Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 327

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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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327. The End of Youth (2)
How shallow human memory truly is.
The video began with Dan Ha-ru.
For Destiny, the opening came with a narration in a calm, measured voice—unfamiliar perhaps to some—accompanied by the scratching sound of pencil on paper.
What appeared next was a school bathed in the crimson glow of sunset. Empty hallways and vacant classrooms passed in succession.
It was a sketch.
A hand moved across an old diary—the same one featured in the track list image—writing something with a fountain pen. The camera slowly tilted upward, revealing the hand’s owner to all who watched.
For the first time since debut, Dan Ha-ru appeared with dark brown hair and dressed in a crisp, preppy look reminiscent of a prestigious private school uniform.
No, words.
No, traces.
With each scratching sound, Dan Ha-ru continued writing something.
Simultaneously, a film-rewinding sound effect played as dissonant scenes and audio cut through the video in fragments, as if recalling lost memories.
Those watching could easily discern that the scenes appearing amid the crackling noise were all excerpts from the music videos and concept trailers of “Over the Night” and “This Isn’t a Carol.”
No.
Suddenly, Dan Ha-ru’s hand stopped moving.
As he lifted his head, the camera angle that had been zoomed in close enough to capture the finest hairs on his face shifted instantly. An extremely wide shot now revealed Dan Ha-ru alone in an empty classroom. The crimson sunset had vanished, and only darkness remained.
In Dan Ha-ru’s recollection, members in school uniforms laughed brightly as they held a party in the auditorium, the image flickering past once more.
It was merely graphite.
Something erased with a single stroke of an eraser,
An incomplete sketch.
As the narration ended, a rapid piano solo began. Scenes of bright, dreamlike, and beautiful colors unfolded in contrast to what had just been shown, matching the piano melody.
Something never quite within reach,
Like a rainbow within mist.
The first to appear were Ha-jin and Tae-hyun, identical to the thumbnail image.
* * *
‘Oh, please. So damn beautiful…!’
Windy, a Kairos all-fan girl watching the video. (Dan Ha-ru’s favorite, though that distinction had become meaningless by now. The so-called cat girl.)
Unable to control her wildly racing heart, she finally paused the video and slammed her desk with her fist.
“Are you insane, seriously, I mean, damn it….”
She couldn’t help but curse. But she had no choice.
Our kids being innocent and pure, innocent and pure, innocent and pure…!
And in that ethereal innocence with heavy pink blush applied in a cat-eye makeup style and wearing a white knit sweater…!
‘See? I told you Kairos could do innocent and cute, didn’t I? I said they could. They can do it. All those people who commented back then saying “stop crying and try talking about it”—come out now.’
She suddenly recalled a painful memory from late last year when there had been heated debate about Kairos’s innocent cute girl group concept, and she alone had argued that ‘Kairos could pull off an innocent concept too,’ only to face fierce resistance.
Back then, she’d been deeply hurt that no one listened to her, but now it didn’t matter at all.
‘What are you gonna do about it, huh? Now it’s official for us too.’
We have an innocent concept too!
Of course, the fact that half the members—the biggest obstacle (…) to Kairos’s innocent concept—still remained was a bit concerning….
Still, Windy decided to have faith. If it was a concept planned by Kang Ha-jin, an otaku with similar tastes to her own, then surely it had some deeper meaning.
Windy held her trembling breath and pressed play on the video again.
♩♪♪♬♩♬♫♩—
Unlike the somewhat dark and profound intro, the images that followed were as hopeful and beautiful as the piano’s melody.
With eyes closed, leaning against Tae-hyun with our foreheads touching, I gradually opened my eyes as sunlight fell across my face. Just waking from sleep, I noticed the curtains of the log cabin where we’d been sleeping were half-open, and I slowly made my way toward them.
-…?
As I pulled the curtains fully open with a bewildered expression and opened the window, there stood Ha-ru, Eun-chan, and Yoo Gun, all dressed in similar white-toned clothing, their faces twisted into ridiculous expressions as they waited for me. Seeing my younger siblings like that, I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity, and soon, unable to resist Eun-chan’s gesture urging me outside, I reluctantly left the cabin.
The scenes that followed were even more enchanting.
In a space awash with pale green and lavender hues, Jeong Si-u, dressed in a white blouse with bleached silver hair, barefoot as he walked through the flower field—there was no need to say more about that,
and Do-ha, who as a former athlete had maintained relatively short hair since debut, looked far better than expected with his bangs gently lowered. In any case, the overall visuals were undeniably impressive.
‘Worldbuilding and all that…. Thank you, Coordinator Noona.’
If even she, whose otaku prowess was such that she could pull an all-nighter just over the word “worldbuilding,” could think this way, wouldn’t it hit even harder with ordinary muggles?
Or was it? Was this vibe—”the poignant romance of seven boys who look somehow precarious, as if the truth hidden behind their happiness could be revealed at any moment”—only the kind of sensibility that otaku like me go crazy for?
Having spent more time as an otaku than as a muggle, she quickly gave up on understanding muggle sensibilities and turned her attention back to the video. There would probably be plenty to analyze if she looked closely enough, but setting all that aside, the narrative within this “dreamlike” world seemed clear enough.
‘Boys in love.’
Ha-jin with a purple lilac crown upon his head, smiling softly as he made a bouquet to give to someone, or Ha-ru with light brown hair, blowing dandelion seeds with a serene smile—these scenes evoked the image of a boy experiencing first love.
Then there was Si-woo playing his guitar, which had become almost his symbol, as if singing a serenade—.
Yoo Gun healing someone’s wounds, and Tae-hyun being pushed into the lake yet laughing as if he couldn’t possibly hate the person who’d pushed him. These scenes carried a similar quality.
Only Eun-chan had scenes that passed symbolically and briefly, merely turning the camera to gaze at someone, which left it somewhat ambiguous whether this was a worldbuilding choice or simply a result of Eun-chan having to film hastily after the accident.
‘In any case, it does seem certain that the theme is first love….’
After all, the title itself was about a missing first love incident.
But what was equally significant was how ambiguous the identity of the person they’d fallen in love with remained. The camera deliberately excluded whoever stood beside the members from the frame, and it was hidden so thoroughly that you couldn’t even tell from the video alone whether this person was female or male.
There was nothing whatsoever that would allow you to infer who the other person was.
‘I can’t tell if this is for worldbuilding reasons or practical ones….’
Unlike the past, when it was fairly common for opposite-sex celebrities to appear as protagonists in idol music videos, in the modern idol world dominated by pseudo-romance concepts, the only women a male idol could officially be linked with were family and fans.
Windy thought it shouldn’t matter since it was acting anyway, but people prone to over-immersion would sometimes create negative buzz just from hearing a male idol’s voice joking around with female staff members in behind-the-scenes or making films.
As someone who didn’t particularly buy into pseudo-romance, Windy found this sensibility incomprehensible, yet she couldn’t deny that such pseudo-romance was nonetheless a legitimate selling point in the idol industry.
In fact, Kairos had something of an image for handling such pseudo-romance quite well.
‘Did they really have to do it this way just to avoid pairing him with an actress? But then wouldn’t choosing a first love concept in the first place be risky…. Wait, but the other person is Kang Ha-jin…. Because it’s Ha-jin, I can’t even guess how far this was planned.’
After observing for a year, the Kang Ha-jin that Windy saw was a man who might have even considered the possibility that the object of first love might not be the opposite sex when directing these scenes.
From Miro Maze until now, Ha-jin not only reacted quite sensitively to fan responses, but it was clear that he himself was remarkably agile in managing the group’s and his own image.
Because of this, Windy couldn’t shake the thought that this “mysterious first love target” might also be a piece of foreshadowing.
“…Oh, what?”
While lost in thought, the image film that had seemed like a happy fairy tale village had already come to an end.
The piano melody abruptly shifted from major to minor, reversing the mood of the video.
Matching the gloomy atmosphere, the boys’ images rapidly crossed over as if film were rolling—.
-….
The location was once again that primordial school.
Unlike the beginning of the video, which had been empty with no one around, this time there were students sitting at desks and a teacher conducting class in front of the blackboard—an ordinary classroom scene.
Within that classroom, Dan Ha-ru slowly opened his eyes.
Memory is so fragile.
And Dan Ha-ru’s narration begins again.
Dan Ha-ru lifted his vacant gaze and surveyed the classroom. The absence was unmistakable—none of the older members who had walked alongside him existed here, nor did the person he had fallen in love with.
What had my memories been?
Scribbles, fragments, traces.
No—merely pencil marks erased by an eraser.
Dan Ha-ru slowly turned his head toward the window.
Unlike the sharp clarity from moments before, his eyes had become hollow voids gazing out at the world beyond the glass. The sunlight reflecting off him through the window grew incrementally brighter, until an unnaturally brilliant luminescence consumed the entire frame.
Bbbbbbiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii―
An incomprehensible electronic sound, and then blackout.
This time, the voices of all seven members intertwined and flowed forth.
First love has vanished.
【Case 01. The Disappearance of First Love】
【The End of Youth 靑春終末】
White serif subtitles etched against the black screen.
Windy remained frozen on that final frame, unable to even register that the video had ended.
“…What is this? What are they bringing out now?”
What grand design is Kang Ha-jin, this otaku, really orchestrating?
And after all this, the title track is called “No Spring”?
“The end, the end…!”
Wasn’t this supposed to be a story of boys desperately surviving in a desolate apocalypse?
Not a single lyric from the title track had played yet, but already the pungent aroma of a doomed love story was wafting powerfully through the air.
She hadn’t heard the song itself, but she already knew it would be good. With Seo Tae-il handling composition and lyrics, there was no way it could fail.
But that’s not what matters right now…
‘How did these bastards know I’m obsessed with tragic love narratives?’
Windy brought her palm to her forehead with a sharp slap.
She felt an overwhelming certainty that Kairos’s comeback would hit her preferences perfectly—a complete strike.

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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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