A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 437

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Regression Manual for Idols Who Lost Their Original Intent Episode 437

Whether they found it strange that I wasn’t taking charge first, or whether they wanted me to step forward, the members kept glancing at me. When I showed no intention of stepping up, Seo Yehyeon finally did.

“Who are you?”

“Uh, I’m Lee Haewon… I’m fourteen years old…”

Hearing that name after so long and seeing that face after so long brought back memories from the past that had been buried deep after my regression.

I hadn’t expected to face him again like this.

That made sense though, since even among LnL’s female trainees, there was only one familiar face who had debuted before my regression. After we made it big and LnL Ent’s reputation rose, their standards for selecting trainees became quite high accordingly.

I had said he was a junior I cherished, but honestly speaking, it was ambiguous whether I had cherished him or whether he was even really a junior.

Lee Haewon was still a trainee who hadn’t debuted until the very end of my memories, and thinking about it now, I wondered if what I did – caring about him a little and looking after him – could really be called cherishing.

Of course, my past self would have confidently said I cherished that kid, since that level of goodwill I showed to others during that most difficult situation was plenty significant, but looking back now, I didn’t even put in half the attention I currently give to Ryu Jaehee.

We met earlier than before. Back then, that kid was fifteen or sixteen, wasn’t he.

“Alright, now I know your name is Lee Haewon, but who are you? Who are you to be in someone else’s practice room in the middle of the night?”

Of course, I had memories from before my regression and a connection from back then, so just hearing his name I immediately knew he wasn’t a sasaeng but a trainee from our agency, but the other members had no way of knowing, so I understood their suspicion.

At the sharp attitude directed at him, Lee Haewon hurriedly rattled off excuses.

“I’m not a thief, I’m an LnL trainee. Really. I even appeared briefly on the live broadcast when you seniors shared tteokbokki with us…!”

I asked quietly toward Lee Haewon, who was frantically searching for his phone as if to show the live broadcast recording.

“You’re that kid, right? The one who auditioned with an original song?”

I had heard about it recently through the A&R team. They said they hadn’t expected much because he was young, but when they listened to the song he called his original composition, they could see potential, that he might be able to continue the lineage of self-producing groups, or something like that.

Thinking of before my regression, it only made me laugh bitterly. Before my regression, even when they said they’d let us do that damn self-producing, they would ignore what we said, but now that had become a source of agency pride worth continuing as a lineage.

The members’ gazes also shifted from Lee Haewon to me. Lee Haewon, who had been looking at me with surprised eyes after hesitating, soon nodded his head vigorously.

“Oh, then he really is a trainee?”

“I thought he was a runaway teen who picked up an ID card.”

“Hyung, what kind of runaway teen would think to sleep in an agency practice room. That’s something only hyung would think of, normal people couldn’t even imagine it.”

“Would a normal person run away from home?”

The wariness that had appeared in the members’ eyes completely disappeared after I vouched that he was a trainee.

But Kim Dobin reassured Lee Haewon, who still couldn’t lift his head with an anxious face, thinking we would scold him for trespassing.

“It’s okay. Our agency isn’t the kind of heartless and strict agency that would kick out trainees for entering a senior’s practice room.”

“Right, but if you’re going to comfort him, put down that fire extinguisher first, Doby.”

Kim Dobin quietly put down the fire extinguisher he had somehow picked up. If he hit someone with that, we’d debut on the front page of the society section, not the entertainment section, man.

Gyeon Hajun, who had been quietly staying silent without adding anything, casually threw out a comment.

“But the door should have been locked, how did you get in?”

It was quite a sharp question. Sharp enough to plant wariness back into the relaxed atmosphere.

But the answer that came back was deflating.

“I picked it with a pin…”

Lee Haewon, who had been rummaging through his pocket, carefully took out a hairpin to show them. The suspicion disappeared from Gyeon Hajun’s eyes too.

Instead, his expression changed to one that said ‘what kind of kid is this.’

“I’m sorry… I just thought it was an empty practice room that wasn’t being used so it was locked. I haven’t been here long…”

Lee Haewon bowed his head deeply again. With a kid ten years younger than me acting like this, it felt like we had become mean adults intimidating a child.

It was the same back then too.

However, the difference from before my regression was that we weren’t facing each other alone, but five of us facing Lee Haewon alone.

Why I had gone to the practice room alone that night was hazy in my memory. Whether I had gone to retrieve my belongings, or whether I had gone to pack up belongings at Ryu Jaehee or Gyeon Hajun’s request.

Oh right, and another difference was that this kid knew very well back then that it was Rev’s practice room. He said he would sometimes hole up there when he wanted to be alone since trainees who knew it was Rev’s practice room wouldn’t come.

Anyway, I, uncharacteristically at the time, indulged in a whim and listened to that kid’s troubles, and learned that Lee Haewon had dreamed of being a singer-songwriter but eventually changed course to become an idol, auditioned for agencies, and finally entered LnL as a trainee.

‘A guy who dreamed of being a singer-songwriter had to come here of all places. Like me, you really have a talent for screwing up your own fate.’

‘But I had nowhere else to go…’

That made sense. Lee Haewon, whom I had looked into through trainee monthly evaluation videos and observed directly because he seemed to overlap with my own image and caught my interest, was mediocre in everything. Vocals, dance, rap.

Of course, he was still much better than Seo Yehyeon at debut. Lee Haewon didn’t even have Seo Yehyeon’s level of looks, so if he had debut-era Seo Yehyeon’s skills, he wouldn’t have even gotten into LnL. Seo Yehyeon should be grateful for his face.

Lee Haewon simply had Kim Dobin’s vocal skills, my dance skills from before joining New Born, and Ryu Jaehee’s rap skills.

“Is there a special reason you were crying in our practice room?”

“No, it’s just that there were hyungs still practicing in our practice room. I got scolded before for crying in the emergency staircase, so I was avoiding the emergency staircase and looking for an empty place, and ended up coming all the way here… I really didn’t know it was Rev seniors’ practice room.”

Lee Haewon frantically rattled off reasons at almost rap speed. Even in that brief moment, no rap talent was visible.

Back then, did I tell him to work his ass off at vocal lessons to improve his vocal skills and establish his uniqueness through producing? Of course, I remember adding the very irresponsible comment that I wasn’t sure if that would work at LnL.

“I think we’ve heard enough about why you came into our practice room. Now tell us why you’re crying. If it’s within the range hyung can solve, I’ll solve it for you. Was there hazing or hierarchy among trainees?”

“Or bullying? Harassment?”

Ryu Jaehee and Kim Dobin asked in turn based on their own experiences. Ryu Jaehee was particularly persistent, seeming to see his own past self who had suffered from hazing and hierarchy at TK overlapping.

Since the current Lee Haewon is even younger than Ryu Jaehee was back then, he seems more concerned.

Lee Haewon shook his head again and answered in a crawling voice.

“No, it’s because of the monthly evaluation… It’s my first monthly evaluation and not only my individual assessment, but I think I ruined the team evaluation because of me…”

The seventeen-year-old appearance was the one I remembered most vividly, so seeing him much younger than our first meeting felt strange.

Unlike the past when he was a trainee with considerable experience, our first meeting being right after his first monthly evaluation.

“It’s okay. That’s nothing. You can make up for it later.”

Ryu Jaehee comforted Lee Haewon quite maturely. It felt like he was stealing my position from before my regression, but I wasn’t particularly bothered.

“Huh, LnL does monthly evaluations?”

“What’s a monthly evaluation?”

Only Kim Dobin and Seo Yehyeon, whose first agency was the newly established LnL and had never experienced monthly evaluations, looked confused.

While Gyeon Hajun explained to Seo Yehyeon what monthly evaluations were, Lee Haewon was spilling out the rest of his anxieties that a fourteen-year-old would have.

“I shouldn’t have done my individual evaluation with an original song… What if I get eliminated?”

Of course, if Lee Haewon had been an unremarkable, mediocre kid, there would have been no reason for my past self, who didn’t even have the luxury to look after myself, to take interest.

The work I heard called his original song in the monthly evaluation video was like a rough gem that would shine quite well if polished properly, so I just helped a little with the polishing.

“Don’t worry, you won’t get eliminated.”

I replied indifferently to Lee Haewon’s worry.

“LnL isn’t blessed enough with trainees to eliminate them that easily, is it?”

“No, hyung. At times like this, you should ask to hear his original song and then tell him it’s good after listening. You’re crushing the kid’s self-esteem!”

Ryu Jaehee nagged at me. I ostentatiously picked at my ear and looked at Lee Haewon, who was hanging his head and fidgeting with his fingers.

Clearly, my memories with Lee Haewon were smooth until the very end. So smooth that after my regression, I couldn’t even remember until facing him directly like this.

But damn, why does this feel so awkward.

Since he was a full ten years younger than me, it was really awkward to show this feeling. Especially seeing him immediately bow his head back down within one second of noticing my gaze.

Only after giving him advice not to pick locks and enter here anymore, along with telling him the location of empty offices where he could be alone, and sending Lee Haewon back to the trainee dormitory, did we finally return to our dormitory.

“Wow, I really thought it was a ghost and got startled.”

“I thought it was a sasaeng or runaway teen. But Doby, do ghosts show up on fat cams? Don’t they not appear on infrared or ultraviolet cameras or something like that?”

Kim Dobin and Seo Yehyeon openly showed relieved faces as they patted their chests. They seemed to know themselves that this wasn’t something they could show in front of a young trainee.

“It’s pitiful, really. He seems like such a young kid. These days they become trainees from such a young age.”

Ryu Jaehee seemed quite concerned as he kept muttering about Lee Haewon. Then, as if curious about something, he turned to me and asked.

“But hyung, did you also compose from age fourteen?”

“No, back then I only wrote rap lyrics. I started messing with beats and composition around fifteen?”

“Oh, he’s a whole year ahead of you, hyung. The A&R team keeping an eye on him means they’re thinking of raising him as a second you, don’t they?”

At Ryu Jaehee’s playful question, I nodded and fell into thought.

There definitely seems to be something there. Otherwise, there’s no way the junior I used to look after and cherish would feel this awkward, right?

This must be that memory manipulation thing!

[N]

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————