Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 17

17. The Number of Believers Increased

The next morning, Rembrary yawned and stepped outside, only to stop in surprise.

Keshi was squatting on the sofa, blankly staring at her phone.

The dark circles under her eyes suggested she hadn’t slept a wink.

“Keshi? Are you alright?”

Concerned, Rembrary approached her. Keshi only moved her eyes to look at Rembrary.

Then, surprised, she asked,

“Are *you* alright?”

Rembrary blinked blankly.

“I’m fine, why?”

“How can you be fine? How can you possibly be fine?”

“Huh?”

*What’s wrong with her?*

Rembrary, feeling bewildered, took a half step back.

Keshi asked again, genuinely not understanding.

“Did you even sleep?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Aren’t you worried about people’s reactions?”

Keshi grabbed her hair and started pulling at it, then kicked her phone.

Of course, since it was on the sofa, the phone only slid back a little.

“It was my first solo stage. And people are talking about it. I’m going crazy wondering what people are saying about me. Aren’t you? Am I weird? Am I being weird?”

Frankly speaking, she did seem a bit strange at the moment.

Rembrary smiled and said casually,

“What’s the point of worrying? It won’t change anything.”

“Easy for you to say…”

Keshi sighed and picked up her phone again.

Watching Keshi stare at her phone in the same pose as before, Rembrary scratched his forehead awkwardly.

*She’s really sensitive,* he thought.

However, this reaction wasn’t limited to Keshi.

Jongwoo, who came to pick up the members in the morning, was in a similar state.

Moreover, he looked at Rembrary and asked, even more dumbfounded,

“You slept well? You actually slept?”

Even while driving to the company, Jongwoo and Keshi were glued to their phones, frowning.

*This world is fiercely competitive.*

That state continued throughout the day.

Even during group dance practice and vocal practice, Jongwoo, who would normally scold or encourage them, only stared at his phone.

Then, he would occasionally peek and record something.

The next day was the same.

It wasn’t until it was time to return to the dorm that Jongwoo put down his phone, clenched his fist, and smiled.

“Yes!”

*Did something happen?*

Rembrary, who had been to the bathroom, stared at him, and Jongwoo quickly ran to Rembrary.

Then, he showed him the phone he had been looking at.

The phone displayed colorful lines.

“What is this?”

“A graph provided by one of the top three music sites in Korea.”

“…What?”

“It shows music sales and streaming numbers in 24-hour, weekly, and monthly increments. See this line here?”

“It says Keshi’s name?”

“Yeah. It’s the music from the musical version of the song Keshi sang on ‘Sing Survival’ [a fictional music competition show]. See it going up here?”

“Yes. It’s slowly rising.”

Rembrary followed Jongwoo’s finger with his eyes and soon realized.

He had heard about music sales from Jungseo.

He had also heard that it was good if it sold a lot and people listened to it a lot.

That the graph was going up like that meant…

“Keshi did well in this competition.”

As Rembrary said with a smile, Jongwoo looked at Rembrary as if he found it strange.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

The reason Jongwoo was looking at Rembrary was because Rembrary didn’t seem envious at all of Keshi’s good results, even though they were members but also rivals.

*Did he lose his ambition because he lost his memory?*

Jongwoo wondered, then quickly swiped the phone screen to the side.

“It’s not just this. See this?”

The next screen was a YouTube screen.

Rembrary recognized that the screen showed his stage performance.

Even in the paused scene, Woo Yeonwoo’s face was visible, and there was writing underneath.

‘Sing Survival 1st Round – Woo Yeonwoo’ and below it, the number of views…

“That’s quite high.”

Rembrary’s eyes widened.

The number was quite large at a glance.

“It’s not just the number that’s high. The reaction is good too.”

When Jongwoo swiped the screen up to show the comments, Rembrary saw a bunch of foreign languages he couldn’t understand at all.

There was also some Korean in between, praising his skills. Although there were insults about his personality before and after.

As Rembrary looked at Jongwoo, Jongwoo quickly swiped the screen up again, as if he hadn’t intended to show the insults, and smiled.

“Keshi’s music is doing well. Your YouTube views are incredibly high. I was worried it might just be a flash in the pan, but it’s continuing to pick up speed.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s not just ‘is that so.’ You’re the highest out of twenty people, you rascal!”

Jongwoo was genuinely happy, laughing heartily and patting Rembrary’s back.

He then did the same to Keshi, who had gone outside and come back.

Unlike Rembrary, Keshi showed the reaction Jongwoo had expected, jumping around, and the two of them jumped around together for a while, happy.

Other members also got caught up in the excitement and talked about the future.

It was a bright atmosphere for the first time in a while.

“I’ll let you eat three chicken breasts each today!”

That was until Jongwoo said this as a reward.

* * *

After the time of praising each other ended.

It was when they were cleaning up to go back.

Jongwoo, who had gone to see CEO Lim and come back, called Rembrary and asked.

“Yeonwoo, do you remember anything about your family?”

The members, who were squatting in front of the large mirror, all looked at Rembrary.

Rembrary shook his head.

“No. Why do you ask?”

“Really? Not even a little bit?”

“Not at all. Why?”

As Rembrary asked repeatedly, he tilted his head and said.

“I told your parents about your memory problem the day after their health checkup, you know? And that there was nothing wrong with your body.”

“Ah. That not-alike…”

Rembrary recalled the photo CEO Lim had shown him and nodded.

“But why are those people…?”

“They live in America because of work…”

“But why?”

“When I told them about you, your mother said she would call you directly.”

“Didn’t come.”

Rembrary, who had learned to make and receive calls from Jungseo, answered confidently.

“Are you sure?”

Jongwoo frowned and asked.

“She just called and said she’s been calling you several times for days, but you haven’t been answering?”

“?”

“She said you’ve been ignoring her texts too.”

“Me?”

As Rembrary looked genuinely clueless, Jongwoo raised his eyebrows and asked.

“Can I see your phone?”

Rembrary obediently handed over his phone.

Jongwoo picked up the phone and pressed here and there, then soon

“Ah.”

He made a sound.

“They’re all blocked. No wonder.”

“What is that?”

“A function that ignores calls or texts from other people, that is, it makes you ignore them.”

“Ah.”

Rembrary nodded, then frowned.

Thinking about it, something was strange.

Rembrary didn’t even know such a function existed.

Of course, he had never blocked Woo Yeonwoo’s parents.

But why were his parents blocked on Woo Yeonwoo’s phone?

As if thinking the same thing, Jongwoo asked hesitantly.

“Did you fight with your parents?”

Realizing that Rembrary had no memory, he tilted his head and asked the members.

“Yeonwoo, did you fight with your parents?”

The members, who had been listening to the conversation, all shook their heads.

“We haven’t heard anything about that.”

“Hyung [older brother/male friend], aren’t you on good terms with your parents?”

“He’s been the same as always.”

“He talks about his parents just fine.”

Jongwoo tilted his head.

As far as he knew, Woo Yeonwoo was on good terms with his family.

But family matters were sensitive, so he didn’t pry further.

Maybe he had fought with his parents before losing his memory and hadn’t told the members about it.

“Anyway, Yeonwoo. Your mother said she’ll be arriving around Saturday evening. Meet your mother, eat something delicious, and reassure her so she doesn’t worry, okay? And then come back.”

Woo Yeonwoo’s real family is coming?

Rembrary answered slowly, feeling uneasy for no reason.

“…Understood.”

He didn’t deliberately take over this body, but it was someone else’s body anyway.

Rembrary didn’t know what had happened to the real Woo Yeonwoo when he entered this body.

If there had been an accident, he would have thought he had entered the body of a dead person.

Before entering this body, Woo Yeonwoo had definitely been looking in the mirror.

In the meantime, he had entered this body, so it was difficult to even guess what had happened to the original Woo Yeonwoo.

But now, this body’s real mother was coming.

He hadn’t done it on purpose, but he felt like he had stolen someone else’s son’s body, so he felt a bit awkward.

Watching Rembrary’s expression closely, Jongwoo added.

“Just in case, wear a mask. And sunglasses too.”

“She’s coming in the evening. You want me to wear sunglasses?”

“Yeah.”

He couldn’t just avoid it because it was uncomfortable.

That person was coming down because something had happened to her child.

Yeonwoo sighed and answered that he understood.

“But is it just your mother who’s coming? What about your father?”

“CEO Lim said that your father was also hospitalized around the time you lost your memory.”

“?”

“That’s why he couldn’t come right away… Listen to the details directly. That’s all they told us.”

* * *

Keshi slept soundly that night, but Rembrary couldn’t sleep properly, thinking about the ‘real Woo Yeonwoo.’

Before, he had been so focused on ‘Why did I end up like this’ that he hadn’t thought about it properly.

Now, he finally thought about the real Woo Yeonwoo.

Rembrary himself had been trying to stop the summoning of the Demon King when he was bounced over here.

Then what about Woo Yeonwoo?

Did he bounce over there when he bounced in?

Or did he die of a heart attack in the meantime?

Since he couldn’t know the answer, worrying only made his head heavier.

Finally, on Friday morning.

This time, Rembrary woke up with a haggard look.

“Why do you look like that?”

Taein, who saw Rembrary, laughed and teased him.

However, Rembrary’s divine power, while Rembrary was washing his face and hair, automatically exerted its divine power to relieve the fatigue in his body.

Taein’s eyes widened at the different appearance when he went into the bathroom and when he came out, but Rembrary changed his clothes in a half-dazed state.

Today was the day of the music show, so he had to stop by the shop [hair and makeup salon], so he didn’t apply the sunscreen that he had started using at Jungseo’s insistence.

Rembrary, who had finished his makeup and hair at the shop, now entered the broadcasting station’s waiting room quite familiarly, and came down after finishing the stage without any problems.

He felt that the cheers were a bit louder than usual, but he didn’t pay much attention.

However, when he came out the back door to return after finishing the stage.

Rembrary realized that he wasn’t mistaken in feeling that the cheers were loud.

A group of women were standing behind the broadcasting station, holding signs with his name on them, and the number was definitely larger than when he had first seen them.

‘Are these my new believers!’