Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols Chapter 498 - How Could You

The transformation of UA, which had been the subject of much talk but ultimately went smoothly, concluded with Hellas joining under the newly renamed ‘UtopiA.’

 

The department that had been vaguely referred to as the ‘K-pop Division’ or ‘Idol Division’ due to the lack of a formal title was officially named the ‘Idol Management Department.’

 

Jeong Seongbin turned down the company’s offer for a directorial position. I heard the company accepted his opinion that he wanted to focus on group activities.

 

‘I thought it would be troublesome if they tried to use that appointment as leverage during contract renewals, so this worked out for the better.’

 

I didn’t mention this to Jeong Seongbin directly. I was worried it might make me look like I was harboring a deep-seated grudge against the company.

 

Even without an additional role, Jeong Seongbin already had to balance the interests of the agency and the members, and he had been doing a great job so far. I didn’t want to make his life harder by adding unnecessary factors to consider.

 

Previously, the dedicated Spark team—centered around planners, marketers, and managers—had worked by requesting collaboration from other UA teams. 

 

But now, from an A&R team solely responsible for the idols’ music to a performance planning team, a full-process production system was in place!

 

I honestly thought it was a miracle that Hellas hadn’t walked away after seeing the company’s internal state. Compared to MYTH, the new company’s Idol Management Department was practically a wasteland. Spark was happy to see a barren land become a wasteland, but to Hellas, this place must have looked like a giant version of a deserted Island.

 

Even so, the people who had survived in that wasteland were strong. Since they were people who had raised an idol group from scratch and established it in the market—and had experience managing major veteran singers—UtopiA quickly created a space and system for Hellas. Spark and the staff even threw a welcoming party for them. I put in quite a bit of effort for the first time in a while.

 

“Mr. Iwol, do you happen to have a party planner’s license or something?”

 

Mr. Polo asked me that word for word. When I told him I’d take an online course if he needed me to, he looked horrified.

 

To commemorate the arrival of the new family members and to greet both fandoms, we filmed content where each group covered the other’s songs. Hellas sang On A High Note, and Spark sang a ballad Hellas had released back when they were at a similar stage in their career as us.

 

≫ For the first time in years, we’re back to their debut-era vibes

So fresh.

Is there anyone else who’s still listening to the B-sides from Hellas’s early albums because you love this kind of song?

└ Hellas’s B-sides are the real deal. If the titles were public picks, the B-sides feel like hidden masterpieces only fans know.

└ Spark’s version is so good. I wish our boys sang songs like this more often.

└ Wow, come to think of it, we won’t have to sing only ‘that’ composer’s songs anymore ㅋㅋㅋㅋ since the company changed ㅋㅋㅋ

 

≫ Second-generation songs just have a certain romance to them.

There’s a unique vibe that makes you feel sentimental from the very first notes.

└ Why is it so funny that all the Sparklers are getting nostalgic and regressing their playlists ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ Once the mentions started, I couldn’t stop ㅠㅠ Nostalgia trip through the group MVs I loved back then > getting angry while reflecting on their controversies > reminiscing about the unnies I loved > searching for the unnies’ current status > sobbing while watching the unnies’ reunion stage > binge-watching comment collections of legendary idols from debut to present. I repeat this routine every day.

└ Their controversies… ㅋㅋㅋㅋ hank you, Hellas, for letting us remember only the romance.

 

≫ Collaborative projects between label artists are a great thing.

I only ever got to watch other companies do this, so I had no idea.

└ I’m not jealous of big agencies’ year-end concerts anymore.

 

≫ I’d never really heard anyone do a good Hellas cover before, so I wasn’t expecting much when I heard someone was covering them, but Spark is actually incredible.

└ Covers like this are always welcome! Fans didn’t like other singers covering them because famous people who couldn’t even hit the high notes kept doing it just for the views.

└ It’s so obvious when people lower the key or skip high-note parts and claim ‘rearrangement differences’… Spark can really sing. They absolutely nailed the original vibe.

 

≫ Should I call it a true ballad?

A traditional ballad…? I don’t even know what genre to call songs like this, but I absolutely love the kind of emotion only these songs have. It’s kind of sad because hardly anyone makes music like this anymore.

Even drama OSTs and solo singers seem to be following the same trend.

└ I know what you mean… There’s nothing left to sing at karaoke after a breakup.

└└ I feel like you’re talking about something completely different.

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It’s funny, but I know what you mean ㅋㅋㅋ If the song suddenly breaks into rap halfway through, you can’t cry while listening to it on the bus.

└ Wired earphones + MP3 + bus window. Everyone knows the drill.

└ Hellas came out right at the end of that era, so they have a lot of masterpieces from the end of the ballad golden age… Rise up, Ballad Revival Meeting!

 

Taking advantage of the Sparklers becoming increasingly obsessed with ‘Spark-style ballads’, we released a digital single.

 

≫ Spark brought a shocking genre this time.

Unplugged Ballad.

Apparently it’s not a dance track, so there’s no choreography in the music video either.

└ The song is freaking good.

└ @qrrrrrhap2 Hey hey, listen to this. It’s got that karaoke chart-topper vibe.

└ What’s the song title? It’d be nice if people included the title when making posts like this.

└└ It’s Drifting by Spark!!

└ The harmonies are freaking god-tier.

 

≫ How does someone who’s barely twenty years old write with this kind of emotional depth?

It’s clearly a spring song, but it feels like it should be heard at night under a streetlight with cherry blossom petals falling.

Lee Cheonghyeon, you genius…

└ His genre spectrum seems incredibly wide. Musical arrangements or classical sampling might be expected since he was a major, but even bands and ballads?

└ Who would believe this is the work of a 21-year-old idol and not the sensitivity of a 21-year veteran composer ㅠㅠ

└ ‘The Third Letter’ was a ballad too, but that was fresh, new-semester-first-love style, so the impression is completely different…!

└ This might be a little off topic, but everyone in this group seems way more emotionally mature than their age. Like Mr. Yeouido Securities Gray.

└ It feels like they’ve all been through enough of society for several lifetimes.

 

≫ The accepted theory is that UA gathered these members specifically so they could do this

I praise UA’s stubbornness in wanting to carry on the legacy of a ballad powerhouse even while making an idol group.

└ I figured they’d sing a ballad eventually, but I didn’t expect them to be this serious about it, even making it the title track ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ The quality is way too good for something that was supposedly just fan service before the overseas tour… Now I have to go to the next concert too.

└ The group harmony part is seriously paradise. Guys, please release an a cappella content… I’m begging you…

 

As news of Spark’s album and comeback became a hot topic everywhere, my eldest child, whom I had hoped would quietly fade into the background, also ended up receiving attention.

 

≫ If it weren’t for the digital single format, I feel like Connect might have been the title track.

It’s similar to Spark’s existing style and meant for the stage, so it would’ve had a great response as a title too.

└ I hope they perform the full version at the concert.

└ Seriously, I want the full song at the concert x2.

└ Singing this on a large-scale stage with lights and confetti…? There’s no way that wouldn’t be amazing.

 

≫ I was like, ‘When did our Moon Ant learn to compose…?’ and listened to it ready to leave 2.14 million positive comments no matter what came out, and then I was shocked because it’s actually my taste

I can see why people say it’s a song made for concerts ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

So UA better be sensible and set the dates for an encore concert.

└ They’re not going on music shows at all this time??? They usually perform a B-side too during comeback week.

└ They are, but the period is short because they have to leave for the world tour soon + it’s a B-side, not a double title, so they’ll probably only do a short version of Connect ㅠㅠ The promotions are basically just fan service.

└ Ah… the song is so good I wanted to see it on music shows. What a shame.

 

≫ Kim Iwol is seriously so nice.

Instead of abusing his authority as producer to force a terrible song onto the album, he brought us an actual masterpiece so fans don’t have to hide on their private accounts

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ I remember my old bias brought out a trash song and I praised it on the official account so he wouldn’t get hurt, but cursed it out on my private account. Even then, I couldn’t bear to say my bias had no talent, so I just cursed out the company for not stopping the choice.

└ This is so real. You can’t even say it’s bad in public for fear of getting attacked.

└ Unable to call a flop song a flop song.

└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

└ One, two, three—Iwol, thank you (for making it so Sparklers don’t have to lie).

└ The stanning history of Sparklers is so sad I can’t bear to listen…

 

≫ It’s so funny how you can see their personalities in the songs.

I can’t really think of the perfect comparison, so I’ll just describe exactly how they feel to me.

Cheonghyeon’s song: Images come to mind like a painting, very flashy and sparkling. Even ‘Drifting’, which is a ballad, feels like a night view photo with light bleeding on a rainy day.

Iwol’s song: A giant firework shot up by 200 gears turning in perfect synchronization after strict calculation.

That’s the impression I get

└ Iwol once said Cheonghyeon’s songs had qualities like famous paintings, and that Bright was the perfect embodiment of that, so I guess most people feel the same way ㅇㅇ

└ Where did Iwol say that?

└ Radio! I’ll leave the link here

└ ‘Connect’ really feels like Kim Iwol. It’s hard to point out exactly where it resembles him, but it’s very… Kim Iwol-ish.

└ Even when Cheonghyeon uses electronic sounds, they’re more like electric guitars or electronic violins—mechanical sounds layered onto instruments. Iwol, on the other hand, uses actual metallic sounds. Literal steel. I think that changes the whole feeling too ㅋㅋ

 

Fortunately, there was no public opinion like ‘Kim Iwol, backed by the power of being a producer, ruthlessly trashes the album.’ Thanks to keeping my mouth shut until the release date, I didn’t hear comments like, ‘He made such a fuss about learning composition just to cause this mess.’ It really does pay to keep your mouth shut.

 

Other than being pleasantly surprised by how much attention the B-side received, everything went smoothly. Naturally, I was also happy that people responded so positively to my self-composed song.

 

To achieve the two tasks of challenging a new genre and submitting a self-composed song, it didn’t rain and the wind didn’t blow much, but anyway, I did my best. And gratefully, I was graced with the honor of unanimous praise.

 

Once those nerve-racking days were over, all the tension finally left me. I hadn’t even realized how anxious I’d been until the burden lifted and I could physically feel the relief.

 

So, with some free time for once, I decided to sleep my heart out for exactly one day before the tour and went to bed early. That was my fatal mistake.

 

— Kim Iwol.

— Can you lend me some money?

 

Seven hours after the flight to dreamland took off, I received a truly shocking phone call from Choi Jeho.