Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 578

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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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578. Breathing Room (3)
Choi Yeon-woo.
The unofficial leader of Endway and bearing the nickname “Crown Prince of Miro”….
‘Jeong Si-u’s friend.’
Ah, my apologies.
But there was no more certain way to describe that man.
As I rested my chin in my hand and recalled what Choi Yeon-woo might be doing around this time, Kwon Wook continued speaking with his hands respectfully clasped together.
“Well, first of all, you’ll be assigned to Endway’s exclusive team roster… but as you probably know, Endway is currently in a state of de facto dissolution, so you’ll rarely have any group activities to handle.”
“Ah, yes….”
“Among Choi Yeon-woo and Park Woong, who are currently active under our agency, you can think of Tae-hyun as being assigned exclusively to Yeon-woo.”
Endway, which had failed to renew contracts after failing to surpass the notorious seven-year curse, had gone silent in the entertainment industry except for Choi Yeon-woo and Park Woong.
At least Luke, who had returned to his hometown, occasionally made news as a DJ, and thanks to the massive success of the unit activities between Choi Yeon-woo and Park Woong who remained at Miro, the group hadn’t disappeared from the entertainment scene entirely—otherwise, they might have faded away even before Yupia, whose members except for Seo Tae-il continued their activities.
However….
“As for Yeon-woo’s schedule, well, there’s no need to explain, right? He’s doing exceptionally well.”
Rather, the two survivors were simply too powerful to disappear.
I had even momentarily forgotten that Endway was essentially undergoing dissolution—Choi Yeon-woo and Park Woong still commanded towering status in the entertainment industry.
[Endway W, Charting on US Billboard for 3 Consecutive Weeks]
[Park Woong Takes Stage with Global Master ‘Cali Meadow’… Collaboration Track Released]
[Choi Yeon-woo’s Latest Solo Album Receives Explosive Overseas Response]
[Male Idol Unit Achieving Record-Breaking Career High This Time (feat. Endway W)]
The unit’s achievements ranked among the most remarkable in idol unit history, and Choi Yeon-woo’s solo album had charted on Billboard and beyond. A world tour of massive scale was inevitable, and they received invitations to overseas festivals as casually as one might receive a meal.
And yet.
Even until the time of my first regression, I had heard no news of Endway’s reunion.
-Officially, only their individual agency affiliations differed, but the group contract was still listed as active….
-What Woong told me back then was that it was essentially a dissolution. Luke returned to America, and Yeon-woo no longer had the will to do team activities.
I recalled what Ji Su-ho had told me when he stepped down from managing our group.
Why had Choi Yeon-woo abandoned Endway?
I pondered whether there had been some particular discord within Endway, but nothing came to mind.
‘If this is indeed the worst timeline… could I discover something?’
In any case, it was clear that Choi Yeon-woo was one of the reasons the Miro banner hadn’t fallen and remained firmly in place, despite nearly collapsing before closure due to the former Executive Director’s incompetence.
Setting aside why such a person had directly requested Tae-hyun….
“But isn’t he overseas? Does Tae-hyun have to go abroad?”
The real issue now was that I’d sent my kid out for a quick breather, and somehow he was about to get poached by the neighbor!
Bewildered, I questioned him directly, and both Tae-hyun and Lee Yu-gun seemed equally startled by the unexpectedly large scale, regarding Kwon Wook with expressions similar to mine. Suddenly receiving the intense gazes of three people, Kwon Wook hurriedly continued in confusion.
“Ah, no, no. That’s not it. Yeon-woo is preparing for a domestic comeback in the first half of next year. He’ll be coming to Korea next week. There will inevitably be some overseas location shoots and filming, but domestic activities are the priority.”
“Ah….”
“But how does that senior know about this kid? Do you know him? Are you close?”
“No, I’ve only seen him occasionally at the broadcast station….”
To Lee Yu-gun’s belated question, Tae-hyun shook his head, saying they weren’t particularly close.
Since in the original timeline Tae-hyun and Choi Yeon-woo had been merely senior and junior from the same agency, I simply tapped my fingers on the table without asking anything further.
If I had to find a point of connection between the two of them….
[Is it true that Cha Min-seok from New Rene Z was originally from Miro?]
‘…Ah, a name I’d rather not recall.’
I decided to set this question aside for now and think about it later.
No amount of speculation on my own would change anything—the truth was something only Choi Yeon-woo would know. And someone of Choi Yeon-woo’s caliber was perfect for giving Seo Tae-hyun the kind of rigorous training and motivation to reignite his passion for idol work.
If Choi Yeon-woo had specifically chosen Seo Tae-hyun because of Cha Min-seok, that would be a different story….
-Honestly, I thought Seo Tae-hyun could sing our song. You said you had options, right? Why didn’t you pick our song?
-It would have suited us perfectly.
But somehow, I felt certain that wasn’t the case.
It was just intuition, but my instincts were rarely wrong.
As Kwon Wook continued explaining various job duties, he soon checked his diary and began wrapping up the conversation.
“Well, I’ve received your resume…. Here’s our employment contract and my business card. Please review it and let me know if there are any issues. Oh, and by next week, please submit a copy of your ID and a copy of your bank account information for salary deposits.”
“Ah, yes. I understand… Yes?”
“Yes?”
Seo Tae-hyun, who had been answering like a robot, tense from experiencing his first “normal” interview, suddenly lifted his head. As if he’d just heard something he shouldn’t have, his eyebrows furrowed, and he asked Kwon Wook again.
“You received my resume?”
“Yes. I got it via mobile, but is there a problem…?”
“…?”
Seo Tae-hyun’s eyes, which I’d thought were so large they’d never close even in death, suddenly widened so much his whites gleamed as he turned to look at me.
Only then did I realize that incomprehensible question mark was directed at me, and I casually shrugged in response.
“I submitted it.”
“You… submitted my resume? How?”
“Your background is straightforward enough. Since it was procedurally necessary anyway, I just filled it out roughly.”
“How did you know my personal information, like my resident registration number?”
“During my Kairos activities, I filled out your information several times, so I’ve just memorized it all by now….”
Wait, that’s a bit too much information.
Sensing instinctively that something had gone wrong, I shut my mouth.
Glancing around, I saw Lee Yu-gun with his face buried in his hands, realizing the situation had gone south, and beyond Kwon Wook’s cautious gaze, Seo Tae-hyun sat neatly dressed, regarding me with an all-too-familiar expression.
For no clear reason, PTSD sent shivers down my spine.
My joints, gripped by an inexplicable fear that my entire body might fold in on itself at any moment, raised their guard against my will.
“….”
“…No, I mean. It’s not like I creepily memorized all of it and kept it in my memory for years—from that point on, it’s more of an instinctual thing….”
“….”
“No, well, honestly, huh? Your personal information—just searching ‘Seo Tae-hyun’ on the internet brings up most of it anyway…. And the resume was completely, completely just brief. Huh? I really filled it out with just a simple resume, so there wasn’t anything particularly impressive written in it.”
“….”
“And now, again…. With that whole ‘Kairos reunion’ thing, I found out some things while looking into how the members are doing… and…. Oh, and anyway, since you’d never written a resume before, I was just thinking about how to write one and two months would obviously pass….”
“….”
Despite my desperate excuses, Seo Tae-hyun simply stared at me.
Kwon Wook, quick to pick up on the atmosphere between us, checked the mood and excused himself to take a call. Lee Yu-gun, about to follow suit and head to the restroom, lowered his tail at a single sigh from Seo Tae-hyun and sat back down.
Still fixing his gaze on me, Seo Tae-hyun tilted his head, crossed his arms, leaned back against the chair, and opened his mouth.
“Why are you freaking out?”
“Yeah, I know it was wrong to use someone’s personal information without their consent… huh↗?”
“I didn’t say anything yet. Why are you getting scared for no reason?”
What? He’s not even mad?
Normally by this point, he’d be shouting something like ‘What on earth were you thinking?’ but here we are.
The absence of his usual outburst was somehow more terrifying, so I exchanged a nervous glance with Yoo Gun, and Tae-hyun, who had been staring blankly into space as if remembering something, murmured softly.
“You remember everything, don’t you….”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“I’ll submit a resume I wrote myself. I drafted one last night after finding a template.”
“Yeah, okay….”
“And tell Eun-chan to pay his rent on time. I’ll arrange a formal real estate contract. I can’t accept special treatment just because we were in the same group when I haven’t done anything to deserve it.”
“Sure, whatever.”
Meanwhile, I’m abusing his card, his cash, and even his brother’s authority just because we were in the same group.
I brushed aside the slight pang of guilt and nodded, and Tae-hyun picked up the employment contract that Kwon Wook had left behind, adding one more thing.
“And… thank you.”
He said it like he was asking “What should we have for lunch?”
“Huh? What… wait?”
“I’m thanking you. For looking out for me. For dragging me to Seoul even when I was reluctant. Honestly, if you hadn’t done that, I might not have come here.”
Yeah, he understands.
As I listened quietly in agreement, Tae-hyun, who had been staring intently at the employment contract with his name on it, smiled softly for the first time.
That fresh smile that once made his sister’s fans clutch their hearts now glowed gently across his face, infused with a touch of melancholy and maturity.
“I’ll do my best.”
“…Yeah. Work hard.”
Tae-hyun was excited.
He seemed to be rejoicing in the possibility that he too could have a fresh start.
‘That’s enough.’
For now, that’s sufficient.
Thinking that, I unconsciously hid my clenched fist behind my back. The anxiety and impatience constantly welling up in my subconscious were difficult to suppress.
“Ah, everyone. Have you finished your discussion? I was on a call for a moment… It seems the director will have difficulty coming to the company today.”
As a brief silence settled, Kwon Wook returned to the conference room, informing us of Tae-il’s absence.
Sensing from the atmosphere that the discussion had wrapped up well, he settled comfortably into his seat and opened the laptop connected to the conference room TV.
“Well, it looks like we’ve covered everything… shall we move on to part two?”
“Part two?”
“Yes, like I mentioned earlier.”
The moment the laptop screen turned on, Kwon Wook logged into the work messenger and clicked on a link from the chat. Immediately, a large monitor filled with the thumbnail of an AiTube video.
【[In the Chaos] A Normal Pre-Test But With a Horde of Zombies ‖ Episode 0】
Remarkably, the main focus of that thumbnail was me.
Dressed exactly as I had been during the pre-shoot for ‘In the Chaos’, a waist-up shot of me running urgently somewhere with a flashlight clenched between my teeth, surrounded by hordes of zombies and other cast members.
“In the Chaos Episode 0 just uploaded.”
My first official schedule in this timeline had been uploaded.

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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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