Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 472

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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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472. Confrontation (1)
“Thank you, truly, thank you so much. I’ll never forget this for the rest of my life….”
The Bride, her eyes rimmed in red despite the makeup attempting to conceal them, bowed repeatedly in gratitude. I stood beside the Groom as he produced a handkerchief for her, and I gently patted the back of her hand, which gripped mine so tightly, with a warm gaze.
“Congratulations on your wedding. I mean it sincerely.”
Emotion welled up again at my words, and the Bride, barely holding back her tears, nodded with a forced smile.
Through “Come Here Nabilera,” I had already learned the love story of these two people well enough, so I could only imagine that today’s wedding song had been a great comfort to the Bride.
The Bride, having finally composed herself, slowly released my hand. Then she retrieved something from the bag that my Younger Sibling was holding and handed it to me.
“…?”
“This is my business card. I’m not anyone particularly remarkable, but… given the nature of my work, I travel around quite a bit and have built up quite a network. If you ever need my help in the future—truly, if you ever do—please don’t hesitate to contact me.”
“Ah….”
Faced with the Bride’s momentum, as if she would agree to lend me hundreds of millions of won on the spot, I accepted the card and nodded. The card bore the title of Planning PD at a fairly large domestic production company.
Since it was a production company known for drama and film procurement, I wondered if there would ever be a need for their help unless I or Kairos ventured into acting later….
“Yes, even if I don’t need help, I’ll keep in touch through you. If I sang at your wedding, we’re like brothers now, right?”
Still, in this industry where connections are everything, having one more thread to pull was never a bad thing.
As I slipped the card into my wallet and shook hands with the Groom, Si-woo, who had been watching from the side, seized the moment to interject appropriately.
“You two should probably head out now—you must have many people to greet elsewhere. We need to get going soon as well.”
“Oh yes, that’s right. We’ve been holding you up for too long, haven’t we?”
“I wish you could at least have a meal with us…. I really don’t know how to repay all this gratitude.”
“There’s no debt to repay, nothing you owe us. If you two live happily together for the rest of your lives, that’s all the gratitude we need.”
At my gentlemanly words, the Groom and Bride were busy holding back their emotion, their brows knitting together repeatedly.
At the wedding planner’s cue that they really needed to move now, the Groom and Bride hurried away with reluctant steps. Before leaving, they didn’t forget to ask for one photo, and they even skillfully took a selfie with us.
“Hey, guys, sorry, sorry. Something came up that I need to coordinate with the Wedding Hall. If you’ve finished greeting everyone, should we head down to the Reception Hall? We probably won’t have time to eat, but since some seniors are coming and there are a few people we should pay our respects to, let’s at least make an appearance.”
With Kwon Wook, who had returned at just the right moment, I and the other members quickly picked up our pace.
Murmurs of recognition for Kairos could be heard from various corners, but the three of us paid no mind and simply followed Kwon Wook without hesitation. We had learned that in a crowded place like this, even a moment’s hesitation on our part could cause a major incident.
“…Oh.”
“Watch out.”
“…Yeah, thanks.”
As I hurried along and failed to notice the step in the floor, Do-ha, who had been carefully observing that spot, caught my arm just as I was about to stumble.
I, who had nearly taken a hard fall, nodded with a bewildered expression, but I couldn’t meet Do-ha’s gaze as he helped me up.
“Ha-jin.”
“…Huh?”
Do-ha, who had been staring down at me, called my name for the first time in two weeks. It was a name I had heard for years, yet I was startled as if hearing it for the first time, and a rare tension emanated from me.
Only then noticing my reaction, Do-ha slightly furrowed his brow and opened his mouth.
“There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Uh, what. Go ahead.”
“Is it possible that you….”
“….”
“Hey, guys, we need to take the elevator! Come on!”
“Yeah, come on, hurry. …Let’s talk about it at the Dormitory. It’s too chaotic here.”
But contrary to my tension, Do-ha’s words trailed off, cut short by Kwon Wook’s urging to move quickly. As if his call were a signal, I seized the moment and boarded the elevator, fleeing.
Do-ha’s brow twitched once more as he noticed Ha-jin deliberately evading the conversation. Questions tumbled behind his lips, but after a brief exhale, Do-ha simply nodded.
“…All right.”
As if nothing had happened, Ha-jin and Do-ha stepped into the crowded Elevator.
Si-woo, who had already boarded with Kwon Wook, kept his gaze fixed on the two of them with obvious amusement, struggling to suppress his laughter.
“…?”
Watching Ha-jin’s back of the head before him in the crowded space, Si-woo’s eyebrows lifted as he noticed something—he’d been calculating how best to tease them and when to clear up the misunderstanding for maximum effect.
‘Could it be that right now….’
As if autumn itself were protesting, the weather had turned so cold that even cold water felt unpalatable, let alone air conditioning. Yet Ha-jin wore only a suit without a warm coat.
‘Is he actually breaking out in a cold sweat? Just from one conversation with Lee Do-ha?’
Cold sweat was trickling down the back of Ha-jin’s neck.
His complexion had turned so pallid it was almost pitiful to witness.
* * *
“Man, that congratulatory song was amazing!? I seriously got tears in my eyes, really.”
“Ha ha, thank you so much, Senior.”
“If only you’d debuted twenty years earlier, I would’ve hired you for my wedding too. What a shame.”
“Oh my, sir. These guys wouldn’t have even been taking their first steps back then.”
As Kwon Wook said, the Reception Hall was filled with quite a few entertainment industry professionals and several celebrities. From the belated explanation, it seemed the bride and groom had their connections, but the bride’s father was someone with deep roots in regional events.
Thanks to this, the Kairos members found themselves greeting variety show personalities and veteran actors they rarely saw at broadcasting stations—maintaining impeccable posture and polite bows with clasped hands, forced to smile warmly without a moment’s rest.
“If you ever need us again, we’ll come running anytime, sir.”
“Ah, kid. At my age, the only life events left to celebrate are funerals. But I appreciate the sentiment.”
“No, sir. What are you saying in front of these young people?”
“Well, I heard your granddaughter’s getting married soon. We’d be happy to attend that.”
“Oh? How did you know our Hye-rin is getting married?”
“My mother is a devoted fan of the ‘Baek Geum-hee Show.’ Congratulations in advance on your granddaughter’s wedding, sir.”
And among all of them, Kang Ha-jin was undoubtedly the most skilled at handling these ‘adults.’
Beyond the events he remembered from his previous life and the information Kwon Wook had secretly fed him, he could instantly win people’s favor using the countless things he’d seen and heard in his daily life.
Even those who’d initially harbored some prejudice based solely on the aura his appearance gave off would, after just a brief conversation with Ha-jin, find themselves in a warm atmosphere thinking, ‘This guy’s entertaining,’ and accepting Kwon Wook’s business card.
‘…Did I misread it?’
Watching Ha-jin now treat a veteran actor whose career spanned longer than their own ages as if he were his own elderly grandmother—handling him with both respect and warmth (the phrasing was awkward, but there was no other way to describe it)—Si-woo’s eyes grew cold.
Unlike the Ha-jin he’d seen in the Elevator earlier, the Ha-jin before him now was unmistakably his usual self—good-natured, socially adept, the easygoing Kang Ha-jin everyone knew.
Even if Ha-jin had trauma regarding peer relationships, he wasn’t the type to collapse from just one conversation with Do-ha. It wouldn’t be strange if it had simply been his own misperception….
‘Better to be cautious anyway.’
In any case, Jeong Si-u never took his eyes off Kang Ha-jin.
And it seemed Lee Do-ha beside him was doing the same.
“You guys, we’ve greeted most of the important people now, so let’s head out. If we stay any longer, it’ll be too crowded when we leave.”
After excusing themselves from the veteran actor’s table with promises to chat more, Kwon Wook signaled that it was time to return to the company. Having dealt with various schedules since morning for today’s wedding, the members’ stamina was beginning to reach its limit.
“Hey, who’s this! Isn’t it Kairos?”
As Kairos turned toward the Elevator, leaving the still-bustling Reception Hall behind, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice stopped them in their tracks.
Detecting the rudeness in that single remark, Jeong Si-u’s expression faltered momentarily as he turned around. It was Kwon Wook, the manager, who recognized the person first.
“Ah, Kim CP. Hello, I didn’t realize you were here today.”
“Well, it’s not like I know the groom and bride here or anything. The father of this house owes me a favor, so I just came to mooch a free meal. Man, you really brought the energy today, didn’t you?”
What the hell is this arrogant old fossil?
Even Si-woo, who prided himself on his poker face, momentarily lost control of his expression—the man breathed rudeness and insolence with every word he spoke.
Since Kwon Wook had called him a CP, he was definitely someone from the broadcasting station, but for Si-woo, who had never considered someone’s occupation or rank as a meaningful criterion for evaluating people, he was simply nothing more than an ‘unpleasant human being.’
“Come on, introduce yourselves. This is Kim Hak-seung, a PD at Ntv, and he’s the CP for ‘Boyhood 2,’ which Tae-hyun is currently appearing on.”
Ah, that guy.
I vaguely remember hearing his name mentioned back when Tae-hyun was my roommate.
Having determined that this man wasn’t particularly important to his life, Jeong Si-u skillfully concealed the instinctive aversion welling up inside him and offered the kind of beautiful smile that made PDs melt.
“…Yes. Hello, I’m Jeong Si-u from Kairos.”
“I’m Lee Do-ha.”
“Ugh, why all the formal introductions at someone else’s wedding? This is exactly why I can’t just show up to these things casually. Everyone’s making such a fuss about greeting each other.”
Even as he waved his hand dismissively, Kim Hak-seung was busy scanning the surroundings, savoring the gazes directed at him.
Having quickly sized up what type of person he was, Jeong Si-u rapidly lost interest in the man.
He had long since learned that people like this puffed themselves up as if they had much to offer, but in reality they were the type who worked hard to take even a handful more of what he possessed.
“If you want to get a piece of the pie, you’d better impress this person here rather than me. Do you all know who CEO Choi is? Huh?”
Having succeeded in inflating his own importance, the man’s next move was to reveal the identity of his companion—a textbook case of riding on someone else’s coattails to gain authority.
Si-woo maintained his courteous smile, though his eyes remained disinterested as he shifted his gaze to the man’s associate.
For someone with the title of CEO, the man looked quite young, and he offered a smile full of false modesty.
“Oh no, I should be the one trying to impress Kairos. You’re the idol group everyone’s trying to book right now.”
“Go ahead and introduce yourselves. This is Choi Yun-hyung, the CEO of Effect Culture. All the trending festivals these days are his productions, you know. What’s it called again? Oh, what is it, CEO Choi? I can’t remember the name.”
“On Green MT Festa?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s it. All the hot new acts these days perform at that thing. They say his booking skills are better than most writer sunbaes, right, CEO Choi?”
On Green MT Festa was a festival that had once set YouTube and social media ablaze with content targeting young people in their twenties and thirties.
CEO Choi Yun-hyung pulled out his business card and handed it to Kwon Wook. Si-woo watched meaninglessly as Kwon Wook exchanged his own card in return.
A successful festival planning company CEO—according to the CP, it wouldn’t hurt to make a good impression, but Si-woo’s thinking was that there was no need for Kairos, who was being pursued for appearances from all quarters, to grovel first.
“Hey, what are you doing? Go greet CEO Choi already.”
“Oh, PD. There’s no need for that.”
“Come on now. Even so, you have to teach proper etiquette at occasions like this so you don’t get a bad reputation elsewhere. You need to accept their greetings properly so these kids learn the right way.”
“Really, I’m fine. Your performance was wonderful today. If we have the chance to work together at our festival sometime, I’d love to have you.”
Compared to the CP, CEO Choi displayed far more courtesy and grace, so Jeong Si-u slightly reopened the door he had firmly closed and bowed briefly as a gesture of gratitude.
It was when I lifted my head to check on the other members that I sensed something was wrong.
“…?”
I should have felt the oddness from the moment I didn’t hear The Voice stepping forward to introduce himself as Kairos’s leader.
“…Kang Ha-jin?”
Kang Ha-jin stood there with a complexion paler than snow, cold sweat streaming down his face, his eyes completely unfocused.
Before Si-woo could take a step forward toward Ha-jin, who had begun to sway slightly, it was Lee Do-ha, who had been carefully watching Ha-jin all along, who grabbed his arm first.
“Kang Ha-jin―!”
“Ha-jin!”
And the moment Lee Do-ha grabbed his arm.
Ha-jin closed his eyes and collapsed right there.

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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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