Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 460

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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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460. Boy Heaven (2)
The final round of Boy Heaven 2 had a total of 22 participants.
For the finals, they would need to practice a staggering 7 different stages over two days.
There was the Boy Heaven 2 theme song, two group songs split between 11 members each, three team stages divided among roughly 7 members each, and a final encore song performed together.
“Alright then…”
Tae-hyun and Ha-jin, seated in the judge’s section prepared by the production team, slowly adjusted their posture in time with the Writer’s cue.
Unlike Tae-hyun, who had seemed awkward the first time he sat in this position, Ha-jin moved with the natural ease of someone who had done this for years.
The moment I sat down, I opened the files in front of me and made eye contact with each trainee one by one, tapping the table lightly with my pen—yet everyone in the room could already sense that I held the authority here.
“Shall we start with the opening title? Think of it as a warm-up to loosen up.”
At my words, the boys sitting down sprang to their feet and rushed to their positions.
Despite being trainees, these were mere teenagers and young adults in their early twenties, and their response was a complete 180 from their usual attitude of being difficult to control or lukewarm.
‘I know that feeling well—the sense that one wrong move could spell disaster.’
And for good reason. Ha-jin had possessed the charisma to command all of Miro’s fierce trainees within just three months of joining. These boys, who had only been gathering for a few months to participate in a survival program, stood no chance against him.
As I observed the participants gathered in their opening formation with a casual gaze, the tip of my pen pointed toward someone.
My pen indicated the oldest trainee among them, the one who typically served as the leader.
“Park Young-ha?”
“…Ah, yes?”
“Is that position correct?”
“Huh? Oh, yes, um… I think it is.”
“I don’t think so.”
At my firm words, not only the trainees but everyone in the room was taken aback.
This formation had been practiced hundreds of times over. There was no way he could have gotten it wrong at this point, yet this special teacher who had just arrived was pointing out a formation error before we’d even started?
While Tae-hyun frantically tried to recall what the original formation for this stage had looked like, I softened my expression and leaned forward slightly.
“Isn’t Young-ha’s current position at the vertex of the diagonal line? Then you need to move further inward—so far that you wouldn’t be visible in the mirror. That way, wouldn’t the symmetry match with Han-gyeol over here?”
“…Ah.”
Only then did Park Young-ha let out a small exclamation and quickly shift his feet inward.
It seemed that his habit of moving his body slightly to get a better view of the mirror—ostensibly to check the trainees’ formation daily as the representative—had gradually become such an ingrained habit that it was now noticeably throwing off the formation.
And Ha-jin, as if he understood this reason as well, smiled with ease and spoke playfully.
“It’s not easy being the dance captain among 22 people, is it? But that doesn’t mean you should forget that you’re also a participant. If you’re too busy doing good for others and neglect your own part, you’re the only one who loses in the end.”
Park Young-ha, who was twenty-three this year, was actually older than Ha-jin sitting in front of him.
To be honest, he had harbored some dissatisfaction with the fact that this program’s host wasn’t an experienced top star like last season, but rather a greenhorn like Seo Tae-hyun.
When he learned that the special teacher coming before the crucial finals was Ha-jin, a member of the same group as Tae-hyun, he had felt almost despair, thinking, ‘These production staff really are determined to throw this season away.’
“…Yes. Thank you.”
But in this moment, Park Young-ha, who had rolled around in this industry for quite some time, could instinctively sense it.
“Ah, don’t mention it.”
I needed to give my all.
I had a gut feeling that if I could somehow catch this person’s eye even once during today’s practice, this training session would be a success.
“Then shall we really begin? Please give it your maximum effort as if this were the actual broadcast.”
As I gestured, the waiting assistant director moved the mouse.
The sound of a click—a sort of metronome that signals the timing at a steady tempo—filled the practice room.
Special Teacher Kang Ha-jin’s formal lessons had begun.
* * *
“Do you think it’ll be alright?”
“Hm? What will?”
At the worried question from Sung PD, a fourth-year assistant director on Boyhood 2, Hwang PD—two years his senior—blinked as if asking what he meant.
The two of them had just returned from checking the interview room setup, and in their hands were iced americanos and macarons they’d received from Ha-jin’s snack run.
“Our coaching staff is already getting criticism for being weak this season, and I’m wondering if we should really be squandering what’s essentially our last chance to book a guest like this. Everyone knows Kang Ha-jin from Kairos is doing well lately, but he’s still just a rookie in his second year, you know?”
Sung PD spoke in hushed tones, as if worried someone might overhear, but his words carried a gravity that belied his casual tone.
Hwang PD, taking a long sip of his iced americano, glanced down at his junior. Having spent considerable time as an assistant director in dramas before recently transitioning to variety shows, this meticulous junior was surprisingly sensitive to a celebrity’s “rank.”
Hwang PD recalled that Sung had also been negative about recruiting MC Tae-hyun, and let out a small, contemplative hum.
“Joon-sik, have you ever watched Miro Maze?”
“Ah, not the full episodes… Just used it as reference when I was researching rappers after joining this project. Wow, it was well-made though. You can really tell the difference when a major corporation backs something….”
“I actually went as backup on that one at PD Myung’s request. They had so many issues that even just shooting the reality content was a hassle.”
“Ah, yes.”
“The team I was in charge of back then had Ha-jin and Tae-hyun in it. You know about that, right? That song by Sarin—’Screaming at You.'”
“Ah, ah… Yes, yes. I know. I saw it when I was researching rappers.”
As they walked down the hallway at an unhurried pace, their destination came into view—Practice Room 1, where Ha-jin and Tae-hyun were likely deep in coaching right now.
Just a few steps before reaching the practice room, Hwang PD chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.
“When I was there, they’d bombed their first midterm evaluation and changed everything—their stage concept, the choreography, all of it—in just a day or two. You want to know what I was thinking while watching them practice back then?”
“…What were you thinking?”
Sung PD’s expression turned puzzled as his senior suddenly brought up an old story in response to his concerns about Kang Ha-jin’s name value.
Hwang PD gazed at his junior’s bewildered face and reached for the practice room door handle.
“Man, whoever debuts alongside that guy is lucky.”
“To that extent…?”
“If you’re curious, see for yourself. By now, the atmosphere in the practice room will be completely different.”
With those words, Hwang PD carefully opened the practice room door so as not to interfere with filming.
Sung PD, who had thought his senior was being overly generous with his praise about the special teacher, found himself filled with curiosity as he stepped into the practice room.
“I said live broadcast mode! Don’t slack on the movements!”
But before he could even fully cross the threshold, the intense energy pressing down on him forced him to stop in his tracks.
“Feel it! Got it—now hook it―! Release, that’s right!”
Only about thirty minutes had passed since filming began.
The practice room, which would normally be filled with cold evaluations and a frozen atmosphere, was instead brimming with the sharp sound of footsteps, the ringing live vocals of the participants, and the powerful voice of someone continuously offering commentary.
The first thing that caught Sung PD’s eye was, naturally, the participants themselves.
“Insane….”
The participants had already done their own group practice that morning.
Moreover, the song currently playing was the opening title for Boyhood 2, a performance Sung PD had watched hundreds of times over the past few months of filming.
“….”
In all those hundreds of viewings, Sung PD had never once felt any thrill or emotion.
Compared to the astounding acting prowess of top-tier actors who could laugh and joke one moment, then suddenly pour out lines as if possessed the next, the clumsy, pretentious dancing of boys barely twenty years old felt to him like nothing more than child’s play.
Still, having grown fond of them over the past few months, if he had to say something… it was more like the touching feeling of watching your own kids show off their talents?
“…Wow.”
But now, for the first time.
He wondered if this was the thrill of synchronized dancing that his seniors had spoken of.
“One, two, hold it steady! Lock it down!”
As if entranced, he stepped deeper into the practice room, and Ha-jin’s figure finally came into view, previously obscured by the trainees’ intense synchronized movements. The judge’s table and chairs that had been positioned at the center of the practice room had long since been pushed to the corner.
Ha-jin had stripped off all his outer layers, wearing only a loose black t-shirt, yet that simple attire only accentuated his insane proportions and sharply defined physique, radiating the aura of a true entertainer.
Tae-hyun, crouched beside him, maintained an expression of unwavering seriousness as he continuously checked and jotted down notes on his clipboard without pause.
“See?”
Hwang PD, who had followed him in and briefly discussed the interview room setup with Main PD before returning, nudged the shoulder of Sung PD, who had been entranced, and whispered.
Sung PD, who had been so absorbed in watching the trainees’ practice that he’d forgotten he was even filming, startled at the touch and turned his head. Hwang PD then smirked knowingly and chuckled to himself.
“An excellent choice, wasn’t it?”
At that rhetorical question, Sung PD turned his gaze back to Ha-jin and the trainees.
The song had ended, and the trainees were now holding their final ending pose. Their rough breathing and gasps—different from their usual practice sessions—vividly demonstrated their dedication.
The camera directors, who had been sighing about not having any usable shots with each filming session, were now frantically adjusting their tripods, desperate not to miss a single frame.
“…?”
Even after the song had completely ended, the trainees remained motionless, as if waiting for Ha-jin’s signal.
After maintaining the flow for approximately ten more seconds, observing each person individually, Ha-jin finally clapped once and placed his hands on his hips. Then, with an refreshingly bright smile, he delivered his words in an upbeat voice.
“You’re doing great, our boys.”
That would definitely be inserted into the final cut as a one-shot.
It was an instinctive sense born from his experience as a PD.
“That’s what….”
That’s what a real idol is.
Even as Sung PD continued working as a PD for an idol survival program, he carried an unconscious disdain for “idols” itself—but in that moment, he was seized by an intense urge to go back to the studio today and thoroughly review all of Miro Maze, which he had been putting off.

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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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