Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 106

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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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106. What’s Going to Burst, Will Burst (6)
The final day of waiting for Yoo Gun had arrived.
Still no word from Yoo Gun, but Ha-jin was no longer afraid of regression. A desire had taken root within me—as strong as the pull of time itself—to complete the Blue Flare Team’s stage alongside Yoo Gun. This wasn’t just Ha-jin’s sentiment; everyone in the Blue Flare Team shared the same conviction.
“…Chan. What are you doing?”
“Oh, hyung. You’re awake? I’m sorry. I was just practicing a bit….”
“What practice? You’ve been muttering to yourself this whole time.”
“Ah…. It’s Yoo Gun hyung’s rap part. Just in case.”
It’s still dawn, hyung. Get some more sleep.
Eun-chan, who shared the room, said this while dimming the brightness of his phone’s flashlight. Ha-jin had stayed awake last night, watching the clock tick from 11:59 to midnight, and even then, unable to find peace, had spent several more hours with eyes wide open. So Ha-jin had managed only an hour or two of actual sleep.
“No, it’s fine. Turn on the light. I’m getting up anyway.”
But Ha-jin rose from the bed without hesitation. Lying there would only invite more needless thoughts.
“Where are you going, hyung?”
“Going for a run. Need to clear my head.”
“Want me to come with you?”
“No, you keep practicing.”
Ha-jin changed into light workout clothes and stepped out of the Dormitory, meeting the morning dew. The world was still shedding its darkness, opening its eyes to a pale blue. Ha-jin put in his earbuds and played the third competition song he’d recorded for practice.
Easy to play
You think everything’s easy
Softly singing along to the song that began with Si-woo’s breath-laden voice, Ha-jin ran his course.
“Hah, phew, huh…. Wow, this is tough.”
Ha-jin completed two full laps without stopping once, then exhaled roughly. Worried he wouldn’t have the strength to make it back to the Company, he barely managed to collapse onto a nearby bench and catch his breath.
Suddenly, Ha-jin felt the urge to pull out his phone and check the Internet. He’d fallen asleep after seeing reactions from people defending Yoo Gun yesterday, and now he was curious how things had settled.
“…Nothing much.”
People had lost interest in Yoo Gun, who no longer gave them anything to criticize. There were still some unhinged individuals exploiting the revelation of Yoo Gun’s family circumstances to launch further personal attacks.
But they were the type who would leave malicious comments even if Yoo Gun turned out to be royalty from a distant land, so Ha-jin trusted that Soo-ho would see them face legal consequences.
The public had chewed Yoo Gun up and spat him out like flavorless gum, yet mentions of him hadn’t completely vanished. Once everyone had taken their jabs and moved on, those who had remained in the same place from beginning to end, tending to the lingering wounds, became visible.
They were Destiny—those who had believed in Yoo Gun and held their ground through every controversy.
Miro Maze Hashtag Coordinated Attack Team
@MM_hashitag
#YooGun
Announcing coordinated hashtag campaign for purifying the search results
※Campaign Time
Today (22nd) 20:00 (KST)~
※Hashtags
#YooGun_IWillProtectYou
#YooGun’sStageIsAlwaysJoyful
X Absolutely NO hashtag use before campaign starts X
Search result purification notices in thread
ReasonGun
@2uuu_gunn2
(PC screen capture with images and PDFs neatly aligned)
The Miro announcement finally dropped!
I’ve already submitted the materials I collected
First batch sent successfully
If anyone else wants to send additional materials,
please send them through my bio link
and I’ll compile them for the second batch
‖
Lee Yu-gun
@2uuu_gunn2
(Capture of Miro’s legal notice)
If you want to send it directly,
you can refer to the details above
Kang Ha-di
@kang_HD
I wish the world would be
a little kinder to Yoo Gun
I love Lee Yu-gun
Lee Yu-gun is handsome
Lee Yu-gun brings joy
Lee Yu-gun main dancer
Lee Yu-gun dancing
Lee Yu-gun singing
…
Those who participated in this wave of support bore Yoo Gun’s seal, and yet they didn’t. Their favorites were close to Yoo Gun, and yet they had no connection at all.
But everyone participated in this wave with one heart.
It was Yoo Gun’s situation now, but they knew a similar incident could happen to their own favorite at any time.
As Ha-jin made his way back to the dormitory, he read and reread the encouragement and prayers the fans had posted. Even though those words weren’t directed at him, they somehow brought comfort. They had shown nothing yet, and yet these people did all this for people they’d never even seen in person. It made him wonder why.
But Ha-jin already understood.
Sometimes, when people love and support someone, there’s no particular reason at all.
“…Is everyone in the Practice Room?”
After returning to the dormitory, showering, and changing clothes, Ha-jin felt puzzled by the unusual quiet. His feet instinctively carried him toward the Blue Flare Team’s Practice Room.
“…?”
Even from far down the Hallway, he could see the lights were on in the Blue Flare Team’s Practice Room. As he approached, wondering if everyone had gathered there, he noticed the sounds coming from inside were louder than usual.
Through the slightly ajar door, boisterous voices leaked out. Just counting the number of voices, it seemed like more than ten people were inside.
Ha-jin’s pace quickened. He’d run two laps straight and then walked back to the dormitory, but without tiring, he ran again.
The Practice Room door swung open without even time for a knock.
“…Ha-jin hyung!”
Eun-chan called out with a bright voice. A path naturally opened through the trainees who had been gathered around someone.
As the clustered group dispersed, Yoo Gun appeared, his natural blue-black hair swept lightly back with a calm expression.
Yoo Gun turned his body to face Ha-jin directly. His lips, distinctly full and curved with a sharp ridge, curved cleanly into a smile that was refreshing just to behold.
“No matter how much I thought about it, I just couldn’t let such an opportunity go to waste.”
Yoo Gun shrugged his shoulders with a look that seemed to say, “You understand everything, right?” letting his gesture speak for him.
But that was enough.
Truly, it was enough.
And so, the day of the third competition’s recording arrived.
Yoo Gun had returned,
and Ha-jin still had not regressed.
It was the “tomorrow” he had longed for so desperately.
* * *
‘Wow, I’m seriously about to throw up.’
It was the girl’s first impression upon seeing the familiar scenery she had thought she would never witness again.
“Here I am again at this ungodly hour. I guess quitting K-pop is just not in the cards for me this lifetime.”
The girl had no intention whatsoever of applying for audience tickets when the notice for the third competition’s audience recruitment was posted. She really didn’t.
She had even deleted her main account (Ha-rang) where she talked about Do-ha, and on her side account (Soda) she’d been doing nothing but talking about Miro Maze lately, and recently she’d been reposting so many Mal-lang-gom gifs that she was seriously considering separating her gif account, but regardless, she hadn’t planned to go!
Before she knew it, she was receiving a call that she’d won the audience lottery. It was undoubtedly the case that while she was asleep for a moment, the ghost of K-pop had possessed her and applied for audience tickets on its own.
“Well, since I’m already here, I might as well enjoy it to the fullest, right?”
In truth, her heart had been unsettled by recent events. Just like everyone else, she had formed preconceptions about Yoo Gun based solely on his appearance and broadcasts, and now that she knew his circumstances, she felt a bit ashamed of herself for having done so.
Even though she hadn’t left malicious comments or directly criticized him, it was true that when she saw controversial posts, she had thought, “Couldn’t he have done something like that?”
‘I haven’t just been doing K-pop for a day or two. Where did my maturity go, Yoon Se-eun?’
Yoo Gun would definitely perform on stage at today’s recording, so she would cheer enthusiastically, pouring all her apologies and reflective remorse into it.
With such thoughts, the girl hurried toward the studio. Since it was still early morning, the waiting line was shorter than expected.
As she approached, she could see the fan friends who had lined up before them.
“Unnie! Over here!”
“Hey, hey~.”
Fortunately, there was no one behind them, so she could join the line without hesitation. Even though she was at the very back, there seemed to be fewer than twenty people, which meant they had arrived quite early.
Standing in line like this, they would receive their entry number at 10 a.m. After that, they would kill time nearby, and then return before the recording started to enter in the order of their assigned numbers.
Actually, today’s recording started at 4 p.m., so they only needed to come by 2 p.m. when entry check closed, but if they did that, they’d end up barely catching a glimpse of their idols from the very back row.
‘Since it takes up the whole day, it’s usually incredibly boring and tedious, but if you have fan friends to hang out with, that’s a different story.’
The girl looked at her fan friends whom she hadn’t met in person in a long time.
The tall one wearing a baseball cap pulled deep and a black leather jacket was Professor Task, and the petite one in a flashy blouse-style one-piece dress organizing a bundle of goods to share was Mal-lang-gom. The girl was called Soda by these two people.
“But there aren’t as many people as I worried there’d be?”
“Nah, the line should start filling up soon. We really did come super early.”
“When did you guys get here?”
“Just now too. Professor Task unnie apparently slept here yesterday. She got a room nearby.”
“Really? Ah, I wish I’d done that too.”
“Are you heading straight home after today? I booked my checkout for tomorrow anyway, so I’m just going to sleep after the recording. Mal-lang-gom’s sleeping here too. Tomorrow’s the weekend anyway.”
“Right, unnie, let’s go together after. Since today’s the day they’re filming episode 4, we can watch it together!”
“Oh. I’m down for that. But is it okay if three people go in?”
Soda asked with a surprised expression, and Professor Task answered with a cool smile.
“I hate cramped rooms, so I grabbed a bigger one. We just need to pay the extra fee for additional people, so let’s just grab some late-night food after recording today and hang out. It’s been forever since we’ve all gotten together.”
“Professor Task, I love you. I’ll buy us lunch later instead.”
“Then I’ll get the coffee! I just got my allowance.”
At Mal-lang-gom’s words—the only high school student in the group—both Soda and Professor Task shook their heads with stern expressions.
“Tsk, what money does a student have? Put it away.”
“Bear, no way, no way. You spent so much money preparing for this giveaway event. Absolutely not.”
“I’m always just receiving from my older sisters! At least let me buy the drinks. I basically recovered everything from selling Si-u’s phone grip charms online, so it’s fine.”
At Mal-lang-gom’s earnest gaze, Professor Task and Soda couldn’t help but laugh. Though still a high school student, Mal-lang-gom was resourceful and sharp, and her ultimate bias was Jeong Si-u. She occasionally created and sold merchandise related to Si-u. The operation was still small, so the profits weren’t huge, but from a student’s perspective, it was decent pocket money. The problem was that she spent all her earnings on giveaways anyway.
“Still, you design it, hand it off to manufacturers, check the proofs, conduct market research, handle packaging and shipping… when you think about all that, it’s hard to even call it ‘recovered.’ If you factor in labor costs, you’re probably not even making minimum wage.”
“Come on, when you’re still just a handful of people, just recovering production costs is huge. Besides, the ones who do well make a killing.”
“This is the creative economy that K-pop created.”
As they chattered loudly, it was already 10 o’clock. The once-sparse waiting line was now packed, with two or three additional lines stacked beside theirs.
“Wow, the line is really long.”
“Right? We were smart to come early.”
“So where should we go now? It’s still a bit early for lunch, so want to hit up a cafe?”
When they’d first arrived before dawn and started waiting in line, there was a moment of reality check, but now, having waited for quite a while and receiving envious glances from all the people still in line, she’d received an entry number in the twenties. It felt like the effort was worth it.
‘Next time, I need to book a room too.’
Already planning for the next broadcast viewing, Soda hummed cheerfully, her good mood radiating from her.

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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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