A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 532

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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 532

Unlike Gyeon Hajun who started his music show activities with a week’s gap, Parachute started his music show activities right from the week he released his music.

Since Gyeon Hajun’s music show activities were scheduled for 2 weeks, if KICKS started activities in the week they released their music like Parachute, Gyeon Hajun would have to face both KICKS and Parachute in a three-way confrontation.

I slightly regretted that I should have come for featuring support fire for the final broadcast instead of the first broadcast.

Of course, judging from the lyrics Gyeon Hajun had written, he had a personality that would never lose to that Parachute bastard and felt no regret toward the remaining 5KICKS, so it didn’t seem like he’d grab collars and fight, but KICKS were five people while Gyeon Hajun was alone.

Of course, Parachute who was equally alone wasn’t my concern.

Now that today’s music show was ending and Gyeon Hajun would have to appear on the same music show as Parachute alone starting tomorrow, I draped my arm over his shoulder and said.

“Hey, Jun. If Parachute picks a fight with you, call me right away. Even if I can’t rush over, I’ll curse him out on speakerphone.”

I had built up my Chosim level to 100 points for this day. Since up to 70 points could be sufficiently covered by Weekly Quest, I could spit out about fifteen curse words.

I had even prepared an indirect insult version in case Parachute recorded it sneakily.

“Having to outsource cursing by calling is a bit… I know how to curse too.”

“Yeah, I could tell from the lyrics you wrote. But I’m better at dissing, aren’t I? What are friends for, tsk.”

He couldn’t be a gentleman either, as we ran into Parachute right in the hallway heading to the waiting room. Surprisingly, Parachute didn’t pick a fight with us and silently passed by us toward his own waiting room.

Wheeew-

When I whistled once at his back, Parachute’s steps became much faster. He stubbornly didn’t look back even once.

“Looks like he finally came to his senses.”

Gyeon Hajun, who had been watching that scene, made a plain comment. So…

From Gyeon Hajun’s perspective, Parachute talking to us had been a crazy person.

Well, unless you have normal mental faculties, you can’t casually talk to people when your dark inner thoughts have been completely exposed.

“That’s right.”

I nodded in agreement and entered the waiting room side by side. Today Gyeon Hajun was a candidate for 1st place. I wondered if Parachute could get his name on the 1st place candidate list alongside Gyeon Hajun next week.

“Did he even look at the music streaming usage fee distribution rate? We set our percentage higher than that performer’s percentage. If this flops, he’ll have no places to invite him and will have to live off copyright fees alone, so seeing the percentage must make his stomach burn.”

Of course, if Parachute’s song flopped, the royalties coming to us would also decrease, but it didn’t matter. It was a song we had abandoned anyway, so any money coming in was a bonus.

Gyeon Hajun would also choose not receiving that money and Parachute not receiving money either, rather than getting damage compensation from Parachute.

Naturally, we were scheduled after Parachute, so we could watch Parachute’s stage before performing our own.

“He’s using AR for lip-syncing.”

Gyeon Hajun spat out words close to mockery. The music seemed to be polished with mechanical sounds too, so he probably didn’t have the ability to perform live on stage.

The option of outsourcing to another composer was fully possible, so that was a disaster Parachute brought upon himself.

“How great it would be if music shows banned lip-syncing like in the old days.”

Jung Iseo clicked his tongue in regret that he seemed to have made his comeback at too good a time.

Our turn was last.

The stage with only two people felt a bit empty after standing with five people, but once the song started and filled the stage with Gyeon Hajun’s voice, that emptiness soon disappeared.

Thanks to that, I could fully enjoy the duet stage that I couldn’t properly enjoy during DTB because there was a competition at stake.

As soon as we came down from the stage, I lightly bumped fists with Gyeon Hajun.

“The 1st place winner for M Countdown’s second week of April is… 【AND YOU】! Congratulations!”

I clapped and grinned beside Gyeon Hajun as he received the trophy. It finally felt like that song had found its rightful place, its rightful owner.

We had come too far around, but it was fortunate that we could eventually return.

Glancing at Parachute who was forcing a smile and clapping, it felt even more satisfying.

For the encore stage, he sang the original version without the rap featuring part. So I also matched harmonies by lowering my voice instead of rapping.

When I opened the dormitory door.

Pop!

The Youngest Line set off firecrackers on both sides. I caught the colorful paper streamers pouring over my head and asked with a sour expression.

“What’s this?”

“A celebration party for Hajun hyung who perfectly crushed Parachute!”

“You hyungs should have seen that disgusting smile when Hajun hyung was receiving the 1st place trophy and you were clapping beside him. Seeing that expression, I couldn’t help but buy a celebration cake.”

They saw it.

“Yehyeon hyung went overseas for a schedule, so you’re really going all out with the rebellion.”

Seo Yehyeon went for a luxury brand event schedule as their ambassador, so unfortunately he couldn’t witness this scene of a cake sitting brazenly on the dining table at this hour.

Still, at least they showed restraint by not ordering chicken since Gyeon Hajun was doing solo activities.

[Seo Yehyeon- Hajun, congratulations on 1st place]

[Seo Yehyeon- The parachute guy’s face was worth seeing lol] 8:27 PM

[Seo Yehyeon- Did everyone eat dinner? What did you eat?] 8:30 PM

Look at this terrible obsession of trying to monitor our diet from overseas by sneakily disguising it as a question.

I took a picture of the salad sitting forlornly in the corner for show and uploaded it to the group chat, then sent a reply saying we were about to eat now, and immediately got a response from Seo Yehyeon.

[Seo Yehyeon- It’s past 8 PM in Korea right now] 8:30 PM

[Seo Yehyeon- You’re eating at this hour?] 8:31 PM

It’s salad, salad. Human.

Calorie obsession followed by meal time obsession. If this is his reaction to salad, he’d probably grab his neck and faint if he saw the cake.

* * *

There was something more important and earlier than KICKS’ comeback date, who were one axis of the dogfight.

It was Ryu Jaehee’s solo competition variety show 【Voice Legacy】 Round 3.

This Round 3 was really important.

Because it was the round where Ryu Jaehee was eliminated before the regression.

First, Jung Iseo had thoroughly ruined the solo song that was his only chance for a comeback due to his own greed, so Gyeon Hajun’s revenge was half successful.

If he had honestly admitted he wasn’t capable and put forward another song as the title track, the reaction wouldn’t have been this bad.

Did he like that song that much? Or did he want to show off his superiority of eventually getting a song from me? Whatever the reason, it was really stupid.

Anyway, in this situation, the top priority was to fulfill Ryu Jaehee’s dream that was right around the corner.

Of course, Ryu Jaehee had never directly said that winning was his dream before the regression. But in a situation where he was getting attention for his vocal strength like now, he wouldn’t want to be eliminated.

In fact, there wasn’t much more we could do here. Moreover, even though it wasn’t his own matter, Ryu Jaehee was actively monitoring by splitting even his competition practice time and giving us public opinion briefings.

So wouldn’t it be proper to help Ryu Jaehee’s competition in the spirit of give and take?

The Round 3 mission was song reinterpretation.

The detailed content of the mission was to reinterpret and arrange existing hit songs that everyone would know, since they had to be compared with the originals.

You couldn’t sing it too similarly, but you also couldn’t eliminate too much of the original song’s feel or melody – anyway, it was a mission with very tricky conditions piled on.

I remembered Ryu Jaehee’s Round 3 competition stage before the regression.

After he was eliminated, Ryu Jaehee was so dejected that I thought I should know how he performed on stage to either comfort or advise him, so I watched the replay, and even I could clearly see the disappointing aspects.

And whether by coincidence or fate, Ryu Jaehee’s competition song this time, and his competition opponent were exactly the same as then.

Since Ryu Jaehee had a strong will to get through the competition mission with his own strength, I watched what Ryu Jaehee was preparing rather than intervening from the start.

Ryu Jaehee’s competition song was a ballad genre with strong blues feel and rhythm, and the direction Ryu Jaehee was arranging that song was sorrowful R&B with all the blues feel removed.

He seemed to have chosen it as an option that could show off vocal techniques well while also bringing out the arranged feel.

“How is it, hyung? It’s good, right?”

Ryu Jaehee looked at me with sparkling eyes as if hoping for praise, but I knew that unconditional praise wasn’t always the answer, so I had no choice but to let down Ryu Jaehee’s expectations.

Since it sounded quite fresh even to me, I could see traces of Ryu Jaehee’s considerable deliberation.

However, the problem was that he had completely killed even the original song’s characteristics and points that absolutely had to be preserved.

Whether my nagging him to think while singing every time I recorded had an effect, Ryu Jaehee’s song interpretation ability and arrangement ability had improved much more than before the regression. Back then, I could immediately tell why he was eliminated just by listening.

But like before the regression, his ability to grasp the essential points of arrangement was still lacking.

When I shook my head briefly, Ryu Jaehee made an expression as if his heart was broken. But making such an expression didn’t automatically improve the song Ryu Jaehee had arranged.

I threw him some helpful advice. Since he said he would get through it himself anyway, all I could do was provide direction.

“Go with the obvious.”

Why would a hit song that transcends eras and is known by all ages and genders be a hit song? It’s a hit song because the original itself is perfect and that emotion of the original works regardless of the era.

He needed to preserve that emotion that appealed to the public, but Ryu Jaehee was currently overlooking that point.

So sometimes arrangement needs obvious appeal that satisfies the audience’s expectations rather than ingenuity and freshness.

“Obviously?”

“Focus on approaching the parts of that song you want to change. Right now your arrangement isn’t bringing out the original song’s charm, but rather has the appearance of loudly declaring ‘Look at these amazing vocal techniques I’m showing off!'”

Since Ryu Jaehee seemed like he didn’t quite understand, when I explained it in a bit more detail, Ryu Jaehee did nod his head for now. But his expression still looked uncertain.

“Want me to help?”

When I asked bluntly, Ryu Jaehee immediately shook his head. I had expected him to accept right away, so that refusal was quite unexpected.

“Can I try once more and ask hyung for help if it really doesn’t work out?”

“Of course.”

I answered readily while lightly ruffling Ryu Jaehee’s hair. This hyung will make sure you get to the 3rd round somehow this time.

Even if Ryu Jaehee doesn’t want help, there are ways to help him anyway.

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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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