A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 300

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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 300

When I asked while only turning my head with my hand still on the mouse, Kim Dobin blinked his eyes.

“Huh? Did I say something wrong…? But hyung, the shadow from your cap brim makes you look like a total demon training officer, giving me training camp PTSD. Could you flip your cap backwards like you usually wear snapbacks?”

I took off the military cap, flipped it backwards, and smiled crookedly.

“Wow, Doby’s grown up a lot? Even giving orders to your hyung now?”

“My guts aren’t big enough to give orders to hyung yet. Once I get more experience and my mentality gets stronger, I’ll try it. That was definitely a polite suggestion just now.”

“Try what, you punk.”

I pressed down on Kim Dobin’s crown a few times with my fingertips and urged him once more to repeat what he just said.

“I said it sounds like traditional Korean music?”

Kim Dobin said while scratching the back of his head.

First of all, I had never composed the chorus of this song with traditional Korean melodies in mind. And seeing that the other members weren’t showing any particular reaction, it could just be Kim Dobin’s nonsense as usual.

But my intuition was telling me. That those words could be the key to bringing this song up to 120%.

I played the sound again and listened carefully to the chorus melody. After the MR ended, Seo Yehyeon was the first to break the brief silence that lingered.

“No matter how much I listen, it doesn’t sound like Arirang…?”

“Huh, I never said the word Arirang.”

Right, so it’s not Arirang then. Traditional Korean music wasn’t my area of interest, so I couldn’t even guess what kind of traditional melody it might be.

“Then Dae Jang Geum OST? Hwangjo-ga? Yongbi Eocheon-ga? Miryang Arirang? Azalea Flower?”

Seo Yehyeon was playing twenty questions with Kim Dobin. There seemed to be some traps hidden. I spoke up next to Kim Dobin, who kept shaking his head.

“Miryang Arirang is also Arirang, you human.”

“Jeongseon Arirang is different, that’s why I said it.”

“Hyung, are you looking down on Doby right now? Our Kim Dobin wouldn’t not know Miryang Arirang.”

“That’s right, would I not know Miryang Arirang?”

Kim Dobin suddenly jumped in to support my defense and confidently sang a verse of Miryang Arirang.

But that confidence completely disappeared thanks to Seo Yehyeon now bringing up Gangwon Province Arirang and Yeongam Arirang.

“Anyway, it’s not Arirang.”

Kim Dobin shook his head after listening to both Gangwon Province Arirang and Yeongam Arirang once each.

“Come to think of it, it kind of reminds me of Neilliriya? Doby hyung, is this right?”

Ryu Jaehee snapped his fingers and looked at Kim Dobin with confidence. But compared to Ryu Jaehee’s confidence, the response was rather lukewarm.

“No, it’s not that a specific melody comes to mind, it’s just that the chorus melody feels like traditional Korean music to me. To my ears.”

The current chorus melody was a guitar performance, and the reason this song didn’t meet 120 wasn’t a problem with the notes themselves. The problem was that the chorus melody was monotonous and boring, giving it a somewhat empty feeling.

“Traditional Korean melody… traditional Korean instruments…”

But the characteristic of traditional Korean music is monotony. If we went completely traditional using Korean instruments, it would be enough to turn the monotony of the notes from a weakness into a strength.

However, since the slow and lyrical feeling characteristic of traditional Korean music would feel too disconnected from the verses, rather than emphasizing that aspect…

“Instead of going full historical drama style, let’s lay down some intense beats and cover the melody with traditional instruments on top, going for a fusion of hip-hop and traditional Korean music.”

I used the composition program to change the guitar performance to a combination of traditional Korean instruments and laid down beats.

“Wow, that’s insane. The sound suddenly became so rich?”

“Whoa, really, changing the instruments makes it feel totally traditional Korean like hyung said.”

“Right? I told you the chorus had that traditional Korean vibe, didn’t I? Don’t I actually have perfect pitch or something?”

With Kim Dobin’s boastful voice behind me, I added a 25-string gayageum, geomungo, daegeum, haegeum, danso, sogeum, taepyeongso, drum, kkwaenggwari, ajaeng, piri, and additionally a gong. Then I modified the janggu rhythm to be slightly off-beat with the main beat.

With trembling hands, I clicked the play button.

“This is it! This is it!”

Finally, the song surpassed 100 and reached 110. I clenched my fist, jumped up from my seat, put my arm around Kim Dobin’s shoulder and pulled him toward me.

“Doby, you punk, you really came through this time!”

I ruffled Kim Dobin’s fluffy hair and laughed heartily for the first time in a while.

“Hyung, will you put my name as co-composer this time too?”

“Hey, of course! What kind of obvious question is that? I’ll put all the members’ names in!”

I nodded enthusiastically as if I’d had a shot of soju.

“Youngest, come to think of it, did you say it reminded you of Neilliriya?”

“Kind of…? Actually, I don’t get a direct connection when I hear the song, but when Doby hyung said it sounded like traditional music, that was the most similar melody that came to mind.”

Ryu Jaehee nodded with a not-so-confident expression.

Then let’s listen again. The sound, now much richer and closer to traditional Korean melody, resonated. Listening to it made me feel proud again, so I ruffled Kim Dobin’s hair.

“Why am I the only one who doesn’t get the Neilliriya thing…?”

At Seo Yehyeon’s disgruntled muttering, I couldn’t bring myself to voice my agreement and swept my bangs up.

Yeah, I really don’t know either. Did I accidentally work with frequencies that only people 21 and under can hear?

“Not the chorus, but right before the chorus starts. From 45 seconds to 48 seconds.”

Gyeon Hajun, who had been quietly listening, suddenly spoke up. I immediately replayed from 45 seconds.

Only after repeating it twice and humming the melody of Neilliriya could I understand.

“Ninano nansillo- ah, this part! It was such a short fragment that I couldn’t recognize it right away.”

“I didn’t know either until Jaehee mentioned it.”

With the feeling of a painful tooth finally being pulled, I high-fived Gyeon Hajun lightly.

“This part was bothering me too, but we can definitely handle it with Neilliriya sampling. Just now it was too ambiguous so that part felt dead.”

Ryu Jaehee quietly approached my side.

I smiled at his bright eyes and slapped my hand against Ryu Jaehee’s outstretched hand, which seemed to expect something.

Seo Yehyeon, whose throat was probably parched from not being able to contribute anything to the song, gulped down water from his bottle and declared confidently.

“I created the opportunity for Doby to shine.”

“Yeah, I’ll make you and Doby the MVPs of this comeback together.”

I replied half-heartedly and patted Seo Yehyeon’s back firmly to tell him not to feel discouraged.

I opened my phone’s calendar app to calculate the schedule for sending the demo to the planning team and AR team, then unconsciously looked up at the studio scene due to the noisy sounds.

When did this bustling studio environment become so natural?

Well, this seemed better than tearing my hair out alone. I had that thought while subtly lowering the corners of my mouth that had been forming a faint smile without me realizing.

* * *

The day of DTB’s second main round filming.

Skoen’s rehearsal was in full swing on stage. Since it was a rehearsal, it was a performance with minimal energy, just checking movements, but his undeniable skill still showed through.

Since only eight participants remained, the waiting rooms assigned to each team were spacious, but except for a select few, everyone was watching the rehearsal below the stage.

Yongcheol hyung was one of the few not watching the rehearsal. Since Choi Hyeongjin was nowhere to be seen either, they were probably together in the waiting room.

Geek Seung, Skoen’s second round opponent who was watching Skoen’s rehearsal, was asking AJA for elimination comment recommendations, and Yupi, who avoided a direct confrontation with Skoen, was watching the stage with calculating eyes while crossing his arms.

Of course they wouldn’t pit Skoen and Yupi against each other in just the second main round. The semi-final has much higher interest than the second main round.

Legendary stages always came from semi-finals rather than finals. Since the final required preparing two songs in two weeks, the completion of songs and stages was bound to be slightly lower than the semi-final.

I took my eyes off Yupi and slowly looked around at the TOP 8 who made it to the second main round, when my gaze met with Toohyeok, the only survivor from my team in the group music mission besides me.

Toohyeok, who had been standing alone like a borrowed barley sack, walked toward me with a pleased expression.

Toohyeok’s face darkened as we chatted about various episodes from each team during the first main round and preparations for the second main round.

“I succeeded in the politics game to get this far, but looking back now, I’m wondering if that wasn’t entirely a good thing…”

Toohyeok trailed off and forced a smile.

“Well, I should be satisfied just making it to the second main round.”

“You’ll have good results. You’ve been doing well so far.”

I lightly patted Toohyeok’s shoulder and offered calm encouragement.

The camera held by the staff briefly captured such scenes of participants and producers, then approached Skoen, Young Billy, and Moltic, who were discussing the rehearsal on stage after it ended.

After talking for a bit, Skoen came down from the stage, and Moltic and Young Billy, who were still on stage, gestured toward Toohyeok.

Skoen approaching me and Toohyeok bowing to me and heading up to the stage happened almost simultaneously.

“Hey, Eden. Did you watch my rehearsal?”

“Yeah, I was watching the whole time. Wow, the song was good.”

“What do you think, can I beat Geek Seung?”

“Isn’t it deception for a long-standing championship candidate who’s been counted since episode 1 to say that?”

I playfully nudged Skoen and chuckled.

“Hey, Geek Seung is good too. Anyway, I wonder if we’ll face each other in the semi-final or final. I’d prefer to face each other in the final, haha.”

“That’s true. I wonder how the semi-final bracket will turn out.”

I watched Toohyeok’s rehearsal while having a trivial conversation with Skoen.

Watching Toohyeok’s rehearsal stage, I could understand what he meant. Compared to Skoen, he definitely seemed relatively less focused.

Well, Toohyeok’s opponent was Yupi, one of the victory candidates, so from the producers’ perspective, they probably wanted to make Skoen’s stage more perfect rather than focus on Toohyeok who would likely be eliminated.

“Well, well, if it isn’t our Eden who abandoned me and went off to Gongchul and BQ9. Did you prepare a lot?”

Jiwon Hyung, who was waiting for the next stage rehearsal, draped his arm over my shoulder as I was watching the rehearsal and giggled.

“I sharpened my knife. After all, this is a match between rivals that Dubnet was pushing.”

“Oh, I thought you’d hate being called rivals.”

“I sharpened my knife to make sure you can’t say that anymore.”

While giggling and bantering with Jiwon Hyung, I suddenly made eye contact with Yongcheol Hyung, who had appeared without me noticing. Yongcheol Hyung blinked a couple times then slowly moved away, avoiding my gaze.

Why does that guy run away as soon as he sees my face? Whether it’s psychological distance or physical distance, I have trauma about growing distant from you.

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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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