Episode 103: Royal Rumble (1)
The life of a regressor—living the same time over again—is honestly pretty boring.
‘Most things just don’t hit the same anymore.’
Take, for example, Ah-jeong’s independent departure from BNW.
Back in the previous timeline, when I first heard about it, my jaw dropped in shock. But now? I’ve already heard things like “She’s such a quick-witted old soul” or “There’s no fun in teasing her anymore.”
For the sole reason that I was able to protect the one irreplaceable person in my life, I still bow my head in overwhelming gratitude toward whatever mysterious phenomenon sent me back to the past.
‘But when Zia isn’t around… it really gets boring.’
Zia is the one who fills the dopamine void that a regressor inevitably loses—with a different kind of satisfaction. That makes her all the more precious.
Of course, I always knew this lifestyle wouldn’t last forever.
Just as so many things changed over the past year, the ripple effects would only grow stronger moving forward.
‘Eventually, the future I knew will change so completely that even if I scrubbed my eyes raw, I wouldn’t find a single fragment of it.’
That’s what I’d been thinking all along.
I just hadn’t expected that day to arrive this quickly.
[Polaris Mini 1st Album Pre-release Track Trident – D-5!]
Just two days after Orion successfully debuted on CBS’s <Song for You>.
Starlight’s counterattack came flying in.
***
I’d been expecting it.
‘So who’s the opponent?’
A monster who, in less than a decade, proudly joined the vanguard leading the culture called K-pop.
In a situation where Pleiades had taken an unexpected blow from Hylliy and voluntarily chosen to retire ahead of schedule.
On top of that, Orion’s debut announcement felt like teabagging.
[TL Note: Well, the serch result showed, Teabagging refers to a sexual act where a person places their scrotum in another’s mouth, resembling dipping a tea bag in water, or a mocking gesture in video games where a player repeatedly crouches over a defeated opponent’s body.]
There was no way Lee Hee-kyung would just sit back and watch.
It was obvious she was sharpening her blade and grinding her teeth in our direction.
The only uncertainty had been:
‘Would she strike immediately, or wait a beat?’
After all, albums aren’t something you can just churn out because you’re pissed. Unless the work had already been prepared in advance, revenge would naturally get delayed.
Just like how no one foresaw Hylliy and Pleiades’ promotions overlapping, Starlight’s moves had already diverged completely from the previous timeline—beyond anything I could predict.
But it looked like Starlight had packed their schedule tight too.
‘Not good.’
Of course, even though I’d anticipated it, the current situation wasn’t exactly welcome.
The moment I stepped into the company, that unwelcome feeling intensified.
“Ailee.”
“Yujin-ssi? What brings you here? Weren’t you supposed to be resting? Ah, bored already? …I heard Zia-ssi went into music video filming.”
“Do you have a moment?”
“Hm… I’m busy, but… if it’s Yujin-ssi asking for time, I have to make it.”
Even with dark circles shadowing her eyes, the way she brightly brought up Zia made my frustration peak.
‘These people have zero sense of crisis…!’
Good thing I came in.
It seemed no one at MyWay was treating the current situation as a crisis at all.
“Let’s head to the CEO’s office. I already told him.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll bring Former Team Leader Jeon too. Go ahead first, Ailee.”
“…Do I need to prepare anything?”
“No. Not right now. This meeting will be about deciding what we need to prepare.”
The sudden suggestion to go see Seo Yoon-je—and the mention of bringing Jeon Seon-woo too—
Only then did Ailee finally show the reaction I’d been hoping for.
‘If only it had been Altair, it might’ve been better.’
As I walked toward the rookie development team where Jeon Seon-woo was, I couldn’t shake that thought.
Honestly, when Orion’s debut was right around the corner and Starlight stayed quiet, part of me had secretly hoped this kind of picture wouldn’t appear.
‘Because the matchup would stay the same.’
Right now, with the <Mysty> syndrome still burning and Hylliy running wild.
The confrontation structure that ended in Hylliy’s victory over Pleiades would naturally carry over into round two: Orion vs Polaris.
The Hylliy vs Pleiades matchup had nothing for us to lose.
Hylliy had been the clear underdog, and even in a 50-50 structure, she would’ve won on points—gaining far more than she risked.
If the opponent had been Altair, we could’ve ridden that same structure.
A freshly debuted Orion against an already-established Altair.
The underdog position would remain intact, and riding the massive wave of attention from Hylliy’s <Mysty> syndrome, we could’ve easily aimed for more than just a points victory—a perfect scenario.
‘Lee Hee-kyung… her luck really is something. Of all groups, Polaris?’
The problem was that the next in line for Starlight—who had already been preparing—was Polaris.
The monstrous rookie who had taken music show 1st place just five days after debut and swept the rookie awards with overwhelming skill was gone.
Instead, they were now being evaluated as riding the coattails of their sibling groups Altair and Pleiades.
“Huh? Right now?”
Not just Ailee—even Jeon Seon-woo showed no sense of crisis at the news of Polaris’s comeback.
That was how faint Polaris’s presence had become.
But Lee Hee-kyung’s luck only went that far.
I know.
If Polaris had been a one-man team led by the boy-headed breadwinner Han Yujin, they wouldn’t have even become top-class idols—let alone reach the Grammy main field.
‘No matter how much I’m gone, that’s still underrating them.’
Right now, Polaris was being massively undervalued.
Their debut song got caught in a plagiarism scandal, which exploded right in the middle of their second promotions, causing the second single to completely bomb. Unlike the previous timeline, their promotion gaps had stretched enormously.
But the fact that Polaris held even greater potential than Hylliy—I couldn’t possibly not know that.
‘The kids… it’s kind of pitiful…’
Trident, huh.
Honestly, I have no idea what kind of song it is.
Since all the songs Polaris performed in the previous timeline were ones I made, this might be a track that originally went to a different singer under a different title in that life.
One thing is certain: unless the song’s concept clashed wildly with the members, <Trident> would have been another golden opportunity for the group called Polaris.
‘Just like <Mysty> was for Laira in the previous timeline and Hylliy in this one.’
The Polaris members I know have more than enough ability to seize that chance.
‘The only problem is the timing—it’s terrible.’
With that thought still lingering, I arrived at the CEO’s office.
Seo Yoon-je greeted me and Jeon Seon-woo with a slightly hardened expression—probably after hearing something from Ailee.
“I roughly heard from Ailee and looked into it… It seems our Magician saw something in these Polaris kids, right?”
“Yes. That’s correct. We need to prepare.”
“Hmm… Is Polaris really at that level?”
“Yes. I saw the news too… but honestly, I still have doubts whether they’re someone Yujin-ssi needs to be this wary of.”
It’s understandable.
Looking at their debut song <Rising Star> or their second promotion track, one might think that way.
‘And honestly, that was the fact back then.’
The stages for those two songs were clearly different from when they performed <First Step> in the previous timeline.
There were two main reasons for that gap—one was me, and the other…
‘The six months of despair after their debut was delayed.’
Did those kids really just sit still during that time?
Coincidentally, it had been exactly six months since last November.
“Starlight must have thought the same thing. ‘Is Hylliy really that big a deal?’ And the result? Well—you’ve seen it.”
“That’s because Yujin-ssi…”
“They only have Altair and Pleiades, but Starlight has more than enough know-how. They can’t just sit back and watch.”
What gave weight to my speculation was the fact that this Polaris comeback was a mini 1st album.
Not a single-track single, but an album with at least four or more songs.
‘No way Lee Hee-kyung would throw away precious resources like “songs” without at least some certainty.’
The Lee Hee-kyung I know would never use something that valuable unless she had absolute confidence.
“If things continue like this, the second round between MyWay and Starlight will have the roles completely reversed.”
Orion had already achieved a successful takeoff.
The foundation was placing the Blind Singer runner-up—a proven name—in the main vocal position.
The fanbase Tae-oh had built during Blind Singer became the core of Orion’s fandom, and it was growing smoothly.
Meanwhile, Polaris was being so heavily undervalued that even industry experts like Ailee and Jeon Seon-woo were brushing them off.
If those two groups clashed, the challenger position—the underdog image—would clearly fall on Polaris.
“Yes. Let’s prepare. In this industry, you never know who’ll end up the winner and who’ll fall into the abyss. Preparing and preventing ahead of time is always good. But how?”
Seo Yoon-je immediately voiced pure curiosity.
The reason I hadn’t warned about Starlight’s counterattack in advance—even though I’d expected it—was exactly this.
‘Right now, there’s not much we can do.’
Unfortunately, unlike with Hylliy, there was nothing more we could pull out for Orion.
We’d already used every card we had on <Mysty> promotions.
Reusing them wasn’t impossible,
‘But once is fine—twice in just a month would feel stale.’
For a group that just debuted, getting tagged as “stale” would be disastrous.
“Yes. Honestly, there isn’t much we can do. We can’t change the concept at this point either.”
Saying we need to prepare while admitting there’s no method—talk about irresponsible.
But none of the three people looking at me showed the slightest ripple of doubt.
“There’s no need to change anything. The kids’ skill is already sufficient. The concept is perfect. The songs? No need to even mention them.”
Probably because this was MyWay.
All three of them trusted my ability without a shred of doubt.
“So what we need to do now is change the board entirely. Not MyWay vs Starlight round two—something completely new. For example… how about a clash between rookie boy groups?”
“Hm?”
“Huh? Wait… no way… Yujin-ssi…?”
At those words, Jeon Seon-woo tilted his head, Ailee’s head tilted too—then her mouth fell open slightly as something clicked.
Seo Yoon-je?
He simply looked at me with a faint smile, as if to say “keep going.”
“E-GIS’s <Glaze> work is finished, right? Out of courtesy, they deliberately scheduled their June comeback to avoid clashing with Orion.”
He didn’t say anything—just watched with that subtle smile, as if testing me.
“Shall we drag E-GIS into the ring?”
“Will they come? Out of courtesy or not, from what I saw, they seemed scared of going up against you and ran away.”
As Jeon Seon-woo belatedly gaped at the mention of E-GIS, Ailee immediately added a question.
Seo Yoon-je… seemed to have already guessed even this method.
They say class is eternal—probably for moments like this.
“Why beg when there’s a way to make them come willingly? Of course, I’ll need your permission, CEO.”
Seo Yoon-je’s smile deepened.
***
The next day.
Kwak Sun-bin dropped another exclusive.
[AZ Music Video Filming Underway! Queen of Ballads Comeback Countdown?!]
And soon after, the CEO who raised E-GIS came looking for Seo Yoon-je.
Looks like he tried to avoid the wolf only to run into the tiger—what can you do?
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