Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 577

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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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577. A Breath of Air (2)
Kang Ha-jin spoke with the weight of conviction.
A broken stable must be demolished before it can be rebuilt; a burst cherry must be frozen to preserve it; and a blade once drawn cannot be returned to its sheath until its edge has dulled completely—such were the laws I lived by.
Now that I’d forced Seo Tae-hyun back to Seoul, it was time for a sprint.
-Hello?
“Yeah, Eun-chan.”
-Yes, hyung.
“Hey, that… officetel you used to live in. You still have it?”
-An officetel? …Oh, yes. Do you need it?
“Why do you make such generous offers sound so casual? It makes me want to accept on the spot.”
The moment the car entered Seoul’s urban sprawl, I called Ju Eun-chan immediately.
My younger sibling, drowning in wealth, remained characteristically generous as always.
“Never mind that—nobody’s living there now, right? You weren’t planning to rent it out? Let Seo Tae-hyun stay there.”
“What… me? No, wait—is that Eun-chan on the phone right now?”
-Tae-hyun hyung? You’ve met him?
“Yeah. He’s still the same. He said he doesn’t want to be an idol, so I’m thinking of having him start as a manager. He needs a place to live.”
“You guys… did you meet Eun-chan too? Eun-chan’s actually talking to you? Is he okay? He used to….”
Seo Tae-hyun’s eyes widened beyond measure—not just because Ju Eun-chan, who suffered from both social anxiety disorder and panic attacks, had stepped outside his room, but because he was now having a friendly conversation with the leader he’d feared most during their group days.
I was desperately curious about how all of this had come to pass, but since I was juggling driving and the call simultaneously, I couldn’t afford to distract myself. My gaze naturally drifted toward Lee Yu-gun in the passenger seat.
“…?”
“….”
However, explaining all these fantastical settings scattered throughout this tangled timeline to Kairos’s CEO, Lee Yu-gun, was far more difficult than making Kang Ha-jin shut his mouth or becoming close with Jeong Si-u.
Lee Yu-gun, pressed against the passenger seat and bearing the full weight of his peer’s questioning gaze, slowly turned his head toward the window and answered in a strained voice.
“…It just… happened that way.”
“What did?”
“I don’t know. Don’t ask….”
Lee Yu-gun had surrendered to explanation.
Having declared his own logout, Lee Yu-gun’s face remained despondent as he rubbed his dry face in frustration.
-Well, my studio apartment is currently occupied by someone else, so that might be difficult. But there’s an empty unit on the upper floor, so you could stay there.
“…Wait, there’s more than one officetel?”
-If needed, I can look into a few other neighborhoods for you as well.
In that moment, I finally understood why web novel authors always made their male leads wealthy heirs with formidable abilities. With a single “silver spoon” buff, nearly every plot hole could be solved.
Today too, burning with dreams of young and rich, I turned the steering wheel and wrapped up the call.
“Got it. All I need is a place near the company for commuting anyway. Send me the address.”
-Yes. All the basic furniture is already there, so you can use it starting today. I’ll send you the password and everything soon.
“Sure. Rest well with your hyung.”
-Yes. …Please give Tae-hyun hyung my regards. Tell him I’ll definitely visit once I’m in Seoul.
“He’s listening already.”
-….
“Hanging up.”
With that, Ha-jin pressed the call-end button.
Then he tossed a remark to Seo Tae-hyun, who had been standing beside him the entire time with a dazed expression, listening to the phone conversation.
“You heard that, right? Since the landlord is Ju Eun-chan, you’re buying dinner.”
“….”
Even though Ha-jin had delivered the words half-jokingly and half-seriously, Seo Tae-hyun couldn’t bring himself to respond easily. No matter how much he thought about it, everything felt unfamiliar.
This entire situation, the jokes, the series of events and atmosphere….
Tae-hyun genuinely couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
A leader who was once called a tyrant suddenly decides one day to attempt a reunion, drags along the member he had the worst relationship with, and then abruptly offers him a job—that alone was absurd. But the fact that Lee Yu-gun and Ju Eun-chan were going along with this ridiculous situation in perfect harmony was even more bewildering.
“Well, the living situation is settled then….”
“….”
“Next comes the job, right?”
And what was even more shocking was that the truly shocking things hadn’t even happened yet.
-Hello?
“Hello, senior. This is Kang Ha-jin. I hope you slept well last night.”
-You’re at it again, huh.
After finishing his call with Ju Eun-chan, Kang Ha-jin immediately dialed the next person.
A drowsy voice, as if he’d just woken up, let out a pleasant laugh.
Before Tae-hyun could even realize that he’d heard that laugh somewhere many times before, or that the voice on the other end of the call sounded oddly familiar, he caught sight of the caller’s name displayed on the car’s LCD screen and ducked forward between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.
【Miro_Yupia_Seo Tae-il Hyung】
“S-s-s…!?”
Seo Tae-il!?
The name of his senior—and distant cousin—tickled the back of Seo Tae-hyun’s throat, though he couldn’t bring himself to shout it aloud.
Tae-hyun’s eyes, wide with shock as if he’d seen a ghost, lost focus and wavered like heat shimmer, eventually turning toward Lee Yu-gun sitting in the passenger’s seat.
And once again, Lee Yu-gun, who had given up trying to explain, covered his eyes with his hand and whispered his answer.
“That’s just… how things ended up, more or less….”
“What exactly ended up how?”
I really want to go home.
Contrary to Lee Yu-gun’s earnest wish to return home, Ha-jin’s car drove forward without hesitation. Weaving skillfully through the congested Seoul streets, Ha-jin confirmed they were drawing closer to their destination and continued the conversation.
“What about what I mentioned yesterday?”
-Yesterday? Ah, yesterday. Yeah, come to the company. Turns out there’s exactly one position open.
Yesterday? Company? One position?
Even though they were the same Korean words, Tae-hyun kept failing to understand their meaning.
While Tae-hyun listened blankly to the conversation, Ha-jin deliberately drove into the basement parking lot of a building. Tae-hyun, who hadn’t even realized where the car was heading due to the sudden turn, finally jumped in surprise and looked around through the windows.
Ha-jin, paying no attention to Tae-hyun’s reaction whatsoever, continued speaking matter-of-factly.
“We’ve just arrived. Since we’re in the basement parking lot now, I’ll just park the car and head up.”
-Ah, okay? When you go up, Manager Kwon Wook should be there, so contact the manager and let him know where you’re heading. I’ll be there soon.
“Yes, I’ll see you shortly.”
-Okay.
And then—click. The call ended.
Moreover, Ha-jin had hung up first.
“Right now… hyung… so, that’s… uh….”
Watching him stumble through his words, Seo Tae-hyun looked like his jaw or eyes—one of them was about to drop clean off.
But the truly shocking part came next.
Only after I finished parking and got out of the car with Yoo Gun, only after stepping into the elevator heading up to the ground floor, did I finally remember where we were.
“Wait… is this Miro…?”
“This is Miro?”
“Then it must be Rene Entertainment. Let’s go.”
“…Me too? I’m going up too?”
There’s a limit to how far you’ll follow a friend anywhere.
Yoo Gun pointed at himself with his finger—he’d only tagged along when his member hyung suggested visiting, and now here he was, having spent the morning in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, and suddenly witnessing his friend’s job rehiring.
But today, Kang Ha-jin was brimming with the unstoppable bulldozer energy of someone who wouldn’t take no for an answer, already shoving both Yoo Gun and Seo Tae-hyun into the elevator.
“Or would you rather walk up the stairs? Come on, get in. We don’t have time.”
As Kang Ha-jin urged us forward, the elevator carrying the three of us came to a stop on the second floor.
Since the second floor required an employee card to enter, we waited briefly in front of the elevator, and soon a familiar figure with a sturdy build and a sports cut emerged from inside, approaching us with a somewhat rueful smile.
“Ha-jin, hello.”
“Hello, Manager.”
“Oh…!”
“…?”
Yoo Gun, recognizing Kwon Wook at a glance, let out a loud exclamation before quickly clamping his mouth shut. Understanding the barely concealed joy, Ha-jin quietly patted Yoo Gun’s back.
Meanwhile, Seo Tae-hyun, who didn’t recognize Kwon Wook, wore a deliberately tense expression. He must have instinctively sensed that this man was the one who would guide him through his manager duties.
Kwon Wook led the three of us to a conference room inside the Company Building.
“Let’s head inside. The director will take a bit to arrive. He asked me to explain the work-related details to Tae-hyun first.”
“Oh… you know who I am?”
Even though Tae-hyun and Yoo Gun were meeting Kwon Wook for the first time, Kwon Wook immediately pointed at Tae-hyun and called him by name.
Tae-hyun, slightly surprised by this, found himself asking back, and Kwon Wook, naturally setting drinks and snacks on the table, answered with a gentle smile.
“Of course. Anyone eating rice in this industry would know ‘Seo Tae-hyun.'”
“Ah… thank you.”
At his matter-of-fact tone, Tae-hyun bowed his head in greeting with an embarrassed expression.
Judging by the slight redness creeping up his ears, it seemed like more than just shyness—there was something bittersweet about the moment. Ha-jin deliberately pretended not to notice and changed the subject.
“By the way, were you watching something? The conference room TV is on.”
“Ah, yes. ‘In the Chaos’ Episode 0 is supposed to upload at noon today, so I was waiting for it to go live. I figured I’d monitor it for you too. If you have time after the meeting, you could watch it together while we grab lunch.”
“Oh, is that today? Well, sure, why not?”
Light small talk continued a bit longer.
It was after Kwon Wook finished introducing Yoo Gun that he broached the subject of Tae-hyun’s ‘manager duties,’ once Tae-hyun’s shyness had settled down a bit.
“But… I was a bit surprised. You said Tae-hyun would be working as a manager, not making a comeback in the entertainment industry.”
“Ah, well…”
“When we consulted with the management team, we thought you’d be better suited to focusing on artist care and schedule management rather than driving or fan management. For now, you’ll gradually learn that side of the work.”
“Ah, yes.”
“The director said to think of it as a one-month trial period as a part-timer for now, and if your work performance is solid, we’ll bring you on as a formal three-month probationary employee. Was this discussed with you beforehand?”
It hadn’t been discussed beforehand, but either way, Tae-hyun had nowhere to retreat to.
When Ha-jin looked at Tae-hyun, he nodded firmly, as if to say he was prepared for this. Kwon Wook smiled at his response and continued.
“Excellent. Our company’s salary and benefits are significantly better than the industry average. You’ll undergo a week of training starting next week, then you can begin work immediately. We’ll have you sign the contract then.”
“Ah, but….”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“Would it be alright if I asked which artist I’ll be managing? It would be helpful to know in advance who I’ll be responsible for.”
“Oh, I forgot to mention that?”
At Tae-hyun’s question, Kwon Wook laughed as if he’d slipped his mind.
Ha-jin hadn’t yet signed a contract with Miro, and there were precious few active artists currently under the label, so Ha-jin himself had no idea who Tae-hyun would be assigned to manage.
Ha-jin, Yu Gun, and Tae-hyun’s gazes all turned toward Kwon Wook at once.
“You’ll be assigned to manage Yeon-woo.”
“…I’m sorry? Who?”
“Yeon-woo. Choi Yeon-woo from Endway. He specifically requested that you be assigned as his manager.”
Miro’s crown prince, Choi Yeon-woo.
At the mention of his name after so long, the three men’s expressions transformed in different ways.

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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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