Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 303

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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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303. Phantom Pain (2)
The single word “Gangwon Province” conjured memories of the Cherry Pursuit incident Ha-jin had endured before, and he reflexively lurched upright with a shout.
“He bolted again!?”
As if anticipating Ha-jin’s reaction, Do-ha steadied him with a composed voice.
“Calm down. He didn’t run this time—I had him hidden away deliberately.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. I called Tae-hyun right after checking the news. He said he’s not taking much of a hit. The Company’s already handling damage control.”
“…Really?”
“The Executive Director gave the order once he heard things were chaotic on our end.”
“Then what….”
Hearing that the situation was less severe than he’d feared, Ha-jin’s fury—which moments ago had him ready to bolt for Gangwon Province—rapidly deflated. He felt his own anger gauge dropping in real time as he collapsed back onto the sofa.
‘With all that chaos, I couldn’t bring him here, and I can’t leave him alone at the Dormitory either, so hiding him at the Gangwon Province house was the closest option.’
If Ji Su-ho had made the call, it would have been the best choice.
Having accepted the situation, Ha-jin regained his composure. The mere fact that a second Gangwon Province pursuit wouldn’t unfold was enough to keep him level-headed. No matter how much he cared for Tae-hyun, a six-hour drive from one end of the peninsula to the other was another matter entirely.
Ha-jin tapped his knees lightly with both hands as he spoke.
“Then tell Seo Tae-hyun to stay hidden a while longer, and we’ll head back to Seoul once Kwon Wook gets here. Our vacation’s over anyway.”
“…Head back? Like this?”
“What are we supposed to do at a Pension with no owner? We’ve got comeback preparations to handle, and we’re swamped. Besides, we’ve already accomplished what we came here for.”
Knowing that ‘purpose’ referred to himself, Ha-ru laughed awkwardly and looked away. Finding his feigned ignorance oddly irritating, Ha-jin grabbed both of Ha-ru’s soft cheeks with one hand and raised his eyebrows.
“Let’s do better going forward, maknae.”
“Ow! Ow! (It hurts!)”
“I’m serious, hyung. You need to keep your head on straight.”
“I know! (I understand!)”
“Good, then.”
Even amid this, the spirited way Ha-ru affirmed his understanding earned Ha-jin’s approval. Satisfied, Ha-jin released his grip and stood again.
He’d need to wake Jeong Si-u soon, and he should check on Kwon Wook’s whereabouts. As Ha-jin mentally catalogued his tasks, someone grabbed his wrist.
“…?”
“…Oh, that.”
When Ha-jin turned to look, Yoo Gun was withdrawing his hand with a flustered expression—apparently he’d grabbed reflexively without thinking. Ha-jin tilted his head with a questioning look, and Yoo Gun’s eyes darted about as his lips moved soundlessly.
“So, uh… we’re just leaving? Like this? And just leaving Seo Tae-hyun as is?”
Yoo Gun was the type who always stood a step removed from events, observing from the sidelines—so his words caught Ha-jin slightly off guard, and he raised his eyebrows.
Ha-jin’s distinctly dark eyes studied Yoo Gun slowly, as if deciphering the intent behind his words. Yoo Gun, who’d spoken up, found the concentrated attention awkward and quickly fell silent—but Ha-jin had already read through even his clumsy sincerity.
“Why? You two fight and brawl all the time, but you still worry about your friend?”
At that rather admiring tone, Yoo Gun bristled in protest.
“I’m not worried. Even if he’s a bit of a coward, he’s not stupid.”
“But?”
“…It’s just unfair. Insisting something false is true.”
Memories of when he himself had suffered through baseless controversy seemed to surface, and Yoo Gun’s fierce expression twisted even more sharply. As if unwilling to dwell on it further, he clicked his tongue and turned away.
Ha-jin paused to consider his response, then scratched beneath his eye and pouted his lips.
“Well… I guess that’s fair.”
“…?”
“It’ll be fine. This one.”
There wasn’t a trace of the seriousness from before in his voice.
Ha-jin opened the laptop again toward the bewildered Yoo Gun and Ha-ru, pointing at the problematic ‘post’ in question.
“Let me ask you something. What’s your first thought when you see this?”
“Hmm…. Someone wrote a novel and fell flat on their face?”
“Fell flat…. Dan Ha-ru, where did you pick up that kind of language?”
“Come on. ‘Fell flat’ is standard Korean, isn’t it?”
Dan Ha-ru blinked his innocent eyes as if asking what the problem was, and the expressions of his three older brothers—each responsible for childcare, discipline, and entertainment within the team—became quite the sight.
Ha-jin, who had been momentarily at a loss for words, regained his composure and cleared his throat with a small cough.
“Right, well anyway…. Everyone probably felt it during the Miro Maze too, but conspiracy theories of this caliber have always existed in past survival broadcasts. I think this is just like a plague brought on by Boy Heaven 2.”
The police haven’t even started an investigation, and there’s no clear evidence that Seo Tae-hyun participated in any manipulation. It’s all suspicion based on circumstantial evidence, mixed with plenty of false information designed to stoke controversy.
Ha-jin spoke dryly, his expression annoyed as he made a cutting gesture across his neck with his hand.
“Something like this will be shut down quickly by Seo Tae-hyun’s fanbase. We don’t even need to lift a finger.”
Seo Tae-hyun. Who was he?
He was the youngest individual trainee with virtually nothing to his name who stepped onto the barren stage of Boy Heaven, overcame all sorts of criticism and hardship, advanced to the finals, then after a three-year gap, seized the unshakeable first place in Miro Maze—an icon of reversal.
What did that mean?
“Tae-hyun’s fans are people who are currently prepared to annihilate three generations of anyone who dares sprinkle ashes on Seo Tae-hyun’s path of flowers.”
People only get hooked if there’s something that seems plausible.
Soon, probably even before the company, the fanbase will upload a fact-check post correcting the record, and since they’re a fanbase that’s already been through the survival program twice, they’ll launch a very organized image rehabilitation campaign.
With this kind of controversy, some reporters might get a bit noisy rushing in first, but then the company, having completed its fact-check, can step forward. Once they post “No factual basis” and “Legal action for spreading false information and rumors” in letters large as doors, all those people currently excited about tearing it apart will disappear.
‘Actually, what I was worried about was the opposite of this….’
Ha-jin, recalling the worst-case scenario he’d been imagining, quickly shook the thought away. He didn’t want to worry about things that hadn’t even happened yet.
“So let’s leave the Seo Tae-hyun situation to the fans and focus on our own work.”
There was plenty to do besides worrying right now.
Numerous thoughts lingered and faded at the end of Ha-jin’s deliberately bright smile.
* * *
“Hyung! Kwon Wook said he’ll arrive in about two hours.”
“Got it.”
Ha-ru approached Ha-jin, who had finished washing up and packing everything to prepare for the return to Seoul, and relayed the message. Ha-jin, who answered while lightly toweling his hair dry, drew a question mark across his face at Ha-ru, who still showed no signs of leaving and continued to fidget in front of him.
“…? What. You have something to say?”
“Ah, um, well, it’s like….”
“What is it. Why. What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”
“No, no! That’s not it! It’s just, well, you know. That… voice friend.”
“Voice friend?”
“That…. The friend I made a deal with.”
Ha-jin realized that the ‘voice friend’ Ha-ru was hesitantly referring to was Dol-ja, and turned his body in that direction with an “Ah.”
Ha-ru continued haltingly with a gesture to keep going.
“Um, so what I’m feeling right now is…. It seems like ‘that’ Ha-ru and I are definitely merging more and more? There are so many memories that it’s confusing, but right now some things feel like him and some feel like me.”
“Yeah, and?”
“I clearly remember making a different choice than usual at the end of that dream. So I thought the regression had finally ended. But now I’m wondering… is it really all over?”
“….”
“It is all over, right? Does that mean the deal we made before is completely gone now?”
His face, urging for an answer, betrayed a hint of tension and anxiety.
Watching him, Ha-jin paused briefly before responding with a playful laugh.
“Why? If it’s not all over, you want to regress again and undo everything? Having second thoughts now?”
“No!? That’s not it at all…!”
“Never mind then. …Honestly, I don’t know if everything’s truly finished or not. We’ll find out as we go. But I think it’ll be fine, won’t it?”
“Ah… Yes, I understand. Thank you, hyung.”
“Go help the kids pack their things. I’ll go wake Si-woo hyung.”
“Oh, should I wake Si-woo hyung instead?”
“No, I’ll do it. Go on.”
Dan Ha-ru dashed toward Yoo Gun and Do-ha, who were organizing trash outside, his golden hair fluttering behind him. As Ha-jin watched his retreating figure with a smile, a shadow suddenly flickered across his eyes.
Ha-jin turned and climbed the stairs to the second floor where Si-woo was sleeping.
With each step he ascended, countless tangled thoughts that he had buried away came crashing through his mind.
‘All over? There’s no way.’
Ha-jin never believed that the Returner would simply retreat like this. From the members’ sudden awakenings to the conspiracy theory about Boy Heaven’s manipulation that didn’t exist in the previous timeline—
Ha-jin believed all of this was the Returner’s preparation for a counterattack.
‘But that doesn’t mean I can honestly tell Dan Ha-ru that the members will be in danger because of you.’
If the Returner had one final means to seize Dan Ha-ru’s body, what would it be?
In Ha-jin’s mind, it was ‘people.’
‘Even if he looks like a regression-addicted madman, Dan Ha-ru simply can’t become a bad person.’
Dan Ha-ru’s selfishness was paradoxically deeply altruistic in every moment. The very fact that his first regression was solely to ‘save the Orphanage Director’ proved it.
So, let’s think about this.
How would the Returner, who knows this better than anyone, attack Dan Ha-ru?
‘There are two ways to attack using past timelines. Either by making him recall the past timeline itself, or by recreating what happened in that past timeline.’
Awakening past timelines is largely ineffective against the members who have already been recruited as Ha-jin’s allies and are receiving mental care.
Therefore, even if Tae-hyun and Eun-chan awaken, while they may be shocked, they won’t suffer as much damage as expected.
Conversely, precisely because of this, there was a high probability that both of them would inevitably experience their own ‘failures’ from the previous timeline in some form.
‘And on the other hand….’
Si-woo and Yoo Gun, who haven’t yet been recruited as allies and thus haven’t received the mental care system, were heavily damaged by the awakening itself. Fortunately, Yoo Gun seemed to be trying to accept and endure this awakening just as he had lived through his past times, but….
‘But what about Si-woo hyung? How is he doing?’
As Ha-jin climbed the stairs deep in thought, he finally reached the top and realized someone was standing motionless in the middle of the darkened second floor.
It didn’t take long to recognize that it was Si-woo, who had just woken up.
“…Hyung.”
“Ha-jin.”
“What are you doing there? If you’re awake, come down quickly. We need to leave now.”
“….”
Ha-jin spoke in an intentionally light voice, but Si-woo, whose expression seemed vacant, gave no answer. The pale brown eyes that always possessed both coldness and composure now appeared unusually hollow and vacant.
“…Ha-jin.”
“Yes, hyung. I’m here.”
“I… I had a dream. So… it was all just a dream. It had to be a dream…”
Si-woo, his eyes unfocused, spoke in a trembling voice, his words tumbling out incoherently.
“I keep seeing Father.”
“….”
“I keep seeing Father, Ha-jin. Father, he keeps… he keeps appearing.”
How much longer could a past that had completely vanished continue to wound us?
How far could that past—leaving only its traces behind—tear us down?
Yet despite everything, could we all hold each other’s hands, smile, and step forward into tomorrow?
Clinging to a hope he could not be certain of, Ha-jin simply took one silent step forward.

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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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