Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 58

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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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58. Various Methods of Dropping a Parachute (5)
Since its release, “Screaming at You” has never relinquished its position as the #1 song women sing after a breakup.
There were several reasons why I wasn’t thrilled about this song.
“Wow, but isn’t this way too high?”
“But changing it to a male key is also kind of….”
First of all, it’s high. Not just high—it stays high throughout the entire song. The verses are relatively lower, but if I transposed it to a male key, it wouldn’t just be low; it would plunge straight into the basement.
In short, the vocal difficulty was extreme.
‘If that were the only problem, I wouldn’t even mention it.’
“Hmm…. The tempo’s a bit awkward too.”
“It’s weird to just sing it, and it’s weird to dance while singing it.”
While there are many subgenres within ballads, “Screaming at You” began with a very slow and subdued verse, then gradually built into a climactic highlight with explosive high notes—that was the song’s signature.
If I sped up the tempo to turn it into a dance track, the latter half would feel too rushed. If I kept the original tempo, the performance options would be severely limited. In other words, the arrangement difficulty was also extreme.
Of course, the biggest problem was―
“But how do we even compete with Sarin?”
The original artist was simply too overwhelming.
‘No wonder Sarin’s nickname is the Boss.’
– But why is Sarin’s nickname the Boss? Isn’t she not the agency president?
└ Because she buries everyone who covers her songs
└ Maybe it became a thing because people started saying “if you want to become a boss, sing Sarin’s songs”
– The full story of how Sarin became the Boss: A junior singer covered Sarin’s song at a year-end concert two years ago and completely bombed ▶ All the other cover singers who’ve failed attempting Sarin’s songs get dug up ▶ We thought this noona was nice, but she’s actually burying all the singers with her own songs ▶ After that, whenever someone covers Sarin’s song, the meme “the Boss claims another one” is born (speedrun explanation)
– Summary of above comment
Lol, Sarin’s fans are at it again with this nonsense. Oh yeah, sure, your singer’s songs are so high and difficult, that must be nice~
└ What’s with the sudden aggression; I’m just stating facts
└ Leave it alone, that stone fan covered Sarin’s song and failed
“You guys are always swinging like this, lol. You act curious at first and then when someone covers it, you’re like ‘who is it?’ and keep playing along. Isn’t that seriously annoying?”
– So who covered Sarin’s song anyway? Recommend someone who did it well!
└ What is this now
The image of the original song, already firmly established, was not just solid—it was towering. This meant I’d get criticized whether I sang it exactly like the original or didn’t. In other words, the difficulty of satisfying the public was at an absolutely extreme level.
‘If I mess this up, I can’t even imagine how much they’ll tear me apart.’
Because I’d caused such a commotion in the first mission, the attention on me in this mission was far from negligible. As proof, just look at that camera.
‘It’s been following only me this whole time.’
Leader, center, and hogging parts in the first mission. I’d led my team to victory that way, but lost the individual battle. Yet somehow I still managed to secure a Wings Rank as a rookie trainee. People couldn’t decide whether to root for me or resent me for being so greedy, but my results were undeniably good.
Ultimately, there was a high probability that people would decide their opinion of me through this stage performance. It meant I absolutely had to do well.
‘If I go similar to the original, I’m done for—straight to the grave. I absolutely have to rearrange it.’
Since I’d be compared to the original anyway, I needed to minimize the grounds for comparison. Even if it meant speeding up the BPM by dozens and dancing like a marionette to these sad lyrics, I had to avoid the insanity of performing it exactly like the original. While the others were quiet, I quickly seized the chance to speak.
“Let’s start by talking about the arrangement direction. What about jazz? Since the original has such a solid rhythm, it could work well for incorporating performance elements too.”
“Wow. Isn’t that too radical?”
“There’s such a big gap between the verses and the chorus musically. I think a jazz arrangement would make that feel less awkward.”
“I think that sounds good…!”
“Me, me too. Honestly, I was worried all the other teams would do intense performances and we’d fall behind if we just did a ballad.”
‘At least I’m on a team with people I can communicate with well.’
The two Feather Class members had seen what I could do during the last mission, so they’d likely follow my lead without much resistance. Dan Ha-ru seemed perfectly content just performing on stage with his close seniors. As for Seo Tae-hyun, he was the type who’d make good judgments on his own without needing explicit direction.
“….”
“Seo Tae-hyun, what do you think?”
“Oh, huh? Yeah, yeah. …I think it’s good too. Let’s do our best, everyone.”
“Right, then let’s finish dividing the parts quickly.”
The meeting continued in a surprisingly harmonious atmosphere. I was almost moved to tears by how smoothly everything was flowing. All I needed to do now was nail the performance. With the concept of “doing everything opposite to the original,” generating ideas became even easier!
“Okay, so here’s what we’ll do. Since Seo Tae-hyun is skilled at expressing these kinds of things, if he anchors the center position well, I think we’ll be good.”
“Sounds good!”
“We’re counting on you, Seo Tae-hyun!”
“Okay, done! So Seo Tae-hyun and I will work out the choreography in the first round, and then we’ll grab food and run through it together later?”
“Yes!”
‘This is easy?’
I threw my notebook with exaggerated showmanship, and the others caught the vibe, bursting into applause. The PD watching us apparently decided there was nothing more to see, as several cameras cut their feeds and moved to where another group was working.
In this surprisingly heartwarming atmosphere, I made a decision.
‘Right. I’ll breeze through to the actual performance like this, and secure my image as a reliable, skilled trainee!’
* * *
“Hey, you guys.”
“….”
And my grand ambitions crumbled in just a few hours.
“….”
“Is this really what you’re planning to perform?”
“….”
“I’m really disappointed right now.”
‘Huh?’
By none other than Seo Tae-il, the copyright holder of this very song!
* * *
‘Where did things go wrong?’
Until this mid-point check, my team had been sailing quite smoothly.
The arrangement?
-Oh, you just extracted the chord progression? Well… if that’s the approach, it could work. It feels like you’re completely transforming the song.
The vocals?
-You distributed the parts cleverly. You removed all the high notes through the arrangement, didn’t you? Smart thinking.
The choreography?
-The original song doesn’t have choreography, so it must have been tough creating the performance. You all worked hard in such a short time.
Even the team atmosphere!
-Should we run through it one more time and review the monitor?
-Ha-ru, I think you need to step back about two paces there. You’re about to collide with me.
-Ah, then I’ll just stand here and do my part before coming in!
‘Good. Everything’s rolling smoothly.’
[System Alert: The system detects a peaceful atmosphere.]
[System Alert: 777 Cache has been awarded as a bonus! (Reason: Inner Peace)]
Even the system had been moved by this serene mood, handing out bonuses left and right. It was certainly the smoothest progression since my regression.
-Tae-hyun? Are you listening?
-…Oh, sorry. Sorry. What did you say?
Seo Tae-hyun did seem a bit flustered lately, but it wasn’t enough to interfere with practice, so I let it slide. Besides, once the cameras rolled, he’d snap into sharp, efficient mode anyway.
In any case, that’s why when Kang Ha-jin heard that the mid-check would be postponed due to his mentor’s schedule, he didn’t give it a second thought.
We’d pass anyway!
There were no problems!
The newly created “Shout at You” was polished enough that no one could find fault with it!
What Kang Ha-jin hadn’t accounted for was that the ‘no one’ in question was Seo Tae-il, the song’s composer and producer.
“Did you guys actually interpret the song properly? Did you analyze the lyrics correctly?”
“….”
“So how did this result come about?”
Seo Tae-il tapped the folder irritably. The atmosphere was so desolate that even the sound of the camera rolling for the one-shot was audible.
“Whose idea was this? Do you all agree with this stage right now? Huh?”
“….”
“I’m not saying the stage itself is bad. But when I gave you the mission to reinterpret the original song, there should at least be some sign that you thought about what power the original possessed.”
Seo Tae-il exhaled deeply. There were too many things to point out.
“Is this really how you should be singing this song—so brightly, smiling, showing off all that charm? I don’t know what emotion I’m supposed to feel watching your performance. Should I be sad? Should I laugh? Is a breakup supposed to be funny?”
“….”
“Honestly, I think I would’ve been less disappointed if you’d just stood there and sung the original with the MR playing.”
And Go Writer, watching Seo Tae-il’s relentless criticism, thought to herself.
‘Wow, Tae-il really sharpened his knives today. What’s gotten into him.’
Go Writer quickly scanned the trainees’ expressions as she watched the unexpected harsh critique. A sequence of how to edit this situation was already rolling through her mind.
‘Well, I was already worried about how to salvage this team since it was too flat anyway. This actually works out.’
The production team of the group that included Seo Tae-hyun, in his second survival round, and Kang Ha-jin, who’d drawn all the aggro from the first mission, had already decided from the moment these two became teammates to make their relationship dynamic and results the main storyline.
‘But Seo Tae-hyun was weaker against Kang Ha-jin than I expected, wasn’t he? Same with the other kids.’
The preparation process had been so smooth it was becoming predictable and boring—I was wondering how to make it interesting. And then this harsh critique came out of nowhere.
It wasn’t just me thinking this, as Kwon PD beside me whispered quietly.
“We should change their direction, yeah? Something like ‘the crisis of the team we thought was strong,’ that kind of thing.”
“Yes. I’ll have them do proper emotional interviews right now.”
“Kang Ha-jin basically led this concept, right? Ask about that too. Whether there was any dissatisfaction, things like that.”
“Okay.”
In any case, thanks to Seo Tae-il, we got an editing angle. Of course, depending on how dramatically the final product changes, the evaluation of this team could swing from heaven to earth.
Go Writer looked at the trainees, who kept providing interesting drama, with appreciative eyes.
“Sigh…. You guys need to have another meeting. Practice again. I’ll come back tomorrow afternoon, so you’ll get checked again then. I can’t approve a stage with this little understanding of the song as the person who made it.”
“….”
“Why aren’t you answering? Can’t you do it? Kang Ha-jin, can’t you?”
“…No, sir. I’ll practice properly and show you again.”
“What about the others?”
“We can do it!”
“We’ll give it our best!”
Seo Tae-il, having driven the wedge, sighed and rested his chin in his palm. His gaze swept past Ha-jin and landed on someone else.
“Tae-hyun.”
“Yes?”
“Do you remember what we talked about when you first said you were coming to Miro?”
“…Yes.”
“I don’t think you came here to do… this kind of thing. Am I wrong?”
At those words, Seo Tae-hyun habitually moved to bite his lip before catching himself, lowering his head instead. Go Writer, who had watched Tae-hyun since his Boy’s Supremacy days, didn’t miss that small gesture.
‘…Oh no, Tae-hyun’s mental state must be taking quite a hit.’
With the competition only a day away, how were they supposed to create a stage with an entirely new concept by tomorrow?
‘But somehow, I’m not that worried.’
Go Writer’s gaze turned toward someone.
Despite the tension hanging thick in the air, I could see Ha-jin watching Tae-hyun with a composed expression, seemingly unshaken. Kwon PD was also staring at Ha-jin with a meaningful glint in his eyes.
‘There’s something about him… like he’ll somehow figure it out no matter what.’
He seemed to know how to frame things for broadcast well enough, and his stage-building skills looked decent. He’d manage something, right? With that light thought, I observed the trainees.
And moments later.
The moment Seo Tae-il stepped out of the Practice Room, the Sad Ending team members scrambled to huddle together in the center of the space.
A bleak atmosphere. Gloomy emotions.
In a situation where worries and thoughts swirled in every direction, the trainees instinctively turned their eyes toward one person.
“…Ha-jin hyung. What do we do?”
And so, Kang Ha-jin, suddenly burdened with responsibility for this entire situation, thought to himself.
‘…I didn’t think of a Plan B.’
Damn it. Damn.

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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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