Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 545

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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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545. Something That Happened Before Filming (1)
‘Damn, celebrities.’
P, the youngest assistant director at Studio A, had just marked his second year since joining the company this year.
Having barely graduated from military service before diving headfirst into this treacherous world of broadcasting, he found himself utterly disoriented by the casual appearance of recognizable celebrities strolling around his workspace.
“Hey P, aren’t we supposed to hand out the schedule? Are these directors really just going to sit around twiddling their thumbs before heading home?”
“Oh! Y-yes! Here it is!”
But his admiration at the sight of passing celebrities was short-lived.
At the call of a field staff member sitting in the corner of the distant set, smoking and gesturing impatiently, P had to dash over with his bangs flying. He quickly pulled out several copies of today’s filming outline from the document envelope he’d been clutching and handed them over in a flurry.
“What’s this? There are several of us and you only give three copies?”
“W-well, the content is supposed to be confidential, and s-senior said to only give it to the main directors….”
“Wow, Kwon PD really does things stingily, huh? So what, are we just grunts? Are we supposed to just hold cameras without even knowing what we’re filming?”
“N-no, that’s not it, I just… um….”
“Forget it. P, we don’t need scripts. Let’s just go home.”
What the hell did these guys have against me?!
Having only been on set for a few months, P stammered helplessly at the directors’ remarks—too harsh to be called mere teasing.
Even knowing this was some kind of hazing meant to mock a rookie PD, he couldn’t simply laugh it off when it came from directors with far more experience than even his senior colleagues.
‘Myung-eun definitely explained this properly to me!’
For cinematic survival shows like In the Chaos, security was paramount. Because of this, scripts and outlines that could leave a paper trail were printed in minimal quantities and distributed only to essential personnel—a standard practice.
These veteran directors had worked with Kwon PD multiple times before, so they couldn’t possibly be unaware of this fact. The only explanation for them openly embarrassing him in front of everyone was that they simply wanted to mess with the youngest PD.
‘God, this is so humiliating….’
Since this was an outdoor set shoot with no dedicated waiting room, P found himself surrounded only by cast members and staff working on the production.
Among them were idol group members younger than himself, and he could feel them glancing over from among the staff—apparently idol members were particularly aware of their surroundings.
Some of them, younger than him, were already sipping coffee while being fawned over by staff, while he was getting teased by old-timers over a few printed pages. The unfairness of it all was driving him crazy….
“Ah, these guys are still the same~”
“…?”
Just as he was thinking that crying meant losing, his exhaustion finally overwhelmed him and emotions began welling up.
Someone’s casual voice suddenly cut through to the directors with a blunt remark. At the same moment, a firm yet comfortably warm arm draped across P’s lowered shoulders.
“When you come to set, just work. Why do you keep bothering someone else’s youngest member?”
“Oh, who’s this? Isn’t it PD Ha-jin, the celebrity now?”
“But why is P our youngest? We haven’t even seen PD Ha-jin in person.”
“What do you mean you haven’t seen me? I quit but I still keep in touch with the kids here. Everyone who’s the youngest in this place is my sibling, so what.”
Tall frame, small face, but what caught the eye first was the sharp, piercing gaze of his double eyelids.
Though he appeared to be smiling gently, those cool, dark eyes weren’t smiling at all—they were fixed on the directors. The hand holding P’s shoulder with familiarity was as refined and straight as any celebrity’s.
‘…Wow, it’s Kang Ha-jin.’
That legendary senior he’d only ever heard about through his colleagues’ conversations since joining Studio A.
Unlike Ha-jin’s explanation that he kept in touch with the younger members, meeting Ha-jin in person was new for P, and he found himself momentarily speechless seeing the real Ha-jin he’d only ever watched on monitors.
“You guys. People say Gen Z is scary these days, right? If you keep doing this, the younger ones will run away. I heard Chihong hyung is setting up tripods himself these days? Because there’s no one below him.”
Ha-jin continued to drape his arm across P’s shoulder, standing at an angle as he spoke with a delinquent tone.
Normally, such remarks would have been shocking to hear directed at these godlike directors, but the directors who heard them simply chuckled and played along with the joke.
“Hey, why do you exaggerate things so much….”
“Sir? Sir~? Wow, now that you’ve quit, you’re treating me like some old guy? When we worked together, you were always so respectful—’Director this, Director that.'”
“Well, I mean. When you leave the military, even a battalion commander becomes ‘sir,’ so what’s there to fear about directors who’ve quit? Right?”
“If anything, shouldn’t you be trying to impress us now? What would you do if we just cut Kang PD out of the camera shots entirely?”
“…Hmm. I hadn’t thought that far. But, well. Aren’t all you directors professionals? You wouldn’t put personal feelings disrespectfully into the camera lens, would you?”
“There he goes again with ‘Director’!”
After taking it for a while, the moment Ha-jin took a step back, laughter erupted in a cascade of guffaws.
These proud, strong-willed directors letting their guard down and laughing like this was something P had only seen when ‘adults’ like Myung-eun joked among themselves. Now P was beginning to see Ha-jin almost as a god, the way he manipulated these old men in the palm of his hand.
Just as curiosity in his eyes began transforming into admiration, Ha-jin tucked one hand into his pocket and jerked his chin.
“So, what are you trying to catch our guy on this time? Did Park PD make some mistake?”
“Ah, no, well…. I asked him to bring what we needed to see today, and he only brought three copies. How many people are here?”
“Really? Why? Did you run out of prints?”
Wait, why is the arrow suddenly flying at me?
P clutched the document envelope in his arms tightly, stammering in response to Ha-jin’s innocent gaze looking down at him.
“No, well, it’s not that…. That, th, there is a shortage, but it’s….”
“Tsk, but these days everything’s circulated as PDF files, right? I saw Hyun-gyu PD looking at scripts on a tablet and all. Didn’t you directors receive them? Should I go tell Hyun-gyu PD to send them out? That Yoon PD, this bastard, he’s been slacking off since the youngest member arrived….”
“Ah, no, no, that’s fine. We did receive them, we did…. But, well, now…. Still, there are some things we need to check in person….”
“But…. Honestly, even if you received this, you don’t really need it, do you? It’s just like a menu board you check before paper goes into production anyway.”
“Well, that’s true….”
As Ha-jin struck a pose as if he might dash off to Yoon Hyun-gyu, the most senior assistant director, the directors began lowering their tails one by one.
The director who had been teasing P most mischievously seemed to have no rebuttal to Ha-jin’s skillfully pointed jabs, and he nodded with a deflated expression, scratching his chin.
Thinking it was nearly finished, Ha-jin delivered one final uppercut with a good-natured smile.
“Actually, I think I was wrong about this.”
“What did Kang PD do wrong?”
“Since you directors are all people who do well on your own, I taught that there’s no need to specially look after things like this. Myung-eun mentioned it too, and we had that conversation with Sang-won Director before….”
“Ah… Sang-won Director said that?”
The moment the directors heard the name of the representative of the outsourced camera company they belonged to, their expressions shifted awkwardly in an instant.
It would have been enough to back off here, but Ha-jin, unsatisfied, swept the back of his neck with his hand and drove the wedge in with a rather respectful tone.
“But since I’ve been out of work for about a year now, I don’t really know how things have changed on set…. Really, if you directors truly need this, tell Park PD right now. Park PD will check the headcount of all you directors going forward and write down names, one by one….”
“Ah, ah, ah, no, no. That’s fine, that’s fine. We just meant if there were extras. Managing it would be inconvenient anyway.”
“Yeah, Park PD. We don’t need it, don’t bother preparing. That was just a joke earlier, a joke.”
“Geez, we tried to pull one over on the youngest member and got completely played, man.”
In the end, the directors threw in the towel completely, surrendering on all fronts. The moment P heard them openly admit their own mistake, he could barely trust his own ears.
What came next was even more surprising.
“Why do you keep trying to mess with someone else’s youngest member, huh?”
Kang Ha-jin’s characteristic bright, refreshing smile blazed forth.
The sun hanging in the sky at that moment happened to be positioned perfectly above him, and from P’s perspective looking up from below, his smile seemed as radiant as the sun itself. (Of course, anyone would look like that when someone helps them in such a situation.)
“…?”
Our eyes met.
The cold chill from before had vanished, and Ha-jin’s eyes quickly filled with mischief as he winked his right eye, revealing his tear mole, and silently mouthed words.
‘You’ve worked hard.’
In that moment, P thought to himself.
‘Why doesn’t our program have text voting?’
If this were an idol debut survival show, I would mobilize relatives from every conceivable branch of my family tree—even my neighbor’s neighbor—just to make this man the champion.
It was the moment Kang Ha-jin’s first official male fan was born in this timeline.

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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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