Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut!

Chapter 260. It’s the Daily Life Part. Probably. (3)

I was blown away.

“Ninth place on HOT100 and eighty-first on TOP100…?”

Are you kidding me?

Honestly, I had expected good results, but this was just too overwhelming.

The red triangle (▲) below the song title showed no signs of disappearing.

If this were a stock, I would be Warren Buffet right now.

“Why? Why is it doing so well?”

I clutched my phone with both hands as if it were a sacred object, kneeling down to ponder the reason for this inexplicable surge.

Then, Lee Yugeon, who was in the kitchen making snacks with his glasses turned upside down and hanging on the back of his head, looked at me with a bewildered expression.

“How can *you* be curious about that? You said you’d burn your hand if this song didn’t flop.”

“Well, I knew it would do well. After all, it’s a school rock band concept with an uplifting easy-listening anthem. But still… No matter how much I expected it, having such an immediate response like this makes me kind of nervous, you know?”

“I really don’t get what kind of person you are.”

“I only thought we’d barely make it into the TOP100. But looking at the trend, we might even go higher. People just keep listening to our song. It’s insane. What is this? What’s happening?”

As I kept searching for the reason behind the better-than-expected results, a thought suddenly struck me. I dropped my phone and covered my mouth with both hands.

“Am I actually a musical genius…?”

“…So that’s what you were building up to.”

Lee Yugeon, who had been listening seriously, shook his head in regret and, with a plate of snacks, went back to his room.

Still in a complex mix of emotions over these crazy results, I hurriedly opened the system to check the public’s response.

‘Let’s start with the fan reactions since they scare me the most.’

Harang @dohajin_luv

Oh, what the heck tlqkf

Isn’t this the same school uniform universe from

the Over the Night MV? This is nuts.

(Screenshot from Over the Night MV’s last ‘Reality’ scene in the classroom)

(Screenshot from the Not a Carol MV classroom)

[The kids in this MV’s universe]

It looks like it’s connected to Saegim High’s self-produced content.

They even wrote the positions we decided on the blackboard lololol

Siwoo – Student Council President (has to represent the school with his face)

Hajin – Class President, Club Leader (the actual leader)

Doha – Student (just a random student, you need at least one of those)

Taehyun – Vice President (secret power behind the throne)

Yugeon – Dance Leader, Domestic Affairs Leader, Cleaning Leader (he volunteered because he doesn’t trust the other members)

Eunchan – Assistant Cleaning Leader, Height Leader (just grow up healthy, our youngest)

Haru – Mental Care Leader for the Older Brothers, Eating Leader (just grow up healthy, our youngest 22)

(Screenshot from the Not a Carol MV’s blackboard)

– How is Kairos raising Dan Haru and Joo Eunchan?

– Oh my god, this is still absurd even on a rewatch. Why is everyone a leader lololololol

└ Doha being the only student is hilarious lolololol

└ Our Doha is in charge of ‘not being in charge of anything.’

– It’s so funny that Jeongsu ran away from power, only to end up being President because of his face ㅠㅠㅜㅜㅠㅠㅠㅠ

└ lololololololololololol

– The high school rock band concept for the kids is just insane… Ah, I keep listening to the song every day.

Kang Hadi @kang_HD

Hajin the Nerd Class President vs. Band’s Lead Vocal Oppa

This actually happened, this is official.

Hajin, you crazy bastard.

(GIF of Hajin reading a book from Saegim High’s self-produced content)

(GIF of Hajin holding a microphone and grinning from the Not a Carol MV)

Shared 1,351 times, 1,099 hearts

‘As expected, there’s more talk about the MV than the song itself.’

It seemed like the high school band concept that Kairos had deliberately created was a success.

Seeing Destis being satisfied by picking apart every frame of the three-minute music video actually made me feel prouder.

I scrolled through the system with my eyes to find reactions from non-fans.

– The lyrics are freaking hilarious lolololololololol

– Why the hell are they holding hands on someone else’s birthday << This part is so real. You can feel the genuine anger.

└ I burst out laughing when I read the comment that the member who wrote the lyrics goes to church lmao

– I’m part of the school broadcasting club, and when I played this song during lunchtime, everyone choked on their food lololol

– Who’s the one with black hair? He sings really well, and he’s super handsome.

└ Half of the guys in the video have black hair, dumbass.

└ I’m talking about the one singing with black hair in a school uniform.

└ They’re all like that, are you serious…?

– This has become my go-to background music at the café lately lolol. It gives off a great end-of-year vibe.

“It’s actually better than I thought…?”

Again, I knew this song would do well.

After Lee Doha made this song, his special ability, Melody (SS), bloomed to a whopping 50%. Considering his previous level was 34%, it was a remarkable improvement.

So, given that he composed the song in such an awakened state, there was no doubt about its quality.

‘The kids seemed to enjoy it and sang more enthusiastically… Anyway, I was confident in the final product.’

I manipulated the system to bring up the calendar.

Once *Touch High!* aired and we started our music show promotions, we’d have at least two more opportunities to rise in the rankings.

“I wonder how high we can go…. To be honest, part of the plan was to aim for a reverse trend during the year-end season in December rather than now….”

Let’s not get too excited just yet.

The fact that we had broken into the TOP100 just three months after debuting was already a satisfying achievement.

Calming myself down, I closed the system window.

And a few days later.

Our first public broadcast schedule, the main point of our initial rise, *Touch High!*, finally aired.

* * *

Late at night.

After closing the café, Café Owner A barely managed to sink his tired body onto the living room sofa.

With movements full of fatigue and reluctance, A removed the earphones he had been wearing and took out his phone from his pocket, stopping the playback of *Not a Carol*, which he had been listening to as his after-work song, and opened the delivery app.

He was hungry, but he didn’t have the energy to cook dinner.

“Is there anything to watch….”

With the jjimdak he had ordered for a late-night snack spread out on the table, A accessed the OTT platform on his tablet, browsing through various shows. He had finished all the dramas, and there was nothing to watch in the movie section.

“Maybe I’ll watch *Touch High!* for the first time in a while.”

Drifting aimlessly into the variety show section, A found a variety show he used to regularly watch on TV.

“Oh. But…”

As A was about to click on the latest episode, his hand paused.

Since the show had no fixed format and the content varied greatly with each episode depending on the chemistry between the guests and panelists, the show’s entertainment value could fluctuate significantly.

A’s gaze naturally shifted to the episode description. There, he found a familiar name written.

*Touch High! Episode 320 – Idol Three-Way Battle (三巴戰)*

*▶Today’s hottest male idols! Kairos, Wintertail, and Stormheader are here. Which team will clear all the missions and take home the title of the best male idol group?*

*▶A disruptor appears to sabotage the team’s victory and monopolize the prizes… See more*

“…Kairos?”

Kairos was the idol group that had sung the after-work song he had just been listening to.

Of course, he had only listened to the song diligently and hadn’t yet learned all the members’ names, but…

Since their voices were now a part of his daily routine, A felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Moreover, he could at least recognize their faces if they were from Kairos. He had been captivated by the subtle warmth of the music video, so he would watch it every time it popped up on his I-Tube timeline.

In the end, without much hesitation, A decided to watch that episode as his dinner companion.

“Wow, Sanchez has aged a lot… These days, I really can’t tell the idols apart.”

A chuckled to himself while listening to the opening talk, but his chopsticks soon stopped moving.

The members of Kairos were now slowly walking down the long red carpet with their even longer legs.

The eyebrow-scratched boy who had left the deepest impression on A was fully captured on screen, his well-styled comma hair and dark gray long coat fluttering behind him. While A had thought he looked youthful in his school uniform, seeing him dressed up like this made him realize, ‘An idol is still an idol.’

Then, a brief VCR introducing Kairos played. Their styling as idols, rather than students in the MV, gave off a completely different vibe.

“They

’re seriously handsome….”

As A looked at the name tag that read ‘Kang Hajin,’ he absentmindedly thought, ‘He looks like a puppy.’ Unaware that he was going through a phase of denial about becoming a fan, A keenly observed Hajin’s cool and cynical atmosphere.

In the music video, he seemed cheerful and playful, but perhaps in private, he was a more calm and reserved type…

-Oh, you’re the son-in-law!

“Huh?”

The eyebrow-scratched boy’s cold and cynical demeanor was gone, and on the screen, Hajin was bowing deeply alongside two other members.

When one of the panelists, irritated by the absurdity, snapped at him, Hajin replied nonchalantly, “Destiny’s family is all my family, and my father too,” which was different from the personality A had imagined based on his appearance.

Not that A disliked it, but it was quite funny because it was such an unexpected side of him.

-I’m only seventeen years old, senior!

-What?

-But if you’re Destiny, noona is fine!

-Not with me!

Even disregarding the goodwill built from *Not a Carol*, the members of Kairos were quite amusing. The banter with the regular panelists was entertaining, and their timing for jokes and retreating was on point. Although the camera caught all three guest groups equally, Kairos undoubtedly made the most impactful impression.

A, who had planned to watch only while eating, found himself still engrossed in *Touch High!* even after finishing his meal.

The eyebrow-scratched boy seemed to be a better dancer than A had expected. Since there weren’t any dancing scenes in the music video, he hadn’t realized it, but watching him quickly pick up the other groups’ dances in the opening was impressive even to someone like A who wasn’t familiar with dance.

Before he knew it, A had pulled out his phone and was searching for ‘Kairos Kang Hajin’ on the internet portal.

-Now, let’s hear from Kairos for the last time! How about a performance of your new song?

Sanchez’s comment made A stop reading Hajin’s Namuwiki entry and focus back on the show.

Would they perform *Not a Carol* live?

These days, many artists excelled in their recordings but struggled with live performances, so A hoped they would do well…

-Oh. We’re not going to do that.

-What?

“Huh…?”

When the tall young man with the name tag ‘Doha’ said that, A, like the other panelists, reacted with surprise. With such an unpredictable comment and flow, A blinked in confusion.

‘Is this just a joke?’ he wondered, but the Kairos members really didn’t seem to have any intention of performing their song.

“No way…? Are they really not going to sing?”

The other groups had performed, so why not them?

Feeling somewhat disappointed, A absentmindedly tapped his can of beer.

Then, Hajin appeared on the screen, flashing that familiar mischievous smile and wrinkling his nose playfully.

-We’d like you, seniors, to keep wondering about us.

-What?

-We hope you’ll be so curious that you can’t stand it. That when you go home after filming, you’ll find yourselves looking up our performances.

-This kid’s not normal….

Then, with another sly wink at the panelists, Hajin really did seem like a bit of a maniac.

Maybe, a lunatic with clear eyes? Something like that.

The important thing was that this maniac’s antics were working perfectly on A.

“Ha, damn… He’s cute, isn’t he…?”

A picked up his phone again.

This time, he opened I-Tube and searched for ‘Kairos MV.’

They hadn’t debuted long ago, so there weren’t many official videos yet.

Or so it seemed.

“What? Why is there so much?”

While there weren’t many official MVs, there were countless cover songs, self-produced content, and edited music show performances, not to mention legendary pre-debut stages from the Maze of Miro and fan cams of their guest performance at the Utopia concert.

Kairos’ accumulated work was displayed in all its glory.

‘I’m curious about how they perform on stage.’

Putting *Touch High!* on pause, A clicked on the most viewed video, as if hypnotized. And instinctively, he knew.

After this video ended, he would be endlessly swept away by the wave of other videos.

And A wasn’t the only one who dove into that wave of Kairos’s algorithm that night.