Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 80

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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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80. Bomb! (2)
Kwon Myung-eun PD—Kang Ha-jin’s former workplace superior and current main PD of Miro Maze.
She had arrived alone at the Miro Entertainment Building, summoned unexpectedly by Ji Su-ho.
‘What’s this all about? Ugh… I’m already swamped as it is.’
Her mind was a tangled mess. Lately, stress had robbed her of sleep and twisted her stomach into knots. Just now, she’d come straight from turning the Executive Office upside down.
‘I ditched office politics to go freelance, and somehow I’ve ended up with even more demanding clients.’
Myung-eun’s sharp mind worked quickly, deducing why Su-ho had called her in today.
The official reason was “establishing future plans and emergency content injection,” but no matter how she analyzed it, the atmosphere felt different.
‘If that were it, why would he ask me to come alone? And exclude Go Writer?’
He was probably fishing for information about the first episode screening that kept getting delayed. Su-ho couldn’t possibly be unaware that Yoon CP was stubbornly insisting on editorial changes.
‘I heard Kang Ha-jin is part of Su-ho’s faction, so this is probably related to that.’
Myung-eun resolved herself, thinking of Miro’s direction—which completely contradicted Yoon CP’s revision strategy. The Executive seemed hesitant, wanting to defer to Yoon CP, but she disagreed.
‘Kang Ha-jin will definitely debut. We need to push him if we want the broadcast to succeed.’
Even if Yoon CP objected, if Miro decided to make a stand, there was nothing he could do about it.
As Myung-eun was thinking this, the conference room door opened and Ji Su-ho entered. He was alone as well.
“Ah, Myung-eun PD, hello.”
“Hello, Team Leader.”
“I’m sorry to bother you when you must be so busy. The thing is—”
Su-ho set the tablet PC he’d brought onto the desk and moved to sit across from Myung-eun.
Or rather, he tried to.
“Team Leader, I understand everything.”
“…Pardon?”
“It must be frustrating. Infuriating, even. We never imagined things would drag on this long either.”
“Well, I—”
“I’m truly, deeply sorry!!”
Myung-eun bent at the waist so sharply her forehead nearly touched the desk in apology, leaving Su-ho frozen mid-sit, his mouth hanging open awkwardly.
When Su-ho offered no response, Myung-eun lifted her head with an expression of such pitiful sincerity—amplified by 200%—her hands clasped together.
“But honestly, we’re dying here too…”
Watching Myung-eun’s furrowed brow and miserable expression, Su-ho thought to himself:
‘…So this is what Ha-jin’s former boss was like.’
Their methods were identical. He even began to suspect that half of Ha-jin’s current interpersonal tactics might have been learned from this woman.
“Let’s sit down first. We can talk while seated, PD.”
“Hmm, should we?”
Su-ho pushed his glasses up with his fingertip and gestured to the chair. Myung-eun shifted tactics instantly. Watching her smooth down her hair—which she’d finally bothered to style a few days ago—with a single gesture, as if she hadn’t just been bashing her head on the desk, Su-ho let out a quiet chuckle.
“Well, at least that’s fortunate.”
“…Fortunate?”
“I was worried you might be in the mood for some knife dancing.”
“Knife… dancing?”
The ominous word choice delivered in such a calm tone made Myung-eun’s breath catch in her throat.
* * *
Hours later, after all conversations had ended and Kwon Myung-eun had left, Ji Su-ho remained alone in the conference room.
“….”
Deep in thought, Ji Su-ho removed his glasses and splashed cold water on his face. With a small sigh, he immediately called someone.
-Hello?
After a slightly prolonged signal, Kang Ha-jin’s voice came through the phone.
Perhaps because Ha-jin knew that I was meeting with Kwon Myung-eun today, he asked first in a calm voice.
-How did it go?
Ji Su-ho answered, pressing his tired eyes with the back of his hand due to exhaustion.
“She agreed to do it.”
-I figured she would.
After hearing everything from Ji Su-ho, Kwon Myung-eun had accepted the proposal more easily than expected.
“You were right. The moment the numbers added up, she gave the okay.”
-That senior is like that. She’s consistently worldly, but her pride in her work is incredible.
“But there’s one problem.”
Ji Su-ho’s voice dropped low. It was an issue discovered while establishing concrete plans through conversation with Kwon Myung-eun.
“You’re also implicated in the vote manipulation.”
Yoon CP hadn’t only manipulated Sung-woo’s votes.
“It wasn’t just Sung-woo’s votes that were tampered with—your votes were transferred to him. Which means your current vote count isn’t a legitimate result either.”
If Ha-jin’s plan proceeded and Sung-woo was removed before the first broadcast with the footage edited out, all the votes Sung-woo had received would become invalid. This was possible because they weren’t paid votes.
“The problem is, I don’t know exactly how many of your votes were transferred to him. To conceal the manipulation itself, we’d have to bury the votes you lost as well.”
If only I had dealt with this earlier.
If I had stopped Ha-jin’s plan and halted the voting the moment the fraud was discovered.
Ji Su-ho felt an irreversible regret.
But even then, he couldn’t guarantee the situation would be better than it was now. In fact, calculating coldly from the company’s perspective, this current method was the most advantageous.
‘No manipulation image, we owe the broadcasting station a favor, and we’ve secured investment for future content.’
If I had been the Executive Director, I wouldn’t have hesitated to sacrifice Ha-jin.
But Ji Su-ho was too conscientious for such a choice, and he cared deeply for Ha-jin.
-Team Leader.
And as if Ha-jin on the other end of the phone understood all of Ji Su-ho’s worries and regrets, he responded with a cheerful voice.
As if all those concerns were nothing at all.
-Would I have stepped on a landmine without calculating at least that much?
“You, then…!”
-You said you’d be on my side no matter what happens.
“….”
-Tell Kwon PD that I’ve given him a big sword, so he should dance with it properly. And just make sure the editing is done right.
Oh, I need to get to practice now. I’m hanging up―.
Before Ji Su-ho could say anything more, Ha-jin hung up. Ji Su-ho heard the call disconnect but couldn’t lower his hand holding the phone for a long time.
‘So, from the beginning, knowing he’d take the loss….’
The number of votes Sung-woo had stolen from Ha-jin was far from insignificant. Yet Ha-jin seemed completely unbothered by it.
‘What on earth… what is he thinking?’
Sung-woo pressed his throbbing forehead repeatedly, suppressing his anger.
After composing himself through measured breathing, Sung-woo picked up his phone again and called Kwon Myung-eun.
-Yes, this is Kwon Myung-eun.
“PD, this is Team Leader Ji Su-ho. Let’s proceed with what we discussed earlier.”
-…Hmm. Yes, I understand. I’ll contact you soon.
“And there’s one more thing I’d like to propose. Actually, it’s not a proposal—it’s a condition.”
At this point, I couldn’t simply sit back and observe passively.
* * *
Han Sung-woo’s luck had been poor since morning.
He’d left without an umbrella and gotten caught in a sudden downpour,
and when he hurriedly bought one, a rib broke in less than ten minutes.
As if that weren’t enough, he stepped wrong and fell into a puddle,
which left the shoes he’d just bought yesterday completely caked in mud.
‘Nothing’s going right!’
Han Sung-woo irritably shook his wet hair as he entered the company building.
There was a shared shower room for trainees to use, so he planned to wash there and change into practice clothes he kept on hand. The shoes were a shame, but it wasn’t worth dwelling over—he could just buy another pair.
‘Ugh, so disgusting.’
From the shoes that still squeaked with rainwater with every step,
to every strand of hair he’d carefully styled this morning.
Sung-woo was thoroughly irritated by the filthy rainwater clinging unpleasantly to his entire body.
“Oh man, hyung.”
The owner of the voice Sung-woo had grown to hate most recently approached with his usual glib greeting.
“You’re soaked through. What a mess.”
“Get lost. I’m not in the mood to deal with you today.”
“Oh my, how scary. Eek.”
Ha-jin shamelessly uttered an exaggerated “eek” without even changing his tone, as if reading from a textbook.
At the clearly mocking tone, Sung-woo’s fists clenched for a moment, but he quickly composed himself and took a measured breath. For now, a shower was more pressing, and besides, he knew Ha-jin’s attitude wouldn’t last much longer.
‘Once the first broadcast airs… and the voting results are revealed, that bastard’s smug act will finally end.’
The day of the next recording he’d learned about from Yoon CP—the ranking announcement—wasn’t far away.
Imagining that confident face soon drowning in defeat actually lifted his spirits a little from the gloom he’d felt moments ago.
So Sung-woo tried to pass by Ha-jin, ignoring him. But Ha-jin smiled, interlaced his fingers, and rested them behind his head as he spoke in an annoying tone.
“Shall we head in? If I were you, I’d just turn off my phone right now and go home, hyung.”
‘What’s he saying, the crazy bastard.’
It was better not to engage with this guy. With that decision, Sung-woo hurried toward the practice room, unaware of what was about to unfold.
Sung-woo entered the break room where the trainee lockers were kept to grab clothes to change into. The trainees who’d arrived earlier were either gathering their things from their lockers or chatting with each other.
Sung-woo naturally approached them and greeted the trainee who usually matched his mood best with a gentle smile.
“Hey, Kyung-ho. Hi, you came early today.”
“….”
“…? Kyung-ho?”
Something strange happened. Kyung-ho glanced at Sung-woo, then left the break room without returning the greeting.
‘What’s going on?’
Sung-woo felt something off and glanced around. Until yesterday, the trainee juniors had been fawning over me, calling me “hyung” at every turn, but now they all shot me sidelong glances before walking past as if I didn’t exist.
Han Sung-woo had never experienced such a situation in his entire life, and he felt genuinely unsettled.
‘What’s gotten into those bastards? Did something happen? Or is this some kind of hidden camera prank?’
Flustered, Sung-woo grabbed his towel and fresh clothes but hesitated before entering the Shower Room. Something was definitely wrong, and he could feel it.
To figure out what was happening, he left the Break Room and hurried toward the Practice Room. But along the way, every trainee he encountered whispered upon seeing him, and not a single person greeted him warmly.
‘What, what is this? What the hell is going on?’
As his pace quickened down the Hallway, driven by inexplicable dread, someone called out to him from the far end of the corridor.
“Sung-woo.”
“…!”
“Got a moment?”
Miro’s guardian angel—the one everyone at the company whispered would fill the currently vacant Executive Director position once the next group debuted after Miro Maze wrapped.
Ji Su-ho stood at the end of the Hallway, his face utterly devoid of warmth, calling out to him.
Sung-woo’s instincts screamed danger. He gripped the clothes and towel in his arms tightly and took a step backward.
“Ah, T-Team Leader… um, if it’s not urgent, could I perhaps shower first and visit you afterward? As you can see, I got caught in the rain―.”
“No. I’d like you to come to my office right now.”
“….”
In that moment, an alarm blared in Sung-woo’s mind, and a voice echoed through his thoughts.
-Go in? If it were me, I’d just turn off my phone and head home right now, hyung.
Ha-jin’s smug, knowing voice replayed in his memory—as if he’d seen this coming all along.
Rainwater that Sung-woo hadn’t managed to wipe from his hair dripped steadily down.
The drops soaked through his entire body, leaving him drenched, before finally pooling at his feet.
‘What the hell is happening?’

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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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