A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 296

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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 296

My goodness, Doby has finally equipped himself with something called awareness.

If Ryu Jaehee had truly been perceptive, he wouldn’t have made those earlier comments about rushing the composition camp, but since Kim Dobin was naturally considered lacking in awareness, even this much was impressive growth worth celebrating.

Just moments ago he had been looking with cold eyes, but now Gyeon Hajun was watching me with a hint of satisfaction, causing Kim Dobin’s shoulders to tremble slightly.

The scariest hyung in Rev might really be Hajun hyung, not the transparently transparent Eden hyung as Ryu Jae said…

“What about the other groups?”

“One group has a major agency, so they have an in-house producer who exchanges opinions with the producer member to create songs, and the other group just has the producer member do almost everything like us.”

Ryu Jaehee gave a clean briefing in response to Gyeon Hajun’s question.

“So if we want to make changes, Altair seniors’ method would probably be best. But this requires Eden hyung to put down his desire to shoulder everything alone and actively reflect our opinions, and whether that’s possible is the problem.”

The Yoon Eden patriarch meme had originated from Rev’s dining etiquette that had somehow settled in (though his personality and tendencies also played a part), but when it came to Rev’s music, he had always been patriarchal from the beginning.

The other members also considered Rev’s music to be Yoon Eden’s exclusive domain that they couldn’t intrude upon.

The failure to think of the basic common sense that if there’s only one supporting pillar, collapse cannot be prevented when that pillar crumbles, was because they were convinced that supporting pillar would never fall.

Those confident words about never doubting the success or failure of music had embedded themselves so deeply and firmly in seventeen-year-old Ryu Jaehee’s heart.

It wouldn’t have been just Ryu Jaehee but the others as well. That’s probably how they reached the current situation.

‘Well, it’s useless regret at this point.’

Ryu Jaehee, who had slightly frowned, lightly brushed up his bangs. Gyeon Hajun let out a deep sigh and groaned.

“So in the end, Eden needs to feel our necessity in the musical domain too.”

From Gyeon Hajun’s perspective, knowing Yoon Eden well, this was honestly close to the realm of impossibility.

It would certainly help if accomplished, but the process was extremely difficult – like putting a bell around a cat’s neck.

Watching Gyeon Hajun’s reaction, Kim Dobin blinked and offered his own idea. Originally, in subculture and such things, sometimes a direct frontal approach actually worked.

“Can’t we just tell Eden hyung? That he always has colleagues by his side?”

“That’s the shounen manga development Eden hyung would cringe at most.”

I could clearly picture Yoon Eden responding half-heartedly, listening with one ear and letting it pass through the other.

“Eden hyung has to realize that himself. No matter how much we talk for a hundred or thousand days, if Eden hyung himself closes his eyes and ears, it’s over.”

In this seemingly hopeless situation, Ryu Jaehee forcibly swallowed the sigh that naturally wanted to escape.

Then, Seo Yehyeon, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, spoke up.

“From what I see, Yoon Eden having a second slump would come faster than him realizing it himself. Yoon Eden has such a narrow perspective.”

“But looking at what he does on DTB, his perspective isn’t narrow. How many evil edits has Eden hyung successfully avoided right now…”

“I’ll correct that. His perspective narrows when it comes to music, his own domain. So either some kind of enlightening opportunity needs to arise, or someone needs to open the floodgates.”

Ryu Jaehee’s perspective on Yoon Eden and Seo Yehyeon’s perspective on Yoon Eden had to be different.

Yoon Eden was a hyung with some age gap who seemed entirely grown-up to Ryu Jaehee, but to Seo Yehyeon, he was still a younger brother, even if he did speak informally and scold him.

So the one who could see more objectively was probably Seo Yehyeon.

Even overcoming the shock of ‘s failure hadn’t been entirely through Yoon Eden’s own strength, but with help from G1 Producer and his former hip-hop crew members.

So for Yoon Eden to feel the necessity of Rev members, the Rev members had to create the opportunity that would awaken that realization.

‘So much work, so much work. Supporting the whole family’s patriarch, really.’

Seo Yehyeon swallowed words that fell somewhere between grumbling and lamentation.

Gyeon Hajun nodded and looked at Seo Yehyeon as he spoke.

“Then I’ll try talking with Eden.”

Of course, Gyeon Hajun knew Yoon Eden best, and Gyeon Hajun was the one Yoon Eden was most gentle with.

But that lukewarm response when told to consult even with Gyeon Hajun, and the subtle friction between the two that was visible even today, whispered intuitions of failure to Seo Yehyeon.

“No. I’ll do it.”

At Seo Yehyeon’s unusual words, Gyeon Hajun blinked with a surprised expression.

“Hyung…?”

“Don’t worry, we won’t fight. Um, it’s not that you don’t trust me or anything, right?”

“That’s not it… Try it first, hyung, and let me know if you fail. Then I’ll try talking to him.”

Seo Yehyeon wasn’t confident of his own success either, but Kim Dobin aside, Ryu Jaehee was a young guy that Yoon Eden wouldn’t rely on unless it involved strategic thinking, so what could be done – he, the eldest hyung of this group, had to step up.

Since the path to reclaiming the stolen right of first dibs on picking up utensils was distant, shouldn’t he restore the eldest hyung’s dignity this way?

It was the start of Seo Yehyeon’s project to restore his eldest hyung dignity that no one would agree with.

* * *

On the DTB filming day, the team members and producers, now narrowed down to two, sat facing each other.

It was truly fortunate that Gongchul made a good choice for everyone.

The future where DTB would be evaluated as a hotbed of connection hip-hop because he tried to force only rappers from his own label into the main round 2 and semi-finals wasn’t far off, but there was no need to be lumped together and cursed as the originator of that.

The main round 2, which was practically the quarterfinals, was a stage created and performed with team producers.

It meant working together with team producers from producing competition songs to featuring.

But since producers had to prepare two stages, usually the producers would each take charge of one team member to produce the main round 2 competition song, with both people joining only for featuring.

“First, they’re telling us to set up the bracket, and honestly, I think it would be better for Eden to face A01 rather than G-TE. So what I’m saying is, let’s not take unnecessary risks.”

At Gongchul’s words, Seven Kick immediately flared up with fire in his eyes.

“Are you saying I’m not in the same weight class as A01 right now?”

“That’s not what I mean, I’m just saying let’s win for sure. Seven Kick, why do you always take things so negatively?”

At Gongchul’s light scolding, Seven Kick shut his mouth. Of course, from the producers’ perspective, the more team members they could get to the semi-finals, the better. It increased the probability of producing a winner.

Because he lost the diss battle with IJM and missed the chance to become a group mission leader, ending up as a team member in Skoen’s group, he was underestimated as not being leader-level, but A01’s skills were actually similar to Seven Kick’s level.

“Well, the viewers are probably expecting a match between me and Hyeongjin, so wouldn’t this be a bit disappointing?”

But I had no intention of going that route at all.

“Seven Kick hyung is skilled too, so if we just focus on producing, we can definitely win. And they’ll be setting up their bracket too, but they’ll probably 100% match me with Hyeongjin.”

Our winning strategy being me vs A01, Seven Kick vs G-TE meant, conversely, it was a losing route for Team Wonbaek & D.I. They would definitely try to avoid this structure.

Choi Hyeongjin wouldn’t miss this last chance to face me head-on either.

“What the production crew will choose among those is, well, obvious without looking.”

“Huh, that’s true.”

When I shrugged and spoke, Gongchul rubbed his brow with a pained expression.

“Then let’s set up the bracket as you said, matching Eden with G-TE, and for producing…”

Usually, the more experienced producer gets paired with the participant who shows promise of making it to the semi-finals. The difference in producing capability can’t be ignored.

So it would be normal for Gongchul to be my producer and BQ9 to work with Seven Kick.

“I’ll work with BQ9 Producer, so Gongchul Producer can prepare with Seven Kick hyung.”

“Oh, is that okay?”

Gongchul accepted my proposal with a much more relieved expression. To increase Seven Kick’s chances of winning, it would be better for Gongchul to work with him.

With the bracket and assigned producers decided, I entered the assigned studio with BQ9.

Left alone together, BQ9’s first question to me wasn’t about the direction of the competition song or the song work schedule, but an unexpected question.

“Why did you give up Gongchul’s producing? As you know, this is my first time as a DTB producer, so it would be much better for you to work with Gongchul senior than with me.”

“You’re new as a DTB producer, but it’s not like you have no producing experience at all. And since it perfectly matches up to the middle route of Plan A, I’m going with Plan A. For that, Seven Kick hyung absolutely has to win.”

“What’s this Plan A?”

I leaned toward BQ9 and told him the contents of Plan A.

“Wow, in all my life, this is the first time I’ve met such an innovative crazy…”

BQ9, who heard my grand plan, muttered blankly then suddenly came to his senses.

“Ah, sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“Seeing such a definite reaction, it seems like it’ll work well. Ah, please speak comfortably.”

When I giggled and encouraged him to drop formalities, BQ9 nodded with a much more comfortable expression. When we met in season 3 semi-finals, he was an unlikeable guy who established rapper caste systems, but you really never know about people.

While lightly exchanging opinions with BQ9, we first established the direction of the competition song and what kind of feeling we’d go for.

“To bring out an intense feeling, it would be good to lay down rock beats with guitar and bass, or complete it with EDM beats.”

“You were in the same crew as D.I, right? I think D.I will probably produce to match your style so our song gets devoured, so let’s go with a style you don’t usually do. Let’s catch them off guard.”

BQ9 pointed out aspects I hadn’t considered and worked together to establish the competition song’s direction.

Since BQ9 also did his fair share, the burden of preparing the main round 2 competition song was considerably reduced.

After finishing DTB filming, I went straight to the studio to resume work on Rev’s activity song.

The song still stuck at 90% only brought frustration.

Finally, I gave up on that song and tried making another one, fiddling around a bit before returning to the dormitory. Since Seo Yehyeon doesn’t wake up easily anyway, there was no hesitation in turning on the room lights.

A voice without a trace of sleepiness flowed from the pile of blankets.

“You’re late. Did you get any ideas for the production song?”

“No, not yet.”

I was responding casually when I realized it was past 1 AM, and chills ran down my spine.

Before I could ask “Who are you?”, Seo Yehyeon was faster—he threw off his blanket, sat up in bed, and pointed to the cafe drink takeout cup on his desk.

Seo Yehyeon stayed awake drinking a 5-shot americano just to wait for me to come back?

That’s even more horrifying, isn’t 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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