Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 31

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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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31. First Month-End Evaluation (3)
A week remained until the month-end evaluation.
With barely enough time for practice alone, I found myself at the Cafe.
“…Are you… experiencing a lot of stress?”
Ji Su-ho, who appeared to have lost roughly 5kg juggling Executive Director duties, personnel management, month-end evaluations, and survival competition preparations all at once, asked with concern.
“Pardon?”
“I noticed you just downed an entire iced chocolate in one gulp.”
Ah, had I?
As Ji Su-ho approached with the ordered cake, his worried tone made me feel oddly embarrassed, and I scratched my forehead. He even naturally pushed forward an additional iced tea he’d anticipated I’d want, as if he’d seen this coming.
‘I’m not really that much of a sugar addict…’
“I was just thirsty, that’s all.”
“Then I can take the iced tea back?”
“…Actually, now that I think about it, I suppose I am experiencing some stress.”
I urgently grabbed Ji Su-ho’s arm as he reached to take the iced tea away. It was petty to snatch back something I’d been given.
Ji Su-ho returned the iced tea with a somewhat reluctant expression, then pushed the cake plate toward me with a sympathetic look, as if he understood everything.
“Well… it’s your first month-end evaluation. I figured something like this might happen, so I scheduled this meeting.”
A private meeting with Ji Su-ho, who held judging authority, before the month-end evaluation could have been problematic, but today’s meeting carried an official purpose: a ‘pre-evaluation personal consultation.’
It was ostensibly a consultation, but in reality, it was a stage to assess the trainees’ conditions and psychological states before entering the full-fledged debut survival competition. There would be much to brief the trainees on beforehand, as this would be their first broadcast exposure.
“How are your evaluation preparations going? I heard you’re the group leader.”
“Well… I’m not sure I’d say it’s going well.”
At Ji Su-ho’s blunt question, I stirred the empty iced chocolate with my straw, taking out my frustration on the innocent ice.
I’d been consistently uploading practice videos to the Company cloud for regular feedback, so he likely already knew what kind of evaluation I was receiving, yet Ji Su-ho pretended ignorance and asked me again.
“I heard you had a mid-check evaluation recently.”
“…Yes.”
“And there were apparently many problems.”
There he goes. He knows everything already.
With nothing left to hide, I answered immediately.
“Yes, well.”
“….”
“We completely bombed the mid-check evaluation.”
Recalling the (harrowing) mid-check evaluation day from not long ago, I ultimately grabbed the iced tea beside me and downed it in one shot.
* * *
The month-end evaluation mid-check was conducted with all trainees present. The idea was to create some tension watching rival groups get demolished, and to instill some vigilance seeing others receive insane praise.
As for which category our group fell into, we were definitely the former.
-What, what am I even looking at here?
-….
-Ha-jin, you answer. Can you complete this within a week? You’re the one who suggested it.
The Dance Trainer’s irritated voice filled the Practice Room. The already icy atmosphere became even sharper.
Of course, there was good reason. Lee Do-ha still couldn’t follow even half the dance break, Gong Seok was struggling just to keep up with the entire choreography, and Yun Tae-hee’s live vocal ability was woefully inadequate. Overall, our group was incomplete even by my assessment.
-Why are kids who could manage just doing what they’ve been doing acting like this? Do-ha, why are you suddenly getting ambitious about dancing? Just do what you’ve been doing, everyone. Just do what you’ve been doing. Who approaches an important evaluation like this right before a survival competition?
…even that’s being criticized too much?
With each successive rebuke from the Dance Trainer, the atmosphere plummeted further into catastrophe. I attempted a sideways glance at the Dance Trainer, who seemed to be scolding us far more harshly than usual, but abandoned the effort. One wrong look in this situation would mean certain death.
In the end, we had to stand for a full twenty minutes receiving criticism after showing just a four-minute performance. Only after returning to our seats did I realize it had been a demonstration—a cautionary example—but by then, the mental fortitude of the others had already shattered into fragments more transparent than glass.
-See? I told you it was impossible! This is all because of Ha-jin!
-Are we… are we okay? Shouldn’t we change the performance right now…?
-Everyone agreed to do this together, and now you’re looking for someone to blame? We just need to work harder and show them what we can do, right?
The sheer effort it took to reassure those whose spirits had been crushed the moment the interim evaluation ended, and then get them back to practicing…
The one saving grace was that Lee Do-ha, who had borne the brunt of the criticism today, showed surprisingly little reaction.
-Let’s just practice.
-Huh? Do-ha, but—!
-We received criticism because we performed an incomplete choreography. So instead of wasting time like this, we should learn more and complete it.
With that, Lee Do-ha—his pride visibly wounded—quietly took Kim Won-ho with him to receive private instruction on the dance break section, and the others had no choice but to fall silent.
When the one assigned the most difficult task was willing to go that far, it meant that if they couldn’t master this performance as thoroughly as Lee Do-ha, it was simply a matter of insufficient ability.
* * *
And back to the present.
I smiled at Ji Su-ho, whose expression remained worried as he looked at me.
“It’s fine. We planned from the start to write off the interim evaluation anyway.”
“Will it really be completed in a week? Especially with Do-ha doing the dance break—I’m quite concerned. You might not know, but Do-ha has always…”
“I know. He only rapped and didn’t dance, right? He either shelved it or just picked up some basic movements.”
….
“But isn’t that kind of funny? He’s an aspiring idol.”
It was a thought I’d held ever since I first heard about Lee Do-ha’s infiltration into the Special Class, and especially since I’d decided to entrust him with the dance break section while choreographing with Kim Won-ho.
How could an idol trainee not dance?
“Until now, maybe they thought they couldn’t afford to lose someone like Do-ha, so they let him slide—’don’t worry about dancing, just rap, just write songs.’ But now that he’s entering a debut survival competition, he needs to graduate from those excuses too.”
“…that’s…”
“Don’t worry. These are kids who can pull it off by the end-of-month evaluation. When I coached the Youth Performance Group, I got teams that were in worse shape than this to place in competitions.”
This performance is absolutely possible ‘if it’s completed.’ I created it with that in mind from the beginning. Ji Su-ho, who had been sitting in stunned silence, asked again in that same foolish tone.
“What exactly were you doing in your past life, Ha-jin?”
“Well… various things?”
“Is being an idol really the only thing you haven’t done?”
“That’s why I’m planning to give it a shot in this life. I’m heading out first. I need to practice.”
I flashed a smile at Ji Su-ho, who seemed to have much to contemplate, then scooped a generous bite of cake with my fork and stood up. Just as I was about to give him a casual bow and leave, I backtracked and returned to stand before him.
“But if you’re worried about us, there is a more practical way you could help. What do you think about that kind of assistance?”
“…? Yes, well. What is it?”
“How about treating us to some snacks with your card?”
You guys wait. Your hyung’s going to buy some snacks.
* * *
Kim Won-ho was once again assisting Lee Do-ha with his choreography practice. Yun Tae-hee, who had already mastered the dance break section, had moved to the Vocal Practice Room with Gong Seok to work on his insufficient vocal skills.
In the practice room with only the two of them, nothing but breathing, footsteps, and Kim Won-ho’s exclamations of admiration filled the air.
“One, two, one! Jump!”
“…!”
“Wow, hyung! You got it! You just nailed it again!”
“…Yeah.”
Lee Do-ha had now reached a point where he could execute the dance break flawlessly about one out of every ten attempts. Of course, this meant he’d only mastered the movements themselves—his personal interpretation and emotional depth still had a long way to go. But regardless, Lee Do-ha was doing it! Kim Won-ho found that alone was reason enough for hope.
‘I’ve never seen hyung look so satisfied before.’
Watching a subtle smile grace Lee Do-ha’s lips—a face that had always seemed as immovable as a stone monument—Kim Won-ho felt his own joy overflow. He laughed along and simply collapsed onto the floor beside him.
“Hyung, let’s rest for a bit. Dancing is fundamentally about stamina. Training while exhausted just increases injury risk.”
“Right. …Thank you.”
“I’ve lived long enough to hear a Special Class senior actually thank me.”
Lee Do-ha slowly sank down beside Kim Won-ho. Without needing to say anything, Kim Won-ho could easily tell that his legs were already trembling from exertion. Kim Won-ho pushed a bottle of water toward him and suddenly voiced a thought he’d been turning over since he first started choreographing this routine.
“…Can I be honest with you?”
“Go ahead. Just don’t tell me I can’t do it.”
“Hyung, you can joke around too.”
“I’m serious. If I hear feedback right now, I think my motivation will crumble.”
Faced with Lee Do-ha’s earnest expression, Kim Won-ho fell silent. Right. That wouldn’t do. Besides, that wasn’t really what he’d been planning to say anyway.
“Gong Seok hyung and Yun Tae-hee still seem to be struggling a bit, so I haven’t mentioned it to them….”
“….”
“Honestly, I’m having fun with this. This performance.”
“….”
“You are too, right? I mean, you’re having fun doing the dance break.”
Lee Do-ha’s movement paused mid-sip. But Kim Won-ho didn’t seem to be waiting for an answer—he simply continued.
“I mean, I was in the General Class, so being able to choreograph to your song is actually a pretty rare opportunity for me.”
“…But I’m just another trainee. Why talk about opportunities?”
“Still, if it weren’t for this monthly evaluation, we probably wouldn’t even be talking like this, honestly.”
“Well. I won’t deny that.”
Lee Do-ha nodded. After all, aside from Ji Su-ho and Ju Eun-chan from the Special Class, having such a prolonged conversation with anyone was almost unprecedented for him.
“When Kang Ha asked me to choreograph this, I honestly thought it was insane. I’m not Lee Yu-gun or Ju Eun-chan. If my choreography ruins everything, who am I supposed to blame?”
“….”
“But actually doing it… now I’m really starting to feel like an idol trainee, you know? It’s a strange feeling. I totally bombed the mid-term evaluation, but it doesn’t even feel bad. And nobody said the choreography was weird, right?”
That was exactly how Kim Won-ho felt. It was an emotion he’d first experienced while preparing for the monthly evaluation with Ha-jin.
Until now, I’d always felt like I was walking somewhere in between—a General Class member overshadowed by the Special Class, and among the General Class, a mid-tier loser left behind by the aces. That’s why I hadn’t felt particularly sad or disappointed when I first saw the monthly evaluation groupings.
“Honestly, with all this survival competition talk, there’s no way opportunities come to people like us, right? There are so many talented hyungs out there. I used to think like that… but while preparing for this, something….”
“You saw a possibility?”
“Yeah. Like, I’m actually capable of this much, you know? So honestly, I wouldn’t mind not making the top ten in this monthly evaluation. It’s just….”
The words that had been pouring out suddenly stopped. I couldn’t bring myself to say that final thought: ‘Just having this opportunity is enough for me.’ The moment I said that, it felt like I’d be giving up my dreams and admitting defeat before the battle even started. That defeat I’d grown far too familiar with.
I was genuinely surprised that I’d only just now recognized this sense of defeat within myself.
“Me too.”
And I was even more shocked that Lee Do-ha—someone from the Special Class—could empathize with that feeling.
“I’ve never thought I could dance like this.”
“Pffft, ah, hyung. Isn’t that a bit too self-deprecating?”
“I never realized until now that I was limiting my compositions because I thought I couldn’t dance in the first place.”
Lee Do-ha wiped away the sweat with a towel, then began stretching before his body cooled down, confessing matter-of-factly. Kim Won-ho followed suit, continuing his stretching movements without adding anything further. Both of them were lost in their own emotions.
“Won-ho.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll do well at the end-of-month evaluation.”
“…!”
“Since you created the choreography for me. I’ll pull it off. Thank you.”
“I brought cake―!!!!”
Kim Won-ho couldn’t respond to Lee Do-ha’s quiet words of gratitude. Ha-jin had burst through the practice room door.
Ha-jin appeared like a triumphant general, already linking arms with Gong Seok and Yun Tae-hee on both sides while carrying cake boxes overflowing in both hands, and the practice room erupted into cheerful chaos once more.
Watching Lee Do-ha quietly rise and join them, Kim Won-ho felt an indescribable sense of fullness wash over him.
It was exactly one week before the end-of-month evaluation.

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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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