Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 37

37. I Tried to Express a Realism Devil

“Hye-gyeol bullied someone when she was a student?”

Rembrary asked, startled.

Hye-gyeol, hearing Jong-woo’s words, remained silent, her face pale.

Then, she burst out, shouting, “Absolutely not!”

“Of course not! I was so careful with my actions, worried about getting caught up in rumors! It’s really not true, okay?”

Jung-seo and Rembrary waited silently for Hye-gyeol to end the call.

Finally, after hanging up, Hye-gyeol trembled and huffed.

“Are you alright?”

Rembrary asked worriedly, but Hye-gyeol shook her head.

“No. I’m just pissed because I don’t know what’s going on.”

Jung-seo asked more coldly than Rembrary.

“Are you really sure you don’t know what’s going on?”

Hye-gyeol frowned and glared at Jung-seo.

“Are you saying I’m really a perpetrator of school violence?”

“I’m asking because we need to be sure.”

“No! Do I look like someone who would do that?!”

“To others, even Keshi seems cute and kind. It’s just that among ourselves, she’s quick to throw a punch.”

“…I really didn’t.”

Hye-gyeol said firmly, then cursed softly and shook her head.

“Who is it, really?”

“Let’s find out who wrote what first.”

Jung-seo said calmly and sat down on the sofa with her phone. Hye-gyeol and Rembrary also picked up their phones, but Hye-gyeol’s mind was elsewhere, and Rembrary wasn’t familiar enough with the internet to find the post properly.

In the end, Jung-seo found the post and read it aloud.

“– I know that if I write something like this now, many people won’t believe it. They’ll think, why didn’t you say something sooner? Or that I’m only saying this now that Wild Animal is starting to get known, just to sabotage them. Yeah, that’s right. I’m so twisted with envy that I can’t stand to see Yoo Hye-gyeol succeed. When he was a nobody, it wouldn’t have mattered if I said something, but now that Woo Yeon-woo is taking the fall [taking the blame or responsibility] and making Wild Animal famous, and Yoo Hye-gyeol is riding on his coattails, pretending to be all kind and innocent, it makes me sick. Honestly, everyone from Woongin Middle School knows Yoo Hye-gyeol. He used to hang out with the bullies, extort money from the weaker kids, make them run errands, always steal their gym uniforms, and suck up to anyone who was stronger or had a reputation. He was the lowest of the low. Hey, Yoo Hye-gyeol. I can’t stand to see you succeed. Do you remember pushing me down the stairs during summer vacation and breaking my leg? I still limp around, but you’re on TV, dancing happily?”

The post, written in long, unbroken lines, clearly showed the writer’s agitation.

Jung-seo glanced at Hye-gyeol and asked again.

“This is what they’re saying.”

Hye-gyeol muttered softly,

“Ah, you son of a bitch.”

“Do you know who it is?”

Jung-seo asked in an even colder voice.

Hye-gyeol seemed to hesitate for a moment, then said firmly,

“I know who wrote it, but I didn’t do any of that.”

She stood up from the sofa.

“I wasn’t a bully, no, rather, there were a lot of kids who hated me just because I was a child model, and I got teased a lot for being short. I never hung out with the popular kids. No, I barely had any friends.”

Hye-gyeol said resolutely and went straight into the bedroom, slamming the door shut.

Watching her retreating figure, Jung-seo clicked her tongue.

“Is she okay?”

Rembrary asked awkwardly.

He didn’t know what a bully was, but it definitely didn’t sound good.

Jung-seo sighed.

“I don’t know. Whether it’s true or not, these kinds of rumors are dangerous.”

* * *

The next day, Jong-woo’s expression, who came to take the members, was terrifying.

He had a terrifying expression when Rembrary made a mistake, but this was on a different level.

To compare, it was a slightly worse expression than when Keshi was caught flirting.

“Hye-gyeol. It’s not true, is it?”

Jong-woo asked Hye-gyeol firmly as soon as he arrived.

“Yeon-woo makes mistakes because he lost his memory, and Keshi dating is really annoying as a manager, but dating itself isn’t a crime. But if this is true, what you did is a crime. You know that, right?”

Hye-gyeol, with a tearful expression, shouted,

“Ah, I didn’t!”

Seeing her wronged face, Jong-woo sighed and patted Hye-gyeol’s shoulder.

“I don’t think you’re the kind of person who would do that either. But I need to know the truth to respond to it.”

As a result, the atmosphere was gloomy all the way to the agency.

Following Jong-woo, CEO Lim also called Hye-gyeol and asked if it was true, and Hye-gyeol once again vehemently denied it.

“I hope it’s not true. Please.”

CEO Lim said with a tearful expression, confirming it once more.

“Then, is it okay to take a strong stance? We’ll announce that it’s not true first, and then if it doesn’t resolve on its own, we’ll announce that we’ll sue for spreading false information. We’ll really sue too. Is that okay?”

“That…”

CEO Lim narrowed his eyes as Hye-gyeol hesitated.

Hye-gyeol hesitated, then said, “It’s okay.”

The meeting for Wild Animal’s new album started darkly from the beginning.

The staff who gathered to choose the lyrics were watching Hye-gyeol’s reaction, and Tae-in had an openly sulky face.

“Alright, alright. Let’s pick the lyrics first.”

CEO Lim asked brightly, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere.

“Okay. Our members, did you write the lyrics?”

The staff couldn’t remain gloomy when the highest-ranking CEO Lim was trying so hard to be cheerful.

The staff also made a fuss, asking to see them, and the members also reacted excessively shyly, handing over the lyrics they had written.

“Please make some copies.”

Soon after, the staff brought enough copies of the lyrics for everyone in the meeting room, and CEO Lim, Jong-woo, the staff, and the members reviewed the four sets of lyrics in turn.

For a long time, the room was silent, with only the sound of flipping pages.

Rembrary also quickly skimmed through the lyrics written by the members, flipping the pages back.

‘They’re all bad.’

Unfortunately, everything, including what he wrote, seemed strange to Rembrary.

‘But the perspective of people in this world might be different from mine.’

“Wow, this is good?”

As expected. A staff member admired Tae-in’s lyrics, which Rembrary had skipped over in three seconds.

“It feels like I’m going to cry. It would be really good if sung well.”

However, the rebuttal followed immediately.

“It’s well-written, but it’s far from the concept of a devil disguised as an angel. It’s just someone missing a former lover.”

“But it’s well-written.”

“Even if it’s well-written, it doesn’t fit the concept.”

“Isn’t Keshi’s also good? It’s cute.”

“Ah, please think about the concept…”

“There could be a cute devil.”

“Then we’d use it when the concept is a cute devil. If it’s a devil disguised as an angel, the base is a scam, so how could it be cute?”

Once the conversation started, everyone became sharp and began to express their opinions.

The lyrics written by the members were praised here but mercilessly torn apart elsewhere.

Then, when it came to the lyrics written by Rembrary.

For the first time, the staff members spoke in one voice.

“I find this a bit scary.”

“I think I’ve heard this kind of sound in exorcist movies. It’s the sound of a snake crawling.”

“Yeon-woo, why did you put in the ‘shhshhshhshsheeeee’ sound?”

“I feel like I wouldn’t be able to go to the bathroom at night if I heard this.”

Rembrary answered blankly.

“Isn’t the concept the whisper of the devil? So I wrote down what the devil would say.”

“You don’t actually commit murder just because you’re playing the role of a murderer. The lyrics are too scary right now…”

As Rembrary tilted his head, CEO Lim clicked his tongue.

“That’s enough. Yeon-woo still has inaccurate memories, so he doesn’t have those moral standards.”

Rembrary raised his eyebrows.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have moral standards, but that he wrote it excluding morality because it was originally the whisper of the devil.

But he felt bad because they were pushing him like that.

“I wrote it scary because you told me to write it scary, but I’m sad that everyone is saying that.”

“You hypocrite, you saint with a knife in your mouth, may your family be cursed for three generations, your descendants will laugh while chewing the dirt of your grave, and those descendants will spit on your grave and laugh… No, did he write this while possessed by a real devil? What’s with the content?”

“Is it strange?”

“It’s creepy. Besides, if you sing this as it is, it’ll be completely banned from broadcasting, Yeon-woo.”

“What is ‘banned from broadcasting’?”

“Broadcasting is for kids to watch, so we adjust the level of content. Not too cruel or explicit.”

“Ah.”

Rembrary nodded.

After that, they exchanged opinions for a long time, but in the end, they couldn’t come up with a suitable answer, and the meeting ended.

CEO Lim said, taking the lyrics written by the members.

“I’ll have the staff vote on who wrote which lyrics without revealing the names. We’ll go with the lyrics that get the most votes. That’s the best way.”

* * *

After the meeting, dance practice for the next competition began immediately.

However, only Keshi and Rembrary went to dance practice, and today, Tae-in and Hye-gyeol went to vocal training, and Jung-seo went to acting class.

Rembrary recalled yesterday’s dance class and went down to the practice room listlessly.

‘Do I have to do that embarrassing dance again?’

But when he arrived at the practice room, there was a woman he had never seen before.

She was wearing comfortable training clothes, and her forehead was wet with sweat as if she had been dancing until just now. She was standing face to face with the dance teacher, talking, as if they knew each other.

As Rembrary approached awkwardly, the dance teacher asked, “You’re here?” and quickly introduced the woman to Rembrary.

“This is Yoo Ri-hye, who will be working with you in the second half.”

Second half? Work together?

Come to think of it, the dance teacher told him yesterday to dance the last 30 seconds of the sexy dance with a female dancer.

Is this the person he’s going to dance that part with?

Rembrary looked at Yoo Ri-hye in confusion.

But Rembrary was the only one confused. Yoo Ri-hye calmly offered a handshake.

“Hello. I’m a fan.”

“Hello.”

As Rembrary greeted her absentmindedly, Yoo Ri-hye complimented him, saying he was more handsome in person, and then immediately demanded.

“I only have about two hours, so let’s get started right away.”

It seemed like there was no choice.

“Let’s practice the part where you’re working with Yoo Ri-hye first. Let’s practice the first part later after Yoo Ri-hye leaves.”

The dance teacher said that and immediately played the pre-cut music from the back.

The music started at a strange point.

“I briefly choreographed it with Eoseong earlier, so watch.”

Yoo Ri-hye told Rembrary to watch carefully and immediately began to dance with the dance teacher.

No wonder her forehead was wet with sweat; she had been choreographing the dance.

Rembrary blankly watched the dance teacher and Yoo Ri-hye dancing.

The dance teacher was dancing alone, and Yoo Ri-hye quickly approached.

Yoo Ri-hye grabbed the dance teacher’s neck as if to embrace it, and the dance teacher turned around, catching Yoo Ri-hye as she leaned back as if she was about to fall.

After that, while Yoo Ri-hye danced alone like a nimble swallow, the dance teacher made confident and sexy expressions, sometimes touching Yoo Ri-hye’s hand as if to brush against it.

Then, almost right before the end of the dance.

As Yoo Ri-hye bent one leg and raised it, leaning her back, the dance teacher supported Yoo Ri-hye’s waist with one hand and extended the other hand towards the air.

At the same time, the music stopped with a ‘bam!’ [onomatopoeia for a sudden stop].

Even after the music stopped, with one more movement, Yoo Ri-hye fell into the dance teacher’s arms.

Whether this was the last movement, the dance teacher, after catching his breath for about 2 seconds, let go of Yoo Ri-hye and asked Rembrary.

“How is it?”

“It’s lewd!”