A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 387
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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 387
Unable to predict the future that would soon come to me, Seo Yehyeon’s drinking pace quickened as he savored the title “hyung-nim” coming from my mouth with a beaming face.
Thinking of it as taking one step back for two steps forward, calling him hyung-nim was quite manageable.
Of course, Seo Yehyeon, who firmly believed that he had finally regained his authority as the eldest hyung, didn’t seem to notice my true intentions at all.
“Hyung-nim, please have another drink!”
“Hey, stop it now. I’m getting a bit tipsy.”
“Ah, hyung-nim. I’m disappointed. To think you wanted me to call you hyung-nim when you can’t even handle this much alcohol, tsk…”
Perhaps feeling competitive at those words, Seo Yehyeon gritted his teeth and immediately picked up the glass he had set down on the floor and downed it in one shot.
Since one guy’s alcohol tolerance was half a bottle of beer and another person had been more thoroughly managing his alcohol intake after being semi-forcibly exposed to his terrible drinking habits in front of the members, there were actually only three people pouring alcohol down their throats.
As for me, well, there was no way I’d reach my alcohol limit with just beer, so I drank freely. After Seo Yehyeon had another drink of the alcohol I poured for him, he suddenly raised his voice out of nowhere.
“Do you know how hard it was for me to get this license? Huh? While you guys were having fun in Hawaii, I was diligently studying for the written test!”
What is this, some kind of typical Korean hip-hop lyrics about “while y’all were sleeping at dawn, I was working hard”?
“I memorized all the practical test procedures and methods on YouTube every day! I searched for road driving courses on YouTube and memorized where to change lanes and where to turn! But they said I’m pretty good at driving. The instructor said so. Training with Yoon Eden, you could do it no problem. Yeah, really. I’m confident.”
I refilled the glass of Seo Yehyeon, who was passionately speaking while holding his drink and nodding his head repeatedly.
“You know how hard it was for me to get my license in just one week? Huh? I also wanted to lie on Hawaii beach without a care in the world, but I memorized the written test answers.”
“Ah, yes, hyung-nim. Is that so.”
“But I think I have some driving talent. They said I was good. Yoon Eden, even if you train me, I think I’ll get less scolding than Doby. But you have a Class 1 license, right? It would be a bit pathetic as a Class 1 license holder to receive training from someone with a Class 2 automatic.”
“Ah, yes yes. Of course it’s Class 1.”
“I thought you would be like that. What’s with that damn pride. I thought I wouldn’t have to meet guys like this after graduation, but why the hell are they right here on the same team.”
“People who care about their image aren’t only in high school, hyung-nim.”
“Did you act like that during your school days too? Really disgusting. But I really worked hard to get my Class 1 license. If I failed the road test, I couldn’t get it in a week, so I was going to easily get a Class 2 automatic, but then I thought, Doby also got Class 1, so it would be a bit awkward for me to get Class 2, you know?”
“Why are you taking it out on me, hyung. Why am I being brought up in this?”
“So I went for Class 1 and I passed in just one try. They said I have driving talent. Let me train with you. I’ll get less nagging from you than Doby, right?”
“Don’t underestimate Eden hyung. Eden hyung is the type of person who would glare and yell at you just for the angle you hold the steering wheel, even if you drive well.”
“Why are you being like this to me, Doby.”
While I was giving Kim Dobin a headlock disguised as a neck massage, Seo Yehyeon had regressed again to ‘me, who was studying for the written test alone and lonely on Hawaii beach while everyone else was playing’ and was muttering words that I couldn’t tell were complaints or bragging.
“But I really worked hard to get my Class 1 license. I had to get it in a week, so I really worked hard to get my Class 1 license. You know how hard it was for me to get it…”
Seeing that he didn’t even realize he was repeating the same words over and over, Seo Yehyeon seemed to be getting drunk now too.
As I was refilling soju for Seo Yehyeon who was shaking his empty glass, Gyeon Hajun poked my side as a signal to feed him moderately.
Seo Yehyeon, who downed his glass at perfect timing, started nodding off after that last drink.
Just before Seo Yehyeon’s head was about to hit the floor, I caught the back of his neck, and Gyeon Hajun sighed and got up.
“I’ll take Yehyeon hyung to his room, so you help Jaehee to his room. Doby, clean up here.”
Seo Yehyeon had already entered the realm of blackout, so that was understandable, but I thought Ryu Jaehee was fine, so I casually turned around only to see the youngest member silently crying his eyes out. How much did he drink by himself when we didn’t even give him alcohol?
Kim Dobin, who had reflexively gotten up at Gyeon Hajun’s instruction and grabbed two beer cans in his hands, suddenly hesitated and blinked.
“I’m Ryu Jae’s, no, Jaehee’s roommate, so wouldn’t it be better if Eden hyung cleans up and I take Jaehee to his room?”
“When people get drunk, they become honest. Jaehee should open up when it’s time to open up.”
“Ah, right.”
At Gyeon Hajun’s thoughtful explanation, Kim Dobin nodded with a face that said he hadn’t thought that far.
When I supported him, Ryu Jaehee glanced at me with eyes red from crying and shook his head frantically.
“What… switch me out for Yehyeon hyung. He’s much more delicate than you, which is better…”
“You’re always coveting my clothes, and now you prefer Yehyeon hyung too?”
When I asked with a crooked smile, Ryu Jaehee blinked a couple times and smirked.
“Yehyeon hyung? I’ll tell Yehyeon hyung that you didn’t call him hyung-nim.”
“Go ahead, tell him. Do you think I call him hyung-nim because I’m scared of that guy?”
I shot back with a sneer of my own.
So what if Seo Yehyeon finds out that I don’t call him hyung-nim when he’s not around? Then we’d just have one pissed off Seo Yehyeon, so what?
“I think I understand why Yehyeon hyung and you had such a bad relationship at first. You’re really the type of person whose words create a thousand nyang debt.”
As soon as I dragged him to the room with my arm around his shoulder and threw him onto his bed, Ryu Jaehee spat out those resentful words.
“Insulting someone’s family is the same as insulting that person. Even you would get angry if someone badmouthed your grandfather in front of you, no matter how your grandfather treats you.”
Well, that would be true. At least my grandfather didn’t sell the gifts I received from fans on Joonggonara.
Even though Ryu Jaehee was disappointed in his family members who naturally demanded money from him, it seems he still couldn’t let go of his family.
Since he still thinks of them as family, he probably thinks that hearing bad things about them is like hearing bad things about himself.
Even though he suffered so much because of his family before the regression. I can’t call his inability to be cold-hearted stupid, really… As I was scratching my sweat-dampened hair, Ryu Jaehee muttered.
“No matter how messed up Ryu Jaekyung is, he’s not that bad…”
No, your brother is exactly that bad.
“Aren’t you overreacting like that because you’re unnecessarily anxious?”
When I let out a hollow laugh and hit the nail on the head, Ryu Jaehee blinked slowly. Looking at me with eyes blurred by alcohol, Ryu Jaehee smiled faintly.
“What is there to be anxious about? You have no eye for people anyway. That’s why you didn’t know until right before Parachute stabbed you in the back.”
The words “Your way of talking is fucking rude” rose to my throat, but I let it slide because it was Ryu Jaehee. If it had been someone else, I would have already gotten serious and told them to say that again.
Usually he only says things that please me, but when he’s upset he only spits out nasty words. I stretched out Ryu Jaehee’s mouth and let out an annoyed chuckle.
“Ha, this brat is looking down on his hyung.”
Ryu Jaehee shook his head vigorously to barely escape from my hand pinching his mouth and mumbled.
“Please understand… This time you have to be wrong…”
My hand that was sweeping back my sweat-dampened hair paused.
“I left those birthday gifts from the hyungs at the family home and told them they were fan support. He won’t sell them. Yeah, he won’t sell them. What have I ever given him insufficiently that Ryu Jaekyung would do something to make me get criticized…”
Ryu Jaehee looked up at me with eyes still brimming with tears and smiled brightly.
“I’m glad you’re not a perfect person. I thought you’d overcome your slump quickly too…”
Overcome it and what. What’s most infuriating is when someone stops talking mid-sentence, and huh?
With those words, he didn’t continue speaking and smoothly closed his eyes and fell asleep. I roughly covered Ryu Jaehee up to his neck with a blanket and left the room feeling only disturbed.
Shit, if I get this right, I’ll become a fucking perfect person now? Then won’t my relationship improvement with Ryu Jaehee get damaged… huh?
As I was looking back at the room where Ryu Jaehee was sleeping with a dumbfounded face, Kim Dobin, who had handed me a soju bottle, tapped me.
“Hyung, what’s wrong? Did Jaehee say he doesn’t want to see you?”
“You bastard, you’re really top-level at passing off your own work?”
I grumbled while tossing the soju bottle back to Kim Dobin. I watched the back of Kim Dobin trudging toward the utility room with the recycling bag, hugging the soju bottle to his chest, and muttered.
“Relationship improvement… Right, it was improvement, not favorability.”
Even though the relationship improvement reached 100%, Seo Yehyeon still calls me “Hey, Yoon Eden” and considers me more distant than Gyeon Hajun, Kim Dobin still occasionally gets scared of me, and Gyeon Hajun and I sometimes don’t understand each other.
100% didn’t mean a perfect relationship. It was about breaking down the walls that had built up between me and the members since before the regression.
I suddenly realized that I had been viewing Ryu Jaehee as too mature all this time.
Even though Ryu Jaehee was still young, as Seo Yehyeon and I had said.
But I still don’t know.
Whether it’s me or Ryu Jaehee who holds the key to that 1%, no, now 2%.
* * *
One day after New Year’s Day, I gave Seo Yehyeon the driving lessons he had so desperately wanted to experience, and we also finished packing most of the moving boxes.
Of course, despite being so confident, Seo Yehyeon only admitted that it was sugar-coated praise for beginners getting their license after getting cursed at by me several times more than Kim Dobin had.
Moving was an urgent matter at hand, but there was something far more important ahead of us.
“Even if we don’t get the grand prize, it seems like we’ll get a main award, so what about the acceptance speech…”
“I really don’t understand why you’ve been so obsessed with impressive acceptance speeches from before, Yoon Eden.”
“Hyung-nim, if you’re not going to help me come up with an impressive acceptance speech, don’t interfere. I don’t expect your understanding.”
The award ceremony, which had now become what I’d almost call a penalty day, was right around the corner.
Oh right, also the day I’d make Seo Yehyeon sick of being called hyung-nim.
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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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