Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 25

25. A Colleague Causes an Accident

Jong-woo told me to act like the other members.

Do I have to do that too?

While Rembrary was in shock, the microphone was passed to Jung-seo.

Jung-seo is usually taciturn, so he wouldn’t do such an enthusiastic self-introduction.

Rembrary held onto a sliver of hope, but…

“I’m Jung-seo, the leader of Wild Animal, the Red Deer.”

Jung-seo wasn’t as extreme as Tae-in, but he was definitely different from his usual self.

He held the microphone in one hand, pretended to blow a kiss, and then winked.

It was mild compared to Tae-in, but his normally stoic image made it shocking in a different way.

Rembrary felt even more goosebumps.

“I’m Hye-gyeol, the youngest member of Wild Animal, the Hamster!”

“I’m Keshi, Wild Animal’s cute puppy! Woof!”

At least Hye-gyeol and Keshi, who were usually bright and boisterous, felt less out of place, but…

On average, they were all acting 부담스럽게 [burdensomely/awkwardly] cute and talking with 애교 [aegyo – acting cute/charmingly].

Not exaggerating at all, it really felt like every hair on my body was standing on end.

It was extremely strange to see members who were always bickering speaking sweetly to the camera in an excessively friendly manner.

The problem is that I have to match them.

‘I… have to do that too?’

After becoming this body, my pride as a high priest has already been crumpled beyond recognition.

But to have to do such mind-numbing, 애교 [aegyo – acting cute/charmingly]-filled introductions…

In the meantime, the microphone of terror approached Rembrary.

Unable to bring himself to do it like that, Rembrary eventually grabbed the microphone after a brief moment of contemplation and spoke politely.

“I’m Woo Yeon-woo of Wild Animal. I’m a Sloth.”

Rembrary then handed the microphone back to the MC with dignity.

But what was going on?

The MC laughed exaggeratedly and handed the microphone back to Rembrary, demanding.

“Why a sloth? Because you look like one? Do a sloth imitation!”

This person…?

Rembrary stared at the MC with narrowed eyes.

The MC’s expression was very bright, unlike someone making such a ridiculous request.

“Hurry. Okay? Huh?”

He even urged me.

It’s really annoying because he’s smiling while doing that.

But this is just Rembrary’s thought because he doesn’t know about this field.

Right now, the MC’s request was a considerate gesture towards Rembrary.

Seeing that Woo Yeon-woo didn’t seem to be taking care of his part properly, he was subtly giving him another chance to appeal to the audience.

Jong-woo gestured from the wall to do anything.

‘I have no choice.’

Rembrary screamed inwardly, but eventually raised both hands.

If he refused to imitate a sloth and had to deal with the aftermath alone, he would have refused.

But right now, Rembrary was standing in a row with the other members.

He was worried that if he tried to save face alone in this situation, it would harm the other members.

“Wow! He’s going to do it!”

In front of the MC who was clapping without knowing the situation, Rembrary raised both hands and made a sound.

“Aee. Aee Aee.”

“!”

“Aee Aee Aee. Aee Aee.”

After informing Hye-gyeol that he had been told to be a sloth, Hye-gyeol had shown him a sloth video.

It was the sound the sloth made in that video.

And he stretched out his arms and waved them slowly.

“Eueum. Euaeee.”

The MC watched the scene with his mouth open and asked.

“What scene is this?”

Hye-gyeol explained instead.

“It’s a scene where a sloth is hanging from a tree and making a sound.”

Jong-woo screamed silently with an expression like Munch’s The Scream.

You have to imitate animal imitations just enough to look cute.

Why is he gathering his soul to imitate it so perfectly?

It wasn’t cute at all.

I should have just let him be a unicorn. Jong-woo regretted it belatedly.

He’s a neglected member, but still a visual center, not a variety show member.

His cool image flew away because the visual center was acting like that.

It disappeared through the atmosphere.

Rembrary was almost possessed by the sloth.

“Keup.”

The cameraman who was filming this couldn’t hold back his laughter and bent over while chuckling.

“Aee Aee.”

As Rembrary bent over along with the camera that had turned sideways, the cameraman completely gritted his teeth and sobbed.

* * *

“How was it?”

After the Happy Talk interview.

While checking his makeup one more time, Rembrary asked Jong-woo.

“…It felt very realistic.”

Jong-woo answered honestly.

Rembrary interpreted it as a compliment and smiled in relief.

“I’m glad it helped.”

It was funny, but you ruined your image… Jong-woo thought to himself and nodded awkwardly.

On the other hand, Rembrary closed his eyes while finishing his makeup, thinking that he was lucky to have overcome the crisis well.

After two rehearsals and the live broadcast stage, it was almost dinner time.

However, they had to wait in the waiting room again because they had to go on stage for the 1st place announcement.

Wild Animal was early in the order, so the waiting time until the 1st place announcement was long.

Jong-woo brought a mushroom salad, and Rembrary chewed on the mushrooms while searching for ‘How to Become a Monk’ and ‘Exorcism’ on his phone.

Afterwards, when it was finally time to announce the 1st place, a staff member came to tell them to go on stage.

Rembrary left the waiting room following the members and went up on stage.

As always, Wild Animal’s place was in the corner of the back row.

But there was something different from usual.

From below the stage, the staff signaled them to move further inside.

It was the first time they had heard the words to go inside, even though they had heard the words to fall out, so even the leader, Jung-seo, hesitated in surprise at first.

However, as the staff frowned, Jung-seo wisely took the members and moved further inside.

Rembrary also followed from the back.

When they took their places, they were right behind the 1st place candidate group.

Although it was the back row, they could clearly see the audience from this spot.

They were shouting the names of their favorite idols at the top of their lungs and waving the same-shaped sticks [light sticks].

“That’s nice.”

Hye-gyeol muttered very quietly next to me.

“I wish I had fans like that too.”

Jung-seo patted Hye-gyeol on the shoulder without saying a word.

Rembrary felt strangely moved.

When he was in the original world, the spotlight was always on Rembrary himself.

It didn’t matter how hard the people in the back tried.

God loved him, and that was the end of everything.

But after coming to this world and standing in the back row, he could finally hear the voices of the back row.

He also saw the faces of many colleagues who had not been promoted due to lack of divine power.

‘It’s boring.’

However, this strange feeling gradually turned into a boring feeling as time passed.

For some reason, the filming was delayed today.

It seems that several PDs [Production Directors] are discussing among themselves while putting all the idols on one stage.

It must have been over 30 minutes.

The two MCs in the very front center, who seemed very bored, repeatedly bent and stretched their knees while holding the microphone in one hand, and the 1st place candidate groups were talking to their fans.

The idols in the back row also started talking to each other in whispers.

Jung-seo was also talking to Tae-in, and Hye-gyeol started chatting with a member of another group in the front row, whom she seemed to know.

“It’s hard. Ah, how long do we have to wait?”

Keshi, who was standing right next to me, also spoke to Rembrary.

Rembrary answered in a public tone, “I know,” and then flinched.

Keshi was looking at him with a friendlier smile than usual.

He felt a sense of déjà vu.

Seon-woo Sil acted like that in front of the camera…

But Keshi’s personality also improved when he was in a good mood at the dorm, so Rembrary soon shook off that thought.

Even if Keshi was acting friendly because he was conscious of the people around him, there was nothing Rembrary could do about it.

Rembrary himself was also using a different tone externally, although it was because of Jong-woo’s request.

But as he was talking, he noticed that Keshi’s eyes were strange.

There were stars in his eyes.

“There are star shapes in your eyes?”

Rembrary asked in surprise.

It’s not the kind of star when you say ‘your eyes are as beautiful as stars.’ There were really star shapes in his eyes.

“Ah. Colored lenses.”

Keshi answered as if it was nothing, but Rembrary didn’t understand.

He didn’t have his phone with him right now, so he couldn’t even search for what that meant.

Rembrary eventually

“What is that?”

He asked again, and Keshi answered with a smile.

“Glasses that cover the pupils.”

“You wear glasses over your pupils? How?”

“How else? You just press it with your finger.”

Rembrary asked in amazement.

“Can I touch it?”

Keshi nodded and brought his face closer with his eyes open.

At the unexpected, docile behavior, Rembrary pointed his finger at Keshi’s pupil.

“Ack! Hey!”

* * *

– Did you guys see the behind-the-scenes video of Power Idol today?

– ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Woo Yeon-woo did it again ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– I rubbed my eyes while watching it ㅅㅂ [slang – damn/fuck] I thought I saw something wrong – he just poked his eye openly ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– What was he doing when he suddenly raised his finger ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– Who’s the guy who got his eye poked next to him?

ㄴ Keshi

ㄴ He’s not your guy ^^ Don’t call our Keshi a guy, you 개새끼 [gaesaekki – son of a bitch] I’m going to report you

ㄴ Take care of your mouth first ^^ I have a report button too

– The name of the eye-poked victim is Keshi. He’s the main vocal.

– Isn’t he the leader, not the main vocal?

– The leader has black hair.

– Why are those beastly guys’ group names and rainbow-colored hair like that?

ㄴ ㅇㅇ [O.O – abbreviation for “okay”] I wish they would do something about the pink hair.

– Keshi is so nice, that Woo Yeon-woo is always harassing him ㅜ [ㅜ – crying emoticon]

– ㄴㄴ [NoNo – abbreviation for “no no”] If you watch the video carefully, that Keshi guy was provoking him first. 5:05

ㄴ That’s right, the yellow-haired guy knows our Yeon-woo’s temper and makes him angry

ㄴ If that looks like provocation, go to an ophthalmologist. 5:02

ㄴ Me? ㅠㅠ [ㅠㅠ – crying emoticon]

ㄴ Not you, the two below you.

– Shouldn’t we register Woo Yeon-woo as a pronoun ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

– It’s still a long way off

– But he was good at imitating the sloth

ㄴ I burst out laughing when I saw that ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ah, it hurts my pride

ㄴ He’s a trash 인성 [inseong – personality], but Woo Yeon-woo does everything well when he’s told to

ㄴ A guy who does well when he’s told to causes a 파투 [patu – fight/uproar] in the middle of the stage?

* * *

The next day.

In order to prepare for the 경연 [gyeongyeon – competition] on Monday, Keshi and Rembrary decided to go to different agencies to practice instead of going to the music show.

It was a time when they had to show their faces a lot, so Jong-woo tried to make them go to practice after going to the music show, but he couldn’t help it because he had to match the schedules of his partners.

Who should I follow today? Jong-woo hesitated between Keshi and Rembrary and decided to follow Rembrary.

After all, Rembrary was more unreliable of the two.

“Practice hard. And greet the people at the agency well.”

“Okay.”

Jong-woo sent Keshi away and went to Seon-woo Sil’s agency with Rembrary.

Seon-woo Sil laughed and teased Rembrary as soon as she saw him.

“Why did you poke someone’s eye?”

“Someone’s eye?”

“That Keshi guy. You poked him openly.”

“He said he was wearing lenses, so I tried to touch them…”

When Rembrary smiled awkwardly, Seon-woo Sil 피식피식 [pisik pisik – chuckling] laughed, calling him a 사차원 [sachawon – eccentric/weird].

“Anyway, you’re 은근히 [eungeunhi – subtly/secretly] strange.”

Jong-woo sighed in relief at the sight of Seon-woo Sil treating Rembrary in a friendly manner.

After that, a long four-hour practice began.

Rembrary accepted Seon-woo Sil’s requests without cheating today, and Seon-woo Sil enthusiastically fixed the notes here and there while pressing the keyboard.

In the meantime, another idol group’s ringtone rang.

It was coming from Jong-woo’s pocket.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Sorry.”

Jong-woo hurriedly apologized and went out into the hallway.

Perhaps because the flow was interrupted, Seon-woo Sil called her manager instead of telling him to practice right away and asked for a favor.

“Buy me some cup noodles, 누나 [nuna – older sister (used by males)]. And drinks.”

“Will cup noodles be enough?”

“Yeah. Or should I add 김밥 [gimbap – Korean seaweed rice roll]?”

“Just a moment.”

Seon-woo Sil’s manager opened the door, saying she understood.

At that moment, Jong-woo’s angry shout was heard through the open door.

“I sent you to match the song, did I send you alone to match your mouth?!”