Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut! Chapter 71
Chapter 71. Guess Who? (2)
Miro’s guardian spirit, Ji Suho, stepped into a quiet restaurant in Seoul.
“Welcome. Do you have a reservation?”
“Yes. Under Ji Suho.”
“Right this way.”
The place was known for neat plating and discreet service—but more importantly, every table was a private room. It was the kind of restaurant people chose when conversations weren’t meant to leak.
Strictly speaking, today’s meeting wasn’t official business.
But what they were about to discuss required more caution than most business deals.
“Am I early?”
He checked the time.
Thirty minutes left.
Not enough to waste.
He pulled out his tablet. He needed to monitor the reaction to yesterday evening’s Miro Maze performance videos—and the early viewer voting trend.
When he opened iTube, the A Team performance video he’d fallen asleep watching the night before started automatically.
He paused it immediately, wary of the volume, and checked the numbers instead.
MIRO MAZE ∥ Daylight(日光) (Prod. Seo Tae-il) – A Team Performance Video
Views: 498,125
Comments: 2,965 (Top)
The comment section was exploding.
A Seo Taehyun timeline I’m making for myself
Seo Tae-il makes songs so damn well
♥Gaon Arts Uni applied music dept runner-up, statue-singing Jung Siwoo, debut pls♥
I’m about to stake my life on someone else’s life again
Taehyun, you’re doing so well
Eunchan, I’m your noona. You don’t know me but from today I’ll use my bank account and life to support your debut
The numbers were impressive.
The PR team had already sent screenshots from online communities.
HOT! ║ Miro’s next boy group survival performance videos just dropped
A Team – link
B Team – link
Lyrics/composition/arrangement by Upia/Seo Tae-il
5/3 9PM first broadcast
Voting started
Threads were multiplying.
A Team visual “troika” is crazy
Who’s your pick? A vs B
└ A
└ 2
└ 333
└ I like B more thoughDoes Seo Taehyun not age??
└ No, we’re the ones agingWho sings the first line in B Team???
└ Kang Hajin, 182cm vocal + B Team leader
└ No way, that cat???
└ What did he DO to his profile photo
Ji Suho exhaled slowly.
The traction was real.
Calls from reporters and industry contacts had been coming nonstop.
Even in an industry that never really had weekends, moments like this made him think:
This place is brutal.
He jotted down feedback for the PR team.
If Hajin hadn’t approached him with the survival show proposal…
If Director Son Hyeonggu hadn’t been pushed out of the picture…
He’d still be managing Enderway full-time right now.
In just three months, everything had shifted.
Sometimes it feels like a waste.
Kang Hajin would have been terrifyingly competent as a company employee.
Over those months, Ji Suho had realized something strange.
Hajin loved “work.”
Far more than Hajin admitted.
When he worked, his eyes lit up. He looked alive—almost feverish with energy.
Otherwise, how could someone practice all night and still:
Check on other trainees’ condition
Make sure nobody ate alone
Memorize camera directors’ names
Calm conflicts before they escalated
Staff evaluations had been consistent:
Wherever Hajin is, it’s loud—but in a good way.
Other teams get heavy. Cliques form. Competition gets tense.
With Hajin there, that disappears.
Some staff were already whispering that Hajin might be the next debut team’s leader.
Hajin doesn’t feel twenty.
Of course he didn’t.
He wasn’t.
He had memories of lives no one else remembered.
Ji Suho had learned that secret gradually.
Regression.
Previous lives.
Time repeating.
He wouldn’t have believed it—
If he didn’t possess an ability of his own.
He checked the time again.
Ten minutes.
He took a sip of water.
“Kang Hajin…”
Why hadn’t Hajin debuted in the past?
Why did he deny loving this work?
Why did he always stand one step back from everything, as if he didn’t have the right to fully step in?
His questions tangled.
On the tablet, beside A Team’s video, the recommendation panel showed B Team’s performance video.
Without thinking, he clicked it.
The thumbnail appeared.
Hajin.
Smiling straight into the camera, waving.
Enchanting.
“…He’s this good.”
So why—
Why did he look like someone ready to disappear at any moment?
The door creaked open.
“Hello, Team Leader.”
“…Ah. Sit down, Hajin.”
Ji Suho swallowed his curiosity.
Hajin arrived starving.
He’d skipped breakfast to make it on time.
Seoul-centric hellhole.
For someone living in Gyeonggi, getting into Seoul was an endurance test.
Minimum one hour.
Two if you went deeper in.
Five hours round trip.
Ji Suho noticed the faint exhaustion in his face.
“Was the trip rough? I should’ve picked somewhere closer to you.”
“Oh, no. I had errands in Seoul anyway. An hour and a half isn’t far.”
“…That’s not far.”
“That’s just how Gyeonggi works. Everywhere is two hours away.”
Ji Suho pressed the call bell instead of attempting comfort.
“Two A-course meals, please.”
“Yes, two A-courses.”
As soon as the server left, Hajin downed half his glass of cold water.
The room was soundproof.
Private.
Secure.
“But Team Leader,” Hajin said casually, “how long are you going to keep using honorifics? You dropped them last time.”
“Ah—right. I keep slipping.”
“If you speak formally to me in front of the others, it’ll be a disaster. Start now. I’m younger than you.”
Ji Suho’s expression shifted slightly.
It felt like an opening.
“…Since you mentioned it… you said you came back from the past, right?”
Hajin set his cup down.
Silence.
“Then how old are you really? In that previous life, you were clearly an adult.”
“I just—if we’re working together, I should understand you better.”
The words kept getting longer. More awkward.
Hajin stared at him.
The longer the silence stretched, the more Ji Suho felt sweat gather along his spine.
And then—
“…You believed that?”
“Huh?”
“You really believed it? That I came back from the future?”
Ji Suho blinked.
Yes.
He had.
And suddenly, he wasn’t sure whether he’d just stepped into something much deeper than he’d expected.