Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 542

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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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542. Entering the Eye of the Typhoon (9)
That evening.
Another post was uploaded to Kang Ha-jin’s OneStagram account.
@k.with.us
Haha, it’s been a while v_v
Accompanied by a single, concise caption, the post contained only one video lasting just over a minute. Since Ha-jin had frequently shared glimpses of his daily life since creating the account, the mere fact that he’d posted something wasn’t particularly noteworthy.
– Wow, oppa, what are you doing?;
Yet Kang Ha-jin’s post still generated considerable impact this time.
It wasn’t simply because the video he’d uploaded was the latest trending dance challenge.
“What? Why does this oppa dance so well?? He’s like an idol member lol”
└ Of course. He’s a former idol.
└ That would make sense. Since he’s an idol…
– I’m not lying, I think I’ve seen like 100 of these challenges, and this is definitely the best one
– Seriously though, he’s insanely good
– So that’s why he always did talent shows at company dinners during his PD days with those dance skills
└ A youngest member PD who dances suspiciously well, but it turns out he’s actually a former idol? Wow, the character setup is way too much right now
BaeBae
@baevae
The fact that we only know about this man’s years from twenty-two to twenty-nine
through oral legends seems like the biggest lie
So with this face and these skills,
he lived as an ordinary person for 8 years? 8 years???
He spent his entire twenties hiding behind a camera??
(Ha-jin and Yu Gun’s Challenge Video.mp4)
Shares 4,599 Quotes 893 Likes 5,309
The charisma of a twenty-one-year-old active idol, disguised as a twenty-nine-year-old office worker, had run wild.
Neither applying excessive force nor executing movements carelessly—the “feeling-based” choreography that precisely highlighted the key points of the dance while adding his own personal details was the very reason fans in the original timeline had constantly requested Ha-jin for various challenges.
But that wasn’t all the post was being talked about.
[Wait, is that grapefruit-colored hair next to Kang Ha-jin really a nobody??]
Seriously, Eva’s dance lines are so clean, but his proportions are insane, he’s literally piercing my heart;
– I don’t know, that’s why everyone’s going crazy right now
– Let me know when you find out
– Isn’t that Lee Hyun-il?? There were photos of him and Kang Ha-jin together on OneStagram
└ No, Lee Hyun-il is shorter than Kang Ha-jin, and his hair color is different
└ Oh right, wow, I just assumed it was Lee Hyun-il this whole time??
– No, but couldn’t he just be a friend of an ordinary person? Haha.
– Kang Ha-jin is seriously such a nice guy collector… I’m so jealous…
True to form as a real beauty finder with suspiciously good-looking people always surrounding him, Ha-jin had brought along someone who was “completely unknown and I have no idea how they’ve managed to stay under the radar this long.”
Their styles seem different, but they surprisingly match so well together—it feels so satisfying lol
In the darkened practice room, illuminated only by the soft LED lights embedded in the floor, the silhouettes of the two figures were striking to behold.
Ha-jin had always garnered considerable attention since rising to fame—his tall stature and what fans called his “broad shoulders, narrow hips” physique were frequent topics of discussion. The grapefruit-haired man beside him, who matched Ha-jin’s height and proportions without yielding an inch, was more than enough to spark curiosity among onlookers.
The dim lighting made it even harder to see the grapefruit-haired man’s face clearly, which only intensified the intrigue.
[Is there any chance grapefruit oppa is a Kairos member???]
The long-haired oppa from last time was a groupmate too
Kang Ha-jin seems like he wants to reunite Kairos again
So there’s no chance they’re the same member?
While everyone speculated about the identity of “grapefruit oppa,” the internet produced the most plausible theory.
The hair color was far too striking for an ordinary person, the dancing ability rivaled that of most active idols, and even though they each seemed to dance freely, the synchronization with Ha-jin that flickered through their movements lent credibility to the theory.
It was certainly a persuasive argument, but what was truly entertaining was people’s reaction to it.
– Nah, doesn’t seem like it
– There’s no one in the group who fits those conditions? He’s way too tall to be Seo Tae-hyun
– Pretty sure he’s just a regular friend lolololol
– Honestly, someone came to mind the moment I saw him, but the odds are terrible…lololol doesn’t seem like it
└ Who who??
└ Nah but it probably isn’t lololol
Unlike Ju Eun-chan, whose identity was exposed the moment photos were uploaded, no one watching the video suspected the man could possibly be Lee Yu-gun.
Among Kairos members, there was only one who matched Ha-jin’s height, frequently changed his hair color, and possessed dancing skills that surpassed even Ha-jin’s—yet people hesitated to speak his name aloud.
└ Looks like I’m not the only one thinking this lololololol but there’s no way it could be him…?
Rather, they were actively denying it!
But strong denial is sometimes strong affirmation.
Among those who had known Kairos back then, or those newly discovering them through Ha-jin, a whisper began to bloom in their minds: “What if…?”
Kang Ha-jin’s Instagram story appeared at precisely that moment.
@k.with.us
(Screenshot of DMs asking who grapefruit oppa is)
(Mirror selfie taken with Yu-gun in the Practice Room.JPG)
I got so many DMs lololololol
He’s Lee Yu-gun, Kairos’s main dancer
He said it was his first time dancing in 10 years
His proportions are insane, right?
The impact was enormous.
From multiple angles.
[No no no no no]
It IS Lee Yu-gun you’re saying no for nothing AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
Crash 🔒
@pakssae
Holy shit what am I even looking at right now?
Kang Ha-jin and Lee Yu-gun could have a two-shot together????
For real for real?????? They made up??????????????
Did mountains really change in those 10 years???????
‖
Chakookie🔒
@ckznckzn
From what I can see, Kang Ha-jin
paid off Lee Yu-gun to eliminate the discord rumors
There’s no other way to explain it
[So basically]
Kang Ha-jin, grapefruit-head dance king oppa, and long-haired decadent handsome oppa
were all in the same group ten years ago?
And it flopped??
But that group had a visual member who surpassed all three of them?? separately?? too???
And Seo Tae-hyun, who was in Boy Heaven Cherry Boy, was also there???
And there was a main rapper capable of writing and composing entire songs and a bright main vocalist capable of hitting 7-octave high notes????
But?? but that group flopped so?? they only lasted 2 years?? and disbanded?????
Chill out lol
Look at the number of question marks lol
– What have we all been missing this whole time
└ We’ve been living a K-pop lie
After 2n years of being a K-pop fan, finding out it was all just fake fandom is ridiculous.
– What kind of group was Kairos anyway?
-Is this okay?
Before uploading the post, Yu Gun asked Ha-jin with a rather worried expression.
Yu Gun added this to Ha-jin, who was staring at him as if asking what he meant.
-I mean, is it really okay to post this so suddenly? To people, it’ll look like you guys messed up the group ten years ago and are now suddenly coming out of nowhere with ‘we made up~’ like you’re late to the party.
-….
-…?
At Yu Gun’s remarkably accurate assessment of the situation, Ha-jin’s eyes widened in surprise as he stared at him. When Yu Gun flinched back saying “Why, why?” at that burdensome gaze, Ha-jin responded with an incredulous, moved voice.
-So Ju Eun-chan finally developed some sense after ten years, and now you’ve developed what you might call idol-level thinking after ten years too. Time really is something.
-…Are you making fun of me right now?
-No? I was just answering what you said?
-…?
Ha-jin shrugged and answered casually while selecting a video to upload to OneStagram.
-Did you ever get into a fight with a friend when you were ten?
-Huh? Well… I probably did?
-Why did you fight? Do you remember the reason?
-I don’t even remember who I fought with…. I probably fought for some childish reason.
-Say you meet that friend again now for some reason. Could you make up?
-Make up or whatever, I probably won’t even remember why we fought in the first place…. …Oh.
Ten years.
A full ten years had passed.
If this were only two or three years after Kairos disbanded, things might have been different, but now nearly ten years had passed since the two of them had been active as Kairos.
See? That’s what they mean by time being the best medicine.
A ten-year-old child becoming an adult, a young man barely twenty transforming into a proper member of society.
K-pop fans who once believed that an ‘Idol Group’ should naturally share family-like bonds, with all members dedicating their hearts and souls solely to the group’s activities,
had gradually come to view these older members—now armed head-to-toe with all manner of princess-themed fan meeting merchandise—with a gray-tinted sentiment: “They’re working hard to earn money.”
[In my opinion, Destiny bears some responsibility for this too]
They should’ve watched these good moments together, noona
– They sang their hearts out, but nobody acknowledged them
– These hyungs I’d forgotten about from ten years ago are the ones coming out and throwing shade themselves;
– But wait, wasn’t it different ten years ago?
[Didn’t they say there was conflict between the two of them?]
Everyone knew Ha-jin and Yu-gun weren’t getting along, didn’t they say that? lol
Did Ha-jin make a preemptive move because of this broadcast appearance? lol the timing feels a bit forced;
– It was something from when they were young lol, guess they made up this time
– I was a Destiny fan back then, and they just didn’t get along, it wasn’t like anyone did something wrong. Honestly, seeing them reconcile even now feels kind of bittersweet
– Isn’t it better to see them make up like this than to still hold a grudge over something from ten years ago? lol
– Isn’t it better to reconcile like this than to pretend to be family on the surface and never see each other again after the contract ends?
As idols aged, their fans aged alongside them.
K-pop fans who had weathered difficult social lives and human relationships had long since come to understand that “they’re all just people living their lives too” through witnessing all manner of incidents and scandals—marriage, dating, disbandment, and conflict—once considered taboo in the idol world.
Occasionally, younger teenage fans still voiced their “But still!” protests, but it didn’t matter much since the primary fanbase of “Kang Ha-jin, a former PD in his late twenties, worn down and polished by society, a failed idol from his group days,” consisted of women in their twenties and thirties.
– Ha-jin’s such a good guy, coolly taking four-cut photos and filming challenge videos with the member who caused him so much grief with conflict rumors back in his group days lol
Well, those days of early twenties as a rookie, when you had to be careful even about a single falling leaf, were long gone.
At this age, personality itself was a character trait. Ha-jin was well aware that time was on his side, at least when it came to issues like “character controversies” and “conflict rumors.”
[Single Quest S2 01.]
‘Find the Lost Comrades’
Description: A thousand-mile journey begins with a single step! Let’s gather the scattered comrades once more. Perhaps an unexpected encounter awaits?
Success Reward:
– Unexpected Fortune
– Time Energy Generated for Reality Return
Additional Reward: When recruiting members whose comrade recruitment hasn’t been activated as comrades, additional time energy is generated.
※ Comrade ‘Kang Ha-jin’ responds.
※ Comrade ‘Ju Eun-chan’ responds.
※ Comrade ‘Lee Yu-gun’ responds.
※ Comrade ‘Lee Do-ha’ responds.
※ Quest Progress has reached 50%. Intermediate reward is received. (Reward: Unexpected Fortune ‘Unexpected Encounter’)
– Seriously
And in this timeline as well―.
Soda🔒
@soda_lll
This crazy bastard Ha-jin is making me remake this account….
Ha-jin’s relentless fluttering wings were gradually transforming into a massive typhoon.

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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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