Free Web NovelThe land of dreams and hope, Animation World.
A place visited by six youths who pursued the image of youthful icons and delivered joy through song and dance...
"Wow, the clothes are so vivid that every photo turns out great. We won’t even need color correction."
...Six men in floral shirts.
There was a time when I thought the most humiliating moment of my life had been performing the Wooden Puppet of Joy dance in front of professional trainees.
But that had merely been the ignorance of youth.
Across all twenty-nine years and counting of my life, I could confidently declare that the single most humiliating moment was "wearing brightly colored shirts as a group while standing around in animal-ear headbands waiting for Lee Cheonghyeon to press the selfie button."
"And what exactly are we supposed to buy dressed like this later?"
"Popcorn."
Kang Giyeon answered in a flat voice, saying something horrifying.
As for the most terrifying moment in my entire twenty-nine-plus years of existence, first place would now go to "wearing brightly colored shirts as a group while standing among children waiting for popcorn to come out."
"Jeho hyung, hold the phone for a sec. I’m still not skilled enough to become a six-person selfie master."
"Give it here."
Choi Jeho took the phone from him. The moment the lens turned toward me, the corners of my mouth rose automatically.
How sad. The conditioned reflexes of an idol.
Despite all the preparation they’d done, the guys weren’t actually that interested in the rides. Instead, they spent most of their time taking photos and buying souvenirs. Since we were already buying things anyway, I wanted us to get the prettiest options possible, so I diligently helped compare Plushie No. 1 versus Plushie No. 2 beside them.
"This place really... just never ends."
"Seriously."
Looking down at the map, Park Juu let out a sigh of admiration. Every direction looked straight out of a fairy tale.
If there was such a thing as the pinnacle of theme park architecture, it had to be this place.
How did they even clean massive sets like these? Rain and snow would leave stains eventually, so how did they keep the colors so vibrant and glossy? Curious, I asked Lee Cheonghyeon, the theme park itinerary manager, and he replied that if I submitted an inquiry email, they’d answer during business hours.
After riding two mild attractions with short waiting times and eating an absurdly expensive lunch, we embarked on another endless walking expedition. If I’d turned on a step counter, it might’ve exploded by afternoon.
By sunset, we’d claimed a spot to watch the parade. There was still plenty of time left, but apparently you had to secure seats early.
Normally people fought for the best viewing spots, but as more and more people began recognizing Spark, we quickly occupied a bench tucked away in the farthest corner instead.
As darkness settled in, the scenery became even more dazzling. Streetlights, rides, and shop windows all lit up brilliantly.
"Even just the night view is incredible."
"It feels romantic."
Kang Giyeon agreed.
We’d already witnessed two separate proposals while walking around today, so it wasn’t exactly surprising.
While we chatted and drank the beverages Jeong Seongbin and Park Juu had bought, the area around our secluded bench gradually darkened. An announcement played, seemingly signaling the start of the parade.
The show that followed was even larger in scale than expected.
Several enormous ships appeared one after another, while smaller boats sped around the lakeside at incredible speeds. Dazzling lights and electronic displays flashed nonstop. Every time fireworks burst overhead, cheers echoed in the distance.
"This is incredible...."
The sounds of fireworks launching, exploding, and crackling apart filled the air together with the music. Flashes burst like streams of light pouring down from the sky.
And at the climax, the fireworks swallowed every other sound, blooming across the night sky.
Quietly, I opened the SYSTEM.
Then I activated the welfare service that displayed noona’s condition.
▷ Relationship: Blood Relative
▷ Health Status: Good
▷ Mental Status: Good
▷ Other: Enjoying Leisure Activities
But if it was connected both ways, then I hoped this scene might somehow reach her, even if only through a dream.
It was far too beautiful to keep to myself.
"You’re telling me to shower first?"
"Yeah. I want to check whether anything came in from the lawyer."
At my words, Choi Jeho obediently gathered his clothes and disappeared. Before long, the sound of running water filled the room.
While he showered, I pulled out the smartphone they’d temporarily returned to me for the duration of the trip in case I got lost.
There weren’t any urgent messages I needed to check. Since I’d already turned the phone on, I figured I might as well browse something, but the recommended searches, videos, even the ads were completely flooded with foreign content.
'So the algorithm changes this much just from changing locations.'
Terrifying. The age of the internet.
'At the very least, I want to check how the promotions wrapped up.'
What bothered me was that our final schedule before the break had ended in an accident. For the time being, the only content likely to come out would be Bubble Pop, livestreams, and self-produced content, yet it felt like I’d caused a massive incident and then run away.
On top of that, these guys had insisted the trip should be enjoyed as a vacation rather than work, so they barely filmed anything. If they’d at least planned to release some hilarious Spark group travel documentary, I might’ve felt a little better, but even that had vanished into thin air.
No idol wanted the activities they’d painstakingly prepared to end badly.
Feeling gloomy, I searched for Spark.
It was my first time doing so since the accident.
≫ You expect us to believe the support suddenly malfunctioned out of nowhere?
Sure, nothing in this world is 100%. A sudden accident? Maybe it could happen by some insanely tiny chance.
But why does it keep happening to our boys...? That’s what upsets me.
└ I’m furious that the articles keep using terms like safety negligence too... After the concert and everything, the members have obviously been trying their best to prevent avoidable accidents.
└ Exactlyㅠㅠ Is it really asking too much to want them to promote safely without getting hurt...?ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
≫ Kim Iwol definitely has something going on
How did he even notice that?
└ Whether it’s intuition or whatever, he definitely has something
└ Looking at the video, if they hadn’t moved, someone would’ve at least ended up with fractures
└└ Where did you see the video? I couldn’t find it
└└└ It’s all been taken down now
≫ It’s a miracle nobody got hurt
Faulty materials nobody noticed during installation + a member standing exactly where the lighting equipment fell = it almost became a massive disaster
└ Right? At first I was so shocked and angry that my rage hit max level, but after realizing they might’ve had no way to stop it and could only watch the accident happen, all the blood drained from my body
└ Seriously, it landed exactly where Jeho had been standing... I don’t even want to imagine what could’ve happened
≫ Honestly, trust saved them
Kim Iwol called Choi Jeho over because he thought an accident might happen, but Jeho had no idea what was going on and still ran over in the middle of the performance just because a member told him to hold his hand
If he’d paused for even a second to think "Why?" it would’ve been a major accident. It’s impressive, but at the same time, stopping during a performance like that couldn’t have been easy
└ Fr, and it was during his part too, when he was standing right in the front
└ Before that, during a livestream, Emperor said he always listens to everything Kim Iwol says
└ Wait??? Which livestream was that??
└ The individual live after they came back from the unmanned rest stop lol
└ I remember this... Back then I thought Jeho was only defending Iwol because he was getting so much hate, but he actually meant it
└ He got hate...? Why...?
The unmanned rest stop episode was fun though
└ Someone asked why Jeho was living like a wilderness survival expert → people started saying a member who’d comfortably stayed at the dorm was mocking the member who suffered → then rumors spread that Iwol was jealous because Jeho was center + that he wanted to act like an authoritarian eldest hyung and saw Jeho as a thorn in his side etc.
Then Jeho said Kim Iwol never says anything that would hurt the members, and things calmed down after that
└ The people who first threw fuel onto that whole mess were the Shipping Detective Squad
└ He wasn’t criticizing him at all. He was literally saying "you should’ve just built a house there" and "protect yourself from UV rays," but people acted like Iwol had bullied a kid to death
└ The jealousy accusations were ridiculous too. He was the kind of guy who’d even follow Jeho to filming sites as a trainee just to support his friend
≫ I was there in person as a Sparkle, and honestly I hope the members get some rest
Watching the lighting fall right in front of me was genuinely terrifying
And if we felt that way, how much worse must it have been for the members standing underneath it...?
I still remember Seongbin and the others’ expressions. If someone had actually gotten hurt, it seriously would’ve become trauma
└ You must’ve been really shocked too...ㅠㅠㅠ
└ Agreed. I’d rather see them healthy for a long time than have them constantly promoting right now
There were all kinds of stories.
I’d expected things not to be quiet, but this was even worse than anticipated. There wasn’t a single community that hadn’t discussed the incident.
"What are you looking at?"
"Jesus, you scared me."
I’d been deeply absorbed in reading posts when Choi Jeho’s voice suddenly sounded above my head.
"Didn’t Jeong Seongbin tell you to stop using the internet?"
"I’m turning it off now."
His tone carried a strangely threatening edge. Afraid he might actually report me to Jeong Seongbin, I hurriedly shut off my phone.
"Take this."
While drying his hair with a towel, Choi Jeho dropped a plastic bag onto the table. It was fairly bulky. Inside were countless capsules.
"What’s this?"
"Stuff Lee Cheonghyeon won from the machines yesterday. He told me to give them to you, but I forgot."
"Why’s he giving these to me?"
"He said you’ll understand once you see them."
With that, he wandered off to finish drying his hair.
I opened one of the colorful capsules and found an utterly exhausted-looking cat figurine inside. The cat held onto a subway strap with one hand while carrying a briefcase in the other.
'What kind of capsule toys even look like this?'
Confused, I opened another one.
This time it was a cat crushed inside a packed elevator, its shoulders and bag horribly squashed.
Every single one was a cat.
An emaciated cat.
Slouching-neck cat, getting-hit-by-documents cat, wrinkled-necktie cat... the endless procession continued.
Inside each capsule was a tiny instruction leaflet. Assuming the large text was the product title, I opened a translation app and took a photo.
The translated caption appeared immediately.
[Office Worker Baby Kitty]
What kind of evil corporation worked baby kittens this hard?
My heart ached at this filthy modern society that exploited not only humans, but even cats.
Following the amusement-park-exclusive popcorn bucket that had become my first souvenir from the overseas trip, my second souvenir was now officially a haggard cat keychain.
