korea.

During the instrumental break, Park Joowoo caught his breath and looked down from the stage.

He witnessed a fervor that crashed like waves.

His own breathing rang in his ears, louder than the band's accompaniment.

He wanted to ask Jeong Seongbin back in Korea.

How did my song sound to you? Did you feel the same interest I felt when I heard your solo? Can we still grow while watching each other's paths?

sep

A member has risen to stardom. What is the correct course of action for his teammates at a time like this?

  1. Blow the fanfare nonstop on social media and BubblePop.
  2. Monitor the member's activities and constantly hype them up.
  3. Spare no encouragement daily and leave messages saying everyone supports you.

The answer is all of the above. The main vocalist, the pillar of the household, is out there working hard. How dare you think of picking and choosing your support? If an idol with such a complacent mindset were near me, I wouldn't let them be.

As part of the support campaign, we played Park Joowoo's outdoor performance video on the dorm TV for an hour a day. It wasn't intentionally looped. Someone would turn it on, and another guy who wanted to watch it again would put it on repeat. When that guy left, another would come and watch it. The one who finished watching would watch it one more time. That's how it happened. We've probably watched it 6,000 times. If a controversy about manipulating stream counts breaks out, we can't even deny it.

I wonder if they'll give us a pass since they're actual view counts raised purely by physical effort without using macros.

Today, Park Joowoo was scheduled to appear on a talk show. I had been rubbing my eyes and fighting sleep since dawn to watch it live. In the old days, I could sleep at 4 AM and wake up at 7 AM without a problem. Now that I've realized the true value of a good night's sleep, staying up all night was not easy. The glory of the past is so fleeting.

Lee Cheonghyeon, also awake, came out and joined me in the living room. When I asked what he was doing, he said he was playing with a music composition program. He couldn't even turn on the lights because Kang Kiyeon was sleeping, so I yelled at him to come out instead of staring at a screen in the dark and made him sit next to me.

"『SYNDROME』 is popping up on pop singers' Instagrams too."

"Look at the results. It's to be expected."

『SYNDROME』 boasted unbelievable results on overseas streaming platforms, breaking all sorts of records. It was only natural since an already famous band had returned with an all-time great new song. In this festival, Park Joowoo was recognized as 'an indispensable presence'.

Why is he an idol? That comment stings a little…

Anyway, Park Joowoo and spArk are tightly bound by a business contract, so I decided not to care. It's too late even if you covet him, you bastards. You should have made your move when 『speaker』 blew up. Even if you had, we would have clung to Park Joowoo's pant legs, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

"Joowoo, will he do okay?" Lee Cheonghyeon muttered worriedly.

"You've seen this channel before, haven't you?"

"Sometimes. Singers and composers come on often."

The talk show, known for its direct interviews, didn't seem like a good match for Park Joowoo. That was why I was on the sofa, unable to sleep at this hour.

Contrary to my worries, Park Joowoo handled the interview smoothly. His childhood listening skills and workbook grammar shone in a real-life situation. Some strong words occasionally popped out because his listening materials had been a bit dark, but it wasn't inappropriate. In other words, Park Joowoo had no problem at all.

"That host, hasn't his attitude been really bad from the start?"

Someone else was making people nervous. I looked over and saw Lee Cheonghyeon glaring at the screen with his arms crossed.


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