Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 124

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

124. How Dare They
This is the testimony of an indignant Believer member.
-We were heading back to the waiting room after finishing the recording. Someone was practicing a challenge in the hallway. Even though we’re still trainees, we thought we should naturally greet them, so we waited! But it turned out they were senior members from B-liver.
According to Dan Ha-ru’s account, the B-liver seniors didn’t have a particularly good attitude from the moment they first received the greeting.
-We greeted them first, but they didn’t return the greeting. So we thought, well, maybe they didn’t hear us~ and tried again! But then! They just ignored us again? Then when Tae-hyun’s eyes met one of their members, only then did they say, ‘Oh, it’s Tae-hyun?’ and finally look at us.
At this point, Dan Ha-ru slammed his fist against the sofa with a bang, his anger flaring. Only after I managed to calm him down—he was pounding the sofa like an angry rabbit kicking its hind legs—did he furrow his brow and continue speaking.
-I could accept that they didn’t return the greeting! I could even tolerate that Jayden and I were completely ignored while they only talked to Tae-hyun. What really made me furious was what came next.
B-liver and Seo Tae-hyun exchanged brief greetings and caught up on recent news.
Up to this point, it didn’t seem like a problem. But Dan Ha-ru shook his head firmly and reenacted the situation.
-They said exactly this.
-‘Did you debut? Ah, a special stage? I was wondering why you suddenly appeared in the broadcasting station corridor. You’re still a trainee, right? Ah, a survival show? Where? Boy Heaven again this time? Oh, an entertainment agency? Sorry, sorry, we’re so busy with concert preparations these days. Ugh, honestly, trainee days were better, man. I can’t even sleep these days. You probably sleep well, right? I’m jealous of you. You should have debuted back then instead. Want to switch with me? Haha.’
It was genuinely difficult to know whether to be angry or to laugh it off—such exquisitely infuriating remarks.
What was truly galling was that there was no way those B-liver bastards didn’t know Seo Tae-hyun was appearing on Miro Maze.
Several articles came out before the program even started—how could they not know?
Sure enough, Seo Tae-hyun, who had been sitting quietly beside me, opened his mouth with an aggrieved expression.
-Those hyungs definitely knew I started activities with Miro Maze. They didn’t contact me once in three years, but then suddenly reached out saying they were making a comeback and asking me to listen to their songs a lot. Even back during Boy Heaven, they acted friendly because I had good buzz value, but the moment I didn’t debut, they cut ties. So I roughly figured they’d pull something like this.
I almost called out Tae-hyun for not telling me this sooner, but I held back.
Because the B-liver bastards’ audacity didn’t end there.
-Anyway, since they’re the type of hyungs it’s pointless to spend time with, I tried to end the conversation appropriately and head back to the waiting room. But then the manager suggested it would be nice if I filmed a challenge with them too. I didn’t really want to, but it was hard for me to refuse first, so I just stood there….
Bang!
“Ah, you startled me!”
My concentration shattered as Dan Ha-ru suddenly slammed the sofa again with a bang.
Ah, things were just getting interesting too.
“Dan Ha-ru, who told you to express yourself however you feel like? Is that okay? Is it?”
“…But! When I think about it again, it just makes me mad.”
“If you destroy everything whenever you’re angry, huh? I should have destroyed our entire dormitory during the third mission last time.”
[System Alert: You did smash your own leg though….]
[System Alert: ( ｡ •̀ ᴖ •́ ｡)]
Shut it, you bastard.
I brushed aside Thirteen’s muttering and gave Dan Ha-ru my sternest expression.
“Are you going to do that again, or not?”
“…I won’t do it again. I apologize.”
Ha-ru’s reluctant lips protruded slightly, mangling his pronunciation. But I nodded in satisfaction and looked at Tae-hyun.
“Okay. Now, again. So they asked you to film a challenge?”
“When they saw me, they laughed. Then they said, ‘Nah, we can’t do it with Tae-hyun.'”
“Suddenly? Without any reason?”
“‘If Tae-hyun does it, it becomes a bit…. Too innocent.’ They said that while laughing!”
“These crazy bastards?”
Bang!
Less than a minute after I told Dan Ha-ru not to do it, Kang Ha-jin slammed the sofa cushion with a bang.
At that moment, Lee Yu-gun, the only one sitting on the sofa among those in the waiting room, let out a sigh.
“Can you stop hitting the cushions? Why is everyone sitting on the floor instead of using the sofa?”
“Don’t you know it’s standard practice to use the sofa as a backrest? And Lee Yu-gun, where were you and what were you doing? I brought you along as a guardian because I was worried about trouble like this.”
“…But even guardians need to use the restroom. Don’t I have any human rights?”
Even as he said this, Lee Yu-gun seemed to feel a sense of responsibility, scratching the back of his neck as he continued.
“When I came back from the restroom, I saw them doing that, so I cut the conversation short and brought them back to the waiting room.”
“That’s right. Yoo Gun used Team Leader Soo-ho as an excuse to get us out of there.”
“What about the manager? They should have been with you.”
As everyone’s gaze naturally turned to the remaining manager, the manager lowered their head as if at a loss for words.
“This is my first time…. I couldn’t quickly judge whether this was a situation where I should interrupt or not. I’m sorry. I should have taken better care of them….”
“Oh, no. It’s fine, Manager. Honestly, with B-liver and a challenge like this, it’s not a bad opportunity.”
Seo Tae-hyun waved his hands urgently.
“Those guys have been like that since Boy’s Supremacy. I’m used to them looking down on me for being young. I just need to do better and repay them. Really, it’s fine.”
“Tae-hyun….”
At Tae-hyun’s mature response, Jae-young and Ha-ru’s eyes grew misty as they gripped his hand tightly.
We’ll definitely debut!
The scene of their resolute declaration was even somewhat moving.
In that touching moment, Ha-jin crossed his arms and nodded.
“Yeah. Let’s repay them for sure.”
“Right, later when we debut and succeed….”
“No, let’s repay them today.”
“…Huh?”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward Ha-jin.
But Ha-jin didn’t bat an eye, his lips curling into a sinister smile.
“They’re making a comeback today, right?”
“Y-yeah….”
“Then all we need to do is get more attention than their comeback, don’t we?”
Let’s see. Who wins.
At Ha-jin’s malicious smile, the Sad Ending Team trembled slightly.
* * *
Knock, knock, knock―
Someone knocked on B-liver’s waiting room door. While the youngest manager went out to check what they wanted, all the members of B-liver lay back in their seats without moving.
“Hey, juniors are here to greet us. Get up.”
“Who? Haven’t we already received greetings?”
“Miro Maze. You know, that place where Seo Tae-hyun was.”
“Oh. They’re coming to greet us too?”
“They don’t even have an album to promote. Just tell them to rest.”
At the members’ snickering, the team leader-level manager let out a small sigh.
Perhaps because they had risen too quickly and too soon, the attitude of B-liver’s members could hardly be called good, even charitably.
‘They picked up bad habits from their B-light days.’
Their trainee period had been short, and despite lacking skill, they had debuted riding solely on physicality and visuals.
Perhaps because of that, they lacked any real desperation, and success and relevance felt like things they took for granted.
‘What outdated popularity are they still clinging to….’
Now that Boy Heaven and B-light’s momentum had completely fizzled out.
B-liver’s recognition and relevance were like a candle flickering before the wind.
Individual members had name value, so their market price remained high, yet their core fanbase—those actually buying albums and streaming their music—dwindled with each passing day.
‘This industry changes so rapidly. Even if we pulled off something massive to properly establish ourselves, it wouldn’t be enough….’
The members, having already tasted the sweetness of popularity once, still seemed to lack any sense of reality.
The manager sighed and opened the waiting room door.
Young boys who looked fresh and glittering like rookies stepped inside, grinning brightly.
The manager scrutinized each trainee carefully. Though the members dismissed them as undebutants, there was no denying that Miro Maze was causing significant upheaval in the male idol market recently. It was necessary to preemptively assess whether these were threats worth monitoring.
“Hello, seniors. We’d like to introduce ourselves.”
“Hello! We’re Sad Ending Team from Miro Maze. Thank you for having us!”
Led by a tall, sharp-featured trainee, their spirited greeting resonated loudly through the waiting room. The audacity of it even caught the B-liver members off guard as they stood up out of obligation.
“Ah, yes… Hello. We’re B-liver.”
“We saw you earlier—why come greet us again? Did we look like seniors who bully juniors through greetings?”
B-liver’s leader tried to lighten the mood with a casual remark.
The problem was that the atmosphere didn’t lighten at all.
After blatantly ignoring their greeting earlier, no one believed their act of being a generous senior now.
Just as an awkward silence was about to settle, that trainee who had led the initial greeting smiled brightly and responded.
“Well, we still wanted to greet the whole team properly. We don’t have a team name yet, but we’re determined to debut this time, and next time we’d love to introduce ourselves to you seniors with a cool team chant.”
“Ah, yes… That sounds good. We’ll look forward to it.”
“By the way, you seniors are also from the Ntv Survival Program, right? You appeared with our Tae-hyun—Boy Heaven.”
“Well, yes, that’s right.”
At his skillful comment, the B-liver members exchanged glances and nodded knowingly.
The trainee then patted Tae-hyun’s shoulder with a playful expression.
“I really enjoyed watching Boy Heaven too. The teachers watching A Countdown today will probably remember those times.”
The implication was significant, but the B-liver members seemed oblivious.
However, B-liver’s manager could sense the hidden meaning behind those words.
‘B-liver still hasn’t shaken off the image of being a derivative group from Boy Heaven. When people watch today’s A Countdown stage, they’ll naturally associate Seo Tae-hyun and B-liver together.’
But today was B-liver’s comeback stage.
If the community forums mentioned “Boy Heaven trainees reuniting” more than “B-liver’s comeback,” there could be no greater damage to B-liver.
‘I doubt a trainee who hasn’t even debuted would calculate something like that….’
Yet this entertainment industry was a place where one could never let their guard down.
A jungle where talented individuals poured in and disappeared daily, one after another.
As the manager tried to shift closer to observe the problematic trainee more carefully, someone approached and blocked their path.
“…? Ah, hello. Team Leader Ji.”
“Hello, Director. It’s been a while.”
It was Ji Su-ho, Team Leader from Miro.
Why was Ji Su-ho, who handled Upia, here?
Isn’t that the rookie manager from earlier?
“I have something I’d like to discuss with you. Shall we grab a coffee at the vending machine up ahead?”
“Right now?”
“We have a proposal we’d like to present to you.”
Ji Su-ho flashed a composed smile at the bewildered manager and cast his bait.
“It concerns the challenge.”
Phase One of devouring B-liver’s viral momentum.
It all began with a challenge.

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