A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 560
—————
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 Original Intent Episode 560
Four people that you know, I know, and everyone knows awkwardly entered the studio.
Who else would I have as guests for my solo album release commemorative OA live besides the members?
Actually, since it was a solo comeback, I thought about inviting Yongcheol Hyung as a special guest instead of the members, but then the live would probably end with us just seriously talking about my musical world, this album’s song-making process, and the meaning of the songs, so I just called the members.
There was also the risk of Yongcheol Hyung exposing embarrassing stories like he did at Juseong Hyung’s wedding while reminiscing about memories related to the remade songs, so it was killing two birds with one stone.
It’s definitely not that I didn’t invite Yongcheol Hyung because I was afraid of having my embarrassing past exposed in front of fans. Daydream would be more familiar, comfortable, and happy to see the members than Yongcheol Hyung anyway.
While Yongcheol Hyung only gave me support, all the members had contributed to my solo album in some way, so it was right to invite them here.
And there were no better talents for livening up the atmosphere. Just having Kim Dobin and Ryu Jaehee would ensure the audio never goes silent.
“Aren’t special guests supposed to be surprise visitors who don’t usually appear? We’re just regular members. What’s this about me appearing as a special guest on my own group’s show?”
As expected, Kim Dobin didn’t disappoint my expectations and immediately filled the audio as soon as he entered.
“Originally, since this is my ‘solo’ album release commemorative live, I should have done it alone, but I invited you guys, so you’re special guests. Are you satisfied now, Doby?”
“Ugh, Hyung. It feels like you’re being controlled by something that’s possessed you. Please do it the usual way.”
“Are you satisfied? Huh?”
When I did it the usual way, Kim Dobin’s expression immediately brightened. It seems I’ve contributed to establishing Kim Dobin’s strange preference for rejecting my kind and gentle words.
“Now, since the special guests are here, let me bake the snacks I prepared.”
I lifted up the pan containing cookie dough cut into alphabet shapes and headed to the oven.
“Actually, I tried to bake these at the dormitory, but the oven broke. So I had no choice but to book this studio that has an oven.”
“Questions are pouring into the chat right now. Since Eden Hyung is busy raising the oven temperature, I’ll answer for him. Eden Hyung said he wanted to do something alphabet-related as a reverse gift for our first music show performance. He thought ABC chocolates were too half-hearted, so we came up with the idea of homemade alphabet-shaped cookies, but as you all know, Eden Hyung’s cooking skills are…”
“No, Youngest Member. You’re the only cooking disaster left now. I proved my skills in front of Daydream.”
“Since Hyung hasn’t successfully cooked even once after that, we concluded that you were temporarily possessed by the ghost of Dae Jang Geum or some master chef back then.”
It wasn’t a ghost, it was item buffs. Ryu Jaehee, who made me out to be someone who was possessed by a ghost and dragged me back into the cooking disaster duo, continued speaking.
“Anyway, so we decided to make those cookies as a test run first. It wasn’t Hajun Hyung but Yehyeon Hyung giving advice from the side, so we don’t know how the results will turn out. Eden Hyung, they say to preheat the oven and put them in.”
I set the timer to 15 minutes according to the recipe, closed the oven, and returned to my seat.
“While the cookies bake in the oven, shall we talk about Eden’s solo album?”
As soon as Gyeon Hajun set the stage, I seriously straightened my posture and began explaining the album.
“First, to briefly introduce [α-betⅠ], it’s an album containing ED’s, that is, my past. It’s an album containing the story from when I started music until now and my past music, and since it’s an album with such meaning, I was involved in the making process from A to Z.”
I reached out and lifted the album that contained the entire path I’d walked for 10 years.
“I handled the lyrics, composition, and producing, and I participated in everything from the concept to the album jacket design.”
The album jacket design used a strong gradient changing from black to gold, from dark to bright colors, utilizing texture so that the rough, raw past contrasted with the somewhat refined present.
“Since the concept is about the past, we chose double title tracks – one starting with E and one starting with D. The ED attached to past tense and my old rapper name ED. This meaning is also ambiguous.”
Fortunately, Ryu Jaehee didn’t bother telling Daydream about my personal little wish to match chart rankings with ED. Songs that will hit #1 will hit #1, right?
“Someone asked how I came up with the album name.”
“The album name [α-betⅠ] wasn’t created because I was too lazy to think and just put things in alphabetical order and called it alphabet.”
I started my answer with the most common comment I heard after the album name and tracklist were revealed, biting my teeth and smiling.
I bit the marker cap with my teeth to open it with one hand and quickly wrote letters on the whiteboard.
Alphabet
Alpha=α/bet
“α is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. The brightest star is called the alpha star, and the leader of a group is also called alpha. So in this album, I interpreted it as ‘first’ in every meaning.”
First solo album. The first song I worked on. The highest quality song among all my work so far. The first step on another path I had never taken.
“And bet means ‘to bet’ and ‘certainly’. If you connect these two according to the album name, you should be able to roughly understand the meaning of the album title.”
“Wait! I don’t understand! There are multiple meanings, so how do you interpret it?”
Normally I would have snapped at him to figure it out himself, but I kindly answered Kim Dobin’s question, which pinpointed something others might be curious about too.
“It doesn’t matter how you interpret it. That’s now the freedom of the person interpreting it, freedom. You can think of it as ‘betting on the first album,’ or you can interpret it as ‘these album songs are certainly top-tier.'”
I explained using the interpretations I had in mind when creating the album name as examples.
“Oh, you can also interpret it as ‘it’s alphabet because it’s in alphabetical order.’ It’s just that I didn’t name it this way because I was too lazy to think. You just need to know that this album name contains these various meanings.”
This should be enough to clear up the misunderstanding that I came up with it carelessly.
“There are multiple interpretations, but people are curious about what Hyung’s first intention was.”
“Since it’s in front of Daydream and no one else, I’ll confess honestly – among the examples I just gave, I first created the album name with the second and third meanings, then added the first interpretation later.”
Seo Yehyeon, who had been listening to my explanation with a serious face and then pondering with his clasped hands under his chin, spoke up.
“Honestly, I don’t think any of us members would have noticed this.”
“Ah, I noticed.”
While everyone was nodding in agreement, Gyeon Hajun slightly raised his hand as if asking to be excluded.
“Eden uses a lot of wordplay with multiple meanings when writing lyrics, so I figured that album name would have at least two meanings too.”
As expected, only Gyeon Hajun knew me best.
After finishing the album name interpretation, while excitedly explaining the rest of the tracks in the tracklist one by one, starting with the title songs 【Explicit】 and 【Double or Nothing】.
The oven timer rang, announcing the completion of the cookies.
“Will this be a result worthy of a reverse gift!”
“It smells delicious though?”
“See, what did I tell you? I said it would turn out fine even with less sugar.”
Seo Yehyeon, who had been making a fuss about reducing the sugar while making the dough, bragged with his nose high in the air.
Seo Yehyeon, who had seen with his own eyes how much butter went in, would never eat these cookies, and Gyeon Hajun surprisingly declined.
And the moment I took a bite, I could understand why dessert lover Gyeon Hajun had declined these cookies.
Rubbing my numb jaw, I gave my cookie tasting review. It was embarrassing to even call it tasting since I couldn’t even swallow it.
“Wow, I almost lost a tooth.”
“This isn’t a cookie, it’s a rock. Hyung, did you learn alchemy? How did you synthesize rocks with completely different molecular structures from flour, sugar, butter, and other ingredients?”
While I was punishing Kim Dobin with a headlock, Gyeon Hajun explained the reason for failure.
“It’s because you put in too little sugar. Cookie dough needs the right amount of sugar to become soft, but you only put in half the required amount.”
As expected of a dessert lover, Gyeon Hajun knew the reason for failure very well. No wonder the guy who loves desserts refused to take my cookies.
I was sending sharp glances at Seo Yehyeon, who was practically the culprit of this failure, when a memory suddenly came to mind and I whipped around to look at Gyeon Hajun. Gyeon Hajun was definitely there too.
“Jun, then why didn’t you stop Yehyeon Hyung when he took away half the sugar to make low-sugar cookies…?”
“Because I hoped Yehyeon Hyung would see the results with his own eyes and give up his attachment to low-sugar cookies? I had a feeling Yehyeon Hyung would tell us to make even the reverse gift cookies low-sugar for the fans’ health.”
Seo Yehyeon rolled his eyes around like someone who’d been caught.
“Yehyeon Hyung, many Ilmong-ies say they appreciate the thought but you don’t need to take care of them to that extent.”
Only Seo Yehyeon ended up happy since he didn’t have to watch us eat cookies full of butter, flour, and sugar.
I desperately pulled out a joker to change the topic and bury the rock cookie reverse gift plan.
“So which process did the members participate in then? Our members appeared in the music video.”
The chat exploded once again. Most questions were about where they appeared since people didn’t see them in the MV.
“Then let’s proceed with Eden Hyung’s title song MV reactions along with finding Rev cameos simultaneously.”
The 【Double or Nothing】 music video played first.
“The opponent’s hands playing poker with Eden Hyung in a strip game are my hands. How much did I strip? No comment.”
“The host who gets unfairly shot in this Russian roulette game is me. Yes, Yoon Eden killed me.”
Ryu Jaehee and Seo Yehyeon appeared as cameos in the 【Double or Nothing】 MV.
Seo Yehyeon was the only one whose front face appeared, but the Russian roulette host wore a mask, so it was understandable that people didn’t recognize him as Seo Yehyeon.
“The person sitting in front of Eden Hyung in the classroom wearing a hooded zip-up is me! I played the role of Eden Hyung’s classmate 1 from his school days!”
“The hand that just stole a chopstick of Eden’s cup noodles on channel 18 is mine. The channel 18 concept represents us during our trainee days.”
“This clothing hem running away from Eden Hyung holding a golf club is my clothing hem.”
“Oh, and here. I’m also the one putting the DTB acceptance necklace on Eden. Maybe because I wore loose clothes, no one recognized me.”
“I was also the person handing Eden Hyung the grand prize trophy. You really didn’t know this one, right?”
Kim Dobin and Gyeon Hajun appeared as small cameos in the 【Explicit】 MV.
“I felt it then and seeing it again now, it still looks so unnatural.”
“Why does your expression look so annoyed…? Is it because it’s too obvious that someone far from cute is thinking ‘this will look cute, right?'”
The members didn’t leave out harsh criticisms of me performing a fresh and cute concept.
Ah, if you’re so jealous, try doing a group fresh and cute concept in the next promotion.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————