Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 417

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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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417. If You Can’t Avoid It, Enjoy It (3)
An enigmatic office located on the 5th floor of some building barely clinging to the edge of Gangbuk, Seoul.
A man entered the office, punching in the password with practiced ease, and removed his sunglasses as he stepped inside.
“Hyung, I’m back―.”
Calling out to someone in a casual tone, the man stretched his body across the leather sofa positioned in the center of the office and carelessly tossed the sunglasses from his hand onto the table. They were some sponsorship item from a OneStagram shopping mall, but the brand was unremarkable and the style felt utterly uninspired.
“Oh, the actor’s here? Wait a sec, let me brew you a cup of coffee.”
As he draped his long legs over the armrest and sprawled out, a middle-aged man emerged from the back of the office, his voice dripping with obsequiousness as he launched into obvious flattery. A freshly brewed iced Americano from an expensive coffee machine was promptly delivered to the man.
“How was today’s shoot? The clothes looked good, right? I heard with good marketing we’re getting into X Department Store. Once we do, your photos will be splashed all over their app banner.”
“Terrible. The material’s cheap and the finishing is even worse. Did you pay them for this, hyung? The director kept saying ‘it’s fine even if you just stand there carelessly,’ which is even worse.”
“Ah, the actor’s presence made even a sloppy stance look like an A-cut. Never mind, never mind.”
At the ‘hyung’s’ endless praise delivered without a shred of sincerity, the man sat up from where he’d been sprawled across the sofa and chuckled to himself.
‘This guy’s tasted money from managing me and he’s absolutely hooked, isn’t he?’
There was something satisfying about the value of a name.
Kang Ha-jin, a man who had recently tasted the waters of the big leagues by borrowing the fame of another person who shared his identical name, took a sip of his iced Americano while entertaining such cynical thoughts.
In his naive childhood, he’d fallen for such honeyed words and enjoyed the sensation of being buried in fluffy cotton candy, but now, worn down by reality, he could distinguish between honey and the bee.
Now this man who called him ‘actor, actor’ and deferred to him would look right through him the moment his ‘name value’ plummeted, as if none of this had ever happened.
‘So I need to enjoy this while it lasts and squeeze out as much as I can.’
Kang Ha-jin set his cup down on the table with a dissatisfied expression. The middle-aged man, who seemed to be entertaining similar thoughts, quickly composed himself and opened his mouth.
“Anyway, don’t worry about the small stuff―just focus on managing your body and your face. Once we lock in Romantic Paradise and the project with Writer Song Han-gyeong after that, that’s when things really start.”
“Did the controversy pull more attention than I expected? Why are the offers so generous?”
“Seems like there are quite a few people in the industry who dislike them. Well, we just need to look at the benefits and take what we can get, right? It’s even better when you go out there as Kang Ha-jin and bring in the bread.”
At the middle-aged man’s chuckling remark, actor Kang Ha-jin set down his cup with an indifferent expression and muttered softly.
“Live long enough and you see everything. Even the benefits of this tedious name.”
Kang Ha-jin hated the name Kang Ha-jin.
Having known from an early age that his appearance and physique far exceeded the South Korean average, he’d dreamed of becoming an actor since childhood and had worked as a model while waiting for his moment to shine.
After finally debuting as he’d always wanted, he’d filmed several projects starting with web dramas, but what came back were pathetic view counts and comments numbering less than a hundred.
‘Why? Why isn’t it working?’
He was handsome enough, his physique was decent enough, and his acting was good enough.
He’d never once thought he was inferior to those who consistently landed spots on television and screens.
Yet opportunity had never been on his side.
‘This damn name. I hate it from the start.’
When he typed ‘Kang Ha-jin’ into the search bar, instead of his profile, countless things that were ‘not Kang Ha-jin’ appeared endlessly.
In fact, his own profile barely showed up at all. Only with clumsy modifiers like ‘actor Kang Ha-jin’ or ‘that guy with glasses’ from his projects could his OneStagram account barely surface.
So Kang Ha-jin disliked his own name.
He believed his failure to become famous was entirely because of this name.
Even during his brief stint as an internet streamer when he used a nickname, he’d failed to gain fame, yet Kang Ha-jin attributed that too to his colorless and unremarkable real name.
Because his real name lacked character, even his nickname evoked nothing but bland, odorless associations.
【Kairos Kang Ha-jin, Ranked #1 Male Celebrity You’d Like to Enjoy a Christmas Date With】
But then one day, things he’d never seen before began appearing when he searched his name on the internet.
【[XZ Photo] Kairos Ha-jin ‘A Visual That Captivates the Eye’】
【[HOT!] Kang Ha-jin, who updated his live performance again today (471)】
Does anyone know what hoodie Kang Ha-jin wore on Today’s Kairos yesterday?
Trending Now: Kang Ha-jin’s Choice! ‖ Titanium Frameless Geek-Chic Glasses
Everywhere you went, it was nothing but talk of Kang Ha-jin, Kang Ha-jin, Kang Ha-jin.
I debuted first, yet Kang Ha-jin casually claimed ownership of the name and etched himself into the entertainment industry with striking force.
Two years.
In just two years.
What I couldn’t accomplish despite nearly a decade of effort, Kang Ha-jin achieved in a mere two years.
“You made sure to clean things up properly with your ex-girlfriend, right? We can’t have any gossip surfacing later.”
“I gave her a warning. It’s not like we were madly in love or anything. She got to play the idol’s girlfriend and had some fun with it, so it’s fine. What’s the big deal?”
At the man’s words, Kang Ha-jin shook his head, signaling him not to worry.
Through this situation, he had far less concern for the idol Kang Ha-jin—someone he’d never even met—who was suffering damage, than he did for his ex-girlfriend’s well-being.
‘It’s not like I’m borrowing her fame and she’ll collapse tomorrow because of it. I’m not using the name exclusively—I’m just helping out a bit, that’s all.’
Besides, it’s not like I’m going around pretending to be Kairos’s Kang Ha-jin, right?
Anyway, thanks to this, I’d been cast in a dating reality show on a cable channel, and even in a major broadcast drama with a decent scale—albeit in a minor supporting role.
If this was all the price of slightly tarnishing the name Kang Ha-jin, then I was willing to become even more shameless than I am now. After all, regardless of the cause, once you become popular, fans will follow, and once fans are there, a little noise doesn’t matter.
– No, the actor debuted first haha. So shouldn’t the idol change the name?
The general public doesn’t even care whether she’s Kang Ha-jin or Kim Ha-jin, but it’s always just the fanatics making a fuss about it every time lol
– I’ve been watching actor Kang Ha-jin since the web drama Onseollem! I hope you meet a good project and get your name back… LOL ㅠㅠ
See? People are already starting to remember ‘me’.
Kang Ha-jin was quite satisfied with the current situation. Far from thinking of reversing it, I had no desire whatsoever to return to how things were, and if possible, I wanted to milk this fame for all it was worth.
After all, that guy was just another immature attention-seeker in his early twenties like everyone else. If I kept raising the value of the ‘Kang Ha-jin’ name endlessly, and then orchestrated some scandal to retire gracefully once I’d established myself, there’d be nothing more to ask for.
“Right, right. Anyway, keep his mouth shut, and from now on, instead of targeting the idol so openly, we’ll shift to a more subtle approach.”
“…Subtle?”
“While circumstances forced us to make the name known this way, the image we’ll push is that of a prepared actor who walked his path quietly and steadily under the name Kang Ha-jin much earlier and for much longer. Your casting articles will be dropping soon anyway, so we’ll ride that wave.”
“Well… okay. You’re the expert in this stuff anyway, hyung.”
“Yeah, ah, and when you do interviews too…. Oh, wait a second.”
Kang Ha-jin tossed the last of his coffee into his mouth and nodded. The man who was about to explain something further suddenly received a call and asked for permission. I turned my gaze away to indicate he should take it freely, and the man answered the problematic call.
“Huh, why? …What?”
“…?”
“No, what? What do you mean? Kang Ha-jin?”
Something felt off the moment my name came out of the man’s mouth on the phone.
“What did Kang Ha-jin do?”
No, that wasn’t my name.
It was ‘that’ Kang Ha-jin.
“No, what…. Hold on.”
The man, his face irritated, held the phone to his ear while glancing at me, then hurriedly pulled the laptop beside him closer. He then frantically tapped at the keyboard to search for something. His trembling hands betrayed his panic.
“Damn it, what….”
“…Why? What’s going on?”
Having found what he was looking for, the man’s expression shifted from bewilderment to utter disbelief as he cursed. Sensing something was wrong from that look, Kang Ha-jin quickly straightened up and snatched the laptop from him.
“Ha, damn it, that guy’s really something else….”
Alongside the man’s assessment—whether praise or curse, I couldn’t tell—my screen filled with an internet browser window.
Playing on it was a video freshly uploaded about five minutes ago to the official Kairos YouTube channel, which had long since surpassed a million subscribers.
-Hello everyone.
-Kairos’s leader, class president, commander, captain, real power broker. …and what was it again?
(The new authority and future.)
Oh, right. The new authority and future. I’m Kang Ha-jin.
In the video, I appeared before the selfie camera in a curator-like casual suit, my black hair neatly styled to complement this comeback. The footage alternated between my selfie camera angle and shots from the production team filming me.
In the wide shot, Seo Tae-hyun stood beside me in similar attire, his expression subtly exhausted with that “why am I even here?” look.
-Today, I’ve come to you all with a special feature.
-What exactly is this? For all of you wondering, let me introduce today’s special right away. Assistant? Come on.
(God, I really hate Kang Ha-jin.)
While I usually wore earrings and ear cuffs dangling from one ear, in this video my ears were pristine. I’d even equipped those round glasses frames—without actual lenses—that fans always called my “god-tier look.”
When I clapped twice and called for someone, Tae-hyun, who’d been following along with obvious reluctance, flashed a broadcast-ready smile as if he’d never hesitated and gracefully stepped into frame.
-Yes, hello. I’m Seo Tae-hyun, serving as today’s special feature assistant.
(Wow, that business smile is insane… ah!)
Now then, let me announce today’s special theme.
Tae-hyun, who’d silenced me with a shin kick (off-camera) when I muttered about capitalist smiles, sharply unfurled the ornate gold-foil durumagi he’d been holding the whole time with a crisp snap.
A subtitle appeared below: 【Selected for doing this well】.
-Today’s special is…!
【Come Here Nabilera, What Is Your Name…? Finding Every Kang Ha-jin in This World】
-What does “Come Here Nabilera” even mean?
-I just threw together something that sounds vaguely similar. It’s meaningless.
-Why couldn’t we just use the original line?
-That might cause copyright issues. Let’s just move on.
The banter between Seo Tae-hyun and me passed quickly. As I watched through the video, I belatedly checked the title with a sinking feeling.
【Kang Ha-jin Was an Idol in Seoul, But a Farmer with 1 Billion Won Annual Revenue in Pyeongchang? ‖ Kang Ha-jin’s Come Here Nabilera!】
-From this moment on! I plan to search out every single Kang Ha-jin that exists in South Korea.
I’d just shredded the premium attached to my own name.
The name value I’d barely managed to build was crashing straight into the ground.

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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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