Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 112

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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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112. What’s Going to Burst, Will Burst (12)
The roar from the audience erupted only after a brief moment had passed since the stage ended.
The Destiny members, barely emerging from their captivation and regaining their senses, screamed with all their heart and soul.
“Phew… Oh my, that was exhausting. Thank you so much!”
The Blue Flare Team, who had held their ending pose a bit longer, smiled at the response and relaxed their stance. After briefly tidying up the venue and heading backstage to fix their hair and makeup, the Blue Flare Team descended from the stage. Yet the heat from the audience showed no signs of cooling.
“Please, really, you guys, no, I mean right now, no….”
Soda gripped Mal-lang-gom’s hand tightly, barely managing to speak while desperately holding onto her rapidly unraveling composure. The problem was that Mal-lang-gom’s situation wasn’t much different.
“Unni, Si-u… Si-u…. Is our Si-u really a prince? I mean, I was obsessing over him as Miro’s noble prince, a classical prince from an elite arts school, and now he’s actually appearing as a real prince—this is going to kill any fan, seriously….”
Mal-lang-gom, who normally portrayed Jeong Si-u as a classical prince character who’d taken the elite arts school route, muttered while clutching her temples. The impact of the white shirt and cummerbund seemed to have hit particularly hard.
And then someone grabbed both of their shoulders.
“…All of you, be quiet. My emotions are way too complicated right now.”
It was Professor Task, who had been capturing her bias’s chest and back through the viewfinder, and even while that bias was hitting three-octave high notes, she’d bitten down on her teeth with superhuman willpower to suppress her screams.
Mal-lang-gom and Soda looked at Professor Task with amazed eyes.
“You really…. How did you hold back?”
“I convinced myself that if I didn’t capture this, I’d be denying my entire photography fan life up to this point.”
“Unni, did you get shots of everyone?”
“Looks like I got at least one good shot of each of them. I don’t know, honestly I was just focused on not shaking while shooting, so now I’m completely burnt out with nothing left.”
Professor Task, having captured everything she needed today, put her camera back into her bag without hesitation to fully enjoy the remaining talk. Before putting it away, she carefully checked the preview multiple times, and just to be safe, she removed the memory card and kept it separately. The three of them couldn’t contain their excitement at the thought of returning to the dormitory later and reviewing the preview on Professor Task’s laptop.
In the meantime, the stage was tidied up, and this time too, Seo Tae-il came up first.
“Blue Flare Team’s Set Me Free. It seems everyone enjoyed the stage….”
At the moment when he should have asked “Did you enjoy it~?” Seo Tae-il nodded as if he already knew, and everyone burst into laughter.
“Well then. Let’s proceed with the voting as usual.”
The previous stages had also received votes before the post-stage talk. It seemed to be to prevent the lingering impression from fading or people forgetting their impressions during the talk.
“Wow…. How am I supposed to choose?”
“What do you mean? Obviously your bias, right?”
“Well, that’s true…. But wow, I mean, that’s true….”
During the previous two stages, she’d thought the timing was perfect, but now that it was time for the trainees to vote, she found herself hesitating a bit.
“My head says Do-ha, obviously….”
“…Unni, Yu-gun is on your mind, isn’t he?”
“Yeah. No, this isn’t pity or sympathy, but honestly….”
Soda finally admitted it.
Today’s Lee Yu-gun was undeniably the MVP of this stage!
Especially at the end, when he was bouncing his body frantically while laying down double rap vocals, she’d empathized thinking, “This must be how Pygmalion from Greek mythology felt seeing his sculpture come to life as a human.”
“I’m still going to vote for Ha-jin.”
“Should I vote for Do-ha too?”
“No, it’s just… it feels like everyone’s going to vote for Yu-gun. Ha-jin was incredible too, but honestly, considering what happened last time with Yu-gun, everyone who saw today’s stage probably had their hearts moved by him.”
Professor Task offered her assessment from a rather objective perspective. Hearing those words, Mal-lang-gom, after deliberating, gave her vote to Si-u.
That left Soda.
‘What should I do?’
As Soda was deliberating, Seo Tae-il announced that voting would close soon. The trainee ID numbers displayed on the scoreboard were Do-ha as number 2 and Yu-gun as number 4, listed by age.
Soda, who had been deliberating between options 2 and 4 until the very end, finally pressed the button.
-…3, 2, 1! Voting is now closed.
“Unnie, unnie. Who did you vote for? Do-ha?”
“No. Yoo Gun.”
“What, really? Unnie, so you decided to go with him after all?”
“…It’s not quite that far yet, but…”
Soda shrugged her shoulders, saying they’d talk about it after this was over. Mal-lang-gom and Professor Task glanced at her and smiled knowingly, as if they understood her feelings well enough.
Soon, the Blue Flare Team took the stage.
“Ahhhhh!! Si-woo!!!!!”
“Kang Ha-jin!!!!!”
“You guys, I love you so much!!!!!”
With shouts erupting from all corners, the trainees positioned themselves on stage and smiled slightly. Only after the assistant director hurriedly restrained individual comments did the audience settle down. Professor Task, who had set down his camera, waved Ha-jin’s slogan with sparkling eyes.
“Blue Flare Team, why don’t you greet all the Destiny members first!”
“Yes. We’ll greet you. Two, three!”
“The burning light within Destiny! Hello, we are Blue Flare!”
At Ha-jin’s command, six boys mimed shooting arrows while gazing toward the left sky. Tae-il asked with curiosity about the unique greeting.
“Ah, this team has quite a unique greeting method. What’s that motion?”
Then all eyes converged on one person.
Do-ha, who looked like he’d never do something like this, blinked blankly.
“Regarding that part, the team name creator will kindly provide an explanation.”
“Ah, so Do-ha came up with both the team name and the motion? Then let’s hear it!”
Do-ha created it? My ears perked up like a rabbit’s. I made sure to catch every single word without missing a syllable, planning to subtly slip it in as promotional material for Do-ha when I wrote my post-viewing review later.
Do-ha, who had taken the microphone, seemed to hesitate for a moment before opening his mouth.
“Well, to explain that, I’d first need to go into the program’s subtitle, so… the story might get a bit long.”
“Ah, is there such a profound meaning behind it?”
“To summarize as much as possible, the hottest fire burns blue, so the team name Blue Flare came from the meaning of the most intensely burning light. The reason we didn’t use ‘Flame’… is connected to our program’s subtitle.”
I thought Do-ha’s calm, measured voice explaining everything was ASMR in itself.
But anyway, a subtitle?
Miro Maze’s subtitle was “In Search of Icarus’s Wings”—a story from Greek and Roman mythology that I already knew well. My concentration skyrocketed.
“Since Icarus ultimately loved the sun, when expressing Destiny, we chose ‘Flare,’ which can mean the light energy around the sun, rather than ‘Flame,’ which means a spark.”
“Wow, such a profound meaning? Then what about that motion of shooting arrows? Are you shooting at the sun?”
“We modeled it after Cupid’s arrow from Eros, the god of love in Greek and Roman mythology. It embodies our bold aspiration to make the sun we love have no choice but to love us in return.”
“Wow…. It was much more profound than I expected.”
Tae-il marveled. Mal-lang-gom and Professor Task beside him were also thinking things like, ‘I see. Nowadays, survival programs really do put this much care into choosing team names and motions.’
But I, who had fully activated both eardrums and was etching every word Do-ha spoke into my eyes, ears, and mind, felt something.
‘…Why does my bias give off the scent of a fellow fan digging the same hole?’
Of course, the program concept was one thing, and stories like Cupid’s arrow of Eros were common enough knowledge, but…
‘Is it just my imagination, or can I sense the deliberation about how to explain this from the beginning so these muggles don’t get bored while still conveying the meaning correctly?’
But as the individual greetings continued, I tried to shake off my suspicions. Based on what I’d seen broadcast so far, Do-ha had a strong image of being a pure-blooded muggle born yesterday.
Once the team introduction ended, individual greetings began one by one.
They had already delivered such a scorching performance, and the sheer presence of these six men standing before them—their styling and silhouettes—was absolutely commanding. Each introduction drew thunderous roars from the audience.
“Hello, I’m Kang Ha-jin.”
When it was my turn, fans waving my slogan throughout the venue greeted me with dolphin-like cheers. Today, my sharp eyes were accentuated even more by the crimson shadow makeup, and I gazed at these Destiny supporters with an amused smile before laughing.
Then, without a word, I turned around!
“Ahhhhhhh!!!!!”
“Kang Ha-jin!!!!!!!!!!!”
Under the bright stage lights, the sheer cutout back was far more visible. After playing it cool for a moment, I quickly turned back to face them, laughing somewhat embarrassed.
“It seems like the cheers right now are even louder than when I hit those triple high notes.”
“That’s always how it is. I’ve been doing this for about thirteen years, and even our team has never topped the roars from when we used to show off abs.”
Everyone burst into laughter at Seo Tae-il’s seasoned response.
It was the next person’s turn. Yoo Gun, who had stepped back slightly to listen to his teammates, picked up the microphone with an “ah” sound.
“Um….”
Before greeting, Yoo Gun hesitated for a moment. He seemed to be choosing appropriate words. Then, I, standing beside him, whispered something so quietly it wouldn’t reach the microphone. Soon after, Yoo Gun opened his mouth.
“Hello. I’m Lee Yu-gun.”
“….”
“Well, I actually thought about what to say when meeting you all.”
Yoo Gun’s eyes, tinted gray from the contact lenses, darted around. His throat seemed slightly tight, and he coughed softly before suddenly extending the microphone toward the audience.
“Did you enjoy the performance―?”
“Yes!!!!!”
“It was the best!”
“Lee Yu-gun, from today on you’re the top of Korean hip-hop!!!!”
Hearing that response, Yoo Gun smiled beautifully, looking relieved.
“That’s all I need. Thank you.”
Applause erupted from the audience once more. All the Blue Flare Team members gazed at Yoo Gun with satisfaction, patting his shoulders or tapping his waist approvingly. Seeing this, Soda felt reassured.
After Eun-chan, the last member, finished his greeting without incident, it was finally time for the Blue Flare Team’s talk segment. Since many of the current top-ranked trainees were in the group, the questions were quite varied.
【Q. Si-woo! I heard from the preview that you originally majored in classical piano but suddenly switched to practical music and vocal performance at the arts university. What made you change?】
“I always liked singing. But I didn’t think it would be enough to make a living from it, you know? Then, due to some personal circumstances, I couldn’t play piano anymore…. Well, naturally, I ended up singing instead.”
【Q. To Yoo Geon, the king of dancing! I wonder how they are so good at girl group dance. Do they practice separately? ㅠㅠㅠㅠ】
“Practice? Why would I need that?”
Everyone stared blankly at Yoo Gun after his response. Feeling their gaze, Yoo Gun laughed awkwardly before adding a more capitalist-friendly answer.
“I’m naturally quick at memorizing choreography.”
The truth was I’d seen so many routines while working part-time at the Dance Academy that I’d memorized them. But I kept my answer at that level.
And so, it finally came around to my turn.
“Ah, I really hope the one I submitted gets picked for Ha-jin.”
“Professor Task, what did you submit?”
“I asked him to cover just one verse of ‘Everything is Fine’ by James Dear.”
“Wow, that would suit him perfectly.”
“As expected, a true fan’s instincts….”
Professor Task, who had recommended the pop song cover that recently became famous as background music for social media shorts, clasped his hands together in prayer. I carefully inserted my hand into the box and gently unfolded one slip of paper.
“Um….”
But when Ha-jin checked the note, his expression turned peculiar.
“Pfft!”
“…Really?”
Yoo Gun and Si-woo, who’d caught a glimpse of the contents from beside him, both expressed their disbelief—one through laughter, the other through a question.
What is it? What’s going on?
As murmurs rippled through the audience seating, Ha-jin’s question was revealed.
【Q. Something I want to ask Hajin! Ha Jin-ah, Line X, Station XX, is this really Ha Jin? If that’s true, I wonder what happened that day that made me cry so upset… ㅠㅠ】
Kang Ha-jin crying? Doing what? Where? At the Subway Station?
Everyone’s expression except Ha-jin’s was painted with pure bewilderment.

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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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