Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Translator: Penny
Chapter 5
"Those guys are gonna have a showdown with Arario TV soon."
"See you at the Local Raspberry Festival, pfft!"
"Ah, you crazy bastard. That's fucking hilarious, seriously."
Even before we could leave the waiting room, mocking laughter erupted from behind us, loud enough for us to hear.
I noticed Seo Yehyeon clenching his fists tightly. Kim Dobin beside him was biting his lip hard.
But instead of frowning, I smiled kindly.
Foolish beings, oblivious to their own futures.
Those two mocking bastards would both be taken down by drunk driving and marijuana charges in three years.
One guy got a year in prison for a second DUI offense during his probation period. The other got ten months in prison, suspended for two years, for smoking marijuana.
I'll see you guys in the news.
And it was true. Before my regression, I'd already experienced every stage—Arario TV, Showdown, the Local Raspberry Festival, the Chili Pepper Festival, the Hanwoo Festival, and countless other regional specialty festivals. So this had zero impact on me.
Still, prison's gotta be worse than this, right?
"Hey, are you guys out of your minds?"
The Mid-Tier Group Leader snapped at them, but the future prison inmates just snickered and kept mocking us.
"What's wrong, Hyung? It's obvious what's going on."
"Exactly. It's not like we haven't seen rookies like them before."
The Leader, who had urgently ushered us out of their waiting room, followed us out to apologize on their behalf.
"I'm sorry, they're still a bit immature."
"Hmm, they certainly look past the age of maturity... If they're still acting like this at their age, they should get psychiatric help—"
Before I could finish, the Leader's expression turned strange. Gyeon Hajun, who had hastily pressed down on the back of my head to force me into a bow, joined forces with Seo Yehyeon to drag me back to our dressing room.
Returning to the shared dressing room used by multiple idol groups, I noticed the dark expressions on my members' faces.
If it had just been us, I would have rallied them with a pep talk about succeeding and crushing those jerks. But in a room with other groups present, suggesting we "crush our seniors" would be tantamount to career suicide.
If those damn seniors managed to stay relevant for another three years—both literally and figuratively—it would be even worse.
I simply patted the youngest member's back silently as he grumbled under his breath.
"We're not really going to Arario TV, are we...?" Kim Dobin murmured, his shoulders slumped, his voice barely audible.
Before my regression, we'd flopped with our second album and ended up at Arario TV. Ironically, the extra time there allowed me to focus on composing and producing.
"No, we're not. Don't worry about it."
Now that the songwriting genius Yoon Eden has returned, the future of our flop idol group will change. And if I want to end this regression, we can't stay a flop idol group.
"Really? The next song will be better than this one, right?"
Kim Dobin sniffled at my halfhearted consolation, his voice desperate as he asked, "Really?" Before I could even give him a reassuring answer, it was our turn to go on stage, forcing us to leave the waiting room.
As I performed the choreography—a routine we'd practiced dozens of times until it felt ingrained in my muscle memory—I listened to Kim Dobin's part and thought:
Those stars in the universe twinkle brightly,
And the pupils of your eyes before me twinkle just as brightly.
...Even I have to admit, this sounds like it's destined for Arario TV.
The moment we returned to the dorm after finishing our schedule, I was showered with warm gestures and praise.
"Hyung, you held it together so well."
"Yeah, Yoon Eden, you really did. I was so tense, thinking you'd throw a fit in the waiting room."
I blinked blankly. What's going on now? I'd been trying to comfort the injured members like a proper leader, so why were they praising me instead?
It seemed like this had happened in my past life before the regression too. When I dug through my memories to recall how I'd reacted back then...
What the fuck is wrong with these assholes?
Ugh, Hyung! Watch your mouth!
So that's why I remembered the fates of those two bastards so vividly, even among all the other troublemakers and fallen idols.
Before my regression, when I didn't know how they'd end up, I couldn't contain my anger in the waiting room and cursed them out loud. Somehow, they heard about it and gave us the middle finger every time we crossed paths.
But after our fancam went viral and we started climbing the charts, those bullies finally disappeared. Into prison.
This time, I kept my mouth shut in the waiting room, so hopefully those jailbird idols won't bother us.
"If this keeps up, we'll only get 62 people at our fan signing event, won't we?"
Seo Yehyeon clicked his tongue, lying on the mattress with a face mask on.
He was referring to the dismal turnout for the fan club name vote on the official fan cafe.
With 172 fan club members and only 62 votes, his concern was understandable.
"We'd be lucky to even get 62 people," he replied nonchalantly, logging into the fan cafe and voting for Daydream, the fandom name from his previous regression.
The nickname had been Ilmong, derived from the last two syllables of the Korean word for daydream, baekilmong. But since he'd always called them Daydream, Ilmong never quite rolled off his tongue.
Of course, he had no intention of using the nickname in this regression either, preferring the proper name Daydream. So the fact that Ilmong didn't come naturally to him wasn't really a concern.
"Nyx sounds pretty good too, don't you think?"
"Yeah, Fandom Nickname Goddess."
After reading the comments on a post identical to Gyeon Hajun's on the fan cafe, Gyeon Hajun quietly gave up on Nyx and voted for Daydream.
Then, today, he racked his brain again, crafting a two-line post drenched in flowery language and uploading it to the fan cafe.
This was his fourth post this week.
Weekly Quest: Post selfies and messages on the fan cafe's "From" board at least four times a week (4/4)
Original Intent Score +2!
The door burst open, and Ryu Jaehee dragged Kim Dobin in, shouting with the booming voice of a true leader:
"Hyungs! Vote for Nyx! Vote for Nyx!"
"Jaehee, how many times do I have to tell you to knock before barging into someone's room?" Seo Yehyeon, the team's oldest member and a bit of a stickler for rules, scolded him mildly.
Lying down, Seo Yehyeon merely turned his head to ask:
"Dobi, did you vote? You didn't vote for Nyx too, did you?"
"Could you at least add the 'n' 받침 to my name?" Kim Dobin grumbled at me.
Meanwhile, Gyeon Hajun was trying to convince Ryu Jaehee that if "Nyx" got chosen, they should call the fandom's nickname "Goddesses."
Of course, his persuasion fell completely flat.
"What's wrong with 'Goddesses'? Our goddesses—"
"The fans would freak out and find it too much."
I shook my head, watching Ryu Jaehee, who was already calling out the fandom's backup nickname in a sweet, melodious voice, even though it had no chance of being chosen.
Ryu Jaehee plopped down on the mattress and logged into the fan cafe to check the voting status. When he saw my post, he looked at me with genuine surprise and said, "Eden Hyung, why are you suddenly posting so consistently on the fan cafe? You never seemed like the type to do that."
"Uh... well, things changed. I need to recover some of my Original Intent Score, you know?"
I nodded casually, confirming that the Original Intent Score of 2 had been reflected in my overall score.
As the clock struck midnight, transitioning from 11:59 PM to 12:00 AM, the Status Window sprang open before my eyes the instant Monday began.
☀ Commencing Weekly Quest settlement.
⚠ Since you completed fewer than two Weekly Quests, a random penalty will be applied.
Wait, did I forget to check fan reactions today...?
That's right, I'd completely forgotten. Still, I reassured myself, What's the worst that could happen with a penalty?
Just then, a wave of nausea surged from within.
"Ugh!"
I reflexively clamped my hand over my mouth to suppress the hot, metallic taste rising in my throat, but I couldn't stop myself from vomiting.
Red liquid dripped between my fingers. The moment I realized what I'd just thrown up, my mind went blank. My hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
This is insane.
"Ah! Blood! I just coughed up blood!"
I frantically shouted, raising my blood-stained hand. All eyes turned to me, but everyone just stared blankly, as if they couldn't quite grasp the reality of the situation.
Gyeon Hajun was the first to snap out of it, barely managing to speak.
"You didn't bite your tongue, did you...?"
"...Or is it just a nosebleed that went down your throat?"
As if to answer their questions, another gush of blood surged up from my throat.
The metallic tang of blood filled my mouth.
Is the System out of its mind? I thought it wouldn't affect my health! How can it make me cough up blood like this?!
Aish, the System's trying to kill me! Just because I forgot to do one search?!
"Call 119! Hurry, call 119! I'm dying here! If we miss the golden hour, I'm dead!"
Rolling on the floor and making a scene, the youngest member frantically dialed his phone. The others rushed to bring water and offer wet towels, trying to calm me down.
"Manager Hyung! Eden Hyung suddenly coughed up blood! What? Well, he's still running around like a maniac, so I don't think he's about to collapse..."
Manager Hyung must have raced over at top speed, because he burst through the dorm door just seven minutes later.
"Eden, have you ever had any underlying health conditions?"
"No! That's what makes this so serious! Symptoms with no known cause are the most dangerous!"
With Manager Hyung's support, I was rushed to the emergency room. I had to be grateful that no one recognized me as an idol.
Perhaps the System couldn't bear to watch me shaking and panicking about dying any longer, because it popped up a Status Window:
[This is a blood-coughing penalty that will not harm your body.]
Bullshit, you fucking liar. How can coughing up blood not harm my body?
The detailed examination results came back normal. It was hardly a reason to stay hospitalized.
But I couldn't trust the results, so I booked a comprehensive health check-up and discharged myself that day.
"Ugh, my throat hurts," I grumbled, rubbing my throat, which stung with every swallow. Gyeon Hajun handed me a cup of warm water and asked, "From coughing up blood?"
"No, from screaming so much. But how can they say everything's normal after I vomited a whole bucket of blood?"
"It didn't look like a whole bucket..."
That's strange. It felt like a whole bucket to me.
That damn System claims my body isn't affected, but there's no way continuously vomiting blood won't damage my health. I need to make sure I complete at least two Weekly Quests from now on.
As I frantically added vitamins and supplements to my online shopping cart, Ryu Jaehee quietly sat beside me and asked cautiously,
"Hyung, you didn't throw up blood after seeing the first-week sales report, did you?"
"Are you crazy? This isn't some novel or manga—why would I throw up blood over something like that?"
Grumbling, I brushed back my messy bangs, then froze.
Wait a minute... how many copies was it again? Over 1,000?
First-week sales refer to the sales figures for the first week after an album's release.
Remembering the pre-regression days when hundreds of thousands of first-week sales were the norm, I recalled my benchmark for a flop idol group's first-week sales and glanced at Ryu Jaehee's phone screen. The first-week sales figure displayed showed the last two digits replaced with asterisks:
Reve's debut album's first-week sales were precisely...
1** copies.
1,000 copies? What a joke.
The shockingly low number made me feel like blood was rising in my throat again. So this is what we were like as a flop idol group during our debut.
It seems like now isn't the time to sit back and do nothing, assuming our debut is already a failure.
📝 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