A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 378

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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 378

The members’ gazes all turned to me at the short exclamation I let out upon seeing the name displayed on my phone’s incoming call screen.

When I put down the cup I was holding and reached for my phone that was on the table, everyone clamored for me not to listen alone and to switch it to speaker mode.

We were currently throwing a party to celebrate successfully blocking Jung Iseo’s attempt and even sending Jung Iseo away tied together with KICKS in a one-plus-one deal.

During the mudslinging exposé process, KICKS’ dirty deeds were also revealed, causing KICKS’ image to plummet to rock bottom as well.

Even if they barely avoided the group’s complete dissolution like before the regression, they couldn’t expect the same popularity as before.

Among them, the only one who could possibly be rehabilitated was Kwon Yunseong, who had at least tried to show some restraint? Though even he was getting criticized for not stopping them more firmly.

Choi Hyeonmin became the most criticized member of the group as countless club sightings and proof photos were leaked.

Turns out one of Choi Hyeonmin’s same-age male idol club friends who had been swayed by Jung Iseo had diligently taken proof photos and offered them up.

Choi Hyeonmin called me crying and sniffling, grateful that his smoking photos from his trainee days weren’t sent to Jung Iseo, and I personally gave him advice, clicking my tongue a couple times, telling him he should have been more careful, before hanging up.

While KICKS’ damage from becoming a nationally hated bully group was no joke, the blow Jung Iseo received wasn’t light either, with his parachute debut being exposed, the fact that he intentionally pushed out a trainee from the debut team, and his past and real personality being completely revealed.

Yxxtube

[Gyeon Hajun-Jung Iseo Skill Comparison]

-Hmm… I was going to acknowledge the parachute insertion if Jung Iseo’s skills were overwhelmingly outstanding, but Jung Iseo’s skills are actually worse, so why bother…?

-Can’t really say their vocal tones are identical, but they do overlap slightly. Is that why they put Jung Iseo in and took out Gyeon Hajun? Afraid of comparisons?

-Came from a mid-to-large agency to appreciate the vocal tone that would follow a small company

Now he was even being compared in skills with Gyeon Hajun, whom he had pushed out, and there’s no way Jung Iseo, who had such sky-high pride as a D-Green trainee, wouldn’t be furious. But it’s all his own karma.

We even brought out the champagne that we had bought with the cake for Kim Dobin’s birthday but couldn’t drink and had stored in the ceiling, so the party atmosphere was really perfect.

How desperate must things have been for even Seo Yehyeon to permit ordering delivery food just for today?

While we were enjoying the party like this, the very cause of our celebration even called first—what content could be more thrilling than this?

“Switch to speakerphone? Oh, okay-”

Before I could even finish speaking, a hand suddenly shot out and snatched my phone away.

Gyeon Hajun, who had touched my phone screen with practiced hands to switch it to speaker mode, spoke first before the person on the other end could open their mouth.

“I’d like to believe you didn’t call to confront us.”

The person on the other end answered with silence.

“Then again, if you had that much conscience and sense, you wouldn’t have shamelessly defended yourself while stealing someone else’s spot.”

Sharp sarcasm poured out unfiltered from Gyeon Hajun’s cynical mouth. After another brief silence like before, Jung Iseo muttered quietly.

-Ah, so it was you.

A clear snicker came through the speaker.

-I thought Yoon Eden had orchestrated this whole thing, thinking what a scary person Eden was, and called to give him some applause.

Seo Yehyeon frantically covered his mouth with his hands. Judging by how his body was trembling intermittently, he seemed to be desperately holding back laughter.

Kim Dobin was already burying his head in the sofa, stifling his giggles, and even Ryu Jaehee was biting his lips tightly while his shoulders shook.

Even though my contribution wasn’t that high, was this really that funny?

-I planned this considering Yoon Eden’s personality that I experienced and heard about through gossip over the past few days, and your personality. As expected, gossip involves exaggeration and can’t be trusted. Instead of creating a rift, you were willing to cooperate.

“You must not know what conflict mediation is since you never experienced proper group life. Are the other members just background decorations?”

Gyeon Hajun seemed to have some rapper potential too. He’d probably write good lyrics if he did freestyle diss rap?

Watching this fierce conversation happening through my phone, I felt a sense of duty as the phone’s owner to do something, so I opened my mouth too.

“Yeah, I don’t know about KICKS since your solidarity with them is completely shattered, but our Rev-”

Gyeon Hajun waved his hand at me, telling me to stay out of it. Even though I’m the person who won a 4-on-1 diss battle at DTB and overwhelmingly won the second diss battle too.

I quietly kept my mouth shut and enjoyed watching what was clearly a gentle but somehow murderous war of words. Next to me, Kim Dobin was spouting nonsense about how that was exactly how noble young ladies talked.

“I don’t know about noble young lady speech, but it does seem like politicians arguing after the National Assembly Advanced Act, trying not to raise their voices. Or like a hearing.”

Seo Yehyeon, who had been listening to the conversation with an intrigued expression, gave a straightforward assessment. Everyone seemed to have adapted, as they weren’t particularly surprised by Hajun’s behavior.

When Gyeon Hajun asked if he felt sorry, Jung Iseo shot back in a voice devoid of any emotion, asking if he even wanted to receive an apology anyway.

-I don’t particularly want to apologize to someone who has no intention of forgiving me even if I do apologize. It would just make my mouth hurt.

“You really do look down on people, don’t you.”

The BJ’s revelation must have been quite critical for Jung Iseo, as I could hear the sound of him grinding his teeth. Gyeon Hajun handed me back the phone with a somewhat refreshed expression.

“So, what’s the reason you called?”

-I’m genuinely curious about this, but from what point was it all acting? From when you said you’d give me a song?

“No, I was sincere back then.”

Whether he was moved or touched by my broad and warm heart, Jung Iseo fell silent. Next to me, Seo Yehyeon was misinterpreting, saying he must be speechless from being dumbfounded.

-Then what about now?

“Well, if I give you a song in this situation, it would probably get quite noisy…”

I paused for a moment before speaking coldly.

“Why would I do something good for you?”

If I gave Jung Iseo a song in the current situation, there would be two possible reactions.

One would be people saying that if Yoon Eden, who’s Gyeon Hajun’s friend, was giving him a song, maybe we had misunderstood, thus minimizing Jung Iseo’s wrongdoing.

The other would be people misunderstanding that since I gave a song to Jung Iseo, who pushed Gyeon Hajun out and took his place, I didn’t leave to show loyalty to Hajun but had other reasons for leaving.

-You change your words so easily. Right? I thought you weren’t the type to say two different things with one mouth.

Jung Iseo spoke sarcastically and added a whisper. A hollow laugh escaped through my teeth.

I glanced back at Gyeon Hajun who was looking at me, then after a brief silence, I finally opened my mouth.

* * *

Who was the revelation for? The Jung Iseo-KICKS revelation battle that only left scars on each other

Former KICKS member Lee Seo: “Deflecting the issue like this doesn’t help either of us”

KICKS’ Hyeonmin uploads post with the phrase ‘Justice will prevail ‘ on SNS

‘Bullying controversy’ Hyeonmin and Lee Seo’s online war of words… Agency New Born still remains silent

New Born employee whistleblowing? “Jung Iseo is New Born Director’s nephew. Got placed in debut group immediately after joining”

Following bullying controversy, discord with agency… KICKS’ uncertain future, how much time left until New Born contract expires

-I’m getting tired of this now, they’re both trash, let’s just end it there damn it

└Both? You think bullying and parachuting carry the same weight? Stop erasing the victim. So what exactly did Lee Seo do to harm KICKS by getting parachuted in?

└How proudly did your Lee Seo get parachuted in then? You’re the one erasing victims lol

-KICKS will probably just get shelved and quietly leave New Born without renewing when their contract expires

-I hope I don’t see either of them on TV anymore, seeing them will probably remind me of bullying and parachuting

-I think I’m going to have a damn panic attack

-I wonder who’ll be first to appear on some healing show in 2-3 years milking sympathy lol

-New Born’s terrible handling of this situation has been completely exposed

-So what direct harm did the parachute controversy actually cause to anyone? That person ended up succeeding with Rev anyway, so isn’t it actually a good thing?

└22 Rev is doing better than Kicks right now

└333 Actually, didn’t Rev get formed because Iseo parachuted in and those two left thanks to that…ㅋㅋ Why do Rev fans hate on Iseo? Shouldn’t they be grateful instead?

└ Congratulations, you’ve been selected for the biggest bullshit of 20xx! Even among all the bullshit I’ve heard this year, this is legendary as fuck

└Stop grabbing our kid’s hair and be grateful we haven’t exposed your shady Pome’s personality until now, you crazy bastards

└Ah, explain why you were clinging to Rev during the Sports University event instead of spouting this fucking nonsense

└So Jung Iseo has this kind of mindset, that’s why he shamelessly tried to use our kids~ It’s disgusting, I hope he never crawls back onto TV again

└Wow… do you seriously think that way? Go to the hospital and get some counseling;;;

As always, the flames of the issue that had blazed for several days gradually began to die down. Of course, the fights between fans weren’t over yet.

Since it was so legendary, public interest lasted longer than other issues. Of course, externally, KICKS took more of a beating than Jung Iseo. Isn’t our society more sensitive to bullying issues than parachute problems?

Moreover, since Rev, the group that victim Gyeon Hajun belonged to, was doing better than KICKS, it was only infuriating to our fans, but didn’t seem like a big problem from the public’s perspective.

However, Jung Iseo couldn’t receive only sympathy either, thanks to the image of being a “parachute who pushed out someone who entered legitimately” being quite deeply imprinted.

It’s painful to even mention NewBorn, which got a reputation as an agency that arbitrarily plants parachutes and pushes back debuts for those without connections.

Now all that remained were the tattered KICKS and Jung Iseo + NewBorn ahead of the year-end award ceremony. This year’s comeback activities were going quite well, so both fans and they themselves must have had high expectations, but it turned out unfortunate.

See, you can tell ten things from seeing one – I knew this agency would be hopeless from the moment they arbitrarily removed Gyeon Hajun from the debut group under the pretense of planting a parachute.

My prediction at the time that if anything happened between the parachute and the group, they would unconditionally side with the parachute turned out to be exactly right.

And most importantly, we who had withdrawn early from this exposé war also gained something.

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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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