A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 499

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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 499

As they say, when you don’t have teeth, you use your gums – even without Christmas, we had Christmas Eve.

“I think I understand why my parents started skipping the Christmas tree at some point. Decorating a tree is surprisingly annoying.”

While diligently hanging decorations on the Christmas tree that occupied one corner of the dorm living room, I voiced the realization that suddenly struck me.

So this is how you come to understand your parents.

Back then, it wasn’t because I was overflowing with childlike wonder – it was because I didn’t decorate the tree myself, so it wasn’t bothersome and was just purely enjoyable.

“That’s why our house stopped putting up Christmas trees too. We bought one once after Caesar came, but he thought it was a cat tower and climbed up, knocking it over completely, so we put it back in the utility room after just one day.”

“Same with our house. That’s why decorating a Christmas tree like this feels like it’s been forever.”

Seo Yehyeon and Kim Dobin nodded and added their comments. Ryu Jaehee hung a Santa decoration among the ornaments I had carefully arranged in an irregular-yet-regular concept and blinked his eyes.

“Surprisingly, many families spent Christmas without trees.”

“It’s all childhood memories from a certain period. In a similar sense, we’re making memories right now.”

I laid the groundwork in advance so we wouldn’t have to take out the tree next year.

“Still, it’s fun. When we decorated the Christmas tree while filming the 【Snow Dream】 music video during our early debut days, we just added a few more decorations to an already decorated tree.”

Ryu Jaehee giggled as he used his height advantage to place a star on top of the tree.

Right, that guy will get tired of tree decorating labor after doing it for another year or two. I’ll have to go along with it until then, what choice do I have.

Originally, things you couldn’t do when you were young are meant to be done when you’re older until that childhood regret is resolved.

Anyway, since I had to live on allowance at home, I only caused minor disappointments to my great-uncle during my minor years, then coolly delivered a filial piety diss rap at his 80th birthday party after I became an adult, moved out, and started earning money.

While we were sharing family home memories, I nudged Gyeon Hajun, who had been the only one staying quiet, and asked.

“Hey, Jun. What about your house?”

“…In my memory, I’ve never spent Christmas with a tree up. Apparently I got crushed under a fallen tree when I was too young to remember.”

“Oh wow, do you have some kind of tree trauma or something?”

“As if. It’s just my parents’ overprotective worrying.”

If he had trauma, I was wondering whether I should shove the tree in a corner of the living room where Gyeon Hajun’s path wouldn’t overlap, or in a space beyond his sight like Ryu Jaehee’s room, but it was fortunate that he didn’t.

Come to think of it, if you had Christmas tree trauma, you couldn’t go anywhere during Christmas season. Christmas trees are everywhere.

Finally, I wrapped LED light strings around the tree and connected them to an outlet, making them twinkle brightly. When Christmas carols started flowing from the mini speaker, it was the perfect Christmas atmosphere.

It was hard work, but I was satisfied because the result turned out quite nice.

“Alright everyone, wrap your presents and put them under the tree by Christmas Eve.”

At my words, Kim Dobin clenched his fists and got even more excited than Ryu Jaehee.

“Finally achieving my dream! It feels like just yesterday I was told ‘what kind of tree in a semi-basement dorm,’ but now we’ve finally come to a dorm spacious enough that installing a tree this big doesn’t affect our living space…!”

Is your dream the tree or the house?

“Didn’t you get Christmas presents? You must have gotten them. So why is this your dream?”

“I saw 【Home Alone】 and dreamed of having presents spread out under the Christmas tree. I got them like that once when I was little, but then my brother and I fought over who would get the red robot, so from then on, mom and dad gave them to us directly.”

It really was the same reason as Kim Dobin.

Having finished the Christmas tree assignment, I now moved on to the Christmas presents assignment.

Having lived together for 4 years, we roughly knew each other’s preferences.

It wasn’t like MyIdol where there was a set budget, and even if there was, everyone was now free to pour in additional money.

I solved the other members’ gifts with money, but I wanted to give Ryu Jaehee’s gift with something other than money.

Something that would remain in his memory for a long, long time as a cherished memory.

And something he would never lose.

Having watched how sorry he felt toward me, even before his own disappointment, when he was forced to lose the birthday present I gave him because of his younger brother, that was the top priority condition for Ryu Jaehee’s gift.

“So I end up taking this out after all. This was my Christmas and winter season pension song.”

Holed up in the studio, I sighed deeply while arranging the song melody.

When 【Snow Dream】 that we released during early debut showed no signs of becoming a pension song, I consoled myself that it was a song released under deadline pressure, sharpened my blade, and worked on this winter season song as a long-term project.

Honestly, even I, who am picky about my own work, could tell this was a masterpiece that would last a good 10 years.

I prepared two versions: one with all the rap parts removed and reworked into melody, and another with rap parts reduced to featuring level.

The choice would be Ryu Jaehee’s.

I considered having Gyeon Hajun do the guide recording, but it felt right that the gift recipient should be the first to hear this song, so I did it myself.

Rough low notes, unstable high notes, and me listening to them. That was probably…

“It should be good enough to understand the pitch, right?”

Since the high register was tailored to Ryu Jaehee, my demo song included quite a bit of falsetto, but it should be fine as long as it’s understandable.

I was always lenient with myself when it came to vocals. A rapper just needs to rap well.

I put the USB containing the two pitch files with completed guide recordings into a large gift box and wrapped it well. It was the epitome of excessive packaging.

I even tucked a Christmas card with Ryu Jaehee’s name written on it under the ribbon string wrapping the gift box and placed it under the Christmas tree.

Kim Dobin, who came carrying four similarly wrapped gift boxes and placed them under the tree, pointed at the gift box I had just put down and asked with a sour expression.

“Have you decided to stop the anti-Gyeon Hajun discrimination and start anti-Ryu Jaehee discrimination now?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

After giving him a scolding and turning around, I heard Kim Dobin’s flustered voice from behind me, apparently having tried to lift that gift box.

“What is this? It’s this big but why is it so light?”

I knew he would do that.

And time passed quickly, and we welcomed Christmas Eve, the day to open presents. As the leader and head of household, I opened my presents first.

The first present I unwrapped from Seo Yehyeon was a money bouquet. When I pulled out a bouquet with several checks stuck in it from the gift box, Seo Yehyeon asked with a face full of anticipation.

“How is it? Novel, right? Feels like receiving a real gift, doesn’t it?”

Since he was someone who believed money that the recipient could use to buy what they needed was the best gift, there was a 100% chance he had unified everyone’s gifts with that.

Still, I thought it was quite an improvement from money envelopes. I placed the orange rose bouquet in Seo Yehyeon’s arms and unwrapped the rest of the presents.

I went through Kim Dobin’s gift of new composition equipment specifications, Gyeon Hajun’s gift of a watch I had put on my wishlist, and it was time to unwrap Ryu Jaehee’s gift.

As soon as I unwrapped the packaging and opened the box, I unconsciously stopped my hand that was about to put down the box lid at the sight of a pair of shoes.

It was those shoes I had given Ryu Jaehee as a birthday present. The ones that Ryu Jaehee’s damn younger brother had sold to a secondhand store.

“I couldn’t get them back, but I found the same ones. You treasured them, but I begged you to give them to me as a birthday present and then lost them like that, so it’s been weighing on my mind.”

“You rascal, it must have been hard to find since they were limited edition. Good work.”

I chuckled and lightly ruffled Ryu Jaehee’s hair. The limited edition shoes that returned to me were nice, but if that guy’s heart became even a little more comfortable with this, that would be the best gift for me.

The other members also opened all their presents, and finally only Ryu Jaehee’s turn remained, full of anticipation.

Seo Yehyeon’s gift to him was different from the money bouquets he gave other members. It was actually a money flower basket. It showed more consideration. There were clearly more checks stuck in it too.

“Wow, I needed a laptop – how did you know, hyung?”

“Because you said that right into my ear.”

“Gasp, this coat! I was just looking at it because of the price…! Hajun hyung, thank you so much!”

“Don’t mention it, it’s Christmas.”

After unwrapping Kim Dobin and Gyeon Hajun’s gifts in turn, Ryu Jaehee began unwrapping the largest present he had deliberately saved for last.

“Huh…?”

Ryu Jaehee was flustered to find a USB sitting alone in the house-sized box. The other members who had gathered around the box also looked at me with expressions asking why I did such excessive packaging.

“Why, what. Gift boxes should be big, you know.”

“You’re the one throwing away the trash, right?”

While Seo Yehyeon and I were having an argument, Ryu Jaehee immediately connected the USB to his newly received laptop.

“【December Vibe】?”

“I was thinking about what gift could last long without getting lost, and I thought a pension song that brings in money every winter would be the best, so I prepared a winter season solo song as a gift. Hey, this should cover Christmas presents for the next 10 years.”

The members’ expressions, which were initially ‘is that all?’, changed to ‘that’s really something’ once the song started playing.

“If it sounds this good even when sung like that, when the Youngest Member sings it…”

“Wow, Youngest Member is lucky. He got a pension song.”

The members burst into admiring exclamations filled with envy.

After listening to the version with rap and just staring blankly at the laptop screen, I lightly tapped Ryu Jaehee’s shoulder and asked.

“How is it? Do you like the gift?”

“…It’s the best.”

Ryu Jaehee quickly wiped away the tears that had slightly welled up and nodded vigorously in response.

“Since Christmas and December are passing by, it’s a bit late to release, so you choose. Do you want to release it as a late carol and winter season song, or wait until next year and release it in early December?”

“I’ll release it next year as a Rev song. We’ll all film a music video together too.”

At these very unexpected words, I urgently tried to persuade Ryu Jaehee.

“I’m not saying use this to cover your solo album – I’m saying you get this AND a solo album too? Aren’t you tempted by this song?”

“I am tempted. I guarantee there won’t be a single person who says this song is bad. But my desire to give Daydream an even bigger gift is stronger. For the fans, us all participating together is the best gift rather than a solo song.”

Ryu Jaehee smiled broadly.

“It would be too wasteful to leave such a song as a belated Ryu Jaehee solo winter season song.”

Since the person who received the gift said this, there was nothing more to say.

And so 【December Vibe】 became not Ryu Jaehee’s solo song but Reve’s group song, and the gift opening ceremony ended with promises for next year.

The gift I had prepared specifically for Ryu Jaehee became everyone’s gift, so I ended up being the guy who passed on getting Ryu Jaehee a present. Sigh, I’ll have to get him something separately. What kind of gift could I find by tomorrow?

“Then let’s order chicken instead of turkey and have a party!”

“I knew you’d say that, so I prepared sandwiches with turkey ham instead of chicken, Doby. Those are surprisingly low in calories.”

“Ahhhhh!”

Even on Christmas Eve, Seo Yehyeon’s calorie obsession was going strong.

* * *

December 31st, waiting room at M Company’s Music Big Match.

Whether those rumors about the falling out between Shinwol Entertainment and M Company were true, Altair and other Shinwol Entertainment idols didn’t attend this Music Big Match, so we ended up with the ending stage.

Hmm, they haven’t given Altair the ending since last year and gave the ending stage to TK Entertainment idols who had lower results than Altair.

This time, neither D-Green nor TK achieved notable results, so it seemed the ending stage came to us by default. Even though our agency escaped being a shitty company, we’re still a mid-sized company with just Reve, so Dub Net was the only one giving us the ending.

Though I saw him once on the 25th, it was a bit disappointing not to see Cha Yeonho on the 31st.

It would have been fun to gauge whether he avoided eye contact as soon as we met because his true feelings were exposed, or because he was belatedly embarrassed about how seriously we stared at each other during that damn Lie Detector game, caught up in the atmosphere.

“It’s our monumental first Music Big Match ending stage, but there are only four of us here…”

Kim Dobin looked away from the iPad screen set up on the table, glanced at the empty seat, and muttered gloomily.

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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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