Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 103

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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103. What’s Going to Burst, Will Burst (3)
A frigid silence descended upon the office. Soo-ho found himself unable to speak carelessly. Ha-jin wouldn’t joke about something like this, and more than anything, the countless instances of déjà vu flooding his mind corroborated Ha-jin’s words.
“So, if I’m understanding you correctly… you received a mission to successfully complete the third competition with Yoo Gun, right? Everything went fine until episode three aired, but because of this incident, Yoo Gun dropped out of the program. That’s why you regressed again, but you still couldn’t prevent Yoo Gun’s withdrawal, and you keep…”
As Soo-ho methodically laid out the situation with as much composure as he could muster, Ha-jin nodded deeply while exhaling a long sigh. Having vented his emotions once, he seemed to have regained some semblance of composure.
“The only silver lining is that I keep returning to this morning. Though I’m not sure if I should even call that fortunate…”
From Soo-ho’s perspective, Ha-jin had completely lost his rational judgment. It felt risky to add anything when he himself knew nothing, but one thing was certain—Ha-jin was in no state to view anything objectively right now.
“Ha-jin.”
“No matter what I do, nothing changes. No matter what I say, no matter how many times we have the same conversation, when I come to my senses, it’s this morning again. A day passes, a week goes by, and the moment Yoo Gun drops out, it’s back to this morning. That Chosen Regressor, that crazy bastard—if I ever meet him, I’ll kill him―”
“Ha-jin. Kang Ha-jin! Look at me. Breathe. You’re not even breathing properly right now!”
Soo-ho firmly grasped Ha-jin’s hand as he began to spiral into his own thoughts once more.
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Something flickered rapidly before Ha-jin’s eyes, then vanished. His body jolted as though he’d suddenly awakened from a dream.
“Are you okay? First, let’s go to the hospital… no, wait. Going to the hospital won’t solve this…”
Soo-ho had dealt with idols suffering from panic disorders before, but never one who’d lost their grip on sanity due to infinite regression. As his anxiety began to consume him, Ha-jin’s voice finally emerged, his mind somewhat restored.
“I’m sorry. I startled you, didn’t I? I’m fine now.”
“Fine? Do you have any idea what you just looked like?”
“Like a madman, I’m sure. I know.”
Ha-jin wiped his face repeatedly with his hands as though he already understood everything. Like a different personality had surfaced and receded, the emotional Ha-jin from moments before had completely vanished.
“I’d rather not explain in detail. I feel like I’d be written off as completely insane.”
“You should’ve abandoned that concern the moment you told me the same story over twelve times while sitting right here. We already finished discussing this last time. Tell me. I have the right to know your condition.”
“…”
Soo-ho spoke with firm resolve, determined to understand Ha-jin’s exact state. Ha-jin, having returned to his usual demeanor, hesitated briefly before slowly beginning his explanation.
“When Team Leader first developed that ability, he said he thought he was going insane and sought psychiatric counseling, remember?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s similar. If I simply accepted undergoing regression multiple times, I’d lose my mind completely, so I deliberately… suppressed my emotions and rationality to a certain degree. But this situation caused a problem with that. That’s why I keep losing emotional control like this.”
Ha-jin added that he himself hadn’t anticipated such side effects from mental care. Until now, it had only manifested as heightened sensitivity, causing him to cry uncontrollably.
“Normally it wouldn’t be this severe. But given the circumstances, once we resolve this situation, I’ll develop countermeasures… It’s just that I’ve endured so much until now, and with this situation repeating endlessly―”
“Ha-jin, Ha-jin. It’s okay. It’s alright. I’m not interrogating your condition right now. I’m not trying to assess whether you’re in a mental state capable of being an idol or not.”
“…”
“I’m just asking because I need to understand the situation accurately so I can find a way to help. And because I’m worried about you.”
“…Yes.”
“You’re really okay, right? Actually, ‘okay’ doesn’t seem like the right word anymore. At least, you can make rational judgments right now, correct?”
Ha-jin nodded at Soo-ho’s careful question. Soo-ho, who had even chewed and swallowed the remaining ice from his coffee, rolled up his sleeves and gathered his thoughts.
“It’ll be difficult, but there’s definitely a way. For now, neither I nor the production team want Yoo Gun to drop out. The company sees great potential in Yoo Gun, and Kwon PD opposed reacting to these false rumors because that would just feed the beast. They seem to feel responsible for the current situation too.”
This meant that if Yoo Gun could just maintain his resolve, there would be no external factors forcing his withdrawal from the program.
Ha-jin’s expression grew heavy with concern as he clasped his hands together and bowed his body forward—a posture that resembled prayer.
“But since Lee Yu-gun himself insists on withdrawing no matter what I do… there’s nothing left to convince him with. Do you know what I was even willing to do?”
“…What?”
“I was going to threaten Lee Yu-gun with a knife in front of him. I was going to say I’d kill myself if he withdrew like this and ran away.”
“What? You―.”
“It was just a thought. The moment I grabbed the knife, I regressed again.”
He spoke as though it were nothing, but it couldn’t possibly have been nothing.
“Was there… anything else you could reference? Let’s think about this carefully again. You might have missed things because of the fear from repeatedly regressing. Since you’ve attempted this so many times, you should have that much data accumulated.”
“…Not really. All I’ve discovered is what the Team Leader just told me—that someone maliciously posted a fabricated article about Lee Yu-gun. And I only found that out around the fifth time I redid everything.”
Soo-ho, who thought there was nothing left to be surprised about, grasped the hidden meaning in those words and looked at Ha-jin. Ha-jin shrugged casually and straightened his upper body.
“The work was processed suspiciously fast, wasn’t it? Both the production team and the company. That’s all a result of me going through this over ten times. At some point, things started happening this way on their own without me even moving.”
He continued with remarks about how it seemed like the incident had become fixed due to countless repetitions, but Soo-ho couldn’t comprehend that far. In any case, what was certain was that Ha-jin had created all the results that allowed them to respond to Yoo Gun’s rumors so quickly.
Soo-ho discovered a clue there—things that Ha-jin, who had repeated countless todays, had overlooked.
“Ha-jin, listen carefully. I don’t know much about that regression or whatever, but for now, let’s look at the current situation. Yoo Gun’s external circumstances are almost completely resolved.”
“…”
“If the response to this matter had been slow like you said, and the clarification hadn’t been proper, it would be different. But thanks to your efforts, the situation really isn’t that serious right now. The company is just treating it as a typical scandal.”
When this problem first erupted.
In those countless vanished ‘todays’ that only Ha-jin knew about.
The situation back then might have been serious enough to actually force Yoo Gun to withdraw.
Perhaps the company had demanded his withdrawal first under the pretext of his conduct or image damage, or perhaps the production team’s clarification article hadn’t come out in time and they’d missed the golden window.
But the ‘today’ that Soo-ho was experiencing was different.
“What I’m saying is, the situation isn’t serious enough for Yoo Gun to insist on withdrawing. Of course, Yoo Gun might have been shocked by the situation where his family was being criticized. But even that part will all disappear once legal matters come up.”
“…I’ve said all those things too. But once that guy makes a decision, there’s no way to stop it. I can’t just tell him to accept the criticism and not regress.”
“Right, that. Let’s think about that again.”
The point Soo-ho had identified was exactly that.
“The situation has shrunk this much, so why does Yoo Gun keep wanting to withdraw?”
“…What?”
“You said it earlier. That when you repeated things multiple times, certain events naturally flowed the same way.”
“…!”
At Soo-ho’s words, Ha-jin’s hardened expression wavered.
“Could Yoo Gun’s withdrawal have been influenced by something like that too? So when you keep trying to convince Yoo Gun the same way, his resolve gets stronger.”
“The method wasn’t the same, but…”
“What I mean is that the fundamental reason behind your actions was the same. Your reason for stopping Yoo Gun’s withdrawal. You said it yourself just now. ‘I’ll stop Yoo Gun’s withdrawal to prevent regression.'”
“…”
“Do you really think that way? If it weren’t for regression, would you not care whether Yoo Gun withdraws or not?”
At those words, Ha-jin looked back on his own attitude for the first time.
What was I like all this time? What was my attitude every time I tried to stop Lee Yu-gun’s withdrawal?
“Yoo Gun might seem carefree, but he’s actually quite perceptive. Don’t you think he noticed that you and the other team members didn’t approve of him?”
“…”
It was true.
Looking back, while I had been trying to persuade Yoo Gun to stay, I never truly considered his position or feelings. I was simply consumed by the fear that if he left, I would regress.
I failed to recognize the wounds and fears he must have felt through all of this, instead emphasizing only how irresponsible and burdensome his choice to leave would be.
Because….
‘Yoo Gun’s appeal point was his sense of responsibility.’
Now, having regained my composure and spoken with Soo-ho, the fog had finally lifted, and I could understand.
‘How absurd it is to judge and treat people based solely on their stat windows?’
The system window was, after all, merely a system.
And I was still a novice who hadn’t even fully comprehended all of its skills.
So what arrogance had made me think I understood Yoo Gun completely?
What exactly had I poured out to Yoo Gun without any filter—I, who couldn’t even properly control my own emotions?
“Let’s take this slowly and try again. It seems you’ve regained some composure now, so try talking with Yoo Gun once more, calmly this time. If it seems like you can’t do it, just let me know and I can handle it instead.”
“…Yes.”
“I’m not even sure if I should be saying this when I don’t know how many times you’ve come back…. But still, the fact that you keep returning to now is far better than before, isn’t it?”
Soo-ho gently patted my shoulder and met my eyes.
“You haven’t lost everything completely, Ha-jin. You still have a chance.”
“….”
“I don’t know the exact intention of the Chosen Regressor for why you must participate in the third competition with Yoo Gun…. But the fact that you keep returning to now means that at least if you resolve this well, that’s all that matters. It’s not like before when you suddenly jumped back ten years, or all your accomplishments disappeared.”
Let’s hold onto that hope. Okay? You have to protect it, Ha-jin.
After hearing Soo-ho’s final words, I remained silent for a long time. I turned his words over in my mind, again and again, and once more.
A chance.
A chance, he said.
There was once a time when I thought the same way. That an opportunity to change my life had come.
But within just a few years, I had fallen back into the cycle of regression, and I had carefully folded that thought away and shoved it into the trash. Still, my conviction that regression was nothing but an escape and a curse remained unchanged….
“…Yes. I’ll try again.”
Nevertheless, I nodded.
If this truly was the ‘chance’ the Chosen Regressor was giving me, then this time I would never let it slip away—and with that resolve, my eyes gleamed with renewed light.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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