Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 484

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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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484. The Boy, Heavenly Clash 2 (3)
The VCR content was fundamentally centered on the participants.
However, Ha-jin’s screen time—which I’d expected to be minimal, just a guest appearance before fading away—turned out to be quite substantial.
【The song has ended, but Ha-jin’s expression looks troubled】
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: …】
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: Is this really the best the live performance can be?】
The production team had actively woven Ha-jin into one team’s narrative arc.
The Fantasia Romance team—composed of top-ranked participants and facing the strongest opposition.
However, due to significant roster changes from the recent team shuffle, cracks had formed in their teamwork, which Ha-jin’s commentary revealed.
【Park Young-ha: …To be honest, it felt kind of refreshing.】
【Park Young-ha: I really wanted us to get chewed out. So the kids would be anxious enough to work harder.】
【Ha Jun-hyuk: It’s like… what had to come finally came.】
【Ha Jun-hyuk: Even if we get severely scolded, there’s nothing to say against it….】
Since the previous practice footage had already shown the team members scattered in disarray without proper leadership, both the boys in the interview and viewers watching the broadcast were thinking the same thing.
[On air] But someone really needed to press down on the Fantasy Team once and for all.
They’re all former team leaders over there… (except Chae Yu-hyun)
Even Yoon Ga-ram, who was holding them together with followership,
had his mental state collapse after his close senior left,
and Park Young-ha couldn’t speak up easily either since he was with kids ranked higher than him
so honestly, it makes sense that
Maybe it’s better that I got caught by Kang An instead.
Me too, I was thinking the same thing lol
It’s a Serba national rule that the Team you thought was the Avengers is actually a ragtag bunch lolololol
└ Even those Avengers fought like crazy with each other, so in a way the Avengers meta = ragtag meta is accurate, but now if they just get on the same page they become insanely strong
[Are we finally going to see the legendary Ha-jin tyrant moment we’ve only heard about?]
When Ha-jin gets pissed, it’s seriously scary
Among Miro students, it was apparently an unwritten rule not to mess with that guy lolol
– You don’t even need to go far back, just look at the Two-Me era with Kang, Ye-min, and Gak-seon-mi…
└ 22
└ 333
└ 44444 so glad our Ha-jin got converted to permanent staff
└ Sorry I’m out of the loop, what’s gak-seon-mi? Ha-jin has pretty legs?
Haha what the hell is this again
Hahahahahahahahaha
└ Ha-jin’s legs are pretty though…
└ It’s a nickname that came from him being obsessed with angles and lines—during Two-Me practice he’d emphasize angles and lines so much every session like some kind of angles-and-lines evangelist that it stuck
Ahahaha, seriously seriously
– Wait is it normal that my heart’s racing?
– Sorry guys, I like this kind of thing
– But like, team project failure > full-blown fight > getting chewed out > ‘THE Awakening’ is basically a guaranteed flag right?
– How incredible a performance will these broadcast station people get to see?
Amid swirling expectations (?) and concerns about my blunt remarks, Ha-jin on screen slowly opened his mouth.
However, what came out was, as everyone knew, quite different from what they’d anticipated.
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: Ha Jun-hyuk? Jun-hyuk?】
【Student Ha Jun-hyuk: Ah, yes!】
Ha Jun-hyuk’s muttered line of “Ah, I’m done for” was inserted, and you could see him tensing up.
After a brief exchange asking if he majored in contemporary dance, the scene shifted to Ha-jin pushing off from the wall and listing out ‘those’ pieces of feedback.
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: The details are alive and well, but it seems you need to learn how to control the dynamics in a more K-pop style.】
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: Your core muscles are already so strong that every movement flows naturally like water, but with a song like this, you could end up looking like you’re dancing carelessly, you know?】
【Student Ha Jun-hyuk: Ah…. Yes, that’s right. Even normally, creating impact has been a bit difficult.】
The moment Ha-jin finished speaking, clips of Ha Jun-hyuk’s past stage performances and practice sessions—where he’d received evaluations like “Why doesn’t he stand out?”—were spliced in.
Ha-jin’s candid feedback continued without hesitation.
【Ha-jin catches Jun-hyuk’s weakness at a glance and corrects it】
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: For example, your part, right here.】
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: The line “the night of the sea fading in rows”—your arms and body need to pop out with more force!】
Ha-jin accurately copied the choreography he’d seen once and demonstrated it himself, causing the trainees around him to gasp in amazement.
The production team emphasized the contrast by showing Ha Jun-hyuk’s performance from the mid-evaluation moments earlier and Ha-jin’s demonstration side-by-side. It was only natural that all eyes were drawn more to Ha-jin, who properly captured the nuance of the emphasized parts, than to Ha Jun-hyuk, whose every accent had been flat.
– Why companies hire experienced professionals
– Honestly, every time I see Ha Jun-hyuk, something always felt slightly off, and that was it
– Ah, so that’s why he was breathing heavily at the ending—not for effect lol
– Wow, but wasn’t Kang Ha-jin just insanely good-looking right then
– Hmm, maybe I just can’t see the difference… lol there are a lot of stans here
└ If you can’t see that difference, maybe you’re the one who needs to get your eyes checked?
Ha-jin’s feedback didn’t end there.
Scenes of Ha-jin telling each member of the Fantasy Love Story team what they needed to improve were edited together in quick succession. Among them was a rather problematic (?) remark.
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: Hmm….】
【Ha-jin, struggling to find words?】
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: I’m not sure if I can phrase it this way….】
【Student Chae Yu-hyun: (nervous)】
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: Could it be….】
A pointless slow-motion effect was applied only to the “Could it be” moment.
After an atmosphere that seemed like I was about to deliver a massive insult came Ha-jin’s serious close-up face, contrasted with an absurd sound effect.
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: Could it be that your HP is a bit low?】
【Student Chae Yu-hyun: …Huh? (flustered)】
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: Ah, is that too derogatory a way to put it? Is it okay to say it like that?】
【Homeroom Teacher Seo Tae-hyun: …Is it?】
【The Special Teacher’s somewhat Gen-Z vocabulary…】
– Well, that’s not Gen-Z energy, that’s just him being an otaku
– I’m so proud—Kang Ha-jin’s younger sibling even went and showed his gamer side at his workplace
– Suddenly HP? lololololololololololololol>
– Yeah, a leak in the house won’t stop leaking outside either.
– No, that’s ridiculous. Is Kang Ha-jin really that kind of character? Hahahahahahahahahaha
-Why do they put their hands together so politely?
“Should we keep that?”
It wasn’t even profanity—I figured a mild expletive like that was fine for atmosphere refreshment.
Ha-jin scrolled through the monitoring window without much thought, still tearing into his chicken. A few quick-handed clip accounts had already captured the scene of Ha-jin politely clasping his hands together and were turning it into all sorts of memes.
Sometimes I couldn’t tell if these fans were actually supporting or just making jokes.
【Chae Yu-hyun (young): I just… honestly, I shouldn’t have cried…】
【Chae Yu-hyun (young): …I’m sorry.】
【Chae Yu-hyun (young), unable to continue speaking】
Along with Yoo Hyun’s tears—which I’d thought the production team would love during filming—his entire narrative unfolded.
Park Young-ha, the team’s leader and eldest member, the passionate one who always clashed with Yoo Hyun during practice, followed with a touching reconciliation scene where he understood Yoo Hyun and confessed his own shortcomings.
“How typical.”
But it was always a strategy that worked.
Moreover, since this narrative was one I’d (unintentionally) served up on a silver platter, no one could complain it was stale.
Either way, I sensed my part was finished around here.
In fact, the official camera work on the Fantasy Romance team ended right there.
【That night】
In other words,
【Late-night practice in full swing at B-Town】
【Someone lingering in the hallway】
‘Officially’ speaking.
【???: Who are you?】
【Park Young-ha (young): Hello, senior. I’m sorry to bother you while you’re resting.】
“…?”
Low-quality footage that looked like a zoomed-in view from a fixed hallway camera, and equally poor-quality audio that seemed to be pulled directly from a nearby camera’s on-site recording, followed.
Ha-jin focused on the screen with an expression of disbelief. He even forgot to pull out the cheese balls he’d soaked in sauce.
【Park Young-ha (young): Um, could it be…?】
【Park Young-ha (young): Do you offer counseling?】
They saw that?
No, they filmed that?
“Wow, those shameless broadcast station bastards…”
Completely forgetting that he himself was one of those ‘shameless broadcast station bastards,’ Ha-jin clicked his tongue in amazement.
* * *
It seemed the ‘dawn conversation’ between Ha-jin and the young members wasn’t fully captured.
Only audio had barely made it onto the fixed camera positioned near the snack bar entrance, and that audio—which normally wouldn’t have caught the PDs’ attention since there was nothing on screen—ended up being revealed to the world for a reason.
【Park Young-ha (young): Well, actually, while preparing for this team competition, I’ve been thinking a lot about my leadership, you know?】
【Park Young-ha (young): I was even shocked to realize I didn’t know Yoo Hyun had weak stamina…】
【Park Young-ha (young): Anyway, I wanted to ask you about how to treat team members like that, and about leadership in general.】
【Park Young-ha (young): Of course, by age I’m actually the older one, but for some reason I wanted to call you hyung. You have so much more experience than me.】
So it was you.
Only after watching that interview did I grasp the full picture of what had happened.
Park Young-ha, deeply moved by that night’s conversation, had innocently spilled everything to the PDs about receiving counseling from Kang Ha-jin during the interview(?), and the PDs, thinking it was a great angle, had meticulously combed through every single camera from that night to extract this audio clip.
“Wow, what did I even say that night? Did I curse?”
I naturally assumed it would be something disparaging and drummed my fingers against my thigh, mentally replaying every word I’d carelessly spoken that evening.
Fortunately(?), it didn’t seem like there was anything egregious enough to warrant some demonic editing….
-You’re asking if there’s an answer I’m looking for.
-You need to be clear about whether what you’re doing is self-pity, self-rationalization, or self-objectification. Otherwise, you’ll end up blaming yourself later.
-I don’t want to be that heavy of a presence in someone else’s life.
…Or did I not say that?
I think I was a bit harsh when I talked to Yoon Ga-ram.
I rolled my eyes back to the TV, feeling an inexplicable unease. Since Yoon Ga-ram was also on the same Fantasy Romance team, the PD could easily pull some tricks if he wanted to.
【Special Teacher Ha-jin: Sometimes going backwards is actually the fastest way forward. In the end, all of this is just deliberation for a good outcome, right?】
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha: Ha, I suppose that’s true….】
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha gaining new insight from Ha-jin’s words】
The edited conversation between Ha-jin and Park Young-ha came to an end.
If the PD was building up Yoon Ga-ram, the next scene should have connected to that narrative.
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha: After talking with you, my head feels a lot clearer.】
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha: ‘I should really talk to the others.’】
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha: So all these problems really do stem from lack of communication…. (That’s what I realized)】
But what followed immediately after was Park Young-ha returning to the dormitory after his counseling session with me.
Yoon Ga-ram was mentioned only in the briefest of moments.
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha: Ho-young, have you seen Ga-ram? He wasn’t in the practice room.】
【Young Trainee Ho-young: Oh, Ga-ram? He just went out.】
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha: Out? Where?】
【Young Trainee Ho-young: Uh, outside….】
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha: Oh, okay. Got it. If Ga-ram comes back, tell him to come to our room.】
If my memory was correct, the “outside” Ho-young was referring to was me.
Yoon Ga-ram had practiced until the very end in the practice room, received his counseling as nearly the last one, and after hearing about me from Ho-young in a rush, had come to see me for his session at the very end.
But nowhere in the broadcast was there any mention of Yoon Ga-ram.
Not the fact that he’d practiced until the end,
Not the fact that he’d come to see me and expressed his anxieties about his position and abilities,
Not the fact that throughout the team practice, he’d worked hard to help Park Young-ha build teamwork with the other trainees,
Not the fact that he was the only A-rank trainee on the Fantasy Romance team that I hadn’t given any feedback to.
It was the kind of editorial indifference that was hard to notice unless you were paying close attention.
Or rather, it was such a thorough edit that even if you did notice, you’d think, “I guess he didn’t really participate, so there’s not much footage of him.”
【Young Trainee Park Young-ha: Anyway, so…. I hope we can all do our best and live up to the title of being a gathering of top-tier participants.】
【Young Trainee Chae Yu-hyun: I’ll also try to concentrate more during practice from now on. I’m sorry and grateful for everything.】
【Young Trainee Ha Jun-hyuk: Yeah, yeah. I’m really happy that you two made up. That’s what makes me happiest right now.】
【The [Fantasy Romance] Team, whose teamwork has been restored through Special Teacher Ha-jin’s advice】
What kind of fantastic stage would these members create?
The story of the Fantasia Romance team came to an end like that.
– ???
Yet even until the very last moment, as the camera cut to the live broadcast and all the members took the stage,
– Isn’t Yoon Ga-ram on the same team?
Even participants who lacked presence despite being in the same upper tier within the team received their solo shots and interviews,
– Why isn’t his face showing up properly;;?
There was not a single mention of Yoon Ga-ram.
“….”
Ha-jin hurriedly rose from his seat and gathered his things.
An ominous premonition swept across the back of his neck.

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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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