Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 375

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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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375. The Insomnia Annihilation Project (2)
Strike while the iron is hot, they say.
The moment I decided to seek help, I made a beeline for the first person who came to mind—my go-to advice hotline.
“So… it’s me again?”
A senior in the K-pop industry and Miro’s first idol, a man who ranked in my personal TOP5 of “idols who’ve weathered every conceivable scandal and mastered member care”—a true veteran.
“Please bestow your wisdom upon me, Mozart.”
“Mozart?”
“That’s what I call you.”
Also known as Upia’s leader, Upia’s number one, Upia’s captain, and
my office father—Seo Tae-il.
“Uh… if insomnia’s the problem, shouldn’t you go to a hospital? Or maybe play some ASMR from AiTube to help them sleep. Why me?”
“I want to know your senior tips on how to approach a member who’s suffering from unrecognized condition issues while carrying past trauma—how to effectively embrace that wound together and move forward.”
“So basically, you want to talk things through with Si-woo this time without fighting, but you don’t know how to approach it.”
“Yes.”
A true master instructor—Seo Tae-il was different in every way.
Once again, he summarized my troubles perfectly, letting out a contemplative groan as he cradled his head.
“Just ask him. ‘How are you doing these days, hyung?'”
“I tried that last time and we had a massive fight.”
“That’s because you were obviously reluctant when you asked, which hurt Si-woo’s feelings. For a relationship like yours, instead of overthinking considerate gestures, it’s better to just lay it all out bluntly—that way there’s no misunderstanding.”
“I mean, that’s true, but…”
Maybe straightforward honesty really was the answer.
While I was lost in thought, Lee Do-ha, who’d been admiring Seo Tae-il’s interior design, spoke up calmly.
“Has anyone among the hyungs ever struggled with insomnia? I was wondering if we could ask for advice.”
“Insomnia… our guys are so full of energy that they tend to fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Even Jin-woo and I, who do a lot of night work, are naturally night owls, so we’ve never really suffered from it. If anything, we’ve dealt more with physical injuries than mental ones.”
Hearing Seo Tae-il’s words, I vaguely recalled the Kwon Sang-rok incident from before, along with various injury reports I’d heard about—fitting for a team that had survived this long in the K-pop industry with intense performances.
Since injuries are like occupational hazards that can strike idols regardless of their usual self-care, I made a mental note to ask for advice on managing physical injuries someday.
I may not know much else, but I clearly remember that all-nighters started getting brutal once I hit twenty-nine.
“Oh, now that you mention it,”
Seo Tae-il, who’d been watching us worry with sympathy, suddenly remembered something and snapped his fingers away from his head as he spoke.
“Yeon-woo probably struggled with insomnia for quite a while. Ask Yeon-woo.”
“Who?”
“Choi Yeon-woo. Endway, your senior. Yeon-woo and Si-woo are pretty close, aren’t they? They’re the same age, right? Before Endway debuted, Si-woo used to hang around with them a lot.”
“Oh, now that you mention it…”
Now that he said it, I suddenly remembered when Choi Yeon-woo came to me about the Touch High schedule matter—he’d mentioned Jeong Si-u back then.
-I heard from Si-woo that you really get startled easily.
Were they really that close?
Still, if Yeon-woo had heard about me from Si-woo, it seemed like they’d moved beyond a mere social connection based on being the same age. If they’d known each other for four years, Yeon-woo might know something about Si-woo’s condition issues.
But there was one problem…
“The thing is, I’m not really close with that senior. It’s awkward. If I missed a call from him, I’d probably spend three days wondering ‘why did he call?’ That’s the distance between us.”
“Ha-jin, you’ve become friendly with everyone on Earth, yet you’re incredibly picky about who you’re comfortable with.”
There’s nothing I can do about that look, social Father. What can I do about awkwardness?
Of course, 【Touch High!】 got a good response, and after that I made a few guest appearances on the radio show hosted by Choi Yeon-woo, but awkwardness was still awkwardness.
In the messenger chat between me and Choi Yeon-woo, there’s nothing but polite greetings behind a social mask and business talk.
Lee Do-ha, whose situation wasn’t much different from mine, carefully arrived at an answer after much deliberation.
“…Why don’t you try asking Yoo Gun?”
“Lee Yoo Gun? Him?”
“He was a regular guest on the radio for a while, so he’d have a closer relationship with Choi Yeon-woo than we do. I think it’s worth asking him to help.”
“Oho.”
As for our side dish boy, Lee Yoo Gun—
Though he looked rough at first glance, he was someone who’d acquired the art of navigating social situations through years of part-time work experience, a zero-baseline human who neither particularly stopped people from leaving nor prevented them from coming.
Rather than me, awkwardly caught in between, if he casually threw it out there like it was nothing, I had a feeling something might come back.
“Deal. Then let’s ask Lee Yoo Gun to help.”
“But does Yoo Gun listen well? He looked like he’d hate that kind of request.”
“Why worry about that? I’ve fed him side dishes, soup, seawater—he owes me plenty. The moment I bring it up, he’ll say yes right away.”
“There’s something weird mixed in the middle there.”
“Anyway, don’t worry. Yoo Gun listens to me well.”
Yoo Gun, it’s time to earn your keep.
I guess I fed you all that just for this moment. Ahahaha!
* * *
-Hello?
“Yes, senior. This is Kang Ha-jin from Kairos.”
-Ah, Ha-jin buddy. Hey there.
…Lee Yoo Gun had already digested all that food I fed him, damn it!
I was hoping to get some benefit from raising him well (not really) like a son (not really), but (not really)! This Lee Yoo Gun immediately rejected my request and gave me an ungrateful response telling me to do it myself!
‘That bastard, I’m going to get revenge for that parasailing ride…!’
Regardless of how things went, I ended up calling Choi Yeon-woo, my second counseling hotline, and on the other end of the phone was my direct senior from the company, whose last contact had frozen right after the release of 【This Isn’t a Carol】 and the broadcast of 【Touch High!】, waiting for my business.
‘At this point, this is work.’
With that thought, my mind felt lighter, and I held the phone respectfully with both hands and carefully broached the subject.
“Are you perhaps close with our Si-woo hyung?”
-Huh…?
“No, it’s not that….”
No, Kang Ha-jin, please!
I smacked my own mouth with my hand—this mouth of mine always gets ahead of my thoughts. My body structure must be wired so that only this mouth responds to spinal reflexes. I quickly added an explanation to Choi Yeon-woo, who was now full of question marks.
Without going into all the details, it was more of a summary: ‘Jeong Si-u seems to be suffering from insomnia lately and I want to help, but I heard that senior is knowledgeable about insomnia.’
Then, after hearing everything I had to say, Choi Yeon-woo responded with a languid voice.
-Ah, Si-woo? Yeah. I remember him always saying his condition wasn’t great around this time. It’s probably seasonal depression. As for the insomnia stuff… I’ll send it over messenger. I hope it helps.
“We need to try anything at this point. Thank you, senior.”
-You’re even looking after the members’ insomnia. Ha-jin, you’re a good leader.
Coming from a senior who, every time we went on overseas tours, remembered every single food allergy of the members and checked their diets like a controlling puppet master, it was praise I didn’t deserve.
But since I didn’t like conversations dragging on, I readily absorbed the compliment and began angling to end the call.
“Thank you, senior. I hope you enjoy good health and safety, and that you remain untouched by the Stone Board’s three major scandals and any malicious rumors whatsoever….”
-Oh, but.
“…Yes?”
-If your goal is artist care, wouldn’t it be better to visit the Executive Director? Honestly, when things weren’t going well early in my debut, Su-ho helped me out a lot.
“Ah, well….”
At Choi Yeon-woo’s suggestion of another person to consult, I trailed off and looked away.
“I’ve already visited him.”
Behind those words stood Ji Su-ho, who was checking on me from the corner of his eye even as he worked at his computer.
Our resident counselor extraordinaire gave me a benevolent look, silently asking if I’d finished my call.
“Anyway, thank you for your help, senior. I’m sorry for calling so suddenly.”
-Then just call me often from now on.
“Huh↗?”
-I’ll organize the insomnia stuff and send it to you via message later~ I need to head into filming soon.
“Ah yes, thank you. Go ahead.”
-Haha, okay. Take care~
As my call with Choi Yeon-woo ended awkwardly, Ji Su-ho finished his work and flopped down on the sofa across from where I was sitting.
“Ha-jin, you… why did you need to come all the way here just to make one phone call?”
“Do-ha was supposed to call with me, but he left for his schedule. Su-ho is at the dormitory, so I had to escape. But doing it alone made me too nervous.”
“Yeah, well….”
Ji Su-ho nodded with a nuance of “I don’t understand, but I’ll accept it anyway,” and continued with what he’d prepared to say.
“First, I contacted the place where Si-woo gets counseling, and while they couldn’t share detailed information about his private sessions, they said he was quite stable at his last visit.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
“The timing when you guys were busy with comeback preparations and couldn’t attend counseling matches up with when Si-woo’s condition got worse. So it seems like he was improving a lot until early this year, then suddenly deteriorated.”
As Ji Su-ho calmly laid out the timeline and conveyed objective information, I nodded in agreement. While not the complete cause, the awakening incident in spring, Ju Eun-chan’s accident, and his hospitalization definitely seemed to have triggered a chain reaction.
“…The Executive Director doesn’t know much about Si-woo’s father either, right? It’s definitely connected to that somehow.”
“Well, unless Si-woo tells us himself, there’s no way for us to know the details.”
Perhaps because it was a family matter, Ji Su-ho was cautious and held back. I asked him about something else instead.
“What about Si-woo’s mother then? She’s still his guardian, so hasn’t the company tried contacting her?”
“Hmm, well, Si-woo was already an adult when he debuted, so his mother’s help wasn’t necessary for contract issues with the company. Actually, she’s been so busy and overseas so often that we couldn’t reach her easily anyway.”
“What about during his trainee contract? He was in high school then.”
“The former Executive Director handled that, but there aren’t any proper records left.”
“Wow, those useless Voldemort bastards really don’t help at all….”
Whenever Han Sung-woo and the former Executive Director got involved together, nothing ever worked out properly.
As I was wondering if I had no choice but to confront Jeong Si-u directly about this, Ji Su-ho checked his phone calendar and asked me a question.
“Oh, and have you finished packing?”
“…Packing? Am I moving?”
“Why are you acting like you’re hearing this for the first time? I told you last time that your dormitory is moving. We’ll hire movers, but you should organize the important things in advance.”
“Oh right, that.”
Only then did I remember hearing that our dormitory would be moving soon. Lately the sasaengs had been getting worse, and since the current dormitory was hastily found when Miro moved to the new building, there were many conditions that didn’t match. Anyway, I’d been told the new place would be bigger and have better security than this one, so I’d been in a good mood about it for a while.
Anyway, I was in a great mood for a while after hearing that the new place would be a bit more spacious than where we are now and have better security.
“I’ve packed almost everything. I don’t have much stuff anyway.”
“Go ahead and pick your rooms—you all can figure that out. We’ll have most of the furniture set up, but let me know beforehand if you need anything else.”
“Understood. I’ll relay that to the others.”
“And about Si-woo’s situation… I’m keeping an eye on it too. It could just be stress, so for now, keep a close watch on him from beside him.”
I nodded silently at Ji Su-ho’s words. Even after meeting all the counselors of my desperate consultation office—versions 0 through 2—it felt like I hadn’t gained much of anything concrete.
‘Maybe the answer really is… only the third opening of Grrr Kalk.’
As I pondered what excuse I could use this time to lure Jeong Si-u without causing another barn-demolishing disaster, an involuntary groan escaped me.
Ji Su-ho, watching me struggle, seemed to turn something over in his mind before offering another suggestion.
“If you need personal information about Si-woo, there’s actually one more person nearby you could ask.”
“…? Really? Who? The CEO?”
“Seok-i. Why don’t you casually ask Seok-i about it? Last time I noticed, on Si-woo’s days off, Seok-i seems to grab meals and drinks with him sometimes. They even visit the ancestral grave together.”
“Gong Seok?”
“Yeah.”
A new consultation office number 3 suddenly sparkled into existence in my mind.
If Gong Seok—who once felt inferior to Jeong Si-u just like me, but has since overcome that inferiority to become a good friend—might actually be able to offer something genuinely helpful.
“Oh, then I should contact him right away. Wait, is he at the lesson studio now? Does Seok-i still teach the trainees these days?”
“Ah, but…”
I was already searching for Seok-i’s contact on my phone, ready to rush into the practice room where he’d be, when Ji Su-ho added something with a hesitant expression.
“It’s the weekend today, so he’s not coming in. You’ll need to contact him first if you want to meet. You should probably reach out as soon as possible.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Seok-i’s quitting the company soon. This month is his last.”
“…Wh-what!?”
At this sudden, out-of-nowhere resignation announcement from consultation office number 3, I bolted upright from my seat.
Where are you going, our hopeless eldest!??!!!

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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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