Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 18

18. Smooth Sailing

Before Jongwoo could say anything, Rembrary approached the women with a bright smile.

The women were surprised and thrilled that Rembrary was coming directly to them, and they fidgeted excitedly.

“Wow, it’s Woo Yeonwoo! What do I do!”

“He’s right in front of us!”

Wild Animal wasn’t popular enough to have *sasaeng* fans yet [obsessive fans who stalk or invade the privacy of celebrities].

Naturally, everyone gathered here were ordinary fans.

They were overjoyed and didn’t know what to do when their favorite celebrity came to them with a smile, even though it wasn’t a fan meeting.

Conversely, Rembrary was used to dealing with his followers, so he naturally addressed his most dedicated fan.

“You were here before, too. You come often.”

In his experience, fans are touched when you remember their faces.

It was a question he asked knowing this thoroughly, and the effect was the same this time.

“*Oppa*, do you remember me?” [A Korean term used by younger women to address older male friends or idols]

“Aren’t you my number one follower?”

Another woman next to her raised her hand and stepped forward.

“*Oppa*, do you remember me?”

“Didn’t you say you bought our music from the very beginning of our debut?”

The fan who said she had bought the music from the beginning of their debut screamed softly and shouted.

“I bought four more with my family’s IDs!”

Not to be outdone, another fan next to her shouted.

“*Oppa*, I bought the music you sang, ‘Don Don Don Don,’ this time too!”

“I even fought with the haters!”

“I was the 223rd heart!”

“OMG, I pressed it second! For ‘Don Don Don Don’!”

“I’m promoting *oppa* hard to the kids in my class!”

As they began to boast about their achievements, Rembrary smiled contentedly.

What truly righteous followers.

Looking at their proactive attitude, they seemed to have plenty of qualities to be holy knights.

“Well done. Gather more followers. Let’s grow our power.”

The women, who completely accepted Rembrary’s words as a concept, giggled again.

He took pictures with them because they wanted to, and he shook hands with them because they asked him to.

But as he shook hands, he noticed one of them looked fine on the outside but wasn’t in good physical condition.

He couldn’t know exactly what was wrong.

But it was clear that she had some kind of ailment.

Rembrary subtly sent divine power to only that one person.

Since it wasn’t an external wound, the effect of the divine power wasn’t immediately visible, so the fan who received the divine power was just happy to have held hands with Rembrary, unaware of the miracle that had happened to her.

Rembrary returned to the car only after shaking hands with all of them once.

Jongwoo, who was in the car, was dumbfounded and asked.

“I’ll get used to it later, but usually, people are shy when fans flock to them for the first time. How are you so calm?”

When he heard that, Keshi was hugging a large teddy bear.

“What’s that doll?”

When Rembrary saw the doll, Jongwoo explained.

“Keshi’s baby fan gave it to her.”

“Baby fan?”

Hyegeol chuckled and added.

“She came with her mom and gave it to her. About seven or eight years old? She told her to take care of it for her.”

“Ah.”

Rembrary nodded and looked at Keshi.

It was amazing to see the member who was brusque and grumpy to the other members hugging a large doll that a fan had given her and being so happy.

As he glanced at Keshi, Jongwoo instructed.

“Yeonwoo, and Keshi too.”

“Why are you doing this.”

“Why, *hyung*?” [Korean term for older brother, used by males]

“Next time, when individual fans come, talk about the group too. Say who you’re close to among the other members, do it like that.”

“Okay. I got it.”

“You got it.”

“Don’t you want to get paid? The group has to be successful. The song has to be a hit so we can go on tour-”

Jongwoo was about to nag more, but the phone rang.

He held out his palm to signal ‘wait a moment’ and answered the phone.

“Yes, this is Wild Animal’s manager, Lee Jongwoo. ···Yes. ······Yes, yes. Ah, ah······ Ah, of course. Yes. Yes, yes. Wow! That sounds good. Yes. Yes. Yes, then regarding the schedule, later. Yes. Yes.”

Jongwoo hung up the phone and said with a grin.

“Yeonwoo, they want to do a photoshoot.”

Rembrary recalled the photographer who had told him to take off his clothes without warning before.

“Are you talking about that thing that went into the coffin before?”

“That time, we took it for portfolio purposes. This time, it’s going to be published in a magazine.”

Jongwoo wrote down the contents of the call on his phone and then sent the same content to CEO Lim via text message, saying.

“They said they want to do the concept as ‘Evil Me and Good Me’? We don’t have any brands to advertise, so there won’t be any problems. Ah, and your new song concept. I haven’t told you yet, have I? CEO Lim personally decided on it?”

Jongwoo put down his phone and looked around at the members, then paused.

The members were in an awkward atmosphere because Rembrary was taking a photoshoot alone again.

But Jongwoo pretended not to notice the atmosphere and said brightly.

“An angel disguised as a devil! How is it? Isn’t it cool?”

Fortunately, most of the members were quick-witted enough to hide their envy.

Taeein’s expression wasn’t good, but the other members smiled and added that it would be fun.

They were actually happy because there was talk of whether they could release another album.

However, the one with the darkest expression in all of this was not Taeein, but Rembrary.

Jongwoo talked about the new concept for a while, then raised his eyebrows.

“Yeonwoo? What’s wrong?”

The members’ gazes also turned to Rembrary.

Rembrary asked honestly.

“Do we have to go with that concept?”

“You don’t like it?”

“······I’m not thrilled.”

Jongwoo looked at Rembrary with a sullen expression.

“Which part?”

“The devil part.”

Jongwoo made a dumbfounded expression.

The members also had faces that said, ‘What’s wrong with him?’

Instead of explaining further, Rembrary smiled weakly and waved his hand.

“No, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

It’s not like he’s really becoming a devil, he’s just pretending.

If he made such a request to him, the high priest, other priests would get angry first, but this wasn’t the case here.

Whatever he was feeling inside, he was an idol named Woo Yeonwoo now.

He didn’t like it, but he had no choice but to adapt appropriately.

* * *

Rembrary, who went out early on Saturday morning and finished his schedule by noon, stayed at the agency until the evening, waiting for Woo Yeonwoo’s mother to contact him.

The other members had returned to the dorm first, so Rembrary was the only one left in the group.

As he was looking around the agency, his phone rang.

When he tapped the phone screen, the word ‘Mom’ appeared.

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother was calling.

“Hello?”

Suppressing his complicated feelings, he answered the phone, and then,

“Son!”

A huge voice was heard.

Rembrary awkwardly opened and closed his mouth, then remembered Jongwoo’s words.

‘Woo Yeonwoo was said to have a good relationship with his parents.’

He hasn’t been able to meet them often because he’s been abroad.

He told him not to use the tone of a king to his parents and to treat them as friendly as possible.

That way, he wouldn’t regret it even if his memories came back.

“······Yes, Mother.”

When Rembrary hesitated and answered, a loud laughter was heard from the other side of the phone.

[Why are you suddenly calling me Mother?]

“······”

[I’m in front of your company right now.]

When Rembrary went outside the company, he saw a woman standing near the front gate.

As Rembrary approached, the person hugged Rembrary before he could say anything.

“Yeonwoo!”

‘This is Woo Yeonwoo’s real mother.’

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother hugged Rembrary and rejoiced, then was surprised when Rembrary acted awkwardly, and soon burst into tears.

After doing that in front of the gate for 30 minutes, Rembrary went to a nearby restaurant with Woo Yeonwoo’s mother.

It was a restaurant that Jongwoo had booked in advance for Rembrary, who had lost his memory.

It was a restaurant where they could go into a separate room, so Rembrary and Woo Yeonwoo’s mother had a more comfortable conversation inside.

“I heard the story, but really······ you have no memories at all?”

“Unfortunately, that’s right.”

“······”

“I’m sorry.”

When Woo Yeonwoo’s mother shed tears, Rembrary was flustered and handed her the hand towel that was in front of him.

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother said

“It’s real.”

And laughed while crying.

“Do you remember your father and brother?”

“I have a brother?”

“You don’t remember anything at all?”

“I don’t remember anything.”

“Okay.”

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother grabbed Rembrary’s hand on the table and comforted him.

“There’s nothing wrong with your body, so it’ll come back slowly. Don’t be anxious. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Even though the food came, Woo Yeonwoo’s mother only took care of her son.

Her attitude of barely eating herself and constantly taking care of him made Rembrary more uncomfortable than grateful.

Around the time they had almost finished eating.

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother opened her mouth heavily.

“And······ I kept wondering whether I should tell you this or not.”

Her attitude was different from when she was comforting Rembrary earlier.

Her expression was even darker.

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother hesitated for a long time, as she said.

“Right now, your father is hospitalized.”

That part was what he had heard from Jongwoo.

But the following content was unexpected.

“He was involved in a shooting accident.”

“A gun, like that, bang and you fall over···?”

Rembrary recalled a scene from the movie Hyegeol was watching and asked.

He remembered it clearly because he had been treated like an idiot for asking, “What kind of magic is this?” thinking it was a magical weapon.

He said that there were no magical weapons here, but there was something called a gun that could attack people far away.

But he said that it was rare for ordinary people to get shot in Korea.

What on earth happened······

Rembrary, who didn’t know that America was a different country, was surprised and asked.

“How did he get involved?”

“I don’t know. The culprit suddenly shot and ran away.”

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother’s voice trembled as she thought about it, as if she was sad again.

“The culprit hasn’t been caught yet. The police are asking if there’s any grudge, but what grudge would an ordinary office worker have to get shot for.”

“Ah······”

“After the surgery, I was wondering whether to tell you or not, but this time, your CEO called and said you lost your memory······”

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother burst into tears again, as if she had been through a lot of mental hardship.

Rembrary reached out and grabbed Woo Yeonwoo’s mother’s hand and pushed in a little divine power.

As he pushed in a little more than usual, Woo Yeonwoo’s mother gradually stopped crying as she felt a little more comfortable.

“Oh dear, what am I doing, you must be having a hard time too.”

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother smiled and wiped away her tears.

Rembrary smiled along, but he felt strange.

How can a father and son be like this at almost the same time?

“Perhaps, could my father’s shooting accident and my memory loss be related?”

When he finally asked, feeling uneasy, Woo Yeonwoo’s mother laughed as if it was ridiculous.

“How far away is it, what are you talking about.”

“Is America far away?”

“It’s not even a neighboring country, it’s across the sea, so isn’t it far.”

Rembrary, who now realized that America was a foreign country,

“Ah.”

And understood.

Indeed. It’s an unsettling coincidence, but these coincidences weren’t entirely absent.

Sometimes really strange things happen in the world.

Rembrary tried to convince himself, but then he remembered one more strange thing and asked.

“Come to think of it, Mother. Perhaps, did I fight with you or Father before I lost my memory?”

“No. Why?”

“Never?”

“Yeah.”

Rembrary frowned.

Then why did Woo Yeonwoo block his parents?

“Ah, it’s not that we fought. You said something strange. You changed your words to say it was a joke in the middle.”

“Woo Yeonwoo did?”

“Huh?”

“I did?”

“Yeah. Among the members······”

Woo Yeonwoo’s mother, who was talking, shook her head.

“Ah, no. I’ll just say something strange and make the relationship worse.”

“It’s okay. Please tell me.”

“That’s······ If you’re on good terms now, don’t cause any trouble. Okay?”

“Yes.”

“One of the members said that he was threatening you, or something like that.”