A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 17

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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 17

After finishing the guide recording that was more challenging than expected, I played the two completed demo songs in order.

Anyway, since we weren’t going to play the same two songs at the meeting, we had to choose one.

With my chin propped up, I tapped the desk with my fingers in rhythm, tap tap.

Gyeon Hajun definitely had the better vocal tone, but Ryu Jaehee was a step above in vocal ability.

He wasn’t a main vocalist from a major agency trainee background for nothing.

“I think Hajun hyung’s version is better.”

“Really? I think Jaehee’s guide is better.”

The two who recorded were showing the virtue of humility, saying each other’s version was better.

But no matter what you guys say among yourselves, I’m the one making the decision.

“Do we get to choose this too?”

“No? I already decided.”

I immediately answered Kim Dobin’s question and sent Gyeon Hajun’s version to my phone.

“…Then why did you play both for us?”

“When did I say I was playing them for you to listen? My ears hurt from wearing the headset continuously, so I disconnected it and just played them.”

And regardless of vocal tone or ability, the lyric delivery was a complete mess with ‘right night’, so how could I use Ryu Jaehee’s version?

Thanks to that, the chorus was automatically assigned to Gyeon Hajun’s part in my head too.

I’ll distribute the parts so that Ryu Jaehee absolutely won’t have to use English in this activity.

“But hyung, did you work on this in just two days? Staying up all night?”

Kim Dobin, who had been humming the chorus part ‘So now answer me, all right or night?’ as if it had stuck to his lips, suddenly asked.

My brow twitched as I was about to snap at him, asking if that was even possible and to think with his head before asking such questions.

“Wow, amazing! A song of this quality in just two days…!”

“Whoa, is this even possible? Our hyung is a genius, a genius!”

Seeing Kim Dobin looking up at me like I was some musical prodigy Mozart, and Ryu Jaehee clapping with sparkling eyes, I quietly swallowed my words and scratched my cheek.

When those guys are that happy about it. I’m a talented genius who produced a masterpiece in two days, sure.

* * *

The demo song was safely completed before the next activity’s internal meeting.

I drew a line through ‘Complete demo song’ written in my notebook with a scratch. Then I moved my gaze to the sentence written below it.

‘Have a serious consultation with Kim Dobin’

When I recalled that Reve was a failed idol group until their third year before regression, the Kim Dobin sponsorship theory didn’t make sense.

If that had been the case, Reve should have risen to fame through something else of Kim Dobin’s, not Seo Yehyeon’s fancam.

But that’s the story if Kim Dobin had accepted the sponsorship offer, and if he rejected the agency’s sponsorship proposal, the pre-regression situation would roughly fit.

No matter how much Kim Dobin is currently a minor, there are crazy bastards in this world who go beyond common sense.

Having been in the entertainment industry for 7 years, it’s not like I’ve only heard such dirty rumors once or twice.

“You probably have a rough idea why I called you alone, right?”

At my sudden words, Kim Dobin’s eyes trembled finely as he sat in front of me.

The tightly closed door was locked, so there was no worry about anyone entering.

“Did it show…?”

“You flinch every time that word comes up, and not noticing would make me an idiot, ah, moron, agh! Stupid.”

[Profanity detected.]

[Initial Intentions –4]

Seeing my Initial Intentions drop by 4 points in an instant made me sigh automatically.

I try to act like a leader and this is what happens.

“Since when?”

“Since the activity…”

It’s been a while.

But at that time, I was out of my mind from the sudden regression and busy making plans to escape being a failed idol, so I didn’t have the leisure to look around.

So it was natural that I didn’t notice Kim Dobin’s change quickly.

“You should have said something earlier. So we could bear it together.”

When I clicked my tongue and spoke, Kim Dobin blinked.

“Bear it together…?”

“Yeah, together.”

Worries become lighter when shared, don’t you know? I raised my eyebrows at the increasingly intense trembling of his eyes.

“Hyung, we’re not talking about different things, are we?”

At the desperate emotion in the guy’s eyes, I sighed with frustration and irritably swept up my bangs.

“What are you talking about right now?”

“Could hyung, could hyung speak first?”

I looked down with complex emotions at Kim Dobin’s hand grabbing my arm urgently, even stammering his words.

Of course, the offer you received…

“Spon-“

“Ahhh! I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s it, hyung!”

Before I could finish speaking, Kim Dobin jumped up covering his ears and rushed to the door. Sorry? For what? Could it be for burdening me with his worries? My heart felt troubled.

I spoke seriously to the back of the guy who unlocked the door with urgent hands and ran outside.

“If you change your mind, tell me anytime. I’ll accept it.”

I can’t exactly fight with the CEO asking if he offered sponsorship to a kid. Sigh… I have no choice but to wait until he tells me honestly.

* * *

Finally, the day of reckoning arrived.

After checking that the demo song was properly saved on my phone, I got up from the sofa at Manager Hyung’s call who came to pick us up.

“…Are you guys going to war or something?”

Manager Hyung asked with a sour expression at our determined faces.

If it’s war, then it’s war. Our group’s future depends on today’s internal meeting.

Either we fail and live as unknown failed idols for the next 3 years.

Or we succeed and lay the foundation for moving up to the first tier.

It was one or the other.

“Manager Hyung, have you heard the song the CEO brought back?”

At Kim Dobin’s innocent question, Manager Hyung gave an awkward smile and avoided eye contact.

“Guys, don’t… don’t expect too much…”

At his mumbled words with a trailing voice, the members exchanged knowing looks.

No matter what crappy song the CEO brought, we had a song composed by this genius producer Yoon Eden, guaranteed to succeed on the charts from before regression.

So we had no expectations from the start.

When we opened the door to the small conference room, the few employees of the agency and the CEO welcomed us.

“You’re here. Our LnL’s proud faces!”

Of course. Reve is LnL’s only celebrity. Anyone listening would think there are five or six more celebrities under the agency.

I looked at the kindly smiling face with complex feelings.

Embezzling settlement money is basic, and there were even rumors about hitting agency idols with a bat from some entertainment company’s evil CEO, but his character is much better than that…

But why is his sense as someone working in the entertainment industry…

I sat down and practiced the breathing technique I saw on YouTube that’s supposed to be effective for calming the mind and body.

Since I didn’t know how much my blood pressure would rise again, I had to calm myself down as much as possible from now.

“Now that the debut song activity is over, we should start preparing for the next activity, right?”

Facing the CEO’s trustworthy smile, my heart was already beating wildly.

As they say, even a dog at a village school can recite poetry after three years, so after enduring about 7 years at LnL, I could predict what kind of situation would come after that smile that would burst people’s patience.

“Now, I brought some demo songs, and there are about three title track candidates. Since you guys are the ones doing the activity, let’s all listen together and choose a title track.”

Three songs in this short time? There’s definitely a 100% chance that composer bastard dumped even previously worked music sources on us, hoping something would stick by chance.

“Before playing them for you guys, the staff listened to them first, and they all unanimously said they were good. Haha.”

I clicked my tongue at the sight of the staff members subtly avoiding our gazes, seemingly feeling sorry for us.

I understand. Corporate life is really tough, isn’t it? Still, I think at least one of them should inform the CEO about reality.

Was he so proud of getting ripped off with three whole songs?

The CEO, with a thoroughly satisfied expression, connected a USB to his laptop and played the song.

‘Wow, they’re selling this kind of song for money.’

No matter how I listened to it, it seemed like a 2-minute rough draft forcibly stretched to 3 minutes and 1 second.

I guess these days even trash is bought and sold for money. Well, the world has really gotten better, so much better.

I internally sent words of admiration toward a certain composer who was realizing true creative economy.

Praise for the CEO who made an epic waste of money by buying such trash was a bonus.

After enduring two songs that were so incomprehensible and chaotic they induced headaches, the final song finally played.

A somewhat familiar house-style melody hit my ears. It was the title track from our first mini-album before regression.

Even before regression, the first mini-album had been treated as ‘the album that must not be named’ and ‘that song’ by both members and fans alike. It existed but didn’t exist.

But it was understandable. The very fact that we sang that song on stage with clear minds was a kind of dark history.

[My heart dyed in darkness is darkness. My wounded soul is black soul.]

I pressed my forehead while listening to the heavily mumbled lyrics that the composer had apparently recorded himself. I felt like I was going to have a mental breakdown.

‘Did they really entrust the lyric writing to a middle schooler?’

The lyrics were like that, but the concept was space. Multiverse.

Upon hearing lyrics where blood flowers and black flame dragons wouldn’t seem out of place, memories I had forgotten came flooding back vividly.

From the music video that made us anxiously worry it might be called an Interstellar plagiarism, to the memory of reluctantly choosing that song as the least bad among the three songs the CEO had pushed on us just like today.

If someone set up a buffet with nuclear waste and food scraps and told you to take your pick, wouldn’t you choose the food scraps?

The CEO had definitely placed that song last, aiming for a halo effect.

When the song ended, the CEO closed his laptop, propped his chin on his hand, and looked around at us with a smiling face.

“How is it, pretty good right? I personally think the third one has title track potential. So, what does our leader think?”

“Since you’re asking for my opinion, I’ll give it to you… I think all three are the worst. The third one you’re pushing is at best the least terrible trash?”

The CEO’s eyes widened at my straightforward answer.

Conversely, expressions of refreshing satisfaction, as if they’d downed some carbonated drink, appeared on the faces of the staff and members.

“Rather than promoting with this song, it would be better to buy the rights to ‘Minky Magic’ and remake it. The latter would at least have buzz even if it ruins our image, but the former is just…”

I shook my head while mentioning a song famous for being a comedic trot number.

Seo Yehyeon, who poked my side, widened his eyes as if asking if I was crazy.

He seemed to have imagined himself singing ‘Minky Magic’ on stage.

I waved my hand at him as if to say don’t worry.

No matter how clueless our CEO was, surely he wouldn’t seriously consider such an extreme move.

But the CEO was a stronger opponent than expected and a clueless dead end beyond prediction.

“‘Minky Magic’… ‘Minky Magic’ huh… That’s not bad? Should we go with that for the third album?”

This is driving me crazy, seriously.

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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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