Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols Chapter 523 - Smoke Screen (1)

The few days of farm work were enjoyable. Keeping my body busy left no room for wandering thoughts, which was nice. Whenever I was about to get sentimental, Gu Jahan would make a fuss about a snake appearing. He was a senior who was helpful in many ways.

 

‘If you want to maintain your public image, it’s best if you don’t film rural variety shows.’

 

‘Mr. Iwol, you are insulting me just now, aren’t you?’

 

We picked fights like this three times a day. Woo Yoonjae didn’t even try to stop us. Every time, he took my side to fire up Gu Jahan, only to feed him snacks later and enjoy the joy of the harvest with his friend.

 

To avoid ending up in an all-out brawl with Gu Jahan on the ride back, which was supposed to be a harmonious journey, I hitched a ride in Woo Yoonjae’s car.

 

Woo Yoonjae kindly dropped me off in front of the dorm. Since it was my first time meeting the members after a long holiday, I needed some mental preparation. I even took a deep breath after getting off the elevator.

 

As if Choi Jeho’s warning hadn’t been for show, Lee Cheonghyeon was waiting for me in front of the shoe rack with his arms crossed. His face looked as cold as an arctic wind.

 

“I’m back.”

 

When I took off my shoes and greeted him, Lee Cheonghyeon let out a long sigh. He looked completely drained of energy.

 

“What’s with all these shopping bags?”

 

“Woo Yoonjae sunbaenim’s family packed them for me. I roasted the sweet potatoes myself.”

 

“That sounds nice. Must have been fun.”

 

His tone wasn’t sarcastic. If anything, he sounded more like someone who had reached enlightenment. While I was at Woo Yoonjae’s family home, Lee Cheonghyeon had messaged me frequently. Every text he sent was long, and his emotions swung wildly from one message to the next.

 

[Cutie Pretty Visually Lee Cheonghyeon]

[I heard the story from Jeho hyung.]

[Honestly, I don’t understand all of it, and there are still a lot of things that don’t sit right with me.]

[But your health is more important, and since I believe you’ll tell us someday, I won’t pester you.]

[It doesn’t have to be everything, but please tell us as much as you can.]

.

.

.

 

Lee Cheonghyeon, taking the bags, vanished into the kitchen with a groan. I trailed after him like a cute puppy, shamelessly trying to butter him up. Originally, Lee Cheonghyeon would have clung to me like a cicada to an old tree, but today I took on the role of the reverse cicada.

 

“Did you have a good time at Kiyeon’s house? Tell me how it went. You said it had been a long time since you visited.”

 

“We didn’t have time to enjoy it because we were too busy talking about you hyungs.”

 

“Why talk about something so boring?”

 

“I know, right. Kang Kyeon and I are considering having a massive fight around the Lunar New Year just so you hyungs have to worry about us instead.”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon grumbled tirelessly. Even while muttering, he neatly organized the food I had brought into the refrigerator. He even took a photo of the roasted sweet potatoes and posted it in the group chat.

 

“I heard you learned car stunts at the action school?”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon went straight for the jugular, like someone who didn’t know how to beat around the bush.

 

‘Choi Jeho, I thought you said you’d covered for me!’

 

I had let my guard down only to be put in a tight spot instantly. I could have trusted Choi Jeho with anything else, but believing in his eloquence was a huge mistake on my part. As I scrambled to think of an excuse, he added as he folded a shopping bag:

 

“You’re really lucky, hyung. Who would have thought that something you learned in passing would actually be useful?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Make sure to thank the teacher who designed the curriculum. Or let’s send a gift in the name of all Spark members.”

 

Amidst the truth, there were parts that were factually incorrect. The car stunt training had somehow become something I’d learned because the instructor recommended it. The reason Choi Jeho had originally suspected me was because I’d insisted on learning that particular stunt myself. Now, that inconvenient fact had been cleverly rewritten as nothing more than a fortunate coincidence.

 

That wasn’t all. The trendy café I’d used as an excuse with Manager Daeyeon had been reworked into a place Choi Miho had recommended to Choi Jeho, and the protectors were described as a habit I developed from frequently wearing them at the action school.

 

“Uh, yeah. Right.”

 

Choi Jeho, you impressive brat, I had no idea you were actually so capable.

 

But while you were taking my side, couldn’t you have given me a follow-up report…! I was three seconds away from kneeling before Lee Cheonghyeon…!

 

I had been terrified that I would be interrogated from head to toe the moment I arrived. I wiped away a cold sweat without Lee Cheonghyeon noticing.

 

“Has anything else happened?”

 

“A lot. Where should I start?”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon responded enthusiastically to my attempt to change the subject.

 

“Jeho hyung almost lost his voice, so Joowoo hyung has been offering him quince tea since yesterday. He thinks it’s because Jeho hyung talked too much over the past few days.”

 

“He did talk way more than usual.”

 

“I’m sure trying to explain everything to us had something to do with it… but did you guys have a rap battle in Gwangju?”

 

“It was just a regular battle. One where I got completely steamrolled. It was an incredibly unfair match.”

 

When I told him I’d gone to Woo Yoonjae’s house to recover from the sting of defeat, he cackled. Then, he opened the refrigerator door to show me six jars full of quince preserve.

 

“Look at this. We made it ourselves.”

 

“The preserve? From scratch?”

 

“Joowoo hyung insisted on feeding the members homemade preserve. It was a truly long and difficult process!”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon lamented how hard it was to wash and shred the quinces. He explained the entire biography of the quince preserve, saying they had even aged it on the balcony before putting it in the fridge for storage.

 

“I put labels on every jar. This one is yours, hyung.”

 

At the very front of the shelf was the quince preserve for ‘Kim Iwol.’ Beside it, the jars lined up by age asserted their presence.

 

“Next time, you help too, hyung. Five people just isn’t enough for a job like this.”

 

“Would one more pair of hands really have made a big difference?”

 

“Of course it would!”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon spoke with a straight face.

 

“Don’t you know that the basic rule for idols is to be a full group?”

 

From there, he went off like he’d been waiting for an opportunity to air his grievances. Maybe he’d been bottling things up ever since everyone’s solo schedules had increased alongside Spark’s popularity, Lee Cheonghyeon utilized his rap skills to fire off words at a rapid pace.

 

“There’s never been a time where I didn’t say ‘I’m Spark’s Lee Cheonghyeon!’ but all people ask about are the differences between solo and group activities. I understand why Joowoo hyung was so distraught before.”

 

“He was?”

 

“On top of that, my mom asked if I have plans to pivot to composing or start a one-man business after building a career as an idol, so that really put me in a bad mood. I sent her one of those ‘Holiday Nagging Fee Charts’ meme and told her to give me 600,000 won first if she’s going to nag. I don’t know why every Chuseok blessing somehow turns into that conversation.”

 

Like a rice cooker in the middle of steaming, Lee Cheonghyeon huffed and puffed steam. When I asked if he was okay, he gave a strong answer that he wasn’t weak enough to be discouraged by this.

 

“Normally she’d have kept going for another two or three rounds, but this time she stopped. If I just keep doing what I’ve been doing, eventually she’ll realize that not everything goes the way she wants.”

 

There was no wobble in his voice.

 

“So we just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing! All together, working hard!”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon chatted cheerfully. I simply smiled back without saying anything, absentmindedly wiping the already spotless dining table over and over with a dishcloth.

 

 ***

 

Led by Jeong Seongbin, all the members of Spark gathered in the living room. The official reason was a holiday update report… but in reality, it was a solo interview of Kim Iwol. Spark interrogated me about my health status like doctors performing a medical checkup.

 

“To summarize: my forehead is perfectly fine. I don’t have any muscle pain. My mental state is excellent.”

 

It was funny to have to repeat the results of an actual doctor’s diagnosis with my own mouth, but since I had a crime to account for, I recounted it faithfully. If a couple of sentences could put these guys at ease, I’d do more than just a recap; I’d hold a full-blown hour-long presentation.

 

“If I weren’t actually fine, the company wouldn’t have let me join the tour. Could you trust me a little?”

 

“We want to trust you too, but…”

 

Park Joowoo smiled. Even though it was a smiling face, it sent chills down my spine. These guys—the older they got, the sharper and more intimidating their features became.

 

“You don’t want to rest anymore, right, hyung?”

 

Kang Kiyeon asked. There was a reason why the guy who usually watched me with hawk eyes and told me to rest was being so cautious. His words carried the subtext of the time when I used to get anxious if the members weren’t in my sight.

 

He was probably worried that if they left me alone at the dorm, I’d fall back into that same state. He probably also thought that since I had rested for three months straight last year, I wouldn’t want any more time gaps given my personality. He understood me frighteningly well.

 

“Since promotions are over, even if you rest alone, hyung, there will always be at least one or two people in the dorm.”

 

Jeong Seongbin quietly added his opinion. It was a gentle, indirect suggestion.

 

Normally, I would have refused anyway. My personal creed had always been that if I wanted to pull my own weight, I had to keep working as hard as possible.

 

But after fighting with Choi Jeho, I realized that pushing my stubbornness wasn’t always the right thing to do. I couldn’t make light of the impact my sudden actions had on the guys.

 

I was the type who thought as long as I healed, I was fine. I had overlooked the aftermath or the side effects. I’d never even considered that the people watching me might not see it that way.

Even if I was getting better, from a macroscopic view, not much had changed since the early days of debut when I secretly took medicine and deceived the members into thinking nothing was wrong.

 

During the time we’d spent together, I watched from the side as Spark went through difficulties beyond what was known to the public.

 

I’d come to understand just how important honesty was to Choi Jeho, how much Jeong Seongbin valued being entrusted with responsibility, and how essential trust was to Lee Cheonghyeon.

 

At the same time, I could no longer ignore what it meant for Park Joowoo to consider the members as family, or the significance of the sense of stability to Kang Kiyeon.

 

As an unstable existence who could not be fully honest and could not accompany them until the final goal they expected, my choices were limited.

 

Not adding any more lies.

 

Believing that they will continue to do great.

 

Widening the freedom of their creativity.

 

Ensuring they don’t experience the death of ‘family’ again.

 

Reducing the crises they face until they’re bearable.

 

‘So this was always how it was going to end.’

 

A bitter laugh escaped me as everything gradually fell back into the course the system had intended all along.

 

In the process of going through so many things with these guys, I had come to know Spark far too deeply. That was my blunder, and…

 

The trigger that made me decide I must leave the team.