Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 248

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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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248. What I Had Forgotten (2)
-What are you talking about? When did that happen?
“Oh. I got in…?”
-I told you about it last time we called. I said I passed.
Right…?
Ha-won’s bewildered voice soon shifted to a tone that suggested he’d expected as much.
-You weren’t listening properly back then, were you? I told you if you were tired, just get some sleep. But no, you had to insist on talking to me anyway.
“Hey, you. Huh? Your older brother who you played with every day suddenly moved out one morning, and you’re telling me you’re not lonely? You’re not? That’s the only way to stay connected as family—hearing each other’s voices.”
-It’s not like I moved abroad. You can see me on TV whenever you turn it on. And you come home every time I have a break anyway.
“Kang Ha-won, are you a T?”
-Maybe? I don’t know, it’s fifty-fifty.
Such a cold-hearted Ha-won…!
Unable to win even a single argument against my stubborn younger sibling, I eventually clutched my forehead and groaned.
At least he got into university, which was a relief. In my previous life, I’d barely scraped in through supplementary admissions, so I hadn’t been too worried, but…
The truth was, I harbored a small concern that since I’d changed my own life so dramatically, something might have shifted in Ha-won’s life as well.
I exhaled a sigh of relief and leaned back comfortably against the car seat.
“Which university did he get into? Wait, when did he tell me? Why can’t I remember?”
-I told you when we called last time. You know, when you said you’d fought with that member.
“…Oh, that time.”
Only after hearing that did the memory come back to me, hazy and incomplete.
After fighting with Si-woo and receiving advice from Su-ho, I’d been so frustrated that I’d called Ha-won just to check in, and I’d poured out my entire story to him.
-I mean, it’s not like I said anything I shouldn’t have, right? Sure! I had my faults too! I know that! But did I really have to say it like that?
-Well… I think you were probably pretty upset.
-Pretty? Pretty?? Hey, I was seriously devastated, okay?
-Yeah. I get it. It sure looks like it.
-Kang Ha-won, are you a T?
-Maybe?
…Let me stop reminiscing.
‘Still, how could I have forgotten about Ha-won getting into university?’
How exhausted was I? Did he tell me while I was asleep?
Around that time, I’d been so caught up trying not to think about the fight with Si-woo that I’d thrown myself into everything, my mind completely scattered.
“Was I actually asleep when you told me?”
-It was early morning, so I was half-asleep. For some reason… your reaction was weaker than usual.
“If I didn’t hear you properly, you should’ve just sent me your acceptance letter through chat and bragged about it…”
-I figured you were busy with the members and everything.
“No matter how busy I am, nothing’s more important than my younger brother’s university acceptance. I’m sorry you felt hurt. I really am.”
-…? Not really. I know you’re busy, so why apologize?
“Are you seriously a T?”
-I keep telling you it’s fifty-fifty. How many times do I have to say it?
The tears that had been welling up in my eyes from guilt vanished in an instant.
If you’re not a T, then I’m never trusting MBTI again.
“Anyway, congratulations. I’m relieved.”
-I honestly thought I’d fail the practical exam, but I got in.
“You got in on the first try, not as an alternate?”
-But I failed everywhere else.
“Hey, getting into even one place is something, man.”
In the previous timeline, I always got in as an alternate, so Mom and I would just hold hands and wait for the waitlist to clear.
This time, without that waiting, I got in on the first try, and somehow it felt good.
Then, from the other end of the phone, I heard Ha-won’s answer—one that seemed to carry a lot of weight.
-I realized I need to work hard if I want to survive….
“Huh? What did you say?”
-Never mind….
The kid went through the entrance exam once and seems to have felt a lot from it…?
Come to think of it, he’d experienced something like a slump around this time before. It was because he’d spent so long searching for answers in art, where there are no right answers.
Remembering how much he’d struggled back then, I gazed out the car window—still in filming prep—and asked carefully.
“How about you? Are you okay? Drawing’s been hard for you lately, hasn’t it?”
-Well…. It still is.
“What do you mean?”
-…I’m not sure. What I should be drawing.
Ha-won had been drawing since he was five years old, when he first held a pen in his hand.
Whenever he entered competitions, he won awards. Whenever he took tests, he got perfect scores.
Even I could see he drew well, and he had talent, but….
In my previous life, Ha-won at twenty-eight eventually became an office worker. It was a decision made after long deliberation, and that decision actually made Ha-won more stable.
Facing Ha-won’s ‘first wandering’ after ten years, I paused for a moment and chose my words carefully.
“It’s okay.”
-….
“Just rest for a bit. You’ve been pushing yourself for so long.”
When you think about it, Ha-won was a kid who’d been running toward one goal—’the entrance exam’—for ten years.
Now that goal had been achieved, and Ha-won needed to recharge.
To ponder what he wanted to draw, what kind of art he wanted to create, how he’d make a living from it, whether he had the confidence to sustain himself through art for the rest of his life—he needed time to think through all these questions.
…Even if that contemplation ended with Ha-won giving up art, I wanted him to agonize over his own life, to wrestle with these thoughts until his head nearly burst.
Because I knew how much stronger the kid would grow once that struggle was over.
“Money—I’ll earn it. I’m supposed to start getting paid next year anyway. So take your time, rest, and think it through. Besides, the youngest gets to do that.”
Ha-won didn’t answer my words.
But knowing that this silence was his way of responding, I noticed Kwon Wook in the distance gesturing for me, so I began wrapping up the call.
“Won. I have to get to work now. Congrats on getting in, and let’s grab something delicious next time I have a day off. Think about what you want to eat.”
-Well…. Okay. What are you doing today?
“Season greeting shoot. I’m looking right now at the Gangwon Province Sea in November.”
-Be careful not to catch a cold. And call Dad too. He complained that he’s forgetting what your voice sounds like.
“Dad will change his profile picture from that photo of me in the red cape if I ask him to.”
—I’ll give him my regards. Work hard.
“Sounds good~ Congratulations, my boy.”
After hanging up, I stepped out of the car with a lightened heart.
Finally, our house had produced a college student.
Originally, I should have been the first, but in this life, I got forced into high school graduation due to the whole employment issue.
‘They did say I’d need to attend a cyber university at least to defer military service….’
Lee Do-ha, who judged that learning in the field would teach him more than university, had already enrolled in a cyber university this year and was doing the insane thing of juggling assignments with his debut. Since he wasn’t the type to cut corners, he was handling everything with sincerity.
In contrast, I was still deliberating.
‘The school I originally attended… I do want to go back.’
The people I met there, the experiences I gained, the memories I made—they still lingered in me like regret.
Even if I took the entrance exam next year and had to enter university at twenty-two, I kept postponing my decision, wanting to chase the traces of that old timeline.
As I stood lost in thought in front of the car, Seo Tae-hyun, bundled up in a coat despite it being November, approached me. Then he asked, peering at me with narrowed eyes.
“You weren’t talking to your girlfriend, were you?”
“Kang Ha-won, the way you’re reacting is hilarious. It’s my younger sibling.”
“Never mind then.”
Did he really come all the way here from that sandy beach just to ask that…? What a persistent guy.
Feeling oddly annoyed, I draped my arm over the small Seo Tae-hyun’s shoulder and leaned my full weight on him.
“Ugh! You’re heavy!”
“Ah, Tae-hyun. This old man’s legs don’t have any strength left….”
“That’s funny! According to the family tree, I’m your grandfather’s older brother!?”
“That’s the Miro family tree. In the Kairos AU, I’m definitely your grandfather.”
“How does that even work!?”
“Parallel worlds, roughly speaking.”
I humored the chattering Seo Tae-hyun and headed back to the filming studio with him.
The cold sea breeze struck both my cheeks fiercely.
“Man, it really is cold. What if we catch a cold?”
“You’re wearing long sleeves and long pants at least. Ha-ru and I are in shorts.”
“What can we do? Every group needs to have one member in charge of shorts. We can’t exactly put Lee Do-ha in shorts, can we?”
“…There might actually be demand for that?”
I barely stopped myself from agreeing with Seo Tae-hyun’s comment.
‘There probably would be a market for it, but if we did that, the whole “rookie freshness” concept would go down the drain….’
Today’s schedule was a concept photo shoot for next year’s season greeting merchandise. Following the planning team’s opinion to pour out all the freshness possible for a rookie group, the concept was decided as “boys by the seaside.”
As a result, we had to wear sailor uniforms—the epitome of freshness—in the waters off Gangwon Province in early November, and it was genuinely freezing.
Before starting the actual shoot, Seo Tae-hyun took off his coat and handed it to the manager. Dressed in a navy long-sleeved top with a loose fit and white shorts, with a belt hanging long, Tae-hyun was already rubbing hand warmers all over his hands.
I wore a navy top with a white jacket and long pants, a navy tie hanging long, and a Kairos-emblazoned uniform cap.
Honestly, I wondered if this was much different from the uniforms or formal wear I usually wore, but when I asked the styling coordinator, she just told me to trust her.
Since she was the one who had suggested the sheer back shirt that got the hottest reaction during Miro Maze Round 3, I decided to just trust her judgment.
“Hey, hyung.”
“Huh? What. Cold?”
“No. Um, you know how I agreed to MC the college entrance exam day?”
“Yeah. Why? Just do it yourself?”
“No, listen to me for a second. You need to know he’s coming that day.”
“He?”
Who was he talking about?
Just as I was about to ask that, I remembered another major event I’d completely forgotten about.
“…Oh, damn. Don’t tell me?”
“What do you mean ‘don’t tell me’? You knew he was debuting. Cha Min-seok’s debuting that day. Since you’re the MC, you need to film a challenge with him too.”
“…”
“…Hyung, you seriously forgot he was debuting?”
“Look at me. You think I had the mental capacity to keep track of Rene’s next group debut? I forgot my own younger sibling’s college entrance news.”
Oh, this is insane.
Lanion existed.
This time I hadn’t forgotten because I was sleeping—I’d genuinely just forgotten. Honestly, I was so swamped that I couldn’t care less whether that punk debuted or not.
I carefully observed Seo Tae-hyun’s expression before asking cautiously.
“…Are you okay with it? Our activities will overlap, won’t they?”
Seo Tae-hyun stared at me for a moment, then grabbed the sparkler—today’s filming prop—and spun around sharply.
“Instead of holding a grudge against that crazy bastard, you should be grateful to me.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t mind. I’m too busy doing well myself anyway.”
“Hyungs! Come quick! We’re writing letters with sparklers!”
Dan Ha-ru, who had already lit his sparkler and was enjoying the fireworks, called out to us with an excited voice.
Beside him, Lee Do-ha was helping Ju Eun-chan with his sparkler that wouldn’t light properly, Yoo Gun was eagerly spinning his sparkler in heart shapes at Dan Ha-ru’s urging, and Jeong Si-u was capturing the younger members’ moments with a film camera.
“Being young is nice, I’ll give them that. Aren’t they cold?”
“Ha-ru and Eun-chan probably have five heat packs each on their backs right now. Plus they’ve been running around like crazy. …Oh, let me join! I want to do it too!”
Seo Tae-hyun rushed urgently toward where the members were.
I took off my coat and started walking toward them, when suddenly the scenery before me felt strangely familiar.
‘…What is this?’
Beneath a pale violet sky, a vivid crimson sunset rippled across an unfamiliar golden beach.
I had seen this place before.
It was that Unconscious Space where I’d once met the Entity. The sea from that place was now unfolding before my eyes.
“Ha-jin hyung! Hurry!”
I heard Dan Ha-ru’s voice calling me.
Wearing a white round beret and a short-sleeved shirt with navy and white color-blocking, navy shorts, and matching navy and white knee-high socks, Dan Ha-ru embodied exactly what people meant by a “boy.”
Then a new Quest opened.
[The unlock conditions for ‘Basic Quest 02. Confrontation with the Regressor’ have been satisfied.]
[Unlock Condition 1: Timeline separation of 80% or more between the ‘Fixed Regressor’ and the ‘Chosen Regressor’]
[Unlock Condition 2: Timeline preservation risk of the ‘Chosen Regressor’ at 70% or higher]
[Unlock Condition 3: Timeline connection between ‘Kang Ha-jin’ and ‘Dan Ha-ru’ three or more times]
[Would you like to view ‘Basic Quest 02. Confrontation with the Regressor’?]
Beneath the beautifully setting sun and sea, Dan Ha-ru waved a sparkler that gleamed as brightly as his eyes, his smile radiant as if captured in slow motion.
It was only after seeing that Quest that I realized I had forgotten about the other protagonist of this #possession-prevention idol story, and that the time had come for me to face him.
[Basic Quest 02. Confrontation with the Regressor]
Objective: Persuade the Chosen Regressor, Dan Ha-ru, and unify Dan Ha-ru’s personalities into one.
It seemed the time had come to meet another Dan Ha-ru.

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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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