A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 509
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
A Regression Guide for Idols Who Lost Their Initial Intentions Episode 509
Wait, let me think about this seriously.
If I affirm here that I really did regress, I can easily get Kim Dobin’s cooperation, who was one of the two major opponents of follow-up song activities along with Seo Yehyeon.
Then I’d only need to face, no, persuade Seo Yehyeon in a 4-to-1 situation.
Frankly speaking, if I tell him I really came from the future and that we’ll definitely hit it big with follow-up song activities so he should cooperate, wouldn’t that otaku cooperate?
I could clearly see him eagerly cooperating with sparkling eyes.
The problem with this choice is that if Kim Dobin spills about the regression while trying to persuade other members, I might get lumped together with Kim Dobin and treated like an otaku too.
Going back in time isn’t something a ghost possessed me – it’s really the kind of story only Kim Dobin would come up with.
But what if I affirm it and the major flow changes?
At times like this, you should knock on even a stone bridge before crossing – the system’s answer is much more accurate than my reasoning. Don’t trust me, trust the system.
Help me, System!
[I don’t particularly recommend it.]
[It wouldn’t affect the major flow, but if you affirm with your own mouth that recent events actually happened, there’s a risk it could be recognized as an error during later overwriting and judged as pioneering a new route.]
When the system speaks this politely instead of rudely throwing a single consonant and leaving as usual, it means I need to be careful.
‘So I just need to not affirm it with my own mouth?’
Anyway, since Kim Dobin had started suspecting, the only way to erase his suspicion was to act chaotic like before, but doing that risked reducing my Initial Intentions score even more.
Right, first I need to find out why that guy is asking with such conviction that I regressed.
“Hwegi?”
“No, it’s the term regression, meaning going back in time. Using the character ‘hwe’ meaning return and ‘gwi’ meaning come back to make regression. Like returning from a failed future, I guess. Yes.”
When I pretended not to know, Kim Dobin started explaining the terminology I didn’t even ask about.
“What on earth made you think that?”
“Usually there are two things – possession and regression, right? I thought the person itself had changed, but Hajun hyung, who’s known you the longest, didn’t feel any sense of alienation from you. So you’re not possessed by another soul, but you’re still Eden hyung who regressed from the future.”
“Are you kidding me?”
That’s the reason…? Isn’t this really like a cow walking backwards and catching a mouse?
When I scrunched up my face, Kim Dobin flinched for a moment then poured out words rapidly.
“It’s not just that – your suddenly gentle and friendly attitude and personality, the follow-up activity hints you’re already dropping, and your behavior of openly pushing 【One Chance】 as the follow-up song. This is basically screaming ‘I’m a regressor!'”
Did he wear those glasses specifically to push them up while saying this?
Kim Dobin, who didn’t forget to push up his glasses with one finger, was looking at me with a triumphant face as if asking wasn’t he right.
“Doby.”
I placed both hands on Kim Dobin’s shoulders and called him seriously. Kim Dobin’s eyes sparkled as he nodded vigorously.
“Are you done with your nonsense?”
Since my answer was very different from his imagination, Kim Dobin started rolling his eyes frantically again.
“If you suspect me of being hwogwo or regression or whatever enough to think I know the future, doesn’t that mean what I’m doing now is quite trustworthy? So, should you cooperate with me or not?”
The strategy I chose was option 3.
Keep it ambiguous whether I’m a regressor or not until the follow-up song activity persuasion crisis, then as soon as follow-up activities are confirmed, show Kim Dobin the bitter taste of life to make him abandon that belief.
Anyway, I didn’t affirm it with my own mouth, right?
I was fortunate this was Kim Dobin who still had fear and distance toward me, not the Kim Dobin who lost all sense of fear after getting tattoos on his body.
This Kim Dobin would get scared and abandon those thoughts if I yelled at him a few times like before.
“Is there perhaps a penalty for revealing the regression fact to others? If so, please blink three times and cough three times.”
“Stop talking nonsense, man! Are you going to cooperate or not!”
Keep it ambiguous my ass. Kim Dobin was sharp in useless places. Please, I wish he’d be even half this sharp at catching pitch and emotion during recording.
Eventually, after yelling as usual, all the examples were heard and I coughed, then Kim Dobin asked with unnecessarily clear eyes.
“You coughed exactly three times – was that just now fake coughing or real coughing?”
I could finally breathe easy only after Gyeon Hajun, who woke up from the loud noise, sent me and Kim Dobin to our respective rooms.
To think I’d consider the sponsorship suspicion the better option. How exactly can I end Kim Dobin’s regressor suspicion without breaking the major flow? The road ahead was already looking dark.
* * *
“We charted!”
Hearing Ryu Jaehee’s extremely excited voice, I habitually checked the charts.
[95th-new ‘Reve – One Chance’ ♥14,095]
With 【One Chance】 successfully charting, which was the start of the major flow, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Wait, was this 95th place? Wasn’t it 100th? I think we were happy about barely making it? Is it because too much luck was applied?
‘This didn’t change the flow, right? I can go back again, right?’
[ㅇ]
The system very kindly threw me a single consonant. Thanks to that, I felt somewhat relieved.
I was about to tell Manager Hyung right here, but conscious of Kim Dobin who was looking at me with burdensome sparkling eyes, I texted instead.
[Hyung, if the CEO calls for us, please delay it by exactly 2 hours no matter what]
[Even if you have to make an excuse that I have diarrhea, exactly 2 hours]
Manager Hyung, who left the dorm looking puzzled at my text while answering the CEO’s call, sent a reply a few minutes later.
[Manager Hyung- I told him you have severe diarrhea so I’m giving you medicine and will bring you guys in 2 hours]
[Manager Hyung- But why suddenly? To prepare mentally?]
[Manager Hyung- Don’t worry too much, surely they won’t disband you for poor debut song performance when things are looking up]
I wasn’t worried about disbandment. Still, I was glad he didn’t find it strange and misunderstood it this way.
Good, I bought two hours at least.
Then now I need to persuade the members to agree to follow-up song activities while maintaining my Initial Intentions score within two hours.
“Everyone gather around. We have something to discuss.”
Did we have a meeting around this time? The presence or absence of a Rev meeting was important since the major flow could change if the number of meetings differed.
When did we first do it…? We’ve had over 1,000 meetings, how could I remember the first one? Damn, what’s with this memory issue!
[1st Rev Meeting]
[Subtitle: Next Album Title Song]
Unable to watch anymore, the system kindly informed me. I love you, System. You’re really the best system.
Seeing that the next album title song was the topic of the 1st Rev meeting, we hadn’t done meetings at this point.
When all five of us sat in a circle in the cramped living room, I really felt how narrow this semi-basement dorm was.
“Now, our B-side track 【One Chance】 has charted, beating our title song 【Come to My Universe】. So what should we do?”
Kim Dobin raised his hand high and shouted confidently.
“We should celebrate!”
Seo Yehyeon glanced around nervously then started clapping timidly.
Clap, clap clap clap-
Kim Dobin vigorously followed suit, and Ryu Jaehee and Gyeon Hajun also started clapping along, suddenly turning the atmosphere into celebration time.
Back then we were too busy fighting among ourselves to even celebrate. Getting sentimental, I realized this wasn’t the time and snapped back to attention.
“Done celebrating? Then let’s talk about our future.”
Tap tap, I lightly knocked the floor a couple times and the clapping stopped.
“At the point when our B-side track charted, we have two options. One is to continue activities with 【Come to My Universe】 for another week.”
When I held up one finger, Ryu Jaehee, who has the best brain among us, wrinkled his nose as if this was a very undesirable option.
“The other is to shorten 【Come to My Universe】 activities to just this week, take a week of preparation time, then do follow-up activities with 【One Chance】.”
Of course, my job was to make everyone unanimously agree to the latter option.
“First, the latter option—those in favor of follow-up song activities, raise your hands.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I raised my hand, and Kim Dobin quickly followed suit. I knew he would.
Gyeon Hajun and Ryu Jaehee also seemed to lean toward follow-up song activities like before, adding their opinions to this side.
“Then Yehyeon hyung is in favor of the former option?”
“Wait, I’m still thinking about it.”
The answer that came back was quite different from what I expected. I had thought Seo Yehyeon was a hardline 【Come to My Universe】 activities supporter, so this was quite surprising.
“I also think follow-up song activities would be better than doing My Universe for one more week. But what I’m worried about right now is whether I can learn new choreography in just one week.”
Seo Yehyeon let out a deep sigh and honestly opened up about his concerns.
“As you all know, it took me over a month just to learn the My Universe choreography.”
Pre-debut was so long ago that my memory was hazy, but it took him a whole month to memorize that? So when he said he barely managed to learn it, that wasn’t just empty words but the truth. Past Seo Yehyeon had made quite a big decision back then.
“Now that our song is getting some attention and this is an important time when people might start showing even a little interest in us, I’m worried that if I keep making mistakes and lower the stage’s completion quality, that would be an even worse move for our group.”
Seo Yehyeon rubbed his face dry and looked down. Hearing Seo Yehyeon’s true feelings directly from his own mouth in this situation felt strange.
I had just thought it was a belated excuse, that he surely wanted to argue with me deep down, but Seo Yehyeon really was thinking this way.
It seemed like I had been looking at early Seo Yehyeon, who used to clash with me, through colored glasses more than I thought.
“I’ll help you, hyung. We absolutely must do follow-up song activities. It’s hard to explain, but we really, absolutely must do this!”
Kim Dobin stepped forward very actively to persuade Seo Yehyeon.
He seemed to believe as firmly as ever that I had regressed, which made me feel frustrated. How on earth was I supposed to break down that firm belief?
Seo Yehyeon, who had let out several deep sighs in succession, opened his mouth.
“If it’s 4 to 1, that’s majority rule… I guess I have no choice. I’ll do my absolute best for one week.”
To think that gathering opinions could be done in just 10 minutes.
Wait, then was all that trouble really because I ignored the members’ opinions and just decided everything alone and announced it?
“Oh, one more thing. If Yoon Eden promises not to speak harshly to me. I don’t want to practice while hearing harsh words again, like how even a marionette doll would move its joints better than me.”
“100,000 won for every harsh word. Expensive, expensive. 100,000 won.”
“Why is this guy really acting like this! He’s been weird since last week! He wasn’t originally like this!”
“Eden hyung has his circumstances! Don’t look at him so suspiciously!”
“Hey, Kim Dobin! Don’t butt in, man! You’re making me look even more suspicious right now!”
So now only one small mountain remained—persuading the CEO.
By the way, 1 hour and 50 minutes was more than enough time to prepare the tools needed to climb over a small mountain.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————