Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 288

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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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288. Miro Is Miro (4)
“Everyone, thank you for your hard work this year. Shall we all shout together?”
“Everyone! It’s going to be great! Woohoo~”
With the cast’s closing remarks, the confetti cannons QBS had prepared with such ambition erupted, and the music festival finally came to an end.
But for the seven of us, that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“Wow, what a shame. That really felt like a proper karaoke room vibe.”
“Isn’t the scale a bit too large for a karaoke room?”
“A mega-sized karaoke room.”
“Wait, I’ve never actually been to that karaoke room. I want to go.”
“No, seriously, should we hit up a jjimjilbang early tomorrow morning? For real? They have saunas there, and karaoke too. What do you think, hyung?”
“I think getting burned by Tae-hyun’s glare would happen faster than getting burned on the jjimjilbang floor…”
“If you know, then everyone should stay quiet… How many ears are listening here right now, and these people…”
“Tae-hyun hyung, are we embarrassing you?”
“Sometimes…?”
Just like I’d sung with such infectious enthusiasm, the other members were also quite elated that we’d successfully finished our stage performance.
As I lifted the mood, the members joined in one or two at a time, singing nostalgic songs alongside me. Thanks to that, we’d reached a level of high tension that no one could stop.
Jeong Si-u and Dan Ha-ru, who’d been belting out high notes so much earlier that their voices were finally warmed up, even sang all the high-pitched choruses with me in pure chest voice, pushing the notes up effortlessly.
“Everyone, watch your footing and be careful not to get pushed.”
Knowing well that the more excited the state, the higher the accident risk, I walked behind the members, keeping watch to make sure no one got hurt, even while joking and laughing with Lee Yu-gun.
To prevent anyone from getting separated in the crowd or accidentally tripping, we waited as long as possible for all the other singers to leave the stage, then exited slowly at the very end.
“Who was holding our microphone? The Sound Director says we need to return it.”
“Oh, that’s me. I have it.”
At the mention of returning the microphone, I picked up the fake microphone I was holding and headed toward the Sound Director standing to the side of the waiting room hallway.
“Director, hello. I’m returning the microphone.”
“Ah, yes, yes. Thank you!”
Apparently a junior director who hadn’t been working long, he was so disciplined that he received the microphone with both hands, so I quickly supported my hand underneath with my other hand as well. Then, just as I was turning to head back to the waiting room, a hand holding a microphone suddenly thrust out from beside me.
“I’m returning mine too.”
“…? Why do you have one?”
“…? Because you gave it to me.”
The owner of the mysterious hand was Ju Eun-chan.
Usually each team gets one microphone, and we’d even agreed to use fake microphones—so how did our team have two?
As both the Sound Director and I instinctively sensed something was off and looked toward Ju Eun-chan, he blinked his innocent, clueless eyes.
“Earlier, the hyungs lost theirs and were about to go on stage, so some director gave it to me and I’ve been holding it.”
“And you just took it when they offered?”
“How could I not take something someone was giving me?”
“So you’ve been holding the microphone this whole time?”
“Yes. But it’s fake anyway, right?”
“Uh…?”
At Ju Eun-chan’s words, I nodded thinking, well, that’s true, but from the Sound Director in front of us, who’d been eavesdropping on our conversation while checking the microphone’s number, came a sound that felt decidedly ominous.
That “uh?” with what seemed like two ellipses attached to it was generally a bad sign.
“Director…?”
“…Yes? What?”
“Could there have been an issue with our microphones?”
The Sound Director immediately shook his head with an expression that screamed guilt.
“Oh, no. No, it’s fine. Thank you for your hard work….”
He hurriedly turned away and began reassembling the microphones he’d already disassembled, then taking them apart again—the whole process looked incredibly anxious, but it seemed like the problem wasn’t on our end.
‘Poor youngest member’s getting chewed out again today.’
Silently sympathizing, I looped my arm around Ju Eun-chan’s shoulder and headed back to our waiting room. Ju Eun-chan, who’d been wearing an uneasy expression, quickly fell into step beside me without much thought.
“Oh, hyung. I got permission from that hyung.”
“Permission for what, all of a sudden?”
“Our trip. He said we could use his secondary residence. He’s setting up food and everything we need, so we can just relax and enjoy ourselves.”
“Ah, got it.”
The hallway was packed with people and chaos, so I deliberately walked slowly, and Ju Eun-chan suddenly brought up a new topic.
He was talking about accommodations for our New Year’s trip, which we’d be taking after our year-end stage performance. Since I couldn’t exactly say from the start that we were going to meet Dan Ha-ru’s grandmother, I’d roughly chosen a destination nearby and started looking for lodging. It turned out Joo Eun-seok happened to own a secondary residence in that area, so Ju Eun-chan had volunteered to look into it.
‘That hyung has double offices, double homes… Is this what daily life looks like for rich kids?’
Then again, watching those chaebol melodramas, they have double wives and double illegitimate children too….
I found myself thinking of Joo Eun-seok, whose name I was hearing after a long time.
The Joo Eun-seok I’d seen through Ju Eun-chan’s past timeline was a big idiot of an older brother who’d even gotten divorced to take care of Ju Eun-chan when various circumstances had forced him to stay home.
Suddenly curious about what kind of time the Joo brothers had been through, I casually threw out a question.
“Hey, but your hyung really takes good care of you. Is it because of the age gap?”
“He’s been like that since I was little. There’s the age difference, and when I was young, our father barely paid attention to me.”
“Why?”
“He was busy remarrying my stepmother.”
“….”
Ah, so his mother was the double one…?
Unable to find words for this unexpected family situation, I pressed my lips together, and Ju Eun-chan tilted his head with a question mark plastered across his face.
“What’s wrong?”
“As the leader and hyung of a group, I’m currently selecting the most appropriate reaction to take upon hearing a member’s hidden family circumstances….”
“…? It’s not really hidden. Articles came out when he remarried.”
“They never taught me in school how to react as a hyung to a same-group member who’s lived a life where family matters are exposed in articles. This is quite the predicament….”
“Stop joking around. I don’t fall for that anymore.”
“Tch, whatever.”
“Ugh, seriously.”
Since Ju Eun-chan didn’t look particularly serious, I deliberately responded playfully, and he punched my side with an exasperated expression. Or rather, he tried to.
‘But I saw it coming.’
With a light movement, I easily dodged the surprisingly powerful punch, and I could see Ju Eun-chan’s eyes sparkling like a cat playing whack-a-mole as he clenched his fist again.
Thinking that this kid would eventually land a hit on his hyungs with that competitive spirit, I urgently grabbed Ju Eun-chan’s wrist and changed the subject.
“But anyway. What about your biological mother? Did they get divorced?”
“No. She passed away not long after giving birth to me. I don’t remember her well. I heard the hospital said it was dangerous even when she was pregnant because she was of advanced maternal age. …But I’m grateful she decided to give birth to me anyway.”
Ju Eun-chan spoke about his mother in a matter-of-fact, dry tone—much like the day he’d revealed his backstory as a rich kid.
From that story alone, I couldn’t piece together the entirety of his life, but at least I could roughly grasp why Ju Eun-chan’s father treated him with such indifference, and why Joo Eun-seok had taken it upon himself to play the role of guardian, shielding his younger brother.
‘A pathetic father who hates the child born instead of his wife….’
In typical romance novels, all misfortune usually stems from fathers like that.
Countless useless fathers I’d read about flashed through my mind. Ju Eun-chan shrugged and continued.
“Anyway, I’ve always been grateful to my brother. Thanks to him, I grew up without lacking anything from childhood, and when I dreamed of becoming an idol, I was able to start because of him.”
“Yeah, your brother really seems to care about you a lot.”
“Both my brother and I resemble our mother more than our father. Maybe that’s why he does it even more….”
Ju Eun-chan, lost in thought, added something as if it had surfaced unconsciously.
“Still, getting a divorce just to look after me is really stupid. My sister-in-law is such a good person…. Of course, I’ve lived a fortunate life because my brother exists, but sometimes I feel like he bulldozes the hills I should climb on my own.”
“Well, I haven’t seen him often, but if you said you wanted to learn surfing, he definitely seems like the type who’d build an artificial wave pool for you….”
Wait, what did he just say?
“…Hey, what did you just say?”
“Huh?”
“Your brother got divorced?”
“…What? That’s a terrible thing to say to newlyweds, hyung.”
“No, you just said it. That getting a divorce to look after you is stupid.”
“Me?”
Joo Eun-seok had actually gone through with a divorce to protect Ju Eun-chan.
But that happened in a timeline that had already passed.
A timeline that Ju Eun-chan could never know about—one that had already vanished.
Yet Ju Eun-chan himself just scratched his chin with a bewildered expression.
“Huh…. Why did I say something like that?”
“Just something you said?”
“I’m not sure. Why did I think that had happened…?”
Ju Eun-chan furrowed his brow and tilted his head. Then he looked up at me with a small gasp.
“Was it from a dream? I’ve been having strange dreams lately. Dreams where we haven’t debuted, where I’m just crying in my room, things like that.”
“…Keep talking.”
“Well, that’s all there is. But the dream felt so vivid that I think my memories got mixed up with it.”
“In the dream, you only cry? There’s nothing else?”
“It’s just a dream, after all. I forget everything when I wake up. Anyway, it’s not important. My brother and sister-in-law are doing well.”
Whether your brother and sister-in-law are living happily as newlyweds right now doesn’t matter, apparently.
My lips stiffened at the ominous clue, but if I showed my concern here, Ju Eun-chan would think something was wrong. I managed my expression carefully and called the System in my mind.
[System undergoing inspection….]
[Usage may be restricted until inspection is complete.]
‘This useless time management system…!’
These bastards usually pile on pointless additions and penalties, but when I actually need them, they disappear—why?
But even if the System were available, it was clear I’d have a hard time extracting useful information from this mechanical AI.
‘This is why I needed to secure Thirteen faster….’
Once I got back to the dormitory, I’d call that Headquarters bastard and grab him by the collar.
With that thought, I entered the waiting room with Ju Eun-chan.
And what greeted me was….
“Kang Ha-jin, you, you…! Get over here―!!”
“Aah, Executive Director! We’re still at the broadcast station!?”
It was Ji Su-ho, absolutely furious…?
“Why, why? I didn’t do anything wrong? What did I do! Why!?”
I instinctively raised my guard and, eyes darting nervously, scanned the waiting room to assess the situation. On one side, Seo Tae-hyun was pressing his forehead in exasperation, while Jeong Si-u was giggling as if thoroughly amused.
The fact that those two were reacting like that meant something was definitely off….
Then Kwon Wook released Ji Su-ho’s arm, and he pointed at me accusingly, shouting as if he’d lose his mind.
“I told you to lip-sync! I told you to just fool around a little!?”
“No, how could the Executive Director say something so insulting to a singer….”
“All your mics were on, so your ridiculous singing was the loudest thing in the ending song today―!!! What are we supposed to do about your image, you bastard!?”
“…eh↗? What was heard?”
“Your singing, you idiot!”
“…Holy shit.”
…That earlier “eh?” really was suspicious after all, dammit!

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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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