Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 11

11. Should We Have Him Try Acting?

“You told them to quit singing?”

Jongwoo asked sharply, as if he hadn’t known.

“Is it true?”

Cash answered in a subdued voice.

“Yes…”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?! You should have said something! You just listened to that arrogant bastard talk like that?!”

Jongwoo’s voice turned harsh, seemingly because he felt his members were being ignored.

However, Jongwoo had no choice but to shut his mouth at Cash’s next words.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if I told you anyway… and I didn’t want to upset you, so I thought it would be better for us to just deal with it ourselves…”

It was the truth.

That’s right.

He got angry and shouted, ‘You just listened?’, but he had to listen.

It hurt his pride, but that foul-mouthed singer ‘Seonwoo Sil’ that Cash was talking about was on a completely different level in terms of recognition and reputation compared to Wild Animal.

He was a singer with a strong sense of pride, and he had the skills and achievements to back it up.

There were a few stories about his bad personality, but people just accepted those aspects as an artist’s eccentricity.

Even if Cash had told Jongwoo about this, there was nothing Jongwoo could have done.

But because of that, Jongwoo was even more upset and angry, and he shouted.

“It’s okay, now we can compete openly, right? Show them what you’re made of in this song competition! That’s all you have to do! Just crush them!”

Cash hesitated and asked.

“With what?”

Unfortunately, the opponent had everything: skills, recognition, popularity, and achievements, despite his bad personality.

Even the public’s favor.

If they competed head-on, there was a high probability they would be thoroughly defeated.

Jongwoo was flustered and stammered before shouting.

“F-Face! I’ll talk to the CEO and have you guys dolled up to the nines that day, so go out there looking flashy and crush them with your faces!”

That meant Jongwoo acknowledged that they were lacking in everything except their looks.

Cash was dejected.

But unlike them, Rembrary just smiled calmly.

‘What’s the big deal?’

To him, as a high priest, Seonwoo Sil’s provocation was nothing.

Even if Seonwoo Sil said the same thing in front of him, Rembrary was confident he could easily brush it off.

* * *

That week, Wild Animal performed on three music programs, and the 64 hearts on the title song of the largest music site increased to a whopping 503.

It wasn’t much compared to other idols, but Wild Animal’s nickname was Nuclear Submarine.

The agency staff were happy for now.

“Wow, our kids are superstars!”

“If we keep going like this, they’re destined for stardom!”

“If we keep going like this, we’ll get into the top 100, then the top 50, and then even number one, right?”

The Wild Animal members were the youngest in the agency, and LLL Entertainment only had one idol group.

Since everyone else was a senior actor, they were genuinely happy for them without any competition or jealousy.

And the following Monday.

The pre-meeting day for ‘Sing Survival’ arrived.

The meeting time was 3 PM, but Rembrary and Cash were already waiting in front of the meeting place at 11 AM, as Jongwoo had urged them.

In the car, Jongwoo had them look at the schedule again and review the newly updated list of participants.

“You have to greet the other participants when you go in. Got it?”

“Do I have to greet people I don’t know?”

“Yeah. Greet everyone you meet. Excessive greetings are never a problem. But if you don’t greet someone even once after greeting them a hundred times, it becomes a problem. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Jongwoo was more nervous than they were, constantly rubbing his palms on his pants.

He occasionally glanced at Rembrary with a strange look.

It was a completely different look than when he looked at Cash.

At first, he wondered why he was doing that, but Rembrary soon realized why.

He was worried about running into that person named Seonwoo Sil.

He had gotten angry and huffed along a few days ago, but he must have realized after time passed that fighting together would be a big problem.

Rembrary smiled and reassured him.

“I have no reason to fight with that person named Seonwoo Sil, so don’t worry.”

Cash looked at Rembrary with a ‘Really?’ expression.

Rembrary nodded calmly.

“It’s good to have smooth relationships. I’m thinking of greeting him first and trying to get along.”

It was quite a magnanimous tone, but Cash muttered with a dubious expression.

“It might be better to just quietly ignore him than to talk to him in that tone…”

Jongwoo seemed to think the same, nodding his head, then pondered for a moment before cautiously calling out to Rembrary.

“Speaking of which, Yeonwoo.”

“What is it?”

“I didn’t want to stress you out since you lost your memories, so I just left you alone. But I was thinking it might be better to use a normal tone on the show. No, please use a normal tone.”

CEO Im, who had given up on managing Yeonwoo’s image, didn’t point this out.

Previously, he hadn’t pointed it out because he had lost his memories, so he had left him alone.

He was afraid of what would happen to the kid if he forced him to change his tone.

But the reason he hadn’t said anything even with the program coming up was because he had given up on managing Yeonwoo’s image.

If his tone was like that, there would be talk among the viewers, but at least it would create buzz.

But Jongwoo had been watching the members more closely than CEO Im, so he wanted to give them at least some advice.

“The leader already told him, but he said he didn’t want to,” Cash said from the side.

Rembrary also wore an unwilling expression.

“Your tone is too frivolous.”

Jongwoo pleaded with Rembrary with a desperate expression.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for making you use a frivolous tone, but, uh, Yeonwoo. Viewers are very sensitive to tone.”

“…”

“If you don’t use honorifics, you’re going to hear all sorts of things. Of course, all in a bad way.”

“…”

“If you mess up on your own, it might be your own responsibility, but with your tone, the members and the agency might get criticized too.”

When Jongwoo went this far, Rembrary had no choice but to agree.

“I’m not used to it, but I’ll try.”

The High Priest had to maintain a dignity befitting his position as God’s representative.

If this were his original body, Rembrary would never have accepted Jongwoo’s request.

But now, Rembrary’s own body was not the body of the High Priest.

Although the divine power was still there, no one thought of him as the High Priest.

Even if he didn’t speak like the High Priest, it didn’t seem like the dignity of the Redrin God would be diminished.

“Is this how I should talk?”

“Ugh.”

However, when Rembrary actually spoke in a friendly and affectionate manner, Jongwoo got goosebumps and rubbed his arms.

At first, he was horrified when he heard that king-like tone.

But he had gotten used to that tone from listening to it.

“Use honorifics, use honorifics.”

“Do I have to?”

“It looks more polite that way.”

Rembrary sighed and promised.

“I will when the camera is rolling.”

That alone was a relief.

Jongwoo nodded and checked the time.

1:30 PM.

It was time to go in early.

He nagged Cash and Rembrary once more and opened the car door.

* * *

Rembrary smiled calmly as he entered the building.

His words that he had no intention of fighting with his senior, Seonwoo Sil, were sincere.

He didn’t want to cause unnecessary problems.

Even if they picked a fight with him over his singing, he could just let it go in one ear. What good would fighting do?

With a magnanimous attitude befitting a High Priest, Rembrary even looked up Seonwoo Sil’s photos on the internet.

He was planning to greet him first in a friendly manner.

If the other person didn’t like it, he could keep his distance afterward, and if the other person accepted him well, he could improve the atmosphere.

Even though he had arrived two hours early, many people had already arrived.

But most of them seemed to be staff, and Seonwoo Sil was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, Kim Murok PD [Production Director] was seen talking to someone.

Rembrary had 미리 [in advance] checked the photos of the cast and PD in advance, so he could immediately recognize Kim Murok PD.

Rembrary thought about whether he should go and greet Kim Murok PD, as Jongwoo had advised earlier.

However, Jongwoo said, “You guys stay here,” and quickly ran towards him alone.

Since he told them to stay here, they had to stay here.

Rembrary stood in place and picked up his phone, and Cash also started playing a game on his phone.

As they were doing that, they heard the sound of someone opening the door and coming in.

Rembrary glanced at the entrance.

A stranger was coming in.

A face that wasn’t in the participant photos Rembrary had looked up.

Rembrary lowered his head again.

As he continued to search for information about Seonwoo Sil on his phone, he felt a tingling sensation on the top of his head.

As if dumbfounded.

“Are you blatantly ignoring me?”

He also heard a muttering sound.

It seemed like he was talking to them.

Rembrary took his eyes off his phone and raised his head.

Indeed. The person who had come in earlier was approaching them and saying that.

The person who had come right up to him sneered at Rembrary.

“You’re still so rude?”

“Who… are you?”

Rembrary recalled Jongwoo’s request and barely changed the tone he was about to use, which was ‘Who are you’.

The person in front of him raised his eyebrows.

“Who? Are you trying to joke around with me right now?”

Did he know ‘Woo Yeonwoo’?

As he was feeling bewildered, Cash finally said in a flustered tone.

“Hey, it’s Seonwoo Sil, senior!”

His voice was strangely loud, but Rembrary couldn’t ask ‘Why did your voice suddenly get so loud’.

He was very surprised by Cash’s words.

‘Seonwoo Sil?’

Rembrary checked the phone he was holding.

Seonwoo Sil’s pictorial he had been looking at was on the phone screen.

Rembrary looked at the person in front of him again.

‘He’s completely different from the pictorial?’

Rembrary’s eyes widened, not knowing that there was such a thing as editing.

To him, it was very perplexing that the person in the pictorial, whose face and even bone structure were different, was the same person as the person in front of him.

Of course, he didn’t say this out loud.

But with just Rembrary’s nod and gestures, Seonwoo Sil understood what Rembrary was trying to say and his face turned red.

“Did this bastard really ruin his manners along with his album…!”

“Are you really Seonwoo Sil, senior?”

Rembrary’s cautious question completely exploded Seonwoo Sil.

“This bastard-!”

It was Seonwoo Sil’s manager who stopped him from shouting anything more.

Seonwoo Sil pointed his finger at Rembrary, and Rembrary raised his eyebrows.

Since he didn’t know about editing, Rembrary couldn’t understand why Seonwoo Sil was so embarrassed.

As he was doing that, he heard applause.

When he looked, Kim Murok PD, wearing black sunglasses, was clapping.

Next to him stood Jongwoo with a face that looked like he was about to cry.