Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 54

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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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54. Various Methods of Dropping a Parachute (1)
“Ah, right—this wouldn’t work for defamation purposes, Writer.”
Han Sung-woo’s face crumpled in a rather satisfying way. Leaving that guy to his failed attempt at composure, I moved toward the voice calling for me from across the room.
“Oh, they’re looking for me. I’ll head out first.”
“Yes, yes. See you at the next recording, Ha-jin.”
“Thanks for the hard work, hyung.”
After giving Sung-woo’s rigid shoulder a couple of pats, I left the spot. The Writer watched my departing figure with a pleased expression before suddenly growing animated.
“You two were close! I had no idea. Why didn’t you mention that in the interview!”
“…Ah, no. Well.”
Sung-woo’s expression remained stiff as he offered a lukewarm greeting to the Writer. An unfamiliar pressure and tension gripped his ankles, slowly crushing him beneath their weight.
And―,
‘That bastard.’
With a hardened expression and clenched teeth, I felt the same way as I turned back.
* * *
‘Han Sung-woo is definitely a parachute hire.’
This realization came not merely because that guy had beaten me.
‘Something was off even when he was pushing Ju Eun-chan around.’
Han Sung-woo wasn’t stupid enough for this. I’d heard he’d been a trainee for a long time, and he’d earned enough trust among Class B trainees to be called their class representative. Would someone like that really hate Ju Eun-chan just because he didn’t make Special Class?
No—even if he did hate him, he should have hidden it. If Ju Eun-chan were truly a parachute hire, then to a trainee desperate for debut, the person who could decide my debut prospects would be like a god.
‘Seo Tae-hyun was like that.’
Even though the Executive Director’s actions were dirty and petty, Seo Tae-hyun, desperate for debut, couldn’t say a word.
‘Well, since they’re all just kids, it seems they all blindly believed the rumors and joined in on ostracizing Ju Eun-chan without thinking.’
When I asked Ju Eun-chan about Han Sung-woo, he answered like this.
-He didn’t really do anything wrong to me, so it’s awkward to say.
-It’s just that after talking with him, I feel so frustrated. It’s always my fault, always my problem….
-Anyway, it’s better not to get involved with him if possible.
The kind of malice that even Ju Eun-chan—so dull in interpersonal dynamics that he wouldn’t notice even while being threatened—could sense.
The meticulous cunning of bullying Ju Eun-chan while maintaining an angelic image of ‘fairly distributing parachute hires’ to the other kids.
So at first, I thought he was just someone with a warped personality and corrupted character.
“Ha-jin hyung, is your interview done?”
“Yeah. I’m stepping out for a bit.”
“What, where are you going―, hyung!”
I recalled the moment I became certain that Han Sung-woo was a parachute hire.
It was earlier, during a phone call with Seo Tae-hyun.
-As long as you didn’t run away, that’s fine. Come quick, apparently it’s your turn right after this ends.
-Yeah, I’ll be there soon. Thanks.
-Oh, and… from what I saw, you performed way better than Han Sung-woo. Don’t worry about the results.
-…? Ah. Well, thanks.
Seo Tae-hyun seemed even more disappointed about my battle result than I was. Come to think of it, when he first nominated Han Sung-woo as my opponent, he was burning with determination for me to win unconditionally. Then I suddenly became curious.
-Tae-hyun.
-Why? Oh, wait a second. Yes, Writer. Ha-jin hyung said he’s coming right now!
-Why do you hate Han Sung-woo?
Seo Tae-hyun was someone who had once worried whether he should even apologize to Cha Min-seok, his sworn enemy, just in case of unforeseen circumstances down the line. He’d never been one to openly display malice toward the Executive Director who had disrespected and talked down to him. Yet this same Seo Tae-hyun made no effort to hide his disdain for Han Sung-woo.
It was quite a rare phenomenon, to say the least.
Upon hearing my question, Seo Tae-hyun paused for a moment. From the sound coming through the phone, it seemed he was moving to a quieter area. Once the surroundings fell silent, Seo Tae-hyun answered.
-That hyung was the one who told me about Cha Min-seok.
-What?
-He told me. Rene originally sent me an offer, and Cha Min-seok found out about it and sold me out to the Executive Director.
-Han Sung-woo told you that?
-But when that hyung said it, he was smiling? We weren’t even close enough to mix words normally, but he deliberately called me over just to tell me that.
Han Sung-woo knew about the conversation between the Executive Director and Cha Min-seok. He even knew that Rene’s original offer was for Seo Tae-hyun. That was something the Executive Director had discussed privately with Rene—information even Ji Su-ho didn’t know.
-‘At this point, I can’t help but suspect.’
The moment I entered the empty Practice Room, I called Ji Su-ho.
-Hello?
“Team Leader. Can you see me for a moment?”
-Right now?
“Yes. It’s urgent.”
Even when Han Sung-woo picked a fight that made no sense, even when I realized Han Sung-woo was behind Shin Young-ho’s attempts to exclude me, I’d thought of Han Sung-woo as nothing more than a pathetic loser blinded by defeat and inferiority complex toward the parachute hire.
If you’re desperate enough, you can act that way. If you’re desperate enough, you can make those kinds of mistakes. This industry has a way of making people lose their minds if they stay long enough. Up to this point, he’s just a guy with a ruined personality.
But if he himself was that ‘parachute hire everyone’s talking about’, everything changes.
-Still, this is so sudden….
“I think I’ve figured out who the real parachute hire is.”
-What?
“So right now I have two choices in front of me. One, I carefully discuss these suspicious circumstances with Ji Su-ho, the Team Leader in charge of this program.”
-….
“Two, even if I drop out, I spread the word everywhere—on every community site, in every neighborhood—that Miro’s next survival show is rigged, that all the winners are already decided. Which will it be?”
-I’ll be right there. Let’s meet at the Cafe we went to last time.
The moment I received Ji Su-ho’s response, I hung up and hailed a taxi. Every moment from the mission results announcement replayed in my mind.
The Class B guys celebrating their first win, the Class A guys receiving inexplicably low scores. And Ju Eun-chan, who ultimately fell from the Wings Rank due to accumulated points.
“….”
If all of that had been manipulated so Han Sung-woo could beat me.
“…I might actually kill him.”
If that were the case, even if that bastard were the grandson of a celestial being rather than just a celestial being himself, I’d grab him by the collar and drag him down so he never debuts in this lifetime.
I meant it sincerely.
* * *
Ji Su-ho, who was now on the verge of his promotion to Executive Director, wore a somewhat strained expression throughout my explanation.
-‘I threw the manipulation issue at him right after the results announcement ended, so I can’t blame him for that.’
Moreover, there wasn’t anything conclusive yet—just circumstantial evidence—so Ji Su-ho needed to be even more cautious from his position.
-‘No matter how well a survival show is doing, one manipulation scandal and it’s finished.’
In fact, in my previous life, there were a few PDs who went down because of that. And this was an in-house survival show that hadn’t even aired its first episode yet. If manipulation came out here? Before debut, he’d be branded as a rigged show.
“I’m just saying this to be safe, but I’m not spouting nonsense because I lost to Han Sung-woo.”
“Ah, yes. I understand. But… Sung-woo entered as a trainee through auditions, and he was pushed back even in the Special Class.”
“The person in charge of that audition was the former Executive Director.”
“….”
“Before Ju Eun-chan took the fall for the parachute rumors, he was always barely scraping by to get into the Special Class.”
“That’s… true.”
“Well, even so, this isn’t solid evidence either. There’s still a lot more to investigate. In any case, if it’s true, we need to respond, so I’m telling you.”
As I shrugged, Ji Su-ho, who had just moistened his throat with coffee, sighed and spoke.
“Then… let’s first check if there’s a possibility the results were manipulated.”
“For the first mission, you said the score reflection came from the mentors, Miro’s new development team, and the production crew.”
“Yes. Tae-il would know the mentor scores, and since I verified the new development team scores, if there’s a loophole… it would be the production crew.”
When production crew was mentioned, the people who automatically came to mind were those who had been forced to resign. Did those two manipulate the program for Han Sung-woo? They were people who edited ruthlessly for ratings and buzz, but from my memories of my past life, they seemed far removed from such corruption.
‘Rather, they were the types who would flip the table on a game of Go-Stop that was supposed to be rigged, and ended up starting an outsourced production company.’
Wait. An outsourced production company?
Something flashed through my mind rapidly. I had the feeling I was missing something very obvious right now.
“Team Leader, which channel did you say ours was? The one broadcasting this.”
“Ah, Ntv.”
This program was outsourced production. Kwon PD was the main PD, but since he belonged to an outsourced production company, there would definitely be someone from the broadcasting station side—whether as a CP or executive director—attached to it. And if it’s Ntv….
“The CP—Chief Producer—from Ntv’s side… there is one, right? Who’s the head?”
“Ah, just a moment. …It’s this person.”
Ji Su-ho, who had also realized something upon hearing my words, urgently pulled out his phone. As he frantically searched for someone in his messenger, he stopped his finger at one place and showed me someone’s profile picture.
And I knew who this person was.
“Oh my god.”
“He seemed like quite an important person. …Do you know him?”
“…I do know him.”
Around five years from now, this was the guy who got stripped of his position due to manipulation allegations on a hugely popular national audition program.
“This person is the CP?”
“Yes, actually….”
As if something had clicked, Ji Su-ho furrowed his brow and spoke.
“Originally, there were no plans for Miro Maze to be broadcast on TV. The scale was much smaller. But Yoon CP was the one who heard about it from somewhere and first proposed airing it on their channel. He even asked about investment sponsorship.”
“No wonder. I was wondering why they were spending money like there was no tomorrow on an in-house survival show.”
“Of course, we filtered out all the PPL that would reverse the main and supporting roles. But since the broadcast slot was a proposal that couldn’t be bad for us either, we accepted it….”
Ji Su-ho, thinking that was a blunder, rubbed his forehead and made a troubled sound.
I took a moment to organize the information in my head. This would be perfect if I had the system notepad, but the timing really is off. With my chin resting in my hand, I opened the conversation with Ji Su-ho, who still had a serious expression.
“Then, let’s just leave it for now.”
Still, well, I’ve gathered enough information anyway. Does it matter?
* * *
A few days later.
“Come on, let’s smile a bit more, big and bright!”
In a studio within the Seoul Metropolitan Area.
“No, um. That’s not it… well….”
“….”
“Of, of course! Of course I like it! It’s good, but! I can feel you’re really tense right now, so just one more time!”
We were in the middle of shooting profile photos to be previewed for viewers—one in a formal pose, another with a free personal concept.
It was a simple shoot: just look as beautiful as possible.
Seo Tae-hyun, who had bobby pins fixed in his neatly styled hair and was watching someone else’s shoot, asked with genuine curiosity.
“How is that guy even going to pull off the stage performance?”
Kim Won-ho, who had already finished his own shoot and changed into his next outfit, chimed in.
“Wow, what’s this? This guy really doesn’t photograph well, does he?”
“No, it’s not that. He just can’t take photos.”
“Ugh, even so, this is a bit much.”
“You guys, everyone can hear you.”
And Kang Ha-jin, who was playing the role of ‘that guy’ and ‘this guy’ in the conversation above, stood before the photographer with the camera, facing blindingly bright lighting, and thought to myself.
‘Damn it. It seems like the parachute hire isn’t even the problem right now.’
I’d run into an unexpected obstacle!

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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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