Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 412

—————

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

—————

412. A Celebration of Youth (4)
For the record, this press conference was being broadcast live through a major media outlet’s YouTube channel.
Which meant―.
Idol Collective
@Idol_Zip
Breaking up? Who are you?
An idol who turned a breakup rumor into a press conference moment
(Ha-jin’s “Who is that?” video clip.mp4)
Shares 10K Retweets 4,201 Likes 13K
This absurd spectacle had been witnessed live by thousands, and over ten thousand people were already sharing it across social media.
The moment I came down to the waiting room to collect myself after hastily wrapping up the press conference, I confirmed the video—and my facial expression in it was nothing short of legendary.
Kim Bong-pal
@Bong8Kim
This oppa is seriously killing me
A reporter just asked about the breakup rumor that exploded
And he’s like, I hope you have a good breakup
He’s actually saying that
(Ha-jin’s response to the breakup rumor question.mp4)
Shares 5,319 Retweets 2,300 Likes 3,184
I exhaled heavily, my eyes half-glazed, and clicked on that video—the one with my obviously stupid face plastered as the thumbnail. The footage started from the moment I’d blurted out something ridiculous like “Who is that?”
-Uh… I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but it seems like there might have been some kind of misunderstanding…
-Well, um… Oh my, it seems you’ve broken up… No, I mean, you broke up with me? With me?
Wow, I really look legendarily stupid.
Because the screen was zoomed in fairly wide, I could clearly see Dan Ha-ru and Seo Tae-hyun’s pupils shaking violently in real-time on either side of me.
Unlike Dan Ha-ru, who had the expression of “A breakup? With this hyung?”, Seo Tae-hyun was looking at me without laughing or crying. He knew it wasn’t true, but because I’d been hit from behind so many times before, he couldn’t let go of that sliver of possibility and was trembling nervously—until he saw my reaction and seemed to relax.
‘Why does this bother me so much?’
They believed that? They believed that????
Did they know that I’d been so busy I didn’t even have time to read romance novels, let alone date, just pressing hearts on my favorite works every day??????????
While I was fuming over this, the me in the video continued stammering through my response with a blank expression.
-Well, it seems like something’s been misunderstood, but I don’t know this person at all.
-Uh… It appears that a breakup with someone else has been reported incorrectly, and anyway, I hope you… compose yourself well… and have a good breakup, no wait, something sounds weird about what I’m saying… Anyway, it’s not me.
“Have a good breakup”—what in the world was that supposed to mean?
Those were my own words, but the memory was hazy. And no wonder—the first scandal since my debut wasn’t even a dating rumor; it was a breakup rumor.
And I was being asked about breaking up with someone I didn’t even know at my comeback showcase?
This was fake news I’d never encountered even back when I was working as a PD.
“Ha-jin.”
“Oh, hyung. You found out? What happened?”
Either way, a scandal was a scandal, and a comeback was a comeback.
After that answer, I refused to respond to any further related questions, and the agency announced they would end the conference without answering any questions unrelated to the comeback. While we wrapped up the press conference without incident, Kwon Wook was on his way back after figuring out exactly what had happened.
“Ha… This seems like we got played.”
“…caught up in it?”
“Got caught in a viral post. Ju Ppo-a, what? Anyway, her ex-boyfriend’s name is Kang Ha-jin. He’s apparently working as an actor, but he’s basically nobody.”
“Oh….”
“This is the post she uploaded. Take a look.”
I accepted the tablet Kwon Wook was holding out. Curious about the full story, I noticed the group members eating their lunch boxes beside me were subtly leaning their heads over to peek at what I was looking at.
“What exactly did she write….”
At this point, I had to check it out of sheer curiosity. I pushed my lunch box aside and flipped through the SNS screenshots Kwon Wook had captured one by one, and as I turned each page, I felt the expressions of the members around me—including myself—gradually stiffen.
“Wow….”
The problematic SNS post contained several photos along with text that seemed to hint at a breakup.
There were couple items with direct initials like ‘KHJ♡JBA’, and several screenshots of messenger conversations they’d shared. Moreover, these screenshots included messages where the man explicitly mentioned words like invitations, fans, festivals, and performances.
It was so blatant that even Seo Tae-hyun, who was checking the screenshots beside me, hardened his expression and said this.
“If I saw this, I would’ve thought it was you too.”
What was even more absurd was the text written below it.
Phrases like ‘when you said you were always tired of your fans, who are like your very destiny’ were clearly worded to evoke Destiny—anyone could see it was intentional. Even without a real target, this would’ve seemed like paranoid delusion, but the fact that there actually was a target made it even more ridiculous.
If she was going to drag someone, why drag me along with her ex?
“It looks like she deliberately wrote it so people would misunderstand that you were the target. Fortunately, thanks to you giving a straightforward answer at the press conference, the clarification seems to have worked…. Because of that, the streamer and her ex are causing a mess in the community right now. You know what’s even funnier? Flip one more page.”
As Kwon Wook scratched his forehead as if troubled, I flipped to another screenshot in the gallery. Then a screenshot of someone’s Instagram story that had been posted just minutes ago was right there.
White text was written line after line on a black background, and from the account profile and name, it seemed to be the streamer’s account.
bj_zoobboa ‧
A few minutes ago
I’m sorry, but my breakup
has nothing to do with the person mentioned in the current articles
It seems a misunderstanding arose because his name is the same as my ex-boyfriend’s
I find this situation really unpleasant too
I’m already struggling enough, so please stop harassing me with DMs or comments
I just said we broke up because we broke up, so what’s the problem
“Oh….”
“This is why I’m going crazy right now. Whether it’s defamation or rumor-spreading, there’s no grounds to sue. Her boyfriend’s name is Kang Ha-jin, so what can we do about it.”
Using homonyms to bait clickbait articles was a pretty classic tactic. Some deliberately used famous celebrities’ names to chase views, spreading all sorts of marriage rumors and dating scandals, and sometimes even publishing articles about drunk driving or assault incidents.
And unfortunately, this time it was my turn.
“When I searched fan reactions, it looks like she’d been drawing some attention on her broadcasts by frequently playing your songs or mentioning connections to you. Ha-jin also occasionally posted couple items with you, but since she had so little recognition, only people who knew her thought she was just an attention-seeker.”
So it was intelligent baiting.
After hearing that, I could picture what was going on.
An unknown streamer with less than a hundred average viewers happened to have a boyfriend with the same name as a trending idol these days. So she had an excuse to slip away, and she deliberately tried to draw attention with dating rumors, but that didn’t work out well either.
Then after breaking up with the guy, she decided to suck out one last bit of attention as a parting shot, and it hit the jackpot.
The only problem was that the person whose attention she sucked out wasn’t her ex-boyfriend—it was me.
“…Are you sure this is a real breakup?”
I looked up at Kwon Wook and asked, just in case.
I wished they weren’t people that terrible, but the world wasn’t always as pure as my heart.
“No matter how I look at it, it seems like she and her ex-boyfriend are in on it together. If she wanted to screw over her ex, she should’ve just criticized him—why drag me into this? All this does is spread awareness of her ex-boyfriend anyway.”
“Aw, surely not….”
Unable to hide my suspicion, I asked, and Ju Eun-chan, who had been reading the screenshots with pure sincerity beside me, couldn’t conceal his contempt and nearly gasped in shock.
His expression screamed, ‘Surely humans wouldn’t lack such basic decency,’ and seeing our Ju Ppo-a fanatic and pure maxed-out stat Ju Eun-chan react like that, I felt a surge of certainty that my prediction was correct.
“The Executive Director is already heading to the company to look into it more. I hope this turns out to be just a one-time incident, but if they’re doing this deliberately, we’ll need to prepare some countermeasures.”
“Ah, well… then it should be fine.”
Fortunately, Ji Su-ho, who was competent and quick-witted, seemed to have caught wind of something.
Regardless of other matters, Miro certainly had plenty of know-how when it came to handling scandals like this, so I could leave this to Ji Su-ho to verify.
‘If I had my way, I’d want the fans not to react to this at all and completely ignore it….’
What people like that wanted most was ‘attention.’
If that VJ and the unknown actress were really determined to drag me through the mud, the most effective response from our side would be to act like ‘who even is that?’ and not give them any attention at all. People like that throw themselves at controversy hoping to get insulted in the first place.
And the worst-case scenario would be if so-called ‘ordinary people’ who sympathized with the VJ being attacked by Destiny’s fans decided to join in.
– Wait, his ex’s name is Kang Ha-jin? So what are we supposed to do about it?
– Male idol fans are so full of themselves lol you guys think he’s your oppa but to regular people we don’t care if your oppa’s name is Kang Ha-jin or Kang Puppy
– Here we go with the witch hunts again lol anyway your oppa probably likes Ju Ppo-a more since she’s prettier lol
‘Ugh, just thinking about it makes me sick.’
I’d bet all of Cha Min-seok’s hair that eighty percent of people writing comments like that weren’t ‘ordinary people’ at all.
This wasn’t a guess—it was certainty. You never know who’s behind a monitor, but this much I could tell.
‘Destiny, please stay quiet. Please….’
Aside from being treated like a leech for publicity, I really didn’t want the fans to get unfairly criticized and stressed out over something that wasn’t even my fault. Besides, ignoring this kind of thing was the fastest way for it to die down anyway.
Since the other party was an internet VJ who did high-rated broadcasts, getting entangled with them would only hurt me.
“Let’s just completely ignore it for now. I already made a clear statement at the press conference anyway, so there’s no need to put out additional articles. I’d rather this just end as ‘something funny that happened’ before it gets any bigger.”
“Right. Of all days, it had to be comeback day…. Ugh, I’m so annoyed I can’t stand it. Anyway, the company will definitely block any additional articles, so you guys just focus on the showcase. We just started letting fans in.”
Right, in the end, what mattered was the comeback.
The breakup rumors had drawn some unwanted attention for a moment, but my foolish face had definitely cleared things up, and as the ‘Break up with me? Who are you?’ meme spread in real-time on SNS, news of Kairos’s comeback was spreading properly as well.
Since what happened had already happened, I needed to gather all this buzz and use it effectively.
I silently grabbed the shoulder of Lee Yu-gun, who was sitting beside me with a face that showed he had no interest in this whole situation, busily scraping away at his lunchbox.
“…?”
“Yu-gun.”
“What, what is it?”
“I only trust you, hyung.”
“Trust me with what, all of a sudden.”
“Well, it’s something like that.”
I believe in your sleepy-eyed character’s awakening buff not being over yet.
Show me about five moments of potential bursting during today’s showcase.
Once again, I shamelessly wished for a free ride on the members’ momentum.
* * *
At 7 PM, exactly one hour after the music release and music video premiere time, the showcase venue was already packed with Destiny fans holding light sticks.
Since Kairos had exploded from their debut survival show, their debut showcase had received a respectable number of attendees for rookies, but this comeback was clearly different in terms of fandom scale—it was visibly apparent to the naked eye.
“Unnie, did you download the streaming list? Why won’t this download….”
“Oh, that’s weird. The main support team posted a new link. I’ll send it to you now.”
“Thank you. I really want to get the kids their first win this time….”
“I’m already running streams on my laptop, phone, and tablet.”
Those seated in the fan section were either watching the music video or coordinating streaming attacks, waiting for the showcase to begin. While some murmured about the earlier (rather unfortunate?) false breakup rumors, most were brimming with anticipation and excitement for the new song.
Woooo―
And so the whispers continued throughout the empty venue.
Soon the hall went dark, and an unidentifiable howl pierced through the speakers. Desty members instinctively sensed the showcase was beginning, and everyone scrambled to grab their light sticks and cameras.
Hwoooo―
Then the curtain obscuring the stage was drawn back, revealing the seven members they’d been waiting for. Dressed in worn summer school uniforms stained with what looked like blood-red paint in places, the members slowly lifted their heads.
With the sound of film rolling, the title of this title track appeared on the LED display behind them, typed in worn handwriting.
【A Celebration of Youth; A Very Bad Story】
【Case 2. And No One】
Then Kang Ha-jin, with black hair and gray-tinted contact lenses, stepped forward. The gentle, cool smile he always wore for his fans was now replaced with a chilling, ominous aura.
Hide, hide away
Don’t let your hair show
It was the opening verse of a mystery-suspense-horror piece that concept otaku Kairos had deliberately crafted.

—————

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

—————