A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 436

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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 436

This is driving me crazy, seriously. What am I even saying.

As my tension suddenly released, a wave of emptiness and bitter laughter rushed over me. Right, I was an idiot for overlooking the fact that the guy who came running was Kim Dobin and taking it seriously.

Whether it was because I was dumbfounded or because my tension had instantly dissipated, I rubbed my throbbing forehead and replied.

“What kind of ghost nonsense are you spouting after barging in without even knocking?”

But as soon as Kim Dobin heard that, instead of claiming his innocence saying no, that he saw it clearly with his own eyes, he widened his eyes and stumbled backward.

Kim Dobin’s unfamiliar reaction made my spine tingle with unease. That bastard, why is he acting so unlike himself?

With an expression full of wariness and fear, Kim Dobin opened his mouth.

“H-Hyung. You’re not possessed by a ghost, are you…? Did I accidentally bring that practice room ghost here by letting on that I noticed it, and now it’s attached to you?”

My forehead throbbed again. Right, I’m an idiot for getting tense over Kim Dobin’s words.

Judging by how his voice was trembling and cracking, it seemed like he was asking a serious question in his own way.

“Exactly which part of me looks like I’m possessed by a ghost?”

“Usually you’d start with ‘Ghost? Gho-o-ost?’ first!”

I was going to do that originally.

I was so dumbfounded that I lost all energy and just skipped it, but to be misunderstood as being possessed because of that.

“Fine, you made a good point. Ghost? Gho-o-ost? It’s not even dawn, it’s a bright 10 PM in the evening, ghosts can freeze to death!”

Even though I satisfied his expectations, Kim Dobin said you shouldn’t say such things carelessly, that if it really was a frozen ghost, it might get even more pissed at my words, and trembled even more.

“Hey, Dobin.”

“Yes, Hyung.”

“If your evidence for thinking it’s a ghost is flimsy, be prepared, okay?”

Even though I spoke in a threatening tone while loosely flexing my hands in front of Kim Dobin, he didn’t blink an eye.

In the past, he would have gotten scared and cowered, but have I become too easy-going? Maybe it’s time to establish my authority as leader again.

I thought we might need a Rev meeting at this rate.

“We lock the practice room door when we leave, right?”

While I was seriously contemplating, Kim Dobin started explaining the situation.

“I left my portable battery in the practice room, but I needed to charge it to use tomorrow, so I got the key from Hajun hyung and went back to get it.”

“Oh, I see.”

“But I heard strange sounds from inside the practice room. Like sobbing and crying sounds. So I thought maybe it was our youngest member and called, but it wasn’t.”

“Then it must be Yehyeon hyung.”

“No! Everyone was at the dorm! That’s why I rushed straight to you, Hyung!”

“Why, did you think it might be me?”

“No? I obviously excluded you from the start thinking it couldn’t be you. Honestly, you crying alone in the practice room would be more horrifying. That wouldn’t be you but something wearing your mask.”

“Then why did you come here?”

“Can’t you come with me to get the portable battery? I’m scared to go alone. I really heard the sound of a person crying.”

Kim Dobin honestly confessed the real reason he ran to my studio. I’m not some shaman, so why did he come to me.

“We’re going to the practice room tomorrow anyway, so you can get it then. Why the rush?”

“The hyungs always get priority for the chargers plugged into outlets. Jaehee and I can’t even charge 10%. That’s why we carry portable batteries.”

“I’ll let you go first with the charger order. Go tomorrow.”

“What if the ghost possesses the portable battery! So I brought it to the dorm, but what if it enters my dreams every night and turns them into nightmares, strangling me while I sleep…!”

“You’re talking nonsense again. Where in the world are there ghosts? What, are you going to insist that pension fake documentary we went to before was real too?”

“That was real! My aunt said the shaman told them to either sell it quickly or tear down that house!”

“That’s all a scheme to rip people off for ritual fees and talisman money.”

I gently asked Kim Dobin, who was now thumping his chest.

“Dobin, what’s scarier – a ghost in the practice room, or a person with a knife?”

“Both.”

“How can it be both? Pick one, man.”

“Then the ghost. At least with a person holding a knife, I can call 112 and take legal action, but I can’t do that with a ghost.”

What a strange and terrible coward.

I eventually got up and followed Kim Dobin. I just left my car at the studio and moved to the agency in Kim Dobin’s car.

“Wow, your driving has improved a lot? See, I told you that you have to learn intensively when you first start.”

“So right now, you’re not admiring my driving skills, but admiring your own Spartan education and foresight.”

“You know it well.”

We swiped our ID cards and entered the company building, took the elevator, and walked through the dark corridor with the lights off to arrive in front of our practice room. There wasn’t even a hint of sobbing sounds, just silence. That’s Kim Dobin for you.

As soon as I grabbed and turned the door handle, the door opened smoothly, making me raise my eyebrows and look back at Kim Dobin who was standing close behind me.

“Did you open the door?”

“I can’t remember. Did I open the door? I remember putting my hand on the door handle.”

“You must have opened it. It’s not the first or second time you’ve been absent-minded.”

When I opened the door wide, Kim Dobin poked my back.

“Hyung, is something there?”

“There’s nothing. See for yourself.”

I grabbed Kim Dobin’s neck and pulled him over while turning on the practice room lights. An empty practice room with nothing in it greeted us.

“Didn’t you just mistake your brain’s delusions for reality? You were definitely scared of the dark corridor, so that’s more than enough reason.”

When I spoke indifferently to Kim Dobin who quickly grabbed his portable battery, Kim Dobin made a strange expression.

And so the ghost commotion seemed to come to a rough conclusion.

* * *

“Come to think of it, do our scores start getting counted from tomorrow?”

“If we go up, 【Stay】 will probably drop from the first place candidates too, right? It’s kind of disappointing. It was fun receiving trophies in place of Seo Raon sunbae.”

“You never know. Other songs might drop while that one stays.”

The first week of our comeback passed quickly while we were busy with Kim Dobin’s injury. Just as Kim Dobin said, as if we had warded off bad luck, there were no incidents after the showcase.

Our music was also solidly maintaining first place, and the other songs didn’t fall below 10th place either.

When our activity schedules ended, we would briefly practice choreography in the practice room whenever we had time before going to individual schedules.

“How much more do we need to practice to be able to dance with our eyes closed while matching formations and movements?”

“For you, hyung, probably until the end of our promotions?”

“That’s all? Not a year? Have my skills improved that much?”

Seo Yehyeon was happy, taking Kim Dobin’s offhand comment seriously while he was distracted by his phone. I was also thinking to myself that it would take at least a year, so I was startled by Yehyeon’s words. Why are we thinking the same thing?

“【’Till dawn】 is a ballad so there isn’t much choreography, but 【Midnight】 is somehow harder than the title track.”

“If 【Midnight】 had been the title track, you would have suffered quite a bit, hyung. But didn’t you vote for 【Midnight】?”

“Why are you saying something Yoon Eden would say?”

In the car on the way back to the dorm, as usual, Seo Yehyeon’s voice complaining about the choreography difficulty rather than his uncooperative body, and Gyeon Hajun’s occasional responses echoed quietly.

What shattered that relative peace was Kim Dobin’s sudden outcry.

“Hyungs, look! Look! Something was caught on the pet cam! I told you! It really is a ghost!”

Kim Dobin caused a commotion, stretching his body toward the driver’s seat and showing his phone screen. At least he valued his life enough to only make that fuss when I had stopped the car to wait for the signal.

I could see a screen with something like a blurry human silhouette floating against a dark background.

This is making me feel uneasy for no reason.

“When did you even install a pet cam?”

“I don’t want to practice in a practice room with ghosts! What if I have to practice alone late at night!”

“Maybe it’s just a cleaning person?”

“We locked our practice room door! How could they get in! Cleaning is only on Wednesday and Sunday mornings, and they don’t have keys!”

Silence fell inside the car at Kim Dobin’s scream-like outcry.

“Hyung, but even if it really is a ghost, what are we going to do there?”

“Eden hyung will exorcise it. We have Eden hyung.”

“What am I, an exorcist?”

The signal changed. As I was contemplating whether to go to the dorm or turn the car toward the agency, Gyeon Hajun in the passenger seat tapped me.

“Still, let’s go check it out. Even if that’s not a ghost but a person, it’s still a problem. But don’t you need an ID card to enter the company building at this hour?”

“So… Hajun, are you saying someone might have copied an ID card to get in…?”

Seo Yehyeon asked in a trembling voice. At those words, Gyeon Hajun scratched his cheek awkwardly and replied.

“No, I just meant it could be an insider.”

“No, but Yehyeon Hyung’s guess could actually be right. If it’s a sasaeng who copied an ID card to get in, that would be even worse!”

Ryu Jaehee’s face turned pale after concluding the intruder was a sasaeng. Meanwhile, Kim Dobin continued pushing his ghost theory.

“Should we buy some salt?”

“Hyung, you’re going to sprinkle salt on a sasaeng?”

“No, why is everyone refusing to consider that it could be a ghost? Didn’t we all experience the mountain lodge and pension together?”

Well, that’s because we didn’t actually encounter any ghosts there.

Since we couldn’t call the manager over something uncertain, we immediately turned the car back to the agency. After driving for about 20 minutes, we arrived back at the agency.

“This sound. This is what I heard.”

Standing in front of the practice room door, Kim Dobin whispered in a low voice at the faint sniffling sounds coming through.

“It sounds like a man crying?”

“A bachelor ghost?”

“Geez.”

While Gyeon Hajun was taking out the key, I experimentally tried turning the practice room door handle. The door handle that had been firmly locked when we had just locked it and checked was now turning very smoothly.

Determined expressions were exchanged silently.

With a creak, we opened the door and entered, turning on the practice room lights first. As the lighting came on and the space brightened, we saw someone sitting with their back against the mirror, knees drawn up, looking at us with startled eyes.

The youthful face looked even younger than Ryu Jaehee, our group’s youngest member. The intruder who had hastily gotten up was flustered with a pale face.

“S-sorry. I thought it was an empty practice room…”

When he raised his head that had been bowing repeatedly, the face that came fully into view was quite familiar, making me blink slowly.

Many things had changed, but sometimes there are things that don’t change.

The fan event message from our first concert, and also…

Meeting my most cherished junior from before the regression again like this in this agency’s practice room.

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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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