Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 234

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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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234. WHEN A WORKAHOLIC LEADER SEIZES POWER (3)
-Okay, Tae-hyun and Si-woo~ I’ll just do a quick movement check here. Thanks for your hard work today!
“Yes, thank you!”
“Directors, fighting! Please capture us beautifully!”
After finishing the music broadcast MC rehearsal, Seo Tae-hyun and I bowed at a perfect 120-degree angle to the staff members.
On the way from the studio to the waiting room, I wore my usual social smile and meticulously reviewed the precautions and special notes once more.
But my mind remained entirely fixed on the conversation I’d had with Tae-hyun earlier.
-…Your hyung might just be going to bed later than you. You sleep heavily in the mornings anyway, so naturally he’d wake up first.
-I thought that at first too! But hyung, think about it carefully.
‘Jeong Si-u doesn’t sleep.’
Unable to easily accept that statement, Seo Tae-hyun raised his voice in frustration.
-When we go to the provinces for schedules or have long travel times. Or even when we’re just in the waiting room. Have you ever seen that hyung sleeping?
-….
-Obviously he’s human too, so he can’t not sleep at all. But it really feels like he only sleeps just enough to survive. One day I actually decided to monitor him, and whether it’s that he can’t fall asleep or won’t fall asleep…. He falls asleep really late, and even then he seems to wake up frequently.
The moment I heard those words, a certain dawn came to mind.
The day Jeong Si-u had discovered me after I’d entered and exited the Unconscious Space.
When I asked if Jeong Si-u hadn’t been sleeping, he’d said he’d woken up early and couldn’t fall back asleep, so he was reading in the living room. On that pale blue dawn when even moonlight held its breath.
-And…. Now that I think about it, this bothers me too.
-What is it? Just tell me.
-Before, there was this one time hyung couldn’t get up. We kept shaking him awake, but he wouldn’t budge at all.
-…I sometimes sleep deeply.
It seemed to be from some time when I’d used the Unconscious Space. Preemptively making excuses lest the “Kang Ha-jin health concerns” rumor ignite again, Seo Tae-hyun hurried on as if that wasn’t the important part.
-No, anyway. But even then, Si-woo hyung was really shocked. He kept asking if it was really okay for you not to wake up like that…. I was surprised too back then, and not long after, hyung just started sleep-talking and tossing around, so we just let it go…. But now that I think about it again….
Seo Tae-hyun, who had been hesitating over his words, finally shared the conclusion he’d painstakingly deduced.
-Si-woo hyung…. I think he’s afraid of falling asleep. If he couldn’t sleep, he could take sleep medication, but I’ve never seen hyung take any medicine like that.
The recollection ended there.
The moment we arrived at the waiting room, Seo Tae-hyun nudged my ribs.
“Hyung. It’s totally obvious you’re thinking about something else.”
“…If you knew I was that kind of person, you should’ve had the sense to bring this up later.”
“But there really wasn’t any other time besides just now.”
Fortunately, aside from a few staff members, the waiting room was just us. Seo Tae-hyun immediately used script reading as an excuse and dragged me into a small room attached to the waiting room. Only after carefully checking that no one was near the door did he close it.
As a headache intensified, I grabbed my throbbing forehead and leaned against the wall. Seo Tae-hyun, blocking the door and facing me directly, asked abruptly.
“So, what do we do?”
“About what?”
“Si-woo hyung. What do we do about him?”
Just like when we’d discussed solving the Ju Eun-chan fan sign incident before, Seo Tae-hyun asked me for a solution as if it were obvious.
However, I couldn’t answer that question with any real satisfaction.
“…What do you mean ‘what do we do’? He’s not in high school. He’ll manage his own sleep schedule.”
‘Wow, even I have to admit that was heartless.’
The instant I thought that if I were Seo Tae-hyun, I’d definitely be hurt by that comment, he glared at me with fierce eyes.
Still, a pang of guilt made me avert my gaze, but Seo Tae-hyun closed in without hesitation and crossed his arms. Then, raising one eyebrow, he spoke.
“…You’re acting weird, hyung?”
“Ah, what? I’m more abnormal than normal most days anyway.”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while—why does everyone seem to lose a screw or two whenever Si-woo hyung joins in?”
“…That’s not—I’m not some overripe fruit that falls apart, so….”
“No deflecting with nonsense.”
“Yes.”
Why couldn’t I ever talk back to him? Why? What was this? Did he slip something into my blood while I slept? Was he brainwashing my subconscious?
While I stood crumpled in the corner like a shrimp, unable to understand my own instincts, Seo Tae-hyun blocked my path like a grim reaper and shot his words at me with a sharp edge.
“What did you do when I went to Gangwon Province? You dropped everything and came to drag me back.”
“…Yes.”
“During our Survival Program, you caught Jae-young when he was digging and buried himself, made him practice dancing all night, took care of Won-ho, grabbed Lee Yu-gun, and just recently, you naturally stepped up first to handle Eun-chan’s fan sign event. And when I fought with Lee Yu-gun, what did you say? You kept saying we didn’t even want to talk to each other, and then you just grabbed a live broadcast out of nowhere?”
“…No, why do you remember all those little details so clearly? I appreciate it, really.”
“You’re the type who interferes with everyone else’s fortune at a dol-jabi ceremony instead of taking your own, so why do you suddenly become so timid when it comes to Si-woo hyung’s affairs?”
Seo Tae-hyun stepped closer, lowering his voice so no one outside would think we were fighting.
I’d curled up so much that I was now looking up at Seo Tae-hyun, who was much smaller than me. With a hurt and disappointed expression, he pointed his finger at me in warning.
“Handle Si-woo hyung’s situation. You have to handle it. Find out why he can’t sleep, and figure out how to make Si-woo hyung sleep soundly!”
“…Yes.”
Nodding involuntarily at his rare intensity, Seo Tae-hyun’s face flushed red as he huffed and added one more thing.
“…I was happy when you became our team’s leader. I’m still happy that you’re the leader.”
“…?”
“So remember this—even though our team has Si-woo hyung as the perfect eldest, the leader is you. You’re Si-woo hyung’s leader too. Kang Ha-jin. You.”
And this bastard had been casually using informal speech with me lately….
It bothered me slightly that he called me “you” so naturally, but I couldn’t really point it out.
Because I could roughly sense what Seo Tae-hyun was trying to say, getting this uncharacteristically angry.
“Be a good leader to Si-woo hyung too. …The way you’ve been for us.”
“….”
“I approved of you becoming leader because I wanted this.”
With that, Seo Tae-hyun turned sharply and left the room. The way he awkwardly wiped his eyes with the back of his hand as he left suggested he’d gotten a bit choked up.
I remained leaning against that wall for a long time after Seo Tae-hyun left.
“…Ah.”
Turning over Seo Tae-hyun’s words in my mind, I suddenly understood why I couldn’t resist him.
“Sharp-eyed bastard.”
The inadequacy I’d hidden behind the word “difficulty” crawled up from the depths of my chest.
Disliking the sight of myself standing alone in the empty corner of the room, I swallowed bitterly and quickly fled that space.
* * *
Yes, let’s be honest.
‘I find Jeong Si-u uncomfortable.’
More precisely, ‘the situation where I need to point out something to Jeong Si-u’ makes me uncomfortable.
Why?
‘Jeong Si-u is clearly a better person than me.’
No, I’m the one who got caught vomiting at dawn in the first place. How could I possibly give Jeong Si-u advice like, “You need to sleep on time for growth hormones to be released”?
‘It’s not just a health issue… honestly, it’s other things too.’
In terms of skill and character, Jeong Si-u surpassed me by a wide margin.
If I had to nitpick one flaw, it would be dancing, but even that lost its impact since there were plenty of members in the team who danced better than me.
‘How am I supposed to give advice to someone who’s clearly superior to me in every way?’
Unable to find an answer, I decided to seek help from an expert once again.
“…So, have I basically become something like a counseling office now?”
Our expert, Seo Tae-il, stirred the coffee he’d just brewed with a teaspoon and approached the sofa where I sat.
A junior so far removed from my world had dangled bait about needing serious consultation regarding a concert guest appearance, and the moment he arrived, he launched straight into seeking emotional counseling. Yet instead of kicking me out, Seo Tae-il even served me homemade hot chocolate.
Savoring the warm, sweet smoothness of the hot chocolate sliding down my throat, I grumbled to Seo Tae-il sitting across from me.
“You didn’t send the beef anyway… Can’t we do mental care instead of physical care…?”
“Oh, that. Right, I was supposed to send it to your dormitory, but I forgot and sent it to our place instead. When I checked, Han-sol and Ji-nu had already grilled and eaten it all.”
“…You still live in the dormitory?”
“Of course not. Our second and fourth members get lonely easily. They’ve been living together since we moved out—found a place together.”
Seo Tae-il chuckled softly, resting his chin slightly as he sat down and placed something on the table.
Looking at it, there was a tray with various types of tissues arranged by category—box tissues, wet wipes, and rolls.
‘This heavenly senior….’
“I’m not going to cry?”
“Yeah. You always say that.”
Seo Tae-il didn’t even acknowledge my words and instead pushed the tray even closer to me. I couldn’t bring myself to commit the audacity of pushing the tray back to Seo Tae-il, who was both the director of this shabby counseling office and my senior from thirteen years ago, so I simply shifted my body slightly away from the tissue tray.
“So, to summarize today’s counseling session… you want to know the secret to how this genius leader senior has maintained his complete form for thirteen years?”
Wasn’t that summarizing way too much?
However, I couldn’t commit the disrespect of even arguing back when I’d barged into the studio without warning and immediately launched into emotional counseling, so I simply nodded quietly.
“Hmm… Si-u is a difficult type, I’ll admit. He’s so airtight, and even though he seems kind, he’s not the type to let people get close. I can suppress him with age and experience, but you’re younger, so it’ll be harder for you. I understand your position.”
“…?”
“Why are you surprised that I’m actually counseling you when you came for counseling?”
“Oh, no. It’s not that….”
I thought he’d hit me with facts like Lee Do-ha with 100% T-type sensibility, but Seo Tae-il readily took my side.
Even Seo Tae-il, who was regarded as the most ideal leader, understood my position, and the tight, suffocating feeling that had been weighing on me seemed to lighten a little.
“Are you sure Si-u is afraid of sleep? Is he not just reducing sleep because he’s busy lately?”
“It seems like it. …I’ve seen it often before. Him working without sleeping.”
During the preparation for Miro Maze’s fourth competition, Jeong Si-u had returned from a convenience store walk with me and completed the arrangement work without sleeping a single hour.
When I came back to the dormitory late at night with Lee Do-ha after finishing Bear Hunt before debut, it was Jeong Si-u who waited without sleeping, and
whenever members came back late to the dormitory after individual schedules or practice, it was generally Jeong Si-u who greeted them. I just hadn’t been conscious of it until now, but the evidence was abundant.
“Honestly, I don’t know what to do. Maybe because I thought from the beginning that he’d be the leader… I just can’t bring myself to say anything to him now that I’ve suddenly put on the leader’s armband.”
“….”
“Not sleeping is one thing, but it’s just that he sleeps less than others. It’s not like Si-u’s condition management is so poor that it affects his schedule, right? You know his personality.”
“I do.”
“Ah, just…. Ugh, I don’t know. He’ll probably handle it fine on his own anyway, so maybe I should just leave it alone? And what would I even say to him? ‘How are your sleeping arrangements these days?’ And then if he tells me to mind my own business? Besides, this might not even be something worth worrying about. Maybe he’s just naturally the type who doesn’t need much sleep….”
“Hmm. Ha-jin.”
“Yes…?”
I had no idea what I was even saying, my mind spiraling into chaos as I clutched my head and rambled incoherently. It was then that Seo Tae-il called out to me softly.
I lifted my head, fingers still tangled in my disheveled hair, and Seo Tae-il stirred his coffee with a teaspoon a few times before asking me in that refined tone of his.
“I’ve been wondering about this for a while now….”
“….”
“Did someone ever scold you harshly before for acting disrespectfully as the youngest? For not knowing your place?”
“…Yes?”
And I found myself unable to deny it.

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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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