Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 247

—————

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

—————

247. What I Had Forgotten (1)
November would arrive in just two days.
I mentally ran through the rough outline of our remaining plans.
Beyond the digital single we’d decided to surprise-release in early November, there was an avalanche of tasks waiting for us.
‘Was I pushing myself too hard for a rookie? Had I bitten off more than I could chew?’
While Today’s Kairos, which had been running regularly, had temporarily concluded its season due to the year-end hiatus and inactive period, the emergence of another recurring project called LET US meant I couldn’t afford much breathing room.
Jeong Si-u’s LET US SING had finally been uploaded not long ago, and the next turn belonged to Lee Do-ha’s LET US SHOUT.
LET US RAP and LET US HIPHOP and so on had been criticized for their awkward phrasing.
‘The response was good, so we couldn’t back out now…’
Jeong Si-u, who had gone on about singing audition songs and whatnot, had chosen a lullaby for his final selection.
More precisely, it was a foreign indie band song with a lullaby concept. Since it was a song he’d spent considerable time deliberating over, both the members and the company enthusiastically approved the concept change.
‘And it turned out to be a massive hit.’
Against a dark night sky, Jeong Si-u’s video of him playing guitar and singing by a campfire at the camping site surpassed 300,000 views in less than half a day of being released, and through some algorithm’s selection, it was now approaching nearly 1 million views.
According to what I heard from the media team staff, it had been selected by the algorithm as an unexpected ASMR video.
As someone who had advocated for layering subtle ambient sound and campfire crackling during the video planning phase, I was convinced that about 30% of those million views belonged to my contribution.
‘Wait. November? There was something important about November, wasn’t there? What was it?’
As I pondered, a loud commotion drew closer from somewhere. When I turned my head, a thoroughly intoxicated Nam Da-down was approaching our table with soju bottles in both hands.
“Aigo~ our nephews! No, wait! Am I the nephew!? Uncle!!!”
“Please, senior…”
“No, no. Since Ha-jin is our Tae-il’s son, you’re definitely the nephews!! Nephews!!”
Seo Tae-hyun, who now flinched at even the syllable ‘neph’ in nephew, made a miserable expression, and Nam Da-down chuckled while patting our backs.
“You all did great today~ Thank you, thank you. You’re all so impressive! Wonderful! Here! Each of you take a glass! Your senior will pour!”
“No? We can’t…”
“Hyung. Are you drunk? These kids are minors.”
“Aigo! That’s right, that’s right! Our nephew-uncles are still young!”
Just as Ju Eun-chan, who had been mixing doenjang-jjigae with rice, was about to receive soju from the senior, Kwon Sang-rok suddenly appeared and snatched the glass away while supporting Nam Da-down.
Kwon Sang-rok deftly pushed Nam Da-down to the side, then replaced the soju bottle in his hand with a refreshing bottle of water. With that, Nam Da-down tucked the water bottle under his arm and plopped himself down at our table.
Nam Da-down asked me with bright, clear eyes.
“Huh? But why are there only four of you? Where are the others? Si-woo, Do-ha… Yu-gun?”
“Do-ha was dragged away by Yoon Ji-nu earlier, and Yu-gun was pulled along to the dance team because he knows someone there. And Si-woo hyung…”
I silently pointed toward the table beyond where several directors and ‘elders’ had gathered.
Jeong Si-u, with his cheerful expression, was there downing bomb shots.
“…is currently networking as Kairos’s representative.”
“Ah, I see. But Si-woo really holds his liquor well. I had a drink with him too. What about you, Ha-jin?”
“I’m staying here to look after the ladies.”
“Ah, good division of roles.”
Nam Da-down, nodding to himself, gazed warmly at us seated at the table. With his chin resting openly on his hand, he asked with a slightly sobered expression.
“Is idol life worth doing? Is it as enjoyable as you thought?”
The one who immediately nodded at that question was Dan Ha-ru, who had already finished eating meat and was now demolishing cold noodles for dessert.
“Yes! It’s fun. I like it.”
“That’s good then. I’m relieved.”
Nam Da-down chuckled softly, then spoke with a slightly wistful tone.
“…I’m envious. Everything being new like that. We had times like that too, didn’t we, Rock?”
“Hyung. You sound like an old man right now.”
“Our Rock is so cold~”
Despite Nam Da-down’s disappointed voice, Kwon Sang-rok simply sat down in the chair across from us without a word. It seemed he’d joined our table to keep watch—perhaps worried Nam Da-down might make some mistake around us.
Then Ju Eun-chan, who’d been carefully observing the situation, cautiously addressed Nam Da-down.
“Um…. Senior, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“Hm? Go ahead, ask away~”
“How can a team stay together for a long time and keep getting along?”
It was a simple question, but an important one.
Still, the fact that Ju Eun-chan was the one asking it felt somewhat unexpected.
He was always confident he could do well and that things would work out, yet here he was asking a senior from another team in front of his own teammates.
‘Did the fight between me and Si-woo really shake him that much?’
As I watched Ju Eun-chan with that thought, Nam Da-down, who’d been quietly pondering, broke into a bright smile and answered.
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
“Pardon?”
“We’re still struggling with that ourselves. How to keep this team going for the long haul.”
“But….”
“You could say 13 years is plenty long already, but… to me it felt like an instant. Thirteen years just flew by. Before I knew it, I was already at this career level.”
Nam Da-down leaned back, grabbing some puffed rice snacks from the appetizers. Kwon Sang-rok across from him gave a small nod of agreement.
“We still love making music together, still love performing on stage. But who knows what’ll happen next year or the year after? Now that we’re older, some members might be thinking about marriage, or worrying about their health. Or maybe some want to focus more on solo activities.”
“….”
“So I can’t answer Eun-chan’s question yet either. You only know how things end after they’re over, right? We’ll probably only know the answer when we do our retirement concert.”
I’d thought he was just a volume-maker who talked without thinking, but Upia was truly Upia after all.
The fact that he could still say “still” after 13 years in the K-pop industry struck me as remarkable.
‘How many years will we be able to last….’
I often thought of being an idol as being like a flame.
More brilliant than anything else, yet turning to ash and disappearing faster than anything else.
How long, how brilliantly could the flame called Kairos burn?
As I fell into such thoughts, someone else posed a question.
It was Dan Ha-ru, who’d already cleaned out his bowl of cold noodles.
“Then…. Seniors, when you faced really difficult times, how did you endure them?”
“Difficult times?”
“Yes.”
It was Kwon Sang-rok, who’d been quietly sitting and drinking water, who answered that question.
“I didn’t endure it.”
“….”
“I just suffered through it. Felt wronged, felt absurd, felt afraid, felt anguished. I felt what I felt. That’s the nature of this job—being subject to people’s gossip regardless of the truth.”
Kwon Sang-rok’s words cast a heavy atmosphere over the table.
Nam Da-down looked down quietly, his nose twitching as if recalling something from long ago. His eyes glistened with what might have been tears, but I pretended not to notice.
Kwon Sang-rok continued, looking at Dan Ha-ru.
“But for me, it was enough as long as my hyungs acknowledged me.”
“….”
“Sometimes fans misunderstood me, or even attacked me. Those moments were… frustrating.”
“….”
“But the music I create with my hyungs was too precious to give up over things like that.”
“…Rok…”
Hearing the maknae’s touching response, Nam Da-down finally broke down into tears. Kwon Sang-rok, as if accustomed to this, pulled out several tissues and handed them to Nam Da-down.
Then Dan Ha-ru, who had been listening carefully to Kwon Sang-rok’s story, asked him one more question.
“…Then. What if there were times like that? Times when you thought you might not be able to make music with your hyungs anymore? Weren’t you ever afraid that a moment might come when all this ends?”
Dan Ha-ru hadn’t even been drinking, yet he was pouring out his honest feelings without filter. I could see Seo Tae-hyun sitting beside him looking slightly surprised by the question.
Hearing that question, Kwon Sang-rok met Dan Ha-ru’s eyes quietly.
The gazes of the two men, with roughly a decade between them, collided in the air, and Kwon Sang-rok offered his answer to Dan Ha-ru, who was wrestling with the same worries he’d had ten years ago.
“I always do.”
“….”
“So I do my best to delay that ending, even if only by a little.”
After that answer, I heard Seo Tae-il calling for Nam Da-down and Kwon Sang-rok from somewhere in the distance.
Kwon Sang-rok thanked everyone for coming to the concert today, then left the table with Nam Da-down, who had started sniffling while clutching a water bottle.
I watched my younger members lost in thought for a moment, then picked up the soda can with just one sip left.
“Everyone heard that, right? Let’s learn from their mindset and keep Kairos going strong for a long time.”
At my words breaking the mood, Seo Tae-hyun smiled and raised his water glass. When Dan Ha-ru and Ju Eun-chan picked up their drinks as well, Lee Do-ha, who had been called away by Jeong Si-u, returned to our table with perfect timing.
“You’re back? Grab a glass quick. We’re about to make a really touching toast.”
“What…. Okay.”
Lee Do-ha, his face marked with confusion, picked up a glass without understanding what was happening.
Just as we were about to clink glasses, Lee Yu-gun returned with a thoroughly fed-up expression.
“Ugh, those troublemakers. Said they were going to the restroom and barely escaped.”
“Yoo Gun hyung! You grab a glass too! We’re toasting!”
“…? We have minors here, you crazy people. Selling alcohol to minors gets the shop shut down….”
“It’s juice, juice. You just grab a water glass.”
Reassured by Seo Tae-hyun’s urgent explanation, Lee Yu-gun poured himself a fresh glass of water. He’d caught so much of the smell of alcohol from the dancer team’s table that it reminded him of his part-time job days, and he didn’t even want to put a drink to his lips.
Once Lee Yu-gun joined us, I suddenly felt like we should call over the one person still missing from our group.
“How do we call Si-woo hyung? It’d be better if we all toasted together, right?”
“He’s already here.”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
“Ha-jin, you always look at me like you’re seeing a ghost.”
Jeong Si-u, who knows when he’d slipped away, sat down casually beside me, raising a beer glass he’d apparently brought from that other table.
“Figured everyone was gathering without me, so I left Su-ho hyung there and came over. We’ll call Kwon Wook hyung when we leave.”
“Hyung, aren’t you drunk? You seemed to be drinking a lot.”
“I was just pretending to drink moderately. How could I accept everything the adults offered?”
In short, he’d been stuffing his face the entire time.
I found myself grateful once more that this man was my teammate rather than my workplace superior, and I raised my drink can high again.
“Anyway, we all worked hard today. Let’s keep pushing forward together, yeah? What’s our goal?”
“Rookie Award!”
The clink of glasses rang out with genuine enthusiasm.
As the members gathered again, they quickly grew lively, sharing behind-the-scenes moments and impressions from today’s performance. No matter how many connections we had scattered around or seniors we admired, it seemed nothing compared to the comfort of being with your own team.
‘Maybe I should call Kwon Wook soon…’
I noticed Ju Eun-chan’s eyes—the high schooler from Saenarara who went to bed early but couldn’t wake up early—starting to droop.
Though there were no major schedules tomorrow, I figured we should wrap up soon for conditioning purposes, so I was about to look for Kwon Wook when Seo Tae-hyun, who’d been discussing room diffuser scents with Jeong Si-u, suddenly called out to me as if remembering something.
“Oh, hyung.”
“Huh? What?”
“Can you fill in as MC for EKA in three weeks?”
“MC? Why? Aren’t we going on Music Broadcast that day anyway?”
In three weeks, we’d be releasing our surprise digital single and making the rounds on music broadcasts.
If we were already doing broadcasts, why would we need a substitute?
I just stared blankly, confused, but Seo Tae-hyun looked at me like I was the one who didn’t understand.
“What are you talking about? I’m taking the college entrance exam that day.”
“…What?”
“I told you before. I’m taking the exam. Yoo Gun isn’t.”
“You’ll do fine anyway, so why even bother? I’m not going to college.”
“Well, I am going to college.”
“…Huh?”
Only then did I remember what I’d forgotten.
November.
For idols, it was the month of building momentum for year-end preparations, but simultaneously,
for South Korea’s test-takers, it was the month of college admissions—a massive final reckoning that concluded nearly a decade of buildup.
At this very moment, I jumped to my feet, thinking of the one person around me living closest to that “college admissions” reality.
“Oh, this crazy….”
“Hyung…?”
Wait—did Ha-won get into college!?
My vision went white like I’d become an overzealous parent.

—————

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

—————