Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 492

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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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492. Mission: Impossible! (1)
“Absolutely not!”
Well, that was the reaction I’d anticipated.
“What, what, what are you doing? What are you changing? Are you insane? The NMA is in two days, we’ve already sent the rehearsal footage for camera cuts, and now you want to change something? What?”
“Come on, count the days properly. Two days? Tae-hyun, we have four days left.”
“We’re flying out tomorrow, and you’re saying this now?”
“Surely you don’t think I’d say this without knowing that.”
“Ugh! You really are insane!”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been thinking lately that I’m not exactly in my right mind either….”
“Ah, ah, the stress…. Oh, the headache….”
As I clicked my tongue regretfully and lowered my head, Seo Tae-hyun’s face flushed crimson as he clutched his throbbing head and fell backward. I could see Ju Eun-chan cautiously approaching with a hand fan, offering it to Tae-hyun.
I really couldn’t understand why Tae-hyun complained even when I gave him straightforward answers.
“Um, Ha-jin….”
Ji Su-ho, who had been sitting at the head of the conference table as today’s mediator, finally opened his mouth amid the chaos.
Watching him start with my name only to fumble with his words several times, opening and closing his hands in distress, it was clear that Ji Su-ho was also struggling to accept my proposal.
“As a group producer, I really do acknowledge your abilities. Most of your judgments have been correct, and even when things seemed impossible, the results have generally been good.”
Apparently quite flustered, Ji Su-ho kept pushing his slipping glasses up with the bridge of his nose, clearing his throat with a soft cough.
“But this time, I’m not sure either. Changing the solo from the original plan to Lee Do-ha with only four days until the NMA…. And you’re saying it’s not even finished yet? Manager Kwon Wook told me that when Do-ha was first mentioned, you were actually the one who opposed it. Why are you suddenly doing this?”
Ouch, he hit the mark.
Countless eyes in the conference room turned toward me like arrows. The pressure was overwhelming, but since this was my doing, I had nowhere to run.
-I want to change the NMA solo to Lee Do-ha.
That was the agenda I’d hastily presented right after witnessing Lee Do-ha’s choreography demonstration and calling an emergency meeting.
The response was naturally cold rejection.
Honestly, even I thought this sounded insane, so I wasn’t particularly hurt by the opposing opinions. I was simply trying to figure out how to convince them.
“That was before I saw Lee Do-ha dancing the choreography that Lee Yu-gun created.”
Kang Ha-jin’s Negotiation Rule Number 55: If you’re going to make an unreasonable request anyway, don’t hesitate—just go for it.
Now that it’s come to this, I’ll proceed shamelessly.
“It’ll work. It really will work, I’m telling you. Have you ever seen something I said would work actually fail?”
“….”
See? Nothing.
Unable to find a counterexample to my claim, everyone in the conference room fell silent, exchanging glances. It wasn’t intentional, but I had to admit I felt pretty good that no one could actually refute me.
Those who realized I wouldn’t be easily defeated naturally turned their attention to the next target.
The Lee Brothers, who had been sitting beside me like they were on a bed of nails.
“…Don’t look at me. I clearly said this wouldn’t work.”
Lee Yu-gun deflected responsibility sharply, waving off their gazes.
His firmly extended palm radiated the sincere message: ‘Don’t lump me in with this madman.’
Jeong Si-u, who had been twirling a pen in one hand while watching the situation with interest, suddenly tapped it against the desk with a sharp sound.
“Well, let’s at least watch the footage and decide then. Ha-jin does have a tendency to speak before thinking sometimes, but he doesn’t push impossible things through sheer force like you might expect.”
“…? Thank you, hyung. But that’s a compliment, right?”
“That depends on how the listener takes it.”
Something about that shield feels a bit off, doesn’t it?
My eyebrow nearly twitched at the ambiguous remark, but since it ultimately worked in my favor, I let it slide.
As Su-ho nodded, an A&R Team employee sitting at the far end of the conference room quickly connected a laptop to the monitor.
The screen displayed a video of Lee Do-ha’s choreography demonstration filmed in the Underground Practice Room—a newly recorded backup for documentation purposes before coming upstairs.
“I’ll play it now.”
Inside the darkened conference room.
Lee Do-ha’s choreography, which had sent shivers down my spine, played out once more across the monitor.
The Lee Do-ha on screen was still clumsy, still stumbling, occasionally forgetting moves or making mistakes, but I didn’t care about any of that.
That wasn’t what mattered in this video.
“….”
Everyone’s gaze watching the video instantly filled with seriousness.
Even Seo Tae-hyun, who had been pointing and complaining that it made no sense, leaned forward slightly with curious eyes.
And no one.
Shhhhh….
When Lee Do-ha’s brief performance video—barely under a minute long—ended and the lights in the conference room brightened again by the employee’s hand.
The conference room remained wrapped in silence.
“See?”
And I knew exactly what that silence meant.
“I told you this would work, didn’t I?”
At my confident words, once again, no one could offer a rebuttal.
‘There’s nothing quite as thrilling as silence with a predetermined answer.’
I smiled in victory and grabbed Lee Do-ha’s shoulder, who had gone rigid beside me.
“Do-ha.”
“…Yeah.”
“Just die and come back to life for three days.”
“….”
It looked like cold sweat was dripping from my stone-like friend’s forehead, but well….
‘It’s probably just my imagination.’
This is all your own doing, buddy.
Hang in there.
* * *
The problem was time. Time.
-But the choreography isn’t even finished yet?
-We can create it as we go.
-Do-ha hyung isn’t Seo Tae-hyun. You’re going to have him learn choreography we just made on the spot?
Lee Yu-gun, who had watched Lee Do-ha’s dancing ability up close more than anyone, came out in strong opposition.
I almost got annoyed wondering why I had pushed Lee Do-ha in the first place if I was going to be like this, but since it was also me who had silenced Yu-gun back then, I just kept my mouth shut.
Anyway, I was the root cause of all this!
‘But honestly, it really seemed impossible back then.’
And it actually was impossible.
My decision to make this insane choice now wasn’t because I believed in Do-ha’s choreography skills—it was born from the creative choreography Yu Gun had crafted and the fierce determination Do-ha himself wanted to prove to me.
-For now, let’s boldly cut any existing choreography that can’t be adjusted for difficulty, and finish the incomplete parts together. The movement patterns are already done anyway—we just need to tweak the motions and nuances a bit. We can do this.
-When are you planning to finish it?
-Now. Today.
-…You’re saying choreograph today, learn it tomorrow, master it the day after, and perform at the show? Are you serious, hyung?
-We pulled off even tighter schedules when we were doing Miro Maze. Why are you like this?
-Is this really the same thing?
-So. Are you not going to do it?
-….
-If you’re not going to do it, tell me now.
Yet Yu Gun, his anxious eyes trembling with intensity, never shook his head to refuse.
In the end, we pulled off a miracle—completely reworking and creating the entire choreography in just four hours.
Since the Artist Practice Studio had to accommodate other award show stage and concert rehearsals simultaneously, we converted the large underground practice room where Do-ha had first demonstrated the choreography into our exclusive space.
Thanks to that, trainee Tae-hee, who passed by our practice room occasionally, could be heard shuddering and muttering about how “the gates of hell had opened.”
“Again from there, spin around…! Ah, damn it!”
“….”
“Okay, let’s take a break for a moment.”
Inside the practice room filled only with oppressive heat.
The moment I stopped the audio player and announced break time, Do-ha collapsed onto the floor right there. Beyond being drenched in sweat from head to toe, the way he struck the practice room floor with his fist in clear frustration made it obvious how much stress he was under.
“Bear, water.”
“…Yeah. Thanks.”
Yu Gun, who had been with me until just moments ago, was dragged away by Tae-hyun under the pretext of packing, and only Do-ha, who had already finished packing, and I—who never packed much even when going overseas—remained to continue the final rehearsal.
With our departure tomorrow, my mind felt rushed.
“Kwon Wook texted. He said he’d pick us up at the company tomorrow, timing it perfectly.”
“Yeah?”
“We can’t have you wearing yourself out, so let’s just run through it three more times, then head up and get some rest.”
“Okay.”
Quite economical in his response.
Do-ha took the water bottle I handed him and downed half of it in one go, then wiped his face with a towel and exhaled roughly. Even in this moment, I could see him mentally replaying the previous rehearsal, contemplating what went wrong and what needed to be corrected.
Usually when he performed music, he moved so instinctively and intuitively that I didn’t fully realize it, but moments like this made it unmistakably clear that he was an athlete at heart.
“…Hey, Do.”
“Yeah?”
Don’t carry such a heavy burden.
That’s what I meant to say.
I didn’t want Do-ha to become overly anxious because of my sudden impulse.
-I just got a call from the Main PD. As long as the movement patterns are the same, the broadcasting station said it doesn’t matter much if the performer changes.
-Then… what if we make Do-ha Plan A and rehearse with him, but also keep in mind a backup plan to swap Yu Gun on the day itself if it really doesn’t seem like it’ll work? I understand what Ha-jin is thinking and pushing for, but regardless of intentions, something that won’t work just won’t work.
-Yu Gun, are you okay with that? Your workload would double then….
-Well…. I finished the NMA solo performance a long time ago, so there’s nothing difficult about it.
The members, having seen Do-ha’s choreography video, ultimately agreed to change the solo performance to Do-ha, but they still couldn’t shake the anxiety that Do-ha might not complete the choreography within three days.
If Lee Do-ha failed to complete all the choreography before stepping onto the NMA stage in three days, then all the grueling work we were doing right now might turn out to be nothing more than a midsummer night’s dream.
“…No, never mind. We still got a lot done. Honestly, I was worried we wouldn’t finish by today.”
“Yeah, the movements are definitely more streamlined, so they’re easier to memorize. Since it’s closer to movement than dance, the body picks it up faster too.”
But watching him repeatedly play back the choreography video that Yoo Gun had filmed for practice purposes even during breaks, showing such determination, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him to take it easy.
Truthfully, I also wanted him to pull this off. It wasn’t as though I had no grounds for belief in him.
[Appeal Point: Strong Heart]
[Delivery, Stage Adaptability, Performance Realization (85%)]
The “Performance Realization” percentage, which had been around 80% back during his trainee days, had risen by a full 5%.
Once he succeeded at something, he was the type who could realize that performance almost exactly as intended.
If I pushed him hard for three straight days, I could probably fill at least half of that remaining 15%, no problem.
“…Ha-jin.”
“Huh?”
While I was methodically peeling the boiled egg that Ju Eun-chan had left for a late-night snack, Lee Do-ha, who had been staring at the video for a while now, called out to me.
Wondering if there was something he didn’t understand, I looked over at him, and contrary to his usual demeanor, he was staring at me with a sullen expression, his lips moving slightly before he spoke in a flat voice.
“…Me too.”
“What?”
“I want an egg too.”
“Oh, yeah. Here, eat this.”
I handed him the half-peeled egg, and Lee Do-ha took it from me with slow movements. He must have been really exhausted, because his arm was trembling as he ate the egg.
‘If his arm is shaking like that….’
I had planned to make him do it three more times before putting him to bed, but I’d have to cut it down to just two….
I pulled out a fresh egg from the bag and recalibrated today’s target.
The choreography blocking was moving faster than expected; it was just that his body hadn’t absorbed it yet.
For now, I’d aim to finish movement comprehension before tomorrow’s departure, then work on details in the local practice studio after arriving, and if I just repeated “absolute repetition” until the NMA performance, it actually seemed like there was some hope in sight.
“Come on, Lee Do-ha. Let’s get up and go again.”
“Okay.”
“Just two more times, and then we’ll wrap it up perfectly from start to finish and go shower feeling good. Deal?”
However, life rarely goes according to plan.
“…I’ll try my best.”
For three days, Lee Do-ha never once completed the choreography perfectly.
Not even once.

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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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