Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 538

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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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538. Eye of the Typhoon (5)
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to eat?”
“…Yeah, I’m eating.”
He’d left me in turmoil, yet Yu Gun acted as though nothing had happened, simply finishing his meal. Ha-jin watched him for a moment, lost in thought, his expression grave with contemplation—yet even so, he didn’t forget to place vegetables on Yu Gun’s spoon.
“Are you really planning to keep this up until I finish everything?”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about me. Just eat.”
“What on earth happened to you in ten years…?”
They say people die soon after suddenly doing things they’ve never done before.
Yu Gun grumbled with clear displeasure, yet he obediently accepted the vegetables Ha-jin offered. It wasn’t so much that he’d opened his heart to Ha-jin—rather, he’d quickly resigned himself to the fact that there was no point in resisting.
“Do you keep in touch with Seo Tae-hyun?”
“Who?”
“Seo Tae-hyun. You two were close, weren’t you?”
Ha-jin spoke again once Yu Gun had polished off two bowls of rice and ordered an additional serving of beef bulgogi. Thinking he intended to fill his stomach properly while he was at it, Ha-jin casually pushed the remaining side dishes toward Yu Gun.
The question about Tae-hyun stemmed purely from curiosity.
‘After all, Yu Gun was closest to Seo Tae-hyun back then… It should be similar here too, right? If I can just bring this guy over, getting Seo Tae-hyun shouldn’t be too difficult.’
Yet at that casual question, Yu Gun—who had been contentedly eating the stew they’d ordered together, mixing it with rice—set down his spoon for the first time, his brow furrowing.
“Are you seriously ill?”
“What are you talking about, all of a sudden?”
“Did you develop amnesia in the past ten years? Dementia or something? If you’ve got some terminal illness, tell me now.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
At Yu Gun’s sudden barrage of curses over a simple question about Seo Tae-hyun, Ha-jin’s brow creased in dismay. Yu Gun’s voice was filled with exasperation as he answered.
“Right after we debuted, you and that guy got into such a massive fight that the group almost fell apart. Don’t you remember? Seo Tae-hyun kept going on about passion and all that idealistic nonsense, and I got so fed up that I didn’t say a single word to him except when the cameras were rolling. So where exactly were we supposed to be close?”
“…Right, I see. So that’s how it was.”
“What?”
“Nothing, never mind. My memory must have gotten confused. Eat your food.”
That bastard Dol-ja….
At Dol-ja’s meticulous attention to detail in twisting the settings, Ha-jin quietly cursed under his breath. All the effort he’d put into speaking properly and carefully since debuting with Kairos—effort born from hearing Seo Tae-hyun’s idol conduct guidelines drilled into his ears—became meaningless in that moment.
‘So that’s what it was… That couple’s fight from back then? Before debut.’
Only then did Ha-jin recall the brief cold war—if it could even be called that—between Yu Gun and Tae-hyun in the early days after debut. And he also remembered that it was Ha-jin himself who had ended that cold war.
It wasn’t incomprehensible that the Ha-jin of this world, who hadn’t even been on good terms with Yu Gun, wouldn’t have gone out of his way to be so considerate, and thus the two’s relationship had simply fallen apart. But still….
‘Did they really need to make the character backstory this detailed?’
The most infuriating part was that all these settings made considerable sense.
Honestly, even Ha-jin himself couldn’t guarantee that if he’d debuted with Kairos at nineteen or twenty without ever experiencing regression, he wouldn’t have ended up like this.
His younger self had been embarrassingly immature and lacking in so many ways.
“….”
But everyone had a childhood.
Even Yu Gun, standing right in front of him, had matured enough to support his family from a young age, yet he’d chosen to be disliked rather than open up about his circumstances to his fellow trainees.
“Well, how could I remember? You were the one who hated me most for being irresponsible.”
Yu Gun left those words hanging in a bitter tone.
Yoo Gun-i left a single remark in a bitter voice.
It wasn’t something Ha-jin had actually said, and it certainly wasn’t what he’d actually been thinking. Yet for some reason, Ha-jin couldn’t easily deny it. After all, for Yu Gun now, it was all a memory that had become reality.
A fleeting memory surfaced.
-…Yu Gun says he’s going to withdraw.
-What?
-He says he doesn’t care if people curse him out, but he can’t stand seeing his grandfather and younger siblings get cursed because of him, so he’s insisting on withdrawing. Si-woo and I barely managed to convince him and got him to sit in the room for now.
Right before the Miro Maze Round 3 stage, when Yu Gun withdrew and fell into an infinite loop.
Ha-jin suddenly thought that perhaps Yu Gun back then was simply exhausted. And if he had failed to convince Yu Gun at that time, then perhaps that timeline was the exact moment when Yu Gun had ‘abandoned his dream’—or so he wondered.
Then, in this current timeline, when exactly had Yu Gun abandoned his dream?
“…Did you hate me a lot?”
Even while knowing this reality wasn’t real.
Even while knowing that all the negative emotions Yu Gun harbored toward him were fake, set by The Returner, Ha-jin asked anyway.
The reason was simple.
-What I meant was that the fundamental reason behind your actions was the same. Your reason for stopping Yu Gun’s withdrawal. You said it yourself just now. ‘I’ll stop Yu Gun’s withdrawal to prevent regression.’
-Do you really think that? If it weren’t for regression, would you not care whether Yu Gun withdrew or not?
When he’d experienced infinite regression before, there was something he’d felt listening to Ji Su-ho’s words.
Ha-jin applied that situation to the current one.
‘I want to awaken Yu Gun.’
Why? So he could prevent the controversy caused by the discord rumors and make things go more smoothly going forward?
‘No. Because I want him to know.’
Kang Ha-di
@kang_HD
May the world be
a little kinder to Yu Gun
…

I wanted him to know that there was a time when he too could dream such dreams.
I wanted him to know that he was someone who dreamed and climbed up, one step at a time.
And that was no longer a matter of whether awakening Yu Gun would help him or not.
“Well…. What’s there to hate or not hate? Honestly, it was a natural reaction. I wasn’t exactly being polite either.”
“Still. It’s true that I said a lot of harsh things to your face, right? And I wasn’t even unaware of your circumstances.”
When Ha-jin shrugged and feigned ignorance, Yu Gun looked at him with suspicious eyes. His expression still showed he didn’t understand Ha-jin’s true intentions, but Ha-jin, skilled at maintaining a poker face, revealed not a shred of sincerity.
In the meantime, the newly ordered beef bulgogi was placed in front of them. When Ha-jin naturally pushed the bowl toward Yu Gun, Yu Gun let out a snort of disbelief and spouted a joke.
“So what, are you trying to apologize now that it’s come to this?”
“What if I am? Will you accept it?”
“…What the hell did you eat wrong? Are you dying soon? Is that why you’re like this?”
“Whether you choke on something bad or die from some serious illness—I’ll choose that. You just decide whether you’ll accept my apology or not. For now.”
There was nothing worse than having to apologize for something I hadn’t even done.
But for Yu Gun, I was willing to lower my head and apologize at least once.
‘I should have apologized back then, but the timing got awkward and I just let it slide….’
Recalling all the ways I’d persuaded (threatened) Yu Gun to stop me during the infinite regression, I waited quietly for his response.
Yu Gun had been about to pick up a chopstick full of tender beef bulgogi, but his appetite seemed to vanish. Now he’d set his chopsticks down on the table and crossed his arms.
After smacking his lips for a while, Yu Gun asked me as if he couldn’t understand.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“That was ten years ago. Why are you doing this now?”
“….”
“Don’t tell me you’re worried I’ll actually write something on the internet calling you a piece of garbage. If that’s it, just forget it. I’m too busy making a living to have time to poke my nose into someone else’s life.”
Yu Gun’s barbed words poured down on me.
Ironically, hearing that sharp tone, I felt relieved. In the original timeline, Yu Gun had been somewhat prickly toward me and the group members, but he’d never been this openly hostile.
So this was how Yu Gun treated true strangers.
A complex mixture of relief and satisfaction bloomed in my chest. I drank a glass of water, slowly moistened my throat, and answered Yu Gun.
“You’re right.”
“What? You’re really doing this because you’re afraid I’ll write something?”
“Hyung.”
“…?”
“Because you’re my hyung, that’s why.”
Yu Gun still looked like he couldn’t understand. Regardless, I picked up the outer jacket draped over my chair and added one more thing.
“By the way, was that the first time you called me hyung? Or not?”
“….”
“Cafe Owner! Could you wrap up this beef bulgogi? Please pack it together with what I asked you to wrap earlier.”
At my words, Yu Gun’s expression twisted and he leaned back. Yet his eyes narrowed as if he were trying to remember whether he’d really said that.
I chuckled watching Yu Gun like that. Then, picking up the order slip and standing up, Yu Gun looked up at me as if asking where I was going.
“…? What, where are you going?”
“Aren’t you done eating? Get up. We’ve got our next stop.”
“What else is there?”
“Did you really think just having one meal with you would cost five hundred? Wake up. I’m going to work you hard today.”
“Where are we going? If it runs late, I need to contact the Tigers.”
At Yu Gun’s troubled question, I checked the time and answered in a light tone.
“Dancing.”
“…Huh↗?”
“Let’s go dancing. Get up.”
After eating, you’ve got to help with digestion, after all.
With those words and a smile that looked impossibly bright, along with a thumbs-up, there wasn’t a trace of the sentimentality from just moments before.

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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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