Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 185

185. What He Deserves

“Why?”

“No, if you say it like that, what does that make Keshie [referring to how he’s being perceived in the situation]!”

“Why? Yulri might be misunderstanding. Maybe they just met for work.”

“No, not that! If Yeonwoo introduces Keshie as Yeonwoo’s boyfriend, Keshie will be misunderstood!”

“Did I do that?”

“……”

When Yulri looked a bit wronged, Rembrary asked with a puzzled face, “Why?” Yulri sighed and muttered.

“Never mind.”

True. Who doesn’t know that Wooyeonwoo is Wooyeonwoo? Thinking that it would only be a loss for herself to say more here, she decided to become a limited-time magnanimous person.

“More than that, let’s decide on the concept for the stage first. Is there a concept you really want to do, Yeonwoo?”

“I want to show a sacred and elegant me.”

“The broadcasting station wants us to show it through dance instead of singing. Honestly, doesn’t it piss you off a bit? They know we can’t dance.”

He wants to give a sacred and elegant feeling, but why is she suddenly dissing the broadcasting station? Rembrary stared blankly at her, not knowing what point Yulri suddenly got angry at.

Yulri, who had been complaining for a long time about the absurdities of the broadcasting station and the unfairness of the agency for telling them to go out and do things like this, sighed when Rembrary didn’t react and suggested.

“From the looks of it, the broadcasting station and the agency seem to think that Yeonwoo and I will put on a sloppy stage. It would be too unfair to just go along with that, right?”

“Is that so?”

“Ah, this person has no emotions, no emotions. Of course, that’s right!”

“?”

“So, what I’m saying is, let’s do it really cool! In a way that no one expects!”

* * *

“What? A penguin concept? Did you guys decide to go for comedy?”

When he returned to the agency and explained to Yulri and Jongwoo the determination he had made, and the direction in which he would set up the stage, Jongwoo asked back in embarrassment.

“No. I’m going to do it cool.”

“With penguins?”

“Not just any penguin.”

“?”

“I’m going to do it with emperor penguins.”

When Rembrary whispered secretly and proudly, Jongwoo felt like someone had slammed his mouth shut. Does he really think that’s cool……?

But Rembrary’s expression was too proud to scold him.

“Okay. Do your best.”

Well. Rather than becoming a laughing stock after doing a hip and cool concept, it would be better to grab a penguin concept and then lie that ‘it was all intentional.’ Jongwoo familiarly convinced himself.

“Do you remember that you have to go to the Jeongseo filming set next week?”

“I forgot.”

“Look at the script in advance. Still, you’re going to support the members, so you have to do well.”

“I understand.”

“And you have a shoot the day after tomorrow, so prepare for that.”

Rembrary was about to answer that he understood, but he closed his mouth. It was because Jang Tae-ri’s question kept coming to mind. He said that G whale has been a bit strange lately.

‘I should send a text later.’

“And Yeonwoo, Seungkyung asked me to tell you that you seem to have gained about 5kg, so please take care of yourself.”

“!”

“Don’t just eat without thinking even when you go out to film Dating Process.”

And again…… It was when Jongwoo was about to continue nagging. Knock, knock, there was a knock, and the practice room door clicked open.

“Jongwoo! A reporter came to see Yeonwoo, what should I do?”

The person who opened the door was an employee working at the lobby counter.

“A reporter?”

When Jongwoo asked back in embarrassment, the employee read the business card in his hand.

“He said he’s the reporter who did the whole WA Entertainment interview a few days ago. Hong Haejoon……? He’s a reporter.”

“Oh!”

Jongwoo immediately frowned.

“That’s the jerk who mentioned sponsors or whatever before, right?”

The employee blinked awkwardly with the business card between his fingers and asked.

“Shall I say he’s not here?”

* * *

“Hello, Wooyeonwoo.”

Rembrary, who entered the waiting room where the reporter was waiting, stopped in embarrassment.

Jongwoo, who followed in battle mode, was also dumbfounded and his vigilance crumbled.

Wooyeonwoo…… not ‘Mr.’, but ‘Nim’ [a Korean honorific, even more polite than ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’]? Moreover, the reporter, who was sitting on the sofa, jumped up and bowed ninety degrees the moment Rembrary entered. It was a knife-like angle [meaning a very sharp, precise bow].

Jongwoo hurriedly took Rembrary out and asked.

“Ye, Yeonwoo. You didn’t take that person somewhere and threaten him or anything weird, did you?”

“Threaten?”

“Keshie uses his fists, not you, so you wouldn’t have secretly hit him. Did you take his mind away? Why is he suddenly like that?”

“How would I know that?”

Jongwoo stared blankly at Rembrary, then peeked into the waiting room. Even though Rembrary had left, the reporter was still waiting with his hands politely gathered.

“But really, why is he like that? He’s acting like someone who ate something wrong?”

Rembrary shrugged and went back into the waiting room and asked.

“Did you eat something wrong?”

‘No, why are you asking that so bluntly, you crazy bastard!’

Jongwoo looked at Rembrary in dismay, but―

“You have such a good heart. It’s okay. You don’t have to worry.”

He was even more horrified by the reporter’s reaction and jumped up.

Even though he heard the question of whether he was crazy in a roundabout way, the reporter was looking at Rembrary with a grin.

Jongwoo looked back and forth between Rembrary and the reporter, and became afraid that Rembrary had done something wrong. So, is that reporter deliberately trying to screw people over? Is he trying to make someone see this and drive Wooyeonwoo into a corner for abusing his power?

“Excuse me, Reporter Hong. Did our Yeonwoo do something wrong?”

When Jongwoo asked hesitantly, the reporter waved his hand.

“Wrong? How could Wooyeonwoo do anything wrong! He’s my hero. A hidden hero. A hero of this world. A true hero of this era who walks ahead alone, hiding from the eyes of others!”

He got an answer that he didn’t do anything wrong, but he was even more scared. Jongwoo swallowed hard.

Wooyeonwoo, that guy, keeps saying he’s a cult, but has he really become able to bewitch people? Is he trying to become a cult leader? Immediately, such suspicions arose.

Meanwhile, the reporter asked Rembrary.

“So, Wooyeonwoo. Could you spare me some precious time? I’d like to talk to you alone.”

Jongwoo said no, but Rembrary calmed Jongwoo down and sent him out. Rembrary also thought it was strange that the reporter had changed his attitude.

Why is that reporter, who used to be so harsh about sponsors or whatever, suddenly showing such extreme and polite behavior? He wanted to ask properly in a place where Jongwoo wasn’t around.

“What’s going on?”

As soon as Jongwoo left, Rembrary asked again directly.

The reporter became even more serious than before and answered.

“I wanted to thank you, but you suddenly disappeared, so I couldn’t.”

Before Rembrary could ask what kind of thanks he couldn’t give. The reporter put his hands together as if praying, and began to explain with sparkling eyes.

“You see, Wooyeonwoo. Even when I watched hero movies, I thought they were all lies. I was an adult without a dream. If I had a hero-like power, I wondered why everyone would secretly help the world without being praised by others. If I was destined to help others anyway, wouldn’t it be better to be praised and help publicly? I thought everyone else would think the same way.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, but…… now I know. There really are people like that in the world.”

The reporter stretched out his hands as if supporting Rembrary with both hands.

“Exactly…… people like Wooyeonwoo! A true hero of this era who helps people in places where others don’t see!”

Rembrary still had difficulty understanding what the reporter was saying, but the corners of his mouth naturally went up.

“Hmph.”

I don’t know what’s going on that he’s flattering me like that, but such praise was originally praise that Rembrary himself often heard. He couldn’t help but feel good.

“Thank you for helping me when I was about to be killed by that human…… that arthropod-like…… that strange…… that terrible…… monster a few days ago. My colleague abandoned me very coolly, but Yeonwoo came and saved me.”

Only after the reporter talked about the monster did Rembrary realize why he was acting like that.

At the time, he saved people, but he didn’t look at the faces of the people he saved. This was because the monster was too big, and he had to run away quickly before people gathered. Rembrary didn’t see the faces of either the people he saved or the people he couldn’t save.

But the person he saved at the time was that reporter…… Rembrary, who didn’t know that the reporter was following him to cover him, just found this coincidence amazing.

“A person like me who is loved by God must share that love with others. It was a natural thing to do.”

“Keu…… That’s very true.”

When the reporter clapped his hands together, Rembrary coughed, hmph, hmph. Then, he remembered seeing the news that one of the two people had died and asked.

“Is the dead person your friend?”

The reporter was puzzled when Rembrary suddenly changed his tone, but he thought that since the other person was a hero who hid his identity, he must have a separate tone, so he didn’t protest this part.

Besides, he became so depressed about the story of his dead friend that he wasn’t in the mood to ask about the benefactor’s tone. The reporter’s expression darkened and he corrected what Rembrary had said.

“He’s not a friend, he’s a colleague.”

“Your heart must be aching.”

“Yes. He was a diligent friend…… that’s right.”

Both the reporter and the cameraman were hiding and stealing the situation when they were caught by the monster, so neither of them survived. It took time for Rembrary to run this way.

The reporter awkwardly rubbed his fingernails with a bitter feeling. In fact, in some ways, he lived because his colleague died. His colleague screamed as he was attacked, and thanks to that, Wooyeonwoo and his party noticed this way and ran over.

If the monster had attacked him first, he would have been the one who died, and the colleague would have been the one who lived and conveyed his gratitude.

“The monster killed your colleague, not you.”

“Yes?”

“If several people are attacked and you can’t save them all, the survivors feel a lot of guilt. Don’t do that. It’s not your fault. You don’t need to bear the sins committed by that monster.”

The reporter thought blankly about what Rembrary had said. That means…… this kind of thing has happened more than once or twice.

‘I thought so when I saw him dealing with the monster so familiarly. That person has been saving people by fighting those monsters in places where others don’t see him.’

The reporter’s eyes became so moist that it was burdensome.

“Okay, is that why you came here, to say hello?”

When Rembrary asked again, the reporter finally remembered why he came here and answered.

“The biggest reason is to thank you.”

“Is there a small reason too?”

“Yes. I wanted to make a suggestion.”

“A suggestion?”

“As I said earlier, I think heroes should be treated as heroes.”

“?”

“Yeonwoo. Is there any need to hide that you are a hero? Why don’t you let everyone know and receive the treatment you deserve as a hero?”