Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 258

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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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258. A Slice of Everyday Life, Perhaps. (1)
“…Two weeks of broadcast?”
“Yeah. They had way too much footage, so they rushed to reschedule. Looks like the PD over there really took a shine to you guys.”
Sprawled across the spacious leather sofa, Ha-jin’s hands stilled as he twisted the Rubik’s cube a fan had gifted him. He tilted his head back against the armrest and gazed upside-down at Ji Su-ho, who sat at his own desk working, then propped his chin up with both hands.
“Of course. Who do you think I am?”
“…Sometimes I think you’re the most shameless one among the leaders.”
“You didn’t know? That’s my charm.”
Ha-jin laughed playfully and sat up.
The fact that their appearance on Touch High! had expanded to two weeks of content was genuinely good news.
Their performance had been even more impressive than expected, and even a veteran who’d spent over twenty years in variety shows could see it had the makings of a hot topic.
‘Built a decent portfolio before the awards ceremony.’
Anyway, the reason Ha-jin had barged into Ji Su-ho’s office today was for a different matter entirely.
As Ha-jin set the completed cube on the sofa table, Su-ho finished his urgent business and approached the opposite sofa with an orange juice he’d grabbed from the compact refrigerator.
Watching Ha-jin quickly accept the juice and pop the cap open, Su-ho asked casually.
“How’s the atmosphere at the dormitory these days? Tae-hyun seems more sensitive than I expected.”
“Ah.”
Ha-jin downed more than half the refreshing orange juice in one gulp, set the bottle on the table, and laughed ruefully.
“I got kicked out of the room by Si-u hyung.”
“…Why?”
“Because he keeps waking up at dawn, messing with my sleep schedule, apparently….”
Ha-jin stared into empty space with a distant gaze.
The vivid image of Jeong Si-u being unceremoniously evicted in his pajamas, clutching his pillow and blanket, replayed vividly in his mind.
He still couldn’t forget the feeling when he’d found Si-u sitting on the living room sofa with a shocked expression, having come out for water in the early morning.
-Hyung, what are you doing there…? No, wait, I didn’t come out because I’m sick today. I’m totally fine right now. I just woke up and got thirsty, so I came out for water….
-Ha-jin.
-What, what is it?
-I got kicked out.
-…Huh↗?
-I’ve never experienced something like this before….
Jeong Si-u, wearing an expression like some pure romance manga protagonist saying ‘Seo Tae-hyun is the first to treat me this way,’ crumpled pathetically on the living room sofa as if he’d been dumped.
The strange sense of dread from that moment still felt vivid, so Ha-jin shuddered slightly and gulped down the rest of his orange juice.
“So, so you’re saying Si-u is sleeping in the living room now?”
“As if I’d let our precious Mebom hyung rough it in the living room. Until after the college entrance exam, Yu Gun and Si-u hyung are swapping rooms with me. Besides, Yu Gun’s been studying with Tae-hyun anyway.”
“Yu Gun studies?”
“…He opens the books, at least.”
Though the roommate swap was temporary, the chemistry seemed better than expected.
Jeong Si-u passed out like the dead every night, worn out from managing the maknae’s chaotic energy, while Seo Tae-hyun and Lee Yu-gun, despite their constant bickering, maintained a surprisingly legitimate exam-prep routine.
With the thought that rotating roommates like this wasn’t such a bad idea, Ha-jin tossed the empty juice bottle into the trash.
“Tae-hyun seems to be carrying more pressure about his entrance exams than I thought. Look after him, will you? His mind’s probably pretty restless. …With Rene’s next generation debuting soon and having to keep running into B-liver, it’s probably weighing on him more.”
Struck by Su-ho’s unexpectedly thoughtful concern for Tae-hyun, Ha-jin lifted his head and looked at him intently.
Noticing Ha-jin’s contemplative expression, Su-ho—who had been adjusting the cube—met his gaze as well.
“What? You have something to say?”
“…No, it’s just. I was remembering something from before.”
“Before? You mean your past life?”
“No, not a past life. It’s not like some supernatural resurrection or anything…. I mean something else.”
Ha-jin leaned back against the sofa, resting his chin on his hand draped over the armrest.
His pale brown eyes moved slowly through the air as if drawing invisible pictures.
“When I first met the Executive Director. In front of our house.”
….
“I just realized that what he said back then was sincere… It feels oddly fresh to think about it now.”
At Ha-jin’s words, Su-ho recalled a day from nearly a year ago.
-We really hope that Ha-jin will trust us—or rather, trust me—and go forward with us together.
-Ha-jin, I’m certain you can do this. I guarantee it.
He tried to remember what Ha-jin’s expression had been like when he heard those words.
Though the memory had grown hazy, one thing was unmistakably clear: the Ha-jin from then and the Ha-jin of now were vastly different.
Su-ho watched Ha-jin lost in thought and pushed his own orange juice across the table toward him.
“So now I’m trustworthy, huh?”
“If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t have come this far.”
An artist’s trust is a manager’s greatest asset and portfolio.
Su-ho felt a warm sense of pride bloom within him as he checked the time on his wristwatch and clasped his hands together—the posture of someone ready to get down to business.
“So then. What’s this about today? You came here because you had something to discuss, right?”
“Yes. Nothing too complicated…. What does our remaining schedule look like this year? Just the major things, roughly speaking.”
“Let me check.”
Su-ho opened the calendar app on the tablet he always carried with him. As he reviewed the densely packed screen, he slowly recited Kairos’s remaining schedule for the year.
“First, after the comeback tomorrow, we’ll do music show rounds. Year-end will have various award ceremonies and year-end performances as you know. The song coming out at year-end is already fully recorded, so no need to worry about that. There are a few events, but nothing major.”
“What about next year? Will we be busy in early spring?”
“Not yet. There are some personal schedules here and there, but on our end, we’re pushing back new schedules as much as possible. The contract rates are different depending on whether you sign as a rookie or after winning a few rookie awards at year-end.”
Ha-jin listened carefully to Su-ho’s explanation and nodded quietly.
After briefly scanning the calendar, Ha-jin spoke.
“Then could you give us some vacation time in early spring? Around two nights and three days?”
“Vacation? Suddenly?”
“I’m not asking for it unconditionally. If we win a rookie award at the awards ceremony, then just three days around January or February.”
“Well, since we won’t be making a comeback right at the start of the year, I could adjust the schedule if needed….”
Su-ho trailed off and turned the question back to Ha-jin.
“There’s a reason for this, isn’t there? Is it related to Ha-ru?”
….
When Ha-jin didn’t answer readily, Su-ho spoke again with conviction.
“You already said we’re in the same boat. If you have something planned, share it with me. That’s how I can help you, Ha-jin.”
Despite Su-ho’s earnest appeal, Ha-jin still struggled to open his mouth.
But Su-ho waited.
And then, Ha-jin exhaled deeply and slowly began to voice his thoughts.
“If we win the Rookie Award at year-end.”
“….”
“I think ‘The Returner’ Dan Ha-ru will probably fix the time.”
“That means….”
“It’ll be the happiest day, so he’ll want to be trapped in it forever. That’s essentially Dan Ha-ru’s death, and it also means that bastard Dol will finally steal Dan Ha-ru’s body.”
Since Ha-jin had already shared everything they’d discovered so far with Ji Su-ho, Su-ho could relatively easily understand what Ha-jin was saying.
Ha-jin continued.
“I’m thinking it’ll probably be December 31st. It’s also that sparkly bastard’s birthday, and it would be a day with some meaning to it.”
“I’ve been curious about this for a while—if Ha-ru makes that kind of choice and his body gets stolen, what happens to him? Is it like being possessed by a ghost?”
“He disappears.”
“Disappears?”
“I asked once before, and Dan Ha-ru said that once his body is stolen, all traces of the person Dan Ha-ru was will vanish completely, and that bastard Dol will use the body with a ‘new’ setting instead. We won’t even remember that a person named Dan Ha-ru ever existed.”
Ha-jin’s eyes darkened with a sharp shadow as he recalled this sad ending route of the fantasy genre that he’d heard from The Entity before.
“Anyway, that’s why I’m thinking of taking out insurance—to make Dan Ha-ru want to live as ‘Kairos Dan Ha-ru’ next year too.”
“That’s a vacation?”
“If we win the Rookie Award, I’m going to suggest we all go on a trip together. …to Ha-ru’s grandmother’s place.”
“Ha-ru’s grandmother…. You mean the Orphanage Director?”
“Yes. Wouldn’t that be something Dan Ha-ru would look forward to?”
Behind Ha-jin’s shrugging smile lay a shadow that defied explanation.
In that moment, Su-ho instinctively sensed that something more was hidden behind the vacation Ha-jin had proposed, but he closed his mouth without pressing further.
Su-ho knew well that there was a reason for what Ha-jin chose not to say.
So Su-ho simply nodded.
“…Yeah. I’ll carve out about three days when there’s no schedule. Anything more is tough with Tae-hyun’s MC schedule and all.”
“Three days is enough. Honestly, even one day would be fine, but I asked for more just in case.”
“Got it.”
“Thank you, always.”
Ha-jin laughed sincerely and opened the cap of the second orange juice Su-ho had given him. The sloshing orange juice was already half gone in the blink of an eye.
Ha-jin straightened his body from where it had been sunk deep into the sofa and put on his usual playful smile.
“Alright, that’s settled. Should we talk about work? How’s our year-end shaping up?”
“Well, looks like we’ll hit all three major broadcast networks, and we’re getting contacts for award shows here and there…. Probably this time we’ll need to go wherever we can, even if it’s tough. When you’re a rookie, the most important thing is making an impression everywhere.”
“Our Do-ha’s gonna be incredibly busy. He’s working on arrangements with the A&R Team right now, isn’t he?”
“Do-ha’s participating in a few, and we’re outsourcing a few others. Tae-il wanted to work together on this, but Yupia’s also going to be busy with year-end activities.”
“What about the Endway seniors?”
“Endway’s been focused mostly on overseas activities this year. Looks like they’ll be doing additional tours in Japan and the US on top of domestic stuff. …They’ve got some personal circumstances too.”
Su-ho gave a look that said not to ask further, and Ha-jin nodded, tapping his fingers lightly.
Su-ho checked the calendar once more, then opened his mouth as if remembering something.
“Oh, come to think of it. QBS is planning some kind of senior idol cover stage for year-end, and they asked us to prepare something too. Do you have any songs in mind?”
“What’s the criteria for senior idols?”
“Here’s what they gave as options.”
Su-ho showed Ha-jin a list of senior idol songs sent from the broadcasting station using his calendar. Scanning the tracks with his eyes, Ha-jin answered without much thought.
“Yupia’s songs are on here too? Then shouldn’t we cover Yupia’s songs? …I feel like they’ll call if we don’t do it. Those hyungs.”
“Since you’re under the same agency anyway, it does look better if you guys cover them. Alright then. I’ll let the broadcasting station know.”
“If it’s a Yupia cover stage… De-on will be happy about that. Our song drops tomorrow at 6 PM, right? With the MV.”
“Yeah.”
“The music charts have been pretty empty lately. I’d be satisfied if we could just crack the Top 100 once.”
Ha-jin smacked his lips softly.
Currently, the power of male idol songs on domestic music charts was, without exaggeration, virtually nonexistent.
Kairos’s debut track, “Over the Night,” had album sales that weren’t just good—they were what people called a “massive hit”—but the truth was it hadn’t charted that high on the streaming side.
That was the case even though it was a refreshing pop genre with decent public appeal, written and composed by Seo Tae-il himself.
“Male idol songs generally don’t get listened to much by anyone except fans unless they’re really good.”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but I genuinely think streaming culture is… bizarre. Because the success of my music has to be built entirely on grinding away my fans’ labor. A song heard a million times by one person and a song heard once by a million people are actually different things, right?”
“Album sales would be different too, wouldn’t they? These days it’s a world where one person buys a hundred copies ten thousand times to fill a million sales.”
Ha-jin exhaled deeply and scratched his forehead with his long fingers.
“Honestly, I’d like to tell Destiny they don’t need to do that, but I also know this industry gets ranked dozens of times a day by those kinds of numbers, so it’s not easy to say.”
At Ha-jin’s sigh-like worry, Su-ho checked the time and chuckled softly. It was a smile of admiration.
“What can you do? The idol market isn’t going to flip overnight. We just need to repay them by making albums that fans won’t regret buying a hundred copies of, and songs they won’t get tired of hearing a hundred times.”
“…Can I use that line in an interview later?”
“Was it a pretty cool thing to say?”
“Yeah. It was awesome.”
“Since Seo Tae-il said it, ask him about the copyright.”
At his laughing words, Ha-jin nodded with an expression that said “of course.” In his muttering voice about what an amazing person he was, there was a hint of admiration and respect mixed in.
Feeling like they should get back to work soon, Su-ho stood up from his seat and asked Ha-jin.
“How’s this song? Confident about it? It’s your and Do-ha’s work, after all.”
Su-ho asked about the comeback track being released tomorrow evening at 6 PM, and Ha-jin, who was grabbing his cube, paused for a moment.
Soon after, Ha-jin stood up from his seat following Su-ho, and his lips curved into a smooth arc.
“If this song flops, I’m quitting the idol business.”
“…Anyway, really.”
At Ha-jin’s brazen yet well-founded confidence, Su-ho ultimately burst out laughing as if he couldn’t stop him.

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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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