Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 324

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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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324. The Darkest Shadow
Moments later, once I’d regained my senses, the first thing I did was hand Ji Su-ho a glass of water.
“…Are you feeling alright? No pain or strange sensations anywhere?”
“I don’t know. Everything seems fine except I’m a bit drowsy….”
“Check carefully—can you move all ten fingers and toes?”
“Ha ha…. Stop making me laugh, man. I don’t have the energy.”
“What’s so funny about this? I’m being serious.”
“I was just thinking about how you felt when you tried to get me to take a health checkup before. That’s why I’m laughing.”
Ji Su-ho certainly looked remarkably energetic for someone who’d been asleep for so long.
I felt relieved that Thirteen had properly completed the aftercare, yet I couldn’t help feeling anxious—accidents always leave lingering aftereffects. When it happened to me, I’d only worried about managing these eccentric people, but watching from the sidelines now, I felt a burning frustration welling up inside.
Since I’d need to hear the exact diagnosis from the doctor anyway, I was simply exhaling sighs of relief when the hospital room door opened and Ju Eun-chan entered with Dan Ha-ru.
“Hyung, I brought Ha-ru… Huh? Executive Director!”
The moment Ju Eun-chan spotted Ji Su-ho awake while dragging his IV stand, he instantly lengthened his stride to approach. Seemingly oblivious to his own height—which had grown noticeably to nearly 179 centimeters since his debut—he rushed forward recklessly until I barely caught him before he collided with a pillar.
“Whoa!”
“Hey, you! You just got your cast off and you’re already looking to break something else?”
“No, I was just happy to see the Executive Director awake….”
With an awkward smile, Ju Eun-chan gazed at Ji Su-ho, his eyes brimming with emotion.
Since the accident had happened while he was on his way to pick me up, it seemed he’d done considerable thinking about it as well.
Faced with Ju Eun-chan—a male lead with a story so dramatic that fans would have generated tens of thousands of edited clips depending on the angle—Ji Su-ho smiled first and spoke.
“Eun-chan, are you hurt?”
“…!”
“I should have been more careful with my driving…. When the accident happened, I was so terrified that maybe because of me, you wouldn’t be able to stand on stage again.”
He laughed, saying it was rather fortunate that he’d immediately thrown himself forward the moment he opened his eyes, but the person hearing this couldn’t laugh at all—that was the twist.
Since the accident, Ju Eun-chan, who had seemed far more composed and resilient than I’d expected, now had tears welling up in his eyes like large dewdrops. His jaw clenched with walnut-like wrinkles forming in an instant, and he struggled to nod, his jaw muscles trembling as he fought back the tears.
“Seriously, both of you…. Why do you keep trying to cry? I’m not dead! This is making me feel weird.”
“…I’m sorry, sniff…. I’m sorry…. Because of me….”
“What…? What are you talking about? Why are you apologizing, Eun-chan? The manager couldn’t even protect his artist and ended up pathetically hospitalized—if anything, I should be the one apologizing to you. You’re really okay, right?”
“Sniff…. Sob….”
“This is killing me. Hey, Ha-jin. Stop Eun-chan, will you? He’s having a complete breakdown.”
Ju Eun-chan, now sitting in the visitor’s chair and practically embracing Ji Su-ho while crying, sent an SOS signal my way with a panicked expression.
Compared to Ji Su-ho, who’d grown gaunt from weeks of bed rest, Ju Eun-chan—who’d been enjoying luxurious rest at the hospital with three meals a day—was about a third larger, making the position look quite strained for Ji Su-ho.
I simply patted Ju Eun-chan’s head a couple of times without taking any other action.
“Bear with it. He’s been holding back a lot too.”
Ju Eun-chan hadn’t fully awakened to the previous timeline yet, but he was already being influenced by the events that had occurred in that timeline.
Having been hurt by the former Executive Director, the parachute hire Han Sung-woo, and recently by sasaeng fans and reporters, I could tell without asking how much comfort Ji Su-ho’s words had just provided Ju Eun-chan.
Rather than pulling the sobbing Ju Eun-chan away from Ji Su-ho, I quietly turned my gaze toward Dan Ha-ru, who was still hesitating by the hospital room door. I saw him flinch at our eye contact, his fists clenching tightly.
“Dan Ha-ru.”
“…!”
“…What are you doing over there? Aren’t you going to greet the Executive Director?”
Ji Su-ho, who’d been groaning while bringing tissues for Ju Eun-chan despite his pain, froze with a slightly startled expression the moment he heard the name Dan Ha-ru come from my lips.
Whatever terrified him so, Dan Ha-ru hesitated to respond to my beckoning gesture. The fearless little rabbit warrior who’d never known dread had been seized by fright—partly because of the sharp edge I’d shown moments before. I softened my expression as much as possible and continued speaking in measured tones.
“You heard it yourself just now. It wasn’t your fault.”
“….”
“Come here. Quickly.”
As I gestured urgently, Dan Ha-ru cautiously shuffled toward the bed where Ji Su-ho and I stood. Ju Eun-chan continued sobbing against Ji Su-ho’s chest, while Ji Su-ho patted his back without once taking his eyes off Dan Ha-ru as he approached.
Until Dan Ha-ru stood directly beside me, Ji Su-ho simply watched him in silence. Then, as if realizing something, he spoke warmly to Dan Ha-ru, who hung his head like a criminal and couldn’t meet his gaze.
“Ha-ru, hello.”
“…Hello, Executive Director.”
“You… you’re the ‘real’ Ha-ru, aren’t you?”
“…?”
At those loaded words, Dan Ha-ru lifted his head.
“I had a dream about the day we first met. I’d completely forgotten why, but….”
“….”
“It was a terribly cold winter.”
This was a story of Dan Ha-ru and Ji Su-ho’s first meeting that I knew nothing about.
That first encounter where Dan Ha-ru had used Ji Su-ho to gain entry into Miro.
After becoming entangled with Dan Ha-ru, Ji Su-ho had awakened and been affected by the influence of past timelines, which is how he’d gained the ability called Star Maker. It was highly probable that the two of them had repeated their “first meeting” countless times. Memories would have been lost in that process.
‘So what Ji Su-ho just called the beginning….’
It must have been referring to the oldest, most original first meeting between Ji Su-ho and Dan Ha-ru.
Before Dan Ha-ru, drowning in guilt, could furrow his brow in anguish, Ji Su-ho continued.
“Back then, I think… I went to the Bookstore because that bastard Dol asked me to buy him a magazine, and you were there.”
“….”
“You were watching a music video playing in the album section for quite a while. You looked so young, yet so sorrowful….”
But Dan Ha-ru’s expression as he listened seemed strange.
As if the first meeting he remembered was different, his face showed confusion.
Ji Su-ho, as if he already knew Dan Ha-ru’s reaction, continued speaking calmly.
“The way you kept mouthing the song lyrics—for some reason, I couldn’t stop looking at you. So I tried to give you my business card, but of all things, I’d left my card case in the car….”
“….”
“By the time I went back to the car and got my cards, you’d already disappeared.”
His reproachful tone was filled with as much affection as it was playfulness.
Dan Ha-ru’s shoulders beside me began to tremble. He buried his face in his hands, unable to even lift his head properly. Watching him cry silently, unlike Ju Eun-chan, I suddenly understood what Ji Su-ho’s story meant.
“And then, about a week later, we met again, didn’t we?”
“….”
“You were so bright and cheerful, so different from the child I’d seen a week before. I wondered which version was really you….”
The story Ji Su-ho was telling now was a first meeting between them that even Dan Ha-ru didn’t know about.
A meeting that had occurred before the Chosen Regressor Dan Ha-ru had drawn Ji Su-ho into his timeline for the sake of ‘Dan Ha-ru.’
The sorrowful, lonely Dan Ha-ru that Ji Su-ho had seen must have been the Chosen Regressor, while the “destined-to-be-scouted” Dan Ha-ru who appeared before Ji Su-ho a week later would have been the original, unknowing personality.
“How could you have forgotten all of this?”
Ji Su-ho’s face brightened as he burst into a hearty laugh, extending his hand toward Dan Ha-ru.
As if to say, come here and feel this heat and warmth filling your hands completely.
“One way or another, Ha-ru, it seems you were destined to become my singer. How strange.”
The fact that Su-ho had discerned from merely seeing his face that the current Ha-ru carried the personality of the Chosen Regressor Ha-ru was surprising, yet simultaneously not surprising at all.
-Everyone feels that way. It’s lonely, isn’t it? A world without warmth.
-I wish you wouldn’t view the moments of living so coldly.
-Kang Ha-jin is such a passionate person.
Because that’s the kind of person he’s always been from the start.
Like the deepest shadow cast upon the brightest star that must shine beneath the scorching lights.
“….”
Ha-ru continued to weep silently.
I couldn’t know what comfort Su-ho’s words had brought to Ha-ru.
I simply gently pushed Ha-ru’s back toward Su-ho.
So that our youngest, who had held everything in as tightly as Eun-chan, could cry freely.
“Really now, truly…. Anyone hearing this would think someone had died here. Good grief, these youngest ones….”
Watching Su-ho laugh helplessly and pull Ha-ru into an embrace with his other arm, I quietly stepped back. Soon Kwon Wook and the other members would arrive anyway, so I intended to go greet them and inform the medical staff that Su-ho had awakened.
I signaled Su-ho discreetly with my eyes as I approached the door, but someone knocked from the other side before I could grasp the sliding door’s handle. When I opened it slightly, I saw a nurse with a familiar face.
“Oh my, hello!”
“Ah, hello.”
I wondered who it was, but it was that nurse who had witnessed my crying spectacle last time and quietly backstepped away.
Despite wearing a hat and mask, she seemed to recognize me and showed signs of warmth, which was somewhat embarrassing, but only briefly.
The nurse quickly addressed me with a professional demeanor.
“I heard sounds from inside. Did patient Su-ho perhaps wake up?”
“Ah, yes. He just woke up….”
I nodded and glanced back into the Hospital Room, where what seemed to be a full-scale weeping festival was still underway.
The perceptive nurse, reading the situation from the sniffling sounds and the heavily emotional atmosphere, looked up at me with that sympathetic expression I’d seen before, her brows arching with compassion.
“Oh dear…. Should I come back in a bit?”
“Ah, yes. His condition seems fine, so I’d be grateful if you could return in just a little while.”
“Yes, yes. Then I’ll be back in about 10 minutes~”
“Thank you. Oh, I’ll open the door for you.”
With a respectful bow, I quietly followed the nurse out of the Hospital Room. Then, as the tension drained away, I dragged my drowsy body to a bench in the nearby Hallway and collapsed onto it.
“….”
Until the members who arrived later entered the Hospital Room again, the sound of the boys’ weeping never ceased.

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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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