Free Web Novel"Ah, I was thinking of sending some Bubble Pop messages!"
"Really?"
The moment he heard the answer, Kim Iwol immediately stepped away. One of Kim Iwol’s long-standing habits was giving people space whenever they were using their phones for personal things like messaging.
That wasn’t his only habit, either. Most of them were closely tied to self-management.
For example, unless things were truly serious, Kim Iwol often pretended he was fine so other people wouldn’t worry about him.
The act was so natural that even Jeong Seongbin probably wouldn’t have noticed if they hadn’t lived together for so long.
The members cared deeply about him, which paradoxically meant they never fully believed what Kim Iwol said. They always doubted him a little. And they always paid attention.
Kim Iwol’s condition had improved a lot, but it still wasn’t good enough to call fully recovered. Everyone agreed he needed a long break, while also trying to figure out whether there was anything else they could do.
'Let’s get out of Korea for a bit.'
Among all the suggestions, Lee Cheonghyeon’s was the most radical. His reasoning was that Kim Iwol had visibly stabilized after their trip to Gapyeong. The idea that going somewhere unfamiliar could help refresh Kim Iwol’s mood was persuasive.
'When you go abroad, the SNS recommendation algorithms completely change. Even the real-time trends and stuff. Just being exposed to fewer related articles will make things way easier.'
'Really...?'
'It’d be even better if it’s a country where they mostly speak a language Iwol hyung doesn’t know. It’s hard to deliberately ignore what people are saying around you, so it’d be better if everything just passed by like background noise.'
That was how the six-man overseas trip came to be.
The date was set for after mid-June, once the university students had finished finals. The plan was to keep things simple between the six of them and spend a relaxed vacation together. The basic framework came together quickly.
Not long afterward, Jeong Seongbin called a meeting for Spark’s first group trip while Kim Iwol was out.
"Even if hyung complains, let’s not film anything for self-produced content this time. The goal is to keep him from thinking about work as much as possible."
"Should we avoid even taking simple commemorative photos...?"
Park Juu looked a little downcast, so they decided to allow brief photo times as long as it wasn’t for upload content.
"Wouldn’t it be better to take it easy and visit a few quiet tourist spots instead of constantly moving around?"
"Giyeon has made two fatal mistakes there. First, if we let that hyung rest, he’ll just think about work the whole time. Second, quiet tourist spots don’t exist."
Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Giyeon started planning the itinerary. Everyone was startled when they suggested going to an amusement park, but...
"Nothing makes you feel like you’ve entered another world quite like that. It’ll completely drain his soul. Just stick a headband on him and hang a popcorn bucket over his shoulder. His blood pressure will shoot right up. Even if you don’t ride anything, there’s still a ton to do."
"Shouldn’t we be avoiding his blood pressure going up?"
...Still, for Kim Iwol, whose life didn’t contain many things to enjoy, they added it to the candidate list for now. Choi Jeho decided to completely follow the younger members’ opinions.
"Want to go to a hot spring? They say hot springs are great for recovering from fatigue."
"A hot spring in early summer? Will that be okay?"
"If we’re already going, we might as well enjoy everything."
As they exchanged opinions, the trip schedule rapidly took shape. The process of discussing things, searching things up, and narrowing down options progressed cleanly and efficiently.
Before Kim Iwol came along, they could never have imagined an atmosphere like this. The members had all been kind people, but unless camaraderie naturally formed through working together, there hadn’t actually been many genuinely enjoyable moments.
But now things were different. It would be a lie to say things weren’t hard, but they had the strength to endure it. Jeong Seongbin believed that change was what had kept the team from falling apart despite everything they had gone through.
"Juu hyung, can’t I share a room with you instead? Lee Cheonghyeon is too loud."
"I don’t mind, but wouldn’t Cheonghyeon be hurt by that...?"
"I’d be extremely hurt. I was already deeply wounded because Jeho hyung looked unhappy about being grouped with us."
"When did I ever."
"That’s because you said you wanted to go do crane games morning, noon, and night. Does that hyung look remotely interested in crane games?"
Even while constantly raising their voices at each other, not a single one of them said they didn’t want to go together. The members trusted that the other person would listen to them, and they were certain that even if someone rejected their opinion, it wouldn’t be because they hated them.
"Let’s reconsider the roommate arrangements one more time. And how about limiting crane games to twice a day? If Jeho hyung’s okay with it. We should definitely eat something good in between."
The moment Jeong Seongbin stepped in to mediate, everyone quietly accepted it.
'If we had to pick a leader among us, I thought you’d be the most suitable.'
Kim Iwol’s words from when he briefly stepped out crossed his mind.
Kim Iwol probably wouldn’t agree, but Jeong Seongbin believed that Kim Iwol deserved the most credit for the fact that he’d been able to settle into the role of leader. If Kim Iwol hadn’t trusted him, Jeong Seongbin would have struggled through countless difficulties.
"What are you all gathered here doing?"
Kim Iwol had returned from counseling. He looked at the members sitting together in the living room and asked the question while holding a black plastic bag that smelled delicious.
Buying tasty food from a nearby restaurant whenever he went to the hospital was another one of Kim Iwol’s habits. Even his habits carried traces of kindness.
"You’re back?"
Jeong Seongbin greeted him with a smile and took the bag from him. Inside were warm waffles.
"We’re planning the trip!"
Lee Cheonghyeon excitedly waved the paper he’d been taking notes on.
"Everything sounds good, but if we’re taking a plane, hurry up and book the tickets. There won’t be any left once vacation season starts."
"We finished booking them yesterday."
"Good job."
Kim Iwol chuckled softly before heading into his room. A few days later, when Jeong Seongbin handed him a thick stack of papers labeled "Group Trip Schedule (Draft)," Kim Iwol laughed as though utterly dumbfounded while accepting it.
Jeong Seongbin took on the role of main guide for the Spark Fire Tour. Lee Cheonghyeon became the assistant guide. The university students, now on break, looked full of life.
"Hyung, why is your expression so gloomy? What happened?"
Lee Cheonghyeon approached and asked. He was insufferably fake.
"I even gave up the airport fashion concept for you. You can’t act like this."
"Did my expression look gloomy? I didn’t feel that way at all. Perhaps I was standing somewhere too shaded. I’ll correct it."
Just as Lee Cheonghyeon said, Spark had been able to depart wearing stylish outfits instead of flashy fashion. Originally, they had been scheduled to leave dressed like a floral-print army, but after desperate pleading, the plan had changed.
'How much attention would floral shirts really attract at an amusement park?'
No, Lee Cheonghyeon hadn’t backed down by one step. More like ten. Deep gratitude had been expressed toward him for it. Thanks to that, Spark’s casual airport fashion condition today was at its peak.
I’d bought plane tickets for other people before, but this was the first time I’d ever received my own. The queasy feeling during takeoff wasn’t great, but seeing the sea and clouds beyond the window was nice.
Once they arrived, they ate first. The guidebook had "★We’ll be walking around all day / Eat a filling meal★" written inside it. It was frightening to imagine just how much they planned to see.
Photo-taking was briefly permitted while riding the train out of the airport. These bastards had loudly declared before departure that this was supposed to be a digital detox trip and that filming and recording would be strictly restricted.
Naturally, I resisted fiercely. Was it really acceptable not to preserve the members’ first long vacation together as content?
'You’re seriously going to throw away the chance to film a Spark travel vlog?'
But Jeong Seongbin replied firmly with a smile.
'It’s a vacation, not work, hyung. We’re not banning it completely. We’ll take lots of pictures of you ourselves, so don’t worry.'
They’d brought cams, film cameras, even Polaroids, while only forbidding me from bringing anything. My body trembled with rage at such blatantly discriminatory regulations. But what could I do? You have to listen to the boss.
At the record shop, we listened to CDs Park Juu recommended, and for Lee Cheonghyeon’s sake we stopped by a café and ordered a mountain of desserts that would supposedly become inspiration. Honestly, I had no idea what desserts had to do with inspiration. We also followed Kang Giyeon to a goods shop selling overseas-exclusive merchandise for "King. Te. Ra."
"The culture of neglecting domestic fans by only releasing high-quality, diverse merch overseas needs to disappear."
Kang Giyeon muttered that in a completely expressionless voice. Back when I used to engage in proxy fangirling, I’d seen posts saying basically the same thing at least once every quarter.
A fan’s anger burns using love as fuel, which is why it never goes out. Kang Giyeon was probably the same, so I kept my mouth shut and focused entirely on my role as the guy carrying the shopping basket beside him.
The second day’s schedule was split into 3:3 free travel groups. In reality, the word "free" didn’t apply to me at all. My route had already been decided for me.
Choi Jeho, Lee Cheonghyeon, and Kang Giyeon’s group planned to embark on a long journey in search of character merchandise. Centered around Lee Cheonghyeon, who could speak English and a bit of Japanese, they intended to visit more than ten stores.
"You agreed to follow them around? You?"
"I didn’t really have anything else I wanted to do."
Without much complaint, Choi Jeho accepted an itinerary that looked guaranteed to make him walk over thirty thousand steps in a single day. Then he got up early and headed out for breakfast first.
An hour later, I met the main-vocal-line duo in the hallway, and we headed to the floor with the breakfast buffet.
"They left ridiculously early."
"They said they had a lot of places to visit."
"That’s honestly impressive..."
Thinking about the younger members, who could become endlessly diligent whenever merchandise was involved, we leisurely ate toast and soup.
It was a peaceful morning.
At least until we realized there wasn’t a single person on that team capable of stopping the others from opening their wallets.
Lee Cheonghyeon’s declaration from the previous day about emptying out every crane game machine resurfaced in my mind like a scene from a horror movie. I hurriedly sent Choi Jeho a message.
Me
[If it looks like the kids are buying things without paying attention to the exchange rate, stop them at least once]
The reply came much later.
Center Emperor Choi Jeho
[Too late, I think]
"Seongbin."
"Yes, hyung."
"From now on, whenever we split into groups, I absolutely need to be included, right?"
Jeong Seongbin smiled with the serenity of enlightenment. If he’d been holding the Ginseng Self Murder Notebook, Choi Jeho, Lee Cheonghyeon, and Kang Giyeon would each have gotten about two marks stamped onto them already.
