Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 373

373. Shin Jo-woon’s Disappearance and the Fearful Woo Yeon-woo

“Do you have any idea where he might be?”

[No. I don’t have any connec—]

“Alright. I understand.”

Just as Rembrandt was about to hang up, having gained no significant information, his secretary suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!” as if something had just occurred to her.

Curious, Rembrandt waited on the line without disconnecting, and the secretary quickly continued.

[You might find out if you ask the butler at your boss’s house.]

“The butler? Didn’t you ask him?”

[I did. But when I asked, he said he didn’t know.]

“Then he probably doesn’t know.”

[He usually pretends not to know if he doesn’t want to tell. He knows more about the boss than I do, so he might be pretending not to know.]

Rembrandt, having finally hung up, asked Dae-ju to take him to Shin Jo-woon’s house, which he had visited before.

“Should I wait?”

“No. Go back first.”

The driver Dae-ju had provided asked if he should wait until Rembrandt was finished, but Rembrandt said it was fine and walked alone to the front of the mansion, ringing the bell.

After a short wait, a voice came through the intercom, asking, “Who is it?”

“I’m a friend of Shin Jo-woon.”

As Rembrandt answered, before he could even finish speaking, an exclamation was heard, “Mr. Rembrandt!”

The locking mechanism released, likely because someone had pressed the button inside.

Rembrandt opened the door and entered, spotting the butler hurrying from a room behind the stairs.

The butler approached Rembrandt and, standing right in front of him, exclaimed even louder in a fluster.

“Oh my, so you’ve returned after disappearing! If I had known, our president would have waited a bit longer! Are you feeling alright? Everyone was whispering that you had been kidnapped…”

“I’m not hurt at all. More importantly, where did Myeolchi [Korean word for anchovy, often used as a nickname] go? Tae-ri isn’t answering her phone, and when I called Worldboom’s secretary, she said Myeolchi went somewhere looking for me. But she didn’t know where, and suggested you might know.”

The butler sighed heavily at Rembrandt’s words.

“You don’t know?”

Seeing his dark expression, Rembrandt asked worriedly, but the butler waved his hands, saying, ‘That’s not it.’

“No, it’s not that I don’t know, but…”

“?”

Was it no or yes? Confused, Rembrandt stared at him, and the butler shrugged, looking perplexed.

“It’s true that I don’t know the exact location. But it’s not that I don’t have a place in mind…”

“Where is it?”

“Are you going to go?”

“I have to go since she disappeared while looking for me.”

“Did something happen?”

“Huh?”

“No, it’s nothing. I just asked because you looked unwell when you spoke just now.”

“!”

The butler went into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and brought out a fruit and vegetable juice made with apples and carrots, handing it to him.

“There’s a saint that the president often visited. Hong Moran.”

Rembrandt reluctantly took the juice bottle, asking, “A saint?” And one he visited often?

“She might have gone there.”

“Didn’t you go?”

“I can’t go there.”

“Do you know where she lives?”

The butler nodded and asked if he was going now.

“If you tell me the location, I’ll go right away.”

Rembrandt readily replied, and the butler went into a room, grabbed a car key, and went outside.

The butler went to the garage next to the house, pressed a button, and the garage door opened, revealing a pristine white car.

The butler, holding the car key, walked to it and sat in the driver’s seat, pressing something repeatedly.

‘What is he doing?’

After about three minutes,

The butler took the car out of the garage, got out of the driver’s seat, held the door open, and explained to Rembrandt.

“I’ve put the saint’s address into the navigation system. Just follow it.”

“How did you know I got my license?”

“Who doesn’t know? It was all over the news.”

“!”

“But you mustn’t crash into Hong Moran…”

* * *

Rembrandt gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands, diligently watching the navigation and the road ahead as he drove.

Fortunately, there were hardly any cars around where Hong Moran lived, making it easier to drive.

Then, he entered an alleyway, and strangely, once inside, the already scarce cars became even fewer, disappearing altogether.

Even though the alley was wide enough for two cars to pass side by side, all that was in it were wrecked cars.

‘Why are there so many wrecked cars?’

As he pondered why, Rembrandt wondered if he had taken the wrong turn, so he stopped the car and checked the navigation.

—Knock knock

Then, someone knocked on the window, and Rembrandt turned his head. Standing outside the window was a middle-aged man wearing a cap.

“Yes, I’m Rembrandt.”

Rembrandt lowered the window and smiled, but the man gave him a ‘What nonsense are you talking about?’ look and pointed to the inside of the alley, advising.

“Hey, if you drive in there, your car will break down. This place has been famous as a haunted road since before the Cataclysm [A major destructive event]. It’s better to get out of the car and walk.”

“Can’t I drive through?”

“No, it’s not that you can’t, but if you drive through, you’ll have a car accident here.”

“Ah, if that’s the case, I’m fine.”

Rembrandt smiled and waved his hand as he rolled up the window and moved forward again. The man who had given the advice tilted his head, wondering, ‘Is he really okay? Does he have something to believe in?’

But less than three minutes later, Rembrandt crashed into a broken car, and the man who had given the advice put his hands behind his back and clicked his tongue.

“I knew it. I knew it would happen. The ghost is playing tricks again.”

[It wasn’t me!]

The ghost had a reason to feel wronged. The ghost was actually stuck between Rembrandt’s car and the wrecked car due to the earlier collision.

The ghost protested, hitting the bumper and demanding that Rembrandt move the car.

Rembrandt raised his hand in apology and quickly put the car in reverse, stepping on the accelerator.

At the same time, the car shot backward, and this time, three other ghosts who were watching the situation were smashed into an abandoned building.

The ghosts protested from behind, and Rembrandt apologized again, waving his hand and stepping on the accelerator again.

But then the car swerved strangely again, and the person watching this clicked his tongue worriedly.

“The ghost must be angry. It seems particularly bad this time…”

Almost simultaneously, Rembrandt also clicked his tongue in the car.

‘I wondered why there were so many broken cars. The ghosts must have been causing accidents to every car that entered this alley.’

Still, thanks to the ghosts not attacking Rembrandt’s car after that, Rembrandt managed to drive the car well and get out of the alley.

After driving inside for a long time, the navigation finally displayed ‘Arrival’ and the voice guidance turned off.

But even if the word ‘Arrival’ hadn’t appeared, Rembrandt would have recognized that this was Hong Moran’s house.

Because Shin Jo-woon’s car was parked in front of the red-tiled house’s wall.

* * *

“I don’t know whether to congratulate this or not.”

Jong-woo stared intently at the monitor, while CEO Lim sprawled like seaweed on the sofa, staring at the ceiling, then perked up, saying, “Huh?”

“What is it?”

“I’m looking at the music charts.”

“What are you doing looking at the music charts? We haven’t released any songs right now.”

“Not our kids. Ah, well, they used to be our kids.”

“…Tae-in? Ji Tae-in?”

As Jong-woo muttered bitterly, CEO Lim repeatedly called out the name in an unpleasant tone and jumped up to approach him.

“Did his song come out?”

It seemed that Tae-in had hit LLL Entertainment hard when he left, so he felt upset, concerned, and competitive.

“Is the song good? Are people listening to it a lot?”

“He’s always been good at singing… He was always ambitious and good, but after Yeon-woo got good at singing, he practiced every day to the point where I thought his voice would give out.”

“So are people listening to it a lot?”

Instead of answering, Jong-woo showed him the real-time rankings, the rising figures graph, and people’s reviews.

—LLL escape was well done, much better

—ㅅㅂ [Korean slang] He sings so well, but our Tae-in was buried and couldn’t see the light ㅠㅠ [Korean emoticon for crying]

—No matter how much Woo Yeon-woo is the main, Wae [Why in Korean] was too much. Actually, the vocals are Kesh and Tae-in, but after Yeon-woo became popular, it was like Woo Yeon-woo and the children, the proportion was so off.

—Let’s be more successful and show them!!!

—The leader supports Tae-in! I’m leaving a five-star rating and a screenshot of the music purchase 🙂

CEO Lim’s stomach churned as he skimmed through the reviews, and he became even more irritated when he saw that people from the idol group’s fan club ‘The Leader,’ which Oh Jung-shin belonged to, were supporting Tae-in in the midst of all this.

“Why are these guys coming here to fan the flames?”

“They probably know that Yeon-woo will get angry if Tae-in does well. Take a look at the music video too.”

As Jong-woo played Tae-in’s new song music video on YouTube, CEO Lim crossed his arms and became serious.

“He’s really going all out and pushing him properly. I can smell capital in the music video, the smell of capital [Meaning significant financial investment].”

“He went to a place that takes good care of him…”

As Jong-woo muttered dejectedly, CEO Lim stomped his feet for no reason and went back to the sofa, lying down again.

Jong-woo watched CEO Lim carefully, then quietly went outside and called Jung-seo.

“Hello?”

After a moment, Jung-seo answered the phone, and Jong-woo lowered his voice and asked.

“Tae-in’s song came out and the reaction is amazing. Did you see it?”

[I saw it. The kids are going crazy.]

“Did Yeon-woo see it too?”

[She probably did.]

“Is she okay? Is she not causing trouble?”

[She’s not causing trouble, but…]

Jong-woo was relieved to hear that Yeon-woo wasn’t causing trouble, but he became uneasy when Jung-seo trailed off seriously.

“Is she going to strangle Tae-in this time? No, right? Please tell me it’s not this time. Please, please!”

[She’s not being violent or agitated. She seems to be a little scared of something.]

“Scared? Of Tae-in? Does Tae-in have more recordings? Is he threatening her?”

[No, it’s not that kind of thing. …I think you need to see it for yourself.]

* * *

When Jong-woo said he would come soon, Jung-seo said okay and hung up.

Jung-seo put her phone in her pocket and hesitated for a while before walking to Yeon-woo’s door.

—Knock knock

“Yeon-woo.”

She knocked on the door, and an unintelligible voice came from inside.

‘Is something really wrong?’ Worried, Jung-seo frowned.

At that moment, the road manager, Oh-wan, approached and offered with a smile.

“Jung-seo, I’ll go in.”

“But…”

“It’s okay. I’m good at comforting her.”

Oh-wan said confidently and gestured towards the kitchen.

“I made toast, so eat it.”

Knowing that Oh-wan and Yeon-woo often spent time alone, Jung-seo nodded and walked to the kitchen.

As Jung-seo stepped back, Oh-wan smiled once more and opened the door.

Woo Yeon-woo was crouching near the pillows on the bed, and when Oh-wan came in and closed the door, she widened her eyes in fear.