Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols Chapter 7 - Boomer System (6)

They said that even if you chopped off the diploma’s head, dawn would still come ^[1] The original saying is ‘Even if you chop off the chicken’s head, the dawn will still come’. It means whether roosters cry in the morning or not, the dawn will still come. .

 

I lost my family home and my degree, but the morning dawned. An incredibly bright morning.

 

“It’s over.”

 

“What is?”

 

“Everything.”

 

“Are you okay, hyung?”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon, who had watched my dramatic emotional swings from the top bunk last night, asked.

 

I wanted to say I was not okay at all. Because I really wasn’t okay.

 

But I couldn’t. There was nothing worse than someone who disrupted the organization’s atmosphere with their personal emotions.

 

Moreover, Lee Cheonghyeon had even lent me his laptop that he used for composing when I was in a fraught last night.

 

If I were a proper adult, I should be able to distinguish who to get mad at and who not to.

 

Forcing myself to say I was okay, I wiped my face, which felt moist. It seemed Lee Cheonghyeon had put a face mask on me last night.

 

F*ck, this diligent and considerate guy. At this rate, he would only rank no. 1 in photocard trading prices.

 

Still, after spending the night in torment and denying reality about 230,000 times, I managed to reach an epiphany.

 

I would definitely debut no matter what.

 

To wash away this humiliation.

 

And to find a way to make a living.

 

To do that, I would thoroughly learn the basic choreography from start to finish today.

 

From now on, it was all about debuting.

 

I resolved firmly.

 

* * *

 

And sometime later.

 

They said that a dog could recite a poem after being in the village school for three years and an idol could make a comeback in three months. I, too, was able to achieve remarkable results in just three days.

 

About 30 hours of official practice, excluding breaks.

 

Plus, an additional 4 hours of individual practice.

 

In addition, intensive training from five private instructors.

 

After a total of 34 hours, with a lot of help, I dedicated myself to memorizing the choreography. Although the form resembled the new millennium health gymnastics, I was able to perform the 4-minute choreography without a single mistake.

 

With the fierce determination of my newbie days, there was nothing I couldn’t achieve.

 

My eye sockets must be all hollowed out, though.

 

+

 

[SYSTEM] ‘Task’ is completed.

 

▷ Reward: Exp (20)

 

▷ Total exp: 80

 

▷ Total points: 0

 

+

 

Successfully mastering the choreography of one song earned me some points.

 

‘Just you wait. I’ll collect one more point and reach dance proficiency level 3.’

 

After falling into hell once, only grit and determination remained in my heart.

 

Humans naturally discovered hidden abilities in extreme situations.

 

I also realized my potential when Manager Nam told me to write a report he’d forgotten about in 4 hours.

 

I never thought past experiences would give me courage in a situation like this.

 

‘Whatever comes next… I’ll think I’m dead and get it done no matter what.’

 

I resolutely steeled myself.

 

But f*ck, not only practicing dancing, I had to practice singing, too.

 

Being a K-pop trainee was tough.

 

* * *

 

Since ancient times, humans had been said to be creatures of adaptation.

 

I was no different.

 

Within just a few days, I reached the point where I could enjoy meals without batting an eye among the noble faces who had been praised for having flawless visuals since their debut.

 

I was even savoring the slightly burnt flavor of the jjolmyeon noodles.

 

Enjoying jjolmyeon among the dazzling faces from the morning. I had quite a strong heart.

 

The sight of boys with messy hair sitting huddled on the practice room floor, eating snacks, reminded me of my school days.

 

Except back then, there were no kids with these kinds of faces.

 

If you categorized idols into approachable types and non-approachable types, Spark clearly belonged to the latter.

 

Eighty percent of the reasons came from their faces.

 

Recent idol groups tended to gather members with different types of looks and characteristic into one group.

 

In this market where you needed to have at least one member that suited your taste, entertainment agencies aimed to create groups that made people say ‘How did they gather these kids in one place?’.

 

However, UA was boldly ignorant.

 

Cold, sharp-looking pretty boys? → Handsome.

 

Lots of handsome members? → Good.

 

Perhaps they oversimplified it like that. Or maybe they just preferred cold handsome boys.

 

UA ended up making Spark a group with ‘lots of sharp-looking pretty boys, which is good.’

 

In other words, the group consisted solely of guys exuding ultimate frostiness.

 

First of all, there was Lee Cheonghyeon, the official visual representative of Spark, who looked like he was born at the moment heaven and earth were created.

 

Cheonghyeon’s face was so flawless that you’d believe it if people said he only washed with water carried from the Heaven Lake on Baekdu Mountain.

 

If Lee Cheonghyeon’s face was clear and cool like a fall morning sky, his friend Kang Kiyeon, of the same age, had a face where the cold wind blew fiercely.

 

Amidst a blizzard, downing a bottle of tequila… No, that was an inappropriate analogy for someone who would enter high school next month.

 

Kang Kiyeon, who looked like he could down a whole bottle of unsweetened hot ginger tea, had a visual that made it hard to believe he was the team’s maknae.

 

The visual situation of the middle line members, one year older than Lee Cheonghyeon and Kang Kiyeon, was not much different.

 

The main vocalist Park Joowoo’s nickname was ‘Human of Dawn Mountain Fog.’

 

In the past, I thought this nickname didn’t really suit Park Joowoo, because about 80% of his expressions I saw during monitoring looked blank.

 

However, after seeing Park Joowoo in person, I could immediately accept that nickname.

 

Park Joowoo’s bare face, pale enough to be called ghostly white, was a look that wouldn’t be out of place if he appeared in the mountain wearing a traditional hanbok like a mountain spirit at dawn.

 

Leader Jeong Seongbin was in a relatively better position.

 

Unlike Lee Cheonghyeon, who was often described as looking cynical even when smiling, Jeong Seongbin’s smile was undeniably that of an idol.

 

≫ Honestly, isn’t Jeong Seongbin a gentle handsome guy?

 

Look at that smile, how is he not a gentle guy?

 

└ (Picture of Jeong Seongbin among gentle-looking guys)

 

└ Yes, if my dear isn’t in the gentle handsome guy category, you must be blind

 

Even Jeong Seongbin was called an unequivocal frosty guy when he went out, though.

 

Fans’ efforts to push Jeong Seongbin as a gentle handsome guy, due to his slightly less intense eyebrows compared to other members, were tear-jerking even for an outsider like me.

 

Of course, I didn’t actually shed tears. My eyes were just dry from staring at the monitor too much.

 

Lastly, Choi Jeho, the center of Spark and the person who was guilty of captivating the heart of  Manager Nam’s daughter.

 

This guy… He looked like he’d been born in the North Pole.

 

His features had ‘I’m not someone to be trifled with’ written in 13pt bold font—he looked like someone you wouldn’t want to encounter outside.

 

Indeed, his presence was so empowering that it was only natural that he contributed to about 200 of my 800 visits to the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s complaint submission page.

 

If it weren’t for him, my average monthly overtime would have been reduced by 20 hours.

 

They were all extraordinarily impressive individuals.

 

And here I was, among them.

 

I recalled my reflection in the mirror this morning.

 

No matter which way I looked, it was just the common face of someone in their 20s who hadn’t been too battered by society.

 

‘Shouldn’t there be something like visual proficiency?’

 

I felt the system was missing what should be there and only had the useless extras.

 

The system seemed to not know how important looks were for idols. I must be deadweight to be discarded once I debut.

 

Maybe I was thinking too seriously about my existence, as Lee Cheonghyeon, who had been watching me, asked.

 

“Hyung, do you not like the jjolmyeon? Should I get you something else?”

 

“No. I was thinking about something.”

 

“What were you thinking?”

 

“Maybe I’m a lost cause… I thought something like that.”

 

“What kind of talk is that while eating?”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon then focused on eating again. It was a morning full of worries. No one would understand me, though.

 

* * *

 

If the dance classes were somewhere between chaos, destruction, and despair, the vocal lessons were a bit better.

 

There was no misfortune of having to demonstrate the wooden puppet dance of joy.

 

Instead, I had to do my best to hide the hapless soul of an office worker who used to sing while sticking a spoon in a soju bottle.

 

“Iwol, can you try to relax your body when you sing?”

 

“Yes, I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

“Don’t be tense, just sing. Your singing isn’t bad.”

 

If I didn’t stay tense, I might start belting out Manager Nam’s favorite trot song medley. After all, I did have a knack for trot.

 

Still, to meet the teacher’s expectations, I clenched my fists tightly and did my best to sing as instructed.

 

+

 

[SYSTEM] ‘Task’ is completed.

 

▷ Reward: Exp (20) 

 

▷ Total exp: 100

 

▷ Total point: 1

 

+

 

Thanks to that, I also earned exp for completing the first vocal lesson.

 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t raise my visual proficiency, so I invested the newly acquired 1 welfare point into dance proficiency. Being handsome must be something bestowed from heaven.

 

+

 

Performance Evaluation (100)

 

– Vocal proficiency: 4/20

 

– Dance proficiency: 3(▲)/20

 

– Self PR: 12/20

 

– Attendance management: 18/20

 

– Organizational adaptability: 10/20

 

– Total exp: 0

 

– Total point: 0

 

+

 

Seeing my proficiency grow slowly but steadily didn’t make me proud, but it did give me a bit of reassurance.

 

If things continued like this, I might be able to escape from this broken dance locomotive before our debut…

 

+

 

[SYSTEM] Work instructions from ‘superior’ have arrived.

 

▶ It wouldn’t be right for an employee with your rank to work like a new hire, right? Now, let’s start showing some performance improvements. You need to demonstrate some improvement so I can vouch for you up to the higher-ups.

 

[SYSTEM] As the ‘Adaptation Period’ work has been completed, acquirable exp will be adjusted 

 

▷ Before: Basic exp 20

 

▷ After: Basic exp 10

 

+

 

Damn it.

 

Why don’t you just ask me to pray to my ancestors and tell me to quit, huh?

 

Might as well ask me to mix up the three-colored vegetables and serve it as ritual food, too.

 

* * *

 

It didn’t take long to adjust to the situation in the practice room.

 

It was thanks to the experience of surviving for about 1,400 days under Manager Nam’s watchful eyes.

 

Oh, sometimes I made eye contact with Choi Jeho through the practice room mirror.

 

Perhaps because I’d become so attuned to it, I could now hear Choi Jeho’s thoughts just by looking at his eyes.

 

‘If you mess up again today, I’ll really leave you behind.’

 

‘That pains me, but it can’t be helped.’

 

Choi Jeho’s eyebrows burrowed like a dried filefish fillet. He must have picked up on my telepathic gaze.

 

As the two of us were exchanging heated looks, someone came into the practice room. It was the person who had visited before, the one who had cast me at UA.

 

His name was Min Jukyung from the Management Division.

 

After his usual formal greeting, Min Jukyung said.

 

“You all know there’s a monthly evaluation coming up, right? I am here to announce it again because I thought Iwol might not know.”

 

I didn’t know the details, but I knew about the existence of the monthly evaluations. The only thing Spark mentioned when talking about their trainee stories was the monthly evaluation.

 

Still, I was grateful for UA’s consideration in notifying me even though the evaluation was more than 10 days away.

 

Compared to Manager Nam, who dumped me in an afternoon meeting and fled by taking half a day off, UA’s treatment was gentle.

 

“The evaluation will proceed the same as last time. For detailed explanations, um… Seongbin, could you explain it to Iwol?”

 

“Yes!”

 

The kind-hearted Jeong Seongbin answered vigorously, even though he was tasked with it on the spot. He really did seem like the type to amazingly adapt to social life.

 

If you’d already like that, people who’d sold their conscience would just take advantage of it.

 

For example, by someone like me who wanted to flee after debuting.

 

“The difference this time is that the CEO will also be present. You know what that means, right?”

 

While I was worrying about Jeong Seongbin’s future, who would likely become Spark’s spokesperson in the future, Min Jukyung added,

 

“We’re going to start forming the debut team soon. Let’s do well.”

• 1. The original saying is ‘Even if you chop off the chicken’s head, the dawn will still come’. It means whether roosters cry in the morning or not, the dawn will still come.