Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 152

< 152. Holy War >

Throughout the cake cutting and gift receiving, Jungseo remained expressionless as usual, occasionally offering a faint smile. However, everyone in the room could tell that the leader’s condition was still not good.

[Pig.]

[Pig?]

[Answer me.]

[Woo Yeonwoo.]

[Yes?]

[Your friend liked?]

[Dried anchovies.]

[? Are you talking to me?]

[Yeah.]

[Do you dislike it? Hate it?]

[Braised anchovies.]

[Do you hate it that much?]

[How would you feel if I wore a mascot costume and danced in front of you?]

[It would be funny. You can’t dance.]

[Skinny, braised anchovies.]

***

The next day, Rembrary didn’t immediately get out of bed after waking up. Instead, he stealthily observed Jungseo’s expression across from him.

‘Is he okay?’

Perhaps it was because he had a good night’s sleep. Thankfully, he seemed no different from usual today.

“Jungseo.”

“You’re awake?”

“Are you alright?”

“Ah. Yeah.”

“Did something happen yesterday?”

“Just a little.”

However, still not wanting to talk about what happened yesterday, Jungseo got up and left the room.

Rembrary decided not to ask further for now. Pressing him when he didn’t want to talk could annoy him.

With Jungseo keeping his mouth shut, the matter faded away. Moreover, two days later, the composers sent over the requested songs, and everyone involved with Wild Animal became rapidly busy.

“Overall, how are the songs?”

“They’re not as high quality as the songs we were going to release for the summer special album, but they’re decent.”

“Decent isn’t good enough. We need to make a big splash right now!”

“Should we commission more?”

“Yeah. Ask them to send any songs they’ve written and kept on hand. Focus on songs they can send within three or four days.”

“Yes.”

How they knew, even some rookie composers who hadn’t been commissioned sent in several new songs, saying they ‘would fit Wild Animal’s image,’ so this time there were many songs to review.

Moreover, the idea-gathering session for the last album had a good response, so this time again, the members were forcibly stuck in the conference room, listening to the preliminary songs.

About two-thirds of the songs had guide vocals, but about one-third were versions without guide vocals.

Rembrary, also stuck in the conference room, was half dazed from listening to a series of very loud dance songs.

“Pick five songs from here. Five songs.”

“Before dating, dating, cheating while dating, a song about breaking up, and a song about regretting the breakup. Five songs like that.”

After listening to about 16 songs in a row.

“Question.”

Rembrary finally couldn’t hold back and raised his hand.

“What is it?”

The staff all looked at Rembrary at the same time.

‘Please don’t say anything useless.’

Most of them were thinking that.

“I don’t understand the difference between ‘before dating’ and ‘cheating while dating’ when expressing it in a song.”

“What? How can you not know the difference?”

“From another perspective, isn’t this the same as ‘before dating’?”

“……Wow. You’re a natural bad guy.”

“He interprets it like that.”

“How about putting that in?”

After a brief commotion, the staff and members each offered their opinions, and there was a brief debate over the center position [the member who stands in the middle during performances].

Usually, the visual member, Yeonwoo, took the center, but there was concern that if Rembrary, who was already the focus of attention, took the solo center again, it would create too much of a ‘Woo Yeonwoo group’ image.

“But if we mess up, even Yeonwoo could be buried.”

“Still, to extend the group’s lifespan, we need to push the other members too.”

“No, but if we disperse it, the whole group could be buried!”

“I know. I know, but to save the whole group, we need to promote the other members too!”

“Can’t we switch the center for the first and second verses, or divide the chorus into two parts and switch the center?”

“It might be good if Yeonwoo takes the first verse as the lead vocalist and strengthens the performance, giving the center to Hyegyeol.”

‘I don’t understand what they’re saying.’

Rembrary quietly listened to the conversation, chewing on the straw of his empty coffee cup. The straw still had a faint coffee scent.

Then, Rembrary glanced sideways. Not intentionally trying to look, but really without any thought.

Jungseo was sitting next to him.

It was the first time Rembrary had looked at Jungseo since the meeting started. In places with so many people, there’s less reason to look at the person sitting next to you.

‘Oh, no.’

Rembrary regretted it as soon as he saw Jungseo. He should have looked sooner.

Jungseo was staring down at the paper he had received with a stiff expression.

He definitely wasn’t concentrating on it. Jungseo’s gaze was fixed on the second chapter’s table of contents and didn’t move.

Eventually, after the meeting ended.

“Jungseo.”

Rembrary stopped Jungseo, who was the last to get up from his seat.

“Let’s talk.”

Jongwoo, who was gathering the members to leave, flinched and turned back, stepping back.

“Are you going to fight?”

His gaze was suspiciously fixed on Rembrary.

“No.”

Rembrary answered firmly and lightly patted Jungseo’s shoulder.

“Jungseo. Are you really okay?”

“Of course,” Jungseo answered casually, but Rembrary didn’t believe it.

If Jungseo couldn’t concentrate on the meeting, something really bad must have happened.

“What happened?”

Kesh, who they thought had left, also came back into the conference room and asked. Not Jungseo, but Jongwoo.

Rembrary also changed his target to Jongwoo when Jungseo didn’t open his mouth.

“Huh?”

“Hyung [older brother or male friend], you went with Jungseo.”

When Kesh spoke unusually clearly, Jongwoo made an “Uh-huh” sound and avoided eye contact.

“Tell me. If it’s a problem that can be solved by being serious alone, I’ll leave it alone. But if it’s not, it’s better to talk and get it off your chest, wouldn’t you say?”

“What’s wrong, Woo Yeonwoo. Why are you talking differently than usual?”

“Quiet, Kesh.”

Not only Kesh but also Jongwoo seemed shocked when Rembrary spoke so maturely.

Jongwoo hesitated, then finally sighed, “Ugh!” and pulled out the chair next to him to sit down.

“Jungseo. Let’s just talk.”

Jungseo seemed to hesitate for a moment, closing his mouth and tapping the table a few times with his finger, but eventually nodded.

As soon as Jungseo gave permission, Jongwoo blurted it out as if he had been waiting.

“One of the lead actors is someone who had a role stolen by an idol-turned-actor in the past.”

Before he could finish speaking, Hyegyeol shouted, “Oh!”

“The estimate is right there, isn’t it?”

“Hoo.”

Jongwoo nodded.

“That estimate is probably right. That lead actor really hates idol-turned-actors because of that incident. And he’s taking it out on Jungseo.”

“How dare they!”

Rembrary jumped up as soon as Jongwoo finished speaking.

“How dare they touch my disciple!”

Jongwoo was dumbfounded and raised his eyebrows, saying, “What?”

“Disciple?”

“It’s a holy war!”

When Rembrary repeatedly shouted, Jongwoo finally panicked and got up, pressing down on Rembrary’s shoulders.

“Hey! No! It’s not a holy war! Sit down!”

He looked genuinely scared that Rembrary might cause an accident. But it wasn’t enough to calm Rembrary’s anger.

It would have been better if he had his holy knights with him!! Rembrary thumped his knee with his fist.

He should have accepted the disciples who were confident in fighting, even if Jongwoo tried to stop him, and appointed them as holy knights.

Then, to those who were tormenting Jungseo, he would immediately

“The spear of God-”

Rembrary’s last words, which slipped out unintentionally, couldn’t continue because Jongwoo covered his mouth.

“Hey, you’re scary when you do that! Don’t do it!”

Seeing that, Jungseo burst into real laughter for the first time in days.

Not a smile forced by moving muscles because he was worried about the members, but a truly bursting laughter.

Rembrary was a little relieved at the sight, but still felt unpleasant. How dare they touch his disciple.

He was a gentle high priest who showed mercy even to those who were not disciples, but he was also a trustworthy high priest who naturally sided with his disciples when they fought against heretics.

“Jungseo.”

“It’s really okay. It’s just that it’s the first time I’ve seen someone so openly unpleasant. I’ll get used to it if I see it again.”

“Can I follow you to the script reading?”

Before Jungseo could answer, Jongwoo widened his eyes.

“What did you say……?”

***

Jongwoo was initially horrified and jumped at the idea of Rembrary following Jungseo.

In the end, however, he changed his mind and allowed it.

He was afraid that Rembrary would cause an accident, but this was Jungseo’s first movie.

The first acting performance exposed to the public was important in many ways.

It was the first impression that could show the public, who dislike idols acting, ‘He’s not bad at acting.’

Even if his acting skills improve dramatically later, if the first impression is, ‘They sprinkled another idol on the already cooked rice [added an unnecessary element],’ it becomes 150 times more difficult to recover the image afterward.

In addition, the evaluation of the first work would greatly affect Jungseo’s own confidence afterward.

Considering these things, it seemed better to take Rembrary with him than to let Jungseo be harassed by the lead actor alone. Just a little bit more.

Anyway, Rembrary was the closest to Jungseo in the group.

He was confident against anyone, so Rembrary was someone Jungseo could rely on.

“……Yeonwoo.”

“Trust me.”

“You have to be confident enough to be a source of strength for Jungseo.”

“I understand.”

“You shouldn’t go so far as to make Jungseo even angrier because you’re pissed off.”

“Of course, of course! Trust me.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Aren’t you taking me because you trust me?”

While Jongwoo, who was pushed back by Rembrary’s words, was silent for a moment.

Jungseo finished his makeup, came down from the long chair, and approached.

Today, Rembrary had no separate schedule, so he only applied sunscreen.

Jongwoo took Sajamjae, Jungseo, and Yeonwoo, got in the car, and headed to the script reading location.

Finally, they arrived at the script reading location.

Jongwoo told Sajamjae to keep a close eye on Yeonwoo just in case, and then went up to the 3rd floor together.

The room closest to the elevator on the 3rd floor was the place where they would do the script reading today.

The elevator door opened with a ding.

Jungseo got off first with a stiff face, and Rembrary got off last with a gentle smile.

It had a roughly similar structure to the script reading, so even though it was his first time there, he immediately knew where to go.

The group entered the room with the cast list posted on the door.

“Hello. Hello. Hello.”

As soon as they entered the room, Jongwoo took Jungseo and greeted the actors who had arrived earlier, and at the same time, he pushed Sajamjae and Rembrary, who were standing blankly, to greet them as well.

Rembrary, pushed to greet, kept rolling his eyes to see who was the person tormenting Jungseo.

However, it seemed that the actor had not yet arrived.

First, the group sat down.

About 30 minutes passed, and finally, the lead actor, who was presumed to have tormented Jungseo, appeared.

Rembrary was sitting behind Jungseo, so he couldn’t see Jungseo’s expression, but he immediately recognized that the person who had just entered was the one who had tormented Jungseo.

Because that person was kindly greeting other people, but as soon as he looked at Jungseo, he immediately wore a nasty-looking smile.

“Oh, did you even bring a friend? Did I say something harsh? Oh, kids these days have really soft mentalities.”

Jongwoo wanted to shout ‘Launch!’ to Yeonwoo, even though he knew he shouldn’t.

The person who would be swept away as soon as he got into a fight with Yeonwoo’s mouth was so arrogant…… At that moment.

Rembrary’s mouth opened.