Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 271

—————

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

—————

271. The Snowball of Fortune (4)
The challenge video was uploaded at 2 AM the day after the college entrance exam ended.

The camera captured only the streetlights illuminating the pitch-black night road, nothing else.
Without any added audio, the sound of wind and fingers tapping on a phone came through clearly. Then, moments later, a song played—as if someone had started it on their own device.
It was a familiar chorus, yet it felt strange because the tempo was subtly faster than the original. Whether the speed had been increased, the vocals and the entire song carried a faint pitch shift that made everything sound slightly more adorable.
My Day is Everyday Christmas
I want to live with hope every day
As the song began, Yoo Gun and Tae-hyun—still wearing their exam-day clothes with their bags slung over their shoulders—bounded into frame from both sides with audible footsteps. They then executed the challenge choreography with light, rhythmic movements.
Since they hadn’t practiced long, Tae-hyun and Yoo Gun kept glancing at each other, mimicking each other’s steps, and eventually made small mistakes—all while the person holding the camera could be heard softly laughing. Every moment was captured in the video.
My Day is Everyday Holiday
I just want to remember every day
-Seo Tae-hyun messed up again!
-No! That’s not it! This one’s right!
As they moved into the second chorus and the difficulty of the steps increased slightly, Yoo Gun and Tae-hyun continued the challenge while pointing out each other’s mistakes.
Someone was born today too
So I’ll celebrate instead—Blessing
Ah, ah—,
This really isn’t a carol
-Okay! Done!
-That’s it? That’s it? Want to do it one more time?
-Nah, I just nailed that step perfectly. Just upload it.
As the song ended, so did the choreography, but the video continued a bit longer.
After finishing the challenge, Yoo Gun and Tae-hyun asked the member holding the camera for feedback and chattered among themselves—all captured on film. The two naturally approached the camera, smiling comfortably, while the cameraman fumbled with the phone to stop recording. The video ended with that sound.
There was nothing particularly special about this challenge video.
It had the quality of friends filming a trending challenge short after school—nothing more, nothing less.
Yet that very naturalness and roughness was enough to stir a certain nostalgia in people, like old film photographs developed and forgotten from childhood.
Tae-gun too
@cherrygun2
Oh please…
Those streetlights in the alley where our group’s Mi-ja used to walk to school every day…
That’s the exact same one…
Oh please…stop making me cry, you boys…
(Screenshot from 【NotACarol】 Shorts)
(Screenshot from Kairos’ school commute vlog with Yoo Gun and Tae-hyun)
[What happens when even Kairos’ maknae graduates]
Are they really trying to show us the end of this school uniform youth story?
– It’s fine, our Si-woo hasn’t graduated yet
└ ? That’s a university though
└ Does that matter? Read the room
[Isn’t it crazy that they filmed the kids’ challenge?]
That’s gotta be Rida, right? Hahaha Her laugh is so Rida-like hahaha
There’s no way that’s not Kang Ha-di at our home.
Looks right! A selfie the three of them took is up too lol
JS seems to stick around pretty well, and it looks like AJ hangs out with high school seniors more often than with peers her own age. Are the two of them a bit awkward together?
└ This troll bastard never dies and shows up again
└ Rather than say the second and Kang Ha-di are awkward, just make up some bullshit that One Day is doing a silent retreat
└ JSZ but what’s One Day?
└ The maknae’s roommate, it’s just such nonsensical talk so shut up
└ ㅇㅎ ㄱㅅ
Satisfied with the response, Ha-jin didn’t stop and executed the next phase.
After all, this industry is a place where you have to not just row when the tide comes in—you have to spin windmills to survive.
Ha-jin had no intention of leaving this challenge as merely some “cute and precious Shorts that only we know about.”

The group members, of course,

It went without saying that he mobilized senior artists directly under his agency, but he also called in every connection he knew.
Among them were faces that Desty would be delighted to see.
– Are you crazy is this Won-ho???????????????our number one??????????????
– Wow, Parang and Jaeyoung are in the kids challenge!!!!!!! Tumi’s youngest members are united ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅜㅜㅜㅠㅜㅜㅠㅜ
– Look at Si-woo and Seok-i radiating senior vibes in the challenge please… These are Two Mi’s hyungs…
– Please upload J-Dun too ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Big J, I will keep in contact with Hajini ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅜㅜㅜ
Since Miro Maze, the recent updates of the eliminated trainees whose future paths had remained unknown were revealed en masse. Desty fell into nostalgia once more seeing the trainees they hadn’t seen in so long.
Only about a season had passed since the finals ended, but so much had happened in between that it felt unusually more heartwarming.
Now they were all walking different paths, yet the fact that they were once colleagues dreaming the same dream in the same place seemed to overlap mysteriously with the image of nineteen-year-old boys standing at the crossroads of adulthood.
The “This Isn’t a Carol” challenge spread sequentially in this manner.
As it gradually caught on, other idol groups who hadn’t been asked to participate were also uploading covers at their fans’ requests, but Ha-jin still felt something was missing.
‘It can’t just end on Stone Board—I need to elevate it to the mainstream entirely.’
No matter how massive a hit becomes within the idol market, it remains confined to that market.
I couldn’t let the public appeal I’d captured through the success of “Touch High!” and “This Isn’t a Carol” slip away like this.
For this challenge to ignite the hearts of test-takers and graduates across the nation rather than remain an internal Stone Board phenomenon, the trend needed to actually break through among them.
And Ha-jin intended to be the one to break that dam himself.
-…Hello? Ha-jin hyung?
“It’s me, Lee Hyun-il. I need to ask you for one favor.”
Ha-jin called Lee Hyun-il directly—the one who had revealed the truth when his KD Entertainment character controversy had erupted. Hyun-il seemed flustered that Ha-jin would contact him, but he listened attentively to what Ha-jin had to say.
“You use TacTok, right? You had quite a few followers.”
-Ah… yeah. I’ve got a decent amount.
“Just cover one of our songs, you and your friends. Consider it repaying the debt you owe me.”
-…Okay. Send me the video and I’ll upload it.
“…Yeah. Thanks.”
With the help of Lee Hyun-il, who was building recognition as a “wholesome high school creator from an idol trainee background,” the “This Isn’t a Carol” challenge spread faster and faster across the shorts platform.
As the challenge videos circulated through many hands, they gradually transformed.
Videos appeared of test-takers dumping their textbooks and problem sets into trash bins in sync with the “This Isn’t a Carol” song,
and online reactions multiplied with people joking about filming it with friends at graduation ceremonies.
Once teenagers—more sensitive to trends than anyone—reacted, the masses moved quickly.
12th Place (
▲
) This Isn’t a Carol
K:RUS
‘We’re almost there….’
Breaking into the top 10 of the TOP100 chart was within reach.
Since this wasn’t something achievable through fandom streaming campaigns alone, it now came down to how well the song resonated with listeners.
And Ha-jin had one final weapon left to appeal to the public, who would judge the song based solely on the music with no information about Kairos.
“Ha-ru.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you know what it takes to become famous?”
“Hmm…. Appearing on TV?”
Ha-ru, sitting at the living room table filing away letters fans had exchanged one by one, answered casually. Ha-jin, lying stretched out on the sofa behind Ha-ru, fiddled with a cube he’d been playing with lately, responding with a small “Hmm.”
After a moment, Ha-jin extended his arm, placed the completed cube on the table, then sat up and reached for the TV remote beside him.
“Correct. But why does appearing on TV make you famous?”
“Well…. Because lots of people watch it?”
“Here’s how I see it.”
Ha-jin checked the time, turned on the TV, and flipped through the channels.
A familiar broadcast title he’d grown tired of watching played on screen.
“Because you’re already famous.”
“Huh?”
“People become famous because they’re said to be famous. We don’t even know who that person on TV is, but we just assume they must be doing well and are famous and impressive these days because they’re on TV.”
“Oh… that’s profound.”
“There’s nothing profound about it.”
Ha-jin set down the remote with a tap, crossed his long legs, and laughed.
“That’s exactly what’s going to happen to us today.”
Today was the day that Touch High’s 2nd week episode aired, the day Kairos not only beat the drums and played the janggu, but even pulled out flags and made a fanfare!
* * *
Week two of the Touch High! Idol Three-Way Battle naturally began with a summary of the previous episode.
In the highlight segment that conveyed the previous week’s content briefly and simply to viewers, Kairos’s three members naturally dominated the screen time.
【Kairos Ha-jin: Father-in-law!!!】
【Il-gwang: Who’s your father-in-law!???】
【Kairos Ha-ru: I’m still only seventeen, senior!】
【Kairos Ha-ru: I’d be fine with calling Desty noona!】
【A bold confession from a younger man who hasn’t even gotten his ID card yet】
【Sanchez: We should listen to Kairos’s new song too.】
【Kairos Do-ha: Ah, we won’t be doing that.】
【Kairos Do-ha: We can’t show our new song to the outside world before we’ve even shown it to Desty…】
【An idol blinded by love for their fans, throwing away promotion】
The members’ activities, which had secured screen time through all sorts of antics from the opening, naturally didn’t end there.
Not only Ha-jin’s moment of developing a cursed hand,
but also Ha-ru’s subtle moments—moving the goal post around on his own during recording even though he wasn’t highlighted as a main focus, and repeatedly lifting the supplies table with ease—
and Do-ha’s appearance, where he casually threw a ball into the air and then declared himself a destroyer, were all emphasized.
Based on the first week’s response and this week’s “This Isn’t a Carol” ratings, it seemed they had re-edited quite a lot of content to focus on Kairos.
– It’s funny to see it on Director Ha’s hat again.
I have no idea how crazy the kids have been acting.
The ones who look the most normal are the ones… ugh… *sigh*
The funniest part is that Lee Do-ha turned himself in as the Destroyer lol

Week two of Touch High!, where not just Desty but general viewers were watching with anticipation.
People couldn’t help but anticipate what kind of entertaining scenario the Kairos members would create next.
And in week two’s broadcast starting from the second theme, the Kairos members’ first appearance was this:
【Kairos Ha-jin: How about we try some gambling.】
【Il-gwang: Gambling?】
Ha-jin, standing with a solemn posture and arms crossed, raised his eyebrows as if he were a special agent explaining a final operation in a spy thriller.
【Kairos Ha-jin: Let’s abandon Lee Do-ha.】
Five minutes into the broadcast, the Kairos leader was proposing to exclude one of his own members.

—————

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

—————