Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 81

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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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81. Bomb! (3)
Han Sung-woo couldn’t quite remember what happened after that.
“…So, we’re going to wrap this up with you quietly leaving the company.”
Removal from the program.
Viewer voting manipulation.
Trainee contract termination.
Warnings about breach penalties and damages resulting from these actions.
Every word that fell from Ji Su-ho’s lips was simultaneously familiar and terrifying.
I’d harbored a nagging anxiety that this might be discovered someday, but…
Not now. Not like this. Never like this.
As alarm bells shrieked through my mind and my heartbeat thundered in my ears, Han Sung-woo denied reality itself.
“I… I don’t know anything about this.”
“….”
“I don’t know anything about this, Team Leader. Please believe me!”
But the response that came back was ice-cold.
“I’ve already gotten a full confession from Yoon CP, and he’s agreed to accept separate disciplinary action from the Broadcasting Station in exchange for covering this up.”
Yoon CP spilled everything? After all the money he took from our home?
The moment those words reached my ears, Han Sung-woo felt his blood drain away, and his fists trembled with rage as he clenched them tight. He bit down so hard his jaw ached.
Ji Su-ho, watching him silently, delivered the final sentence.
“You know this is a crime, right.”
“….”
“I could make this as big as I want. The fact that we’re wrapping it up at this level isn’t for your sake.”
“….”
“I wanted you to remember that it’s because I didn’t want to waste the efforts of all those other kids who are still practicing hard and sweating every day.”
Then he quietly slid several documents prepared by the Legal Team across the table.
They were legally binding documents, including a non-disclosure agreement and contingency papers.
“I haven’t told your parents. You’re an adult, after all.”
“No, wait! My father—”
Ji Su-ho watched Han Sung-woo trembling with a vacant expression, then released a small sigh.
And with whatever affection he’d held for him all this time, he offered the only advice he could give.
“Why did you do it, Sung-woo?”
“….”
“Why did you make this choice? I should have trusted you more. I should have believed in you more.”
“….”
“I should have believed in your effort, in your desperation. No matter how much this industry is a competitive society where someone else must die for me to live, what you did wasn’t competition. It was illegal and deceptive.”
“….”
“Read through it slowly, think about it, and sign when you feel ready. But whether you sign or not, your removal from the program and contract termination are valid.”
Ji Su-ho spoke with finality, then left the small conference room, abandoning Han Sung-woo inside.
‘What… what is this.’
Han Sung-woo was alone again now.
As I lowered my head, water dripped from my still-damp hair, forming a small puddle on the table.
‘What is this? What is this? What on earth is this?!’
My life and dreams, abandoned overnight, felt utterly hollow.
I resented Father for not pushing me more firmly before things reached this point,
and I despised Yoon CP for accepting those bribes, and then—as if being caught wasn’t enough—dragging me down with him.
‘Where did everything go wrong?’
Han Sung-woo wracked his brain trying to pinpoint the source of this catastrophe.
Among everything he resented and blamed, there was nothing directed at himself.
When Han Sung-woo finished signing the contracts with trembling hands,
he was already half-delirious with self-justification and rage over the entire situation.
After some time had passed, Ji Su-ho returned with his characteristically composed expression.
“…Are you finished?”
“….”
“I’m sorry, but you’ll need to clear out your things right away. If it’s too much to carry at once, just say so.”
A clear eviction notice.
Han Sung-woo, who had never experienced such coldness in his entire life, bit his lip as he asked,
“…Do the other trainees know about this?”
His voice carried no trace of remorse or apology.
Su-ho answered with a slight scoff.
“No. Only a very select few at the company know about this incident.”
“….”
“Still, you never know. The company is small, and rumors spread fast.”
“….”
“You’ve worked hard. Go carefully.”
Only then did Han Sung-woo realize I was crying.
My body was soaked through from head to toe, drenched and uncomfortable, but I knew the discomfort wasn’t from the rain. And truthfully, I already knew exactly what was causing that discomfort.
Han Sung-woo slowly rose from his seat.
It was time to leave.
* * *
Unsurprisingly, no one came to see Han Sung-woo off when he left Miro.
‘Those bastards wouldn’t have amounted to anything without me anyway….’
Han Sung-woo gritted his teeth bitterly to the end as he stubbornly gathered his belongings. Fortunately, most of the trainees had gone up to the Practice Room on the third floor, so there were few people in the Basement, and he didn’t encounter many.
“Oh man, hyung. You’re leaving now?”
But the moment Han Sung-woo spotted the one person among those few remaining in the Basement that he least wanted to see, he finally snapped.
“You, you bastard!”
“Whoa, this hyung’s gonna kill someone!”
The belongings Han Sung-woo was carrying clattered to the ground with a dull thud.
But Han Sung-woo didn’t care, charging straight toward Ha-ru, who stood in the Hallway with a mocking grin plastered across his face.
Then he grabbed Ha-ru by the collar—who was a head taller than him—and slammed him hard against the wall.
“It was you, wasn’t it? You’re the one who ratted me out, you bastard?”
“What? Hyung, what are you talking about?”
“Shut up! It was you. You’re the only one who knew about me and Yoon CP, so you must’ve spread it, you bastard!”
Han Sung-woo, who had felt cornered at the cliff’s edge all this time, lost his grip on reason and erupted into an uncontrollable fury. Unwilling to admit his own fault even now, he began blaming Ha-jin for everything that had happened to him.
“Hyung. You seem really worked up right now, so let’s just calm down first….”
“I never liked you from the start. The way you strut around like you’re something special—it was so damn annoying. I’m going to make sure I crush you once I get out of here, got it?!”
“I understand, so please let go and let’s talk about this, Sung-woo hyung. No matter what, grabbing someone by the collar like this….”
“Do you know what kind of person my father is? There’s not just one pathetic agency like this out there. I can debut somewhere else. You think there aren’t plenty of stupid pigs willing to throw money at me to make me a star?”
“….”
“Damn it, I shouldn’t have come here in the first place. You arrogant little bastards, hiding behind me while establishing your own hierarchies and divisions… being stuck in this shithole, if it weren’t for my father, I swear….”
“H-hyung. Please, please let go―.”
His mental state completely shattered, the grip tightening around Ha-jin’s collar grew stronger and stronger.
Whether he was even aware of it or not, Ha-jin’s throat was being squeezed tighter. As Ha-jin’s breathing grew labored and fear flickered across his face, he grabbed Han Sung-woo’s wrist, and then―,
“―I said let go and talk.”
His expression turned cold and his voice steady as he effortlessly pried Han Sung-woo’s hand away.
“…What, what?”
This time, Han Sung-woo looked up at Ha-jin as if he’d seen a ghost.
Ha-jin stared down at him with eyes filled with contempt, mockery, and pity, then gripped Han Sung-woo’s wrist with an incredible force and shoved him back. Han Sung-woo stumbled and retreated three or four steps.
“Really. How uncouth of you.”
Ha-jin straightened his collar as if he’d never been pinned down at all, then pulled out his phone from his pocket. When he turned the screen to show Han Sung-woo, the recording function was clearly active, the timer running.
Watching Han Sung-woo, still shocked and unable to process the situation, Ha-jin pressed the stop button on the recording.
“So hyung, you’re really… predictable. I could practically see your next move coming from a mile away.”
“…You, you!”
“If you keep saying ‘you, you,’ this audio recording might accidentally get uploaded to the internet. You still don’t realize that, do you?”
“…!”
A recording.
The moment Han Sung-woo imagined what would happen if this spread online, his face turned ashen. If what he’d just said about his father came to light, it wouldn’t just damage him—it would harm his father and his father’s company as well.
‘He’s already been so lenient with me multiple times. That absolutely cannot happen!’
He lunged to snatch the phone, but Ha-jin proved that being grabbed by the collar earlier had been intentional by easily sidestepping him and slipping the phone into his back pocket.
“What can we do, hyung? Last time there was no physical evidence, but this time something’s been left behind.”
“Why, why are you doing this to me?! I never did anything bad to you, so why! What grudge do you have against me?!”
Despite the near-hysterical shouting, Ha-jin didn’t even blink. He slowly twisted one corner of his mouth into a smile and shrugged his shoulders as if it was absurd.
“You didn’t have a reason either, did you? When you and the others were bullying Ju Eun-chan.”
“…!”
I wonder if you’ve ever heard of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Ha-jin’s irritating voice rang out, but Han Sung-woo could no longer offer any response.
“Listen carefully, hyung. This is how blackmail works. I’ll probably just end up not debuting, but you have so much to lose, don’t you?”
“….”
“The moment you try anything stupid, everything falls apart. I hope you understand that clearly. Now get out of here. Let’s not see each other again.”
With that, he walked past Han Sung-woo with an unmistakable smirk on his face.
As if there was nothing more to say.
As if to say he didn’t care whether someone like him sank or swam.
“….”
Only then did Han Sung-woo’s mind clear cold, and I grasped the full reality of my situation with objective clarity.
Unbearable fear and helplessness crashed over me. Nausea rose in my throat. Now that I understood everything, all I wanted was to escape this place as quickly as possible.
“Damn it, this, this is… this insane….”
Han Sung-woo scrambled to gather his belongings as if being chased by someone.
Just minutes earlier, I had carelessly abandoned these things in frustration. Now I hurriedly collected them and rushed out of the basement before anyone could see, terrified of encountering anyone in the elevator, so I deliberately took the emergency stairs instead, breathing heavily.
“Damn it, me, these bastards, how dare they to me…!”
With a completely shattered mind, Han Sung-woo reached the entrance when a small notebook fell pathetically from between his belongings. It was Sung-woo’s practice notebook—one he had once kept meticulously.
As he bent down to pick it up, someone beat him to it, retrieving the notebook before Han Sung-woo could. They brushed off the dust and mud, then held it out to him.
“…Here.”
The one offering back his soiled practice notebook was Ju Eun-chan.
That same Ju Eun-chan whom I had once spread rumors about being a parachute hire, completely ostracizing him among the trainees for a time.
“Did you come to mock me too?”
“….”
“Go ahead then. Mock me. Ridicule me, damn it!”
Han Sung-woo had actually envied Ju Eun-chan.
I envied how, despite similar circumstances, Eun-chan seemed superior in every way.
I felt a sense of superiority when I could tighten my grip on that shining guy’s throat and make him completely helpless before me.
And now that everything had been perfectly inverted, Han Sung-woo was certain that Ju Eun-chan would mock and despise him.
However, what came from Ju Eun-chan’s mouth was the complete opposite of what I expected.
“Why would I mock you, hyung?”
“…What?”
“There was a time when I wondered what I had done wrong to you.”
“….”
“I wondered, and wondered, and wondered again… but I found nothing.”
Only then did Han Sung-woo realize that there was no emotion whatsoever in the way Ju Eun-chan looked at him.
“So now I feel nothing toward you.”
“….”
“I hope you feel the same way.”
With those words, Eun-chan placed the notebook appropriately on top of Han Sung-woo’s belongings and passed by him, heading in the direction he had originally intended to go.
Which meant that Eun-chan really hadn’t come to mock or ridicule me—he had simply encountered me by chance.
Han Sung-woo finally realized that he had left no mark on anything.
I realized I had left nothing behind—no scar, no imprint of my existence, not even through hollow victories of the mind.
It was over.
I had accomplished nothing, and now it was ending with only my weaknesses exposed.
“This can’t be….”
Han Sung-woo left Miro like that.

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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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