Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 524
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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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524. Special Mission! Become a Comet (1)
That evening.
A simple post appeared on a peaceful anonymous entertainment community.
[OMG Haeundae Oppa’s OneStagram account just dropped?]
The so-called Haeundae Oppa (A.K.A the man who belonged to Seo Tae-il)—who had stirred up quite the buzz in the community with his devastatingly beautiful visuals, mellifluous singing voice, articulate speech, and the poignant narrative of a fallen idol—was a fresh face in this dopamine-depleted Stone Board.
Everyone had rushed in with eyes ablaze, but as all his past activity records were excavated and erased, the man himself never appeared, and interest had been cooling off—!
Now came news that the man had posted an update.
[OMG Haeundae Oppa’s OneStagram account just dropped?]
(Four-panel photo of Kang Ha-jin and Ju Eun-chan.JPG)
Even threw in an insane four-panel photo
Looks like his younger sibling from the same group next to him
What was posted was just an ordinary photograph.
Since this was a place where celebrity updates flooded in and disappeared by the dozen each day, the Haeundae Oppa’s new photo was nothing particularly special either.
The only thing extraordinary about that post was one thing alone.
– Their faces are insane tlqkf….
Their visuals were the kind that would utterly devour most active idols.
– Why did Kairos even fail?
– What has the K-pop industry been missing all this time
– Account ID. Please. Right now.
└ @k.with.us
└ Kairos
– Not to be weird but if I saw them on the street I’d probably automatically look down both of them
– Wow but seriously they’re both incredibly handsome
– Those are ordinary people?? tlqkf The beauty standards for civilians these days are seriously insane;
– Because there are two of them like that, it feels a bit like a maze?? Haha.
└ 22 Definitely picking Seo Tae-il
└ 333 Han Se-won must have brought them
└ What was Han Se-won doing 10 years ago? Why didn’t he bring people like this?
└ That was when Han Se-won was getting scammed by a subordinate….
└ Ah;
I really can’t believe I’m feeling sorry for an Entertainment Company CEO’s life.
The OneStagram post that had become a hot topic in the community spread rapidly to other communities and social media. The news that the Haeundae Oppa’s OneStagram account had been created was already exciting, but now there was this massive long-haired decadent handsome man attached to it?
For the dol-deoks who were always passionate about discovering new beauties, it was nothing short of fascinating prey.
[Completely screenshotted the Haeundae Oppa’s OneStagram post]
(Four-panel photo of Kang Ha-jin and Ju Eun-chan.JPG)
@k.with.us
You grew up so fast
ㅅㅌㅇ followed you back, are you planning to be active again?
Park Deok-bae
@whsskwhzns
Tall, great physique, single-lidded eyes, handsome face—
Not just one, but two of them?
That’s insane.
(Screenshot from Kang Ha-jin’s Instagram post.JPG)
Shares: 12K Likes: 13K
But it’s inevitable that talk about Haeundae oppa and long-haired oppa being connected to Miro comes up lol
In the first place, Kairos itself is a group that was created when a manager from Miro brought out rookie kids from Miro lololololol
These are not the statues that Han Se-won kidnapped, but the ones that were actually kidnapped and robbed.ㅠㅜㅠㅠ
– This is correct, Miro-san is not an old man, he is really from Miro.
– I know that the reason Seo Tae-il gave his debut song in the first place was because the producer was from the same agency. Haha, what are these guys called Eok-ppa?
Honestly, if they had debuted after UPA and Underwear 2, Miro probably wouldn’t be in this pathetic state right now, hanging on by a thread before closing down. It’s all because of Han Gaewon.
└ Huh? Then who debuted instead of them?
└ There was C-Real, but the person in charge caused a scandal with double contracts and embezzled money, so they couldn’t even promote for like 3 months and disbanded
└ How is the group name C-Real…
[I used to be a Kairos fan, want to hear something even crazier]
Actually, during the group’s activities, the real visual member was someone else….
(Blurry captured low-quality screenshot of Jeong Si-u.JPG)
Si-woo, are you doing well…?
(Since this member left early on, the photo quality is all I have available, sorry)
– Who’s this oppa
– What were Kairos members even doing, no matter how much you dig there’s always more—they’re not even rough diamonds, they’re just self-luminous, fully cut 24K diamonds
– huh?? Eunchani was a visual member lol? Originally, Kairos itself consisted of a visual member (Cel Chan Danshu) and a physical member (Kang Do-geon).
Ah, yeah I know that. But honestly, among them, Jeong Si-u was definitely more of the main visual, you know?
– These guys, even the member who left is handsome
The so-called “Kairos flow” that Ha-jin’s four-cut photo had started was not easily stopped.
They weren’t currently active idols, and they weren’t even popular idols during their active period, but people found the Kairos talk flooding the community all day interesting rather than tiresome.
And there was only one reason this could happen.
– But wait, he’s a former member, is it okay to mention him…? Isn’t this a sensitive topic;
└ The group’s already disbanded anyway, what does it matter
So like, he left and then the Group disbanded not long after, so there’s basically no difference lol
It was a story from the “past” that no one would stop no matter how much people chewed and tore into it.
The most entertaining thing in the world was always talk about the old days.
Especially for a group like Kairos, where many people had dipped their toes in just briefly, stories about such thinly-known groups naturally had more to add.
Pakssae🔒
@pakssae
Seeing the Kairos flow suddenly trending gives me weird feelings
Back when our Tae-hyun was working so hard to promote the group
nobody cared C-Real
║
Chakookie🔒
@ckznckzn
You too? Haha, me too!
The four-cut photo of Kang Ha-jin and Ju Eun-chan looks so friendly it’s making me even more anxious
The oppas weren’t originally that close, you know?
Why didn’t you just pretend to be close to me back then?
║
Paksae🔒
@pakssae
Sigh, seriously
Lee Yu-gun quit being an idol and seems to have completely recovered, living pretty solidly now
What on earth is our Tae-hyun doing with his life
Even those who had been genuine fans of Kairos back then had long since buried all that hatred and resentment, sorrow and anger deep within their hearts, reduced to ash.
The fierce fandom wars and all manner of scandals had become utterly meaningless now that the group had collapsed and the very survival of my favorites remained unknown.
In truth, it was all just embellishment in my mind, but somehow, looking back on it now, it almost felt like a cherished memory.
Paksae🔒
@pakssae
I don’t know… just…
Since things have come to this, I wish Kang Ha-jin would take the lead and gather everyone together to at least file a survival report
Ha-jin, honestly, you have some responsibility for this
Those who first discovered Kairos found the emergence of these fresh new faces intriguing,
while those who knew Kairos back then indulged in nostalgic memories of Stone Board from ten years ago that they’d forgotten.
Though their reasons differed, the names ‘Kairos’ and ‘Kang Ha-jin’ were gradually being etched into people’s minds.
(Photo from the day Kang Ha-jin visited Seo Tae-il’s place and ate together.JPG)
♡ 521K
@u.tae1pia
Meeting in Busan, eating in Seoul
@k.with.us
Seo Tae-il seized the moment and released photos from his meal with Ha-jin, successfully generating another wave of buzz. Ha-jin’s Instagram follower count increased at a considerable pace, and their past stage videos were excavated once more, driving up view counts.
Now, Kang Ha-jin was being treated not quite as a celebrity, but rather as a ‘fairly well-known SNS star.’
People uninterested in such things still had no idea who he was, but for those who invested considerable time in communities and social media, they could say, ‘Oh, that guy who’s been trending lately?’ to that extent.
“….”
Kwon Myung, the PD at Studio A, was meticulously monitoring every single internet reaction without missing a thing.
While facing casting difficulties for the next program, this junior suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
There was no clear logic or basis for it, but because of some inexplicable gut feeling that ‘this could work,’ he’d hastily extended an appearance offer, though he’d actually been uncertain about it….
Yet the buzz surrounding this junior, whom he’d expected to fade away like a one-day star, was stretching on far longer than anticipated.
“Senior, we’ve completed the pre-meeting preparations. But I think you should do a final check.”
“…Ah, yeah, I’ll be right there.”
On Kwon Myung’s table lay the profiles of two people.
One was a rookie actor that the agency of the already-confirmed cast member had pushed through in a bundling deal,
and the other was Ha-jin’s resume that he himself had submitted when he first joined the company.
“….”
The entertainment agency of the cast members said they would provide production funding above a certain amount if a rookie actor was cast in the show.
In essence, it was nothing more than a bribe disguised as production costs—asking for favorable editing of the entertainers—which would certainly become a shackle of sorts. But for a production company, such an investment proposal in an expensive survival program had absolutely no downsides.
‘Honestly, it’s not like we haven’t rigged things like this before in moderation….’
Kwon Myung-eun’s gaze shifted toward Ha-jin’s resume.
When we’d spoken on the phone last time, Ha-jin’s voice had seemed somehow different from what I remembered. Of course, he’d still been sharp and brilliant back then, but there was something about him that seemed cornered, as if standing on the edge of a cliff—his thoughts appeared heavy, layered.
-Come on, senior. Don’t hype up that plane. Just because one video went viral—did you think my whole life would change?
-I’m just satisfied if we managed to get our group’s name out there, even for a moment.
It was an answer that could only be described as either humble if packaged well, or lacking in self-esteem if expressed harshly. Yet there was something indefinable—a kind of composure—in Ha-jin’s voice as he said it.
What was that feeling that made my instincts as a PD—someone I thought had already died and been buried—suddenly flare back to life?
Was Kang Ha-jin truly worth the tens of millions of won in production support?
【Writer Yoon Seo-young ‖ Kang Ha-jin has arrived at the lobby】
【Writer Yoon Seo-young ‖ Will conduct a brief interview in Room 101 and send him up】
<Writer Yoon Seo-young ‖ (Photo of Ha-jin entering the company building.jpg)
With messages already pouring in, Kwon Myung-eun the PD rose from her seat with a sigh. In the group chat where the production team gathered, calls were being exchanged about the cast members entering in thirty minutes.
Looking at the photo Ha-jin's writer in charge had uploaded, Myung-eun clicked her tongue softly.
"Senior, here's today's on-set cue sheet. The order has changed, so I'm sending it again."
"Oh, thanks."
As Myung-eun was about to leave the office, Assistant Director Ha-na came scurrying over and handed her a folder.
The first page of the 3-4 sheet stack of A4 papers in her hands bore this title:
【In the Chaos (Working Title) Pre-Meeting】
【Pre-TEST On-Set Cue Sheet (Disguised as…) (W. Zombie Horde)】
"Well, we'll know once we see it today."
Whether that guy was a goose that laid golden eggs, or just a duckling painted gold.
An unmistakable sense of anticipation bloomed across her face as she reviewed the cue sheet.
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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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