Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 242

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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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242. When a Workaholic Leader Seizes Power (11)
Jeong Si-u’s ready acceptance of Kang Ha-jin’s apology stemmed from a simple reason.
What he wanted was a ‘younger sibling he could grow close to’—not some petty victory in a battle of pride.
Jeong Si-u had already grasped what he desired; he wasn’t foolish enough to prolong a pointless quarrel.
—So when he wakes up, even if Ha-jin doesn’t know, could you tell the others it’s fine? Just one word from each of you would help.
Still, Jeong Si-u felt there was more he needed to say.
So the moment he opened his eyes that morning, he asked his roommate Do-ha to gather the members. They’d tried to keep the ailing Si-woo from moving, insisting everyone squeeze into the small room, but Si-woo came out to the living room first instead. Overprotection simply wasn’t his nature.
A weekend morning when the younger members had no school and all their schedules were crammed into the afternoon.
Si-woo felt the weight of their gazes fixed upon him as he carefully unfolded an old nightmare from his memory.
“Have you ever seen someone die?”
The opening words were heavy, yet Si-woo continued in a voice that wasn’t entirely dark.
“I was nineteen when my father passed away. Right beside me.”
“….”
“He’d been very ill. After his surgery, while he was hospitalized, I was the one caring for him. Then one morning I opened my eyes and he was gone. He looked like he was just sleeping, so at first I didn’t even realize he’d passed.”
Now, looking back, I thought my father had been a stubborn man.
Despite his illness, he’d failed to recognize it, missing his window for treatment, and spent his whole life apologizing that his only child had to stay at the hospital to care for him.
I could only guess—perhaps that final day was no different.
His body felt wrong, something ached, something felt off…. Even sensing all this, perhaps he didn’t want to wake his sleeping son, felt too embarrassed to call the medical staff for what might be nothing, and simply chose to sleep, telling himself it would be fine?
It was a question no one could answer, yet that uncertainty tormented my nights for quite a long time.
“Since I was still in school back then, after my father’s funeral I returned to the dormitory…. I couldn’t sleep at night. I was terrified of falling asleep myself, and I was terrified of my roommate sleeping beside me.”
“….”
“I lasted about a month before I couldn’t take it anymore, so I ended up withdrawing from the dormitory mid-semester. And not long after, I just quit school altogether.”
Si-woo added in passing that quitting school wasn’t actually because of the insomnia. He spoke with a low laugh, but the members listening couldn’t bring themselves to laugh easily. Eun-chan, sitting right beside Si-woo, had buried his face in his arms.
“Still, after getting psychological counseling and all that, I got much better…. But lately with all the stress, I’m having trouble sleeping again.”
There were simply too many factors keeping his nerves on edge.
My roommate Tae-hyun always woke later than I did because he slept heavily, and with schedules so packed, everyone caught naps during travel time or waiting periods.
If I had time alone, I could at least calm my mind and organize my thoughts, but Ha-jin was pushing through a full schedule of group activities to get that rookie award, leaving no room to breathe.
It was pure ‘sleep deprivation,’ I thought, and I offered a weary smile to my younger siblings who were watching me with worried eyes.
“Still, living with you guys is fun. I like the noise. I’m not going anywhere, so don’t worry.”
“Hyung, you really….”
At what was supposed to be a joke, Tae-hyun let out a disgruntled sound and pouted.
Do-ha offered a cup of warm water to Si-woo, who was coughing dryly, and asked.
“So, what’s the solution?”
“Since it’s purely psychological, I’m thinking I’ll tell the Executive Director first and get counseling again during my rest period. I went from living alone to suddenly having six roommates, so I need to find a way to adapt.”
“Having you use a private room for a while could be an option too.”
“Well, that could work, but….”
Si-woo’s gaze turned toward Tae-hyun, my original roommate. Tae-hyun, still wearing a thoughtful expression, met Si-woo’s eyes.
Tae-hyun, still remembering the cold gaze Si-woo had sent him, instinctively shrank back and looked away. Si-woo gazed at him and spoke with a gentler tone than usual, affectionately.
“I’d like to keep rooming with Tae-hyun if that’s okay with him.”
“…?”
“We actually got along really well. There’s something fun about Tae-hyun waking me up every morning.”
At Si-woo’s unexpected words, Tae-hyun looked at him again. Si-woo, having slept deeply for the first time in a while, smiled languidly with his features shining even more brilliantly. His eyes held a hint of apology and awkwardness.
“I’m sorry about that day.”
“….”
“I know what kind of heart you had when you asked Ha-jin. But back then… I guess I just didn’t have the capacity to understand your consideration.”
At Si-woo’s sincere apology, which he hadn’t expected, Tae-hyun pressed his lips together. His eyes reddened in an instant, and Yoo Gun across from him silently flicked a tissue at him. Then Tae-hyun’s voice trembled as he held back his tears.
“I’m not crying, okay? I’m not Kang Ha-jin or anything….”
“No, Tae-hyun. Why are you suddenly grabbing my collar in this touching moment?”
“I don’t know, it’s all your fault.”
“This? This situation? Suddenly? My fault? Why?”
Kang Ha-jin, who had been sitting quietly empathizing with our group’s tragic past, raised both arms in bewilderment. Even so, Ha-jin tore off a piece of the tissue that Yoo Gun had tossed earlier and handed it to Tae-hyun, who was sniffling.
Tae-hyun pressed the tissue against his eyes several times, then exhaled deeply and regained his composure.
Then he looked at Si-woo, who was still waiting for his answer.
“From now on, if you’re not sleeping, I’m going to nag you to go to bed quickly.”
“So you were aware it was nagging.”
“Ugh, Kang Ha-jin!”
“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up.”
“…If there’s anything you feel hurt about or worried about, I’ll tell you right away. This goes for not just Si-woo, but all the other members too. You can do the same with me.”
“You’ve already been doing that with me…. Okay, okay. Stop glaring at me, I’m really shutting up now.”
Ha-jin, who had been grumbling beside him, covered his mouth with his hand as he flinched at Tae-hyun’s sharp gaze.
Tae-hyun looked at Ha-jin with an expression that seemed to ask, ‘Has this guy finally grown up, or has he lost his mind?’ Then he calmed his emotions and continued speaking steadily.
“…And I’m sorry too. It wasn’t that I found you difficult or anything. I never intended to exclude you from your own problems. It’s just that it seemed like you relied on Ha-jin more than me. Even though he doesn’t seem like it, he’s good at listening to people’s stories.”
For a compliment, it carried a remarkably subtle nuance and expression. While Ha-jin raised his eyebrows wondering, ‘Should I feel proud about this or not?’, Tae-hyun smiled gently at Si-woo and shrugged his shoulders.
“I also think sharing a room with you is the most fun.”
The first to react to those words wasn’t Si-woo, but Eun-chan, who was sitting beside him.
Eun-chan, who had been keeping his head down the entire time Si-woo was speaking, asked Tae-hyun with a shocked expression.
“…Hyung. Wasn’t our room fun?”
“….”
“Hyung…?”
Tae-hyun couldn’t bring himself to admit that from morning he’d been bickering with Yoo Gun, and that he’d spent all his remaining time being dragged around by Eun-chan and Ha-ru, stopping them from causing trouble and playing with them until he was exhausted. Eun-chan’s face grew even more shocked.
It was Yoo Gun who summarized the situation.
“So we’re done making up? Today’s the day we clean the living room, and there’s a lot to do, so let’s eat first, yeah? We need to clean before the youngest ones leave.”
“Is housework really that important right now…?”
“Then what’s important? We start practice again tomorrow, so if not today, we can’t do it.”
“Yoo Gun really takes housework seriously, contrary to his appearance…. If he showed that level of sincerity in writing rap lyrics, he’d be dominating South Korea’s hip-hop scene by now.”
“Grandpa’s in charge of mopping today, so go rinse out the mop first.”
Yoo Gun lightly deflected Ha-jin’s joke and pointed with his chin at the large mop he’d taken out in the corner of the living room.
At the sight of Ha-jin looking comically despairing, laughter erupted among the members. Si-woo laughed along and nodded.
“Yeah. Let’s eat. I’ve said everything I wanted to say anyway.”
The morning at the Dormitory became busy once again.
Even when they had fought, breakfast had always been a meal shared around the same table, so now that they had made up, it was a bit noisier than usual.
Si-woo, excluded from meal duties because he was still a patient, watched the members bustling about. Then, as Ha-jin emerged into the living room with a handful of utensils, Si-woo called out to him softly.
“Ha-jin.”
“Huh?”
“Thank you. For apologizing first.”
“…Suddenly?”
“Didn’t you say I didn’t need to apologize?”
The leisurely smile was remarkably typical of Jeong Si-u. At that sight, Ha-jin’s lips curved into a refreshing arc as well. Then he threw out a comment.
“Just get better soon. A statue shouldn’t be catching a cold.”
It was a remark filled with 100% sincerity.
* * *
Kang Ha-jin’s number one fan and, until recently, someone who had quit Rene Entertainment (though she hadn’t quite admitted it), an unemployed woman living day by day on unemployment benefits and severance pay—Yoon Jae-hee.
She received an unexpected request from a friend she hadn’t seen in a while.
“A Upia Concert?”
“Yeah. I seriously got reserved seating this time through divine intervention, and the friend I was supposed to go with can’t make it! I thought about just transferring the ticket, but I hate going to concerts alone… Just one day. Please. I’ll cover the hotel.”
“Wait, since when did you like Upia? You were practically on the verge of quitting K-pop just a while ago.”
At Jae-hee’s bewildered question, her friend tapped her arm with an aggrieved voice.
“It’s because of you!”
“Because of me? What are you talking about?”
“You kept asking me to vote for that Miro Maze person, the red-haired one, right? I got curious about what the big deal was, so I looked into it, and I ended up falling for Seo Tae-il, the MC! How was I supposed to know? But what can I do? Seo Tae-il is so handsome. Did a military-service-completed idol in his thirties really need to be that good-looking?”
“…Ah, yeah. I get it roughly.”
Jae-hee waved her hand at her friend excitedly spilling her fandom story.
People who had become fans of Upia after watching Miro Maze were often spotted on Tamla as well.
“Anyway. So, are you going or not? You quit your job anyway. If you don’t have work, come with me, okay? This is my first concert.”
“Isn’t that next week or the week after?”
“Yeah. I’ve already booked the hotel anyway, so you just need to show up. You already know all of Upia’s songs anyway, right?”
“That’s true…”
Jae-hee hesitated for a moment.
Her own schedule was free anyway, and since Kairos had wrapped up their follow-up song activities not long ago, there weren’t any official schedules lined up. The Upia Concert was also famous on Stone Board for being entertaining with plenty to see.
Her friend drove in the final nail to her hesitation.
“And they’re under the same agency as Kairos, right? Who knows? Maybe a few of them will come as invited guests?”
“Oh, right…. Ugh, suddenly I really want to go?”
Remembering how Upia’s leader Tae-il took great care of Ha-jin, her ultimate bias, Jae-hee quickly made her decision.
“Yeah, why not. And even without the members, Upia alone is a total win.”
By the time that Upia Concert ended, she would express infinite gratitude to her friend with delicious meals and desserts, regarding her as the benefactor of her entire fandom life…
But she had no way of knowing that at this moment.

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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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