A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 372

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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 Original Intent Episode 372

“But hyung has really been suspicious lately.”

Kim Dobin suddenly turned to look at Seo Yehyeon with a serious expression, adding weight to my suspicions.

“Me? Why?”

“You suddenly stare into space and giggle, you’re always glued to your cell phone, and you keep telling me your heart is racing and that you’re nervous.”

Every word coming out of Kim Dobin’s mouth was a dating signal, but Ryu Jaehee, who would normally react most sensitively to members dating, had a calm expression.

His face showed confidence that Seo Yehyeon wasn’t actually dating anyone. What else besides dating could make Seo Yehyeon react like that?

“It’s probably not dating. Who holds their cell phone horizontally when texting someone? Yehyeon hyung has been holding his cell phone horizontally all the time lately.”

Gyeon Hajun, who casually threw in that comment, didn’t seem to believe the ‘Seo Yehyeon secretly dating’ hypothesis either.

“And the behavior you mentioned earlier… don’t you do that often too, Dobin?”

That’s right. Come to think of it, Kim Dobin often showed the same behavior.

“It’s different! I do that when I’m watching amazing creative works, not because I’m dating!”

Kim Dobin strongly denied it, but it was essentially the same – it just looked different because of their different appearances.

“Right, hyung. Nobody thinks you’re dating, so you don’t need to feel so wronged.”

Watching Kim Dobin, who couldn’t tell whether to feel wronged or be happy that he wasn’t even suspected after Ryu Jaehee’s additional comment, I decided to think that Seo Yehyeon was probably doing some amazing fan activities like Kim Dobin.

Or maybe he was preparing to participate in DTB Season 5 next year.

“Alright, let’s practice.”

Clap, clap! I clapped my hands twice and we lined up in formation in front of the mirror.

The intro to 【Ride or Die】, which we had chosen as the first song for the stage, began to flow.

* * *

When the music abruptly stopped, the sweat-drenched members collapsed on the floor like dolls with cut strings. After a moment, each got up and slowly moved to find their optimal resting spot.

Kim Dobin, who was lying spread-eagle on the practice room floor, desperately called out for water.

I placed the bottled water I had been drinking from without touching the rim on Kim Dobin’s forehead with a thunk and sat down on a chair in the corner of the practice room.

I let out a chuckle watching Kim Dobin roll his body to chase after the water bottle that had rolled off his forehead and was rolling across the floor, then shifted my gaze to my cell phone screen.

[What’s Parachute up to these days?] 3:12 PM

[Does he seem suspicious at all?] 3:13 PM

I sent a text to Kwon Yunseong, our new spy inside KICKS, to check on the internal situation at KICKS.

There’s a saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. When I didn’t know the situation, that was Jung Iseo, and now that I know everything, it’s changed to Kwon Yunseong.

Of course, I didn’t think Jung Iseo would show signs in front of the other KICKS members that he was preparing to destroy them, but still, living in the same dormitory, I wondered if they might notice something strange or feel something off.

[By any chance, exactly what day are you planning to destroy KICKS?]

I wrote a message to send to Jung Iseo but hesitated just before sending it.

“Does this seem too probing?”

I rarely sent texts first, and it was also rare for me to send such long messages, so Jung Iseo might find it suspicious.

The best case scenario would be that he looks down on me and doesn’t suspect anything, but it’s better to be certain.

Seo Yehyeon, who was drinking water beside me, leaned his upper body over to look at the text I hadn’t sent yet and nodded.

“He might be curious, but it’s a bit too obvious.”

“Really? Should I send it in a more roundabout way?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to be careful. Of course, the other party has probably been looking down on you since you agreed to give him a song, but you never know what might happen.”

Seo Yehyeon, who said this while looking back at me, let out a short sigh as soon as our eyes met.

“Why?”

“If you were in my position, wouldn’t you sigh too, seeing the leader who’s practically the face of the group being manipulated at will and treated like an easy pushover?”

“So hyung does think of me as the leader. And isn’t hyung the face of our group?”

“You’re the group’s representative.”

Seo Yehyeon grumbled that the guy with the highest name value was doing all the foolish things. The DTB effect really was significant.

“Come to think of it, if I’m not careful, the text I send could be used as evidence that he and I maintained a friendship.”

When I pointed out this concern, Seo Yehyeon, who had been marveling that I was finally starting to use my brain, suddenly hesitated.

“Now that I think about it, didn’t you say you’d been exchanging messages with him from before?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

At my response, Seo Yehyeon’s expression immediately became serious. I could see him seriously contemplating whether it was okay to invade my privacy, so I nudged him and asked.

“Want me to show you?”

Seo Yehyeon nodded without hesitation.

Gyeon Hajun, who had been resting against the mirror, also quietly got up and smoothly approached my side. He seemed to have been secretly curious too.

Since there wasn’t any conversation that would hurt Gyeon Hajun’s feelings even if he saw it, I had no particular reservations about showing it.

No matter how long the other party’s messages were, my replies were almost all short answers that didn’t exceed five characters, except for the very rare occasions when they took on a proper sentence form.

“Hmm, clean.”

Gyeon Hajun gave a simple assessment. Seeing the faint smile lingering at the corners of his mouth, it seemed there was nothing particularly bothersome even from his perspective.

“The worry I had feels incredibly pointless.”

Seo Yehyeon rubbed his face with his hands, his expression somehow filled with self-reproach.

“Jung Iseo’s side could never use this as evidence. Anyone can see this isn’t a conversation between close friends, but rather looks like one side desperately struggling alone because they want to get closer.”

“If this were made public, it would be a bad move that would only earn public ridicule rather than help Jung Iseo’s side.”

Gyeon Hajun added to Seo Yehyeon’s observation. Looking at me with the eyes of someone watching a person who got scammed into buying a jade cutting board through a pyramid scheme, Seo Yehyeon poured out his nagging.

“You should learn to be suspicious of people too. Isn’t it suspicious that someone keeps initiating contact so warmly through text messages despite receiving such insincere replies consistently for years?”

“I thought he wanted to get close to me so badly that he was willing to endure it all.”

I replied shamelessly with a straight face.

In truth, it was largely because my guard was down due to memories of receiving help (written as help but read as getting screwed over) before my regression, but since I couldn’t tell the truth, I had no choice but to cosplay narcissism.

Seo Yehyeon shook his head and glanced back at me with eyes that somehow even held a sense of awe.

“You couldn’t have thought ahead and sent those replies knowing this would happen. I don’t know how to evaluate this… Should I call it luck? But is this really luck? Well, luck is luck.”

This was a golden opportunity to change my image of being slow-witted.

“Of course I did it after thinking through everything that would happen.”

But Gyeon Hajun and Seo Yehyeon didn’t respond or react to my words, instead seriously discussing among themselves how best to send the text message.

Before I could send a text to Jung Iseo, a reply arrived from Kwon Yunseong.

[Kwon Yunseong- He’s packing his stuff at the dormitory] 3:22 PM

[Kwon Yunseong- Says he’s moving out] 3:23 PM

[How are your members reacting?] 3:23 PM

[Kwon Yunseong- Except for Hyeonmin who’s grinding his teeth saying that guy is preparing to drop the bomb and save only himself, everyone else doesn’t care] 3:24 PM

Whether the rest of those guys were dense, or whether they had tormented Jung Iseo enough to naturally understand his moving out of the dormitory. If it was the latter, those bastards really had it coming.

[Kwon Yunseong- Ah] 3:25 PM

[Kwon Yunseong- And they say he’s been treating Hyeonmin warmly lately] 3:26 PM

[How was it before] 3:26 PM

[Kwon Yunseong- You know how that bastard Hyeonmin treats people he doesn’t like] 3:28 PM

[Kwon Yunseong- So Jung Iseo didn’t treat Hyeonmin particularly well either] 3:29 PM

They were probably busy preparing for the year-end award ceremony stage, yet in the midst of all that, he was packing his luggage to move out of the dormitory, and suddenly treating someone he’d been distant with warmly.

Seeing him do such obviously suspicious things, it seemed like D-day really didn’t have much time left.

Jung Iseo’s firm determination to not let KICKS get even a single award was evident.

[Are preparations going well?] 3:33 PM

I finally thought of a text message that would be good for probing Jung Iseo and sent it right away. Just before getting up to resume practice after the break ended, a reply arrived.

[Jung Iseo- You’ll be able to see something interesting starting next week?] 3:49 PM

“Okay, he says next week!”

Right, I can do it too without outsourcing my intelligence!

* * *

“Wow, anyone would think our group has been around for like 7 years. There’s already someone moving out of the dormitory.”

Even at Choi Hyeonmin’s blatant sarcasm targeting him, Jung Iseo silently packed his luggage.

“You’re trying to handle all the talk that comes out, right? You’re not going out without any plan, surely. If a person has a brain, that is.”

Jung Iseo turned around with a calm face to look at Choi Hyeonmin who was tapping his own head with his finger sarcastically, then opened his mouth.

“Hyeonmin, want me to give you some advice?”

Jung Iseo chuckled as he looked at Choi Hyeonmin who frowned deeply since it wasn’t the answer he wanted, then said.

“Don’t trust people too much.”

It was Kwon Yunseong who pulled Choi Hyeonmin out of his buffering as he mentally went through the people close to him due to the overly broad statement.

“Are you picking fights again? I told you not to do that. Stop tormenting him and just leave him alone.”

Choi Hyeonmin protruded his lips but was obediently led by his leader’s hand.

“I’m not particularly grateful for this now.”

Jung Iseo stopped organizing his luggage and looked up at Kwon Yunseong with a dry smile.

“If you found it so disgusting to watch, you should have followed Eden out too. Then you wouldn’t have ended up worse than strangers with that close friend of yours. Right?”

Kwon Yunseong snorted inwardly, thinking that the guy who practically caused that situation had quite a long tongue.

“Ah, I’ve been in contact with Eden lately. Eden says he’s annoyed that you keep acting friendly. If you don’t believe me, I can show you the texts.”

Yeah right. And what old story are you talking about. Even at Jung Iseo’s provocation, Kwon Yunseong showed no agitation and turned his back, dragging Choi Hyeonmin away from Jung Iseo’s room.

“Strange…”

Jung Iseo, who had been staring intently at the spot where Kwon Yunseong had left, muttered quietly in a voice low enough that Kwon Yunseong wouldn’t be able to hear.

“Why isn’t he taking the bait?”

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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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