A Blank Slate Regression for the Idol That Lost His Original Mindset - Chapter 7
—————
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 Initial Intentions Episode 7
‘This is driving me crazy, why is the verse part so ambiguous?’
After finishing today’s schedule and working hard on beats at Yongcheol hyung’s studio again, I rubbed my strained eyes and opened the door to the semi-basement dorm.
According to what Manager Hyung had quietly hinted, the company was considering reducing our activities from the planned 3 weeks to 2 weeks.
‘Did it really get shortened to 2 weeks before my regression?’
If that’s the case, I’ll really have to pull all-nighters. Should I not follow the old song and completely rewrite just the verse?
Since it was past 3 AM, I walked stealthily to my room to avoid waking the members. As soon as I carefully opened the door, Gyeon Hajun quickly sat up.
“What, you weren’t sleeping?”
“Why have you been coming back so late lately? Where do you keep wandering around by yourself?”
I replied with a yawn to Gyeon Hajun’s question.
“I’ll tell you later.”
When I avoided answering, this time Seo Yehyeon’s voice flowed out from the pile of blankets.
“You’re not secretly meeting a girlfriend behind our backs, are you?”
“Ah, you scared me. Hyung, you weren’t sleeping either? And shouldn’t you ask if I even have a girlfriend first?”
While you guys are sprawled out sleeping, I’m working myself to the bone trying to save this team. You better thank me later.
The hero of this round won’t be Seo Yehyeon, but me.
Since both of them were awake anyway, I washed up and lay on the bed to check this week’s Weekly Quest.
[☑Weekly Quest!]
[▶Post selcas and messages on official SNS 5+ times per week (Initial Intentions +2)
▶Search fan reactions 6+ times per week (Initial Intentions +2)
▶Post selcas and messages on fan cafe FROM Board 4+ times per week (Initial Intentions +2)
▶Give warm greetings to fans on the way to and from work (Initial Intentions +2)]
I’ve posted three messages on the FROM Board so far, so if I post just one more, this week’s Quest will be complete. I’m setting alarms and searching fan reactions daily just in case, and if I keep greeting fans on the way to and from work, I should recover about 6 Initial Intentions points this week.
Just as I closed the Quest window and was about to get some sleep, Gyeon Hajun turned on the room light. I frowned deeply and grumbled in a sleepy voice.
“Jun-ah, let me sleep a bit.”
“We have a pre-recording at dawn today. Hurry up and wake the others. Yehyeon hyung, get up too.”
Oh right, the pre-recording. I had completely forgotten about it because of preparing for the next album.
Ugh, I groaned and got up from the bed. It’s a flop album anyway, doesn’t the system have a time skip function?
[Giving your best in all activities, whether they flop or succeed, is what initial intentions are all about.]
Haam, I see. Did I ask?
* * *
After waiting from dawn before sunrise and safely finishing the music show pre-recording, we headed to our next schedule.
Today we had a radio schedule following the music show pre-recording that we barely got due to another singer’s cancellation.
“This is Music Trip at Noon with Lee Sangho. In the second part, we have the talented rookie boy group Reve, who just debuted, as our guests.”
“One, two, Dream of me! Hello, we are Reve!”
At my signal, the members simultaneously shouted the English version of our ‘Dream of me’ greeting.
After we each took turns with brief self-introductions, we were given time to promote our song. The DJ, who had roughly skimmed the script, asked a question.
“What kind of song is your debut song ?”
That’s a girl group song that was released 2 years ago and became a hit. I get that you’re annoyed by unknown flop idols appearing, but shouldn’t you at least read the script properly?
“Yes, our debut album’s title track is about an astronaut drifting through space with a severed lifeline who hears someone’s voice and is drawn to that universe…”
I deliberately emphasized the title and mechanically recited the title track introduction that our agency had written for us.
Did they come up with this song concept while watching some Yuri Gagarin video?
“A lonely space journey, how unique. The lyrics are very lyrical too and seem to match the space concept very well.”
That’s right, if it weren’t for our agency’s brain-dead decision to start a space war, we could have adapted to the space travel concept decently too.
“At this point, I’m really curious about the live performance. After this commercial, let’s watch Reve’s stage!”
As soon as the upbeat CM song started playing, the DJ took off his headset, picked up his phone, and grumbled as if for us to hear.
“They don’t even bring lunch box tributes here?”
I clicked my tongue seeing the members’ expressions become uncomfortable as if sitting on a bed of thorns.
What do you expect from a small company flop idol group that just debuted with less than 500 fan cafe members, you human?
The DJ maintained his insincere attitude until the radio show ended, and even when we were saying goodbye after the second part ended, he didn’t even look up from his phone and just waved his hand dismissively.
Behind my hands politely clasped together for the greeting, I subtly raised my middle finger.
Let’s see what happens after we make it big.
[Bad hand gesture detected.]
[Initial Intentions -2]
At the sharp sensation, I sucked in a breath. Are you kidding me? I did it without getting caught, so why are you deducting Initial Intentions points? Since I didn’t get caught, you should obviously let it slide, right?
The atmosphere in the car returning to the dorm after the schedule was gloomy.
It seemed like only I, who had toughened my mentality through 2 and a half years of flop idol life, wasn’t particularly affected by the blatant cold treatment.
In the heavy atmosphere, my phone alarm went off with a buzz.
After spitting blood from not meeting the search count once, I set an alarm so I wouldn’t forget. There were exactly two items in my search history: Reve, and Eden.
As I was scrolling through the feed, the word “fan meeting” caught my eye. Since we were about to hold our first fan signing event, there was a high probability that this Reve was our Reve.
LookingForPositiveEnergyVisual @kpopdol
Anyone who can share Reve fan meeting photos
│
Heidi @hi_everydi
Is Reve any good?
│
LookingForPositiveEnergyVisual @kpopdol
They’re the ones who debuted recently, I want to go see this guy
Looking for a new positive energy visual
(Photo)
│
Heidi @hi_everydi
Crazy, with that face why didn’t they blow up?
│
LookingForPositiveEnergyVisual @kpopdol
The song is fucking terrible
Hair and makeup are bad too, seems like the agency is completely hopeless
│
Heidi @hi_everydi
Ah… then I can’t stan them
As expected, Seo Yehyeon’s photo was right there.
I remembered this hyung’s nickname from before my regression again. Our young breadwinner was working hard from debut.
‘Our title track is pretty bad though…’
I smacked my lips bitterly at the words I couldn’t refute.
Wondering if there was at least a decent B-side track, I was looking through the album’s track list when I spotted a song I had completely forgotten about.
Our debut album’s first album was terrible from the title track to the B-side tracks, but there was exactly one song that was somewhat decent.
It was the last track I wrote the lyrics and composed, .
Since I had my foot in the underground scene, I could at least do basic lyric writing and composition.
Wanting to have one of my songs on the debut album, I reworked a rap mixtape I had made during my underground days into a song and managed to convince the agency to squeeze it into the debut album.
Of course, I had seriously gotten into composition and producing during my flop idol days when I had time to spare, so this song wasn’t at a level that satisfied me from my current perspective.
Still, it was too good a song to be bundled with the title track and other B-side tracks and receive harsh criticism.
Before my regression, it was buried along with the disastrous failure of our first album.
‘Later, when Reve made a comeback, this song was also reevaluated as the only decent song from the first album, right? I think?’
Maybe I should promote this song once.
Thanks to posting regularly on the fan cafe due to the Weekly Quest, I was considered a communicative member along with Jaehee among our few fans.
[From. Eden]
Fans, have you been staying healthy and strong? Now I can call you Daydream instead of just fans.
I actually saw a post today saying the song sucks and I’m upset because I can’t argue with it lol Anyway, I’m posting what I think is the best song from the album before I go.
p.s. Lyrics & Composition By. Yoon Eden
https://yxxtu.be/SDFJPEx42
(One Chance_audio_video)
Comments 13
-Eden, you don’t have to use such formal greetings… I’m not that old…
-Who is it!!! Who said our songs are terrible!!!!
-The song is really good!! Why didn’t you make this the title track ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
-Lyrics and composition by Yoon Eden?? Our kid was a composing member
-I knew it from when they put the kids in white jumpsuits that looked like Sponge Experiment Man outfits, but the agency really has no sense. With a song like this, they made Your Eyes Also Sparkle the title track
└Still, even if you come to my universe, this is what our kids’ song is like? This kind of songㅜ
└Even Eden oppa can’t argue when they say he’s stingy ㅠ Honestly, compared to my Wooro, objectively he’s st-(muffled
-This song is too good to be buried. I’m going to promote it
(View more comments)
As I was giggling while reading through the comments, Ryu Jaehee tapped my arm.
“Hyung, why do you always start your From Board posts with ‘have you been staying healthy and strong?'”
“‘Hello’ is five characters, ‘have you been staying healthy and strong’ is eleven characters. Got it?”
When I kindly explained while counting on my fingers, Ryu Jaehee’s expression became very strange.
“Just say you’re doing it as a concept. Not for such worldly reasons like increasing character count.”
I had nothing to say, but it wasn’t just that posts under two lines weren’t recognized for the Quest – they were also considered insincere and my initial intentions points got deducted, so I had no choice, man.
I posted the same content on our official SNS account and attached the video link there too.
If it takes off, great. If not, well, I’ll compete with the next album.
* * *
Miss Kim was a typical K-pop idol fan in Korea.
After 7 years, her kids had ghostly dead-fish eyes and were starting to gain weight from partying – soon they’d belong to someone else. Now she wanted to see fresh idols with sparkling eyes.
The idol group that appeared before Miss Kim was Reve. When Miss Kim’s parents saw Reve taking the very first spot on the music show, they evaluated them like this:
“What are those kids, semiconductor factory workers?”
“Ugh, why are songs these days so crude?”
Seeing the sparkling eyes she hadn’t seen in a long time and Seo Yehyeon’s face faintly breaking through the styling that made even viewers feel sorry for them, she abandoned her former kids who now belonged to someone else and became a fan of this new idol group.
And exactly one week after joining the fan cafe, her bias changed.
The cute hamster youngest member Yuje who came to communicate through official SNS and fan cafe From posts daily was nice too.
But her new bias was the leader Yoon Eden, who came to the From Board almost as often as the youngest member with greetings of “have you been staying healthy and strong,” and had gap moe points that didn’t match his cool impression plus a tear mole that Miss Kim was crazy about.
Looking at the fan cafe membership that could practically be called a fan club and the official SNS account shares that couldn’t exceed 10, she felt a kind of mission to somehow make this idol group successful.
Our kids’ faces and proportions are perfect and wouldn’t lose anywhere!
But the problem was the embarrassing styling and crude title track. Being rookies, there were no videos or SNS captures that could serve as points of attraction.
The music video GIFs made her sigh at how much they must have saved on budget. The quality and styling buried even the overwhelmingly handsome Seo Yehyeon’s looks.
Miss Kim, who had been cursing the damn agency that worked terribly as expected from Jjotso, rushed like Pavlov’s dog to her bias’s new From Board post.
“Who is it! Which bastard said it was terrible…! Well, it is terrible…”
Miss Kim, who had been furiously typing an angry comment, smiled bitterly and deleted what she was writing.
What Eden posted today along with his message was a B-side track YouTube audio video.
Was there a song like this? Even though she was a fan, Miss Kim had been so shocked by the title track that she hadn’t even thought to listen to the B-side tracks, so she blinked at this unfamiliar song.
Usually, they pick the best song as the title track, after all.
“Wow, our Eden composes too?”
Good, I can promote him as a composing idol. Of course, that’s only possible if the song is worth listening to.
Miss Kim, who played the YouTube audio video without much expectation, found her expression gradually changing to shock as the song continued.
Is the agency really crazy? With a song like this, they made Sparkling Eyes the title track?
‘Right, this is it. Let’s promote this song at least.’
The eyes of Miss Kim, a 10-year veteran of K-pop fandom who had finally found a promotional point, blazed fiercely.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————