Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 165

165. Don’t Answer

“Shea Butter? Are you talking about the group with the synchronized choreography?”

“Yeah, them.”

“Can I ask why?”

“Because I’m angry.”

Further explanation was unnecessary. When CEO Lim gestured for him to leave, Jong-woo left the office with a queasy feeling.

He immediately set about finding their schedule as ordered. Finding an idol’s schedule wasn’t that difficult. Companies often released schedules for fans, and even if they didn’t, it was easy to find out through industry connections.

Three hours later, Jong-woo printed out Shea Butter’s schedule for the next two months and brought it to CEO Lim.

“Here it is. Nothing special. It might be updated later, but this is what’s confirmed for now.”

CEO Lim took the schedule printed on A4 paper and stared intently. As Jong-woo said, there was nothing to worry about except that their album release date was a few days earlier than Wild Animal’s.

However, there was something to nitpick. CEO Lim pointed to one spot, saying, “Here.”

“Where?” Jong-woo craned his neck to look.

“Is this the one you said you didn’t like, CEO?”

The schedule CEO Lim pointed to was for a song competition show. It was a competition program called , where vocalists and rappers switched positions to form teams and compete, with the winning teams competing against each other every six months or a year, up to two more times.

Due to the nature of the program, which required many participants, Rembrary had also received an offer to appear early on, but CEO Lim immediately refused, saying there was no point in Rembrary going out and rapping.

It was also because the offer came when CEO Lim had decided to create a mysterious image for Rembrary. But the mystery image was long gone after the two-timing scandal.

“Let’s get our Beak-Joong—no, Wild Animal—to appear on the day Shea Butter is on.”

CEO Lim’s true feelings briefly slipped out before he quickly corrected himself.

“Are you serious?” When Jong-woo stared intently, CEO Lim cleared his throat and gave instructions again.

“Ask the PD [Production Director] there if they’re interested in having Yeon-woo appear, and if they say yes, find a good date and book it.”

“I think they’ll accept the offer. But they probably won’t let us decide who he’s teamed up with…”

“No matter who he’s teamed up with, he’ll sweep them all away. It’s okay. Just book the schedule.”

“Yes.”

“And bring our Beak-Joong here.”

* * *

“Beak-Joong.”

Rembrary was in a serious situation. Someone had left a comment on social media that pierced through his carefully constructed identity.

—Light Yeon-woo. An angel of this world whom God loves the most. His very existence is light.

Rembrary’s heart was pounding. As expected, even if he wore a different shell, his majestic essence was revealed. He left a heart on the comment from the believer and was wondering what to reply when….

“Hey, Beak-Joong.”

Jong-woo interrupted this joyful moment.

“Are you talking to me? You can’t be calling me that.”

When Rembrary turned around with a sulky look, Jong-woo answered firmly, “You,” and pointed to the door with his chin.

“The CEO wants to see you.”

Kesh giggled next to him.

“Hyung [older brother/male friend] Jong-woo, you sound like a class president saying, ‘The teacher wants to see you.’”

Jong-woo ignored Kesh’s words and urged Rembrary.

“Hurry.”

Annoyed, Rembrary put his phone in his pocket and left the practice room. When he arrived at the CEO’s office, CEO Lim was waiting for him by the window.

“Did you call for me?”

“Yeon-woo!”

He greeted him so warmly that Rembrary was a little taken aback. Usually, CEO Lim looked at Rembrary with a complicated expression, wondering, ‘What should I do with you?’ But today, he acted like he had met an ally who had brought reinforcements.

“Why? What’s going on?”

When Rembrary approached, CEO Lim told him to sit across from him and asked.

“Yeon-woo, would you like to go on a singing show one more time?”

“No.”

“Go.”

CEO Lim changed his tone and explained about the program and the competition format, then said casually, “Just go out and sing once. You’re not appearing continuously, so go out as if you’re going on a picnic and sweep—no, film it.”

CEO Lim seemed a little excited while talking, so Rembrary stared at him with narrowed eyes. It was unusual for CEO Lim, not Jong-woo, to be talking about appearing on a show, and it was also unusual for him not to warn him not to cause trouble while talking about appearing on the show. It was suspicious.

“Why don’t you just tell me honestly?”

When Rembrary sharply saw through his true feelings, CEO Lim flinched. Was it that obvious that he was suggesting the appearance with a different intention than usual?

“What’s going on?”

When Rembrary repeatedly asked, CEO Lim had no choice but to tell the truth.

“I apologized, but it’s unfair. Aren’t you guys upset? We’re the ones who had our choreography stolen, but we’re the ones who got the hate. Even if Hye-gyeol played with her fingers, it wasn’t as bad as leaking the choreography.”

Rembrary nodded. Even after CEO Lim apologized on his behalf, Hye-gyeol clutched her head and groaned in anger. She didn’t actually have a fever, but she seemed very upset.

“Shea Butter is also going on that show to promote their new song.”

“What is that?”

“The team whose choreography overlapped with ours. Not all of them, but their rapper is coming out.”

CEO Lim, even exhaling, lowered his voice as if plotting an insidious scheme and instructed.

“I’ll send you on the same day. Go and take all the spotlight. It’s what you’re best at, right? Getting attention. After the broadcast, make them forget they even appeared. Can you do it?”

Rembrary smiled gently and leaned back comfortably on the sofa.

“It’s an easy task.”

* * *

The PD of immediately gave the OK when he heard that Woo Yeon-woo wanted to appear.

The date could also be set for the same day as Shea Butter, and since they were making a comeback around the same time, the PD didn’t find it strange.

However, the choreography had to be completely redone from the beginning. Moreover, the new choreography wasn’t as impactful as the previous one, which made Hye-gyeol feel dejected.

Rembrary, who couldn’t keep up with the previous choreography, also didn’t like the changed choreography. Overall, the difficulty had decreased, but while the previous choreography had many scenes where Rembrary subtly stepped back, the new choreography had almost none of those parts.

In the midst of that vague situation, time passed, and finally, the day of recording arrived.

Since they had set the time and date in advance, the members woke up a little earlier than usual and traveled by car.

However, to concentrate as much as possible on the recording, they wore almost no makeup, and their clothes were neat but comfortable.

“The choreography was weaker than expected, so we need to focus more on the song.”

Jong-woo repeatedly nagged in the car. Hye-gyeol, who was still feeling down about the choreography leak, answered sulkily.

“Okay, hyung.”

“Should we eat a raw egg each before recording?”

“Ah, then my throat will feel too fishy.”

While they were talking, the car arrived at the studio. While Sagam-jae was parking the car, Jong-woo took care of the members and went up to the reserved recording room. The composer had already arrived in the recording room.

After Wild Animal sang the song together in front of the composer one more time and checked the necessary parts, they entered the booth one by one to start recording.

Meanwhile, Tae-in went in alone to sing his part, and Rembrary was sitting on a chair in the master room, waiting.

The phone, which had been set to silent mode, vibrated loudly. The composer, thinking it was a nuisance, gave Rembrary an annoyed look without saying a word.

Rembrary quickly took out his phone. The caller was Woo Sung-woo.

‘He’s never helpful.’

Rembrary judged that it wasn’t a call he needed to answer right away, so he rejected the call and then changed the mode so that it wouldn’t even vibrate and put it back in his pocket.

* * *

The word ‘Connecting’ disappeared, and the home screen appeared automatically. The person holding the phone sighed in a small voice.

“Oh, he’s not answering.”

The person who muttered put the phone down on the shelf next to him and turned his gaze forward.

In front of him, a chair was placed alone, and Woo Sung-woo was sitting on it.

However, Woo Sung-woo was not sitting normally. A thick rope was tightly binding his body to the chair.

Moreover, there were traces of scratches and bruises all over his once-intact face, and one of his shoes was lying around, having been taken off.

Woo Sung-woo shook his body violently and looked at the person standing in front of him.

“What the hell are you doing?”

But unlike the question, Woo Sung-woo knew who the person standing in front of him was—his name, and what he did.

That’s why he couldn’t believe it. The person Woo Sung-woo knew was someone who didn’t need to do this kind of thing.

Woo Sung-woo spat the saliva that had collected in his mouth on the floor and glared at the person.

The person, the one who had just tried to make a call using his phone, smiled and asked.

“So you’re really not close?”

The person was Shin Jo-woon.

“What does it matter to you whether I’m close to my brother or not?”

Woo Sung-woo was dumbfounded. Shin Jo-woon, as Woo Sung-woo knew him, was the president of an entertainment agency with a slightly known face and name.

Right now, he was appearing on a variety show with his younger brother and was gaining quite a bit of popularity with his gentle image.

Personally, Woo Sung-woo himself had no particular grudge against that man, or even a shallow relationship.

But suddenly, he was waiting and then kidnapped him, took his phone to check if he was close to his brother, and was doing this.

He had a hard time understanding what was going on.

“I asked you before, didn’t I? If you were close to your brother.”

Shin Jo-woon, who kindly answered again, picked up the phone placed on the shelf again.

Woo Sung-woo let out a hollow laugh. The other person had answered the question, but the answer was not helpful in understanding the situation.

“Did my brother borrow money from you?”

Instead of answering, Shin Jo-woon opened the phone’s keypad, entered Woo Yeon-woo’s phone number, and showed the screen to Woo Sung-woo without pressing the call button.

“Can you see it?”

“……”

“Maybe he can’t answer the phone because something came up. I’ll call two more times. If he doesn’t answer both times, then you’re really not close.”

Shin Jo-woon, who arbitrarily set the standard, kindly pressed the call button with the speaker mode on. The signal tone continued for a long time, but Woo Yeon-woo did not answer the phone this time either.

“There’s one left.”

Shin Jo-woon, shaking his head, pressed Woo Yeon-woo’s phone number once again. And the moment he was about to make a call.

Woo Sung-woo, thinking that he had to avoid the crisis for now, shouted, “Wait!”

Shin Jo-woon’s finger, which was about to press the call button, stopped just barely.

When Shin Jo-woon looked over, Woo Sung-woo pretended to be calm and suggested.

“If he’s too busy to answer the phone right now, what’s the point of calling him repeatedly? Call him with your phone too. If he doesn’t answer your phone either, then he’s too busy to answer right now. Call him again in a few hours. That’s fair.”

Shin Jo-woon readily put Woo Sung-woo’s phone down on the shelf and took out his own phone and pressed the speed dial.

Woo Sung-woo swallowed hard, listening to the dial tone.