Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 407

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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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407. Throwing the Tiger Off the Cliff (6)
“Sarin’s Etiquette” was a music talk show where 3-5 artist groups performed per episode, engaging in conversation and live performances. Each participating group had to prepare anywhere from brief, lighthearted cover songs to full-scale stage performances—sometimes as many as five songs in total.
Today’s Kairos setlist was as follows.
-Opening: Kick Off
-After Talk 1 (Same set, light): Screaming to You (Miro Maze ver.)
-After Talk 2 (Same set, seated): This Isn’t a Carol + No Spring + Spring, Again
-Ending: Black Paradise
The final song, “Black Paradise,” was a pre-release track that had just dropped yesterday, and its performance video—filmed in a large studio—had only just been uploaded to YouTube.
Originally, they should have brought a new comeback song, but scheduling conflicts during recording had forced them to release this track before the official comeback.
-We only had two options: not perform at all or go ahead with this. We had to do it. And with Sarin as the host, we couldn’t just frame this as a simple promotional appearance.
Moreover, Sarin herself had directly requested this appearance. Given that, today’s stage was less about aggressively promoting a new song and more about supporting Sarin in her new role as the show’s host, while also gauging audience reaction ahead of the comeback.
That’s why they’d chosen “Screaming to You,” one of her most well-received performances from the Miro Maze era.
“Yu-gun.”
“…Yes?”
Kwon Wook approached Yu-gun, who sat silently in the corner of the waiting room with nothing but lyrics in hand. Since Yu-gun had just finalized the contract for his new apartment, he wondered if this was related to that matter and quickly looked up.
Kwon Wook, who had been on a phone call, suddenly thrust a gift box into Yu-gun’s hands.
“What… is this?”
“Fan letters that came to the company as birthday gifts for you. There are more, but we’re giving you the ones we’ve already screened and selected first.”
“Ah… Thank you. But why suddenly now?”
“Don’t you know? Ha-jin told me to give these to you now. …Yes, hello. Ah, PD. Yes, yes. This is Kwon Wook, Kairos’s manager.”
At the mention that Ha-jin had asked him to pass these along, Yu-gun glanced over at Ha-jin in the distance. With only makeup and hair styling done, still dressed in casual clothes, Ha-jin seemed entirely absorbed in entertaining Sarin’s four-year-old son.
“Bang!”
“Ack! Cough, hack….”
“Hey, what are you acting out with a kid right in front of you!?”
At the child’s playful “bang,” Ha-jin even smeared ketchup on his mouth as he performed an exaggerated death scene. Tae-hyun gasped at the unnecessary method acting, shielding or not shielding the child’s eyes, but the boy seemed delighted by Ha-jin’s over-the-top performance, giggling repeatedly with delight.
Everyone’s attention was on the child. Yu-gun glanced around the noisy waiting room for a moment, then slowly opened the gift box resting on his lap.
【To Yu-gun】
【To. Yu-gun】
【Celebrating the Birthday of the Genius Tyranno】
Due to the terror attack Eun-chan had experienced not long ago, Kairos had temporarily restricted fan letters to birthday periods only, regardless of the timeframe. Because of this, Yu-gun felt a nostalgic warmth seeing fan letters—something he’d consistently received since debut—after such a long time.
Since the company had already screened everything once before passing it along, Yu-gun felt comfortable rummaging through the box to examine its contents. To read through so many letters without missing any, he needed to organize them first.
“…?”
As Yu-gun gathered and organized the mountain of letters into bundles, he soon discovered something hard lining the very bottom of the gift box. Just from the tactile sensation alone, it didn’t feel like an ordinary letter, so he hurriedly pushed the letters aside to identify what it was.
Then the gift that had been resting at the box’s bottom came into view.
“Ah.”
The mysterious hard object was none other than a framed picture.
Given that it fit the box perfectly and had protective foam padding around its edges, it seemed the frame had originally come in this box, and other fan letters had been added to it for delivery.
Yu-gun carefully lifted the frame out.
The frame contained a photograph of Yu-gun—a shot from the Summer Wave Festival stage not long ago. The image of Yu-gun stepping on a monitor, smiling brightly as he handed his microphone to the audience, felt particularly vivid and alive.
“….”
Since Yu-gun was someone who rarely bothered with self-monitoring, it was uncommon for him to hold such a prolonged gaze at his own stage presence frozen in time like this. The fact that it was a stage he’d once deemed endlessly lacking compared to the Summer Wave Festival made the feeling all the more strange.
With his water-soaked bangs swept back, his figure basking in the summer sun was….
“Why do you look so excited?”
He looked genuinely thrilled.
Yu-gun’s gaze shifted to a small card tucked in the corner of the frame. The card bore a brief handwritten message in his own script.

Joyful.
Yu-gun’s eyes lingered on that word for quite some time.
With so much happening lately, he’d momentarily forgotten, but it was the very sentence that had once called him back to the stage—him who had nearly abandoned everything to return home.
#Yu_gun’s_stage_is_always_joyful
Joy.
So that my stage could always be filled with joy.
Yu-gun’s grip tightened around the frame.
The lyrics sheet he’d been staring at until moments ago had long since faded from his mind.
* * *
“…They’re also very welcome guests to me?”
Sarin’s calm voice introducing Kairos echoed from center stage. Once the applause sounded, it would be Kairos’s turn to take the stage.
Yu-gun deliberated for a moment, then headed toward where the backup dancers were waiting for their first performance.
“…Hey, hyung.”
“Huh, Yu-gun? What’s up?”
“I’m sorry to bring this up so suddenly, but I was wondering if I could ask you for one favor.”
“A favor?”
The man leading the choreography team widened his eyes in question at Yu-gun’s sudden approach.
Though Yu-gun was someone who often contributed fresh ideas and suggestions through instinctive feel during performance practice, he wasn’t the type to suddenly approach right before a stage and greedily demand something ‘new’ like this.
“Sure, what is it? Nothing too difficult though—we’re three minutes from recording.”
“It shouldn’t be too difficult. …Probably.”
Yu-gun, tugging at his earlobes, slowly conveyed his proposal. The choreography director, listening intently, quickly grasped what Yu-gun was trying to do and nodded.
“So you’re saying you want to… in that part? Is that it?”
“Yes, since we haven’t practiced the timing together, it could be risky….”
As Yu-gun, making such a request for the first time, showed uncharacteristic nervousness and hesitation, the choreography director chuckled and gave his arm a light tap with his crossed arms.
“Nah, let’s go for it. That much should be fine.”
“…Thank you.”
“Still, let’s talk about these things in advance next time, yeah? We need to be careful about injuries~”
“Got it.”
“Hey, everyone. Gather around.”
As the choreography director explained the additional choreography added according to Yu-gun’s suggestion to the backup dancers, the introduction of Kairos on stage seemed to have concluded. Following the FD’s signal, the members quickly took the stage.
The audience’s cheers and applause sounded quite close. Since the lineup for “Sarin’s Etiquette” remained a secret until the day of the broadcast, those who hadn’t anticipated Kairos’s appearance could be seen excitedly expressing their delight in various spots.
“Two, three!”
“Kick Us Off! Hello, we’re Kairos! Thank you for having us!”
As the stage crew made final adjustments, Ha-jin’s count accompanied our group greeting, and the audience responded with even louder cheers and applause. Soon after Ha-jin delivered a brief opening ment, the members quickly shifted into the “Kick Off” formation once the final sound check was complete.
Raise your voice—one, two, three!
The song began with Si-u’s piercing high note, the same one that had sent shivers through the massive Japanese stage a week prior.
Yu-gun executed the choreography faithfully while observing the members moving in sync beside him. Even during parts that weren’t theirs, they mouthed the lyrics or maintained their facial expressions regardless of whether the cameras caught them—these details made them look genuinely professional now.
‘But what about me?’
I had never once cared how people on the audience perceived me on stage.
When asked to sing, I sang. When asked to rap, I rapped. When asked to dance, I danced. Facial expressions, eye contact with the camera—these weren’t things I desperately needed. I simply felt alive when the music was good and the choreography was good.
Warning, Warning
Wings that won’t fade easily
The lyrics.
I suddenly found myself contemplating these words.
This song, written by Do-ha and Ha-jin putting their heads together, carried their resolve and aspirations for Kairos’s future—just as we’d heard during the song introduction.
Don’t be afraid
Take my hand
A New Wave unfolds
Just enjoy it
With the soft wave as backdrop, Tae-hyun’s sweet falsetto at center stage skillfully pulled and pushed at the audience’s heartstrings.
The melody, neither too high nor too low for Tae-hyun’s range—the notes he could produce most beautifully—allowed him the luxury of focusing more on expression than vocal technique on stage.
We could get it all!
I want it, everything
The world we yearned for and dreamed of
The chorus begins with Si-u’s ringing high note. I don’t know much about vocal technique, but I’m aware that Jeong Si-u maintains a rather rough rocker’s singing style, contrary to his appearance.
His husky voice cracked slightly under the strain of the high note, but in this song, it came across not as grating but as charming.
You know it too
The path we’ve walked
The first step of a journey we willingly grasped
And then there’s Dan Ha-ru’s clear, refreshing voice that emerges after Kairos’s rocker main vocalist sweeps through.
The delinquent Ha-ru, that crooked youngest member who used to act rough, now performed quite idol-like, his fist clenched and his gaze sharp and piercing.
We could take it all!
Until my last breath
I’ll soar
Let’s kick off!
And cutting through all the members to deliver a solid finish is our leader Ha-jin. The choreography for “until my last breath” is genuinely so frantic and intense that breathing becomes nearly impossible, yet Kang Ha-jin never once ran out of breath during that section in all our rehearsals.
But now, on stage, Ha-jin deliberately let his labored breathing show, even furrowing his brow slightly.
I would have dismissed it as pure acting before, but today, I felt that his expression was a remarkable way of conveying the lyrics themselves.
“….”
The lyrics.
I thought about them once more.
About the lyrics that Lee Do-ha had written for him alone, for him and no one else.
Hahaha―, Hold on, hold on.
The opening verse that he’d forgotten during last time’s pathetic trembling came naturally spilling from his lips.
The group members stepped to the sides, and the dancers surrounded him. As Yoo Gun took a step back, the dancers bent their bodies and braced themselves with their hands, creating a makeshift platform like a staircase, just as promised.
And then―.
It’s started, our Death Match
Yoo Gun stepped onto that platform and leaped powerfully onto the stage.

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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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