Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 216

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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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216. WELCOME. YOUR FIRST FAN SIGNING, RIGHT? (4)
The next day, at Kairos’s second fan signing event venue.
Eun-chan rubbed his hands, cold from tension, as he recalled the memory from early that morning.
-…Suddenly teach me what?
-You’re good with fans at fan signings. Give me some tips, will you?
Despite Ha-jin’s sudden request, Yoo Gun showed no particular objection or reluctance—he simply scratched his head with an air of bewilderment.
-Well, I’m not sure what tips I could give. I just… do it, you know?
Even as he said this, Yoo Gun seemed to pause, considering whether there was something worth advising. Honestly, Eun-chan felt grateful just that Yoo Gun was willing to think about it so carefully.
But Yoo Gun didn’t stop at merely pondering—he actually went on to teach Eun-chan several methods!
“Chan. You ready?”
As Eun-chan mentally rehearsed the methods Yoo Gun had taught him, Ha-jin approached and draped an arm across his shoulders.
“Your hyungs will be right beside you today, so don’t get too nervous.”
“Yes. …Thank you, hyung.”
Today’s fan signing event was scheduled to proceed in the order of Ha-jin, Eun-chan, Ha-ru, Si-woo, Yoo Gun, Do-ha, and Tae-hyun.
They’d arranged for Eun-chan to sit next to Ha-ru, with whom he was close, while Ha-jin and Si-woo would flank him on either side to handle any unexpected situations.
As a side note, Yoo Gun-Do-ha-Tae-hyun had originally been Do-ha-Yoo Gun-Tae-hyun, but since Yoo Gun and Tae-hyun would bicker over trivial matters whenever they sat together, Do-ha had ended up mediating between them.
“Alright, everyone. Let’s go in.”
At Ji Su-ho’s call, the members took the stage at the fan signing event venue. Camera flashes erupted from all directions with sharp clicks, and the cheers of fans who’d been waiting for them filled the air.
Eun-chan exhaled deeply.
Now it was time to put what he’d learned into practice.
* * *
“Eun-chan, hi!”
“Hello. …Huh?”
“I came yesterday too. Do you remember me?”
The first customer of Eun-chan’s fan signing—someone targeting what might be called an “emerging fan favorite spot”—was an office worker fan he’d met at yesterday’s event. He remembered her clutching her forehead, saying she’d taken a day off work to see him. Eun-chan was about to nod in response to the fan’s question about whether he remembered her.
That’s when Yoo Gun’s first piece of advice came to mind.
-First, look them in the eyes.
-In the eyes…?
-I learned it from the Store Manager back when I worked at a cafe. She told me to look at the other person’s eyes when you speak.
Following that advice, Eun-chan fixed the fan with an intense gaze from his deeply shadowed eyes. The fan flinched slightly, leaning back. Eun-chan, just as Yoo Gun had taught him, leaned forward to meet the fan at eye level and nodded.
“Yes. You said you’d taken a day off work to come. I remember.”
“Oh, y-yes. Right, that’s right.”
Whether the fan’s voice trembled slightly or not, Eun-chan recalled Yoo Gun’s second piece of advice.
-And… I think I just naturally held hands with people first.
-Held hands?
-When you’re working, you shake hands with adults whose names you don’t even know properly, asking for their favor. So if people paid money to see me, shouldn’t I at least hold their hands? It’s just good business sense.
It was a thoroughly capitalist calculation, but having grown up as the youngest son in a family of entrepreneurs, Eun-chan found himself nodding along with the logic.
‘When I was struggling and someone held my hand, it gave me strength. Wouldn’t fans feel the same way?’
The most fundamental principle of give-and-take was established—returning the love one had received.
There was just one thing, though.
Yoo Gun, Kang Ha-jin’s officially recognized Kairos lookalike, would naturally extend his hand without any particular gesture when a fan approached, interlocking fingers smoothly. But Eun-chan’s thoughts were somewhat different.
‘But the other person might find holding hands with me uncomfortable. Like I’m not used to this kind of physical contact either.’
Hold hands ▶ But the other person might feel uncomfortable ▶ So what do I do?
After thinking for a moment, Eun-chan, still maintaining eye contact with the fan, asked politely.
“Um.”
“Huh? Oh?”
“Is it okay if I hold your hand?”
Eun-chan extended his hand with a hint of awkwardness and shyness. The fan then nodded as if entranced and offered her hand. Eun-chan grasped her still-slightly-cold hand clumsily—she must have been waiting outside for a while. He opened the album to sign, but then remembered he hadn’t removed the pen cap. As Eun-chan unconsciously moved to open it with his teeth, Yoo Gun’s third piece of advice came to mind.
-And also…. Why not ask the other person to do something I could do myself?
-Why not…?
-While I’m doing something, if they’re just standing there staring blankly, it gets boring. You have to give them something to enjoy.
Of course, this was also capitalistic thinking about providing service to customers, but Eun-chan interpreted it differently.
‘That’s true…. Since I don’t talk much, for the fans to have fun, it seems important to create close interaction.’
Having reached that conclusion, Eun-chan this time maintained eye contact with the fan, held her hand firmly, bowed his body slightly, and extended the capped pen toward her.
“Um. Noona.”
“Huh? Yeah. Why?”
“Could you open the pen cap for me? Since I’m holding your hand….”
“Oh! Yes, yes. Sure, sure.”
At Eun-chan’s request, the fan startled and opened the pen cap on his other hand.
Eun-chan bowed in thanks and carefully drew his signature onto the album.
The fan, who had been quietly watching, spoke to him.
“So… you know, Eun-chan. Listen while you’re writing that.”
“Yes? Oh, yes.”
“Actually, I was really depressed until early this year, you know? Work at the company was so hard, my self-esteem dropped so much, and I gained a lot of weight….”
Her voice trembled slightly, but her tone was urgent, as if she wanted to convey her feelings quickly within the time limit. Eun-chan hurriedly finished signing and looked up.
It felt like a story that absolutely deserved to be heard.
“I didn’t want to meet people, I was scared, so I just stayed home after work…. And that’s when I discovered Miro Maze.”
“Ah…. Yes, yes.”
“But seeing you guys, who are so much younger than me, working so hard toward your dreams was just so cool. So I kept looking into it and eventually became a fan, and I…, ah, uh. Why am I trembling like this today?”
The fan, who had been speaking as if reciting a script, suddenly seemed to forget her next words and exhaled sharply.
Watching her, Eun-chan felt as if he had suddenly and anew realized something very obvious.
‘Fans get nervous just like I do.’
Unlike the fan from yesterday who had relentlessly pushed him in an unpleasant way, seeing this person before him trembling just to convey these few words to him made him feel something….
“Noona.”
“Huh? Oh?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“….”
“Go ahead and tell me. I’ll listen to everything.”
Since this was a multi-person fan signing event, he couldn’t spend too much time with one person. In just a moment, the bodyguard standing behind would surely signal him to move on.
Since it was a multi-person fan sign event, they couldn’t spend too much time with each individual. In just a moment, the bodyguard standing behind would surely give instructions to move on.
Eun-chan was determined to hear every story that the fan had prepared until that moment!
Eun-chan shook the hand he’d been gripping tightly with such force that his arm trembled, urging her along.
“Hurry, noona! Time’s running out.”
“Oh, right. So anyway, after I started liking you guys, I wanted to live harder too, so I started exercising, and I’ve been working really hard at the company to buy your albums and come to fan signings. Thanks to you guys, I have energy every single day these days, really! I wanted to tell you this, but yesterday I was so nervous….”
“We’re moving on now~”
Just as she was finishing her words, the signal to move on came down. Eun-chan handed the album for signing to Ha-ru and quickly delivered his response.
“…I did too. I went through that too.”
“You did, Eun-chan?”
“Yes. I was also scared of dealing with people. So I just stayed in my room….”
Wait? But when was that?
I was certain I’d experienced something similar, so I spoke up on impulse, but even as the words left my mouth, I couldn’t quite remember when or what exactly that had been.
‘Was it around the time something happened with Han Sung-woo hyung?’
Holding onto that question in the back of my mind, I continued speaking to the fan who was standing up to move toward Ha-ru’s seat.
“But I’m not like that anymore. It’s thanks to Destiny.”
“….”
“It’s thanks to you, noona. I’m grateful. …I really wanted to tell you this too.”
“…Yeah. Let’s see each other for a long time, Eun-chan!”
“Yes. That’s a promise.”
I nodded with a smile. The fan smiled back and moved to Ha-ru’s seat. A new person took the seat in front of me.
I heard Ha-ru chattering away beside me.
“Geez, noona! I thought my neck would break waiting for you.”
“Ha-ru, hey. What? I just came over.”
“I’ve been waiting since you were talking with Ha-jin hyung earlier.”
Watching Ha-ru converse with the fans so naturally, unlike myself, I no longer felt any sense of crisis or anxiety.
I’d come to realize that what the fans wanted from me was Ju Eun-chan himself, and that I just needed to face them with my own sincerity.
It was right then that a certain scene surfaced beyond my memory.
-Maknae. Eat something, yeah?
‘…Huh?’
-I won’t tell you to go outside. I won’t tell you to do anything. Let’s just eat something, yeah?
‘What is this? When was this?’
The voice echoing in my head was unmistakably my older brother Eun-seok’s. The scenes that surfaced hazily, like very distant memories, flickered like candle flames scattered by the wind before vanishing beyond my consciousness.
“Hello.”
“Hi~ By the way, I’m older than you—is it okay if I speak casually?”
“Oh, yes. Please feel free.”
But without even time to trace back what those memories were, I had to greet the next fan sitting before me.
And in doing so, fragments of time—whether from the distant past, or perhaps the future, or maybe even the present—slowly faded beyond my consciousness.
Never knowing it was a foreshadowing of some future to come.
* * *
Kairos’s own content, Today’s Kairos, was uploaded every Friday evening at 8 PM through Kairos’s official AiTube channel.
Besides the “Experimental Camera Edition” from Episode 0, recently the project “Reality—Dormitory Edition” had been capturing the members’ dormitory life and effectively drawing in new viewers.
– It’s hilarious how Jeong Si-u and Seo Tae-hyun never leave their room, but Yoo Gun is always either in the living room or hanging out in someone else’s room. Ju Eun-chan, right?
– No, look at Kang Ha-jin—when the younger members said they were hungry, he just threw all the side dishes from the refrigerator into a bowl and made them bibimbap. That’s totally our father’s style bibimbap, man.
– The kids keep wearing those animal onesies, it’s killing me lol. Do-ha, your legs are already short and you’re wearing that thing…
The “Reality – Dormitory Edition,” which aired in roughly five episodes to enthusiastic response, unfortunately wrapped up to coincide with Kairos’s first week of music show promotions.
The content had been popular precisely because the members appeared comfortable and unguarded, so there were certainly some disappointed reactions to its conclusion. Still, it was true that fans were beginning to crave content with different themes.
As a result, most Destiny fans were eagerly anticipating what item would appear in “Today’s Kairos” on Friday of the second week of promotions.
– I want to see the kids do a cooking competition in pastry chef outfits…
└ Wait, so whoever has to eat it gets the punishment, right?
└ Lol that’s brutal…
– Rookie tradition: haunted house experience, let’s go
└ Ah, for real though lol
└ Let’s do it, let’s do it
└ Let’s go
– Would it kill you to do something like Secret Santa or Mafia? That five-person game from the last Kairos vlog was my favorite content ever…
As fans voiced their diverse wishes, Friday finally arrived.
After enjoying both Kairos’s second week music show stage and the subsequent fan signing event, Destiny fans all flocked to Kairos’s AiTube channel to check the newly uploaded video.
【Today’s Kairos EP.08 ∥ “Those Guys” from Saekkim High School Descend…I’ll Handle Being Late, But Who’s Going to Be the Leader? The Grand Class President Election Spectacular】
The thumbnail showed Kang Ha-jin wearing round glasses and neatly dressed in a school uniform, and Jeong Si-u with a lollipop in his mouth and a shirt carelessly draped over his shoulders, both pointing accusingly at each other!
All the Destiny fans who saw it instinctively understood.
‘Finally…!’
Today was the day Kairos’s official leader—shrouded in mystery until now—would be elected.

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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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