novelraw Chapter 294: K-Potluck Party (2)
Chapter 294: K-Potluck Party (2)
The early concept for Berion’s potluck party was said to be a happy New Year standing party, like something out of an American drama.
Then someone said, ‘If it’s just us gathering, can you really call that a party? It’s more like a fancy lunch’, (I’m 98% sure that was Yeo Seongchan’s opinion).
And as a result of laying out chairs in front of the table, saying they couldn’t ask a guest to eat standing up, and then striving to ensure the food wasn’t meager for the invited people…
“I saw that Iwol hyung was speaking casually with the Berion hyungs. I was so dumbfounded, really.”
“That’s why you immediately started speaking casually with us, too, Mr. Cheonghyeon!”
…it became less of a party and more of a family dinner for relatives who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. Even without alcohol, the atmosphere only kept heating up and showed no signs of cooling down.
For example, a topic like this came up.
“By the way, what are Spark’s bon-gwan[1]Bon-gwan (본관, 本貫) is a traditional Korean concept that refers to a family’s ancestral origin or clan seat. It’s not about where someone was born or currently lives, but about the geographic region historically tied to their surname lineage. s?”
Bon-gwan in an idol’s self-produced content? The fans might be curious, but it wasn’t a topic that usually came up in everyday conversation.
“What is a bon-gwan?”“It’s not exactly the same thing, but it means your clan’s ancestral seat. Like in Heerang’s case, it’s Ōgami.”
“Aah.”
While one side of the table explained surnames and clans to the foreign member, the others were introducing their own.
“I’m probably a Gyeongju Choi.”
Choi Jeho answered appropriately. There were posts speculating among fans that, based on his hometown as a hint, he might be a Gyeongju Choi from the Gwan-ga-jeong-gong branch.
I also remembered Choi Jeho once said in the past that his name didn’t follow the family generational naming system. His mother had named him herself.
Maybe because of his father, his expression had soured, and that live-capture meme had ended up haunting Choi Jeho for a long time. It was a bitter memory.
“I’m a Gimhae Kim. But do you guys all know your bon-gwan?”
Thinking Choi Jeho might think of his father again, I hurriedly jumped into the conversation.
“I’m Jeonju Yi from the Prince Ik-an branch! I think I’m the 24th generation descendant.”
“I’m Miryang Park…”
“I’m Jinju Kang.”
When everyone stated their family clan, Jeong Seongbin panicked.
“Uh… am I the only one who doesn’t know…?”
“Hey, it’s okay! Not knowing your bon-gwan doesn’t hinder your life!”
Cha Sehan comforted Jeong Seongbin.
Still, the fans would be disappointed if Jeong Seongbin’s information were missing.
Just as I was contemplating how to subtly drop this information, Yeo Seongchan spoke up again.
“How about Mr. Iwol tries to guess? I just looked it up, and apparently, there are five major family clans for the Jeong surname. He’s probably from one of them, right?”
Yeo Seongchan exclaimed, holding up his phone. Using a phone during a self-produced content filming, Berion really are free souls…!
“Me?”
“You’re a fortune-telling octopus, hyung. I want to see the miracle of the Asian Games once again!”
At this rate, my symbolic animal was going to change to an octopus.
Still, from the perspective of a subordinate and moreover, as an HR employee, it wouldn’t make sense if I didn’t know my superior’s basic personal information.
“I’m very much human, but I believe Mr. Seongbin is a Dongnae Jeong.”
“Is that guess based simply on the large population of the Dongnae Jeong clan?”
“Borrowing my psychic powers, I venture to guess that he might be a 37th generation descendant of the Jib-ui-gong branch.”
Since it was an existing fact, there was no penalty in saying it, and with the desire for the fans to have accurate information, I just went for it.
For the record, unlike Choi Jeho’s branch, this was accurate information. Because the generational name for the 37th generation descendant of the Jib-ui-gong branch was ‘Seong.’ Not only did Jeong Seongbin and Mr. Jeong Seongjun both use the same Chinese character, but it was a golden TMI that I found out after persistently tracing the hometowns of Jeong Seongbin’s father and grandfather. I was the first person in the past Spark fandom to figure this out. Damn it.
While I was wallowing in painful memories, the guys had already moved on to the next step, telling Jeong Seongbin to try calling his father. Jeong Seongbin made a call with an expression that said, ‘Is this really okay?’.
“Dad? Is it a good time to talk?”
─ It is. Why do you ask?
“What’s… our bongwan?”
─ You? Dongnae Jeong, Jib-ui-gong branch.
Everyone’s jaw dropped. Yeo Seongchan mouthed silently, ‘Ask what generation descendant he is too!’
“Um, do you also know what generation descendant I am?”
─ I’m the 36th generation descendant, and you and Jun are the 37th. But why the sudden interest in bon-gwan?
“Ah, I just needed it for something to write down!”
— Kids these days need that kind of thing? Even I forget about it most of the time.
Jeong Seongbin somehow managed to get through the call and hung up. At the same time, gasps of astonishment erupted from all around.
“Seriously? How did you guess?”
“Never doubt my abilities again.”
I only threw it out there because it was information I had found in the past. If it was information that someone else would have found anyway, I wouldn’t have gone this far.
Dear fans who love Seongbin, I did it. Please love Seongbin a lot. Though honestly, I have no idea which part of his surname you’re finding as the ‘stan-worthy’ point.
“You know, all of Spark’s surnames are in the top 6 most common in Korea. Isn’t that amazing?”
Yeo Seongchan said, unable to take his eyes off the list of surnames. I personally thought it was only natural, but it seemed he saw it as a quirky coincidence.
“Aren’t the hyungs’ surnames really amazing? The Moon surname, and the Cha surname too. Even Seongchan hyung is a Yeo.”
Lee Cheonghyeon chimed in to Yeo Seongchan’s words.
“That’s true. What’s your bon-gwan, CEO Moon?”
“Me? Nampyeong. You?”
“Hamyang Yeo. But I don’t know what generation descendant I am.”
As I listened to this festival of unconscious oversharing about surnames, I was suddenly reminded of someone. It was Assistant Manager Song.
Assistant Manager Song, who liked idols quite a lot but also knew the true backside of idols all too well. Her ‘Oppa, don’t just do everything you want to do’ was an extension of that.
‘Manager Song, how do you know so much about idols? You’re well-versed in the idol industry as a whole.’
I had even asked once while vicariously fangirling. Because I was so curious.
The answer that came back was…
‘‘If you follow a few groups long enough, it just happens.’
…that. Manager Song’s sad expression was still vivid in my mind.
And if I remember correctly, afterward she added…
‘I also have a distant relative who is an idol. We’re about the same age, and he’s gotten pretty big, so I hear a lot about him through relatives.’
…she had said.
A boy group member who was quite successful, around the same age as Manager Song, and promoted in the same era as Spark.
‘Is it… Song Minil?’
At that time, I didn’t know about any other idols besides Spark, so I ever thought about it, but thinking back now, there was only one candidate. It was a truth I really didn’t want to know.
I prayed that among the current generation of male idols in the Republic of Korea, there would be ar least 230 idols with the surname Song.
* * *
Spark and Berion, forgetting their duty as idols, finished all 40 servings of the party food. Yeo Seongchan said that everyone must have eaten about 2.5 servings each, but I doubted that. First of all, didn’t Choi Jeho alone eat 5 servings? All the egg chicks Kang Kiyeon made went into his mouth.
After the meal, everyone got so carried away chatting that, since those at the far ends couldn’t see each other well when seated in a row, we abandoned the perfectly good tables and chairs and moved down to the floor.
The concept of using polite language for the broadcast also disappeared from the middle, and only a baseless mix of polite and casual speech remained. I’d have to ask them to cut and upload it to the Spark Metube channel as a dignified Part 1 and a friendly Part 2.
Sitting in a circle, we played all sorts of games. The biggest highlight was undoubtedly the scene where Mafia Park Joowoo killed all the innocent citizens and claimed victory.
I, who had died first for the reason that my face looked like a mafia, had the luxury of watching in real time as the murdered citizen was shocked to learn the mafia’s identity.
“You’re all so naive…”
The sight of Park Joowoo smiling pityingly was such a shock. It could even be a thumbnail material for one of his promo videos.
“Who was the doctor?”
“Me.”
Kang Kiyeon raised his hand.
“You should have saved Iwol hyung in the beginning! Then hyung would have pointed out the culprit!”
Lee Cheonghyeon fumed. Sorry, but even a fortune-telling octopus wouldn’t have guessed the mafia right.
“Who did you save first, Kiyeon?”
Moon Yeongyu asked. The person Kang Kiyeon had tried to save was, surprisingly, Choi Jeho.
“Jeho hyung? Why?”
“Because he didn’t seem to understand the rules… I wanted him to last at least one round…”
So basically, he was basically treating Choi Jeho as an idiot. It was a wise choice. Although I died. The good citizens would remember this.
We also played a game where we had to speak without using any foreign words while dressed like aritrocrats. The foreign members were given three chances to be revived.
In this game, Jeong Seongbin and Moon Yeongyu were particularly outstanding. Perhaps because they had developed proper language habits while being leaders, they easily continued the conversation without memes or slang mixed with English.
Choi Jeho, who only had a handful of words in his mental dictionary to begin with, also put up a good fight.
Kang Kiyeon survived by using a peculiar way of speaking. It was the so-called ‘young lady speech’ that I had seen while browsing social media. Thanks to that, we got a big laugh and it was good.
On the other hand, Lee Cheonghyeon and I had to do endless push-ups for our frequent use of foreign words.
“I don’t think they’ve decided who will follow up on that yet?”
“Really? What MIDI controller does your team use, hyung?”
The price for our westernized tongues was brutal. Twenty push-ups every time we slipped up, to the point where the shoulders of my bishop-style jacket from the Cathedral nearly tore apart.
His Highness, the Cutie Pretty Crown Prince of the Visual Royal Family, enhanced the authority of the royal family by loosely undoing his silk tie.
Lastly, we all sat on the floor, ate dessert, and had a good time. I started to get confused about whether this was a party or a picnic, but I decided to think that there were all sorts of parties.
The filming ended only after we had recorded a warm ending comment. We handed out the apple crumble pie we had prepared in advance to the staff, said our goodbyes to Berion, and then left Green Line.
On the way, we didn’t forget to buy a box of fatigue recovery drinks and leave it at the dedicated team’s spot. With a memo asking them to edit the video well.
Back at the dorm, everyone scattered to their own tasks. My roommate, Jeong Seongbin, headed to the living room with his journal planner, saying he had to review today’s filming.
Left alone in the room, I poked my head out the door and checked on the Spark members. The maknaes were chattering in their room, Park Joowoo was washing up, and Choi Jeho was working out in the living room.
Once I was sure no one would suddenly come looking for me, I sat on the bed, pulled out my journal. Then I opened to a memo page and uncapped my pen.
The concert would be held in December. To achieve the KPI, I had to unconditionally prevent any discord and issues that could arise before then.
‘It’s time to use my head.’
Swallowing my tears inwardly, I wrote ‘20XX Expected Issues’ at the top of the paper.
The countless controversies that the past Spark had experienced flashed through my mind.
1. Bon-gwan (본관, 本貫) is a traditional Korean concept that refers to a family’s ancestral origin or clan seat. It’s not about where someone was born or currently lives, but about the geographic region historically tied to their surname lineage.