Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols

You could tell that Kim Iwol had a unique personality just by looking at a few clips.

 

『You forgot to put on sunscreen? How are you going to atone for that sin?』

 

『Who didn’t hit the confirm emoji after reading the announcement? If it happens again, I’ll stick the notice to the back of your head』

 

『Take selfies with the mindset that you’ll only get one good shot out of 200 photos. Don’t just rely on your face and take three or four.』

 

To put it nicely, Kim Iwol was a thorough professional idol.

 

Among fans, he was already known as a man who embodied the ideal traits of an idol, a guy who understood fan sentiment all too well, and someone who maintained strict discipline within the group.

 

At the same time… to put it strangely, he seemed like someone who had lived two lifetimes.

 

It was like that even now.

 

『Hyung, the comments say you’re handsome!』

 

『Huh? Uh, huh…. Thank you..』

 

In moments like these, he was just like any rookie idol who had just debuted.

 

『You want to try making a Goldberg machine? I actually have a design I drew up for practice… should I send it via email?』

 

『I’ll ask if I can open a shared drive at the company. If that doesn’t work, I’ll set up a Doc page or something.』

 

He had a talent for catching people off guard.

 

For the office workers watching this, Kim Iwol’s remarks seemed even more strange.

 

≫An idol who knows what a Doc page is? That’s just strange.

 

Feels like he works at a well-run company or something.

 

└ Your analogy made me tear up.

 

≫ Iwol is kind of mind-blowing, but in a different way.

 

When asked to give a message to the members, he said, ‘When interest rates rise, make sure you all get savings accounts’ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 

He looked like the mature eldest hyung when he was tying the kids’ neckties, but now he’s just like a student council president who nags a lot

 

└ But after hearing him, I opened a savings account too. The interest rate was over 5% at a first-tier bank.

 

└ That’s some positive influence

 

└ Positive influence ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 

Baek Haewon couldn’t understand all of it, but she could tell one thing.

 

As he searched for Kim Iwol’s name and checked reactions about Spark, she realized:

 

She had just become a fan of a brand-new rookie group who only had a single album out.

 

* * *

 

2 weeks after Spark’s debut.

 

And roughly one year and three weeks since the forced contract between Kim Iwol and the system.

 

I watched Spark’s content again, absentmindedly shaking a pen with a broken neck.

 

And I thought to myself.

 

‘… Not bad.’

 

Judging by the current reactions, Spark seemed poised to surpass their past debut numbers and mentions.

 

The same was true for the online communities as well.

 

Although they hadn’t yet earned a dedicated forum, new posts about Spark appeared on the idol boards daily.

 

It seemed Spark was being consumed as something like an ‘eight-star cider idol group, providing a refreshing burst in the flashy idol scene.’

 

‘A refreshing burst, huh.’

 

I turned my gaze to my laptop, which had just been paused. The screen was filled with Choi Jeho’s radiant smile.

 

Who would’ve thought the day would come when this guy would smile like that?

 

Choi Jeho’s rare smiles were infamous among the old Spark fandom.

 

Sure, he might’ve smiled a bit during performances for the sake of the concept.

 

But because Spark only did bad concepts, Choi Jeho’s smiling face only earned him honorable titles like ‘The Master of Sinister Grin’ or ‘The Man Who Surely Schemes’.

 

But now it was different.

 

On the screen, Choi Jeho was dancing energetically, smiling so brightly that you wouldn’t even recognize him as the same person.

 

Was this really the same Choi Jeho with the 0.5-degree frozen fish eyes that I knew?

 

His smile was as stunning as the scenic views of Geumgangsan, rivaling the ‘Top 10 Iconic Idol Landscapes’ of Kim Iwol’s personal pick. It was a sight I quite liked.

 

Choi Jeho wasn’t the only one who improved. The others also showed remarkable growth.

 

Park Joowoo was good at finding the camera that was changing quickly and made eye contact, and Lee Cheonghyeon showed off his pure charm by using the right amount of makeup to highlight his facial features.

 

Maybe it was just a hunch, but with every member pulling their weight, even Jeong Seongbin seemed much more at ease handling his parts.

 

Most impressive of all was Kang Kiyeon, who could finally showcase his dancing skills in full in front of the camera.

 

All my nagging was finally paying off. Look at you, you punks, see how great it feels when you listen to me?

 

Overwhelmed with emotion, I couldn’t stop replaying their music video and stage performances as if possessed.

 

These guys were talented, so their skills were beyond words.

 

They looked healthy thanks to their balanced diet and it was quite impressive to see them smiling brightly and working hard to the point of dripping sweat…

 

Wait.

 

What am I thinking right now?

 

Have I forgotten what kind of people these guys are?

 

Manager Nam might’ve created the extra work, but it was these guys who doubled it during late nights.

 

Do you think my anger would fade just because we’ve spent one year together?

 

I shook my head vigorously, imagining myself clearing my mind of distracting thoughts. Then I focused on monitoring again.

 

There were departments that bring in money for the company, and there were departments that only spent the company’s money.

 

If I had to pick a typical example, it would be the HR team.

 

As befitting of the back office, our team’s work was rarely visible on the surface.

 

My work was the same. The most visible thing I had ever produced was the image for a job posting.

 

Maybe that was why.

 

Seeing my ideas come to life in a place I scouted, exactly as I intended, felt strange.

 

This wasn’t the only odd phenomenon.

 

≫ Tried out a new rookie boy group

 

These days, everyone’s coming out with strong songs, and their teaser had kind of a dark movie vibe, so I thought they’d be another similar group.

 

But they came out super fresh and pure, which was kind of surprisingㅋㅋ, totally unexpected.

 

Still, it actually makes them stand out more.

 

If they’d come out with a conceptual style, they would have been buried ㅍㄹㅌ

 

└ If you’re trying to do a viral marketing, at least don’t make it obviousㅋㅋㅋ

 

└ Who’s gonna pay for this half-baked viral marketingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ You b****

 

≫ Is this level of hair and makeup coordination real for a debut stage?

 

Normally, when rookies debut, no matter how polished they try to look, there’s always a hint of awkwardness, but these guys have none of that.

 

You can tell the staff put their hearts and souls into this.

 

└ Yeah, agreed… They’re all wearing school uniforms, gym uniforms, jumpsuits, but there’s not a single bad outfit

 

≫ A rookie group with super stable live performances.gif

 

That’s Spark

 

They just debuted, but their live performances are so solid on every stage!

 

Even in their content, you can tell the members are all great at singing.

 

└ If you install AR, anyone can make a good performanceㅋㅋ

 

└ But isn’t this pretty good? Look at other groups that debuted around the same time. Their live performances are all over the place.

 

Maybe it was because our fame hadn’t skyrocketed yet, but aside from the occasional trolling comment, there was almost no negative feedback about Spark.

 

Of course, the high-quality styling wasn’t achieved effortlessly. It came from painstakingly compiling reference materials.

 

Even so…

 

‘This feels strange.’

 

I’d always worked hard to produce the best results.

 

Whether at Hanpyeong Industries or in part-time jobs, since I was being paid, I always believed I had to earn my salary, so I worked hard.

 

The reason I worked harder than the system required for Spark was the same.

 

To compensate for the loss of image this team would suffer due to my departure.

 

So all of this was the least I could do to repay what I owed.

 

‘Assistant Manager Kim, if you’re too incompetent, that’s a problem too. Assistant Manager Kim, are you not planning to have a social life? Are you going to go to work all alone?’

 

‘Assistant Manager Kim, you really think you’re good at your job? Don’t get me wrong. Where else do you think you would be able to adapt if not here?’

 

≫ A well-run agency + talented members.

 

They just debuted, but they put in subtitles + member introductions that match the concept of their debut album

 

I also love that they bring out props from the music video in chronological order for each stage

 

I don’t know, it feels like they really pay attention to even the smallest details

 

You can tell the members really put effort into their photocard shoots too… Looking at this, it seems there are many cases where small and medium-sized companies have better quality than large companies.

 

└ It’s a single album, but it’s full of content, including not only photocards, but also student photos + lottery papers + class schedules, etc. You can tell they put a lot of thought into it.

 

It was unsettling that what I heard from the Hanpyeong Industry and what I heard outside of the Hanpyeong Industry were so different.

 

I hoped the System would quickly check if I’d met my KPIs.

 

So that this awkward feeling wouldn’t last much longer.

 

* * *

 

Just as there were schedules focused on stage performances like music shows, there were also many that weren’t.

 

‘Visible Radio’ was one of them.

 

This ‘Visible Radio’, which broadcast live video of the broadcast site, quickly became popular after starting as a channel that invited idols as guests.

 

Spark’s scheduled schedule for today was also to appear on that visible radio.

 

≫ 2X1023 Visible Radio capture shots

 

Photo 1

 

Photo 2

 

Photo 3

 

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It’s a shame that their faces are completely hidden by caps, but I’ll endure it since I get to watch them for a whole hour… ㅋㅋ

 

(Source: SNS)

 

I had the unforgettable experience of frantically taking screenshots of that visible radio show, nearly breaking my fingers in the process.

 

All five of them came out wearing hats, no words could describe how angry I was while recording.

 

If they were going to cover their faces, they should’ve at least worn different outfits. These guys stuck to wearing black hats and black clothes as if they had conspired to do it.

 

I only recently learned why they had always worn those shadow-like outfits.

 

‘Don’t you think there are too many black clothes in our closet?’

 

‘Since we only go back and forth to the practice room anyway, we don’t feel the need to spend money to buy clothes.’

 

My roommates told me that.

 

These guys, as long as it was comfortable to wear in practice and wouldn’t look dirty even if they lay down on the floor, they were fine with any clothes.

 

Are you office workers with a strict dress code or what? Why are you all wearing only solid colors?

 

If I had known this sooner, I would’ve ordered rainbow-colored training suits for their practice.

 

But there was no use regretting what had already passed.

 

Instead, from now on, I banned them from wearing caps during visible radio appearances, unless they had a legitimate reason (like preventing spoilers of dyed hair).

 

And in order to ensure that even new viewers or casual fans could easily tell the members apart in videos or screenshots…

 

“Do I really have to wear this?”

 

“If you don’t like it, write your name on your forehead.”

 

“…”

 

We all agreed to wear headbands with glittery name tags. In fact, we handmade them with the crafty Lee Cheonghyeon’s help.

 

I said to Choi Jeho, who was holding the headband with a sour expression.

 

“Don’t worry. We already checked last time to make sure no one had an allergic reaction.”

 

“Fine…”

 

Choi Jeho sighed as he looked at his burgundy-colored headband.

 

What’s your problem? If you don’t like it, then just get so famous that people recognize your face without needing a name tag.

 

And so, the six members of the rookie idol group Spark entered the radio booth, each wearing a glitter-colored name tag headband with solemn expressions.