Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols
SS Chapter 72: Public Opinion Update (1)
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TL: FoodieMonster007
The triple release of 『MooNStruck lOve』, 『Song of Hope』, and 『SYNDROME』 caused an explosive influx of new fans. 『MooNStruck lOve』 attracted K-Pop fans left wandering after recent issues. 『Song of Hope』 drew in casual listeners who enjoyed the Top 100 charts but hadn't stanned idols. 『SYNDROME』 lured back old-school fans who had left the scene over a decade ago, exhausted by overseas fans and real life.
Anyone entering a genre for the first time inevitably faced an adjustment period. Searching for a favorite member didn't immediately provide the desired information. To find Kim Iwol's meme-worthy quotes from social media, you had to search for 'Kim-Pep's sayings'. To follow Jeong Seongbin's real-time updates, you had to type 'OL BubblePop'. Won Chaehee watched this entire process from a distance, like an observer.
The newcomers learned a lot while finding content and understanding the history themselves. They learned why they needed to use search prevention, what terms were common for it, and which pairing names referred to which members. To stan a single idol, there was a mountain of information to learn.
≫ New Sparkler question… Cheonghyeon writes the songs and Seongbin writes the lyrics, so why're Iwol and Cheonghyeon the producing duo??
└ Because Iwol handles the album concept and stage planning, and Cheonghyeon does the entire process of composing, recording, and mixing! Seongbin doesn't participate in the meetings, so he's only credited as a lyricist heh
≫ Where can I watch IDC Season 1? Only season 2 is on VOD.
└ Half of it got taken down because of the drug issue.
└ It was so bad that censoring it was impossible…
└ Ahㅠㅠㅠ So I can only watch the performance videos left on Metube…
≫ Does anyone know which live stream the Pizza Iwol is from ㅠㅠㅠ I've watched all the broadcasts with Iwol in the thumbnail but I can't find it ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└ You have to watch the Jeho and Joowoo live from March 27th of last year! He shows up in the middle, so Iwol isn't in the thumbnail ㅠㅠ
Once they had a general idea of how things worked, it was time for exploration. Their main interests were their chosen idol's position in the team and their relationships with colleagues. They dove into this search like researchers, analyzing data for a thesis.
≫ Figuring out Mr. Kim 2-wol's personality is really hard.
So he's gentle yet cheerful, and magnanimous but holds a grudge. He's the eldest but is an older-person magnet who's adored by his seniors with unique personalities. He's the textbook definition of an idol but has the soul of an office worker, is that right?
└ You've grasped the core of it perfectly.
└ Seniors with unique personalitiesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Isn't that a loss for the ㅇㅇㅈ who are associated with him? ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
└ He was such a unique character that he only appeared on a variety show 10 years after filming ㅇㅇㅈ Exclusive Report, so I doubt he'd feel it's unfair.
≫ I laugh my head off about three times a day because of Choi Jeho's BubblePop. Is this normal? I'm worried I'm just a hopeless face-stan who laughs at anything a handsome man says.
└ He's not using his face for BubblePop, so if it's funny, it's a talent.
└ God gave Choi Jeho a handsome face, great physique, dancing skills, the ability to take good selfies, and the talent to make fifty million Sparklers laugh with a single line on BubblePop despite being taciturn.
└ And then Kim Iwol would rush in and lament how God took away all his human intelligence in exchange for giving him all that talent.
≫ I think this every time I see a Leader Seongbin moment, but is Seongbin's personality a bit strong? He doesn't seem like it at all, but the members seem to treat him with a lot of respect as a leader.
└ There are many small things that have been mentioned. 1. All communication with the company must go through the leader. 2. They give the leader an absolute obedience ticket every month. 3. If a vote is tied 3:3, they go with Seongbin's choice, etc. It's 'cause of things like that, not because Seongbin has them under his thumbㅋㅋㅋ
└└ Wasn't it a 'listen to the leader' ticket? When did it become an absolute obedience ticket?ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└└└ That ticket which was definitely provided but Seongbin has almost never used, so no one remembers it properlyㅋㅋ
└ Kim Iwol said he created an atmosphere where the leader could be respected in the beginning, and Jeong Seongbin always treats his hyungs with respect.
└ Who said Seongbin's not scary? Cover his mouth and look at his eyes. They're crazy.
≫ How did Joowoo become a Chinchilla?
└ What do you mean 'become' a Chinchilla? Joowoo was always a large, precious, master-singer Chinchilla.
└ I'm not lying, this is the third time I've asked this question here, and I got the same comment all three times. You guys are brainwashed.
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
≫ I'm going back through old content, and Cheonghyeon was really a baby in his early debut days.
I became a fan during MooNStruck Love, so I had no idea.
└ MooNStruck Love Lee Cheonghyeon is the personification of decadent sexinessㅋㅋㅋ You happened to join when the gap with his real self was the biggest.
└ Cheonghyeon grew up so well… His real self is still a softie, but his face lets him pull off any concept.
≫ They called him Super Cute Kang Kiyeon, so I saw his face and thought, 'Well, if the fans say so, he must be an affectionate maknae.' But then I found out he's got a really manly personality. Sparklers, stop the false advertising.
└ It's so funny that the first post of every Kang Kiyeon stan is like this. Everyone comes in asking, 'Why is this guy Super Cute Kang Kiyeon?' and then they continue to stan Kang Kiyeon. While insisting he is Super Cute Kang Kiyeon…
└ He's not the type to cling to his hyungs, but he's constantly hovering around them as if to say, 'Please look at me'ㅋㅋㅋ
└ Once a maknae, always a maknae.
In a field where a lack of new blood was a death sentence, spArk's life force was infinite.
Fortunately, there was no hazing of newbies. This was because of something Kim Iwol had said in the Concern Sharing Group. "The only people qualified to tell a new employee they're bad at their job are the seniors who diligently handled their OT."
There were also no accusations of longtime fans raising the barrier to entry. This was also because of something Kim Iwol had said at a worry-sharing meeting. "When a real crisis hits, the only ones who can help clean up the mess are the seniors on your team…"
The demand for streaming was where new fans felt the most psychological pressure. Many people who joined for light-hearted fun couldn't stand the fandom atmosphere and left. They felt lost, unsure if they were streaming correctly, and pressured by the attitude that you weren't a real fan if you didn't vote.
≫ Since it's comeback season, we will now conduct an orientation for new employees. Just follow this and you too can be a proper Sparkler!
Sparklers encouraged each other gently. This was possible because they had long maintained enough firepower to produce results. It was like how you become more generous when your stomach is full. You have no time to look around when your own feet are on fire.
At the same time, they instilled a proper sense of efficacy. Once they gave fans a taste of their idol winning first place and spread compliments that the Sparklers' firepower hadn't died down, the fans' shoulders would straighten with pride. They would then vote even more fervently.
A system where a minority votes their fingers to the bone does not last long. It was a harsh era where the majority had to stream their fingers to the bone just to maintain their weight class even if one or two people took a break for their real lives. Here, Sparklers utilized the unity they had gained through years of trials and tribulations, remaining as faithful to their fan activities as their idols were to their passion.
Won Chaehee liked the current environment. There was a big difference between streaming on a spare phone because you wanted to and being forced to provide proof because you couldn't withstand others' nagging. Any act done under duress, whether work or stanning, couldn't last long. The scene could only survive if both core and light fans could be in it for the long run. In that respect, Sparkler was a pretty decent fandom.
And yet, there were moments when they, like any other idol fans, would fight to the death over trivial matters.
≫ Do Spkls seriously think the Fortune-Telling Octopus is cute, so they picked the Fortune-Telling Octopus as the symbolic animal?
It's starting again.
Won Chaehee clicked her tongue as she watched the post catch fire. With every refresh, the number of quotes increased exponentially.
Idol fandoms had unwritten rules about areas one should never touch. The official color was a prime example. A fight would erupt instantly if technological limits made light sticks display magenta, hot pink, and light pink in a similar way. Explanations would pour out from all directions. 'Our official color is a light greenish-yellow lime color with a subtle hint of a very blue-toned green. It was not intended to be lemon-colored! The actual product's color came out very different from the product details page!'
As more groups debuted, official colors diversified. Every possible combination from a palette emerged, including two-color mixes and gradients. After fierce battles, an era of peace arrived. People acknowledged that color overlap was now unavoidable and fought less than before.
However, disputes still flared up in other areas. These were mainly symbols representing individual members, like abbreviations, nicknames, and animals. Using an existing search-prevention term or copying a unique symbolic animal would spark a fight that lasted for days.
spArk had weathered this conflict relatively well. They had chosen their animal symbols as cleverly as a wooden stick dodging a downpour. For fans who wanted to compare their idol to the most lovable animal, the Fortune-Telling Octopus or the Harpy Eagle were options they had never even considered. If the company, not the idol himself, had decided on these animals, there would have been a huge backlash…
Moreover, spArk didn't just push one animal. Taking Kim Iwol as an example, he was a panda in his early debut days, but he kicked away the hissing cat interpretation and instantly became a Fortune-Telling Octopus. It seemed like the cat faction was making a comeback around the 『IRREGULAR』 and 『On A High Note』 stages, but then in the self-produced content 'Era of Suffering from Mission Failures', Kim Iwol brought a 'Fortune-Telling Octopus plushie whose expression changes with its mood', making it difficult to tell who had the upper hand again.
Sparklers had long grown accustomed to this situation. That's why they attached all sorts of animal emojis when referring to Kim Iwol. The other members were not much different.
But fans from fandoms with a strict 'one animal' rule couldn't easily accept spArk's animal farm. High intelligence and three hearts meant nothing against the single disadvantage of being ugly.
≫ The 'Fortune-Telling Octopus sucks' thread's making the rounds again?
Nevertheless, Sparklers were not swayed by public opinion. Having seen the same repertoire about thirty thousand times, they didn't get angry and say things like, 'Why're you ignoring the narrative that Sparklers and Iwol have built up until now?'
≫ It's just a phase. I know 'cause I was the same.
The Sparklers who used to bring pictures of boiled Fortune-Telling Octopuses asking what's so cute about its head are all now drawing cat ears on the Fortune-Telling Octopus's head and filling their media tabs with four pictures of the great Fortune-Telling Octopus. You'll become like that too.
As if to prove it, Sparklers began posting the Fortune-Telling Octopus pictures stored in their galleries. Some mixed octopus pictures with cat photos. Others posted articles titled 'If humanity goes extinct, the Fortune-Telling Octopus could rule the Earth'.
For a while, the recommended posts will be nothing but Fortune-Telling Octopus pictures.
The momentary trolling didn't sway Won Chaehee. With a placid expression, she saved the new Fortune-Telling Octopus pictures she had never seen before.