A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 68

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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 Initial Intentions Episode 68

Kim Dobin, who had been leisurely holding his cell phone and just reading chat messages while claiming he wouldn’t cook, giggled.

“You have some nerve summoning people like that. Because of you and Eden Hyung, Hajun Hyung’s nicknames became Jun-raemon and Jun-ddaddu now.”

We did call him quite a lot, probably…?

Looking at Gyeon Hajun, who seemed as exhausted as Ryu Jaehee and me from cooking, I awkwardly scratched my cheek.

Ryu Jaehee, who had been diligently stirring the stir-fried pork with a wooden spatula, turned off the heat and proudly shouted.

“First, the stir-fried pork is complete!”

“Jaehee, it’s undercooked. Stir-fry it more.”

“Incomplete then.”

At Gyeon Hajun’s firm words, Ryu Jaehee turned the gas stove back on and listlessly stirred the stir-fried pork again.

“Eden, stir the soup once and cover it with the lid. Keep the heat on medium.”

A rare scene unfolded where the person receiving the birthday meal was commanding the cooking of his own birthday feast.

However, the remaining dish was something that could be done sufficiently without Gyeon Hajun’s help.

“Finally, if we just make the rolled omelet, this hard labor will be over.”

“It looks like Hajun Hyung did more than you, Hyung.”

“I worked hard in my own way too.”

I beat the egg mixture and whisked it with chopsticks to shape it.

The days when I practiced over and over again to make this one dish properly flashed by.

Since I was a failed idol with no schedule, I had plenty of time and did all sorts of useless things. This wasn’t exactly a fond memory.

Kim Dobin’s eyes lit up as he looked at the completed Tornado Omelette and demanded.

“Wow, amazing! Hyung, do it again!”

“There are no eggs. This was the last egg.”

“Didn’t you buy eggs when you went shopping?”

“I didn’t buy them because they were in the refrigerator. I just didn’t know there were only three left.”

Ryu Jaehee, who had been diligently stir-frying pork and glanced to the side, threw in a comment.

“Anyone can see this isn’t a rolled omelet but a Tornado Omelette.”

“Whether it’s an omelet or rolled omelet, it’s all the same egg, so just eat it instead of being so picky.”

“That’s true.”

The youngest really liked this. I vividly remember bringing it to his room when he was studying for civil service exams.

Looking at the youngest who wouldn’t need to prepare for civil service exams this time, I felt strange.

Even while saying that, Ryu Jaehee couldn’t take his eyes off the Tornado Omelette, finding it fascinating. Gyeon Hajun asked him.

“Doesn’t it smell burnt?”

“Hey hey hey hey, the pork is burning!”

At my urgent cry, Ryu Jaehee hastily turned off the heat.

Thus ended the arduous birthday meal cooking time.

On the dining table, the seaweed soup pot, Tornado Omelette, and burnt stir-fried pork were neatly arranged along with side dishes from the refrigerator and whipped cream cake bought during shopping.

I clapped along to Ryu Jaehee, who was singing the birthday song with full vibration, and Kim Dobin, who was adding terrible harmony to it.

I wanted to zone out, but if I did, my initial intentions score would definitely decrease for having dead fish eyes, so I tried hard to maintain lively eyes.

When Gyeon Hajun blew out the candles on the cake, Kim Dobin, who was still in charge of filming, suddenly asked.

“How does it feel to receive a birthday meal away from cooking for the first time in a while?”

“Can I… really say I received this…?”

Seo Yehyeon casually added to Gyeon Hajun’s words as he let out a hollow laugh with a tired face.

“At least it’s certain that Hajun couldn’t get away from cooking.”

Thinking of Gyeon Hajun, who had performed almost like the mouse from a certain movie that controls people to cook, I didn’t feel like arguing and just nodded.

“See you again, Daydream!”

“Ilmong-ies, eat something delicious too!”

After taking a shot of the birthday meal and giving Gyeon Hajun another warm birthday greeting, we ended the live broadcast to eat.

We had long passed the 10-minute minimum for the Quest. I was curious if the Weekly Quest would count this as one OA live.

Gyeon Hajun took a spoonful of seaweed soup and quietly put down his spoon, saying.

“Can someone bring some salt?”

“Jaehee, bring some salt.”

Is it that bland? I definitely put in two spoons of soy sauce as instructed.

“I followed the blog recipe exactly, but why is it bland…?”

“That’s for 4 servings, right?”

At Gyeon Hajun’s question, I opened the search window again to check the blog recipe. It was indeed for 4 servings. When I nodded, Gyeon Hajun said again.

“This amount is for 8 servings, Eden.”

“…I see. I wondered why 1.5L of water wasn’t enough.”

Cooking was indeed difficult. And honestly, even though I made it, it didn’t taste good.

[▷Let’s take care of the members’ birthdays! ✓

▶You have completed this year’s (20xx) ‘Taking care of Gyeon Hajun’s birthday.’

▶You will receive 5 initial intentions points and a Random Ticket as a reward.]

I breathed a sigh of relief at the belated Quest completion window. Still, unlike with Seo Yehyeon’s case, I was fortunate to know about the birthday early.

Still, I didn’t skip posting a birthday congratulations message on SNS at exactly 11:59 PM.

REVE_official @LnL_reve

[Eden Dream]

Happy birthday, Hajun

I’ll try to make sure you can just sit still and receive your next birthday meal

#happybirthday #mybf

(birthday_meal_group_photo.jpg)

Share 4831 Quote 1122 Like 8104

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REVE_official @LnL_reve

+) Birthday boy’s evaluation of his birthday meal taste

Seaweed soup – bland

Stir-fried pork – tastes burnt

Tornado Omelette – too pretty to eat

That’s what he says

* * *

The OA live commemorating Gyeon Hajun’s birthday saw a rapid increase in views as a real-life Ratatouille (human version, no mice appearing).

Since the intention was just to capture the heartwarming scene of taking care of a fellow member’s birthday meal, I was bewildered, but as long as you reach Seoul even by going the wrong way. Good things are good things, after all.

[☺70,000 fans achieved!]

[Reward: Initial Intentions +20, Item Selection Ticket]

The status window, which had always only contributed to raising my blood pressure, displayed welcome content for the first time in a while.

[Project to Regain Initial Intentions for Idols Who Lost Them!]

[Essential Condition – You who disappointed 30,000 fans, make 30 million fans happy! (73,011/30,000,000)]

70,000 was a number much higher than the 10,000 days, but it was still far away.

We’d have to rise to the first tier recognized even overseas within at least 3 years to barely achieve 30 million.

Just checking this number made me feel like a debtor with a hefty pile of debt to repay. Except now the number doesn’t decrease.

[Initial Intentions: 100]

After receiving 20 Initial Intentions points, I finally achieved 100 Initial Intentions.

This was the first time I’d seen the number 100 since this system was introduced.

Since I’d been cursing from the very first moment of regression, when I first checked my status window, my Initial Intentions was around 94 or so.

‘I successfully restored my Initial Intentions to 100, so couldn’t you remove the infinite regression penalty?’

I tentatively probed the system, but it remained silent.

‘Or maybe reduce it to 10 million people…’

[Initial Intentions –1]

This damn system is now randomly deducting points without even giving a reason?

As if showing its last bit of conscience, there was no Initial Pain (short for the pain felt when Initial Intentions are deducted), but seeing the number drop back to 99 made me very uncomfortable.

Since I can’t raise my Initial Intentions until midnight Monday when the Weekly Quest settles, there’s no way to get it back to 100 either.

[Surprise QUEST★]

[▶Reestablish Your Concept

-Content: We’re giving you another chance after you completely destroyed the concept you had carefully established and confused your fans. Reestablish your concept based on ‘the image fans think of you.’

-Reward: Initial Intentions 10, Random Ticket

-Deadline: Within one month

※There will be penalties if you fail to return to the concept fans think of you!]

No, I wasn’t asking you to give me a Surprise Quest. Can I return this Quest?

There’s only one thing that could have ruined my concept. Being the only one who didn’t cry during our first music show win, ruining the tough-exterior-soft-interior character that was mainstream.

If I win a rookie award and do some crying acting pretending to be moved, that would be okay, but since it’s not confirmed, whether we can even win a rookie award is uncertain.

But if I start bawling when KICKS wins the rookie award, not only would it hurt my pride, but public opinion would obviously turn bad too.

Crying tears of joy at a music show win isn’t something I can do within a month, so that’s rejected.

‘Should I really plan a horror movie watching concept? Should I pretend to be startled while watching horror movies?’

But even if jump scare scenes come up, if I pretend to be scared a beat too late, it’ll be obvious I’m putting on an act and just become a laughingstock.

“Wow, the January comeback lineup is insane.”

“If we had really made a comeback in January, we would have flopped completely, forget about first place.”

“I understand what they mean about bad monthly luck in one go. Should I really believe in fortune telling?”

As I was lost in thought about how to complete this Quest, the Youngest Line’s whispered conversation reached my ears whether I wanted to hear it or not.

That’s nonsense.

Following the CEO, I’ve made even the youngest members interested in useless things. But I have no regrets since I prevented the January comeback.

After the new year passed, the Silver Disc Awards and Naon Chart Music Awards suddenly approached.

Both had controversies, but they were at least more credible award ceremonies than WAMA.

Voting had already ended. I didn’t bother looking up the results in case it would piss me off.

Rev before regression had never won a grand prize.

I also knew that our group before regression was definitely not grand prize level.

‘Though songs I composed had won grand prizes before.’

Sitting in the artist seating area without winning a single award, just clapping while listening to juniors’ acceptance speeches saying ‘we’re grateful to senior Yoon Eden for graciously taking on the producing’ wasn’t exactly pleasant.

Even when I felt proud of achievements made with songs I composed, seeing the group’s state where popularity was concentrated on one person while their title tracks were shit, becoming neither this nor that, I’d often get pissed off thinking that could have been our future.

“The 20XX Rookie of the Year award goes to… Congratulations, Rev!”

Maybe because KICKS had stolen the rookie award from us at WAMA, I felt more relieved that we could finally get one back at them than happy.

I looked toward KICKS and deliberately smirked at them before receiving the bouquet and trophy.

I handed the microphone to Ryu Jaehee, who had been whining for days that he wanted to give the acceptance speech if we won the rookie award.

Seo Yehyeon squeezing out tears like during our first music show win, and Kim Dobin sniffling.

I looked at each of them in turn – Gyeon Hajun looking back at me with reddened eyes – and rubbed my still dry eyes.

“We will continue to work harder and be a Rev that stays active. Thank you!”

As Ryu Jaehee’s acceptance speech finally ended, I waved the trophy and bowed.

‘How exactly do you do crying acting anyway.’

I should have asked future acting idol Gyeon Hajun.

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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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