Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 279

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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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279. What Matters Most (1)
Mingming
@mingming_01
@Daily_KIRUS
Reply to
Happy birthday, Kang Ri-da!♥
Which member wished you happy birthday first?
∥
Kairos
@Daily_KIRUS
@mingming_01
Reply to
The maknae line
They won’t leave even now, saying they’re checking out the fanbase. It’s driving me crazy
(A photo of Eun-chan and Ha-ru lying down with their heads and legs resting on Ha-jin’s back)
“Ugh, you’re heavy. Get up, you brats.”
“But hyung, this is our room. You’re the one lying on our bed.”
“Your back is the most comfortable to rest on, hyung. The height is perfect.”
These kids who were cautious and guarded when I first met them had grown more comfortable—so much so that their backtalk had become genuinely impressive. Even as I deliberately shifted my body to signal them to get off, Ju Eun-chan and Dan Ha-ru, already settled into their positions, simply giggled with amusement.
Eventually giving up on separating the two of them, I turned my attention back to my phone, and that’s when Lee Yu-gun entered the room, toweling his hair dry after a shower.
“What’s up? Why are you here, hyung?”
“The Wi-Fi in our room isn’t working.”
“You could just use it in the living room.”
“The wind comes in from the balcony. It’s cold.”
“So that’s why you’re sprawled out like that on someone else’s bed in someone else’s room?”
“Birthday privilege.”
“When is this birthday ever going to end….”
Despite his grumbling, Lee Yu-gun didn’t tell me to leave. Instead, he settled into the bean bag chair in the corner of the room.
Now that I thought about it, his softened demeanor seemed to have started right after he heard the news about the settlement payment coming through.
‘Is financial therapy really the cure-all for modern people…?’
So was all that sensitivity and irritability before stemming from unstable employment, irregular income, and the stress of job preparation? The logic seemed sound enough, and I nodded to myself in agreement.
And if right now represented the peak of Lee Yu-gun’s mental health—his sharpness worn down to its minimum—then before that financial buff wore off, there was something I absolutely had to tell him.
“Hey, Gun-i-chan.”
“…? What kind of nickname is that?”
“You guys… how much of that Upia choreography did you learn?”
I’m sorry, you guys. No matter how much you learned, you’re going to have to abandon that choreography.
My lips wouldn’t cooperate, so I just tapped the phone screen instead, and Lee Yu-gun stared at me with a puzzled expression, tilting his head.
“We stopped learning it since you said we wouldn’t be doing it. Are we doing it again?”
“…? How did you know we can’t do that song? We didn’t tell you.”
“The choreography instructor told me.”
In an attempt to prevent information about the birthday cafe from leaking, they’d blocked communication networks across the entire country, yet information was seeping out from within the same company like a sieve.
All those days I’d spent wrestling with how to broach the subject, carrying the weight of it all—they crumbled to dust before my eyes. Only Dan Ha-ru, who’d been sprawled across my back watching AiTube, seemed even remotely surprised.
“You guys aren’t performing that Upia song?”
“Yeah, apparently we can’t. Something about not being allowed to perform songs from the same agency? I don’t really get it either.”
“Ah… that’s too bad. I really liked that song. So what are we performing instead?”
“No clue. Ask him. I figured you guys were deciding among yourselves.”
The exchange between Dan Ha-ru and Lee Yu-gun was so dry—even drier than picking a late-night menu—that my mind began to fog over. Faced with yet another unexpected reaction, I quickly pushed myself up and cut their conversation short.
“Hey, hey, hey. Stop, stop. Both of you, zip it.”
“…?”
“I could understand Lee Do-ha’s reaction, fine. But you two—why aren’t you shocked? Why aren’t you angry? Why aren’t you furious? Am I the only one in this house feeling wronged and indignant about this situation? Is it just me? We’re being treated like shrimp, and even if whales and pterosaurs swept through the ocean, it wouldn’t be enough—yet we’ve become shrimp, and why, why is everyone acting like it’s fine? Why does everyone seem so unbothered?”
My voice rose with the injustice of it all, but the members of Gunjodan—the actual residents of this place—just stared at me with vacant eyes.
Baffled by their response, I grabbed Dan Ha-ru’s shoulder beside me. Had this guy become a new person thanks to employment stability and financial security? Back during the Miro Maze days, he drove me crazy in every conceivable way, so why had his mental fortitude suddenly turned into an alloy?
“No, Ha-ru, listen to me. Lanion is performing the Upia song. Lanion! They’re not performing their seniors’ songs—they’re covering Upia’s tracks instead. All the other decent songs have already been claimed by other groups. We barely have any songs left to choose from.”
Then Dan Ha-ru, as if finally grasping the situation, rolled his eyes thoughtfully and shrugged his shoulder free from my grip.
“Then should we ask Destiny what kind of performance they’d like to see?”
“What?”
“A cover stage is ultimately for the fans’ enjoyment, right? Since we can’t do our first choice anyway, it’d be better to give them what they actually want to see. You’re doing a mention party right now, so we could just ask them casually! Right?”
“No, that’s not what I meant… Doesn’t it bother you that Lanion took our song?”
“Not really? Before, Tae-hyun had done something to Min-seok, so I wasn’t fond of Min-seok. But lately, Tae-hyun doesn’t seem to care much either….”
Dan Ha-ru, who’d been scratching his chin in thought, broke into a bright smile.
“I just think it’s more important to do fun things with you guys.”
If Seo Tae-hyun had heard that, he would’ve wept tears of pride.
And honestly, I felt like I might cry too.
‘How is this guy’s mental resilience this solid? Why wasn’t he like this before?’
If he’d been this way before I went to the military twice, things would’ve been different….
My sense of injustice only doubled, leaving me unable to say anything and just breathing heavily, when someone knocked on the door from outside and opened it without waiting.
“…?”
“I was reading in the living room, and I could hear your conversation.”
Standing in the doorway was Jeong Si-u in pajamas, holding a warm mug of ginger tea in one hand as always. Behind him, I could see Seo Tae-hyun and Lee Do-ha, apparently dragged out of bed.
Jeong Si-u pushed his silver-framed glasses up slightly and spoke.
“Sounds like you’re discussing the year-end performance.”
“….”
“It seems like something we should all discuss anyway. If no one’s too sleepy, should we gather in the living room for a bit?”
At Jeong Si-u’s gentle smile, I exhaled a deep sigh and nodded.
The sharp pain in my shin had long since vanished, and it was time to return to the world of headaches.
* * *
I explained the whole situation to the members gathered in the living room, but their reactions were similar.
‘Really? That’s unfortunate. But there’s nothing we can do about it.’
The end.
Even Seo Tae-hyun seemed unbothered, which made me wonder if I was the only one being petty.
“I’m seriously going crazy. How is everyone so calm about this? Why aren’t you all upset? Am I the only one?”
“Ha-jin, what exactly is bothering you? Is it just that we lost the song we originally planned to perform? It wasn’t even confirmed anyway. It was just our first choice. We haven’t even started preparing the stage yet.”
At my words, Si-woo tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand my perspective.
Since he had a point and I was left speechless, Tae-hyun—who had been applying skincare products and massaging his face beside me—chimed in as well.
“Hyung, honestly, something’s been off lately. Even when ‘Scream at You’ was taken from us in Miro Maze, I don’t think you were this stressed.”
Then he placed the skincare container down on the living room table with a decisive sound and looked at me.
“Hyung, are you perhaps wary of Lanion?”
“Are you insane?”
Me?
Wary of Lanion?
Why would I be?
Those Greek gods who are nothing special?
…I wanted to retort, but unfortunately, the moment I heard Tae-hyun’s words, I felt the corners of my mouth stiffen involuntarily.
“….”
“…?”
“…Hyung, is it true?”
“Based on your reaction, it seems to be.”
“You’re being wary? Of Lanion? You, the independent type?”
Then, amid the members’ shock at my reaction, Ha-ru grabbed my arm with a genuinely surprised expression and asked.
“Hyung. Are you seriously scared we might lose to Lanion!?”
“Hey, scared? Who’s—!?”
Am I not? Ugh, did I get scared? Was I scared?
My mouth went dry as I confronted the inner world of myself that I hadn’t even known existed.
They say vehement denial is affirmation. Apparently gaining certainty from my reaction, I watched the members surrounding me turn pale with shock and dread.
“No, listen to me. I’m not scared… Wait, am I scared? Me? This me? Ugh, seriously. Eun-chan, don’t get all serious like that. Huh? I told you that serious face is scary, didn’t I? De-on, don’t cover your mouth like that, you bastards! Ah, just listen to me!”
Faced with the members’ ominous reaction, I tried to play it cool and deny everything, but the already tense atmosphere showed no signs of easing.
‘No, I didn’t do anything wrong, so why am I getting scolded!?’
Is this really the time for me to be in trouble?
Bewildered, I tried to pry Ha-ru’s arm off me (and failed), then pressed myself against the sofa behind me and started spouting whatever came out of my mouth.
“It’s not that they’re a threat! Well, actually, they are the second hottest group after us these days! But that doesn’t mean I’m scared of them! Obviously we’re better!? But…!? They, everyone doesn’t know this, but they originally, uh!?”
“Originally, what.”
“….”
I almost said, ‘Originally, they swept up all the rookie awards, took first place like it was nothing, and became the massive catfish in the male idol industry that even ate into Endway’s rival position.’….
Hastily closing my mouth, the first to interrogate me was Tae-hyun, who was holding the gua sha massager upside down.
“Hyung, do you seriously think Cha Min-seok is better than me? Is that why you keep worrying? Are they better than us!?”
When did I ever compare that shiny-faced guy to you? From a producer’s perspective, objectively speaking, you two aren’t even in the same comparison category—you’re completely opposite types that create synergy when put together.
Of course, in this lifetime, there’s probably no chance I’ll ever see you two go head-to-head.
…I was about to say that, but this time Do-ha leaned forward, supporting himself on the table with those large hands.
“In what way? Lanion and us are on completely different paths anyway. Both teams don’t have many results yet, but I think we’re overwhelmingly ahead at the moment. Ha-jin, I can’t figure out what you think Lanion’s strength is.”
…So it’s not like there’s anything particularly special about them—it’s just that history (?) made it that way?
In the previous timeline, Lanion had been a massive phenomenon.
Even though the member count was halved in this timeline and their debut schedule and trajectory differed significantly, the fact that they’d already caught up to Kairos in terms of performance and recognition with just a single debut track demonstrated the true extent of their capabilities.
But I couldn’t bring myself to say it outright, so I was awkwardly flailing my hands about when Jeong Si-u, who had been leisurely sipping his tea through all this chaos, quietly set down his mug.
“So here’s the thing.”
His voice—calm to the point of being cynical—subdued the confusion filling the living room.
Even Ju Eun-chan, who had been sending me a look that said ‘How could you not trust us?’, flinched at Jeong Si-u’s tone and turned to face him.
“…You’re showing restraint toward Lanion that you didn’t even show when we had that head-to-head main vocal battle right in front of everyone at Miro Maze.”
“No, sir. How could I ever be so rude and presumptuous as to show restraint toward you….”
“And you’re keeping us as members of the same group while doing it?”
And what was I like, facing that gaze and that voice head-on?
“This is actually hurting my pride a bit.”
“….”
I’d rather he just killed me.
The dread before me was worse than the fear I’d felt facing my third—no, fourth—military enlistment.

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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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