Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 166

166. Smooth Sailing

‘Surely, he won’t just pick up Shin Jo-woon’s call, right?’ Woo Sung-woo swallowed nervously.

But after about three or four rings, the sound cut off, and the call connected with a click.

Woo Sung-woo’s heart plummeted. His eyes shook with despair.

Conversely, Shin Jo-woon’s lips curled up triumphantly.

“Oh, Piggy.”

* * *

When someone answers a phone call and the other person is being excessively nice, it makes you suspicious.

You start to wonder if they’ve done something wrong, if they’re being nice because they have some ulterior motive, or if they’re about to ask for a favor. Doubts arise.

Rembrary felt exactly like this. Hearing Shin Jo-woon’s unusually pleasant voice on the phone made him inexplicably uneasy.

“Why did you call?”

His voice turned curt.

[Are you busy?]

Despite this, Shin Jo-woon’s voice remained cheerful, but Rembrary replied mercilessly, “I’m recording. I’m busy. Goodbye,” and ended the call.

* * *

Shin Jo-woon, who had been smiling triumphantly, frowned when the call ended before he could say anything.

However, remembering he didn’t have a specific reason for calling, he smiled and showed Woo Sung-woo the ’13 seconds’ displayed on his phone screen.

“He does answer my calls, huh?”

Cursing inwardly at the 13-second call duration, Woo Sung-woo urgently shouted,

“Call my phone now! Quickly!”

He still wasn’t sure what was happening, but he knew it would be good to contact his brother.

His brother had just said he was busy recording. If Shin Jo-woon hung up and he went into a recording booth or something, he might not answer the phone again. So, he urged him to call immediately.

Shin Jo-woon, not intending to use tricks, put his own phone in his pocket and used Woo Sung-woo’s phone to call Woo Yeon-woo. This time, Yeon-woo answered right away.

[Why are these people doing this?]

His grumbling was the same as before.

“Yeon-woo!”

Woo Sung-woo yelled, his voice booming through the speakerphone, intending to shout for help.

“I’m busy. Hang up.”

However, Woo Yeon-woo, as before, hung up again.

‘That bastard, really…!’ Woo Sung-woo’s insides churned, but he pretended to be arrogant towards Shin Jo-woon.

“He answered, right? You said he only needs to answer once out of three times. This one counts as answered.”

Shin Jo-woon, confident that Woo Yeon-woo wouldn’t answer Woo Sung-woo’s calls, stared blankly at the 5 seconds displayed on the phone screen.

Woo Sung-woo swallowed hard. His throat felt prickly for no reason.

That crazy bastard hadn’t said what he would do if he wasn’t close to his brother. He had just asked if they were close and then did this.

But in the first place, no one thinking normally would suddenly kidnap someone to check on that.

Since you don’t know what the other person will do, you can’t help but be nervous.

As Woo Sung-woo stared intently, Shin Jo-woon muttered, “Too bad,” and walked towards the door with Woo Sung-woo’s phone.

‘Where are you going?’ Woo Sung-woo hurriedly raised his head, but Shin Jo-woon was already going up the low steps in front of the door. Then he opened the door and went out.

With the sound of the door closing, the secret room went dark. Woo Sung-woo twisted his bound body with force.

* * *

“Perfect! It’s really perfect!”

In another secret room, someone exclaimed in admiration. The admirer was the composer.

Before the recording, this composer had looked at Rembrary sullenly, but afterward, his opinion changed so much that he gave Rembrary a thumbs up with both hands.

The composer approached Rembrary, who was grabbing his phone, and patted him on the back, exclaiming with conviction,

“You really traded your personality for that voice. That voice is that precious.”

‘Is that a compliment…?’

Rembrary was lukewarm, but the composer seemed to be in a good mood anyway.

Jong-woo was also in a good mood. Jong-woo asked the composer in an excited voice,

“How are our kids’ songs? Do you think the reaction will be good this time?”

The composer gave another thumbs up.

“Oh, it’s the best. WA [Wild Animal, the group’s name] is a performance group, but their songs are also the best. I think the reaction will be good this time too.”

“It has to be more than just good this time. I need to solidify it properly this time to feel relieved.”

The composer laughed heartily and praised them, then quickly added, as if he thought it might have been a slip of the tongue,

“In terms of songs, they wouldn’t be pushed back even if they made a comeback with a big idol. But if they were up against them, they would still be pushed back by the fandom [dedicated fan base].”

Walking to the parking lot after the recording, the Wild Animal members vowed to crush Sea Butter, breathing heavily.

In fact, Sea Butter had just gotten entangled in a bad situation by chance and hadn’t done anything wrong to them. But after things got twisted and tangled, they seemed to feel a sense of competition for no reason.

Since that competitive spirit seemed to bring the members together for the first time in a while, Jong-woo didn’t bother telling them not to do that.

In the midst of all this, Rembrary and Jung-seo were acting as usual.

Especially Rembrary.

Even though the call was cut off immediately, Woo Sung-woo had called three times in a row, and Shin Jo-woon had even called in between, so he was curious if something had happened.

As soon as Rembrary got into the van, he went to the innermost seat and called Woo Sung-woo, who had called three times in a row, first.

Woo Sung-woo answered almost immediately.

[Hello?]

Rembrary fastened his seatbelt and asked,

“Why did you call earlier? Is there something urgent?”

[That was me…]

“?”

[…]

Even though he was the one who called three times and answered right away, Woo Sung-woo suddenly trailed off and became silent.

“Yeon-woo hyung [older brother], speak.”

When Rembrary urged him, Woo Sung-woo simply brushed aside what he was going to say and asked a question instead.

[You. That person you’re on a variety show with. President Shin Jo-woon.]

“Anchovy?”

[Are you close?]

“Sometimes.”

Rembrary answered without much thought and turned his gaze to the window. The scenery moved slowly, and the parking lot flowed backward.

[Don’t hang out with him.]

Woo Sung-woo’s request was absurd.

Rembrary frowned.

“What’s it to you?”

[It’s advice I can give as a brother.]

“Aigoo [expression of annoyance or exasperation].”

[Where did you learn that kind of provocation? Why are you talking like that?]

“I’m hanging up.”

As soon as Rembrary ended the call, Woo Sung-woo called back almost immediately.

Rembrary said as soon as he answered,

“If the thing you were trying to say after calling three times is something childish like ‘Don’t hang out with so-and-so,’ then I have nothing more to say.”

[That person is dangerous.]

Rembrary ended the call again.

Jung-seo, who had been sitting quietly next to him, asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Your brother told me not to hang out with someone?”

From the front seat, Hye-gyeol shouted, “He told you not to hang out with Keshi hyung, right?” and then there was a sound of being hit on the back of the head. Hye-gyeol’s roar and Jong-woo’s shouting followed.

“I guess so.”

Rembrary answered Jung-seo quietly, and then called Shin Jo-woon. Shin Jo-woon answered before the call rang several times.

[Oh, Piggy.]

Rembrary gave a different greeting than when he spoke to Woo Sung-woo.

“Did you fight with my brother?”

[Your tone is…?]

“Did you fight?”

He asked after recalling that Shin Jo-woon and Woo Sung-woo had called in succession, and that Woo Sung-woo had suddenly told him not to hang out with Shin Jo-woon.

Rembrary thought there was no reason for them to fight, but you never know.

Shin Jo-woon answered with a laugh, “No.”

“It doesn’t sound like no.”

[I really didn’t.]

Then there was another laugh, and Shin Jo-woon asked in a sorry tone.

[But I’m a little busy right now. What should I do?]

“Then I’ll hang up.”

Rembrary immediately ended the call.

Then, while rolling his phone in his hand, he leaned his head against the window and pondered.

Woo Sung-woo didn’t explain much. Shin Jo-woon didn’t explain much either. Is it just my imagination that something happened between them?

Besides, Shin Jo-woon’s voice was lower than usual, and Woo Sung-woo was saying too many random things.

Rembrary thought deeply but soon made a decision. Whether they fight or not, it has nothing to do with me.

That was true. Rembrary simply closed his eyes and caught up on his sleep.

* * *

After playing the recorded sound source and focusing on choreography practice, the members filmed the music video on the scheduled date.

The music video faithfully followed the lyrics of the title song, which told the story of a man with a lover who falls for another woman and feels both love and guilt.

The narrator constantly says that he is trash but convinces himself that he can’t create love to be a good person. In a word, it was erratic.

First, a woman narrates, “I love you,” and then asks, “Do you?”

Then, the sound of a heartbeat, barely audible, grows louder, and Rembrary, in charge of the intro, sings passionately, ‘If I follow love, I become a bad person, but if I abandon love, I become a sad person,’ and bursts onto the screen.

The woman who asked Rembrary the question in the narration reaches out to him, and Rembrary takes her hand.

The camera zooms in on the two people holding hands tightly, then moves away again. Then the woman changes to another woman, and Rembrary changes to Jung-seo.

Besides, the expression also changes, and the woman looks at Jung-seo with uneasy eyes, unlike the woman from before, as if asking, ‘Are you going to leave me?’

Jung-seo feels friendship, affection, and compassion for one woman but only feels love for another, and suffers.

Upon hearing this, the woman pushes Jung-seo away and runs, and Jung-seo falls to the floor.

The camera rolls on the floor as if pushed away, and when the screen returns to normal, the person who gets up is Keshi, not Jung-seo.

Keshi walks away, muttering, ‘I only have one life, so I want to live for myself, but you, whom I loved, are also the only one, so I don’t want to hurt you,’ wondering what to do.

Then, with a light step and camera rotation, the woman standing back-to-back with Keshi is the first woman who asked Rembrary, ‘Do you love me?’ again.

The woman smiles at Keshi and turns around, and the person standing face to face with her is Tae-in.

Tae-in confesses his love, saying he has come to have the darkest love, but constantly shows an expression of suffering from self-loathing.

On the other hand, the woman receiving the love confession smiles brightly. Behind her, the first lover is doing the same movements as the second woman in the dark with a shadowy face.

As CEO Im said, emotions were poured out excessively, and the members’ foreheads were constantly wrinkled.

However, the members’ acting skills were generally good, and the two dancers playing the roles of the first and second lovers also handled the dance and emotional processing neatly, so it wasn’t burdensome to watch.

After filming this over two days and taking teaser photos, Jong-woo and the members barely breathed a sigh of relief.

“I was worried because the choreography was overturned. But since the choreography has weakened, it seems like we’re focusing on the story and emotions instead, so that’s good.”

Now, before the showcase, all that’s left is filming , which CEO Im had been eagerly awaiting.