A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 166

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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 166

 

 

 

 

 

“That’ll be 3,500 won.”

 

I got a takeout green grape ade from a cafe near the dormitory and headed back to the dormitory, taking a sip on the way.

 

Artificial fruit flavor and carbonated water mixed in my mouth. It was disgustingly sweet, not really my taste.

 

Maybe because it was late, the night air was cool unlike the increasingly hot daytime.

 

I roughly kicked off my shoes at the entrance and entered the dormitory to find phone lights floating around in the dark living room with the lights off.

 

The face dimly illuminated by that light made me hate myself for a moment, reminding me of the talisman stuck on my room wall.

 

“What are you, some child of darkness? Sitting here with all the lights off? Your eyes will get worse if you use your phone in the dark. You’re already glued to your phone all day long.”

 

I clicked my tongue and turned on the living room light, causing Ryu Jaehee, who had been focused on tapping his phone keyboard, to look up.

 

“But why are you out in the living room at this hour?”

 

“I’m writing a statement.”

 

Ryu Jaehee waved his phone with a memo app open.

 

“Why not write it in your room? Is Seo Yehyeon… is Yehyeon Hyung being noisy or something?”

 

“I thought it would be better to come out here and slowly organize my thoughts and memories while writing. Yehyeon Hyung is always quiet anyway. You know that too, Hyung, since you’ve been roommates with him twice.”

 

Ryu Jaehee grinned, not forgetting to defend Seo Yehyeon.

 

While others preferred their own rooms as personal spaces, Ryu Jaehee always preferred the empty living room during late evening hours.

 

Once, curious about the reason, I casually asked him, and he only answered that it was just a habit he’d developed since his family home.

 

It was only some time after asking that question that I learned it had been his only option when he wanted personal time and personal space, since he had always shared one room with his younger siblings back home.

 

I handed the green grape ade to Ryu Jaehee and plopped down in the seat next to him.

 

“Drink this while you work. Take it easy. It’s not urgent, right? You said you’d drop it right before the finals.”

 

“No, I changed my mind.”

 

Ryu Jaehee shook his head as he took the drink.

 

“I’ve been searching and looking into it, and while I’m not sure about Lee Jeyoung, that bastard Kim Jiwoon has a pretty solid fanbase because of his producing, so his ranking is high. Originally I was going to drop it right before the finals to make him fail miserably, but I don’t want to leave even a 1% possibility, so I’m going to drop it now.”

 

Thanks to the mention of producing, I could tell that Kim Jiwoon was that red-haired guy.

 

“The survival show is getting quite a lot of buzz right now, and TK Agency itself has a thick fanbase, and as time goes on and fans attach to him, it’ll be hard to bring him down with just any issue.”

 

Ryu Jaehee explained his reasoning to me as he sucked up the green grape ade through the straw.

 

“Do whatever feels right to you. What would I have to say about it?”

 

“But I’m still anxious… What if it gets buried even if I drop it now…? Should I have dropped it when the survival show started? Could I have sent him off as an early elimination then?”

 

His anxiously trembling voice fully reflected Ryu Jaehee’s current psychological state.

 

“Maybe it really wasn’t a big deal and I was just scared and afraid, so I avoided facing it until now. I should have confronted it earlier. If I had…”

 

I gently patted the shoulder of Ryu Jaehee as he looked down at what he had written.

 

“It’s okay. I have a card that can definitely send him packing. Don’t worry, Youngest Member.”

 

Ryu Jaehee’s eyes trembled as he looked at me.

 

“Don’t tell me, Hyung… just for me, you’re going to use your family’s power that you’ve been avoiding and manipulate public opinion…?”

 

“What are you talking about, Youngest Member? Have you been influenced by Kim Dobin too? Our paternal family doesn’t have that kind of power.”

 

I pressed down on Ryu Jaehee’s head a few times as he spouted nonsense, probably influenced by hanging around Kim Dobin so much, then showed him the self-composed song battle episode and the song that red-haired bastard had plagiarized.

 

“Hyung…”

 

Ryu Jaehee looked back at me with a moved expression, covering his mouth. I smiled warmly at him and said,

 

“That’s right, Youngest Member. Let’s definitely blow away this fucking bastard. He has to pay the price for daring to mess with our youngest member.”

 

“Well, it happened before I became Rev’s youngest member, but anyway, whatever the case, thank you.”

 

And so we firmly united in purpose.

 

“Come to think of it, Yehyeon Hyung is going to be really mad if he finds out about this. This cafe uses cider instead of carbonated water in their ades, so Yehyeon Hyung said to absolutely never drink ades in the evening.”

 

Ryu Jaehee giggled as he lightly shook the green grape ade that still had carbonation bubbles rising.

 

“It’s fine, I’ll win.”

 

“No, I don’t want to see you two fighting anymore. That was really enough back before debut and in our early debut days.”

 

“No, what did I even do?”

 

“Don’t you really remember throwing your hat in front of everyone and muttering curses when Yehyeon Hyung made five choreography mistakes? I barely managed to bring Yehyeon Hyung back to the dormitory when he was going to stay overnight in the practice room that day.”

 

“I did?”

 

“The song and choreography were really terrible back then, so everyone was on edge, but you were particularly sharp, Hyung. Now I can say this because you’ve become generous, but back then I really thought, why didn’t this hyung just debut with New Born instead of coming to this shitty company on his own? I even wondered if he was protesting to Hajun Hyung who had followed him.”

 

“…I did?”

 

My eyes shook wildly as the long-forgotten past events came out of Ryu Jaehee’s mouth.

 

I was that much of a mess?

 

“Yes, you did, Hyung.”

 

Ryu Jaehee nodded as he took another sip of his drink. I had firmly believed that I had played the leader role admirably, even giving harsh criticism, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

 

Could this also be memory manipulation by the system…? The very thing Cha Yeonho mentioned?

 

 

 

[No. The Project Subject simply forgot on his own.]

 

 

 

The system was firm.

 

“Can I ask you just one thing I’m really curious about?”

 

“Sure, what is it?”

 

“Why did you leave TK and come to LnL? I mean, I had… deep and profound circumstances, but with your level of skill, you could have gotten into plenty of other places.”

 

At my question, Ryu Jaehee replied with a playful smile.

 

“Let’s say I also had deep and profound circumstances. Not as much as the hyung who kicked away a debut group and followed Hajun Hyung, though.”

 

“Hey, I can’t sleep when I’m curious about something.”

 

When I grumbled, Ryu Jaehee obediently spilled the truth.

 

“Shinwol had Altair so I would have had to wait at least 5 more years by the standards back then to get into a boy group, I vaguely heard that Digreen and New Born already had their debut groups set, and the really solid places didn’t have conditions that matched well. I only wanted one thing.”

 

“What?”

 

“A dormitory. I didn’t want to go back home. But to get into a dormitory while living in Seoul, the only way was to be in a debut group. So I was looking for a place where I could get into a debut group right away and ended up coming to LnL.”

 

“Did you hate home that much…?”

 

“I told you before. Home isn’t necessarily a comfortable space for everyone. It’s just, a bit tiresome. If I at least stay out, my younger siblings can use the room a bit more spaciously.”

 

As an only child who grew up under ordinary parents, I probably can never fully understand Ryu Jaehee’s situation.

 

“That’s why I liked being the youngest member here. Because I had people to rely on.”

 

Ryu Jaehee looked at me and smiled. I was really glad that to Ryu Jaehee, I wasn’t a pathetic hyung but a reliable one.

 

Because I could repay Ryu Jaehee from before the regression, who never let go of me until the end, even if it was like this.

 

Though sometimes it seems like all of Rev relies on Ryu Jaehee.

 

I told him to write his statement moderately and go to bed before it got too late, lightly ruffling Ryu Jaehee’s hair, and as I yawned and got up, Ryu Jaehee urgently grabbed me.

 

“Hyung, you don’t need sleeping pills again, do you?”

 

I chuckled and shook my head at Ryu Jaehee’s careful question.

 

“I feel so relieved that I’ll sleep great even without sleeping pills, man.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

In the middle of having dinner with salad, Kim Dobin suddenly brought up a topic.

 

“The day after tomorrow is our last broadcast, isn’t there something special we should do?”

 

“We already prepared the reverse fan service.”

 

Our chosen reverse fan service this time was a bakery and handwritten letters. Since I had a habit of writing carelessly, I repeatedly rewrote letters under Ryu Jaehee’s strict supervision, correcting my handwriting several times.

 

Still, it wasn’t lonely since Kim Dobin was with me, not just me alone.

 

“No, not that. The stage, the stage. Since it’s the last broadcast, how about a special stage?”

 

“Wear uniforms.”

 

“We already wore them once.”

 

“Then put two people in uniforms and three people in liberation army outfits. Wow, so special. Good enough?”

 

At my Solomon-level solution, Gyeon Hajun asked seriously.

 

“We’re not even a large group, we’re just five people, wouldn’t it be a bit much if our outfits lack unity?”

 

Come to think of it, that seemed right. But Kim Dobin, already fixated on the idea, wasn’t thinking of suggesting other opinions but rather trying to somehow make it fit that opinion.

 

“Then we’d probably have to redo the choreography to a renewal level… I’m in favor, but what about Yehyeon Hyung?”

 

Seo Yehyeon’s expression showed bewilderment as he met Kim Dobin’s sparkling eyes like some retriever that found water.

 

Seo Yehyeon couldn’t bring himself to answer and quickly turned to look at me.

 

“What, you want hyung to scold Kim Dobin for you? Hey, Doby. Who’s the leader, Yehyeon hyung or me? Why do you only ask Yehyeon hyung? Are you making the leader feel left out?”

 

“Hey, when did I ever ask you to scold him for me?”

 

Seo Yehyeon stopped me from scolding Kim Dobin while deliberately avoiding Kim Dobin’s resentful gaze directed at me.

 

“The person who’ll have the hardest time tearing apart the choreography and relearning it is none other than Yehyeon hyung. For , it was a week, but now it’s two days… What’s two days? It’s one day.”

 

Kim Dobin hugged the puppy-shaped cushion he received as a birthday gift and pouted.

 

“I wanted to finish our last music show performance really cool!”

 

“It’s disappointing but can’t be helped, hyung. If hyung had said it just a week earlier, it might have been possible, but since you said it late, you should blame yourself for speaking up late. What can we do?”

 

Seo Yehyeon, who had been listening to Ryu Jaehee’s words as he patted Kim Dobin’s back to comfort him, opened his mouth with a determined expression.

 

“We can do it. Let’s do it.”

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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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