Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Translator: Penny
Chapter 3
"Eden Hyung! Wake up! How can you oversleep on your debut day?"
Hearing the familiar voice, I slowly opened my eyes.
I blinked a few times, and the now-familiar sight of peeling wallpaper on the ceiling and the youngest member's youthful face came into view.
I'm back again. To debut day.
Fuck, my life.
I cursed inwardly, flinching reflexively at the pain etched into my subconscious. Thankfully, cursing silently didn't seem to affect my Original Intent Score.
"...Jaehee, what exactly is 'original intent'?"
Ryu Jaehee, who had been waving his hand in front of my dazed face, narrowed his eyes at my mumbling.
"Well, if you really want to get technical, it's the determination you had back when you were a trainee? But why are you already trying to find your original intent when you're about to debut?"
"I don't know. They told me to get it back. They even put me through Infinite Regression."
Having quickly made it into the Debut Team at both my previous and current agencies thanks to my looks and skills, I'd never really felt desperate or anything like that. Even when I tried to recall the resolve I'd had during my trainee days, it didn't help much.
With a deep sigh, I pushed myself up.
After all, denying reality and losing my mind again would only lead to a regression ending accompanied by pain I never wanted to experience again. The only solution was to stay focused and keep my Original Intent Score from dropping to zero.
"Status Window."
As soon as the youngest member left the room, I muttered the words almost silently. The Status Window I'd seen in my first regression reappeared.
Original Intent Retrieval Project for Idols Who Have Lost Their Way!
Target: Yoon Eden
Original Intent Score: 100
※ The Original Intent Score decreases based on actions or words deemed inappropriate for an idol, with the severity of the infraction determining the deduction.
※ When the Original Intent Score reaches 0, you will restart from the beginning!
※ To complete the Project, you must fulfill the mandatory condition.
Mandatory Condition: Having disappointed 30,000 fans, you must now delight 30,000,000 fans! (0/30,000,000)
It was now confirmed that when the Original Intent Score reached 0, I would regress to this point. The mandatory condition for completing the Project was delighting 30,000,000 fans.
This meant we needed to surpass 30,000,000 fans. To achieve this, we would have to become a global K-pop idol group, not just dominating the domestic A-list but also climbing the Billboard Charts.
The songs we had performed and the concepts we had explored flashed through my mind like a rapid montage.
"Shall we go to the moon where the rabbit pounds rice, babe?"
"Stars, stunned by your beauty, burst like shooting stars."
"No way! This is insane! Why does this damn worldview have to expand into a cosmic war? At this rate, they'll be wielding lightsabers next!"
My eyes burned with tears. I desperately wanted to cry about my life, which had suddenly plunged into hell mode overnight.
They expect us to become A-list with this garbage...?
Not even a major label's massive investment could make that happen. These songs and concepts would instantly sink even a major label rookie group that had debuted with massive hype from survival shows.
The only saving grace was that I had consistently produced hit songs through songwriting, composing, and producing before my regression.
But the real problem was this damn agency, a bunch of suckers getting fleeced by some quack shaman. There was a reason I sold my songs to other groups.
I want our group to succeed too. But those stubborn, mule-headed guys just won't cooperate, you know?
As I rubbed my throbbing temples, the last line of the Status Window flashed:
☞ Check your Weekly Quest!
Weekly Quest? After two regressions, this was the first time I'd seen this. I blinked in surprise. Come to think of it, I'd never bothered opening the Status Window after the initial check in my previous lives.
"Eden Hyung, let's run through the large formation at our dorm before we go."
"Whoa, that's perfect! I was wondering how we'd practice since the Practice Room is booked. Right, Hyung? We keep messing up the choreography during the 'dazzling starlight pouring down~' part."
"This Hyung is busy right now. You guys practice on your own."
"What are you busy with? You're just staring into space! Hajun Hyung! Yehyeon Hyung! Come out here too!"
"Wow, our youngest member is completely ignoring his Hyung?"
Foul language detected.
Original Intent Score -2
Just as I was about to check my mission, Dobin suddenly appeared and grabbed my arm, pulling me away. Jaehee, sticking to my side like glue, dragged me along, thwarting my attempt.
To top it off, my Original Intent Score was reduced. Now I should say "cat-ignore" instead of "dog-ignore." Surely they wouldn't count that as foul language too, would they?
After that, we were swamped with activity: arriving at the broadcasting station, changing into our stage outfits, getting our hair and makeup done, greeting our Sunbae, and more. By the time our turn finally came, I hadn't even had a chance to check the Weekly Quest.
It looked like I wouldn't be able to check the Weekly Quest until after our debut stage was over.
Backstage, waiting for our turn, I sighed, flapping the stage outfit that still felt so foreign no matter how many times I looked at it.
That damn agency, which had set our debut album's concept as a space voyage, had dressed us in pure white jumpsuits that looked more like patient restraints than spacesuits.
Just add some straps, and you'd have the perfect straitjacket for the white house on the hill.
From that moment on, we should have realized the agency's lack of vision and started voicing our opinions more forcefully from the beginning.
I never imagined that my gratitude for the agency accepting me—a guy who'd quit right before his debut—and my willingness to go along with their slightly unreasonable demands would come back to bite me like this.
"We're really debuting together, just like you said," Gyeon Hajun, standing beside me, said as he tapped his in-ear monitor to check it.
Hajun and I, both the same age, had been close colleagues and best friends since our days as trainees at our previous agency.
Thanks to his handsome, actor-like face, Gyeon Hajun later successfully transitioned into acting, earning the title of "acting idol."
Just before our debut, our former agency—a mid-to-large entertainment company with a decent reputation—tried to force a "parachute" member into the debut team, effectively pushing Gyeon Hajun out. In a show of loyalty, I quit the agency and joined this one, where we debuted together.
Still, he's the same guy who couldn't understand why his longtime friend wanted to pursue his dream, sulked, and then pretended not to know me.
Nine years of friendship meant nothing. Gyeon Hajun chuckled at my displeased expression and asked, "What's wrong? Don't you like it?"
"Why, don't you like it?"
"No, it's just... if someone doesn't sulk later and pretend not to know me, this moment of emotion will last a lifetime."
"Come on, that's impossible. I'd never do that."
As I shrugged and made my pointed remark, Gyeon Hajun patted me on the back.
"Jun-a, you were the one who said that, you know?"
After surveying the stiff, tense members, I spoke up with the confidence of a leader who had already performed three debut stages.
"Anyone who messes up a move pays 100,000 won. Deal?"
I grinned at their jeers. You guys are lucky I'm feeling generous and letting you off the hook for sulking and not talking to me earlier.
As we took our positions on stage, the intro to our debut song, "Come to My Universe," began to play.
I swear, I can't tell if the composer wrote this with his feet or his ass. It's still awful no matter how many times I hear it.
Listening to Ryu Jaehee's refreshing vocals—too good for this garbage song—I made a firm resolution:
From the next album onward, we're performing my songs. If the agency refuses to cooperate like they did before my regression, I'll just have to fight them tooth and nail.
After successfully completing our debut stage without any mistakes, we finally returned to our dorm after the CP greetings.
In the living room, Gyeon Hajun opened his laptop and let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the three members huddled around, their eyes filled with anticipation.
"Guys, our music show views barely surpassed 1,000 even after a week."
The comments on the video were still vivid in my memory:
Kyungmin k • 17 hours ago
What's this? A white house on a hill concept? They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas.
👍 11
Hyena Hunting for Unicorn K-Pop Idols • 10 hours ago
This agency has no sense. They should have gone with a straitjacket concept, all wrapped up in belts.
👍 7
There was a time like that. And now I've returned to that damn "time like that," ha ha.
"Wait, are these views real? Could it be the sudden spike hasn't been reflected yet?"
"The music video views haven't changed much, though."
"Then the music charts... the music charts..."
The youngest member, still unable to believe our flop idol group's fate, muttered in a daze, clinging to even the tiniest sliver of hope. I quickly opened the music app and scrolled through the Top 100 chart.
As expected, no amount of regressions had conjured the miracle of us charting in the Top 100.
We haven't even done anything to deserve it. Hoping for a change would just be wishful thinking.
Ryu Jaehee, who had also checked the music charts, grabbed Kim Dobin and Gyeon Hajun by the arms and shook them, his face a picture of despair.
"Hyungs, start streaming right now! My mom said if we flop, I have to start studying for the civil service exam!"
At that, Kim Dobin immediately opened the largest civil service exam prep forum in a new browser window. He pointed at the screen, taunting Ryu Jaehee.
"Yeah, hurry up and join the civil service exam prep forum first."
"Hyung, it'd be way easier for us to hit it big than for me to pass the civil service exam. With my brain, I'd never pass that thing."
"Wow, Ryu Jaehee, you're surprisingly self-aware?"
Ryu Jaehee grabbed a cushion from the living room floor and threw it at Kim Dobin, who was still chuckling. As the main dancer, Dobin dodged it with practiced agility.
Ah, yeah, even if I studied for three years, I probably wouldn't pass.
As far as I remember, Ryu Jaehee started studying for the civil service exam in earnest after his second album flopped.
Three years into his exam prep, Reve's eldest member's fancam went viral, and the youngest member quit studying without a second thought.
Seo Yehyeon emerged from the bathroom with a face mask on, bent over to glance at the view count on his laptop screen, and clicked his tongue.
"Seriously, how can the views be so low even with my face on the thumbnail?"
"Hyung, don't get discouraged now. If we're unlucky, we could stay buried for another three years."
Detected: Statement promoting discord among members.
Original Intent Score -1
I retorted indifferently, and a sharp, stinging pain shot through me. My eyebrows shot up at the status window that popped up before my eyes.
Seo Yehyeon sighed as he looked at me, muttering about how stress ruins his skin before retreating to his room.
This Hyung, who had been cast solely for his looks and whose singing, rapping, and dancing skills were subpar even by idol standards, had been obsessed with his appearance since his trainee days.
During our trainee days, when we were enduring grueling diets ahead of our debut, we would secretly sneak in chicken and pizza for late-night snacks. But he would stubbornly chew on protein bars alone, starving himself with a fierce determination.
But where exactly did I say anything that could be construed as stirring up discord?
I was just stating facts.
As I stood there, lost in thought, staring at the door Seo Yehyeon had disappeared behind, Gyeon Hajun closed his laptop and quietly asked,
"Eden, are you okay?"
Yeah, totally fine.
At first, I was so shocked by our spectacular failure that I couldn't even eat properly for days. But by the third time, I was completely unfazed. Is this what enlightenment feels like?
"What did you expect? We're not a major agency. The song's terrible, the styling's awful, and the music video's a low-budget mess. Getting famous here would be a lottery-winning miracle, right?"
The three of us left in the living room turned to stare at me simultaneously.
Detected: Statement promoting discord among members.
Original Intent Score -1
Huh? Again?
Feeling a sharp, stabbing pain, I scratched my head awkwardly and asked, "Did I say something wrong?"
📝 Translator’s Note:
You may notice that certain lines or phrases in this novel appear both in their original Korean (or Hanja) form and in English translation.
This is intentional — these phrases are classical idioms, divine titles, or poetic expressions that carry layered meanings.
To preserve their original tone and authenticity, the raw text has been kept for reference, while the English interpretation is provided right before or after it. This helps convey both the literal and cultural nuance of the original work.
but if you guys dont want tha raw for future chapters or my future other novels u can just text me on discord and say so discord name Mr.Penny