A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 342

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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 342

Even while receiving the gazes of all five of us, the KICKS parachute was surprisingly shameless, even leisurely smiling toward us.

Gyeon Hajun let out a short, cynical sigh as if making sure we could hear it. Ah, come to think of it, Gyeon Hajun doesn’t know that the parachute, Jung Iseo, is the whistleblower.

And he also didn’t know that I occasionally exchanged text messages with Jung Iseo. I had judged that there was no need to tell Gyeon Hajun in detail about all the trash talk those KICKS guys had done about us.

Among us, the first to calmly speak up was Seo Yehyeon.

“I think you might have come to the wrong place…”

And he even kindly pointed his finger in the direction where KICKS was. Anyone could see it meant get lost.

Our members had no particular reason to be kind to Jung Iseo. As long as they didn’t know Jung Iseo was the whistleblower, he was just one of the KICKS members who had talked behind our backs to the Rev members.

And those KICKS guys had enough sense not to openly ostracize Jung Iseo in front of others. Otherwise, there’s no way bullying rumors or discord rumors wouldn’t have emerged by now in their fourth year.

The discord rumors that almost erupted due to the trap I set in their early debut days were somehow well handled by their leader Kwon Yunseong and quickly died down.

But Jung Iseo, who had confidently taken a seat right among the Rev members, just shrugged his shoulders.

“Would I really confuse Rev and KICKS?”

Jung Iseo seemed to realize that Seo Yehyeon’s words were meant to provoke him, as his voice carried a slight sarcasm when he shot back.

Pushing aside Ryu Jaehee, who was looking at Jung Iseo with narrowed eyes as if gauging his intentions, and Seo Yehyeon, who was blinking in confusion about why he was doing this when he had his own perfectly fine group, Kim Dobin asked directly.

“Then why are you here?”

Unlike Seo Yehyeon’s earlier comment, this question contained only pure curiosity without any hint of sarcasm, but before Jung Iseo could answer, Gyeon Hajun beat him to it.

“Right. It’s not like you’re here to build friendship now.”

A dry gaze that matched his dry voice swept over Jung Iseo. Still not removing the smile from his face, Jung Iseo lightly responded.

“It’s not impossible, is it? I’ve been consistently keeping in touch with the Rev leader.”

Well… although it was mainly about what kind of trash talk happened and leaving reviews of that trash talk rather than asking about each other’s well-being, if we were to call this interaction, it could be called interaction.

Though contact had become rare after the trash talk about me and Gyeon Hajun was corrected, whatever happened among themselves.

I frowned at the damn parachute who had dropped a major bomb without giving me any heads up to Gyeon Hajun, and glanced at Gyeon Hajun.

No matter how much I wanted to provoke Gyeon Hajun, it wasn’t supposed to be during a schedule with high injury risk.

Gyeon Hajun’s gaze wasn’t directed at Jung Iseo or me. As if he didn’t want to engage further with Jung Iseo, he just looked around our fan section with a peaceful expression and waved his hand.

“I’d like to tell you that’s not really a good choice. Your fans probably wouldn’t welcome friendship activities with us.”

“I don’t care.”

At Ryu Jaehee’s advice, Jung Iseo removed his smile and bit his lips, speaking in a whisper-like voice.

“I wasn’t hoping for friendship level anyway, so please just help me out this once. It’s impossible to do this at the year-end award ceremony. I guarantee it won’t be a loss for Yoon Eden and Gyeon Hajun either.”

Though his voice was quiet, the desperation contained within it wasn’t something we couldn’t notice. Jung Iseo, who had completely abandoned his leisurely attitude, firmly grasped my sleeve.

Looking down at that hand, Seo Yehyeon pressed his forehead with a troubled expression and said.

“I think we need to hear what you want us to help with first before making a judgment.”

“Just let me stay here. That’s all.”

Had the deal changed to this? I raised an eyebrow at Jung Iseo’s words, which were different from his request before the regression.

Seo Yehyeon sent me desperate eye signals telling me to decide quickly. From the way he was even glancing at Gyeon Hajun, it seemed Seo Yehyeon didn’t particularly want to get involved.

“Just let him stay. He probably had a fight with his members or something.”

At my indifferent answer, Seo Yehyeon hesitated for a moment, then let out a deep sigh and moved to the seat next to Gyeon Hajun.

“Please prepare for the 60m short-distance running preliminaries!”

At the staff’s booming shout, both Gyeon Hajun and Jung Iseo stood up simultaneously.

“I’m also participating in the short-distance running.”

“Ah, I see.”

Gyeon Hajun replied to Jung Iseo’s words with a voice devoid of any emotion. Although it was just a preliminary round, we all moved en masse to where the short-distance running preliminaries were taking place to cheer for Gyeon Hajun.

There, we could also see the KICKS members who had been waiting for Jung Iseo.

“Where were you, Iseo hyung. We kept looking for you.”

Choi Hyeonmin approached with a bright smile and spat out words laced with venom.

“I was wandering around trying to build some peer connections like you do. What, am I not allowed to do that?”

“Well, no matter how persistently hyung clings to them, Eden hyung and Hajun hyung won’t play with hyung like they do with my friends. Right, Eden hyung?”

Seeing Choi Hyeonmin dragging me into this, I hardened my expression completely. Tsk, Choi Hyeonmin clicked his tongue and obediently raised both hands, apparently understanding the warning.

Kwon Yunseong roughly grabbed Choi Hyeonmin by the back of his neck and dragged him away. You must have a hard time with your youngest member acting like that. Our youngest member is so mature in comparison.

Suddenly feeling proud, I reached out and patted Ryu Jaehee’s head a couple of times, and Ryu Jaehee looked back at me with a bewildered expression.

While watching those lined up in ready position at the starting line, I quietly stepped back at Ryu Jaehee’s touch. There’s no way Gyeon Hajun wouldn’t advance to the finals, so I could save the real cheering for the final race.

“Hyung, about Jung Iseo. KICKS. Do you know why that person comes to us and acts like that?”

Ryu Jaehee, who had started the conversation, whispered while lowering his voice considerably as if afraid someone might hear. I had a rough idea, so I nodded.

Since Altair’s Cha Yeonho isn’t here, the KICKS parachute is acting annoying.

At times like this, I really envied Altair, who was now considered to have enough experience and rank to not be fresh out of sports university. Their agency was also large, so they didn’t have to worry as much about terrestrial broadcasting’s reactions.

“Why else? He must be dissatisfied with his own group.”

“When I did a quick search, it seemed like he had a role where he was really taken care of within KICKS.”

I clicked my tongue at Ryu Jaehee’s report. So that’s what he was doing when he kept looking at his phone after I gave Jung Iseo advice – he was searching for information.

“Anyway, those guys need to act as a group. They shouldn’t be idols.”

If they treat him ambiguously, it might become obvious that they’re ostracizing him, so maybe they went with a strategy of openly taking care of him, at least in front of cameras.

‘It’s probably Choi Hyeonmin’s idea rather than Kwon Yunseong’s.’

Kwon Yunseong wasn’t particularly fond of acting differently in front and behind. That was Choi Hyeonmin’s specialty.

Just look at how that bastard treats me and Gyeon Hajun – you can see his angle clearly.

Approaching people he wants to irritate with a bright smile, pretending to be friendly while turning their insides upside down. I’ve seen him do this to people he didn’t like when we were at New Born more than once or twice.

I just didn’t care whether he did it or not since he wasn’t doing it to me. Though it was a bit annoying when the scratched person occasionally couldn’t stand it and raised their hand, and he’d come scurrying behind my back to hide using me as a shield.

Back then, he didn’t do that crap to Gyeon Hajun, so I thought Choi Hyeonmin at least maintained some boundaries, but thinking about it now, either Gyeon Hajun wasn’t easy to mess with, or he didn’t dare do it to Gyeon Hajun because he was watching my reactions.

Seeing him pull that shit on me now that our relationship has soured, it seemed more likely to be the latter.

Before the regression, when we used to treat each other with casual smiles. When I thought nothing of it and felt more at ease with KICKS than with Rev.

If I had noticed sooner the meaning behind Kwon Yunseong’s expression that would occasionally harden for just a moment, could our relationship before the regression have avoided falling into such depths?

Well, it was a useless hypothetical now.

Just, the face of Kwon Yunseong hesitating whether to raise his hand at the DTB finals, which made me think of such useless hypotheticals, flashed by for a very brief moment.

I’ve already shaken off all resentment, lingering feelings, and friendship toward you, so what are you going to do if you alone remain in the past when I used to call you ‘Seonga’?

Ryu Jaehee, who lightly pulled me back to reality from my bitter smile, whispered.

“If he had just stayed for a moment and left, it would be one thing, but if that person keeps sticking with us until the sports university event ends, rumors of discord between KICKS members will definitely spread.”

So that’s what Jung Iseo is aiming for. Before the regression, he went straight to withdrawal, but what kind of change of heart made him want to lay the groundwork for discord rumors?

Was his anxiety during every conversation with Kwon Yunseong because of this?

“When he asked for help, that’s probably what he meant, right?”

Sharp-witted Ryu Jaehee seemed to have figured out the meaning behind Jung Iseo’s actions and words too.

“All our members don’t particularly have good feelings toward KICKS, but you and Hajun hyung have deeper feelings than the rest of us. The fact that it’s not a losing situation for the hyungs means, conversely, that it would be a losing situation for KICKS.”

“Wow, as expected of the 【Sherlock keyAn】 MVP. Your deduction skills are killer.”

Thanks to you, my head feels at ease, Jaehee.

As I chuckled and lightly ruffled Ryu Jaehee’s hair, he grumbled while flipping his uniform cap backwards to avoid my touch, saying that when you think about it, this was the hyungs’ business so why was he the one doing the interpreting. Was this a late-onset rebellious phase?

Before we knew it, the preliminaries had ended and the names of those who advanced to the finals were called. Jung Iseo wasn’t among them, but Gyeon Hajun proudly had his name on the list of finalists.

“Jun, think you can get the gold medal?”

When I asked while tossing him a towel, Gyeon Hajun caught it mid-air and shook his head while wiping the sweat from his forehead.

“Gold medal might be a bit difficult, but silver medal should be possible?”

“Yeah, silver medal’s good too. Since this hyung-nim will bring home the gold medal, don’t feel pressured and just cheer me on, Juni.”

I grinned while loosely warming up my body at the announcement for the soccer preliminaries.

“Hyung-nim? My birthday’s earlier than yours, so is that title really appropriate?”

I lightly patted Gyeon Hajun’s back as he asked with laughter in his voice, and we walked together toward the soccer field.

“Come here and watch the preliminaries. I’ll make sure you naturally start calling me hyung-nim.”

Time to show the prowess of Seonmun High’s Ronaldinho after such a long time.

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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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