Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 342

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

342. ADMIRATION AND SALVATION (1)
I was well aware that Ju Eun-chan had attracted an unusual type of fan.
The clichéd dark-haired cold beauty type, yet surprisingly innocent and poorly timed in personality, combined with a wealthy family background and the title of a talented hard worker.
Even I could see it was the perfect recipe to drive someone insane. I knew that. But—
‘That doesn’t mean he deserves this.’
The gift box lying sprawled on the waiting room floor looked like the remnants of some horrific monster. Perfume, keychains, small plush toys, and bookmarks—there wasn’t a single item that didn’t match Ju Eun-chan’s taste. What made my skin crawl even more was that Ju Eun-chan’s dark red blood was smeared across those gifts, each one oozing with affection.
‘A sasaeng? An anti-fan? A stalker? Or maybe… could this be another member’s fan disguised as an anti-fan of Ju Eun-chan? Or… could it be that bastard Dol-ja again?’
The letter peeking out from between the gift boxes was nauseating. It was only recently that we’d decided not to accept any support except fan letters, so why the hell was this sitting in the waiting room? Then it hit me—today was Ju Eun-chan’s birthday.
Kairos only allowed fan gifts on birthdays.
Which meant Ju Eun-chan received a glass box filled with malice as his birthday gift on his own birthday.
‘But when? Where? Who? Could it be company employees or staff members? Or on the way in earlier? If that’s the case, it might actually be better—at least we could identify who delivered it and hand the bastard over to the police or the company without delay…’
Countless thoughts spiraled endlessly, numbing my reason. Thirteen kept flashing warning messages in front of my eyes, but I couldn’t focus on any of it.
What stopped me from drowning in that sea of thought was the warmth of an unusually hot, large hand.
“Kang Ha-jin.”
“….”
“Snap out of it.”
The owner of that hand was Lee Do-ha, whose dark, deep eyes locked directly onto mine as he spoke with firm resolve. Surprisingly, only then did the chaotic sounds around me become audible. It was the moment I realized just how deep into panic I’d fallen.
Lee Do-ha asked in a calm voice.
“Do you remember what you were doing just now?”
“…No.”
Lee Do-ha sighed softly as if he’d expected as much, then adjusted his grip on my wrist. More precisely, he positioned his index and middle fingers as if checking my pulse on the inside of my wrist.
“Breathe.”
“What?”
“Breathe. You’re not breathing properly right now.”
And remarkably, only then did I breathe.
Following Lee Do-ha’s rhythm, I exhaled about five cycles of breath, and only then could I think rationally again. While I was calming down, Lee Do-ha explained how the situation had unfolded.
“You called Kwon Wook right away and told him what happened, and he took Eun-chan and Tae-hyun to the hospital. Si-woo just got word that Eun-chan’s palm was cut pretty deep and needed a few stitches. Tae-hyun and Ha-ru, who were with him, got quite a shock too, so they’re resting with IV lines in the room next door.”
“…The fan sign event?”
“The company put out a notice delaying it by an hour for now. Everyone wanted to cancel, but…Eun-chan absolutely refused.”
“A fan sign event in this situation? What is Ju Eun-chan thinking? Has he lost his mind?”
My composure still hadn’t fully returned, so I vented my frustration at the innocent Lee Do-ha with a raised voice. Realizing I’d slipped back into my old habit of losing emotional control, I quickly shut my mouth, and Lee Do-ha calmly gripped my wrist tighter, steadying me.
“I know you can’t calm down, but you still need to. You know that in times like this, we need at least one person to keep their head.”
It was a very T-type way of offering comfort, but fortunately, it worked this time.
I nodded slightly in acknowledgment, and Lee Do-ha sat me down on the sofa nearby. Across from me sat Lee Yu-gun, who also appeared to be in shock, watching my expression carefully. He must have been startled too, but seeing him gauge my mood made me realize just how terrible I must look right now.
“…I’m not going to bite. Don’t worry about me.”
“….”
Lee Yu-gun, who would normally have shot back with a comment, simply nodded silently this time. I looked around the waiting room with my newly cleared vision. I could see Jeong Si-u explaining something to police officers in uniform by the waiting room door—apparently, a police report had already been filed.
Sitting calmly and mentally reconstructing the situation, I suddenly stood up. Then I passed Lee Yu-gun, Lee Do-ha, Jeong Si-u blocking the waiting room door, and even the police officers.
My unhesitating footsteps led me toward the rookie security guard still standing in the hallway with his hands clasped behind his back, apparently determined to fulfill his duty.
“Excuse me.”
“…What?”
“You know what’s going on here, don’t you?”
“…I’m not sure what you mean….”
“You were about to say something earlier, but you held back because you were watching your superior’s reaction.”
I’d called out how openly he’d been gauging his superior’s mood precisely because that superior wasn’t around right now. A rookie security guard hesitating to report something, then swallowing his words out of concern for his boss—that meant whatever he’d witnessed could potentially damage his superior or the company itself.
Which meant he’d choked down the truth to protect his own livelihood.
I knew this industry was suffocatingly small, and I had no intention of calling out his loyalty in trying to protect both his rice bowl and the company’s. Not one bit.
But—
“Once the CCTV footage comes out and the police investigation wraps up, everyone’s going to know your security was sloppy enough to let this happen anyway. So why not cooperate now to help catch the perpetrator instead of getting thrown under the bus later and regretting it? That way, our company might actually keep quiet about this out of loyalty.”
“….”
“Don’t understand? We’re planning to sue and run stories about how your negligent security led to an idol being terrorized with glass shards. But if you give us a proper statement, we might just drop it and move on.”
I wasn’t going to tolerate them pushing our kids into a pit just to save their own skins any longer.
Casting aside social dignity and benevolent self-image like garbage, I stared at the rookie security guard with an intensity that could bore holes. I knew this was disrespectful, but I didn’t have the luxury of caring about that right now.
“…I’ll tell you.”
The rookie security guard finally nodded in defeat. I could see Jeong Si-u and the police officers, who’d been watching me this whole time, slowly approaching to see what was happening.
Meanwhile, from the upper floor where the fan sign event was supposed to be held, I could hear fans’ chatter and singing leaking down loudly.
Could the perpetrator be among them?
Did those people even know about this incident happening downstairs?
What would they think about the one-hour delay announcement for the fan sign event?
If I met the fans like this, could I smile genuinely without pretense and face them?
What if we met the fans while keeping silent about this incident,
but still failed to manage our expressions and showed them a disappointing attitude?
Would they leave comments worrying about me, or would they leave comments criticizing me?
‘…This is ridiculous.’
Even though I’d felt countless times through experience that there was no answer to be found in a fan’s heart,
somehow, this blind, passionate, and sometimes selfishly greedy existence called a fan… felt a little, just a little bit heavy today.

* * *
The security guard testified to the police exactly what he had witnessed.
He had seen from a distance someone disguised as a staff member—someone not listed on the staff roster—entering the waiting room with an identical gift box. His statement was that, being new to the job, he hadn’t felt confident enough to stop and question the person, so he simply let them pass.
Still, his description of the perpetrator’s appearance was quite detailed, and the fact that he’d spotted the decisive moment when they were carrying the weapon made him an invaluable witness in an instant.
Fortunately, there was CCTV in the hallway, and the inner area where the waiting room was located had an automatic access log for employees, so the police explained that identifying the perpetrator shouldn’t take long.
‘…I’ve done everything I can right now.’
Kwon Wook repeatedly asked the police to maintain security about the incident until the suspect was caught.
The journalists might have caught wind of it first, but since the target of this attack was Ju Eun-chan, I was confident they wouldn’t move recklessly. Joo Eun-seok and JDZ’s Legal Team were still engaged in their legal dance over that previous incident, after all.
And now, the problem left for us was….
“I’m going to do it. It’s my left hand that’s injured! I can do it.”
“Eun-chan, right now it’s not about your hand that’s the problem…. Sigh….”
“You said the perpetrator doesn’t seem to be among the fans who came to the fan sign today. They waited for an hour—I can’t just tell them to go home like this.”
Despite his hands still trembling visibly, Ju Eun-chan was stubbornly insisting on holding the fan sign event. Kwon Wook, who had been trying to persuade him, rubbed his forehead in frustration.
“That’s why I’m saying we shouldn’t cancel it entirely…. Of course, additional compensation will go out to everyone who came today. We could reschedule and hold another fan sign event….”
“Some people might not be able to make it on another day. There are Destiny fans who came up from the Provinces just to see this, and people who spent hundreds of thousands of won trying to win a spot…. If it’s okay with you guys, I want to do it.”
I’d always known he had determination, but today he was being especially stubborn. Even I couldn’t decide what to do in this situation, so I kept my mouth shut, when an unexpected voice cut through.
“Just let him do it.”
“…?”
“Whether it’s hot water or cold water, you don’t know until you touch it yourself. Just let him go ahead and get burned.”
It was Dan Ha-ru, who had apparently thrown away all pretense and theatrics and shot them into outer space, speaking with that cocky tone of his.
“What? Hey, Ha-ru. What are you saying now….”
“He says he’s going out there looking like that. Let him try. Let him go out there, freeze up in front of the fans, not say a word, tremble the whole time—whatever happens. Or if some perpetrator who was still hiding decides to cause more trouble, let him deal with it himself.”
Despite the coldness in his tone, Dan Ha-ru’s expression looked sad somehow.
So perhaps those crude words were born from worry about Ju Eun-chan and frustration at the situation. The way he’d grabbed my arm earlier, pale as a sheet, was evidence of that. And the way he’d stubbornly followed all the way to the hospital to confirm that Ju Eun-chan was receiving treatment before leaving—whichever side of him it was, the sparkle or the rebel, Dan Ha-ru clearly cared deeply about Ju Eun-chan.
‘It’s just that his way of expressing it is kind of shitty.’
And I knew this from experience. Usually, that kind of expression eventually invited trouble.
For example, Jeong Si-u, who couldn’t stand my deception and snapped. Or Seo Tae-hyun, who crashed into Lee Yu-gun when he was going off the rails. Or….
“…Why.”
“….”
“Why are you talking like that?”
…Just like Ju Eun-chan was doing now, getting serious in front of Dan Ha-ru for the first time.
‘Damn. This is giving me a headache.’
I missed the sparkle.
In that moment, I desperately missed the runaway infinite optimist, the sunshine maknae who’d left home.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————