Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 35

35. Noticeable Discrimination

“Something’s fishy. Really fishy.”

Ever since Jungseo made tomato juice just for Rembrary last night.

Hyegyeol kept saying that something was fishy whenever he had a chance.

It was the same while having a simple breakfast before going to the shop.

“Why is Yeonwoo *hyung* [older brother or male friend] getting special treatment all of a sudden? It’s weird.”

Actually, it was understandable.

Jungseo’s attitude had changed so blatantly that Rembrary himself was taken aback.

Last night, he made tomato juice, and this morning, he made orange juice.

Other members got one piece of chicken breast, but Rembrary got two.

Anyone could see it was special treatment, and it seemed even stranger because the one showering him with it was the aloof Jungseo.

But even in the midst of all this, Jungseo remained calm.

“Special treatment? There’s no such thing.”

“What was with the tomato juice last night, then?”

“Yeonwoo lost his memory, you know.”

“Does eating tomatoes bring back memories? I didn’t know that.”

“Tomatoes are good for your health.”

“Then what’s with the orange juice today?”

Hyegyeol gaped at the insincere excuses.

But Jungseo silently asked Rembrary,

“Would you like more salad?”

He didn’t know if this attitude would continue after treating his mother, but it seemed he would take care of him this thoroughly until he got a day off to go to the hospital.

Rembrary was embarrassed at first, but as a high priest who had lived comfortably, he naturally gave instructions.

“Put a lot of raspberry dressing on it. I’m craving something sweet.”

* * *

Today, there were no official schedules as Wild Animal, but they had to film scenes of Keshi and Rembrary preparing for the third competition.

Since two cameramen were coming to the practice room, the members stopped by the shop to get ‘natural-looking makeup that doesn’t look like makeup’.

Their hair also looked tousled, but if you looked closely, each strand was alive.

And when they arrived at the agency’s practice room, the two cameramen came in shortly after.

“Hello!”

“Nice to meet you.”

While they were organizing their equipment, a dance instructor who would help choreograph the next competition came in.

And a few minutes later.

As the camera started rolling, the dance instructor asked Rembrary and Keshi.

“Have you prepared which song you’ll be competing with?”

Keshi, who he thought would be busy cursing Seonwoo all day, surprisingly answered immediately.

“Yes.”

Really? You really prepared it?

Rembrary looked at Keshi in surprise.

“We’re going to do ‘Candy Kiss’.”

He didn’t know the song, but the title itself was attention-grabbing.

Besides, the dance instructor said,

“Oh, that’ll suit you well.”

Seeing him admire it, it seemed like they had chosen the right song.

The dance instructor then looked at Rembrary and asked.

“What about you?”

“···”

Rembrary couldn’t answer right away, but this dance instructor knew that Rembrary had lost his memory, so he naturally continued.

“I told you that you have to dance well no matter what, right? Let’s find a song that’s easy to dance to.”

“If we do our promotional song-”

“There’s no problem, but it’s unfair.”

“I guess so.”

“The tempo shouldn’t be too fast or too slow. If it’s too fast, it’s hard to keep up, and if it’s too slow, the movements are emphasized, so your skills are revealed more blatantly.”

The dance instructor said that and connected his phone to the audio as if he had prepared it in advance and played the music.

Then, music that he seemed to have heard a few times came out.

The dance instructor said,

“Watch carefully.”

and soon began to dance in front of the mirror.

“One two, one two. *Bbam bbam bbam bbam bbam!* [onomatopoeia for the beat]”

He always thought, why do they add those slogans when they dance?

Rembrary was lost in absurd thoughts for a moment, but after seeing Jongwoo’s glaring eyes, he quickly focused on the dance instructor.

The dance instructor finished dancing and asked without turning off the music.

“How is it? Can you do it?”

“I’ve memorized it, but…”

Eunseon, who was holding the camera, was surprised by Rembrary’s hesitant words and asked.

“You’ve already memorized it? Wow!”

“No, I’ve only memorized it, so-”

“Yeonwoo seems to be a genius! How can you memorize it right away? You’re an idol after all!”

“···”

Jongwoo and the members, who knew Rembrary’s dancing skills, bit their lips and lowered their heads to hold back their laughter.

The dance instructor gestured.

“Do it once as you’ve memorized it.”

The music went back to the beginning, and Rembrary danced.

Eunseon looked at the camera with anticipation.

Although she didn’t go around telling everyone, after being assigned to Rembrary, she researched Wild Animal and Wooyeonwoo and watched the broadcasts.

She thought it would help her to bring out the character.

The Wooyeonwoo she saw was almost unrivaled in terms of visuals, his singing wasn’t noticeably bad, and his dancing skills were so good that she couldn’t help but admire them.

But since he sang much better than she had researched, wouldn’t he dance twice as well as she had researched?

*I’ll take a really cool picture of you!* Eunseon thought and shouted inwardly.

“Fighting!”

However, Eunseon, who started with *wow wow*, gradually reduced her *wow wow* exclamations as if she was turning down the volume.

After the dance.

Rembrary glances this way.

*If I had known this would happen, I would have just quietly held the camera from the beginning.*

Eunseon regretted it and awkwardly praised him.

“Wow! You really memorized it all.”

To be exact, it seems like he only memorized it.

Eunseon, who couldn’t bring herself to say he danced well, hurriedly pretended to focus on the camera.

Unlike Eunseon, the dance instructor, who didn’t expect anything in the first place, said with a smile for the camera.

“Let’s try this for now? But it seems like you’re keeping the beat well.”

“Yes.”

Rembrary noticed Eunseon’s reaction, but he didn’t show it and danced as hard as he could.

However, as soon as the dance was over, Taein openly mocked him this time.

“He really can’t dance. Is that even dancing?”

He said it as if he was joking, but Rembrary and Taein weren’t the type to joke like that.

It’s definitely mockery.

Rembrary stopped dancing and glanced at him.

But he had no intention of reacting.

He didn’t need to fight again like he did with Keshi.

However, the moment Rembrary tried to ignore it.

“I thought he danced well.”

Jungseo, who was busy doing something alone in the corner, said indifferently.

“What?”

Taein turned around and asked as if he was dumbfounded.

“Do you really think so?”

“Yeah.”

Jungseo said again, still expressionless.

“It looked like he was doing a beautiful flutter. Like a swan’s dance.”

Rembrary was more creeped out by the excessive praise than Taein.

Rembrary himself knew that he couldn’t dance.

Hearing him say that made him more embarrassed than when Taein mocked him.

Taein frowned as if he was crazy.

Hyegyeol also stopped stretching and asked.

“What did you two talk about in the bathroom that you suddenly became so close?”

Since Jungseo didn’t answer, the dance instructor clapped again to get Rembrary’s attention.

“Okay. Yeonwoo. Focus.”

* * *

After Rembrary learned to dance for about an hour.

The dance instructor started teaching Keshi this time.

In the meantime, Jungseo went somewhere, bought coffee, and handed it to Rembrary.

Perhaps because it wasn’t just the members, this time the number of people and the number of coffee cups were the same.

Five members, manager Jongwoo, dance instructor, and two cameramen.

But there was still one more preferential service.

“What? Why is there only one cake? Who are we supposed to give this to?”

To Jongwoo’s question, Jungseo naturally handed the piece of cake to Rembrary and said,

“To Yeonwoo.”

Jongwoo, who didn’t know about the tomato juice yesterday and the orange juice this morning, looked at Jungseo and said,

“Huh?”

Jungseo is the leader of Wild Animal, but thanks to his calm and intellectual personality, he was trusted by the manager Jongwoo, as well as CEO Lim and the staff.

CEO Lim had even marked Jungseo as the first actor to be turned into an actor as soon as Wild Animal’s activities were over.

Although they had a fairly solid actor base, the actors belonging to LLL Entertainment were supporting actors.

They were known to the public, but they played more important supporting roles than leading roles.

I heard in passing that CEO Lim would make Jungseo the first leading actor of LLL Entertainment.

And when Jongwoo heard this, he thought it was definitely possible.

Jungseo is not the type to fall into illegal activities, and he is thorough in his self-management.

He is indifferent to others but has a strong sense of responsibility, and above all, his appearance is already that of a handsome actor.

Since actors and actresses with gentle and kind impressions are preferred, Jungseo’s sharp image may be in high demand.

But… why is he suddenly acting like that?

But Jungseo was handing Rembrary the cake, even peeling off the wrapper, no matter who looked at him strangely or said anything.

Rembrary naturally took it and ate it again.

Jongwoo tilted his head.

* * *

Even after finishing the coffee, the dance instructor was still holding onto Keshi.

He seemed to be more concerned with Keshi, who was fun to teach even if he couldn’t memorize it right away, than Rembrary, who couldn’t dance even though he had memorized all the dances.

Rembrary was waiting while fiddling with his phone, and suddenly he remembered what happened yesterday, so he took Jungseo to the corner of the practice room and asked.

“But about yesterday.”

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t you curse at a guy named Maeng Wooshin in the bathroom?”

“…Yeah.”

“Who is that guy that you’re doing that?”

Was it because he remembered asking Rembrary if he was an angel at first?

Jungseo opened his mouth with a blank expression but with only his ears reddened.

“Before, I…”

But he was conscious of the camera not far away, and glanced back.

Eunseon’s camera was pointing this way.

She wasn’t filming with bad intentions, and when Jungseo turned around, she smiled and waved her hand.

She was trying to capture the chemistry between the Wild Animal members, but…

“Let’s talk outside.”

Jungseo got up, thinking that this was not the place to talk.

Only after coming to an empty room where there was no one, Jungseo answered.

“The actor who explained about that cult I told you about.”

“Actor?”

“Someone who is definitely in there.”

“Really? Can you introduce me?”

“…We’re not close.”

Jungseo sighed.

“It’s difficult to completely cure my mom’s illness with current medicine. If the symptoms are mild, you can have surgery from time to time, but my mom can’t even do that.”

Jungseo paused for a moment with a bitter expression and continued.

“So, while looking for a treatment, I ended up going to that person. Because I kept pestering him, he told me that his group could grant a wish once a month by borrowing the power of an angel, or something like that.”

Rembrary was surprised and asked.

“Do you know his contact information?”

“No. At the time, I was almost crazy, so… After hearing about the angel, I thought I was really crazy and eventually turned away.”

“Ah…”

“Besides, he’s a famous actor, so it’ll be hard to meet him right away.”

“How did you meet him?”

“I was briefly in a drama with Maeng Wooshin as a minor supporting role.”

Jungseo said,

“Ah.”

and said as if he had just remembered.

“You know that female rapper who appears on *Sing Survival* with you?”

“Rapper?”

“Beta? That person. I think she’s in the same agency.”

Rembrary soon thought of a person named Beta.

She was a talented person who ranked 5th in the 1st mission song competition and 3rd in the 2nd mission song competition.

They greeted each other, but they had never talked.

“If you become friends with Beta, you might be able to meet him? After getting a little closer, don’t talk about the cult, and ask her to introduce you as a fan of Maeng Wooshin.”

“Jongwoo will try to kill me if I try to become friends with Beta.”

“Ah.”

* * *

After being satisfied with getting the information first, he came back, and the dance instructor scolded him for being late.

Then, after telling Keshi to practice the choreography he had created so far, he grabbed Rembrary again and started practicing.

But no matter how hard he tried, Rembrary couldn’t get out of his wooden state, so he finally turned off the music and said.

“This won’t work. Let’s change the strategy.”

“Strategy?”

“You can’t dance.”

“I know.”

“But you can sing well.”

“I know that too.”