A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 592
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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 592
In the middle of our practice session, LnL’s stylist, Manager Kim Ilyeong (a.k.a Ilyeong Noona) appeared with her hands full.
Our stylist before debut was naturally a different person, but since we couldn’t call back someone who had quit just for our self-content filming, Ilyeong Noona took on that role instead.
Since this was a fake documentary that even created birthday parties that didn’t exist back then, well.
But if this is a fake documentary anyway, why show the activities for 【Come to My Universe】, which was practically a forbidden song?
Originally, to make lies look like truth, you need to mix 70% fiction with 30% reality. 【Come to My Universe】 was a kind of device that heightened the realism of this documentary.
Although this was a fake documentary, for fans it was a precious medium of reminiscence that truly showed them that era, a realistic record.
And even though 【Come to My Universe】 is currently a forbidden song, the fact that it was Rev’s beginning doesn’t change, and we couldn’t discuss Rev’s debut days without including it.
So we included 【Come to My Universe】 with such grand intentions, but—
“Boys, your debut song stage outfits are here.”
The moment I saw the stage outfits Ilyeong Noona handed us, regret suddenly washed over me. I suddenly missed One Chance’s funeral fashion.
The members who faced those terrible stage outfits again after nearly 5 years recreated the past very realistically and excellently.
“…By any chance, are these our stage outfits?”
Gyeon Hajun asked with disbelief, trembling even under his eyes.
“Wow, this reminds me of SXji Experiment Man.”
Kim Dobin openly expressed in refined language the sense of incongruity we felt when receiving the stage outfits.
“We’re really going to wear these on stage…? No, right? These aren’t finished yet, right?”
Seo Yehyeon was escaping reality, not wanting to believe the terrible truth.
“Why, why… doesn’t this look much different from the outfits we wore during the music video shoot? You clearly said the stage outfits would be somewhat better back then…”
Ryu Jaehee’s face was half-resigned while still hoping against hope.
“You didn’t go to some factory and steal protective clothing, did you?”
I asked seriously with a completely humorless face.
If nothing else, the shock we felt when we first received these outfits was still vivid.
Even while filming this fabricated past, this moment alone matched the real past exactly. It was the first truthful past to emerge during the fake documentary filming full of lies and pretense.
“If the sizes don’t fit, we need to alter the outfits, so everyone try them on. I’ll come back in 5 minutes?”
As soon as Ilyeong Noona left with the camera, we held the stage outfits and poured out our honest impressions.
“Holy shit, they really got these! They’re exactly the same!”
“Did Ilyeong Noona throw up after seeing these clothes…?”
“Words just burst out when I received them, but thinking about it, they’re exactly the same words I said when I got these 5 years ago. But how genuine are the fans who became our fans after seeing us in these clothes…”
“How did we even perform on stage wearing these.”
“Because we were that desperate.”
Everyone became solemn at Gyeon Hajun’s last words. That’s right. We were desperate enough to debut at such a shitty agency, desperate enough to obediently wear such outfits and stand on stage.
Actually, the fact that we kept our mouths shut and wore them because we thought the agency would go bankrupt if we asked for different stage outfits also played a part. No matter how much it was a space suit concept, how broke did they have to be to get even such outfits.
Ilyeong Noona, who came back in with the camera, turned her head and dry-heaved the moment she saw us.
A person obsessed with aesthetics seeing such terrible outfit fitting would naturally have that reaction…
“Mmhm, right. Everyone’s sizes seem to fit roughly.”
Ilyeong Noona, who roughly scanned us with blurred eyes, hastily escaped from the practice room as if she didn’t want to stay in this terrible place any longer.
“How did it feel to receive your stage outfits for the first time?”
“It made us realize that we were really going to debut.”
Seo Yehyeon answered the production crew’s question in a textbook-reading tone. It was a voice that clearly didn’t sound realistic to anyone.
“Honestly, PD, you think the outfits are funny too… What should we do…”
Gyeon Hajun barely saved the atmosphere that Seo Yehyeon had killed with realistic acting. The production crew awkwardly laughing and avoiding answers was a bonus.
Even wearing them now when we look somewhat like celebrities after 5 years, we look this funny to each other, but back then, damn…
* * *
Before I regressed, that is, our trainee days before debut were a minefield of bombs, so at first everyone acted out Rev’s heartwarming past that they made up from their own imagination rather than drawing out common memories.
“Boys, let’s work hard today too!”
“Who are you? Who are you to possess Yehyeon Hyung’s body like this?”
“Whoa… Wait, Hyung, are you acting like the eldest hyung right now? It seems like you’re not changing the past but changing your personality?”
“That’s a meta comment, Eden Hyung.”
“I always warm up the mattress for my hyungs when I come to the dorm. With the heart of a younger brother who wants his hyungs to sleep even a little warmer.”
“You’re playing around. Won’t you get up, man? You just want to lie down comfortably in a spread-eagle position, who doesn’t know that?”
“Dobin, it’s summer right now.”
“Hyungs, gain strength by watching your lovely youngest member’s aegyo today too!”
“Ah, this is a bit… You’ve never acted cute for us.”
“First roll back your appearance and height to seventeen years old and come back, youngest.”
“That’s a meta comment!”
“Ahem, slurp—”
“I’m the eldest hyung! We haven’t even debuted yet! I can pick up my spoon first too!”
“But really, since when did Eden Hyung pick up his utensils first during meals? Was he like this from this time?”
“Meta comments are forbidden.”
The only ones who were the same then and now were just me and Gyeon Hajun.
Thanks to that, the result became the semi-basement 5 brothers full of all kinds of meta comments, contrary to our intentions.
The broadcasting station waiting room and backstage scenes on debut day were filmed at the agency office.
Since it wasn’t a group waiting room, the immersion was somewhat lacking, but it couldn’t be helped.
We couldn’t go to a broadcasting station wearing these stage outfits just to film this. And we couldn’t bring all the groups who shared waiting rooms with us back in those days.
So the waiting room scene from back then, which was nothing but spectacular with gossip and diss, also transformed into a fabricated harmonious past.
We thought this fake documentary filming would be quite light, thinking it would be enough if we just recreated the semi-basement dorm, but more locations were needed than we expected.
The studio where I worked on 【All Right or Night】 in early debut was one of them. Yongcheol Hyung’s permission was absolutely necessary to recreate this past.
While I was agonizing over whether it was right to have Yongcheol Hyung appear in an idol self-content, Ryu Jaehee offered an alternative.
“Eden Hyung doesn’t have a separate studio, so he’s always working on songs like this.”
Around me, sitting with a disgusted expression, sketchbook papers with instruments that Ryu Jaehee and Kim Dobin had drawn enthusiastically were spread out in all directions.
Even though I didn’t have a studio back then, I didn’t work this pathetically, you bastards?
“What should I do, I’m about to cry… Seeing Eden Hyung like that makes our situation look so pitiful…”
“Hyuuung! When we make money, we’ll definitely buy you real composing equipment…! We’ll be filial, filial!”
But whether I was dumbfounded or not, these damn youngest line members were actually moved by the unreasonable situation they had created themselves, getting teary-eyed while soaked in sentimentality.
For a moment, I almost got confused about whether I had actually worked on songs like this in front of these guys before.
“Ah… But is it really possible to work on songs this way…?”
“If it’s Eden Hyung, it’s definitely possible.”
No, how is this different from the bullshit about the General using teleportation and making grenades out of pine cones.
“Hey hey, this is too unreasonable. Let’s just go with the original plan. I’ll get filming permission from Yongcheol Hyung.”
I barely stopped the youngest line from trying to turn me into a human instrument and also asked the production crew.
“Please cut this scene. I’ll get filming permission from Yongcheol Hyung and contact you right away.”
Although Yongcheol Hyung had blown up at DTB and suddenly became a star, so he moved from his old studio to a better one, meaning it wasn’t the old studio where I composed 【All Right or Night】, as long as the fact that I borrowed Yongcheol Hyung’s studio was revealed, it would be okay.
And when I entered Yongcheol Hyung’s studio with the fake documentary filming camera, I deeply regretted my choice.
Even though Yongcheol Hyung had heard all my explanations about this fake documentary, he kept making meta comments.
“Oh, that’s the song we worked on back then, right? The one we said had an ambiguous verse?”
“Hyung, don’t speak in past tense, speak in present progressive. Right now I’m working on this song in front of you for the first time.”
“You doing this reminds me of that studio. The ventilation was fucking terrible but it was cozy.”
“Hyung, can’t you reminisce after the camera is turned off? I’ll listen to all your reminiscing then.”
“Ah, Eden. Come to think of it, did you finish all the beats for the first preliminary round? No, doesn’t this changed first preliminary round overlap too much with the group music source mission? I know Mike Choice got cursed at a lot, but it seems to overlap too much with the previous mission.”
“No, Hyung. You can’t talk about DTB here. Right now I’m twenty years old and you’re twenty-seven. You don’t understand the purpose of this fake documentary at all!”
I can’t tell you how much cold sweat I broke out thanks to Yongcheol Hyung constantly giving future spoilers.
Ah, Ryu Jaehee’s choice was right.
I suspected that Ryu Jaehee had also been influenced by Kim Dobin and made an unreasonable move because Kim Dobin was involved, but Ryu Jaehee had thought it all through.
They probably judged it would be cleaner to make me into a god of human instrument composition rather than perfectly explaining this fake documentary concept to outsiders who hadn’t gone through the filming meetings.
In the end, we concluded to pull this footage for a making film, and trudged back into the semi-basement dorm.
“…Bring me a sketchbook.”
If nothing else, the drawing should at least look like an instrument.
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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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