A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 103

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Regression Guide for Idols Who Lost Their Initial Intentions Episode 103

“Doby isn’t crying, is he?”

Gyeon Hajun, who was sitting in my studio, muttered worriedly.

This was exactly the plan we had devised. Minimize the anticipation for the surprise party as much as possible, then present the surprise at the moment when he least expects it.

Seeing Ryu Jaehee’s text saying he had arrived at the dormitory, I chuckled and replied.

“Who cries just because they didn’t get a surprise party?”

“Doby would.”

What a clean and undeniable statement that was.

Kim Dobin arrived quite quickly, having rushed over like the wind with anticipation. As soon as he entered the studio, Kim Dobin handed me a USB and looked around.

“Why, are you looking for something?”

Even though I knew everything, I asked casually, with a voice that truly sounded like I didn’t know. Kim Dobin spoke with a face that hadn’t yet given up hope.

“Hyung, what about Jaehee and Yehyeon Hyung?”

“Why would you look for those two here? If their lessons are over, they’d be at the dormitory.”

Only after thoroughly scanning my studio for a while did Kim Dobin give up hope that Ryu Jaehee and Seo Yehyeon would appear before his eyes holding a cake from somewhere.

To make the situation more realistic, I had Gyeon Hajun and Kim Dobin sit behind me while I worked on polishing the song a bit more, then gestured for them to come as I got up.

“Hyung, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“A cake? There should be cake in the dormitory refrigerator, so eat that. I bought it yesterday evening, didn’t you see? Well, you’d only know if the table was set, if the table was set.”

Even as we trudged toward the dormitory, Kim Dobin’s eyes were still sparkling, unable to abandon his last bit of hope.

Indeed, adding one more route was a stroke of genius.

When we arrived at the dormitory, Seo Yehyeon and Ryu Jaehee were watching TV in the living room.

Seeing there were no balloons, let alone a cake, Kim Dobin completely gave up his expectations and plopped down on the sofa.

“How could you all do this?”

“‘How could you’ is informal speech.”

“How could you all do this to me? This is too much! Was not preparing anything the surprise?”

I caught a glimpse of tears welling up in Kim Dobin’s eyes.

“Hey hey, Doby’s going to cry. Quickly bring the cake from the refrigerator.”

A sweet potato cake was placed on the dining table. Kim Dobin walked to the dining table with lifeless steps, and as soon as he saw the cake, he screamed like a seven-year-old complaining about food.

“Why does it have to be sweet potato cake again!”

“I went to the bakery too late and this was all they had. Don’t blame me. Blame the people who bought the other cakes first.”

I replied as I pulled out a dining chair and sat down. Still, it’s better than mocha cake, man.

“Eat quickly. We don’t know when Manager Hyung will come.”

“Why Manager Hyung?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? He said the styling meeting schedule got moved up so we need to stop by the company.”

Had we eaten about half the cake when Manager Hyung came to pick us up.

When we got on the agency building elevator and pressed the floor for the conference room, Kim Dobin looked like he had given up all hope.

I exchanged glances with Ryu Jaehee and grinned without Kim Dobin seeing.

The moment Kim Dobin opened the conference room door wide.

Pop! I took out the party poppers I had put in my pocket beforehand and set them off simultaneously with Ryu Jaehee on both sides of Kim Dobin.

Startled by the suddenly exploding poppers, Kim Dobin jumped like a cat with its fur standing on end.

Seeing the conference room decorated with balloons and the lettering cake placed on the desk, Kim Dobin’s eyes welled up with tears of emotion.

“I, I really thought you hyungs and Jaehee had forgotten…!”

“How could we forget when you openly mentioned a surprise? Unless we were deliberately not preparing one.”

“No, you really twisted this several times, hehe. It completely went against all my expectations!”

“Until you killed all anticipation for the surprise party.”

I chuckled, thinking of the cameras installed in the practice room, dormitory, my studio, and the van, as well as Ryu Jaehee’s phone camera that had been secretly filming our way to the conference room.

This would now be appropriately edited and uploaded tomorrow with a title like ‘Doby’s Birthday Surprise Camera’ or something.

Candles were lit on the cake, and we all sang the birthday song together. It was the song we had skipped when we were eating sweet potato cake at the dormitory.

“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Dear Kim Dobin, happy birthday to you!”

When the birthday song ended, Kim Dobin, who had somehow put on a party hat, blew out the candles vigorously.

Before eating the cake, we also completed the gift-giving ceremony with presents that had been brought to the conference room beforehand.

The gift I prepared was an envelope of money that 100% reflected the kid’s taste. And that was the same for the other members too.

Kim Dobin, who received four money envelopes, scratched his head with a somewhat reluctant expression and muttered.

“I think I can understand a little why people give actual gifts instead of money.”

“Now you say that after we prepared it to match your taste?”

While eating cake that didn’t taste particularly good—to the point where I thought sweet potato cake would be better—Gyeon Hajun casually asked.

“Doby, there were cameras installed the whole time, so you didn’t swear too badly when you were alone, did you?”

“Um… ‘Ah geez, bad people’ is okay, right?”

Well, that’s just like him.

After successfully giving Kim Dobin a surprise birthday party, we returned to the dormitory and I posted on the official account at 11:59 PM.

REVE_official @LnL_reve

[Eden Dream]

Happy last birthday in your teens, Doby

Time really flies, thinking you’ll be an adult next year

#happybirthday

#Shining_Dobin_Day

#Always_Shining_Dobin’s_Nineteen

(Surprise_Party_Group_Photo.jpg) (Eden_Dobin_Two_Shot.jpg)

Shares 8920 Quotes 1101 Likes 17.9k

Watching the share count go up much faster than before, I really felt that we had gained more fans.

MomDobin @puppybin

Finally Yoon-rida discovered the existence of birthday hashtags

Shares 3 Quotes 1 Likes 11

I don’t have much to say, but hashtags are perfect for making posts look longer.

* * *

The title track was out and we had learned the choreography to some extent, but there was still a mountain of work left.

First, since it was a full album, we had to include more than 10 songs on the album, and there were still music video filming, concept photo shoots, fan club kit photo shoots, and more remaining.

The calendar had already turned to June, and with the comeback date set for early September, we had to prepare diligently. There were still five songs left that we hadn’t finished recording.

Still, perhaps thanks to the lessons, the two hopeless vocal line members were showing some growth, so work time was shorter than before.

I used the chart selection ticket I got from opening an item selection box to check the September chart. I was curious about who our direct competitors would be.

KICKS, the top group that pisses me off, wasn’t on the September chart at all, so it seems their activity dates don’t overlap with ours at all, and Altair, the second-place group, was in the mid-to-upper ranks of the September chart, so they must have made their comeback around mid-to-late August.

Musically speaking, Altair was a stronger rival than KICKS, but KICKS was superior at being annoying.

Seeing a song that made me think ‘Did Altair even have a song like this?’, it didn’t seem to be a particularly big hit. Songs pour out 365 days a year, and among them, only a few are loved for a long time and survive in people’s memories.

‘Wow, so this came out at this time?’

Looking at the song that took first place on the chart, I gulped dryly.

This duet song was still ranked in the TOP100 of karaoke popularity charts even seven years later. Thanks to this song, there was even a duet song craze for a while.

Rev would need to surpass this song to take first place on the chart with our song this time.

‘Our song turned out well, but the question is whether it can have as much longevity as this one.’

This song, given its concept, was more conceptual than easy-listening aimed at mass appeal. Of course, conceptual songs don’t always lose to easy-listening.

If the song is well-made and captures the public’s emotions, conceptual songs can also secure mass appeal.

The problem is that is a song whose mass appeal hasn’t been proven yet.

Anyway, there’s no point worrying about it since we can’t re-select the song now or change the activity dates, so I decided to leave it to the public’s judgment.

For now, I was confident in my song. Wasn’t it a masterpiece created by none other than Yoon Eden after overcoming a slump? With G1’s arrangement added to it, was the strongest.

Now it was time to go to the real stylist meeting, not just using Kim Dobin’s birthday surprise as an excuse.

“My hair is going to be completely damaged, so can we pleeeease go with black hair this time?”

I desperately defended my hair condition from the stylist who was trying to dye it again. My hair loss has been quite serious lately, and if I bleach it again, won’t I go bald?

“Black hair would overlap with Yehyeon’s. You two are already similar in height, so if your hair colors are similar too, it’ll look stuffy.”

“We’re only similar in height, our builds are different. Our impressions are complete opposites too.”

“Eden, you look good in other hair colors too, but black hair suits Yehyeon best. If you don’t like bright colors, how about navy tones?”

“That requires bleaching too. Oh no, my hair! I’m going to go bald at this rate.”

I mean, I also get told that black hair suits me well, so why does only Seo Yehyeon get to keep his black hair while my head color changes all the time?

Is this what discrimination based on visuals looks like? How can people who aren’t S+ in appearance live with this heartbreak?

But in the end, I gave in and it was confirmed as blue-toned dyeing. They said dyeing would be better visually than black hair, so what could I do?

“Whoa, I’m bleaching? Platinum gold? Platinum blonde? Wow, I’ve really wanted to try blonde once.”

Ryu Jaehee, who had always dyed his hair brown tones, seemed excited about bleaching to blonde. There’s going to be hair all over the dormitory again.

Gyeon Hajun was, as always, safely going with brown tones. Even I could barely remember what black-haired Gyeon Hajun looked like now. And the long-awaited Kim Dobin, who got the center position…

“For a phantom thief, it has to be silver hair!”

He was strongly insisting on silver hair.

Why though? If a thief’s head is silver, he’ll stand out so much he’ll get caught immediately. That’s like adding handcuffs in the same color as his head!

And I’m sure the Phantom Kid image Kim Dobin had put in his PPT had black or brown hair – some ordinary Asian hair color anyway – so why suddenly silver out of nowhere?

“I don’t think silver hair will suit Dobin well… How about toning it down to ash gray?”

“I want to do silver hair like Eden hyung did before.”

“If you want to copy me that badly, do pink like I did before.”

“A pink phantom thief would be weird.”

“Getting caught because your hair color stands out is the same whether it’s pink or silver.”

Eventually, with the stylist’s warning that only his hair might end up floating around, Kim Dobin gave up his stubbornness and accepted the ash gray color.

“For styling, the detectives will go with coats. The phantom thief gets a formal suit and cape.”

I was glad I didn’t get the phantom thief role. Seo Yehyeon, who had almost gotten the phantom thief center role purely because of his looks but had to give it up to Kim Dobin due to the high-difficulty choreography, also looked relieved.

Of course, Kim Dobin had a 100% job satisfaction expression.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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