Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 576

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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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576. A Breath of Air (1)
“Leave? You want to leave?”
“Well, aren’t we? Checkout is at eleven.”
“I… no, that’s not…”
The next morning.
Yoo Gun stood frozen, his hair disheveled like a bird’s nest, unable to form words in response to my suggestion that we return to Seoul. Ignoring his stunned expression, I continued packing. Only then did he snap back to reality, trailing behind me with a flood of chatter.
“But what about Seo Tae-hyun? We’re just leaving him here?”
“What, you want me to piggyback him to the car trunk?”
“You said yesterday you went out and talked to him. What happened?”
“What do you mean what happened? I asked if he wanted to be a manager. If he’s interested, he’ll call. When he decides, he’ll reach out.”
“But then…”
Ah, this bastard.
I sent him out to calm down, and now he’s back to his usual antics—whining like a hungry cat?
[System Alert: He does seem to resemble a cat, now that you mention it.]
[System Alert: The System is newly impressed by the Fixed Returner’s moe-fication filter. (How does that even…?)]
That’s the analogy, essentially.
With nothing better to do this morning, Kim Thirteen had even activated a program scan mode, running image-matching algorithms between Yoo Gun and a hungry cat (just playing around, really). I simply shut him down.
I turned around, and Yoo Gun, who had been panting just two steps behind, stopped in his tracks.
The perceptive kid must have guessed what I was about to say, because he immediately started talking.
“I don’t have any separate luggage to pack. You dragged me here by force yesterday.”
“So we can leave right now?”
“You won’t even let me wash my hair?”
“Wear a hat.”
I tossed him a cap from my bag, and Yoo Gun obediently pulled it on, then grabbed his phone and backpack. I took one last look around the Dormitory just to be safe.
“Alright… everything’s packed. Let’s go.”
I was about to open the Entrance Door when Yoo Gun grabbed my arm.
“Hyung.”
“What.”
“…Are you really going to make Seo Tae-hyun a manager?”
It was a question laden with deeper meaning, but I answered lightly.
“Well, if he says he wants to?”
“What if he adapts to the manager job better than expected?”
It was a somewhat absurd question, but Yoo Gun was serious.
Seeing him—someone who usually hates being serious—ask this far, it seemed he’d spent the night thinking hard about it too. I didn’t answer deliberately, just watching him. He continued.
“I know what being an idol means to Seo Tae-hyun. I know how desperately he wants it.”
“…”
“But sometimes people abandon the thing they want most first.”
“What, speaking from experience?”
“Yeah.”
Even to my deliberately thrown joke, Yoo Gun remained serious.
The man who had experienced both twenty with dreams and twenty-eight having abandoned them had certainly matured somewhat.
“For him, the job of manager might actually be quite a decent escape. If, by chance, he were to….”
“Yoo Gun.”
“…?”
“What I mean is.”
Yoo Gun flinched at my call, lifting his head. The two syllables of his name—which I’d always called out dryly as “Yoo Gun”—felt oddly ticklish rolling around in my mouth.
“If Tae-hyun genuinely wants to give his all to being a manager here, I’ll help him do exactly that.”
“….”
“And if he finds even that uncomfortable and dislikes it, preferring to simply live out his days at the Gangwon Province Pension, I’ll make that possible for him too.”
“….”
“Whether it’s being a manager or working at the pension—they’re all choices Tae-hyun has made to live life on his own terms.”
If that was the trial and growth Seo Tae-hyun had to overcome in this timeline, I intended to do everything in my power to help him achieve it.
To Seo Tae-hyun, who had returned home in tears, devastated by his shattered idol dreams, showing him that there existed a “path” to survive and thrive without being an idol—and that he himself was aware of this fact—would be far more powerful than he might realize.
And perhaps, on that path he’d once considered mere compromise, he might discover a new spark. Life holds endless surprises.
“You’re right too. Perhaps Seo Tae-hyun will find more enjoyment in being a manager than expected, and might simply choose to live that way. That would certainly be troublesome for us.”
“Then why….”
“But I’m not worried.”
“…?”
Yet still—
Even if life held no answers, and even if a path I thought I’d left behind sometimes awaited me with a more beautiful sunset than before.
Even if Seo Tae-hyun displayed innate talent as a manager and became a star manager earning eight figures in this timeline, I wouldn’t worry.
“Because he loves the stage far too much.”
Even if he could find sufficient satisfaction and happiness in his current life.
What Seo Tae-hyun truly desired was to shine, dancing and singing on stage.
I knew that better than anyone. Because I was the same.
“Tae-hyun needs time right now.”
“….”
“He needs the breathing room to run toward his dreams again with all his might. That’s what I want to give him.”
Perhaps it was something I myself had needed at twenty-nine—a single moment to breathe.
But rather than pitying my past self and wallowing in misfortune, I chose to be grateful that I had become someone capable of offering such a lifeline to another.
“You understand what I’m saying, right?”
“…Yeah.”
As I smiled and asked, Yoo Gun, who had been listening quietly, gave a soft nod. His expression showed he’d just remembered that he too had needed that “lifeline” not long ago.
Seeing that Yoo Gun had come to terms with it, I opened the entrance door again.
Before Yoo Gun had stopped me, I must have unconsciously turned the handle—the door I’d thought was locked was already slightly ajar.
“Alright then, let’s really get going now. We need to leave soon to avoid traffic.”
“Will you be driving, hyung? I can do it if you’d like.”
“No thanks. I prefer driving myself. In exchange, you’re buying the walnut pastries at the rest stop.”
“And then you’ll just swipe Ju Eun-chan’s card anyway.”
“Ah, caught red-handed.”
“But seriously, can you really just use that card like that…?”
Yu Gun was walking ahead, making idle conversation, when he suddenly fell silent. I’d been about to finish locking up the door and follow him, but I immediately looked up at that unnatural pause.
Then I saw someone standing not far away slowly approaching us.
It was Seo Tae-hyun, with neatly arranged hair and dressed in a clean knit sweater and slacks.
“You checking out? Give me the key card.”
“…Oh, yeah. Here.”
Yu Gun still had a split lip and bruising on his cheek, yet Seo Tae-hyun looked even more polished today than yesterday despite having fought with him.
Considering the weight class difference, I wondered if Yu Gun had let him off easy, but thinking about Seo Tae-hyun’s usual grit and strength, that didn’t seem right either. In this situation, the one harboring resentment was clearly the unawakened Seo Tae-hyun.
‘Wait, then does that mean Yu Gun really did go easy on him?’
While I was curious about the fighting hierarchy among our group’s same-aged members, Seo Tae-hyun held something out to me. It was the air conditioner remote I’d given him yesterday.
“…?”
“The batteries were installed wrong.”
“…Oh, really? I didn’t notice.”
He’d found it somehow.
I feigned surprise and nodded as if I hadn’t thought of it, and Seo Tae-hyun, who’d been alternating his gaze between me and Yu Gun, let out a short sigh. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but at that familiar sigh, I instinctively played dumb.
No matter how I thought about it, this was definitely past-life PTSD.
“Heading back to Seoul?”
“Yeah, we should go now.”
“What if I said I’m not doing it?”
“Huh?”
Seo Tae-hyun suddenly asked something out of nowhere.
Since I couldn’t tell whether the subject of “not doing it” was the manager work or something else, I stupidly asked back. Then Seo Tae-hyun, tapping his palm with the air conditioner remote, looked at Yu Gun and asked again.
“I heard some documentary proposal came in. The Kairos Reunion Project.”
“…Oh.”
“What happens if I say I’m not doing it? Do you do it without me? Or does the whole thing fall through?”
“Well, that’s….”
Yu Gun looked flustered and glanced at my expression.
Since the whole program proposal was a lie from the start, he definitely hadn’t thought through the detailed settings.
I deliberately stepped forward naturally and answered.
“It’s still in the planning stage, so nothing’s been decided yet. Lee Do-ha hasn’t been discharged from the military, and I haven’t even met with Si-woo and Ha-ru. Whatever happens, we won’t start until after ‘In the Chaos’ airs, so it’s still a distant matter.”
“Really?”
“Why, you don’t like the idea of doing it without you?”
At my probing question, Seo Tae-hyun immediately shook his head, saying that wasn’t it. Then he seemed to calculate something to himself for a moment before opening his mouth as if he’d made a decision.
“I’ll do it.”
“…Do what? The documentary?”
“No, not that.”
Oh, wow.
I’d have to get investment from Joo Eun-seok the moment I got back to Seoul and beg Kwon Go-sa-jik to film a documentary.
It was fortunate I didn’t have to clean up this massive lie, but it still felt bitter that Seo Tae-hyun had no intention of doing Kairos.
And given the context, what Seo Tae-hyun was now saying he would “do” for us was….
“I want to try that manager job you mentioned yesterday, hyung. Could you help me out?”
…This was definitely the most likely proposal.
Seo Tae-hyun’s steady, clear eyes turned toward us. There was a faint glimmer of his former sparkle visible on the face of someone who had clearly made up his mind.
It was an answer I’d anticipated and hoped for, but honestly, it felt a bit disappointing. Lee Yu-gun and I locked eyes simultaneously. However, now that Seo Tae-hyun had made his decision, what we could say was already determined.
“…Yeah. Anytime.”
“Thanks. So I’ll just tell Father and get things organized here, and if you get a call about an interview or something….”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
“…?”
I cut off Seo Tae-hyun’s cheerful chatter with a somewhat satisfied expression. He looked up at me with a confused expression.
Instead of answering him, I unlocked the car door with the key in my hand. Then I tilted my head delinquently, like some ’90s Gen-X orange-tribe kid.
“Get in.”
“Huh?”
“I said get in.”
We’re heading to Seoul right now, so just get in.
As I emphasized again, our INFP Seo Tae-hyun’s face went pale. He hastily stepped back and waved his hands frantically. I could tell he’d only steeled himself up to the point of coming to find us and accepting the manager position since last night.
“No, no, I… well, there’s a lot to organize here, and I haven’t even told my parents yet….”
“Call them.”
“No, well, oh, oh, there are customers coming today, so I need to prepare for that…!”
“Uncle’s here anyway.”
“That, that—how would you even…? No, anyway, well, I need to pack my things, and where would I stay in Seoul…!”

And if my prediction was right, once we left, he’d definitely regret that resolve 100% and grind his own mental state into a smoothie.
‘I can’t just leave him like this.’
I gave Lee Yu-gun a short, firm command.
“Lee Yu-gun, grab him.”
“What? No, no! Wait…!”
Sorry, but this Gangwon Province retrieval mission is the last one across all timelines, cherry.
‘Adios, Gangwon Province.’
With our target loaded into the back seat, our mountain×peninsula duo smoothly accelerated toward Seoul.

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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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