Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 177

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

177. The Earth Is Round (1)
-So, what do you want to do?
After hearing everything I had to say, Su-ho asked me that.
-Now that concrete evidence has surfaced, claiming it’s all baseless won’t work.
-The easiest approach would be to reveal how you were ostracized and actually ended up leaving the company.
Reversing the roles of perpetrator and victim.
That would certainly serve as an effective bait to overturn the heated public opinion.
But….
I couldn’t easily nod at Su-ho’s suggestion.
-I’m not sure.
Reversing the roles of perpetrator and victim.
Is that really the best option?
-I’m not saying I won’t clarify things. It’s just that simply claiming I was the victim doesn’t seem like the right approach.
I was both a victim and a perpetrator simultaneously.
It wasn’t entirely honest to claim victimhood simply because I’d left the company.
‘If I were the twenty-year-old Kang Ha-jin, maybe. But the anger and hurt I carried from that day had become far too faint and shallow now.
-If I’m not careful, it could be interpreted not as me being ostracized by them, but rather as those who were hurt by me simply cutting ties with me. Like some kind of karmic retribution.
-….
-Let me think about it a bit more. For now…. My head is killing me.
-…Alright. We’ve already released an article saying we’re verifying the facts, so take it easy today.
After leaving the company, I rode in the manager’s car that had been waiting outside, heading back to the Dormitory. The manager, sensing my mood wasn’t good, maintained silence the entire drive without playing a single song.
Normally I would have made a joke about why he was being so considerate, but today I lacked even the energy to speak, so I just left him be.
“….”
Gazing out the car window, I sank once more into a tide of thoughts.
At least it seemed the Returner wasn’t bragging about regressing all the way back to Ha-ru, but the thought that the Returner might be scheming something anyway made my already complicated head ache even more.
“Ha-jin. We’re here.”
“…Oh. Yes, hyung. Thank you.”
I jolted at the manager’s voice as if waking from sleep.
As I got out of the car and climbed toward the Dormitory, my mind felt slightly numb. Whenever I was stressed, my vision would blur like this occasionally, so I hurried inside the Dormitory with the intention of resting.
“….”
But standing at the Dormitory entrance, I couldn’t easily open the door and step inside.
‘…If I go in, they’ll all be gathered there.’
Since today was the first day of moving into the Dormitory, we’d originally planned to have some kind of celebration party in the evening.
We couldn’t go out to eat, so we’d cook ourselves and buy a cake to celebrate the formation of Kairos.
‘What am I supposed to say.’
In that moment, I belatedly realized my hands were trembling.
I’d hoped the members wouldn’t see the exposé post about me, but I knew that was a futile wish. After all, it was Tae-hyun, our resident search expert, who had discovered the post first and informed me.
‘…What if they’re disappointed in me.’
Except for briefly mentioning my past to Eun-chan, I’d never talked about my history with the other guys. The words and actions written in that exposé post were enough to disappoint someone, and the same would apply to the members.
‘Me….’
Like discovering a chipped and cracked glass base I’d hidden deep within myself, exposed to the light.
The feeling of being completely exposed—all of me, the person I’d hidden by covering and covering again, layering prettier wrapping paper over and over.
When I opened the door and stepped into the Dormitory, I became terrified of how my teammates would look at me, what attitude they’d take. The fact that I couldn’t confidently tell them it was all lies when they asked if this post was true—I hated that more than anything.
I cannot provide a translation for this text as it does not contain recognizable Korean words or coherent characters. The string appears to be corrupted, contains random consonants and vowels, special characters, and symbols that do not form meaningful Korean language content.
Content: Take my hand.
Acceptance Reward: I’ll make it all disappear.
As I lingered in front of the Dormitory door, The Returner’s Quest window appeared before my eyes.
[Should I turn back time to before the exposé post went up?]
[Or I could manipulate the timeline and erase everything that happened at KD Entertainment.]
“…You’re so damn noisy.”
[These ‘teammates’ you barely managed to gain—what if they’re disappointed in you and turn their backs on you again?]
[What about your fans who are being mocked right now just for liking you?]
The Returner spewed out text as if mocking me.
Still, I couldn’t refute any of it, and that infuriated me.
[Think about your parents watching you get cursed at.]
[What about your Younger Sibling? Once he goes to school, everything will be about you. Won’t that anger reach him too?]
I squeezed my eyes shut against The Returner’s cruelty in invoking my family, but that damned entity whispered endlessly to me even in the darkness behind my eyelids.
[Don’t you want to go back?]
[Don’t you miss this morning when nothing happened?]
[You were so happy until this morning, Ha-jin.]
[Tell me, Kang Ha-jin.]
[Say you want to go back. Say you want to be happy.]
[Then I’ll take care of the rest.]
“Please shut up, you insane bastard….”
I cannot provide a translation for this text as it does not contain coherent Korean language. The characters appear to be random or corrupted text without meaningful content.
Content: Take my hand.
Acceptance Reward: I’ll make it all disappear.
As The Returner’s crimson text seemed to stain my entire vision red like blood—
“Huh? Ha-jin hyung?”
The closed Entrance door swung open, and Dan Ha-ru stumbled out with startled eyes, silhouetted against the bright Living Room light.
“Tae-hyun hyung! Ha-jin hyung is here!”
“Oh, Kwon Wook hyung. They found Ha-jin hyung. Sorry about that. Yes, yes. Okay, I understand. Come on in~”
“Why is he standing out there instead of coming in?”
Bright light flooded the dark Apartment Hallway with a flurry of noise as even the flickering lights came on.
The Dormitory Living Room that had been empty until this morning was now scattered with balloons of every color, and the dining table was laden with delicious food. With the members bustling about excitedly, the scene inside the Dormitory was exactly as I’d imagined it this morning.
Even the expressions on my teammates’ faces hadn’t changed at all.
“Hyung, come in quickly.”
“Uh? Uh….”
As Dan Ha-ru pulled me bewilderedly through the Entrance, Jeong Si-u, who had been tidying the dining table in the Living Room, approached.
“You just got back from the Company?”
“…Yes.”
“Did you have a good talk with the Executive Director?”
“Well, more or less.”
At my response, Si-woo nodded knowingly and added with a cynical tone.
“Then that’s fine. Come eat. Everyone’s been waiting for you.”
How did this happen, is it really true, how are you going to handle it.
The questions I naturally expected never came.
There was no look of contempt, no gaze of disappointment that turned away.
“Come on, if you dropped someone off at home, you should come right back up. You’re not a thief, so why aren’t you coming inside? Kwon Wook dropped off his hyung, but you didn’t come back—do you know how worried we’ve been? We were even about to ask Eun-chan to check the rooftop.”
As Si-woo returned to the dining table, this time Tae-hyun approached me with a ladle in hand and started nagging.
“Why did you turn off your phone? Your mother got worried when you didn’t answer and called me.”
“Ah… Sorry. The battery died.”
“I told her you were probably in a meeting at the company, so charge it and call her back, okay?”
What’s with these guys?
Didn’t they see the post?
That shouldn’t be possible.
While I stood confused, Eun-chan appeared from behind, worried that Tae-hyun might actually swing the ladle, and quickly snatched it from him. In the meantime, Yoo Gun grabbed the suitcase from my hand.
“Your room is over there. You’re rooming with Do-ha hyung.”
“…The room’s already been decided?”
“You weren’t at the meeting, so you don’t get a say.”
Is this payback for making me rap during the Blue Flare days?
Stunned into silence, Yoo Gun casually disappeared into the room where Do-ha and I had been trapped before, carrying my suitcase.
As I stood there in a daze, Ha-ru, who had been standing beside me the whole time, dragged me along toward the room.
“Hyung. Hurry and change your clothes and come out. Do-ha hyung just got back from somewhere and is in the room.”
“Hey, wait, hold on.”
As I reached the door, I came face-to-face with Eun-chan, who had put the ladle back in the sink.
Then Eun-chan glanced at the other members gathered in the living room before approaching and whispering to me.
“…I didn’t say anything.”
“….”
“Hyung, that… what happened at the company. I thought you might not like it, so I just didn’t tell the other hyungs.”
After delivering those words, Eun-chan hurried back at the sound of Si-woo calling from the living room.
Faced with the members’ unexpected reaction, my mind kept going blank. Still standing at the door without moving, Ha-ru, who was about to return to the living room without me, came back when he saw my state.
“Hyung. …While you were gone, we talked about something.”
“….”
“Um…. We just decided to trust the hyung we know.”
Trust me?
No.
The ‘me’ you saw isn’t me.
“So… whenever you’re ready, hyung, tell us first. Whatever it is.”
I was just as the exposé post described,
I’m selfish, self-centered, rough, clumsy, and inadequate.
That’s why I’ve spent years trying to hide it.
I’ve only struggled to pretend to be a good person because I didn’t want to be rejected.
“We trust you, hyung.”
The ‘me’ you trust….
I am….
‘Who am I?’
What kind of person am I?
In that moment, my vision blurred. I wondered if it was the Returner’s doing again and tried to tense my body, but it wasn’t easy.
“Hyung, hyung? Hyung, you’re burning up…. Hyung! Ha-jin!”
Ha-ru’s voice grew increasingly distant.
With Ha-ru’s startled face in my fading vision and the other members rushing from the living room at the sound of his voice, my sight slowly went black.
* * *
I was dreaming.
I realized this wasn’t the Unconscious Space because the dream felt far too familiar to me.
The opening of the dream was always the same.
-From now on, we’ve decided not to practice with you.
The cold, dark, and frigid atmosphere of that Practice Room remained vivid in my memory even now.
The gazes directed at me, the snickering laughter. Those who had laughed and chattered with me just yesterday were now hurling criticism at me in unison.
-Aren’t you leaving?
Leaving everyone behind, ‘I’ walked out of the Practice Room alone.
As ‘I’ walked through the empty Hallway, ‘I’ couldn’t stop thinking.
What did I do wrong?
What was the problem?
Which action caused such hurt?
Endless self-scrutiny and self-loathing slowly bubbled up from within, and regret, fear, and bewilderment mingled together, creating an unimaginable loneliness.
I thought it wouldn’t matter to be alone, but isolation within the peer society where I had to spend most of my day proved far more agonizing than expected.
-The end-of-month evaluation is optional, so organize your own groups and submit them.
No one formed a team with me.
-You have some free time for two hours, so take a break.
No one spent their free time with me.
-Hey, didn’t you all go somewhere together yesterday?
-Huh?
-…Oh. Ha-jin, you didn’t go?
No one. Not a single soul.
“…?”
I, who had been watching ‘me’ left alone in the small, cramped Practice Room, was somewhat startled when I realized ‘I’ was looking back at me. Then, the Practice Room vanished, and in a transparent, luminous space, I found myself face to face with ‘me’.
“What is this? Isn’t this a dream?”
Barely taking a moment to look around in surprise, I gazed again at the ‘me’ standing before me.
A face identical to my current one.
Yet this version was slightly older than the me in my dreams, bearing a more composed demeanor and an expression far more relaxed and self-assured.
I recognized him instantly.
“You… you’re me.”
It was Kang Ha-jin at twenty years old.
In other words…
the me who had never experienced regression.

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