Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 575

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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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575. Even in the Worst Timeline, There’s Still Work to Be Done (5)
That night.
Kang Ha-jin was lost in thought.
For him, thinking was like a deep ocean—those massive waves sometimes crashed with such force they threatened to steal his breath away, yet more often they ebbed and flowed in steady rhythms, providing him with endless momentum.
The waves of thought never ceased, soaking Ha-jin through and through.
“Nothing special, really….”
He kept replaying the words he’d spoken to Tae-hyun.
No—he was recalling every word he’d ever spoken to anyone.
-I’ve lived a bit, and it seems true that life has no right answers.
-So what if there’s no answer? It’s not like anyone’s grading us.
-I believe in you.
-There’s not a single thing you’ve accomplished that wasn’t born from your own ability.
-Sometimes you feel guilty about being an idol right now, but there’s no need for that.
-If you truly lacked talent and were incompetent, you wouldn’t be here. The grunts on the first floor of the Demon King’s Tower would’ve swept you away long ago.
-I know the power that comes from a single word of trust.
-Sometimes, that one word becomes desperately necessary.
-I’m on your side.
-I’ll never let us remain trapped in yesterday, no matter what.
Among all the words he’d spoken, had even one lacked sincerity?
No. There hadn’t been.
Every word had come from the very depths of Ha-jin’s heart—there wasn’t a single polished sentence uttered merely to comfort someone else.
He had never, to anyone—not even to Dan Ha-ru, who had walked through countless timelines across regression after regression and ultimately chosen dissolution.
Kang Ha-jin had never once, in any moment, looking at anyone, thought of them as a “failed work who’d missed their chance.”
‘Then what about me?’
Now, Kang Ha-jin turned his gaze inward.
Only now could he do this.
Only after fully understanding that someone’s rough edges were merely edges, that someone’s despair was merely a process, could he finally look back upon his own remaining life.
‘Was my life truly a failure?’
Kang Ha-jin looked back upon his life once more.
Twenty-nine years old. He’d prided himself on living fiercely, yet he’d spent all this time doubting whether he truly had.
“….”
He pulled out the new phone he’d switched to after filming In the Chaos wrapped.
The phone number had necessarily changed, but the saved contacts remained the same. As he opened his messenger list, countless names he’d longed for drifted past his fingertips.
Friends, students, peers, colleagues and juniors….
Once, they’d all been intimate enough to share nearly every moment of Ha-jin’s daily life, but gradually their points of contact had faded until the connections were severed.
【Studio A_Assistant Director_Yoon Hyun-gyu】
Then, suddenly, Kang Ha-jin did something quite impulsive.
He called a junior he’d thought was fairly close to him—someone he’d never contacted privately even once since resigning.
Normally, calling a former workplace junior at such a late hour would be inappropriate, but if the person was an assistant director who’d likely be copying In the Chaos data right about now, it was a different story.
-Hello?
As expected, Yoon Hyun-gyu picked up the phone shortly after. The voice on the other end carried a mixture of exhaustion from overtime and surprise at the sudden call.
Without carefully choosing my opening words, I slowly lifted myself from where I’d been lying on the bed. The night was so quiet that I could faintly hear Lee Yu-gun’s breathing from the adjacent room, the door left open between us.
“…Hey, Hyun-gyu.”
-Yes?
“Working late?”
-Yeah, well. I heard you went to Gangwon Province, senior.
“Huh… You knew about that?”
-Well, it’s the assistant directors’ job to keep tabs on where the cast members are and make sure they don’t cause trouble.
“Ah, I really should live a better life….”
I’d expected the conversation to feel a bit awkward since we rarely called each other unless it was work-related, but our exchange flowed more naturally than I anticipated.
What started as idle small talk about recent happenings shifted to stories about the youngest member P, who’d been giving Hyun-gyu headaches lately, then to the hot topic of my busking performance at Haeundae, and eventually even to how our boss Kwon PD seemed to have a lot on his mind these days.
We couldn’t skip over our most recent shared experience—filming In the Chaos.
“Haha, ah…. That’s seriously hilarious.”
-Senior, do you need any work? If you have free time, just come by the company and help me with some editing. I’m dying here.
“I went through all that trouble becoming a cast member to avoid that kind of suffering, and now you want me to go back into that editing hell? Are you insane?”
-But your hands were the fastest among all of us. Now that you’ve actually appeared on the show, you’ll understand it even better.
“Tch, should I really help with a few cuts? Honestly, rough cuts seem doable? But only if I’m on screen the entire minute.”
-Sorry to say this, but you’re already on screen the entire minute anyway. You’ve done so much that….”
After chatting like this for a while, just as we normally would, I finally remembered why I’d called Hyun-gyu in the first place. In truth, ever since I first dialed his number, there was a question I’d been wanting to ask him that kept circling in my mind.
When I fell silent, the quiet settled around us once more.
“…Hyun-gyu.”
-Yes?
“Can I ask you something?”
-Go ahead.
At my words, Hyun-gyu answered calmly, as if he’d already sensed what was coming.
Reassured by that composure, I finally brought myself to ask a question I’d perhaps been holding onto for a very long time.
“After I quit… why didn’t you ever contact me?”
The claim that I still kept in touch with the younger members of Studio A through a group chat was a lie.
I’d always believed that when someone leaves, they should leave cleanly. Through long experience, I knew well that my presence was quite strong.
Wherever I went, after I left, I made it clear that I was someone who had departed.
But that didn’t mean I wanted to erase all connection with them.
“No, it’s not that I’m upset with you or anything, it’s just….”
-….
“It seems like other people who quit before me came back to help with directing work at least once, but I never got a call like that. And no one ever asked me to grab a meal together, so….”
Ah, I didn’t mean to say it like this, so pathetically.
Once I opened my mouth, the disappointment came pouring out, and I scratched my forehead, messing up my hair in frustration.
I just wanted to know if I was still a good friend and colleague to you all.
Unable to salvage the rambling words I’d carelessly spilled out, I hurriedly tried to take it back.
“Ah, no. Never mind. Just forget what I just said….”
-You….
“…?”
-You were always so busy, hyung.
But the response that came back was entirely unexpected.
Yoon Hyun-gyu, who had always called Ha-jin “Senior” with knife-like precision, now addressed him as “hyung” for the first time, exhaling a long sigh.
-Our kids still talk about going to film “Travel Troubler” with you whenever we get together.
“….”
-The “Ainiiz” self-cam, “Soda’s Night,” “Idol Disco”…. Whenever we meet up and drink, it’s all stories from when you were around.
“….”
-The kids always say it. That things were most comfortable and fun when you were there, telling the newer members “you would’ve died if Ha-jin hyung had been around.” Even Park Jung-yun, who just joined a few months ago, knows about you.
So this was a story Ha-jin had never heard before.
Now, having passed through that twenty-nine he’d thought was his most painful, standing just a few months away from thirty, he could finally hear it.
The story of what happened after Ha-jin left.
-I didn’t invite you to drinking sessions because you never drank anyway…. We often just head out right after work among ourselves, and I felt bad calling someone who lives so far away each time.
“….”
-As for the part-time work…. I mentioned you every time.
“…Me? You talked about me?”
-Yes. Myung-eun just cut me off, saying to let you rest.
Honestly, even now, if you weren’t a cast member, I’d be begging you to help.
Yoon Hyun-gyu, whose temperament was never entirely mild-mannered to begin with, grumbled in an irritated tone. The sound of keyboard tapping came through the phone, making it clear he was still working even at this very moment.
-And honestly….
“…?”
After tapping the keys of frustration a few times, Yoon Hyun-gyu opened his mouth again. This time, his voice carried a hint of playfulness.
-You’re always so busy, hyung, that I felt too sorry to even call and ask for help…. I really did.
“Me? What am I busy with?”
-I don’t know. The hyung I see is always incredibly busy, struggling, exhausted…. But you were always working so hard anyway.
“….”
-So I thought you were still living that way. …Who would’ve thought you’d go to Haeundae and do street performances as a singer? If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve just pressured you to come back to work.
“…Ha!”
Ha-jin, listening to Yoon Hyun-gyu’s petulant complaints, finally burst into laughter.
In truth, it was less laughter than self-mockery.
The self-mockery that came with realizing what had been obscuring his vision wasn’t pitch-black darkness, but merely his own eyelids.
-The kids would jump up like bullets if you just said one word about grabbing food, you know? Why don’t you try calling them?
“…No, never mind.”
-Park Jung-yun hasn’t talked about anything but you since after filming “In The Car.” What did you do to that kid? What did you do to make him become a Kang Ha-jin fanatic?
Yoon Hyun-gyu continued to grumble at length about the youngest assistant director who had become a complete “Kang Ha-jin addict” since the filming day. Kang Ha-jin simply listened quietly to his words.
Sensing it was time to end the call, Yoon Hyun-gyu added in a quieter voice.
-Anyway…. Honestly, I was going to try to convince you to just come back to work if your return to the entertainment industry looked impossible after seeing this appearance….
“…And?”
-After seeing the footage, hyung, I don’t think you’re coming back to us.
“….”
-…So this really was your place all along.
With those words, Kang Ha-jin found courage.
For the first time, I could truly reassess myself at twenty-nine.
I still couldn’t fully embrace who I was at twenty-nine, but I could at least acknowledge that I’d lived fiercely, no less than anyone else. And now I wanted to see what kind of fruit that fierce living would bear.
-Still, I prefer you as PD Kang, hyung. …Personally, anyway.
It had been a refuge from my dreams, yet I couldn’t deny that the profession of PD had somehow become another dream for me. It was too joyful to call it an escape, and I’d experienced far too much to call it a failure.
And I knew better than anyone that all those experiences had forged me into the ‘Kairos Kang Ha-jin’ I was now.
“…Thank you.”
A night in Gangwon Province.
I didn’t cry.
I only wished.
“Let’s stay in touch. Next time, I’ll buy you a meal.”
Someday, when I return as ‘Kairos Kang Ha-jin’ once more.
May I never forget this moment.
Even if I return, may the day come when I meet these precious people again.
“I’ll reach out.”
May this very moment, when everyone is enduring their darkest hour.
Perhaps be our last chance to greet our true tomorrow.
My prayer, like a vow, lingered like a star upon the tranquil night sea.

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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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