Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 485

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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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485. Boy’s Supremacy 2 (4)
I hailed a taxi in haste and headed toward the concert hall where the live broadcast of Boy’s Supremacy 2 was taking place.
On the way, I made sure to contact Kwon Wook to prevent any unforeseen complications.
“Driver, how long do you think it’ll take?”
“There’s a lot of traffic at this hour… I’d say at least another thirty minutes, probably.”
I wondered if taking the subway would have been faster, but one photograph could spawn a hundred rumors.
As soon as we merged onto the main road, I spotted red traffic lights everywhere and immediately pulled up the live broadcast of Boy’s Supremacy 2 on my phone, inserting my earbuds. The Fantasy Romance team’s stage and interview had apparently already finished—the screen now displayed the second team’s practice footage.
“….”
Honestly, I didn’t think my arrival would accomplish anything.
I had no concrete evidence, and even if I did, I wasn’t in a position to expose anything.
Perhaps all of this was merely unfounded worry on my part.
In broadcasts—especially survival programs—it was rare for all participants to receive equal screen time. My dawn conversation with Yoon Ga-ram had definitely occurred when cameras weren’t officially rolling, so the recording might not have captured it properly.
Even if it had been recorded, the editing might have deemed it out of place and cut it.
I knew. I knew all of it.
“…I’m in a bit of a rush. Nothing dangerous, but if you could get me there as quickly as possible, I’d really appreciate it.”
Still, nothing came to mind except the overwhelming need to be there.
Seo Tae-hyun’s words kept circling through my mind—how he’d found Yoon Ga-ram oddly familiar, as if seeing something of himself reflected in the boy.
* * *
“Oh, Ha-jin! Over here, over here.”
“Hyung.”
“Hey, why did you suddenly rush out from the dormitory to here? What’s going on?”
As I circled around and entered through the back of the concert hall, Kwon Wook—who’d received my call—was already waiting.
Seeing me tumble urgently from the taxi, he clicked his tongue a couple of times and pulled something from his pocket. Recognizing it as a black mask, I put it on without hesitation and entered the concert hall with him.
By the time I’d rushed here, Boy’s Supremacy 2 was already approaching the final ranking announcement.
“There’s no space in the main seating since you came so suddenly. Besides, we only recently posted a notice about your activity adjustments due to illness, so it’d be awkward for the cameras to catch your face. I quickly arranged for an empty waiting room instead. Is that okay?”
“That’s fine. …Where are the others?”
“Ha-ru and Si-woo are in the audience seating. But seriously, why did you suddenly show up?”
As we entered the corridor used by artists and production staff, I felt people recognizing me glancing my way. While offering appropriate nods, my attention remained fixed on the live broadcast streaming on my phone.
I opened my mouth only after Kwon Wook had guided me into the waiting room and I’d confirmed that only the two of us remained.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“I need to ask you something. Actually, several things, but they’re all important, so please think carefully before answering.”
“…What is it? Why are you scaring me?”
Kwon Wook’s round eyes had gone wide with fear—like a squirrel encountering a tiger—and I almost felt sorry for him, but the truth was, I was the one who was genuinely frightened.
I exhaled slowly, then glanced at the live broadcast on the waiting room monitor while asking Kwon Wook my question.
“Hyung, you joined Miro around the time we debuted, right? So you probably don’t know much about what happened before you joined?”
“Well, I’ve known the Executive Director for quite a while, so I’ve heard things at drinking sessions, and the entertainment industry is small enough that you pick up rumors. I know some things and don’t know others.”
“Then what do you know about the Executive Director before Ji Su-ho?”
“Suddenly? Why are you asking?”
-Now, it is time to conclude the journey of the boys who will shake the world.
Seo Tae-hyun’s composed voice flowed from the monitor.
In that brief moment, countless thoughts vanished and resurfaced. Questions tumbled from my lips, pushing through my disorganized mind, and they were rather direct.
“Seo Tae-hyun, you really have nothing to do with the Boy’s Supremacy manipulation, right?”
“…What? Hey, what are you talking about right now…!?”
“A kid with no backing and no money comes out as an independent trainee at a young age, becomes a shining star in a survival show, gets eliminated in the finals, and then Miro picks him up—but they don’t put him in the next group that’s about to debut. They just hold onto him for three years.”
“….”
“And during those one or two years when his name had value, they just keep sending him to strange external events, and even the profits from that supposedly went into the pockets of the Former Executive Director.”
Whatever dealings happened behind the scenes, Seo Tae-hyun wouldn’t have known about them.
But just because Seo Tae-hyun didn’t know didn’t mean I could be certain no such dealings ever occurred.
“Really, truly.”
“….”
“This program really has no problems, right? You’re sure?”
I know that boy’s past life.
In every timeline, Seo Tae-hyun narrowly loses in the Boy’s Supremacy finals and then walks the path of a failed idol before retiring.
Was all of that really unrelated?
-The final members who can debut total six.
-First, I will announce the trainee who has secured his debut at fifth place.
The flower of the survival show—the ranking announcement ceremony had begun.
In Seo Tae-hyun’s face as he delivered his lines in a calm and composed tone, the fresh and youthful appearance of the Cherry Boy from back then was nowhere to be found.
“I’ll answer that for you.”
Apparently startled by my sudden words, Kwon Wook—who couldn’t easily continue speaking—stepped aside as the tightly closed door slowly opened.
Someone had hurriedly returned to Seoul from vacation, and judging by how leisurely they seemed to be spending their days, they entered the waiting room dressed in comfortable casual clothes instead of their usual sharp suit.
It was Ji Su-ho, whom I hadn’t seen in nearly months.
“Stop hassling Kwon Wook. What’s he suddenly guilty of?”
“…Ah, Executive Director.”
“….”
“I know what he’s talking about, so Kwon Wook, you can go. I’ll talk to Ha-jin.”
“….”
“I’ll explain after work. Just go for now. Someone needs to watch the site.”
“…Yes.”
At Ji Su-ho’s clear command, Kwon Wook nodded quickly despite his bewildered expression and left the waiting room.
Before leaving, when he glanced back at me, I sent him an apologetic look, and Kwon Wook responded with an ambiguous smile as if to say it didn’t matter, then firmly closed the waiting room door.
In the narrow waiting room with only Ji Su-ho and me remaining, all that echoed was the debut comment from the trainee who placed fifth.
-Really, truly grateful…. Uh, uh…. I promise to do my absolute best so that everyone who voted won’t be disappointed….
“…Want to sit down?”
Ji Su-ho suggested I take a seat, noticing how I stared at the monitor with a hardened expression.
As I sat down at his suggestion, Ji Su-ho began speaking in a rather welcoming tone.
“How’s your health? Doing okay?”
“…You know, I’m fine.”
“I wouldn’t know. I only know what you tell me.”
“…Executive Director.”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. You want me to cut to the chase, right?”
I lowered my voice to make it clear I wasn’t in the mood for jokes, and Ji Su-ho nodded knowingly before crossing his legs.
I’d wanted to ask why someone who’d been transferred to handle Endway was even here, but that wasn’t the priority right now, so I kept my mouth shut.
Soon, Ji Su-ho spoke.
“…If you’re asking whether Tae-hyun was eliminated from Boy’s Supremacy’s finals because of a deal between the Former Executive Director and Kim Hak-seung PD, the answer is no. At least as far as I know, the Executive Director never had his hands in that kind of backroom dealing.”
“….”
“When Tae-hyun was eliminated from the finals, Endway had already completed producing a six-member boy group made up of peers, and Min-seok, who was supposed to debut at the time, had his debut cancelled due to a back injury and age gaps with other members. When it turned out Min-seok knew Tae-hyun, the Former Executive Director had him recruited with the promise of a future debut opportunity.”
“…Are you certain?”
“I’m the one who produced Endway. At least until Tae-hyun was eliminated from the finals, our company never gave him a second glance—except for Tae-il saying the kid had decent potential. He didn’t fit the image the company was going for in the first place.”
Ji Su-ho emphasized multiple times that neither the Executive Director nor Miro had any involvement in Seo Tae-hyun’s elimination from Boy’s Supremacy.
Regardless of whether there was manipulation in Boy’s Supremacy or not, at least the fact that we weren’t the ones behind it was positive information.
But that’s when Ji Su-ho’s expression began to darken.
“However, if you’re asking whether there’s any suspicion whatsoever regarding Boy’s Supremacy itself, apart from us, and regarding Tae-hyun’s elimination itself….”
“….”
“There is. And I’m pretty sure what you’re thinking right now is correct.”
“…How would you know what I’m thinking?”
“Yoon PD is Kim Hak-seung PD’s direct junior.”
“Yoon, as in….”
“The same guy who manipulated your votes with Han Sung-woo in Miro Maze.”
Why is that person’s name suddenly coming up?
A memory suddenly surfaced in my mind.
From the previous timeline—when Yoon CP faced criminal charges a few years from now due to manipulation allegations surrounding a nationwide audition program produced by Ntv.
“Kwon Myung-eun PD said something about it.”
“…?”
“Among all the favoritism and manipulation Ntv has done, how many instances do you think Kim Hak-seung PD wasn’t involved in? Do you really think Yoon CP alone orchestrated all of it?”
“…PD Kwon said that?”
“Recently he contacted me asking to grab a drink alone, and he told me a storm is coming to the broadcasting station soon. He said to keep Tae-hyun from getting too entangled with Boy’s Supremacy, and if anything happens, to make sure he claims ignorance.”
“….”
“In any case, Tae-hyun was essentially used, so the broadcasting station probably won’t push too hard on him even if something breaks.”
It was unexpected that Kwon Myung-eun PD would suddenly tell Ji Su-ho such things, but it was even more unexpected that Ji Su-ho had stayed quiet after hearing all of it.
So much information had poured in that I found myself frowning. I closed my eyes tightly and opened them again, interrupting Ji Su-ho to try to organize things one step at a time.
“Wait, so…. The Boy’s Supremacy results were rigged, then?”
“The kids who were going to debut were decided from the start. The kids who would be built up for popularity but dropped midway were also decided. And the kids they never had any intention of pushing forward were decided too.”
“….”
“Among them, Tae-hyun was….”
Ji Su-ho paused for a moment.
Even as he spoke, his Adam’s apple bobbed several times, showing how frustrated he felt.
“Tae-hyun was ‘a kid who kept rising when he shouldn’t have.’ He was picked from the start just to fill numbers, so they kept giving him bad edits and reducing his screen time. But his popularity wouldn’t fade, so they had no choice but to bring him all the way to the finals—a kid they didn’t want to see succeed.”
“…?”
“This is what Choi Seung-wan PD told me.”
So many unexpected names had been mentioned that my head was spinning.
I quickly recalled that Choi Seung-wan PD was the Main PD of A-Count who currently oversaw Boy’s Supremacy 2 as his primary responsibility. When I looked at him with eyes asking how on earth that person had come to make such a confession, Su-ho added that he’d gone straight to Kwon Myung-eun PD after hearing about it and pressed him for answers.
“You’re telling me that person just confessed everything when you asked?”
“I pushed him hard, acting like I already knew everything, even subtly suggesting we were on the same side. I coaxed and cajoled him, saying we needed to know what was happening so we could respond properly. Because of that, we couldn’t record anything, so we couldn’t gather evidence, but….”
Su-ho struck his thigh lightly with his fist as if disappointed.
It seemed like he was trying to lighten the mood in his own way, but frankly, it had no effect whatsoever.
On the monitor visible behind Su-ho, only the final announcement of the first-place trainee remained.
“Tae-hyun was destined from the beginning never to debut through Boy’s Supremacy.”
“….”
“He tasted success with Boy’s Supremacy, but when Yoon CP got eliminated from Miro Maze because of your interference, he decided to get his hands dirty with Boy’s Supremacy 2 himself. This time, he must have been even more meticulous and careful.”
Su-ho’s gaze finally left me and turned toward the monitor.
On the screen was a three-shot of MC Seo Tae-hyun and two people who were simultaneously candidates for first place and candidates for elimination.
I could see Chae Yu-hyun, who had placed first in the previous rankings announcement, and Yoon Ga-ram, standing there with an unreadable expression.
“…It seems like it’s going to be that guy this time.”
It seems like it’s going to be that guy this time.
I couldn’t understand why those words made my chest burn so intensely.
I forced my mouth open with the feeling of chewing on embers.
“We can’t just let this slide because there’s no evidence. …That’s not right. You can’t toy with people’s dreams like that.”
“….”
“What about us, who are allowing this to happen? If we know, if we’re aware and do nothing, that’s the same as consenting to it. Is that all it takes? Oh, so it was rigged. Thank goodness Tae-hyun got to debut with our group instead, right? Is that the end of it?”
Incomprehensible emotions surged up from within my heart.
Even as I spoke these words, the question “So what can you do about it?” never left my mind, making me suffer all the more.
-The first place is….
Yoon Ga-ram on the monitor closes his eyes.
The composed movement, as if he knew everything all along, only fueled my anger further.
“Ha-jin.”
Su-ho’s calm voice resonated through the waiting room.
“Tae-hyun knows too.”
“…?”
“That he couldn’t debut because of the manipulation. That there’s manipulation in this Boy’s Supremacy 2 happening right now…. Tae-hyun knows about it too.”
-Chae Yu-hyun is our Boy. Congratulations!
Words devoid of reality pierced my ears.
The countless applause and cheers coming through the monitor felt utterly meaningless.

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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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