Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 184

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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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184. Welcome to Your First Debut (1)
After that mad entrance party…
No, it’s been several days since the debut party, and I’ve been stuck at the company drowning in endless lessons without a moment’s rest.
One particularly sweltering afternoon, Su-ho came to the practice room where we were sprawled out on the floor and made an announcement out of nowhere.
“Your debut date is set.”
Just like that?
Of course, we’re training this hard to debut—exercising until we’re ready to vomit, dancing, losing weight, practicing constantly.
As everyone’s reactions froze in shock, Tae-hyun, who had his bangs tied up with a rubber band and was chugging plain water, barely managed to sit up and ask Su-ho.
“When is it?”
“You have two options.”
As if this were some game, giving us choices about our debut date….
“Actually, the company’s already about 80% decided, but I wanted to hear your opinions too.”
Ah, so one card was a trap card.
At his decidedly leading answer, the members scattered across the floor began gathering, some crawling, some rolling over.
Don’t be shocked at our lack of manners before the Executive Director. Su-ho gave us permission to relax since we’ve been working since 6 AM and have been getting worked for ten hours straight.
…Though honestly, even without permission, we lacked the strength to sit up anyway.
“First option is November 20th. We’d push into the second half of the year and aim for year-end bonuses and rookie awards next year.”
Considering that most domestic award ceremonies finish voting and judging around October to November, and albums released after that go into next year’s awards, it’s not a bad strategy.
Since it’s late July now, we have plenty of prep time, and after two weeks of promoting our debut song, we could release another year-end seasonal track and make the award show rounds.
‘Of course, that’s assuming we get invited to the award shows.’
Still, with two returners in our group, surely we won’t fail so spectacularly that we don’t even get invited to award shows, right?
Just as I was getting serious thinking about life’s uncertainties, I caught sight of Si-woo’s face in front of me, wiping sweat with a towel.
‘Right. We won’t fail.’
I became confident that broadcast station producers would have us perform at award shows just to see Si-woo’s face. How fortunate.
Anyway, getting back to the main point, the November 20th debut date felt reasonably sound. Except for a few fatal drawbacks.
I politely raised my hand, got the floor from Su-ho, and voiced my thoughts.
“By then, all the buzz from the survival program will have died down.”
“…Right. It’s the most textbook plan, but that’s one reason it got pushed to Plan B.”
“So what’s the other date?”
What kind of voice is that?
I flinched at Eun-chan’s voice coming from right beside me. The guy already has a great voice, and when he speaks so effortlessly, it’s like a movie scene. I thought I’d just watched a scene from some crime thriller.
Watching Eun-chan barely crawl over beside me and straighten his posture properly, I felt reassured once more.
‘Right. There’s no way we’ll fail.’
If we became flops with these faces, the world must have ended.
While I was having pointless thoughts, Su-ho presented the next plan.
“The plan the company is almost definitely pushing is September 15th.”
“Two months from now?”
“It’s… no, it’s incredibly tight.”
The moment I heard Su-ho’s words, I used the system window to pull up a three-month calendar above my head.
Since it’s late July now, roughly calculating, that leaves about one month and three weeks.
Let’s say we’re putting out a mini album with about two songs, including the title track….
From now on, we need to practice the debut song, record the debut song, practice the B-side tracks, record the B-side tracks, shoot concept photos, shoot the M/V, shoot album photos…. And if we’re releasing them sequentially after putting up a timetable from the second and third weeks of August, then preparing for the next album while doing music show rounds after debuting in September….
‘…I’m going to work myself to death with this schedule?’
It’s not just one person—it’s an impossible schedule unless literally everyone involved gets ground down to dust, right? Besides, do we even have a debut song yet? What’s the group concept? The M/V synopsis? Even if we rent a studio for the concept photos, what about the M/V location shoot? The director? The choreography?
Ji Su-ho must have read the suffocating confusion written all over our faces, because he quickly added something reassuring.
“By the way, your debut song candidates have already been narrowed down to about five options. We’re doing a blind test the day after tomorrow, and of course you’ll all participate. The overall group concept and everything like that has already been decided during your Survival Program.”
Ah. That’s a silver lining, at least.
I straightened my back away from the wall.
No matter how solid my A&R framework is, September 15th is absurdly tight. The only real advantage I can see from that date is squeezing what we can out of Miro Maze’s early momentum.
Miro has to know this fact as well as I do, so why are they pushing so hard for that date anyway?
“Is there a specific reason it has to be September? Obviously we’d be thrilled to debut early, but…. it does seem a bit rushed.”
Seo Tae-hyun, the third reason our group will absolutely never fail, raised his hand and asked Ji Su-ho. Being someone seasoned in this industry, he seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me.
Sure enough, Ji Su-ho nodded immediately upon hearing Seo Tae-hyun’s question and answered.
“Right. Honestly, we weren’t planning to rush the schedule this much either…. But we heard some pretty major news while you guys were resting.”
“Major… news?”
“Rene’s going to debut their next boy group around November.”
“Oh, for crying— …ahem, my apologies.”
I barely stopped myself from blurting out a curse. No matter how casual my relationship with Ji Su-ho is, I can’t become a trainee spouting profanities in front of the company’s Executive Director.
‘That explains why it’s been so quiet!’
If it’s Rene’s next group, it’s Lanion—the Greek god boy group with that nasty-tempered Cha Min-seok!
The ones who drew all the stone-fan aggro before debut and got hit with it, then showed terrifying growth momentum after debuting, eventually climbing to a weight class similar to Endway, who’s three years their senior!
The ones who appeared like a comet in what was otherwise a historically dark period for rookie boy groups, making all sorts of stone-fans stop by for a moment before planting their feet firmly and waving their lightsticks!
The monster rookies who swept all the rookie awards in their debut year and dominated every year-end stage!
I originally had no particular ill will toward them, but now that I think of it as all being that disrespectful Cha Min-seok’s career, I suddenly feel quite bitter about it. Very bitter indeed.
I could see it wasn’t just me—the guys from Seo Ju-dan’s group sitting across from us all had their faces twisted up too.
Especially Dan Ha-ru, the moment he heard “Rene,” switched into max-level rabbit warrior mode facing a brain-dead demon king who refused to stay dead, his eyes loaded with delinquent fury.
And Seo Tae-hyun, who looked like he’d crush any cherry handed to him and squeeze out its juice, was radiating killing intent right beside him.
Watching those two, I suddenly remembered something I’d heard the first time I saw Cha Min-seok at Rene.
“…Wait, didn’t they say they were debuting in June?”
That obnoxious Cha Min-seok had said it clearly himself back then. That they were confirmed for a June debut.
Even if he’s someone who treats basic courtesy like rice to be thrown away, he wouldn’t have lied about his debut schedule just to provoke Seo Tae-hyun, would he? I don’t remember the exact date, but in the previous timeline, they definitely debuted around late spring.
I distinctly remember Cha Min-seok’s university festival fancams trending in real-time.
At that, Ji Su-ho looked off into the distance as if unsure whether he should say this, letting out a small “Hmm….” Then, with an expression of resignation, he shrugged and spoke.
“That was the original plan. Apparently their schedule got pushed back in a hurry. I think it’s because we’re doing too well.”
“Us meaning…. Ah. Miro Maze?”
“Yeah. We got good reactions from the first episode, right? If they were debuting in June, they would’ve needed to start planning in April or May, but they figured the buzz would be overshadowed. The rival image would’ve been too prominent anyway.”
“Still, jumping from June to November all of a sudden seems pretty extreme.”
“Well…. There’s talk that one of their members went dark saying he couldn’t debut, and they barely managed to bring him back. But I heard that at a drinking session, so I’m not entirely sure.”
Then it’s 100% certain.
This Miro Maze really has touched a lot of people’s lives.
Facing an unexpected butterfly effect I hadn’t anticipated, I felt a sharp awareness that I needed to be careful—doubly careful—whenever I took action going forward.
But the massive snowball that Miro Maze had set rolling was far from over.
“It’s not just Rene. Next year in the first half, Lime is also planning a new boy group debut, and there are rumors that broadcasting stations are getting excited about doing a boy group survival program themselves.”
“Anyway, the higher-ups have no creativity—they just copy-paste formats without any conscience….”
“Huh? What did you say, Ha-jin?”
“I said the music industry’s going to be a real mess next year.”
Fortunately, without any suspicion, I patted Ju Eun-chan’s head a couple of times as he replied, “Right, that’s going to be rough.” There’s no doubt that God gave him this innocent face as a balance patch so he wouldn’t get scammed wherever he went.
“Anyway, that’s why the company thinks it’s a bit of a gamble, but they want us to debut on September 15th, do follow-up activities between late October and early November, and release a seasonal digital single around December to January. If we pull it off, we could even aim for the rookie award this year.”
Just hearing about it made for a breathtakingly tight, insane schedule, yet no one could bring themselves to say they couldn’t do it.
Because even we could see that in this already saturated K-pop industry, it was a hundred times better to do activities that would firmly establish us, even if it was grueling, than to half-heartedly enter the scene and end up being neither fish nor fowl.
“I’m in favor.”
As expected, the quick-calculating Seo Tae-hyun was the first to voice his support.
“I think it would be a waste to let the buzz from Miro Maze fade away like this. The fans have probably been rushing forward without even properly enjoying things from the survival program until now, and I want to give them good news as soon as possible.”
In other words, it meant ‘let’s throw them a bone before the survival program hype dies down and they look elsewhere.’
Judging from that expression from earlier, there seemed to be a hint of personal interest too—if we debuted in September, we could become two months senior to Cha Min-seok, who would debut in November.
“I’m good with September 15th too.”
“I think it’s fine. We knew it would be intense anyway.”
Ju Eun-chan and Jeong Si-u nodded in turn, lending their support to the September 15th debut. I had no reason to object either, so I raised my hand in timely fashion to voice my approval.
“I’m in favor. During Miro Maze, we even flipped a stage in a single day…. Two months is nothing.”
Whatever happens, it’s best to avoid that Greek god first. Why would we debut together and let them steal all our buzz and split the market with them?
Four out of seven members had already agreed. If we counted that as a majority, our debut date was effectively finalized as September 15th, but Ji Su-ho seemed to want to hear from the remaining members as well, so he waited calmly for their answers.
And then, someone spoke.
“I’m against it.”
It was Lee Yu-gun, who had been sitting quietly in one corner of the practice room the whole time, just listening to our conversation.
“Oh no.”
Nothing ever goes smoothly…!

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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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