A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 402

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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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Regression Manual for Idols Who Lost Their Original Intent Episode 402

“It’s no use saying that. Make sure to tell Ryu Jaekyung clearly. If he doesn’t earn and pay back the 500,000 won himself, the criminal complaint will be filed next month.”

Ryu Jaehee, who cut off his mother’s words with a cold voice, just listened expressionlessly to the lamentations and resentment that poured out again.

He had known very well since childhood that his mother had a hard time. That’s why he voluntarily took care of his younger siblings and helped with the tiresome ancestral rites both financially and physically. She had been holding onto me and pouring out lamentations and resentment like this since long ago, so how could I not know?

As a result, Ryu Jaehee’s sacrifice had become not something to be grateful for, but something taken for granted.

“He should know how hard it is to earn that small amount of money. Only then will he realize the value of the allowance he received.”

If there was one excuse for Ryu Jaekyung, it was only that he had learned his parents’ attitude as it was.

Though Ryu Jaeseon, who grew up in the same environment, turned out well, so I didn’t really want to give him that excuse.

“And you seem to be misunderstanding, but the reason I gave you 500,000 won less for this month’s living expenses was to tell you not to give that money to Ryu Jaekyung. The person who suggested filing a lawsuit wasn’t Eden Hyung, it was me.”

Since I didn’t expect parents who even took their children’s allowance to pay the money instead, this was just spite. Spite to make resentment and complaints go to Ryu Jaekyung.

The funny thing was that Ryu Jaekyung wasn’t even a particularly favored child. They were forcing understanding and forgiveness on me because they were afraid the money line they gave to their parents might be cut off because I couldn’t forgive Ryu Jaekyung.

When I firmly presented my opinion that I would never let Ryu Jaekyung off the hook, my mother’s voice became sharp as predicted and she scolded me.

-Are you trying to ruin your younger brother’s life? Are you still a hyung after doing that?

“I’m helping him as a hyung so he won’t ruin it further. He already has no sense of money and even after I clearly warned him, he still touches other people’s things, so shouldn’t I fix that now?”

A deep sigh, and a voice saying she was fed up echoed through the receiver.

-Don’t go around saying you’re my child. How can a child be so heartless and selfish. I raised him wrong, I raised him wrong.

It was a lament I had heard tediously whenever I tried to find a little breathing room. As such, it was also a ridiculous thing to hurt me with.

Still…

“You shouldn’t have said that, Mother.”

I didn’t want to cut off the last bit of affection this way.

Ryu Jaehee let out a bitter smile into the air. He had played the role of a caring and helpful child, the eldest hyung who cared for his younger siblings, and the pillar of the family enough until now.

So now he wanted to live as the youngest member who could also throw tantrums and rely on others.

“I have things to say, so I’ll visit during New Year’s. Oh, and tell Ryu Jaekyung that if he finds and brings back those sneakers he sold, I’ll reduce the money he has to pay back to 300,000 won.”

His mother on the other end of the receiver tried to say something, but he didn’t listen anymore and hung up with a click.

Ryu Jaehee finally made up his mind to leave the old fence that would collapse someday.

Now he had a sturdy fence with people who, though they didn’t share a drop of blood, were more reliable than family and cared for him.

* * *

The agency’s briefing on this year’s schedule was held in early January.

First, the biggest event of this year, the full album, was scheduled for release in April. The comeback showcase date was April 27th.

Until now, I had matched concepts to songs according to my work style, but this full album followed the orthodox route since we had enough preparation time.

First, we planned the musical direction and concept of this album, then delivered song leads written accordingly to the agency’s composers and freelance composers.

I also worked on songs while looking at the song leads.

Before regression, when I was closer to being a producer than an idol, I had experienced this method quite often, so even though it was different from the work process so far, I was familiar with it and wouldn’t get confused.

It was actually much easier than back then because the members and I all actively participated in the planning process and had the framework structured in our minds, and I had almost written the song leads myself.

‘We need at least fifteen songs to have options when choosing the tracks, right?’

‘I was just listening to collected songs with the A&R team and filtering to narrow down candidates, but at this rate, we won’t even have ten songs. We don’t even have ten candidates right now.’

‘This is what we get just from removing songs that deviate from the song lead, but if we filter considering quality too…’

‘First, I need to find songs from my work that are as similar to the song lead as possible. If we combine those, we’ll roughly match the numbers.’

‘How about we set at least three title track candidates. More would be better. Let me pull some strings again-‘

‘No, CEO. You don’t need to pull strings. I already talked to G1 Producer and composer Baek Sangyeol, so contact them and deliver the song lead. Set the deadline for 2 weeks for now. We’ll decide the title track including my song from within here. At this rate, we’ll end up delaying the comeback date.’

‘Then let’s do title track selection and track picking in 3 weeks. Music video company selection is…’

Ah, of course, it would be wrong to say the other processes were easy too. You can trust the CEO’s luck but not his sense, right?

The probability of him bringing a song like the mini 2nd album from before regression was much higher than bringing a song like 【Temptation】.

Honestly, we did hit it big with that, but I had regrets about 【Temptation】 too, and in terms of quality alone, it wasn’t really a song I liked that much.

And in the second half of the year, domestic concerts and a North American tour were scheduled.

‘We’re planning to release a DVD containing the performance process and scenes, so cameras will be following you around during the tour. Please keep that in mind and be a bit more careful with your words and actions than usual.’

‘Aren’t we getting a movie? Looking at Altair seniors, they even screened tour movies in theaters.’

‘Doby, you personally rent a theater, play the DVD, and hold a screening event for the fans. Then that’s a movie.’

‘Oh, that sounds good?’

‘…Don’t take my joke seriously.’

‘A movie… is still too much for us…’

‘Doby was talking nonsense, so you don’t need to take it seriously.’

It was clear that this year would be another frantically busy year like last year.

Ah, I need to keep up with DTB Season 5 too. Will it become a legend that surpasses Season 4 that I appeared in, unlike before regression, or will it be the season that opens the beginning of decline like before regression?

I received contacts from Jiwon Hyung and Sangyeol Hyung saying they sent songs a few days ago, and my demo track was also completed recently with Ryu Jaehee’s guide vocals.

Title track selection was scheduled to be done by blind voting with four candidate songs: Jiwon Hyung’s song, Sangyeol Hyung’s song, my song, and one song selected as the best from twenty songs collected and filtered through leads.

And for that blind voting, the CEO, staff members, and Rev members gathered in the agency’s conference room today. They said it would be more comfortable to spend the holiday if we decided before the Lunar New Year holiday.

Should I take Ryu Jaehee home during this Lunar New Year holiday too and get New Year’s money from Grandfather? Would Ryu Jaehee even want to come along? Even though the new dormitory is nice, it feels wrong to leave him alone.

I fell into thought while watching the CEO looking pleased as he listened to Kim Dobin’s long speech praising the new dormitory.

In the middle of preparing for the blind test, Seo Yehyeon, who was sitting next to me, muttered with narrowed eyes.

“Anyway, the one with Hajun’s voice will be Yoon Eden’s demo song, so is there any point to the blind test?”

“Even so, I can’t have you or I sing it just to give freshness and confuse the listeners. If we did that, it would be a complete failure in voting.”

“You don’t need to emphasize the word ‘complete failure’ like that, do you?”

“Com. Plete. Fail. Ure.”

“Damn.”

We whispered with our voices lowered as much as possible so no one would hear, but unless there was a soundproof wall surrounding us, our whispering couldn’t help but be heard nearby.

“Even elementary school students wouldn’t fight like that, Hyungs.”

At Ryu Jaehee’s sigh-mixed words, we immediately put away our teasing expressions toward each other and put on the faces of reliable guardians.

“When did we fight, Youngest Member?”

“Right, we were just having a light conversation. Fighting, he says.”

“The conversation content was so light it seemed like it would fly away. If you just modulated the voices, no one would think this was adults’ conversation.”

“Adults can have conversations like this too. Drop your prejudices.”

Gyeon Hajun, who was sitting close to us as well, tapped me and subtly pointed to the camera installed in the conference room with his finger.

It was a camera capturing the blind voting process for album making behind-the-scenes content. But since I knew these kinds of conversations would be edited out to fit the runtime anyway, I wasn’t particularly worried about this light-as-a-feather argument being included.

“Hyung, sometimes trivial prejudices can cloud one’s eyes.”

“What are you saying? Don’t say such serious things unlike yourself.”

When I spoke seriously, Seo Yehyeon was disgusted.

Would Seo Yehyeon, who had the prejudice that only Gyeon Hajun’s guide recordings were my work, be able to recognize my work this time?

Then the blind test began. Song number 1 was clearly a song with Sangyeol Hyung’s style heavily embedded in it.

It was also a song that matched quite well with our album concept this time.

Song number 2 was a song collected through leads. I remembered it because it was the song that left the most impression on me when I participated in the first filtering.

That concept could be interpreted from this perspective too, it was quite fresh.

Song number 3 was Jiwon Hyung’s song. However, I didn’t recognize it immediately upon hearing it, but deduced it through process of elimination.

It was an experimental song that was far from his previous style. It also captured the song lead better than song number 1.

“Wow, this lineup of candidate songs is really no joke.”

“Can’t we comeback with four title tracks? It’s too good to just use as B-side tracks.”

Since the candidate songs were so outstanding, the members expressed regret about having to choose just one since they liked them all.

The last song, number 4, echoed through the conference room.

“Huh, wait. There’s no Hajun Hyung’s voice? Isn’t there Eden Hyung’s song this time…?”

“I told you it was meaningless… This is the Youngest Member’s voice.”

Unlike Kim Dobin, Seo Yehyeon, who didn’t fall for prejudices, held his forehead.

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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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