A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 586

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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 586

The self-mockery contained in those words was bitter, as if he was laughing at himself.

The words I was about to spit out with ridicule, asking what he had given up, rose to my throat and were swallowed without me realizing it.

Right. It was natural that my misfortune came first. Unless someone is a saint, it’s difficult to consider others’ pain before your own.

And I had overlooked the fact that this could apply equally to other people.

Since the center had to be Seo Yehyeon, who had the highest recognition, the choreography naturally had to match Seo Yehyeon’s level.

But Seo Yehyeon was handling the busiest schedule in the team, so his practice time was woefully insufficient, and naturally his skills couldn’t improve noticeably.

And the one who choreographed Rev’s dances like that… was mostly Kim Dobin.

The choreography drafts received from outsourcing were either too difficult, or conversely, had so little movement they looked childish like simple exercises.

To somehow get on stage with decent-looking choreography, Kim Dobin always modified the choreography drafts, and at some point he was creating choreography alone without outsourcing.

Choreography where he couldn’t stand out, and that was far below his own level.

At least I got outsourcing work with songs, and somehow made my name known by producing for other teams.

But what about Kim Dobin?

In an industry overflowing with professional dancers capable of choreography, no agency would entrust performance direction or choreography drafts to a second-tier idol who couldn’t even distinguish himself with dance within his group.

In Rev, which had become so complexly tangled that it was impossible to even guess where things went wrong, I wasn’t the only one who was unhappy.

I knew about Gyeon Hajun and Ryu Jaehee’s unhappiness since we were close from the first round.

But Kim Dobin was different.

In both the first and second rounds, Kim Dobin and I were worse than strangers. We were actually more distant than Seo Yehyeon, who I clashed and growled at so often.

So Kim Dobin’s unhappiness couldn’t enter my field of vision. I had no reason to care, nor the luxury to do so.

And only now I realized.

Just as I had dismissed and ignored Kim Dobin’s unhappiness as nothing compared to mine, my pain was just another trivial matter to Kim Dobin.

We were ignoring each other’s misfortune and crumbling in our respective positions like that.

“Do you know how happy I was when I found out about the regression? Do you even know what I did for two weeks after I regressed, Hyung? I went to the practice room every day to help Yehyeon Hyung with dance practice. Trying to improve that hyung’s skills even a little whenever Yehyeon Hyung wasn’t busy. I knew how sorry Yehyeon Hyung felt toward me then, and how he practiced even cutting into his rest time whenever he had some free time.”

Kim Dobin’s calm voice began to tremble little by little.

“But why haven’t you changed at all, Hyung? Why. Am I the only one who’s desperate?”

At Kim Dobin’s tearful question, I unconsciously searched my pockets for a cigarette pack.

I couldn’t help but crave a cigarette. Comforting crying people was one of the things I was damn terrible at.

Comforting someone I made cry was even worse.

“…I’m sorry.”

At my brief apology, tears finally flowed from Kim Dobin’s eyes.

Watching Kim Dobin bite his lips trying to hold back but eventually burst into tears like a child, I suppressed the urge to smoke and touched my lips.

While thinking he seemed young, remembering that Kim Dobin was twenty-nine when I died left a bitter taste in my mouth.

What I remembered most clearly was Kim Dobin’s appearance from our debut days, when he was still in his late teens to early twenties.

The fact that we had lived maintaining distance from each other as nothing to each other for all that long time felt strangely new.

When Kim Dobin’s hiccupping subsided, I rubbed my brow and asked, trying to soften my voice somehow.

“Let’s set aside ideals, misfortune, and personal feelings toward each other and ask just one thing. If you also have memories, you must know about all the other songs I composed, so why 【Temptation】 of all things?”

Actually, until 【Temptation】, I was just someone who made beats and created my own hip-hop solo songs.

I began seriously analyzing and delving into idol songs during our unknown idol dark age when we felt the crisis of disbandment.

I had some perfectionist tendencies, so I wouldn’t release any work to the world unless I was satisfied with it myself.

But the time when 【Temptation】 came to mind happened to coincide exactly with when I finally became able to create idol songs at a level I could accept as a composer.

After that, as you know, even when I brought songs, I kept getting rejected because the CEO was buried in 【Temptation】’s big hit.

At that time, my relationship with Kim Dobin and Seo Yehyeon had hit rock bottom to the point where we barely talked unless in front of cameras, and Ryu Jaehee was struggling with family problems, so there were no members other than Gyeon Hajun to push my songs together.

And the two of us alone weren’t enough to change the CEO’s mind.

So in the second round, I tried to make the song after 【Come to My Universe】 my own song somehow, but the slump that had tormented me so much in the first round properly grabbed my ankle.

I thought the slump would be quickly resolved since Shinwol’s pressure disappeared, but it wasn’t.

So the song I barely started by digging through my memories was 【All Right or Night】. This one wasn’t a huge hit but was moderately successful.

After that, I tried to bring songs I had sold to other groups for our activities, but they didn’t particularly match Rev’s atmosphere or the members’ vocal tones.

The conflicts deepened due to the scolding and harsh words I gave the members during recording while trying to force the songs to fit Rev.

The situation itself of forcibly bringing my songs that could have been opportunities for other groups and recycling them became increasingly burdensome, and doubt gradually began to creep in during that process.

Eventually, the slump could only get worse.

Accordingly, the danger level increased and my vision turned red, making my nerves even sharper, ultimately leading to more frequent and intense conflicts with members – an endless vicious cycle.

On top of that, Altair kept checking us with Dongbal, preventing Rev from gaining proper attention, so I felt cracks forming in my belief that ‘I can succeed with my songs.’

Having gone through such a second round, when Kim Dobin presented 【Temptation】, that already cracked belief cracked deeply once more.

“I know. I know well how successful Hyung’s songs were when they went to other groups. But… I couldn’t guarantee the future when those songs came to our group.”

Kim Dobin, who had wiped his tear-soaked face roughly with his sleeve, looked at me with a quite tired expression.

“The only thing I could be certain about our group’s success was 【Temptation】, the one and only success that I, no, Rev had directly experienced.”

‘Right, if Kim Dobin came up with an awesome idea to save Rev without 【Temptation】, would he be Kim Dobin or Ryu Jaehee? His personality became calmer, but his perspective didn’t broaden and his head didn’t get better.’

“I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to deliberately trample on Hyung’s beliefs. Usually when you regress, you naturally use success-guaranteeing ideas, songs, writing, trendy fashion, or economic knowledge and get called a genius. So I also… just thought it was a natural choice.”

Kim Dobin let out a short laugh like a sigh while dry-washing his face.

“Come to think of it, everyone uses future knowledge naturally without much guilt, but it is stealing, isn’t it? It’s just not a problem because the victim doesn’t know they’ve been robbed.”

“Usually?”

“Ah. In web no… creative works.”

At Kim Dobin’s sheepish additional explanation, I also chuckled.

“There’s all kinds of things.”

‘Thank goodness. Even in dark mode, he’s still an otaku!’

“And if we succeed with 【Temptation】 that Hyung composed, the CEO will only use Hyung’s songs from now on, right? The reason the CEO insisted on that composer’s songs was because of 【Temptation】’s success. I thought maybe we could definitely hit it big with this and then continue with Hyung’s songs from then on…”

“But you, do you actually know my songs?”

Without answering the last question, Kim Dobin turned around and the next day presented another sheet of music.

Damn bastard… why did he have to bring this song of all things…

The biggest hit of the second round and the only song I wrote thinking of Rev members. Among the countless songs I used in the second round, the only song that found its original owner.

It felt like it was telling me I hadn’t composed in vain, so just, an empty laugh flowed out.

Hollowly.

* * *

As soon as I came out of the bug memory, I let out a deep breath.

Wow, it was good that I made him do the sheet music drawing rounds.

Of course, Kim Dobin suffered more than me drawing the sheet music, though?

Anyway, with this one memory I found out how Shinwol Entertainment pressured me in the first round, how the second round went, and how the danger system manipulated my memories.

The cost-effectiveness of bug memories is insane.

At least it seems like there’s a prospect of things working out with Kim Dobin somehow.

But seeing that it went to the 7th round, the 3rd round probably wasn’t particularly successful either.

Well. Even the round where Ryu Jaehee had memories failed, so what could be accomplished with dark mode Kim Dobin, who’s essentially still Kim Dobin, and me having memories?

Wait, then what about now when I’m the only one with memories…?

Could it be that I’m actually the owner of intelligence and schemes surpassing Ryu Jaehee?

That’s right. I didn’t know it myself, but I was actually an amazing guy.

I nodded at the sudden realization.

The shock of seeing the mythical creature called calm Kim Dobin wouldn’t fade, so as soon as I entered the dormitory, I called out to Kim Dobin.

“Hey, Doby!”

“Yes? Hyung, composition-playing toy Dobin is on strike. I won’t accept orders to draw more sheet music anymore. I’m a free house fairy. No, should I be called a composition fairy instead of a house fairy?”

Seeing him answer comfortably leaning his upper body against the second floor railing without even coming down when someone called made me feel at ease.

Right, that’s Kim Dobin.

I chuckled and asked.

“Are you happy?”

“Why are you talking like someone who just came back from reminiscing about an unhappy past?”

I wondered if he was saying that knowingly or unknowingly… Of course, I voted for “he’s saying it unknowingly.”

“Are you proud enough to be Rev’s main dancer?”

“Of course!”

Kim Dobin answered without a moment’s hesitation, grinning.

Yeah, there was some worth in regressing.

“But why are you asking that? Don’t tell me you’re going to give me the center for the next album’s title track?”

“If our youngest member wants to do it, we should let him.”

At those words, Kim Dobin didn’t celebrate wildly with joy, but instead leaned against the railing and remained silent with a serious expression.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Hmm, I’m torn between ‘Who are you to be occupying Eden Hyung’s body like this?’ and ‘Just what kind of past did you return from? What the hell happened to me in that past?'”

I was starting to miss the reincarnation bell just a little bit…

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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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