Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 23

23. I Need to Check Something

Although the shape largely overlapped with the original shadow, it resembled a human shadow.

Eunseon quietly made a noise.

“Ugh.”

“I’m scared of things like this.”

The reporter chuckled and said heartily,

“Originally, these things are all just coincidences. It’s a trick of the light. They say light and shadow can cleverly align to make it look like that, right?”

“How does it cleverly align?”

“Ah, I don’t know that. I’m a liberal arts major.”

Eunseon made a face, complaining about what that even meant.

However, the most frightened among them was Jongwoo.

“Is it the same in the previous photos?”

When the reporter asked, the photographer muttered,

“Just a moment.”

Then, he checked the previously taken ‘Good I’ photos.

“No. It doesn’t appear here.”

Following that, he checked other ‘Evil I’ sections, muttering,

“It doesn’t appear in some parts, and it does in others…”

The atmosphere turned chilly.

Although no one said anything, everyone felt a bit spooked.

In the end, to lighten the mood, the photographer deliberately smiled brightly and shouted, “Let’s continue shooting!”

Eunseon quickly added,

“They say if a ghost appears during a shoot, it’s a huge hit!”

The atmosphere became even chillier, so it wasn’t helpful.

Anyway, the shooting started again, and only the sound of the flash echoed in the silence.

After the shoot, the reporter approached and asked a simple question.

“I heard there was a strange shadow captured during the shoot. How did you feel?”

Before giving instructions for the shoot, he was bossy and commanding. Now, his tone was different from before.

Moreover, he was holding a strangely shaped silver-gray device near his mouth.

Thinking it was odd, Rembrary readily answered,

“I didn’t sense any immediate evil energy, so you can rest assured.”

The reporter’s eyes widened at the expert-like response.

*Was he joking?* Even while thinking that, the answer sounded a bit eerie.

However, instead of giving more explanation, Rembrary bowed and went to change clothes.

* * *

After carefully changing clothes to avoid damaging the sponsored outfits.

While driving to Seon-woo Sil’s office, both Jongwoo and Rembrary remained silent.

Jongwoo, who was afraid of supernatural phenomena, was terrified even by the thought of another shadow being captured.

Besides, Yeonwoo had recently experienced memory loss despite being healthy, hadn’t he?

Even if others didn’t, Jongwoo was very scared of what happened today, including that fact.

Because of this, instead of nagging as usual, he only watched Rembrary’s expression in the rearview mirror.

Conversely, Rembrary wasn’t afraid of supernatural phenomena at all.

The reason Rembrary was silent was to contemplate the identity of that shadow.

‘Could it be Woo Yeonwoo?’

Rembrary thought that the shadow, which had a human form, might be the ‘real Woo Yeonwoo’ whose body he had taken over.

If he hadn’t entered the empty body after Woo Yeonwoo died, but rather entered Woo Yeonwoo’s body as if overwriting it, it was entirely possible.

Rembrary estimated with a high probability that the shadow was Woo Yeonwoo.

However, there was another possibility with a similarly high probability.

That shadow was a trace of the one who sent him to this world and even put him in the wrong body.

Of course, as he told the reporter, there was no evil energy in that shadow.

But evil energy was relative.

Even among vampires, there were vampires who emitted evil energy and those who didn’t.

The same was true for humans.

Even if someone was very evil and dangerous, they didn’t constantly emit evil energy.

Moreover, if one hid behind Rembrary’s own shadow, they could subtly conceal their true energy.

‘What to do about this…’

Unfortunately, there was no time to find out whose shadow it was right away.

After much deliberation, Rembrary decided to go home and check properly.

Although he couldn’t clearly identify the shadow, there was a way to find out for sure if it was dangerous.

* * *

After visiting Seon-woo Sil’s agency and practicing for three hours, Jongwoo dropped Rembrary off in front of the dorm, watching his expression.

“You worked hard today. Go in and get some rest.”

“You too.”

“You know we have a music show tomorrow, right? You have to wake up early, so go to sleep right away.”

“I know.”

“…”

“Can I go up now?”

“Hey, Yeonwoo.”

However, unlike usual, Jongwoo didn’t let Rembrary go up right away, but lingered.

Wondering why he was doing that, he looked at him, and Jongwoo hesitated before asking.

“Has your memory still not returned?”

“Unfortunately, it has not.”

“I see…”

“Then, can I go up now?”

Rembrary checked the time on his phone and asked.

He couldn’t just go up, wash, and sleep.

He wanted to go back quickly because there was something he needed to check.

Jongwoo, with a reluctant face,

“Okay.”

He answered and got back into the car.

Rembrary waved his hand and hurried up the stairs.

“You’re back?”

“How was the shoot today?”

“Did you do well?”

However, when he went up to the living room, all three members were out in the living room.

The one unseen seemed to have gone into the bathroom.

“It was unremarkable.”

Rembrary answered, but inwardly thought it was going to be tiring.

To check if the shadow’s energy was truly evil, he needed his own blood.

After dissolving divine power in the blood, he had to directly sprinkle it on the shadow. This was the method.

Using this method, he could check the evil of the existence itself, not just relative evil.

However, if he drew blood from his hand and sprinkled it on the shadow in front of the members, it was clear that these people would be horrified.

He was already treated like a crazy person sometimes because he hadn’t adapted well to this world. He couldn’t bear to hear that he was self-harming.

‘I have no choice. I’ll have to wait until the members are asleep.’

“Jungseo.”

“Yeah? Why?”

“Where is the knife?”

“Knife? What knife? Kitchen knife?”

“No, that small knife you used before. The one you used to cut the yellow string on the box…”

“Ah, the box cutter. Not yellow string, tape.”

“Yes, the box cutter. Where is it?”

At Rembrary’s question, Jungseo asked with a strange look,

“Why?”

“I need it.”

Rembrary answered as if it were nothing and walked to the refrigerator to take out a grape-flavored sparkling water.

However, when he took out the sparkling water and turned around, Jungseo’s expression was still reluctant.

He seemed uneasy that Rembrary, who was still unfamiliar with everyday items, suddenly wanted to use a knife.

But,

“Cut my flesh.”

He couldn’t say that, could he?

Rembrary thought for a moment and eventually shook his head with a smile.

“No, now that I think about it, it’s okay. I think I can do it tomorrow.”

When Rembrary said that, even the other members who were chuckling while watching TV looked at him.

Rembrary went into his room as naturally as possible and lay down.

He would have to wait until the members were all asleep and then take out the kitchen knife to use.

* * *

Fortunately, perhaps because there was a music show schedule tomorrow, Jungseo soon urged the members to go into their rooms.

Rembrary only closed his eyes and listened to the surrounding situation.

Because the members all used one room, he had to wait until everyone was sound asleep.

Fortunately, perhaps because they practiced choreography hard, the members usually fell asleep in a short amount of time.

Rembrary held his breath and listened to the sound of the members coming in, getting into bed, bickering with each other, and Taein getting annoyed, telling them to sleep.

How long had it been?

Even Rembrary’s mind became hazy.

Rembrary nodded off and then realized that the surroundings were quiet and slowly raised his body.

Even after raising his upper body, he checked if the members were all asleep.

Snoring sounds came from here and there, and the members who were sleeping quietly had even breaths.

Rembrary carefully slipped out from between the blankets and went to the kitchen.

Without even turning on the light, in case anyone woke up, he relied on the light from his phone to take out the kitchen knife.

“…”

Even after taking out the kitchen knife, he carefully listened.

Fortunately, everyone seemed to be asleep.

‘Let’s do it quickly and go in.’

Rembrary went into the bathroom and locked the door.

Then, he held the knife he had brought from the kitchen in his left hand.

Rembrary checked his shadow in the mirror.

There was nothing strange about it when looking at it like this.

‘It repeated appearing and disappearing even when taking photos.’

Rembrary brought a basin and placed it on the sink.

And while glancing at his shadow, he put his right palm over the basin and pressed the tip of the knife.

‘Ugh.’

A cold and unpleasant pain applied pressure to his palm.

At first, he felt a sense of pressure, but as he put more force into his hand, he felt something splitting.

Because a drop or two of blood wasn’t enough, Rembrary endured the pain and continued to put force into his hand.

The blood that had been dripping at first began to seep out as if flowing.

Even after taking out the knife, the blood continued to flow.

Rembrary clenched his fist tightly to let the blood fall faster.

And when enough blood had pooled.

He let divine power flow into the blood.

Finally finishing the work, he put down the knife and picked up the basin.

And he raised his left hand under the light to create a shadow right below.

Now, all that was left was to let the blood containing divine power flow into the shadow.

Rembrary tilted the basin slightly.

Once this process was over, he could know whether the shadow was likely to be Woo Yeonwoo or a trace of the one who sent him to this world.

The blood sloshing at the bottom of the basin slowly flowed down.

However, the moment the blood was about to touch the shadow.

With a click, the door opened.

Rembrary was flustered and looked to the side.

“Woo Yeonwoo…?”

The leader, Jungseo, was standing there with his eyes wide open.

His gaze was on the basin filled with blood, his blood-soaked hand, and the blood-stained kitchen knife, not on Rembrary.

“What is this…!”

‘I definitely locked it?’

Rembrary and Jungseo both froze and stared at each other.

Rembrary, who came to his senses first, finished the work he was doing first.

All that was left was to tilt the basin a little more.

Since he had seen everything anyway, there was no need to pour it somewhere else now.

There was no difference whether he poured it here or threw it away.

The blood flowed down into Rembrary’s shadow.

“What are you doing now!”

Jungseo belatedly ran over in surprise and grabbed Rembrary’s injured hand.

“Are you crazy?”

Even so, his voice was very small, as if he was worried about waking the other members.

Rembrary left his hand to Jungseo’s whims and examined the shadow.

The blood was pooling along the shape of the shadow, as if the shadow were a plate.

“Are you even self-harming now?”

Jungseo, unaware that the blood was in a very strange shape, grabbed Rembrary’s wrist tightly and pressed him.

He was grabbing a towel with his other hand, as if trying to stop the bleeding.

“Self-harm? Absolutely not.”

Rembrary answered calmly, watching the shadow’s reaction.

“You’re holding a knife, so were you even trying to commit suicide?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Then?”

“I just have something to check, so don’t misunderstand.”

As Jungseo pressed the towel against his palm, the pressure and stinging pain made him frown involuntarily.

“You crazy bastard, what are you checking by cutting your hand open?”

“My blood color?”

“What?”

Finally, a reaction appeared in the shadow.

‘That’s!’

Rembrary hurriedly pulled out his hand and pushed Jungseo’s back.

“Go out for now. Aren’t you busy?”

“Hey, you-!”

“Keep this a secret for now. I’ll tell you everything when it’s over.”