Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols
SS Chapter 70: Public Bathhouse Meeting
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TL: FoodieMonster007
Idol group members spent a long time together, starting as trainees. Their families naturally looked after the other trainees too, bringing side dishes or helping with commutes. It was common for these families to form their own gatherings after a group's debut was finalized.
Despite how close the spArk members were, their families had little interaction. The reasons were numerous. They had diverse family structures, some disapproved of idol activities, and others were too busy making a living.
The members eventually introduced their families to each other, and the distance between them narrowed over the years. The adults saw the boys, who were their sons' age, as their own children. This was especially true because the members were always together on stage or on variety shows.
Just as the families began to see the other members as their own sons, a series of incidents plagued spArk. The group was frequently embroiled in accusations of power abuse and assault. So much fake news circulated that even close acquaintances were fooled.
Then a crisis struck. One member went missing and was discovered near death. He was a member with no one to lean on. The other members adored Kim Iwol, who had fought a public lawsuit against his own family and been injured in an altercation with a company employee. Kim Iwol was the team's irreplaceable eldest member.
spArk went through an unstable period until Kim Iwol fully recovered. The public was unaware, but the families knew. They could see how their children, whom they had watched for over twenty years, felt as they stood before the cameras.
Idol group family gatherings usually formed when the debut lineup was finalized. If one didn't form by then, the families went their separate ways. They might only share a meal if they gathered for an event like a concert. The spArk family gathering, expected to follow this course, formed very late.
Jeong Seongbin's family was at the center of it all.
Jeong Seongbin's parents hadn't intended to lead the gathering. They were typical middle-aged people who thought it was proper etiquette for the families to greet each other and share a meal. They were also good guardians who understood their eldest son's cautious nature and his desire to focus on work.
When they first asked, "Shouldn't the adults at least have a meal together?" they saw Jeong Seongbin's startled reaction and promptly dropped the subject.
They had taken a step back, but then various incidents occurred, including members getting entangled in lawsuits. The member with no family needed a pillar of support. Someone closer was needed to help in place of the families who lived too far away.
In the end, Jeong Seongbin's family stepped forward, as proactive as the leader Jeong Seongbin himself. They arranged the gathering in the spring, after Kim Iwol had returned and the team had stabilized.
They started with Park Joowoo's family, with whom they occasionally kept in touch, and gathered contact numbers one by one. With the addition of Lee Cheonghyeon's father, every family except the eldest member's had finally come together.
[Let's at least have a meal together sometime!] At these words, everyone available gathered. Their high attendance rate came from years of practice attending typical Korean family events, from kindergarten recitals and school talent shows to graduations.
The adults sat together while their children moved to an adjacent table. Choi Jeyeong and Heo Jaeha, acting like eldest siblings, took charge of ordering. Heo Sihoo and Jeong Seongjun, playing the mischievous younger brothers, rattled off their choices when the matriarchs asked what they wanted. That was their first meeting.
The adults and female siblings created their own group chats, but the male siblings made no such move. They demonstrated their individual playstyles at the dinner. Lee Soohoon just ate and listened. Jeong Seongjun played the MC. Heo Sihoo spaced out at the end of the table. Lee Kangmyeong was annoyed about being pulled from his studies but kept quiet, since no one looked like an easy target. No one would have called the four of them a 'combination'.
Heo Sihoo had a rough time at the restaurant. He had been forced to attend because he cherished his younger brother Park Joowoo and because his older sister, Heo Jaeha, was formidable. He had only ever known his sister to be loud, but the voice of Seongbin's younger brother was thunderous. He didn't mind that he and Lee Soohoon wore the same T-shirt, and Lee Soohoon seemed to feel the same. However, his younger brother beside him looked terribly shocked.
In any case, they exchanged numbers. They parted ways after a delicious meal and polite goodbyes. A few days later, a message arrived from Jeong Seongjun. It came right after Heo Sihoo changed his profile picture to a shot of him unboxing a new game console.
Jeong Seongjun
[Did you buy a Plag??]
Me [You play Plag too?]
Jeong Seongjun
[In a house with brothers, what else is there to do but game?]
This conversation was the starting point. At first, they contacted each other every few weeks to talk about PC specs or game packs. The interval between their messages gradually shortened without them noticing. Then, eventually…
Jeong Seongjun
[You play Plag for 20 out of 24 hours and then say there's no content]
[Even your conscience would be like, 'that's a bit much;;']
Me [Life is no fun]
[There's no content]
Me [You've got some lines]
…the gap had narrowed to this. They were in near-constant contact. They had so much to talk about that it made the fact they had only focused on eating at the restaurant seem laughable.
Perhaps they were seeking something different in their daily lives. The two men, with vastly different personalities, made a surprising plan. It was around the time it became unclear if they were just their brothers' colleagues' families or internet friends. They decided to go to a public bathhouse for no reason at all.
"This meeting is actually happening!"
"Tell me about it."
Heo Sihoo laughed in disbelief as he saw Jeong Seongjun come out to meet him. He couldn't believe he was actually at Seoul Station. Coming to Seoul wasn't the issue, but coming all this way just to hang out at a public bathhouse was a first in his life.
"Not even a PC bang, but a public bathhouse… geez."
"I know, right? Why did we even start talking about a public bathhouse back then?"
"I mentioned I missed dinner 'cause I was gaming, and you asked what I was eating. I told you I was only eating eggs because my mom and dad both came home with a 30-pack tray, so our house was overflowing with them. That led to us talking about how delicious roasted eggs are. While we were debating if convenience store eggs or roasted ones were better, you mentioned you used to eat them at a public bathhouse. That's probably how we landed on the topic."
"You remember all of that?"
"I remember conversations I have while gaming. Otherwise, my mom scolds me for only half-listening and giving vague answers."
"Aren't you in your thirties?"
"And you were the one who said you'd wear the sheep-head towel, go into the salt room, and have me pile salt on you until you looked like a sheep, but is there really that much salt in the salt room?"
Their silly conversation continued on the subway. With no empty seats, they stood the whole way. At one point, a passenger sitting in front of them overheard their chat and burst out laughing.
Not wanting to be a public nuisance, they both sealed their lips. Just then, the subway entered a dark tunnel. The world outside the window turned black, and their two faces, lips pressed tightly together, reflected clearly in the glass. A citizen standing beside them made eye contact with the public bathhouse-tour duo. He hastily averted his gaze and shuffled away.
"The Seoul subway is so unforgiving."
"Don't you think you were the one being harsh on the passengers?"
"No way. The Daejeon subway is what's harsh on passengers. It's cramped and the trains never come."
Heo Sihoo, whose daily movements were mostly between his room and the bathroom, immediately splayed out on the floor when they arrived at the public bathhouse.
Jeong Seongjun placed an adorable sheep-head towel on Heo Sihoo, who had traveled a long way. Jeong Seongjun put on a matching one and launched into a four-hour radio show just for Heo Sihoo. He lubricated his vocal cords with two containers of sikhye, so his stream of talk never ran dry.
They had a grand ambition to become sheep in the salt room, but they were well-mannered patrons. They only placed a handful of salt on themselves as they steamed. The salt room was quiet on a weekday afternoon. With only the two of them there, they had the place to themselves.
"Nice…" Heo Sihoo muttered. Lying with his eyes closed in the warm room, doing nothing, suited his disposition perfectly. Though he hadn't lived a hundred years, he felt a century of fatigue melt away.
"Yeah…" Jeong Seongjun replied, drawing out the word. Despite his energy, he also appreciated quiet moments. This trait was reflected in his university major, which emphasized the beauty of negative space.
Heo Sihoo and Jeong Seongjun had opposite personalities, but they shared a small sliver of common ground. It was a mystery how this coincidence led two people, each usually interested only in his own affairs, to lie side-by-side in a public bathhouse.
"I never would've come to a place like this with Joowoo."
Hot, humid, and crowded spaces were the worst for Park Joowoo. Heo Sihoo hadn't held back from coming because of Park Joowoo. Rather, being with Park Joowoo was so natural that Heo Sihoo had never even considered it. Jeong Seongjun could relate to some degree, though the depth of feeling might differ.
"Jeong Seongbin is the same way. He can't last a minute in the kiln sauna."
"Seongbin? I'd have thought he'd be good at enduring things."
"He has a surprisingly fiery side. It's not that he lacks patience, it's that he's the type who needs to constantly release energy. That's why he became an idol, to sing and dance."
"And you draw energy inward?"
"A two-way portal?"
Heo Sihoo laughed at the slick answer.
"Joowoo wasn't like this before, but he says he's going abroad by himself to work on his album."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Seeing him start to do things he couldn't before makes me wonder if maybe we'll be able to come to a public bathhouse together in the future."
A smile touched Heo Sihoo's lips. Jeong Seongjun played along.
"Next time, let's bring Jeong Seongbin and Joowoo. How about we stick them in the kiln sauna and see who can last longer? The first one out has to buy the sikhye."
"Aren't you twins just scheming to fleece Joowoo? My Joowoo isn't devious enough for that."
"I'm being completely serious when I say Jeong Seongbin isn't that devious either."
A plot unknown to the main vocalists was hatched in the dark, secluded salt room. The two continued to meet up frequently afterward for trips to PC bangs or popular restaurants. They never told anyone in particular, so their gatherings became secret meetings that weren't actually secret.