Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols

Right up until the broadcast of the first episode of IDC, we were still practicing.

 

I had to stop eventually because half of them kept looking elsewhere.

 

“Guys, why haven’t you been able to focus?”

 

“Hyung, how can you focus right now?!”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon snapped.

 

“What reason is there for me not to be focused?”

 

“Today’s the first episode of IDC!”

 

“So?”

 

“Sooo?”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon mimicked me, then let out a deflated laugh.

 

“Hyung, you really have no human emotions.”

 

“Why are you suddenly turning me into an android.”

 

“How can you act exactly the same as always? Don’t people usually worry about how the editing might turn out?”

 

“They can’t create mistakes that didn’t happen, and we already know I won’t come off as sociable. If you’re curious about the stage, you can watch it when it’s uploaded on MiTube.”

 

“Wow… Am I the weird one?”

 

As Lee Cheonghyeon looked around. Kang Kiyeon shook his head.

 

So that means I am the weird one. These kids, seriously.

 

“Nothing will change just because we watch it live. Do you really want to see it live that badly?”

 

“Even if I explain it, you won’t understand, hyung. Because you have no human heart.”

 

“Right, so you’re disparaging me as a wooden doll who can’t dance now.”

 

“Oh dear. Now this hyung is even spreading malicious rumors.”

 

I couldn’t understand why they were so eager to walk into a fire pit when their mentalities were so fragile.

 

I was deliberately planning to watch it alone later precisely because I didn’t want to unsettle the atmosphere by failing to manage their emotions.

 

“Hyung, then how about we focus and practice for just 30 minutes, and then watch the broadcast?”

 

Jeong Seongbin suggested, soothing the dejected Lee Cheonghyeon.

 

My first thought was, ‘Why are you getting so worked up over such small things?’…

 

But with these kids, who were not even twenty years old yet, looking at me with such earnest expressions, I felt like I was the one in the wrong.

 

“Only if you finish everything within 30 minutes.”

 

How weak-hearted of me.

 

No matter how much time passes, I don’t think I’ll ever become a strict boss.

 

* * *

 

Although we missed the first 20 minutes, IDC was progressing in a pretty good direction.

 

First, there weren’t many mocking comments in the live chat. 

 

This was largely thanks to the fact that it didn’t receive much attention in the beginning compared to other audition programs. However, while the Spark members were watching, it was better for me to not react at all. Even now, there were some praying fervently with their heads bowed, hands clasped together. To preserve their dignity, I wouldn’t mention names.

 

But the small viewership did have a definite impact.

 

≫ Song Minil, I love you ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

 

≫ My babies are already in the oldest hyung position ㅠㅠ Time flies

 

≫ Parthe’s broadcast experience isn’t going anywhere ㅋㅋㅋ

 

The overwhelming difference in reactions based on fandom size.

 

I could see Sparklers diligently posting comments, but the other groups’ massive postings were also formidable.

 

While the other groups who appeared earlier were exchanging greetings on screen, I scrolled on my smartphone the live comments I’d missed.

 

Then I came across a rather interesting point.

 

≫ Huh

 

≫ Huh

 

≫ Wow

 

≫ Gasp

 

≫ ;;Wow, amazing

 

≫ Wow?

 

Short exclamations of less than two syllables poured down like summer monsoon rain at a specific moment.

 

While the other guys were engrossed in the TV broadcast, I moved the video’s playback bar on my smartphone to the time the comments were posted.

 

Lee Cheonghyeon’s face appeared, large as life. It was a pre-interview scene inserted into the participant introduction segment.

 

‘Figures.’

 

Spark’s first appearance… No. The birth of Spark’s top visual seemed to have made a huge impact on the viewers. Well, he did have an extraordinary face.

 

Then, I heard an unusual sound effect from the TV.

 

I looked up at the screen and saw some groups chatting happily with cute and bubbly background music.

 

Then came a chilling whooshing sound effect, the double doors opened, and Spark appeared with a rather grand BGM.

 

On-screen, they looked like shy hyung groups encountering cool guys who had just finished surfing in the winter sea just a few hours ago.

 

The atmosphere at that time was not this intense. There was a reason why they said ‘broadcasts should be seen as broadcasts’.

 

The suspicious editing continued up until Parthe entered.

 

Following the other groups nervously bowing to Parthe, Spark briefly flashed across the screen, only slightly bowing their heads in greeting before looking away.

 

“Gasp….”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon’s breath echoed through the living room.

 

“The editing is provocative.” 

 

I added.

 

We had bowed 90 degrees to Parthe too.

 

These were the guys who had been told for over a year to quit and go home if they couldn’t make a proper greeting.

 

I had seen them thoroughly trained and working hard on-site, so there was no fault on our part.

 

They probably attached the reactions from when we were listening to Mr. Yur here. Considering the short segments of the program, it wasn’t difficult to do.

 

“Are we… being maliciously edited?”

 

Park Joowoo asked cautiously.

 

“It doesn’t qualify as malicious editing yet, but it could be. Since we’re up against Parthe sunbaenim from the first competition, maybe they’re setting up the stage.”

 

“Then isn’t that bad?”

 

Kang Kiyeon’s face was ashen.

 

“If they keep this up when showing the self-PR performance evaluations, we’ll get a lot of hate.”

 

“….!”

 

“Still, we didn’t actually act disrespectfully. We didn’t intentionally put down those who are good. That’s enough.”

 

“What good would it do? No one will know anyway.”

 

Choi Jeho added.

 

At least it was important to me. It was more problematic to behave well when people were watching and then act like a jerk when they were not.

 

And I wanted to keep my distance from Parthe from the beginning. I was grateful that the broadcast was helping with that.

 

But understanding it intellectually was different from feeling it emotionally. 

 

 I told the guys who were frozen.

 

“Don’t worry. I’ll receive the most criticism anyway.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Jeong Seongbin turned to me.

 

“I’m the one who only praised the Berion sunbaenims and deducted points from all the other teams’ performances. You guys didn’t say anything, so you won’t be maliciously edited.”

 

“Did you guide the conversation that way on purpose, hyung?”

 

“Kiyeon, the commercial’s over.”

 

Kang Kiyeon frowned as I changed the subject. What, did he think I did it because I wanted to be called Spark’s best MC?

 

The atmosphere subdued slightly, but there was one more thing I needed to address.

 

“Even if we are maliciously edited, or even if we face a lot of negative public opinion, don’t forget what we agreed to aim for. It’s fine to get along with the other groups, but keep your distance from Parthe sunbaenims.”

 

“I’m probably going to die young because I can’t communicate with you, hyung.”

 

Lee Cheonghyeon turned away from me in disgust.

 

After the commercials, the rest of the IDC introductions and self-PR performances continued.

 

The broadcast time was 70 minutes long, but only three performances were shown. Moreover, Spark’s stage was the very last order, so the only proper screen time we got was the pre-interview and first appearance.

 

The first episode of IDC ended by cramming all the remaining self-PR performances into the preview.

 

This kind of editing from the first episode was perfect for being branded as a boring show. Although it seemed they tried to create tension, such things were only meaningful when rankings were properly determined.

 

To make viewers watch the next episode, it would have been better to include a scene of me saying, ‘I’ll mark down for all four teams except Berion seniors’ in the preview. If they just mosaic the Berion part, they could immediately create a firestorm.

 

At this point, it was a good thing that I started the controversy myself. You need an issue to attract hate.

 

Since I’d seen everything I needed to see, I sent the members to their rooms as if herding a flock of sheep.

 

And I spent the night reading each group’s fans’ reactions keeping each other in check. 

 

* * *

 

As expected, after the first broadcast, certain groups saw a significant rise in buzz.

 

The most noticeable was, of course, Parthe.

 

Immediately after their performance, the brand and price of the clothes Parthe wore for their first stage became a hot topic. They wore expensive stuff.

 

Lucky them. Spark had to wear thin single-layered volleyball uniforms that I ordered by scraping together all my non-existent money, and they were just now being delivered. Thanks to that, everyone had been desperately building their arm muscles during every break like they were preparing to die.

 

Besides some group’s luxury clothes and another group’s forced controversy, there was also a controversy directly related to us.

 

Song Minil stirred things up in a paid message after the first episode of IDC.

 

Mean. 1

 

[Did you watch IDC??]

 

[Oh no ㅠㅠ You saw that scene]

 

[We’re okayㅋㅋㅋ We were so nervous when we entered that we didn’t even see the others properly]

 

[There’s no end if you get upset over these things! You know???]

 

He was subtly manipulative with his words.

 

He made it seem like they were not only ignored by their juniors but also gave off an ominous premonition that this kind of thing would happen frequently in the future.

 

Thanks to this, Spark became known within the Parthe fandom as ‘the hooligan group that just throws a cursory greeting and does their own thing while even the most senior group feels nervous walking in’.

 

Many viewers tried to see broadcasts as just broadcasts. Equally, many people knew that such programs often involved malicious editing or manufactured drama.

 

It was neither fabrication nor malicious editing that typically led to the production team being punished, so such editing practices had long remained part of the norm.

 

That was why when a controversy erupted, people often reacted with, ‘Let’s wait and see.’

 

So, I was trying not to respond to a certain degree of malicious editing.

 

However, if the cast members themselves opened their mouths, it was a different story.

 

At that point, comments like, ‘Would our boy lie?’ and ‘He’s still a rookie who’s wary of the broadcaster, why would he lie?’ start pouring in.

 

I didn’t want to upset the fans with something so trivial from the beginning. I felt uneasy.

 

All I could do was leave a message…

 

Iwol

 

[We all watched the broadcast together!]

 

[We always greet everyone properly, so you don’t have to worry too much. Please see it as editing for the entertainment of the broadcast!]

 

[Thank you so much for watching the live broadcast with us until late.]

 

…That was all I could say.

 

Even the screenshot that the fans posted with caption ‘This is why you have to listen to both sides!’ became subject to digital weathering, getting comments like, ‘What kind of excuse is this? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ’.

 

“If this continues, the fans will be very upset.”

 

“Then we just shouldn’t do anything that would upset them.”

 

“But we can’t just go and speak sweet nothings and become a stepping stone for other teams.”

 

I dragged you guys, who lived in pristine waters, into a place rife with manipulation and unfairness—so if we don’t achieve anything, what’s the point? We should gain as much as we have lost.

 

“Anyway, let’s practice. We have to show a good image.”

 

I got up and patted Lee Cheonghyeon’s shoulder.

 

Even when they were grumbling among themselves, they stood up as soon as someone said ‘let’s practice’. It seemed their mindset was still in the right place.

 

So, I thought today’s Spark would also leap vigorously and excitedly prepare for the first competition… but that didn’t happen.

 

“Hyung, can you do that move again? With the expression too.”

 

Kang Kiyeon’s face, as he watched me, was hardening, just like when I first showcased my dancing at UA.