A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 43

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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 Initial Intentions Episode 43

Current time: 1:28 AM

Two minutes left until wake-up time. Gyeon Hajun, Seo Yehyeon, and I, who had briefly closed our eyes from 11 PM to 1 AM yesterday, were all awake.

Even during that short sleep, I watched Seo Yehyeon wash his face with cold water worried his face might be swollen, struggling to somehow set himself up to look decent, then buried my face back in the pillow.

“I wonder if the youngest is awake…”

“Send him a text. If he’s not sleeping, he’s probably on his phone.”

I replied to Gyeon Hajun’s muttering with a voice sunken from being unable to sleep at all. I had turned off the alarm I would normally have set.

The script called for someone with a camcorder to go around waking up the members and capture their ‘just woken up’ appearance.

At the sound of knocking, all three of us immediately started pretending to sleep.

“Yes, this is the room used by the three hyung line members. It’s twice the size of our room. Only people over 180cm can use it.”

The door burst open and Ryu Jaehee entered.

“Everyone’s sleeping soundly. Still, Doby hyung and I each have our own small mattress so we sleep separately, but here there’s one big mattress so they’re forced to share a bed… Oh, sharing a bed is short for sharing the same bed.”

Ryu Jaehee’s first target as he whispered and chattered to the camcorder was Seo Yehyeon.

“This is Rev’s visual eldest hyung, Yehyeon hyung. This hyung looks handsome even when sleeping. The world really is unfair.”

Remembering how Seo Yehyeon had been making all sorts of fuss just moments ago about not being able to look ugly on camera, those words only made me snort.

Of course his usual sleeping appearance was decent enough, but it couldn’t compare to this staged look.

“Yehyeon hyung, wake up.”

Following acting genius Gyeon Hajun’s advice, Seo Yehyeon kept his mouth shut without any lines and just raised his upper body.

The concept was being half-asleep and unable to think straight in the morning.

“Since you’re up, how about a morning greeting to the fans?”

“Good morning, Daydream.”

Starting the day with Seo Yehyeon’s morning greeting instead of an alarm. I couldn’t even lie and call it a refreshing start to the day.

“Next is our Rev’s leader, Eden hyung. Don’t you think his expression looks a bit gentler when he’s sleeping?”

Having chosen me as the next target, Ryu Jaehee pressed his finger against my brow and shook my body.

“Eden hyung, it’s morning.”

“…I’m awake.”

I rolled over, lay face down, and buried my face in the pillow as I replied.

My concept was insisting I was awake while still half-asleep and trying to keep sleeping.

“You’re not awake. Wake up quickly!”

“Mm-hmm.”

I replied halfheartedly and pulled my hood over my head. I felt someone smoothly sitting up beside me.

“Oh, Hajun hyung. You woke up on your own without me having to wake you?”

“Did you sleep well too, Jaehee? What’s gotten into you, waking up early?”

“What do you mean what’s gotten into me? I’m the most diligent morning person in Rev.”

Ryu Jaehee shamelessly lied without his voice wavering even once.

Maybe the acting genius wasn’t Gyeon Hajun but Ryu Jaehee.

“What morning person? You sleep until 10 AM if no one wakes you up. Do you not know what morning person means, youngest?”

Unable to ignore his nonsense, I grumbled and sat up, then Ryu Jaehee pointed the camcorder at me asking for a greeting.

“Good morning.”

Strictly speaking it wasn’t morning but closer to dawn at night, but I waved at the camcorder with half-closed eyes.

When you have about 8 years of idol experience, maintaining “eye size that looks like you’re not fully awake but doesn’t look ugly” is a piece of cake.

Normally, Seo Yehyeon would wake up first to go morning exercise, Gyeon Hajun would wake up next to prepare breakfast, and I would wake up to two alarms in sequence, half-awake in a drowsy state lying on the mattress scribbling lyrics that suddenly came to mind in my phone’s notepad.

Then when Gyeon Hajun told me to wake the kids for food, I’d get up, go to the Youngest Line Room, and wake them by playing the loudest song at full speaker volume.

From the moment Ryu Jaehee woke up first, this was bound to become a staged broadcast.

Having safely finished the wake-up performance, we followed Ryu Jaehee to the room used by the youngest line.

“Now finally, let me try waking up Doby hyung.”

“Doby still hasn’t woken up?”

“He said to wake him after waking all the hyungs.”

As soon as I saw Kim Dobin sprawled comfortably on the bed, I could tell.

This guy is really sleeping.

He wasn’t going to wake up after pretending to sleep like us, but was going to show his real waking up appearance.

Sacrificing himself to bring authenticity to this reality show that was all staged.

“Doby hyung! Wake up!”

“I told you to wake me after waking all the hyungs…”

The three of us watched with fascinated eyes from behind Ryu Jaehee as Kim Dobin mumbled with completely slurred pronunciation.

“All the hyungs are awake. You’re the only one who hasn’t woken up.”

“Ah, don’t lie…”

“I’m not lying, so stop dawdling and get up quickly.”

At my voice, Kim Dobin, who had been squirming and pulling the blanket over his head, reluctantly lowered the blanket and only raised his upper body.

“Huh, really. Hyungs, did you sleep well… Yaaawn.”

And that sight of him yawning loudly with an ugly face was captured entirely by the camcorder in Ryu Jaehee’s hands.

Still, he’s an idol, but will that face be okay to broadcast?

His face with squinted eyes and a frown looked quite pitiful, so I kindly covered it with the blanket.

Anyway, thanks to putting on such a show from morning, the tension about our first music show after the comeback had long since dissipated.

After washing up and leaving the dormitory, we got makeup and hair styling at the shop and arrived at the broadcasting station where pre-recording for the music show takes place at 4 AM.

“I heard KICKS are candidates for 1st place this week, but we’re not candidates for 1st place?”

“You can’t be a candidate for 1st place on music shows in the first week of comeback. There are no chart scores.”

Even if we really were candidates for 1st place, the possibility of us winning 1st place this week with our significantly lower album sales and music source rankings was close to the odds of winning the lottery.

Still, thinking about today’s 1st place candidates made me inevitably furious.

‘At least the reality camera isn’t following us to the waiting room today.’

As soon as I opened the group waiting room door and saw the familiar faces, that was the first thought that crossed my mind.

The guys who not only made it to 1st place candidates but also recorded 90,000 first-week sales with this album.

Remembering that Rev’s last album recorded 1** first-week sales made my head hurt.

We need at least 80,000 first-week sales to not fall behind in album sales points when we face off next week.

I wasn’t particularly worried about music source chart rankings since I had no doubt that KICKS would fall and we would rise.

“Oh, you were sick but managed not to delay your comeback?”

As soon as our eyes met, the inevitable sarcasm came out, and I put on a good-natured smile.

“I was worried certain people might misunderstand that we delayed our comeback because we were scared to face them.”

KICKS looked at each other with confused faces as if this wasn’t the reaction they expected, then soon realized I had been sarcastic toward them and distorted their expressions.

“But did you already forget? What did I say when I talk to you?”

When I stared at them with all the humor drained from my face, the KICKS leader with a frown waved his hand dismissively.

“Hey hey, just don’t talk to them. Ignore them, ignore.”

“Just like a tactless backstabbing group. What country’s law says you can ignore after throwing the first punch?”

Before I could open my mouth, Seo Yehyeon struck first.

I was moved by this ability to get under people’s skin being used on someone other than me for once, so I kept my mouth shut.

That hyung is finally earning his keep.

“Leave them alone. They must be scared already.”

I scoffed as if for them to hear while casually warming up.

It was quite disappointing that I couldn’t have a fistfight like before regression since it would definitely reduce my initial intentions level.

‘No need to get worked up first.’

KICKS’ activities end at the same time as ours.

In other words, I have to keep seeing those faces until activities end.

It was annoying but I couldn’t complain, because it wasn’t that they were extending their activities long, but that we had to shorten our activities because of year-end award ceremonies.

When our turn came, we headed to the stage guided by staff.

Our fans who came to watch the pre-recording cheered when we went up on stage.

There seemed to be more of them than during .

Maybe it was because the empty space under the stage during remained in my memory for so long.

The scenery that 8-year veteran Yoon Eden, who was gradually forgetting his flop idol days, always saw was like this, so this scenery should be more familiar to me, but why does it feel so strange?

I fidgeted with the collar of my stage costume, which was similar to the outfit I wore in the music video. My costume was an oversized rider jacket.

“Our Ilmong-ies! How have you been?”

Cheers answered Ryu Jaehee’s greeting instead of words.

“It’s been a while, Daydream. We’re sorry for unintentionally making you worry.”

As Gyeon Hajun and I, the two main characters of the emergency room witness account, bowed in apology together, the fans shouted.

“No way!”

“It’s okay! It’s okay!”

“Don’t get hurt and let’s see each other for a long, long time!”

The pouring worry and encouragement somehow made my stomach churn again, so I turned around with an awkward smile. But I immediately returned to my original position at the shouts telling me not to cry.

“I won’t cry.”

Right on cue, the signal came down that we were filming the pre-recording. We stopped communicating with the fans and took our formation on stage.

An upbeat melody flowed out. I listened to Gyeon Hajun’s opening part that stretched out powerfully and refreshingly, and thought.

That damn panacea potion – I did well not taking it myself and giving it to Gyeon Hajun instead. Otherwise, we couldn’t have had today’s stage that was torn up from the first verse.

The first song I wrote thinking of the Reve members singing it.

The song that before regression, I had handed over to another group with my own hands, and thus could only watch with lingering eyes as it became a stage different from what I had imagined.

The song that earned me quite a lot of royalties, established me as a producer, and lifted a newly debuted junior group to rising status, but left me with the biggest regret.

That song was being sung by Reve, by our group, on stage.

With the voices I had thought of. Exactly the stage I had imagined.

[Give your body to this music all night long

Today, until this night is completely over, let’s party time]

“Let’s party time!”

I chuckled as I heard the fans’ voices shouting loudly from below, whether it was a fan chant or not.

For the first time, I thought this regression wasn’t atonement but an opportunity given to me.

If this was a dream, I hoped it wouldn’t end until we finished this entire stage.

The moment when a check mark was drawn on one item from my mental bucket list that I thought would never be achieved seemed like something I’d never forget for the rest of my life.

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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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