Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut!

Chapter 22. The Most Effective Way to Remove a Bomb (7)

Director Son Hyeong-gu belatedly caught onto the strange atmosphere circulating within the company recently.

A feeling as if all information was avoiding him. A sense of missing something incredibly important.

‘It’s already annoying enough, what the hell is this?’

He only recently noticed that the parachute’s father, who used to handle his funds, and the surrounding investors were avoiding his calls.

‘That damn Cherry guy is back too… Tsk, nothing comes easy.’

However, the director, already set in his ways, did not realize that these strange signs were the beginning of his entire future unraveling.

It started with the parachute.

“Withdrawing investment? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“How would I know? You didn’t get me the debut I wanted, and all you did was talk about money, so maybe my father got annoyed.”

“I told you it’s happening soon. We need backup dancers for the debut, don’t we?”

“Do you think we gave you that money to prop up those backup dancers? You should’ve boosted me, not the other guys.”

“…”

“You couldn’t even handle Seo Taehyun properly, and now what?”

The parachute turned his back on him overnight.

Losing the biggest investor in his business made the director anxious. However, he had already made many reckless moves without thinking, planning to start his own company. This project had to proceed to cover all those messes.

‘Damn it! If only I hadn’t lost those Utopia guys, I could have held out for a while with that.’

Thinking of the Utopia guys who moved on from his charge last year, the director grew more anxious. He missed the days when he lived a pampered life, using them as leverage for money and meals. He was also reaching the limit of embezzling company funds bit by bit.

‘At this point, I have to catch Joo Eunchan and Dan Haru no matter what. Or at least that Seo Taehyun guy…’

The director, now prepared to threaten the trainees with “debut” as leverage, belatedly noticed his phone vibrating. In the brief moment he was distracted, missed calls and messages piled up like a mountain. Instinctively feeling something was off, he felt a chill down his spine.

To check what was going on, he pressed the messenger of the most recent caller. It was someone he used like his limbs to make a quick buck together.

‘Miro’s next? An article came out?’

No way. There’s no way an article about Miro’s next project would be released without my knowledge. Besides, there was no reason for it to cause such a fuss….

The more he read the article, the more the red lights went off in the director’s head.

At that moment, the phone in the otherwise quiet office rang.

“…Hello.”

-Come up.

It was a call from the president. Something was terribly wrong.

* * *

How to deal with the director.

‘Reporting to the media is out.’

Unless it’s about a celebrity whose reputation is crucial, no media outlet would bother reporting about a non-celebrity entertainment director.

‘Sue for fraud?’

Dragging idol trainees into such a nasty business before their debut wouldn’t benefit anyone. It’s best to avoid anything like that, regardless of guilt, even as a related search term.

‘…Should I just bash his head in and regress?’

That might be an exciting method, but bashing someone’s head in isn’t that easy… And it wouldn’t solve the fundamental problem.

So, how could I deal with him? The answer was simple.

‘Just don’t do it myself.’

A storm of blood swept through Miro.

I distributed the gathered evidence appropriately, and the first person to receive it was Ji Suho. Thanks to Ji Suho, who went straight to the president with the evidence I provided, the president blew his top.

As evidence of embezzling company funds under the pretense of entertaining was revealed, the director was first sued by the company for embezzlement.

Next was the media.

First, I promoted Miro’s next survival show grandly.

I made good use of Utopia’s Seo Taeil and Boy’s World’s Seo Taehyun, who would be the face of the program. During this process, I also leaked some information about Miro’s trainees and subtly showed a picture where the director was completely excluded, allowing the quick-witted investors to pick up on it.

‘Miro’s Director Son is now a fallen leaf.’

At the right timing, I spread some materials to a media outlet specializing in social issues. The topic was

Although the subject was subtly obscured in anonymous reports, industry insiders could easily guess who the “exploiter” was from the hints.

During this process, I even stumbled upon an unexpected stroke of luck.

<“We must prevent a second Project W incident”… Ato speaks out>

The “real victim,” who had been forced to participate in various events and overseas schedules under the director’s line, and then disbanded, took the initiative and stepped forward.

‘Well, it seems they were already preparing for a lawsuit, and the timing just happened to match.’

I couldn’t remember if Ato had sued the director in the previous life.

Once the fire was lit, it blazed on its own. The director, expelled from Miro, became a colossal debtor overnight. His life consisted of being investigated for embezzlement during the day and receiving calls from debt collectors at night.

‘Too busy dealing with his thrilling life to care about who debuts or regresses for a while.’

Some of the company’s staff also left. Even though entertainment companies are always short on people, the president seemed to have made a big decision given the seriousness of the situation. Thanks to this, Ji Suho looked quite busy finding replacements for the upcoming survival show and other positions, but… well, that’s a job for the employees to handle.

“By the way, where did Seo Taehyun go?”

I had been told he was probably practicing in the private practice room. I wandered around the area near Room A, used exclusively by the special class students, just in case. I had my own class starting soon and couldn’t wander around for too long!

“Ah,”

“Ah, I’m sorry…?”

While looking for Seo Taehyun, I walked into someone approaching the practice room and bumped into them.

Usually, when I bump into someone like that, the other person is the one who gets knocked over, so I reflexively apologized, but this time, I was the one who got bounced back.

‘…What the, is this a bear?’

I hadn’t had this experience since middle school, and as I was bewildered, I looked up to see a man taller than me bowing his head with an awkward face.

“…I apologize.”

“Oh… No, I didn’t see you either.”

I hinted at wanting to brush it off and go our separate ways, but the man looked at me for a moment before nodding lightly and passing by. Seeing him for the first time, he seemed to be one of the special class students.

If all the special class students I hadn’t met yet were at that level, I might as well give up on debuting!

“Hey.”

“…?”

As I was marveling to myself, the guy standing at the practice room door suddenly called out to me.

“Are you Kang Hajin by any chance?”

“…? Yes, I am Kang Hajin.”

“Oh.”

“Do you know me?”

What the hell, how does he know me?

“Taehyun is probably in the rooftop garden. He said he was taking a break.”

“Oh, thank you. But how did you know I was looking for Seo Taehyun…?”

“Maybe because a scary-looking hyung with black hair asked me to let him know if someone was looking for him…”

Seo Taehyun, that bastard.

“Anyway, thanks. Practice hard.”

I quickly moved with the intention of giving Seo Taehyun a good smack on the head.

I later found out that the bear-like guy had been watching me for quite a while even after I left.

* * *

At that time, Seo Taehyun was sitting alone in the rooftop garden, steeped in sentimental thoughts.

“What is this life?”

His life had flipped overnight. He couldn’t believe all this happened in just a week.

He was happy, yet it didn’t feel entirely good.

“What are you doing?”

“….”

“Do you think the ground will sink if you breathe like that? Breathe deeper, man.”

Taehyun didn’t bother turning his head. He could tell it was Hajin without looking at his face.

“Shouldn’t you be telling me not to sigh, not to breathe deeper?”

“Why should I? Sighing is good for your health. There are even articles saying the deeper you sigh, the healthier you get.”

“Hyung, you’re really weird.”

“Thanks. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Feeling comfortable, Taehyun scooted over to make room for Hajin, who nonchalantly sat down next to him. Then, he

thought again.

‘It’s only been a week since I met this hyung.’

Yet Hajin had a knack for making people feel at ease, as if they had known each other for years. Strangely, casual words spilled out without hesitation in front of Hajin.

Just like now.

“What, did you come to catch me? Afraid I might run away again?”

At that, Hajin looked at Taehyun with a very displeased expression. ‘Is that something you should be saying?’ was written all over his face, making Taehyun feel a bit (just a bit) scared.

“Taehyun.”

“….”

“If you’re going to run, do it within the metropolitan area.”

“…I’ll try.”

“You’ll die in Gangwon-do, seriously.”

How much did those train tickets cost? Hajin gritted his teeth, recalling the harrowing memory of Gangwon-do. (Of course, the tickets were paid for by the rich Joo Eunchan.)

Anyway, Hajin had a specific reason for finding Taehyun.

[System Alarm: Colleague ‘Seo Taehyun’ is currently… “Quite Depressed”]

That red alert had been on the alarm screen since the morning and wouldn’t go away!

‘Why is he quite depressed anyway?’

I took care of the director, reinstated him as an idol trainee, even had articles about him plastered as a headliner, and he was hot on the communities lately. Why was he depressed? And why did his depression warrant a red alert? People can get depressed sometimes!

After pondering endlessly, Hajin decided to ask him directly!

“So, what is it?”

“What, what is?”

“Why are you depressed?”

“Hyung, do you have psychic powers or something?”

Startled by the straightforward question, Taehyun looked up at Hajin in shock. But Hajin just leaned back against the backrest, gesturing for him to go on without saying much.

And Taehyun found himself liking Hajin’s attitude of ‘what’s the big deal’ a lot. It seemed to lighten the weight of his feelings.

“Well, you know, it’s like… that.”

“Just get to the point.”

“Cha Minseok. Because of Cha Minseok.”

“That crazy bastard, why.”

“…I wonder if I should apologize.”

Taehyun muttered, bowing his head with a conflicted expression. It was something he had been pondering the entire way back to Seoul.

“The truth is, I left because of him. He was originally going to leave, but his parents opposed it.”

“So?”

“I knew. I knew he was having a hard time because of his parents, anxious about not making the debut group at Enderway, and stressed about his back injury, all of it.”

“….”

“And I was the one who caused a scene when I went to see him last time. So, I wonder if I should apologize….”

The more he spoke, the softer his voice became because he really didn’t want to do it. Seeing Minseok again was uncomfortable enough, but actually apologizing was even worse.

Still, having entered the entertainment industry at a relatively young age, Taehyun kept thinking that it would be better to resolve his relationship with Minseok for the sake of his future career and various other benefits….

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“What?”

“What are you apologizing to that crazy bastard for? Are you going to apologize for him being pleasantly crazy?”

“No, but. He overlooked my mess-ups, too….”

“If you put it that way, you should apologize to me more. I went all the way to Gangwon-do to persuade you.”

“Oh, well, yeah.”

“Then thank me.”

“Huh? Oh, thank you.”

“Yeah. Do better from now on, man.”

“Oh, okay…”

Wait. Something felt off. Taehyun blinked his large eyes.