Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut!

Chapter 255. Touch High! (7)

“Director, please come in.”

Suppressing his rough breaths, Lee Doha stepped into the darkened prop room.

As he gently guided the slightly smaller camera director inside, Lee Doha scanned the room before hiding among the boxes gathered in the back.

“Shh. You have to be quiet.”

His eyes, filled with tension, and his sensitively attuned senses reflected the current situation.

Doha checked the time on the watch strapped to his wrist.

There were 5 minutes left until the game ended.

‘If I can just hold out for 5 minutes….’

Creeeak—

Just then, the door to the prop room opened with a sound reminiscent of a horror movie’s effects.

Quickly, Doha covered the light from his wristwatch with his hand and strained to listen carefully.

He heard the sound of footsteps slowly approaching.

“Come here, little butterfly, flutter over here~♪”

A needlessly sweet singing voice broke the silence of the prop room.

Thud, thud.

The slow and leisurely footsteps were drawing closer to Doha.

‘Should I stay hidden? Or maybe I should escape as soon as the timing is right? Or perhaps….’

Thousands of simulations rapidly ran through Doha’s mind.

Meanwhile, the person who had entered the prop room seemed to be slowly searching through it.

“Where are you hopping off to, little bunny~♪”

At the strange discomfort he felt from the song being oddly mixed,—

The box that had been hiding Doha was suddenly removed, and the bright light from the prop room flooded over him.

Momentarily blinded, Doha closed his eyes, then quickly reopened them. As his vision adjusted to the light, the first thing he saw was…

“So, our Destroyer was here~?”

“…….”

…His friend of the same age, Kang Hajin, was smiling, looking almost like a grim reaper.

Finding himself in the scariest scenario he had anticipated, Lee Doha swallowed hard.

* * *

Exactly one hour before this terrifying game of hide-and-seek with his peer began.

The final mission of *Three-Way Battle*, the strategic flag-pulling challenge, was progressing with considerable excitement.

“Haru, Haru! Drive them this way! Push them over here!”

“Doha hyung! Sanchez-nim is heading your way!”

Although their team had lost several fixed-panel members during the previous tag phase, leaving only three members remaining, the Kairos team was demonstrating incredible efficiency and teamwork.

“Hajin hyung, now!”

“Hey, Lee Doha! Grab him, grab him!”

“Got him, Hajin, you have to pull the flag.”

“Aaagh! Guys! I’m your senior, aaagh!”

“I’ll apologize through a challenge!”

While Lee Doha and Dan Haru subdued one member of the Winter Tale team, Hajin easily pulled out the flag. This marked the third elimination in just five minutes since the tag phase began.

Hajin, catching his breath, brushed his bangs back.

“So, how many are left now?”

“Three members of Winter Tale, three of us, and two from Storm Header are left.”

“With about five minutes left, let’s try to knock out one more. It’ll be too risky once our tag phase ends.”

At Hajin’s words, Haru and Doha nodded and hurried to the next location.

As the three walked down the corridor, checking to see if anyone else was hiding, Dan Haru asked Lee Doha.

“But hyung, aren’t you doing your individual mission? Destroyers have an advantage if they do their personal mission.”

“Ah, that. I made a deal.”

It was Hajin who answered Haru’s question.

As Hajin checked the locations where cameras were installed, looking for places where people might be hiding, he continued speaking.

“Doha agreed not to pull any flags in exchange for cooperating to help our team win.”

“Ah, I see.”

Haru nodded in understanding at Hajin’s words.

He recalled the additional rule the production team had mentioned before the race began.

—Oh, and… When it’s your team’s turn as the taggers, you can also eliminate the flag of someone suspected to be the Destroyer within your team. However, if that person turns out not to be the Destroyer, you might end up being eliminated instead, so act carefully.

Originally, this rule was probably designed to make team members wary of who the Destroyer was, but it didn’t apply to the Kairos team, where the Destroyer had already outed himself.

Hajin then added that as soon as he heard that rule, he had grabbed Doha to start negotiating.

“So now, hyung, you’re not the Destroyer anymore and are just acting as part of our team?”

“I was never really interested in the individual prize anyway.”

“Wow. I’m kind of touched….”

“Hey, hey. There’s someone over there.”

Listening to the light-hearted conversation between Doha and Haru, Hajin suddenly stopped walking.

At the end of the corridor, Sanchez from the Storm Header team and a younger member were cautiously approaching, accompanied by some staff.

“Should we go after them?”

“Wait. We’ve got about three minutes left in our tag phase, right? Who’s up next?”

“Winter Tale. Storm Header is second, and we’re last.”

“Okay, then let’s hit them now.”

At Hajin’s signal-like words, the three of them started sprinting down the corridor at full speed.

Living up to his nickname as the Baby Rabbit Warrior, Dan Haru shot forward like a bullet, followed closely by Hajin and Doha, who also sprinted quickly down the corridor.

From a distance, Sanchez and the Storm Header member, Hwi-an, seemed to notice the Kairos members, reacting in shock.

“Wait, wait! Kairos, wait!”

“Sunbae-nim, there’s no such thing as ‘wait’ in variety shows.”

“You’ll regret this, I swear!”

As they finally reached a standoff in the narrow corridor, Sanchez desperately shouted and gestured to Hwi-an behind him. Hwi-an, flustered, hastily pulled a small card from his pocket and held it up.

“We have an item! If you try to pull our flag, we’ll use our defense card!”

The card labeled *Flag Defense Card* was one of the items the production team had mentioned beforehand as ‘helpful in the mission.’

It allowed the holder to counter a tagger attempting to pull their flag, a one-time-use item. Hajin had used this strategy earlier to defeat a member of the Winter Tale team.

“What should we do?”

At Doha’s question, Hajin hesitated for a moment.

There were two minutes left.

‘Neither of them are particularly strong, so if we’re lucky, we might be able to get them….’

As he pondered, Haru made the decision first.

“Let’s just go, hyungs.”

“Just go? You mean leave?”

“There’s not much time left, right? The Winter Tale seniors will start moving soon. It’s better if we just hurry up and hide.”

“Well, you’re not wrong….”

Hajin thought there was some logic to Haru’s words, but he glanced back at the opponents.

‘Them again?’

It was that same Storm Header junior.

It was clear something had happened with our youngest at home, but I still couldn’t figure out what type of thing it was, and it was starting to get on my nerves.

But with the tag phase about to end, Hajin reluctantly nodded.

“…Okay, then. Let’s call it a truce this time. We’ll each go our separate ways.”

“Sure, sure.”

In the end, the two teams cautiously passed by each other, still wary.

As they searched for places to hide, the announcement that the tag phase was ending rang out.

“It’s dangerous if we stick together, so let’s split up and hide individually. We’ll meet back here when it’s our turn as the taggers again.”

“Okay! Hyungs, don’t die on me!”

“Dan Haru, don’t cause any trouble. Even if you get excited, please control your strength.”

“See you later, everyone.”

The three of them parted ways at the intersection, each searching for a place to hide.

As Hajin wandered through the deserted broadcasting station, he was also looking for a good hiding spot.

‘I think there’s a studio somewhere around here….’

Recalling his vague memories from a long time ago (if calling it that was accurate), Hajin turned a corner. Right there in front of him was the leader of Winter Tale, drinking water from a dispenser.

“Ah, crap—!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa—!? Hajin hoobae!!!”

As soon as their eyes met, Hajin sprinted back the way he had come.

Behind him, he heard the leader of Winter Tale laughing oddly and running after him.

He’s been sticking to this crazy person concept, but I think this guy’s just plain weird.

“Hajin hoobae!!! Stop right there!!!!!”

“If you were in my shoes, would you stop—!?”

As Hajin checked the time, he skillfully dodged the leader’s attempts to catch him. The leader of Winter Tale was already gasping for breath, almost to the point of coughing.

“Why… are you… so fast…?”

“I… used to… be pretty good at running back in the day…. Man, I’m gonna die….”

Hajin, who was also out of breath, leaned on his knees, but he remained on guard, ready to spring away at any moment depending on the leader’s movements.

After catching his breath for a moment, Hajin once again showcased his specialty.

“Sunbae-nim. Let’s make a deal.”

“A deal…?”

He had pulled out his sales pitch, a skill that would let him sell a freezer

even in the North Pole.

“If you let me go now, I’ll let you off during our tag phase. You know we’re the last taggers, right?”

“If I eliminate you now, doesn’t that just increase our team’s chances of winning?”

“No, Sunbae-nim. There’s still a Destroyer left in your team, right? I’m sure something’s up with that Destroyer. I’ll take care of the one you suspect as the Destroyer during our tag phase.”

“…….”

“On top of that, I’ll grab the members today and film seven challenge videos for your solo song and upload them right away.”

“……….”

“And if our team wins today, I’ll give you my prize.”

“Huh? You’d go that far?”

“I really, really want to win today.”

That’s a lie.

The Kang Hajin who had said, “Winning doesn’t matter to me at all” before the shoot had been thrown far away into the North Pole as he continued his deal in a convincing voice.

“Besides, this isn’t the time to be doing this. We need to take down the Storm Header seniors. They have the Flag Defense item, so no one can easily touch them.”

“Oh, they have that item?”

“Yes. If we join forces to take down Storm Header, then we can battle it out between us afterward.”

Considering Hajin’s suggestion with a smirk, the leader of Winter Tale eventually shook his head.

“No. I’ll just eliminate you right here.”

“Tsk. It didn’t work.”

“You won’t be able to escape. It’s blocked off behind you, isn’t it?”

Just as the Winter Tale leader said, Hajin was cornered by stairs and walls.

After briefly assessing his escape options, Hajin smiled.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that.”

“……?”

“You know, I was once called a wall-climbing master during our survival show?”

And as the leader let his guard down, Hajin quickly leaped onto the stairs and vaulted over the railing.

He safely landed on a lower level, not very high up, and dashed away again.

“Director! I’ll be hiding near the lobby, so please follow me quickly!”

Taking care to guide the camera director, Hajin made his solo escape as if filming a spy movie. The staff members assigned to Hajin hurried down the stairs after him, caught off guard by his sudden movement.

Left alone, the leader of Winter Tale let out a resigned smile. At the end of that smile, there was a hint of envy, mixed with jealousy and spite.

“He’s really something….”

I guess you need to be like that to work with people like Enderway.

Thinking to himself, the leader of Winter Tale turned to find his next target.

* * *

In the end, the final winner of the flag tag game was the Kairos team.

While a member of Winter Tale tried to eliminate the Storm Header team, they were countered by the defense item, and with the situation now 2:2:3, internal conflict erupted within the Storm Header team.

—Hwi-an, are you really not the Destroyer?

—I’m not, Sunbae-nim.

—You’re really not?

—I said I’m not… huh!?

Sanchez, suspecting Hwi-an of being the Destroyer, attempted to remove his flag, but when it turned out that Hwi-an wasn’t the Destroyer, Sanchez was the one eliminated instead.

Thanks to the other team’s self-destruction, when it was finally the Kairos team’s turn as taggers, the three of them quickly dealt with the remaining survivors.

“Today’s winner of the Three-Way Battle is the Kairos team!”

“Yeaaaaaah!”

“It’s really amazing that we won, even after the Destroyer was revealed first.”

As the cast clapped, the members of Kairos also enjoyed their victory with satisfied expressions.

Just as they were about to wrap up with a joke about how today’s victory was all thanks to the “Destroyer’s outing,” the production team spoke up.

“But, today’s race isn’t over yet.”

“……?”

The production team’s voice took on a serious tone.

“From now on, the Kairos team will be conducting a ‘Find the Destroyer’ mission to determine the final team winner.”

The Kairos members were confused by this.

“Find the Destroyer…?”

“We already found him, though?”

“We’ve already identified the Destroyer…?”

“Wait, is that really the right way to phrase it, ‘found’?”

The cast murmured, looking at the production team.

The main writer, holding her forehead as if she had a headache, while the main PD chuckled with a genial face and spoke.

“Haha, well… What should we do about this…?”

Huh…?

Seeing this, Hajin scratched the back of his neck with a grin.

It seemed that Destroyer Lee Doha had truly destroyed the entire show’s structure.