Episode 130: The Crazy Bastard of This Area Is Me (1)
“One, two, three, four. Back to the original position.”
A soft voice echoes through the room.
But the atmosphere created by that gentle voice is anything but “gentle.”
“Hup. Hoo.”
Sweat droplets drip steadily through the air conditioning that’s been cranked up to combat this season, where not a single drop of rain has fallen since July and the heat just keeps building.
The flushed faces and heavy breathing of Nari, So-young, and Chae-kyung—the three girls—reflect every bit of that heat in their eyes.
‘These kids really are good ones.’
For almost a month now, under the guise of a “special curriculum,” all I’ve had them do is high-intensity workouts and basic common-sense classes.
Any normal kids would have rebelled by now—at the very least thrown a fit, if not outright rioted.
‘But our MyWay’s “Trinity” doesn’t have any of that.’
The three who will become the trinity of MyWay trainees follow the Pilates instructor’s voice without a single complaint, as if they’ve been brainwashed.
Of course, I know exactly why.
How could I not, when I’ve watched kids with those exact same eyes up close for so long?
Right now, the longing in their gazes isn’t directed at the mirror reflecting their own images—it’s aimed at the stage, the one flooded with cheers, applause, and multicolored lights.
The driving force behind that longing is “trust.”
The absolute belief that if they follow the path I set for them, they will definitely reach that place someday.
‘This isn’t even brainwashing anymore.’
Well… in a way, maybe you could call it brainwashing.
It’s an undeniable fact that the one who fanned the flames in those passionate eyes even brighter was me—through the “flirting” I did with them.
‘Wait, can you even call that flirting?’
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t flirting.
Declaring “That person is my girlfriend” as a form of flirting? That sounds more like some horrific hybrid that only shows up in 19+ content.
It’s just that I couldn’t think of a better word that fit the situation, so I called it that.
That’s right.
Ever since the day I told them about my relationship with Zia, the kids’ attitudes shifted once again.
Now their eyes carry a determination not to betray the expectations of someone who believes in them.
I know it all too well.
Because I was the same—toward Lee Hee-kyung.
‘Well, in my case, there were bigger reasons, but still.’
I can’t possibly say there was no heart in my decision to live on as “Polaris’s Yujin.”
If there hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have felt so betrayed when I heard those words from Lee Hee-kyung.
In fact, that feeling was the second biggest one after my longing for Zia.
So how could I possibly stay still after seeing that same resolve in these kids?
My finger refreshed the email inbox on my phone even faster.
And then,
“…!”
Finally, the change I’d been waiting for appeared.
[Project Trinity Participating Trainee Profiles and Introduction Videos]
The pamphlet prepared for the five producers who will bid in the member auction—the starting point of Project Trinity.
Now that this has been distributed, there’s no longer any need to hold back the kids’ growth.
They’ve done enough in-place marching and warm-up until now.
It’s time to charge forward full speed.
“Ah.”
While I was lost in that thought, one email address caught my eye.
It was the very last one listed in the section of email addresses for the producers who received the pamphlet.
[hyb0302@naber.com]
‘Been a while.’
That extremely typical combination of initials and birthday was quite familiar to me.
The owner of this email was one of the people whose long-built relationship with me had completely flown out the window in the previous timeline.
‘Man… fate really is scary.’
This person is the same.
Just like most of the relationships I’ve been rebuilding—starting from Bang Ho-kyung, then Tae-oh, Soo-hyuk, Ji-woo, and so on—my gut tells me that the relationship with the owner of this email won’t change much from before the regression either.
‘I wonder how pissed this guy is going to be?’
If you asked who in this country is the most serious about idol production, this is the person I’d name without a second’s hesitation.
There’s no way someone like that could watch this video and keep their temper in check.
The image of him looking at me like I was trash was vividly painted in my mind, yet even as I recalled that contempt-filled gaze, I could only hold back my laughter.
If this were before the regression,
“Yul-bok hyung, you’re getting fooled again?”
I would have thrown my own personality attack right back at those trash-looking eyes, because we were that close.
‘Come to think of it, things with Yul-bok hyung were never really good to begin with, were they?’
Now that I think about it, even before the regression, our first impression of each other was close to the worst possible.
“Pfft.”
In the end, I couldn’t hold it in, and a laugh leaked out.
“Sorry.”
That earned me a sharp glare from the precious Pilates instructor we had invited.
***
Heo Yul-bok (37, male) found his identity in idols.
It started simply.
The first love of his pubescent boyhood happened to adore the boy group that was at the absolute peak of popularity back then.
Instead of feeling jealous of those unreachable stars, Heo Yul-bok began diving deep into them.
He made the kind of judgment most boys that age couldn’t—creating conversation topics so he could talk to the person he liked.
Unfortunately, the object of that first love never even glanced at him, too busy dreaming vainly of becoming the bride of her favorite member (though the term “bias” didn’t exist back then).
Fortunately, by the time he had studied enough about that idol to hold a proper conversation, such things no longer mattered to Heo Yul-bok at all.
‘This is fucking insane…!’
Before he knew it, Heo Yul-bok had become completely captivated by that world—the dazzling stages decorated with spectacular performances.
It was the moment that marked the end of his childhood and set the purpose of the adult he would become.
Of course, he didn’t ignore reality.
Vocal ability to handle countless songs.
Athleticism to master intense choreography.
Even an appearance that could make passersby turn their heads.
He quickly realized that all the essential stats needed to walk the idol path were only at an “average” level for him. So Heo Yul-bok slightly adjusted his course toward his dream.
‘If I can’t become an idol myself, then I’ll make them.’
That was the vow Heo Yul-bok made at seventeen, in the summer of his first year of high school.
And now, twenty years later, Heo Yul-bok was proudly walking the path he had chosen.
Debut broker.
Legal Rookie Award fixer.
The hope of small-to-mid agencies.
The names given to the man who, unaffiliated with any single company, reached out wherever there were overflowing talents among trainees and placed that talent on stage.
The peculiar thing was that he never took on work with already-debuted idols.
Some people criticized him for it, saying,
“He’s only good at making that one big hit explode—he doesn’t have the ability to sustain popularity long-term.”
But Heo Yul-bok didn’t care about such remarks.
‘Those who can’t even make that one hit happen.’
After all, his path was idol production itself.
That was also why he worked as a freelancer without belonging to any company—and why his life was a little destitute because of it.
So perhaps it was only natural that Heo Yul-bok would join Project Trinity.
Though he was called things like “debut broker” or “Rookie Award fixer,” he had never had connections with so-called “first-tier” idols.
Just the fact that he could stand on the same level as the representative producers of the three major agencies—who churn out first-tier idols almost mechanically—was more than enough reason for Heo Yul-bok to participate in Project Trinity.
And that wasn’t all.
“Ah… that kid… he’s a monster. Who would’ve thought I, Bang Ho-kyung, would end up using formal speech with that green kid?”
From the time Heo Yul-bok began self-teaching composition until now.
The super rookie Han Yujin, whom the composer he respected and looked up to as a role model praised to the skies—and meeting him.
To Heo Yul-bok, Project Trinity could only be an irresistible feast dripping with saliva.
To Ryu Je-hoon, the captain steering the ship called Project Trinity, Heo Yul-bok was the perfect card on the producer side to match with trainees from small-to-mid agencies.
Add to that compensation befitting Heo Yul-bok’s name value, and it would be strange if there weren’t zero complaints.
That was why, when Heo Yul-bok opened the “Guide for Producers Participating in the Member Auction” that arrived in his inbox, his expression was no different from that of a seven-year-old unwrapping Santa’s gifts.
And then,
“Kyaa.”
A feast of talent unfolded before Heo Yul-bok, making him unconsciously let out an exclamation he hadn’t even realized was coming.
“Wow… the three majors really are on another level…”
A total of 25 trainees are participating in Project Trinity.
Among the introduction videos, the first twelve—from the three major agencies: Sunshine, Overwhelm, and JWY—are on an entirely different plane.
It’s the kind of despairing feeling where the gems Heo Yul-bok has polished and worked with until now suddenly look like cheap cubic zirconia in comparison.
Yet at the same time, the anticipation that he might get to refine one of them with his own hands.
Caught between those contradictory emotions, Heo Yul-bok felt a strange, tingling pleasure.
Then another gem caught his eye.
[Seol Nari (19, MyWay Entertainment)]
‘Here it comes—my dopamine!’
Just reading the subtitle made his heart race.
Until last year, when judged purely by scale, MyWay was a company that didn’t fall short of the three majors at all. But when limited to the idol field, it had lagged even behind latecomers like Starlight.
But now it’s different.
MyWay’s dominance has covered the entire first half of this year with their name alone—truly a golden era and then some.
Even though it feels similar to the agencies he’s worked with, the clear difference stands out so sharply that the conflicting feelings of kinship and longing only heighten the pleasure surging through Heo Yul-bok.
“Wow… this kid is seriously… no joke. MyWay came sharpening their knives for real.”
An immediate gut feeling hit him: this girl is one of the two S-Class trainees who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the ace trainees of the three majors.
Vocals, dance, visuals, charm, personality.
In the five-tool set Heo Yul-bok considers essential for an idol, Seol Nari ranks near the absolute top in the four categories visible in the video—everything except personality, which can’t be judged from footage alone.
Just like he had done with the previous twelve trainees, Heo Yul-bok pressed the left arrow button several more times to rewatch Seol Nari’s talent, his growing excitement showing plainly on his flushed face as he waited eagerly for the next trainee.
And then he was betrayed.
“Fuck… what the hell is this?”
If you had to sum it up in one phrase, it was like watching players who had just been showing MLB-level performance suddenly switch to bizarre, slapstick comedy baseball.
[Han Chae-kyung (21, MyWay Entertainment)]
And not just once—
[Baek So-young (18, MyWay Entertainment)]
Twice in a row.
***************
TL Note:
Want to read ahead?
Chapters 131–156 are available on My Patreon (Premium Tier) together with 5 other novels.
Link: https://www.patreon.com/cw/Vritratls
[This series is in the “Regressed Idol” collection]
If you joined mainly for this novel, a quick message would really help me decide whether to continue translating it.
**************