Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 467

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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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467. A Certain Resolution (3)
The incident began like this.
Kairos, invited to various year-end award shows once again, found themselves caught in an endless whirlwind of preparations for these end-of-year stages.
Still, this year had plenty of songs that worked well for stage compositions beyond the title tracks “No Spring” from Youth’s End and “Breath Exchange” from Youth’s Praise—tracks like “Spring Again” and “Black Paradise” among the B-sides—so most of the stage sketches came together relatively easily.
-So… is NMA the only one left?
The problem lay with NMA, the nation’s largest global music awards ceremony hosted by Ntv.
Since it was held overseas (though no one could explain why a domestic awards show took place abroad), the scale was massive, and this year, somehow they’d managed to attract renowned international artists and actors, making it an exceptionally prestigious event.
Particularly this year, with a group debuting through “Boy’s Supremacy 2” and girl groups dominating the K-pop industry overall, Kairos honestly held no great expectations about winning awards.
-Nowhere else matters like this place does. We really need to bring our absolute best here.
Yet NMA remained crucial for one specific reason: the participant lineup.
Starting with Sphere, who’d begun unit activities with only the younger members after sending all the older ones to military service,
Lanion, whose recent comeback was receiving positive responses, and Winter Tail, who’d achieved a viral resurgence through a TikTok challenge,
Phase, skilled rookies who’d made a proper impression and were being considered the most likely candidate for Rookie of the Year, and numerous other male idols besides.
It was fair to say that virtually every major active male idol group would be present—the proportion of male idols at this particular NMA was unusually high!
-And besides…
-The older members are performing this time too.
And included in that performance lineup were Yupia and Endway, senior groups from the same agency.
While neither group had official domestic activities this year, Endway was participating because their drama OST was nominated, and Yupia’s Seo Tae-il and Yoon Ji-nu, who’d been actively working as producers, were attending as composition category nominees.
Since Ntv was bringing in Miro’s flagship idols anyway, they couldn’t just have them appear on screen without performing, so both teams were asked to take the stage.
-Wait, but don’t they usually not have drama OST winners perform?
-They’re probably trying to pump up the lineup however they can. Girl group recruitment really fell through this time.
The “girl group boom” that started last year had continued into this year.
Ntv, due to various complicated circumstances, had already failed to recruit three out of the five biggest hit groups of the year.
To counter the criticism of “weak lineup relative to the name value,” they were attempting a frontal breakthrough by recruiting named male idols.
– Is NMA insane? Do they have that much money????? Well, they’ve always had money
– Wow Sphere Yupia Day Off Endway is already insane but B-light reunion plus Kairos Lanion Phase Storm Header Winter Tail AP Project Saint and even the new Boy’s Supremacy debut group this time…? They literally brought every male idol these days, these crazy bastards
I expected Sphere W to appear since it’s a unit, but how did you manage to get Seo Tae-il and Yoon Ji-nu lolololol
– I thought NMA had the weakest lineup this year… what the hell is happening
Thanks to this, fans erupted in cheers while male idols found themselves breathless from the lineup.
To not fall short here, they needed to bring an absolutely incredible stage—barely enough to save face.
Kairos, who’d handled most stage composition work directly until now, actively utilized outside personnel this time specifically to pour all their energy into this NMA stage composition.
Moreover, this year-end season was incredibly important for Kairos as well.
The final series album of the Youth trilogy remained, their solo concert promotion was scheduled to begin after the year-end, and they were already preparing their first full-length album for next year.
When fans’ “Kairos pride” needed to be filled to maximum capacity, they absolutely had to prevent any unfortunate fandom leakage due to unexpected awards show competition…!
-Let’s go with Revolution as the theme.
Thus, Kairos’s NMA stage concept was decided: Revolution.
Starting from their debut track “Over the Night,” continuing through “No Spring” and “Black Paradise,” it was a choice befitting Kairos, the specialists in “worldview conquest or subversion.”
The theme of “revolutionary forces that shatter the paradise built on lies and pursue truth, however ugly and desolate,” was suitable in many ways for expanding the performance’s scale and pouring visual capital into it.
Song arrangement, choreography composition, stage design, and costume production.
It was a performance crafted with the same care and effort as preparing a concert stage.
It was the very stage where Ha-jin and Do-ha had spent countless days debating whether Version A or Version B was superior,
the very stage that had driven Yu-gun and Eun-chan to spend day after day locked in the practice room, begging for death instead,
the reason Tae-hyun returned to the company without fail for dawn practice despite being swamped with personal schedules,
and the cause that had Si-woo and Ha-ru deciding they needed to improve their vocals, clinging to the vocal instructor like ascetics in closed-door training, screaming at the top of their lungs in the soundproof booth.
-If we just get through NMA successfully, the concert live will be a breeze, seriously…
The ‘solo dance performance’ that Lee Do-ha had volunteered to do was precisely the opening of that NMA stage.
“….”
“….”
“….”
All Kairos members except Seo Tae-hyun, who hadn’t finished filming Boy’s Supremacy, sat gathered in a circle in the practice room.
Behind them, Kwon Wook, the head of Kairos’s management team, Shim Director, the performance director and choreography team leader, and Lee PD, the A&R team representative, sat hunched against the wall.
“Manager, but why am I…?”
“Ah, well, that’s actually…”
Lee PD, who had been sitting with an expression of “I’m dying of work, so why was I called here,” received the meeting’s topic from Kwon Wook and quietly straightened his posture.
“Do-ha, Do-ha…? Do-ha is…?”
“Yeah… I just heard about it too.”
A dance break by Lee Do-ha, no less.
It was an agenda significant enough that even if Executive Director Ji Su-ho, currently overseas, flew back home immediately, it would be justified.
“…So.”
“….”
When Ha-jin, who had been repeating dry washes and sighs with arms crossed for a while, finally opened his mouth, the shoulders of Yu-gun and Ju Eun-chan, the instigators of this situation, flinched. The actual person in question, Lee Do-ha, remained composed as if he’d already anticipated this reaction, which only made matters worse.
“How on earth did the NMA opening solo end up going to Lee Do-ha…?”
Ha-jin interrogated the choreography-responsible members of Kairos with his voice drained of all force, yet his eyes gleaming with an ominous light as if lasers might shoot out at any moment.
It was the tone of someone questioning four-year-old children about what happened to the living room TV while they’d stepped away to take a call.
“Wasn’t it decided that Yu-gun would do it just a few days ago? I know you all pulled all-nighters practicing it. How did that change to a different Lee in just the time I was away visiting Tae-hyun at the Boy’s Supremacy filming…?”
Ha-jin was genuinely, truly curious about the circumstances.
Separate from Lee Do-ha’s own tremendous resolve, the fact that a performance of such difficulty—one that had even Yu-gun struggling to master it for days—had somehow ended up with Kairos’s seventh-ranked dancer, the immovable wooden club, the choreography liability Lee Do-ha, was beyond comprehension.
Lee Do-ha volunteering to do it himself was one thing, but the ones who approved it were even crazier!
“…I, well…”
“I suggested it.”
“…?”
While Eun-chan, who knew full well how frightening Ha-jin could be when angry, carefully chose his words, Yu-gun, who had remained silent until now, suddenly lifted his head and revealed himself as the instigator.
The members’ gazes converged on Yu-gun, who boldly faced Ha-jin with raised eyebrows as if asking what the problem was.
Maintaining eye contact with Ha-jin, who stared at him with an expression of incomprehension, Yu-gun opened his mouth in his usual light tone.
“This choreography has a lot of acrobatics, and Do-ha hyung is way better at it than me. Since he’s done athletics, he picked it up really quickly.”
“We’re not entering a martial arts tournament—just because someone’s good at tumbling doesn’t mean they win a solo spot.”
“Just listen. I thought about this from multiple angles and made the suggestion. We all did.”
“….”
Yu-gun drew a firm line with Ha-jin in his tone.
For the first time since debut, or rather the first time ever, Yu-gun was strongly asserting his opinion regarding the ‘stage,’ and everyone in the practice room wore expressions of surprise. Even Si-woo, who always stepped back in such situations, showed enough interest to pull his body closer into the circle.
“The hyungs arranged the music itself to be incredibly heavy and grand.”
Yoo Gun, undeterred by the gazes around him, continued explaining his reasons for recommending Do-ha for the solo performance.
The practice room’s atmosphere, which had been filled with bewilderment moments ago, instantly transformed into something grave.
“The person doing the solo opening has to endure that entire piece of music alone, and then convince the audience of the performance that follows. It only works if people think, ‘This guy could tear down that massive castle by himself.’ Otherwise it just looks ridiculous.”
“You’re saying that’s Do-ha?”
“Look at his body. Honestly, I’d believe it if you told me he was a special operative who went undercover as an idol.”
As Yoo Gun spoke while grabbing Do-ha’s perfectly squared shoulders with one hand, everyone except Ha-jin nodded as if entranced.
Perhaps because Yoo Gun, the CEO of Kairos, had brought up such an unusual example, Ha-ru didn’t forget to whisper to Eun-chan that Do-ha resembled Ha-jin’s hyung.
“…Still, I’m not convinced. Just because he has a good physique and can do some acrobatics doesn’t mean he can handle a solo.”
“It’s not just about his body. But you admit yourself that Do-ha hyung fits the character better than anyone else in our group, right?”
“….”
“Honestly, if Do-ha hyung’s dancing was even as good as Ha-ru’s, wouldn’t you have been the first to suggest giving him this solo? Wouldn’t you? Or try to refute that.”
Yoo Gun’s stubborn, unyielding personality—which had softened somewhat after debut for various reasons—found its place again. That nature of his, which had clashed head-on regardless of age or seniority even before debut, applied equally to Ha-jin.
Faced with Yoo Gun’s words that met him head-on without flinching, Ha-jin lost his response. Si-woo, who had been watching their exchange with keen interest, now openly leaned forward with an amused expression, resting his chin on Ha-ru’s shoulder.
Feeling the tense atmosphere in the practice room with his entire body, Yoo Gun delivered his final blow.
“In the first place, you were the one who came up with the crazy idea of having Do-ha hyung do the dance break at Miro. I just thought this time he could actually pull it off.”
With that, Yoo Gun shrugged his shoulders as if he’d said everything he needed to say, waiting for Ha-jin’s response.
Do-ha, who had been observing the situation without saying a word despite all the assessments being made about him, finally opened his mouth quietly.
“I know I’m still not reliable when it comes to dancing. I’m well aware that you’re always making accommodations for me when structuring the choreography.”
“….”
“I want to try expanding the roles I can handle as a team member now.”
“….”
“Trust me. I’ll do this right.”
It was the first time Do-ha, who had always believed in Ha-jin unconditionally and without reservation, was making a request.
Everyone in the practice room seemed swayed by Yoo Gun’s persuasion and Do-ha’s determination. Even Lee PD from the A&R Team, who had initially thought it was absolutely impossible, felt swept up in this atmosphere and wanted to shout his approval right then and there.
“…Sigh.”
Ha-jin, who had been listening more seriously to those two than anyone else in the room, exhaled quietly.
Lee PD, watching this, predicted that Ha-jin would inevitably end up giving his approval as well.
The friendship and trust between those two, called Kairos’s big same-age pair, was remarkably deep for the time they’d known each other, and Ha-jin in particular had always been actively supportive of the members’ potential development and new challenges.
‘If Do-ha just improves enough to pull off the solo perfectly by himself… honestly, from the perspective of promoting the members, it would become much easier too…’
After all, Do-ha had always been a weak point in the choreography for Kairos, a group known as a performance powerhouse.
In fact, if they could fill even that gap in this final season before their crucial third-year activities, it would be an undeniable opportunity for Kairos.
While Lee PD was already contemplating various ideas in his head and speculating about Kairos’s future, Ha-jin, who had maintained his silence, finally opened his mouth with a heavy expression.
“To be honest….”
“….”
“…I’m not sure. I can’t approve this.”
For the first time, a crack appeared on Do-ha’s face, which had remained calm and composed throughout.
It had been two years since the two of them had known each other.
This was the first moment when Ha-jin and Do-ha’s opinions looked in different directions.

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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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