Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 451

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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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451. Housing Project (2)
The results were devastating.
“Why! How could this…!”
“This isn’t what I was hoping for at all….”
After the test concluded, Kairos was fortunately distributed evenly across three rooms. The production team had at least avoided the worst-case scenario of a 1:6 split that they’d dreaded most.
“Are we really doing this? Really? Seriously?”
But that didn’t mean the results had divided into the golden ratio of 2:2:3 either.
Unable to accept the outcome, I lifted my head and checked the final team roster displayed on the monitor.
【RED: Kang Ha-jin】
【BLUE: Ju Eun-chan】
【GREEN: Jeong Si-u Lee Do-ha Seo Tae-hyun Lee Yu-gun Dan Ha-ru】
How could the results be so equally unfortunate for everyone?
Those who had secretly hoped for a private room ended up with four roommates, while those who weren’t thrilled about a private room at all were forced into solitary living.
Now, with all seven members including Eun-chan plunged into despair and unable to speak, the Main PD, struggling to contain his laughter, asked me as if confused.
“But Ha-jin, isn’t a private room good? You get your own space.”
“I’m the type of person who doesn’t even like traveling alone.”
It was a response befitting someone with an MBTI extroversion score of 99%.
For reference, in my previous life, I’d hated eating and living alone in an empty house so much that I’d deliberately avoided moving out and stayed at my hometown instead.
“PD… is this really the final result…?”
Ju Eun-chan, another prominent extrovert in Kairos, asked in a voice full of disappointment.
Every night before bed, he’d chatted away with his former roommates Yu-gun and Ha-ru, and every morning they’d wake each other up and play pranks, creating joyful memories—a private room felt like a prison to him.
Unable to bear that look in his eyes—like a kitten caught in the rain without its owner—Go Writer cleared his throat with a cough and announced the additional rules.
“In any case, today is about determining your living arrangements, so if you’d like, you can change teams. However, rules are rules, so you can’t switch completely…. For team balance, I can allow single-member teams to merge with each other, or for one person from a larger team to move to a single-member team.”
Eun-chan’s expression, which had brightened at the mention of team changes being possible, sank instantly upon hearing the final condition.
Eun-chan looked toward the ‘other single-member team’—his only option.
“Ha, well. There’s no helping it, Chan. Come here. Let’s revive the chemistry we had back in our trainee days.”
Already confident that Eun-chan would come to me out of loneliness, I swept back my hair and held out my arms in a gesture inviting him to embrace me.
In that moment, Eun-chan’s mind raced faster than light. Recalling his roommate days with me during the Miro Maze era in a flash, he shook his head and turned away in just 0.3 seconds.
“I’ll just live alone.”
“Ah, come on, don’t lie. Am I really that bad to you? Chan, you’re misunderstanding Destiny!”
Remembering that one of the things he used to say constantly during the Miro Maze days was ‘Do-ha hyung, please switch rooms with me,’ Ju Eun-chan couldn’t have been more resolute in this moment.
Cats and dogs were naturally incompatible after all.
Ha-ru, at least being younger than me, was in a different weight class, but living as roommates with me—someone who’d mastered the art of bullying, steaming, and deep-frying him—would definitely be more painful than a private room.
“There’s still a chance. If just one person from the five-member team leaves, we could balance it to 2:2:3.”
Kwon PD, hiding his true thought that ‘honestly, keeping it like this would make the broadcast more entertaining,’ offered the rules once more with a friendly smile.
This wasn’t terrestrial broadcasting, and since it was idol content made for the fans anyway, there was no need to leave anything that would make the members uncomfortable.
‘Besides, we’ll need some balance for the next race to proceed smoothly….’
Kwon PD, who’d been running simulations about what came next, donned his professional smile and looked toward the GREEN team huddled together.
Now, they’d surely gather and start raising their hands one by one, saying they’d move away from whoever they disliked….
“….”
“…?”
What? Why isn’t anyone responding?
The studio fell into an unexpected silence.
The five-member team, whom I’d naturally expected to protest and bicker about switching teams first, were just exchanging glances and scratching their cheeks. At their reaction, Ju Eun-chan received his first shock, while Kang Ha-jin, rejected by the members twice, widened his eyes in disbelief.
Ha-jin flapped his hands in exasperation and raised his voice.
“Seriously, you’ve all become broadcast veterans. You’re staying as five? Really? Are you serious?”
Then Jeong Si-u, standing at the very front, shrugged and answered.
“I actually wanted a shared room anyway, so I’m satisfied.”
“Don’t lie, hyung. You just want to see me using a solo room!”
“Well, I mean, there’s that too, kind of…? I’m curious if Ha-jin will complain even when he has his own room.”
As always, cats and dogs are natural enemies.
Jeong Si-u, who was sometimes called a “cat bro” alongside Kairos’s representative cat Ju Eun-chan, broke into a mischievous smile. His eyes sparkled with a vitality and brilliance that had been rare to see lately.
Kwon PD, who found it difficult to suppress the genuine emotion seeping into the smile he wore for social purposes, continued speaking with his cheeks raised high.
“Is that the case for everyone else? Tae-hyun, didn’t you say it’s difficult sleeping with many people gathered together?”
At the PD’s pointed question toward Tae-hyun, both Eun-chan and Ha-jin’s gazes turned toward him simultaneously.
Especially Eun-chan, whose reputation for following Tae-hyun closely had even spread to the neighboring Endway’s fanbase, looked at him with sparkling eyes.
“Well….”
Tae-hyun’s pupils trembled rapidly.
Tae-hyun, who had been alternating his gaze between Ha-jin and Eun-chan—his two options—quietly withdrew his eyes and turned his head away.
“I’ll have no comment on that….”
“Hyung…?”
“Sorry, Eun-chan.”
But your hyung has to survive too, doesn’t he?
In that softly muttered voice lay the heartfelt sincerity of an “I” who had been tormented by an extreme “E”.
With that, Eun-chan, who had now been rejected by Tae-hyun as a roommate twice, wore an expression as if the world had crumbled. Ha-jin, who had no expectations anyway, was already half-resigned, as if he’d known this would happen.
“Eun-chan hyung, let’s share a room with me.”
It was Dan Ha-ru who raised his hand, unable to bear seeing Eun-chan look ready to cry at any moment.
But that hand was quickly forced down by the others.
“No, that won’t work. Absolutely not.”
“There’s no way you two should share a room alone. You’d destroy everything in there, wouldn’t you?”
“Even when you were with Lee Yu-gun, it was that bad…. Let’s try to keep you two in separate rooms, Ha-ru.”
“I agree.”
“But….”
“You hyungs are really mean!”
Faced with rapid-fire objections, Dan Ha-ru lowered his hand in confusion.
But the members’ conclusion was that they couldn’t possibly put that youngest member combination in the same room again—the pair that had already destroyed one light fixture, one wardrobe handle, two doorknobs, and three dresser drawers in a room.
“Then I’ll share a room with Eun-chan.”
In the end, it was Lee Do-ha, who had remained quiet throughout, who brought order to this chaos.
Eun-chan, whose eyes had been tearful at the thought that his roommate had finally appeared, lifted his head that he’d been bowing low, his eyes suddenly gleaming with hope.
“Really, hyung?”
“I’m at the studio a lot, so I don’t get back to the dormitory often, but if you’re okay with it, Eun-chan.”
“That sounds great! …Can I come visit your studio too, hyung?”
“…Sure. Just don’t touch the equipment.”
Even the formidable Lee Do-ha feared Ju Eun-chan’s touch of misfortune.
Do-ha stepped forward toward the stage platform where Eun-chan stood with the BLUE team. The boy who had been sullen moments before brightened instantly, offering a small smile as he pressed himself against Do-ha’s side.
The sight resembled a stray cat finding shelter beneath a tree, and Go Writer, who had been watching with satisfaction, suddenly remembered her duties and snapped back to attention.
“Ahem, well then, shall we finalize the team assignments?”
“Wait, hold on. What about me? Am I really getting a single room?”
As the atmosphere shifted toward completing the roommate selections, Kang Ha-jin, who had been standing quietly, interjected without bothering to hide his bewilderment.
‘No, a single room is great! It is great! No, actually, it’s not that great!?’
Ha-jin’s emotions were currently in a state of considerable turmoil.
It wasn’t that I desperately wanted to share a room with someone in particular, but ending up unchosen by anyone felt oddly unsatisfying.
For Kang Ha-jin, the most introverted among extroverts—the living embodiment of an ENFP—this was a matter of genuine importance.
“Seriously. That guy’s such a handful….”
In the end, at the very last moment, it was Yu Gun who moved, exhaling a sigh as if exasperated.
“Yu Gun, are you moving to the same team as Ha-jin?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a reason?”
“If I give him a single room, he’ll probably hate sleeping alone every night and end up barging into our room anyway.”
“…!”
Ha-jin flinched at Yu Gun’s blunt assessment, struck directly in his weak point. Yu Gun shook his head at the sight, marveling at how his predictions never seemed to miss.
“Well then, let’s finalize the team assignments!”
The team selection was finally complete.
Go Writer reviewed the balance of the final results and decided this would work well enough, signaling to Kwon PD with a glance. Kwon PD, sharing the same sentiment, gave a slight nod and clapped his hands once loudly, marking the edit point.
“From now on, you’ll all participate in a thrilling game to earn the right to choose your rooms and acquire furniture for each of your spaces!”
Thrilling?
At the ominous description, several members with trauma from the horror experience trembled.
Kwon PD, smiling meaningfully, signaled again with a double clap, and as a warning siren blared—whiiiing!—the set darkened and laser lights in red, blue, and green scattered across the space from all directions.
“What, what is this?”
“What is it, no, what is it again!?”
While the members panicked, production staff who had been waiting outside the camera frame rushed in carrying something. In their hands were suspicious sensor-equipped vests, helmets, and long laser guns.
Kang Ha-jin, who recognized what these props signified first, repeatedly wiped his face with a troubled expression.
“We will now begin a laser survival mission to determine room selection rights. The mission lasts a total of 20 minutes. You earn 20 points each time you hit an opponent’s sensor, and the team with the highest score wins the final right to choose rooms.”
“Doesn’t that mean the team with more members has an advantage?”
“Well, that’s just how life works!”
“You’re surprisingly realistic about the strangest things.”
In that moment, though most didn’t notice, sparks began to ignite in the eyes of several members.
‘Losing this would be a disgrace for military veterans.’
The gazes of Kang Ha-jin, Lee Do-ha, Lee Yu-gun, and Dan Ha-ru clashed fiercely in the air.
Currently, no one in Kairos had officially completed military service, but they knew among themselves. (Meanwhile, Ju Eun-chan, who simply enjoyed playing with his hyungs, remained oblivious.)
‘If I lose, there’s only death.’
This is a battle of pride.
The unofficial military service deathmatch between Kairos and Destiny had begun.

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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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