A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 375

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

A Regression Guide for Idols Who Lost Their Initial Intentions Episode 375

Jung Iseo decides to leave KICKS.. KICKS reorganizes as 5-member group

❘ Official statement from agency posted on Newborn Homepage

Newborn on Jung Iseo’s KICKS departure: “We respect his personal opinion to the fullest”

-?? It’s not April Fool’s Day today though?

-Yeah, fake news

└The official statement is actually posted on Newborn’s homepage…

-What the hell, it’s not even contract renewal season yet and he’s leaving????

-If it’s health issues, even a hiatus would be fine… we can wait so please…

-6-1=0 I support 6-member KICKS

-If he had at least filmed a drama, I could think he got acting-drunk and made a mistake, but what’s the reason? Why can they only say it’s a decision made with maximum respect for the artist’s opinion?

└Right, if it were health issues, the official statement would have said he’s leaving due to health problems

-Oh please tell me this is a mistaken article ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Could it be that he caused some big incident that even the agency couldn’t cover up? Otherwise, there’s no reason for such a sudden departure, and the agency wouldn’t readily approve his departure when there’s still time left on his contract

-Is it so hard to keep your fingers still until a clear statement and reason for departure comes out?

This was exactly the article about Jung Iseo’s departure from KICKS that the agency had released.

Moving out of the dormitory was a bit early, but it was common enough when members gained seniority.

But leaving the group entirely.

Since there had been no warning signs like rumors of internal discord, activity suspension due to health conditions, or developing an interest in acting, the KICKS fandom fell into chaos.

While they were in denial of reality, a handwritten statement from Jung Iseo was uploaded to his official account. It was the perfect confirmation kill.

-Crazy, Lee Seo’s handwritten statement just dropped on Inbyeol, Twitter, and the fan cafe

-Fuck, it wasn’t fake news after all, I want to die

-It was sketchy from the moment they said they moved out of the dorm to live independently lol As expected, it ended up being a run ending lol

-Right when they’re getting good reactions and about to take off, he throws cold water on the team, crazy;;;

-The 6-member formation was awkward anyway, so this worked out well. Honestly, Jung Iseo is such an uncharming member lol. Is her visual overwhelming in the idol scene? Are her skills at a level that crushes other idols? Wasn’t her only character trait being babied by the members and forced fan service? lololol

-Look at these haters opening up now. Lee Seo had the strongest core in terms of fan appeal points

└What are you talking about, honestly Hyeonmin had a stronger core. Jung Iseo’s individual fandom couldn’t stand the shitty fan service, annoying babying, and ‘my bias loved by everyone’ sentiment, so many fans already left

-Those bashing Lee Seo right now did read Lee Seo’s statement before talking, right?

-It says panic disorder, why are you beating up a sick kid, fuck

-Even though the reason is clearly stated in the statement, seeing you guys still attacking shows that you were just obsessed with the 6-member KIXS and didn’t give a shit about the individual members lololol It’s disgusting so don’t call yourselves all-fans anymore, from now on call yourselves 6-member supporter fans

-Did the agency force a kid with panic disorder to debut? Looking at the statement, he says there hasn’t been a single day that wasn’t difficult from debut until now. Did the members not take care of Lee Seo at all?

└The other members took such good care of Jung Iseo, do you feel good blaming other members like this?

Of course chaos erupted, but the divided KICKS fandom had no way of knowing this was just the first stage of lighting the fuse.

The certain fact was that neither side would be able to meet a happy ending.

* * *

“Wow, they started with withdrawal right off the bat. The curtain has risen on what will go down in idol history as the most spectacular group fight ever.”

Kim Dobin covered his mouth in amazement after skimming through the news article headline that was plastered on the front page of the portal site entertainment section.

Seo Yehyeon, who was reading Jung Iseo’s statement attached to the article, sighed and muttered with a troubled expression.

“The panic disorder story… is it real?”

“Anyway, since the bullying really did happen within KICKS, it’s hard to just dismiss it carelessly.”

Ryu Jaehee also replied weakly to Seo Yehyeon’s words, his earlier venom to tear them apart seemingly deflated.

You don’t need to soften your hearts over something like that. It’s just an excuse to cover things up – he’s not really a panic disorder patient. I can be 100% certain of that.

‘Of course it’s an excuse. Did you believe that? I didn’t think you were that naive.’

Because I heard it directly from him before my regression.

I should have noticed he was rotten from the start. Now that I think about it again, even that comment felt like he was mocking and completely disrespecting me for naively giving him a song.

But right now, I’m the one on top while deceiving him, aren’t I? He’s getting back all the karma from before my regression, isn’t he?

“No contact asking why we did it has come yet, so maybe he hasn’t noticed that we cut ties during our live broadcast?”

His monitoring abilities don’t seem to be on Ryu Jaehee’s level. If he had caught all the underground reactions like our youngest member, he would have realized we’re useless as his shield.

It was unfortunate that since Jung Iseo had left the KICKS dorm, I couldn’t ask Kwon Yunseong about Jung Iseo’s movements like before.

“If he noticed that and defended perfectly, he’d be a talent that the National Intelligence Service lost to the idol world. Then he should be a NIS agent instead of an idol.”

Seo Yehyeon shook his head while vigorously shaking a container with protein shake. He always shakes it like that because he finds it troublesome to wash dishes after using a blender.

“Writing statements, preparing materials to expose, planning public opinion wars – even two bodies wouldn’t be enough, so would he have time to monitor fan underground reactions too?”

“Hmm, I could do it.”

Ryu Jaehee grinned smugly, pulling up the corners of his mouth. It was truly fortunate that our youngest member, a talent the NIS lost to the idol world, was on our side.

“Want to quit being an idol and get a job at the NIS, youngest…? Hyung will help you in every way possible. It’s too wasteful to let that talent rot. Let’s contribute to the country.”

Seo Yehyeon stopped shaking his protein shake and seriously proposed to Ryu Jaehee. Is this guy trying to make our precious Rev main vocalist leave right now?

“No, hyung, what are you saying? Isn’t it a waste to let his vocal ability rot?”

“He can show off his vocal ability once in a while at company dinners.”

“Does the NIS have company dinners too?”

“I’m not even a NIS employee, so how would I know, Doby.”

I turned my attention away from Seo Yehyeon, who was exchanging nonsensical banter with Kim Dobin, and looked at Gyeon Hajun.

Unlike the other members who were watching the finally-started KICKS explosion show with quite keen interest, Gyeon Hajun, who should have the biggest grudge against Jung Iseo among all of us, was surprisingly calm.

“I thought you’d be the most relieved.”

I lightly poked Gyeon Hajun’s side to start the conversation, and he replied indifferently.

“I just wonder why he told me back then that he was desperate too, if he was going to do this.”

Gyeon Hajun’s gaze drifted into space as if chasing the past.

“If it weren’t for those words, I wouldn’t have hated him this much. See, I knew it would turn out to be deception in the end. If he was that desperate, he should have endured it all. I was fully prepared to do that.”

Gyeon Hajun removed the cynicism from his face, looked at me, and spoke with a bitter smile as if seeking agreement.

“Anyway, it worked out well in the end since we didn’t debut with KICKS. Right?”

Still vividly remembering the past where debuting with Rev instead of KICKS didn’t work out well, I couldn’t bring myself to smile along.

Damn, then before my regression, Gyun Hajun couldn’t even think that it was better this way until KICKS fell apart. This is all Jung Iseo’s fault.

Feeling unnecessarily irritated, I turned my attention to my cell phone and discovered that a message had arrived.

[Are you okay?] 10:30 AM

This was the reply to the text I had sent to Kwon Yunseong in the morning.

[Kwon Yunseong- I didn’t expect him to withdraw, so it’s quite shocking] 3:31 PM

[How is the agency responding?] 3:31 PM

[Kwon Yunseong- Did you forget why Jung Iseo got pushed straight into the debut group? lol]

[Kwon Yunseong- I guess blood is thicker than water after all] 3:33 PM

[Kwon Yunseong- You can tell just from reading the articles that the agency and Jung Iseo already reached an agreement]

[Kwon Yunseong- The problem is they didn’t even give us, his groupmates, a heads up] 3:35 PM

From the moment they pushed out a perfectly fine debut group trainee and arbitrarily inserted a parachute, it was pretty obvious that staying at New Born would lead to this kind of future.

Not that this makes our agency feel like angels or anything.

[Hang in there]

[This is just the beginning] 3:37 PM

[And feel free to expose him]

[That won’t damage our image] 3:38 PM

Unlike the immediate replies I’d been getting until now, this response arrived after a short delay.

[Kwon Yunseong- Okay]

[Kwon Yunseong- Thanks] 3:41 PM

Why are you thanking me? Did my words of encouragement actually feel comforting…? I didn’t mean “Hang in there because this is just the beginning after leaving the group!” but rather “Hang in there because you’re about to go through hell from now on, tsk tsk.”

Or maybe because I said we could get involved in their affairs? Without that card, there’s no way to bring down Jung Iseo anyway.

“I told Kwon Yunseong it’s okay to expose that Jung Iseo was a parachute who caused trouble for Hajun.”

“If KICKS exposes that Jung Iseo was a parachute who pushed out Hajun hyung and got directly inserted into the debut group, rumors might spread that the hyungs instigated the bullying.”

Hearing this, Gyeon Hajun let out a short laugh.

“Hey, then we shouldn’t expose him, right? Should I text Kwon Yunseong right now to tell him not to?”

Ryu Jaehee calmed me down as I frantically reached for my phone, lamenting that people should really listen to Korean all the way to the end before continuing.

“Fortunately, thanks to the hyungs maintaining a very wide distance from the KICKS members, we avoided the worst-case scenario of that hypothesis being accepted as fact.”

“Should we be grateful that they talked behind our backs during our early debut days?”

Anyway, since that backstabbing ultimately helped us avoid getting messily involved for no reason, I decided to cleanly forgive exactly half of the backstabbing incident.

Forgiving everything wouldn’t be cost-effective, you know.

“What’s a bit concerning is that Choi Hyeonmin and their leader came to the DTB 4 Final as audience members… but claiming a connection based on just that would sound like a stretch.”

“Really? I was looking forward to exposing memories of being called a fucking scholar during trainee days. What a shame.”

Except for Seo Yehyeon, everyone looked at Gyeon Hajun with expressions that made them doubt their own ears. The words “fucking scholar” actually came out of Gyeon Hajun’s mouth.

Gyeon Hajun, who made us doubt our ears, had a serene expression all by himself.

No, setting that aside…

“What the hell! The backstabbing didn’t start after we debuted?”

“Of course, those guys didn’t badmouth you behind your back back then, Eden.”

“So when you got pushed out by Parachute, their reaction was… damn…”

I ran my fingers through my bangs with irritated movements as the puzzle pieces gradually fell into place. Once again, I was the only one who didn’t know. So this is what they meant when they said they were prepared to debut at NewBorn.

Half forgiveness my ass. Even one-tenth is too much, you damn bastards.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————