Thinking about proxy fan Kim Iwol being forced to attend fan events and other spark fans see this tall awkward man hanging around and are like aww he's clearly shy about being an idol fan, we should help him!! so now he has like this gaggle of teenage girls just walking around with him and giving him merch to make him feel more comfortable
I've hit chapter 354 on Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols. This is the furthest I can go today (ran out of translated chapters). If I keep reading ongoing foreign novels like this, I'll really need to pick up a new language.
But aside from that: ageswap au! I have to call for an ageswap au! Has anyone in the fandom thought about it?
Well, I'm not really interested in an ageswap, per se. Just aging Kim Iwol down.
Kim Iwol singlehandedly managed to take over the group at the tender age of 20, by a) sheer force of his personality b) leveraging his authority of being the oldest.
Do you think it would be so easy if he was the youngest? Would people listen to him so well at 17 years old?
I think he'd die, actually. This would be playing the novel on hard mode. Spoilers for chapter 354, I guess?
The dynamics would change. People would probably be a little more willing to coddle him, but that sort of lenience comes with the loss of respect. It'd be way harder for him to enforce any kind of authority. He was a reliable older hyung figure, you know? There are things you let you your hyung handle. On the other hand, you'd feel pretty bad putting everything on your inexperienced and tender youngest, you know?
I'm not saying that Kim Iwol couldn't bulldoze over everyone in the group. I believe in Assistant Manager Kim and his years of experience. He'd manage it. But it would be way harder.
And the logistics! At 17 years old, he'd be a high school student. Unless he was totalllly down with dropping out (doubt it), he'd be juggling idol work, production/management work, and high school.
Bright side(?): he'd clue in on shit being off way sooner.
After all: he'd be going to high school. Everyone would be calling him Kim Han and not Kim Hyo-il. He'd be surrounded by people who know him -- or at least, people that know him well enough to know that he should have a sister. Kim Iwol really fought against letting members of the group know, sure, but in high school, it would make sense to have at least mentioned it once or twice in the past. So, if they don't know --
I think it's very easy to do. Have one of his friends complain about his older sister, and say, "You're lucky to be an only child, Kim Han."
That's all you need to make Kim iwol wonder, "what do you mean I'm an only child? But the system says my sister is alive? Where is my sister?"
I think this speeds up the timeline even more, doesn't it?
Ah, I forgot to add: he's also missing personal assets. After all, he only extorted 15 million won from his parents right before trying to pay for college, but at 17, it's way too early for him to have tried that.
So. To sum things up. He has additional education to go through (so less training time), less authority in the group, less money, and an path to an even earlier parent-related breakdown than before.
