Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 399

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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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399. How This Idol Maintains Discipline (6)
“They’ve arrived.”
And so they had.
Han Rang, the primary account holder, and Soda, the secondary account holder—both currently wrestling with denial about their bias for Lee Do-ha, their second bias for Kang Ha-jin, and increasingly, their unwanted attraction to Lee Yu-gun.
She found herself standing before Busan Station, letting out a sigh that was less a lament and more an acknowledgment of her circumstances. Lately, she’d been thinking about it—she never intended to love Kairos this much.
‘But how am I supposed to resist the Summer Festival!?’
Idols, musicals, anime, theater, dramas, sports….
She’d dabbled in every conceivable fandom, yet hip-hop remained her foundational genre. Even with the recent surge in charm and swagger from the undefeated angel Kang Ha-jin, and Lee Yu-gun—that delinquent exterior housing a refined soul—launching nuclear warheads and machine-gun fire at her heart, Lee Do-ha still held the number one position unchallenged.
‘And what is hip-hop? It’s all about the events!’
Spring overflowed with vibrant vitality, autumn painted itself in falling leaves and crimson sunsets, and winter even produced breath mist as a natural effect.
Each season had its charm, but summer—summer was the flower among flowers.
‘That passionate brilliance of natural sunlight under the blazing summer sun, sweat glistening, water cascading over their heads—that’s what beauty truly is.’
And Kairos was performing it themselves! At Haeundae Beach in Busan, no less!
If she hadn’t gotten a ticket, that would be one thing, but she had—and skipping it would be like buying a lottery ticket and never scratching it. Soda gripped her camera bag slung over one shoulder and her suitcase in the other hand as she pulled out her phone. She needed to call a taxi to get to the dormitory, but first, there was someone she needed to contact.
-Hello?
“Professor Task, I’ve arrived.”
-Oh, you’re here? I’m on my way now. I think it’ll take about thirty minutes.
“Really? Hmm, I was planning to go to the dormitory and unpack. Should I wait and we go together?”
-Yeah, that works. Just head into a nearby cafe. I’ll call you when I arrive.
Professor Task—Kang Ha-jin’s home manager and her fellow fan—had taken a leave of absence and worked part-time to save money for an overseas trip, only to have it all seized by Kang Ha-jin and spent entirely on concert tickets.
Soda obediently entered a cafe near the station at Professor Task’s words about arriving soon. It made more financial sense to wait in the cafe and split the taxi fare with her rather than pay for it alone.
“Ugh, it’s hot…. Hot and heavy…. This is love, isn’t it? If it’s not love, what is it…? If Lee Do-ha hadn’t torn apart that bright yellow athletic uniform with his forearms and shoulders at the Idol Athletic Games…. Or if Kairos hadn’t performed that incredible live at the Hwangryong Awards…. I wouldn’t have come this far, I swear….”
So really, this was all Kairos’s fault for being so talented, and her own fault for having deeper fandom tendencies than she’d realized.
With that thought, Soda found a seat and carelessly set down her heavy luggage. She didn’t forget to head straight to the counter and order an iced Americano and a sweet cake. With nothing to do until her friend arrived, Soda idly pulled out her phone and accessed Bluebird.
Kairos
@Daily_KIRUS New post notification
“Oh, the members posted.”
She’d just logged in when, luckily, a new notification appeared on the Kairos account. Soda confirmed it was the daily account where members typically posted selfies and everyday moments, and she clicked the notification without much thought.
The screen connected to the daily Kairos account, and a new photo Ha-jin had uploaded just minutes ago filled the display.
Kairos
@Daily_KIRUS
[Ha-jin] Summer Wave outfit spoiler incoming
Guess who this is
Answer reveal in 5 minutes
(A photo of someone’s right hand gripping a water gun.jpg)
(A cropped photo of a member’s right shoulder and forearm from the back, wearing a white sleeveless shirt.jpg)
(A close-up photo of a mint-colored slogan tag hanging at the waist.jpg)
(A photo of someone’s legs standing straight, wearing dark jeans.jpg)
1,349 shares 392 quotes 2,300 likes
The cryptic caption was accompanied by photos of a member’s body parts cropped and enlarged from various angles, like a riddle. Watching the share and like counts climb in real-time as proof of how freshly posted it was, Han Rang touched one of the photos to examine it more closely.
“Insane, this looks like Do-ha.”
The prominent veins running down my right hand, the defined lines stretching from shoulder to forearm, and the subtly sculpted musculature all screamed one answer to this riddle—Lee Do-ha. Among the younger members of Kairos, there was no one else who could pull off this kind of hot-guy vibe.
Soda immediately quoted the post and attached evidence photos explaining why this could only be Do-ha. With the eyes of a hawk, she combed through the gallery, cropped a similar photo of Do-ha from the clues, and uploaded it. Within minutes, the heart count skyrocketed. Not even a minute had passed before it easily surpassed dozens.
Moments like these always reminded her just how much Kairos had become the trend of trends lately.
Kairos
@Daily_KIRUS
[Ha-jin] Answer revealed.
See you later 🙂
(Full-body photo of Lee Do-ha holding a water gun in one hand, a baseball cap pulled low, with Haeundae Beach in the background.jpg)
By the time I checked the notification, five minutes had already passed and Ha-jin’s new post had been uploaded.
And when Soda saw the photo, she immediately covered her mouth.
‘Wow, insane, Do-ha…!’
I knew that Lee Do-ha had been focusing on bulking up lately, adjusting his diet and workout intensity. He’d mentioned it himself through communication apps.
But this was the first time he’d revealed the results so blatantly.
‘He looked taller than Park Woong at the Idol Athletic Games. Did he actually grow? Or did his posture correction improve his silhouette? No, the sleeveless fit is insane. What are those shoulders? Are they real? And why is his face so small?’
The black baseball cap pulled low obscured his face, but that only made his silhouette stand out even more. From the sharp jawline turned to the side to the distinctively broad shoulders he’d always had, down to the bare forearms and legs that seemed to go on forever.
In just a simple white sleeveless shirt and deep blue jeans, he already embodied summer itself. It was hard to believe this man’s birthday fell on Valentine’s Day in the depths of winter.
“No way, if you gave birth to a hot guy like this in summer, global warming would accelerate the apocalypse by at least ten years. This is all thanks to Do-ha’s mother’s grand design for this world….”
“Ugh, you crazy bastard!”
“…?”
Unable to contain the overwhelming rush of emotion, I was practically breathing out fangirl comments when suddenly a loud voice erupted from a nearby table.
Reflexively turning my head to see what was happening, the ones who’d shouted seemed to regret their outburst and quickly covered their mouths. Then they huddled together and lowered their voices, but since the tables were close, I could hear everything they said despite their attempts at discretion.
“Seriously, isn’t Lee Do-ha insane? What’s with those forearms? Why are they like that? Really, what’s going on?”
“I love that Ha-jin is just as obsessed with the members’ faces and physiques as we are. Some people complain sometimes, but honestly, I think that’s just jealousy. Where else in the world can you find an idol who provides content this abundantly?”
“But I was really curious about where they were going with the water gun concept…. It’s a shame it’s not actually a water gun concept. Do-ha would definitely kill it in a water gun concept.”
“Eh, besides Do-ha, the rest are still so young. Their song doesn’t really fit a water gun concept anyway. Summer Wave is perfect for now, while they’re still developing.”
Wait, they’re talking about our group?
Soda instinctively shifted her camera bag to the side and checked her appearance. Fortunately, all the fan goods and figurines that would reveal her as a Destiny member were packed away in her luggage. It wasn’t like anything bad would happen if they found out she was also a Destiny fan, but something told her it would be awkward if they discovered it.
“But what do you all think about this comeback? The teaser reactions seem to be getting some overseas buzz.”
I was about to put in my earbuds, thinking it was rude to keep eavesdropping, when a comment caught my ear.
Knowing I shouldn’t, Soda inserted only one earbud instead of both and subtly listened in on their conversation. The oldest-looking one in the group swept back her hair and spoke with authority.
“Well, it should do well. The buildup has been solid this time. Unless they suddenly come out with some ridiculous reggae hair and Hawaiian shirt concept, they should at least hit mid-tier or higher.”
“I hope they brought a good song. Of course, their track record has been solid so far, but this one seems like they got an external track, so I’m a bit worried….”
“I’m not worried about the song since it’s Miro. What I want is for them to pay more attention to part distribution and choreography formations. Honestly, if Miro really wants to push Kairos properly, they absolutely need to focus on the Gobaeksin unit—that’s Jeong Si-u, Seo Tae-hyun, and Ju Eun-chan combination.”
Whether she was the leader of the group or not, the woman spoke with unwarranted confidence, acting like some kind of critic. With her arms crossed, she delivered her sharp assessments of Kairos.
“Honestly, I don’t understand why Miro still isn’t pushing them properly. Seo Tae-hyun and Ju Eun-chan can dance and sing. Jeong Si-u has the face and the skills. If they just give them more parts and show their faces more in the music videos, they’d attract twice as many international fans as they do now.”
“That’s true. Even at the Idol Athletic Games, those Gobaeksin kids went viral with archery.”
Great, just typical antis. Or face-only fans, in other words.
Soda, who believed Kairos’s greatest strength lay in its near-complete all-rounder members and the synergy they created together, quickly lost interest and reached for the other earbud.
They thought Kairos would’ve blown up even bigger if Miro had focused on Gobaeksin?
That was something so far removed from the underbelly of the industry that it was almost laughable. For starters, Kairos’s popularity wasn’t being driven by the visuals of those three members alone, and even if they held a certain share, the current state of Kairos was that popularity was nearly evenly distributed among all members. If those three generated inflow through visuals, the other members were equally drawing attention through their skills, physicality, and other strengths. On top of that, Kairos was famous for being a team that sufficiently pushed each member’s individual strengths and utilized them well! Just look at how they shamelessly showcased Jeong Si-u’s face at the last Hwangryong Awards—wasn’t that proof enough?
‘That’s the kind of rhetoric those rabid Ju Eun-chan fans usually use when they whine about wanting more screen time. Are they that type too?’
Soda would define herself as a definite Lee Do-ha bias with Kang Ha-jin as her second bias (she was vehemently denying that Lee Yu-gun was slowly creeping up into third place), and if she had to say, she also had tendencies of being both a casual fan and a hardcore supporter, but that didn’t mean she was wrong about certain things.
However, just as she was about to finish putting in her earbuds, as if regretting that she’d heard something she shouldn’t have, a remark she simply couldn’t let slide reached her ears.
“I mean, I get the others, right? But why can’t they just let go of Lee Yu-gun? I seriously don’t understand that. Honestly, he can’t even rap anyway, so they should reduce his parts and give all the dance break centers to Eun-chan, that’s just how it should be. Or better yet, just hand it over to Kang Ha-jin instead.”
What’s wrong with our Yu-gun?
The moment she heard thoughtless criticism of her third bias, whom she had repeatedly denied, the pure all-fan otaku self buried deep within her heart kicked open the coffin and burst forth.

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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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