Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 4

4. Doing an Interview

Hanging up the phone, Jong-woo exclaimed in disbelief.

“You told him to rest!”

CEO Lim replied shamelessly.

“He can rest after the interview, right?”

“······”

Jong-woo’s lips moved silently.

*Even if he says that, will he really let him rest after the interview?*

*No. He’ll probably shout, ‘Strike while the iron is hot! Let’s use noise marketing!’ and keep pushing the kids.*

* * *

At that moment.

Rembrary was obediently waiting in the place Jong-woo had told him to ‘stay put’.

As he waited, the young men who had gone on stage entered.

“You were here.”

The young men seemed to have come to find Rembrary on purpose.

When Rembrary saw the young men, he exclaimed,

“Ah.”

Now that he thought about it, he was too surprised to notice a few hours ago.

These young men all have different hair colors.

One had brown hair, one had black, one had pink, and another had yellow.

Rembrary glanced at the mirror on the wall.

The hair color of the young man he had entered, ‘Woo Yeon-woo,’ was white.

*It seems these five are called ……*

*It’s strange that they all have different hair colors.*

As he was thinking, the black-haired young man approached and spoke to him.

“I heard vaguely, but you lost your memory.”

As Rembrary blinked, the brown-haired young man clicked his tongue.

“Isn’t he doing that on purpose again?”

“Tae-in.”

“Whatever. He does that often.”

The black-haired young man gave the brown-haired young man a look and pointed to the other young men, introducing them one by one.

“That’s Tae-in. He’s our group’s lead vocalist. The pink-haired one over there is Hye-gyeol. He’s the youngest and in charge of dancing, and he has a foul mouth. Even if he curses at you, just think of him as being like that.”

“What are you talking about, leader jerk.”

“That’s how he is. The yellow-haired one over there is Keshi. He’s the main vocalist. And I’m Jung-seo. I’m our group’s leader.”

The black-haired man who called himself ‘Jung-seo’ looked at Rembrary with a ‘did you understand?’ expression.

“You can ask if you have any more questions.”

“What exactly is Wild Animal……?”

“It’s our group name. The five of us are group members, and that *hyung* [older brother or male friend] with glasses, you know?”

“Jong-woo?”

“Oh? You know Jong-woo *hyung’s* name. Uh. Jong-woo *hyung* is our manager.”

“You keep saying idol, idol, but what is an idol?”

“Ah, well……dancing and singing? A singer.”

“Ah. A singer.”

There were singers who danced and sang where Rembrary used to live.

Rembrary quickly understood.

The black-haired man, the leader, scratched his head awkwardly and smiled.

“It feels weird to teach you all these trivial things.”

“Can I ask you anything I don’t know in the future?”

“Uh, yeah. Well……”

“Why? Can’t I?”

“Well. Your *mal-tu* [way of speaking]. I think it would be good to change it.”

“My *mal-tu* [way of speaking]?”

The yellow-haired young man named Keshi chuckled and chimed in.

“It’s so annoying.”

The young man named ‘Hye-gyeol’ nudged Keshi’s ankle and laughed.

“*Hyung* [older brother or male friend] is just as bad, you know?”

Rembrary muttered,

“Ah, my *mal-tu* [way of speaking].”

He fiddled with his vocal cords for no reason.

*It seems like he has to use that frivolous mal-tu [way of speaking] in this world.*

Rembrary pondered for a moment.

*That mal-tu [way of speaking]… that frivolous mal-tu [way of speaking]…*

*To abandon his elegant mal-tu [way of speaking] and speak so frivolously?*

He didn’t like it.

Besides, this *mal-tu* [way of speaking] was a *mal-tu* [way of speaking] he deliberately used from the perspective of ‘the High Priest is the person who represents God’.

But to change his *mal-tu* [way of speaking] because they said it was annoying.

“You will get used to it as you listen.”

In the end, when Rembrary refused indirectly, the leader asked back as if he was dumbfounded.

“……We have to listen until we get used to it?”

And just as he was about to say something more.

The door clicked open, and Jong-woo, the manager, came in and called Rembrary.

“Yeon-woo. Woo Yeon-woo. Come here. It’s schedule time.”

At the word ‘schedule,’ the young men gathered around him all stared at him at the same time.

“What are you talking about?”

Although Jong-woo called Rembrary, the pink-haired Hye-gyeol asked.

Jong-woo smiled and tapped Rembrary’s shoulder.

“He’s doing an interview. Right now.”

The black-haired Jung-seo, who was the leader, widened his eyes.

“An interview? Where?”

“Ohsola.”

He didn’t know where it was, but the members all made a fuss, shouting ‘wow wow wow wow’.

Rembrary was the only one standing there blankly.

Jong-woo tapped the young men’s shoulders one by one, his eyes shining.

“If Yeon-woo does well in the interview, our group can rise too. You know? If you pick just one good player, the whole group lives.”

“Yes.”

“Do well.”

“Good for you.”

“Talk about the group a lot.”

The young men patted Rembrary’s shoulders one by one, looking bewildered.

* * *

He was able to hear about what ‘Ohsola’ was while riding in the car.

“It’s an internet magazine.”

“What is the internet?”

“It’s hard to explain in words, so I’ll show you later. Anyway, it’s an internet magazine, but honestly, it doesn’t have a luxurious image.”

“?”

“But the photographer there is amazing. Amazing.”

Jong-woo gave Rembrary a thumbs up.

“He’s good at it?”

“Yeah. He takes amazing pictorial photos. It’s called an interview pictorial, but it’s just an interview with a few photos, right? But that person takes it like a real fashion pictorial.”

“What is a fashion pictorial?”

“……I’ll explain that later while looking at it. Anyway, that’s why he’s famous among fans.”

“What is a fan?”

Jong-woo seemed a little annoyed by Rembrary’s barrage of questions, but he ended up explaining the concepts of the internet, fashion pictorials, and fans as he knew them.

“Ah……”

Rembrary was still confused, but he nodded for now.

According to Jong-woo, if you search that place called the internet, all sorts of information will pour out.

It seemed like everyone was annoyed if he asked too many questions, so it would be better to go there himself.

“Got it?”

“Sort of.”

“Anyway, Ohsola doesn’t usually interview unknown idols or rookie idols from small agencies.”

“Hmm.”

“This is an opportunity. Like the kids said, you have to make a big hit with the interview there. Then Wild Animal might be able to rise.”

Rembrary was embarrassed but nodded.

He had done interviews from time to time even when he was a High Priest.

Thousands of believers came to hear his words every day.

Since he couldn’t talk to everyone, he regularly answered questions through newspapers or magazines.

“I’m good at that. You can rest assured.”

When Rembrary said this confidently, Jong-soo, who had suddenly become anxious, told Rembrary about the expected questions and standard answers.

“Do they give you the questions in advance?”

“They usually give them in advance for most interviews. Usually, they don’t call and do the interview right away, so they actually give you a few days to prepare the answers. But this is a bit of a special case.”

“I see.”

“Ohsola also sent a few interview questions by email earlier. Ah, but Ohsola always includes surprise questions.”

“Surprise questions?”

“Yeah. So, if you get a question that’s hard to answer, just don’t answer it. Got it?”

“Got it.”

* * *

The place where the car stopped was also in front of a strangely shaped building.

But it wasn’t as big as the shop or broadcasting station or agency he had gone to before.

Besides, there was a funny picture on the sign, and fire was coming out of the picture.

Jong-woo urged Rembrary, who was looking up at the sign in amazement, to go inside.

The place Jong-woo went with him was on the second floor of the building, and a man and a woman were already there in the seats.

The man was holding an unidentified strange object, and the woman was sitting with a pen and paper.

“Ah, welcome.”

As Rembrary and Jong-woo approached, the woman stood up with a bright smile, put down her pen, and extended her hand.

“Hello? I’m Oh Hee-tae.”

The man bowed silently with the strange object in his hand.

“I’m Seol Young-soo.”

“Please sit here.”

The woman, who identified herself as Oh Hee-tae, pointed to the chair opposite Rembrary and asked.

“What would you like to drink?”

“What should I drink?”

“Pardon?”

Jong-woo, who was anxiously watching Rembrary, hurriedly answered,

“He’ll have coffee? Our Yeon-woo, coffee?”

Then he rushed to the counter, saying he would buy the coffee himself.

Oh Hee-tae seemed a little dumbfounded by Jong-woo, who had gone to buy coffee without even asking what kind of coffee he wanted, and then burst into laughter.

“Everyone is so funny.”

She seemed to think that Jong-woo and Rembrary were joking around with each other.

Since there seemed to be no need to explain, he stayed still, and Oh Hee-tae held a notebook in one hand and tapped the back of the strangely shaped pen on the table, smiling.

“I was surprised to see the broadcast.”

“Broadcast?”

*What is a broadcast again?*

Rembrary was flustered, but he stayed still for now.

Jong-woo had told him to hide the fact that he had lost his memory as much as possible while riding in the car.

Oh Hee-tae smiled awkwardly when Rembrary didn’t say anything and asked.

“It’s been plastered all over the real-time search rankings from yesterday to today. Do you know?”

“Plastered?”

“You haven’t checked yet?”

“?”

“Right now, Woo Yeon-woo, you’re completely a hot topic. Do you know that?”

“I don’t know. But it’s not something I care about.”

“Really? That’s amazing. You’re an idol, right?”

“People are always paying attention to me. It’s not a one- or two-day thing, so how can I be tied to it?”

“?”

Oh Hee-tae blinked with a bewildered expression, then laughed again and asked.

“You’re a funny person. That, that *mal-tu* [way of speaking] right now, is that a concept?”

“?”

The conversation is not working.

This time, Rembrary had a bewildered expression.

While the conversation was cut off again, the man named Seol Young-soo kept pressing something he was holding.

Every time he did, there was a *bang bang* sound, so he was surprised at first, but Rembrary was soon able to ignore it.

Fortunately, the awkward atmosphere was diluted as Jong-woo, who had gone to buy coffee, arrived.

Jong-woo put the coffee in front of Oh Hee-tae and Seol Young-soo and gave a cup to Rembrary as well.

But he only held the coffee cup and stood nearby, not sitting in the chair.

Before he could even ask why he wasn’t sitting, Oh Hee-tae asked again.

“At that time. Yesterday. Why didn’t you dance on stage?”

This was one of the expected questions Jong-woo had given him.

“I wasn’t feeling well.”

“Before the stage started, you shouted, ‘I don’t know how to dance!’ Why did you shout that? Right now, that word is completely hot on SNS [social networking service] and online communities. Tell me the answer.”

This was also an expected question, so Rembrary answered as Jong-woo had told him to.

“I was asked if I knew about the dance of the famous idol NNC, so I said I didn’t.”

Oh Hee-tae smiled with an expression of ‘what a lie’.

“You received that question 0.5 seconds before the song started on stage?”

“Yes.”

Oh Hee-tae nodded, making ‘eum eum’ sounds, and frowned, tapping the notebook with her pen.

Jong-woo watched her carefully.

It was because the interview didn’t seem to be to her liking.

“I don’t really like lying too much.”

When Oh Hee-tae muttered, Jong-woo’s face turned white.

And in reality, Oh Hee-tae was thinking, ‘There’s a reason why they have good songs, good choreography, and good looks, but they haven’t made it big’.

There were people who spoke in a way that caught the attention of others even when they gave the same answer.

Oh Hee-tae thought of that as star quality.

But Woo Yeon-woo’s answer – it wasn’t a standard answer, but it was too obvious that he was lying.

Even if you’re going to lie, you should do it plausibly, or you should do it humorously.

It was obvious what kind of reaction would come out if she put those words in the interview.

In the end, Oh Hee-tae thought, ‘Let’s just do it roughly and go,’ and asked a weak question, tapping the notebook with the end of her pen.

“Do you have a good relationship with the members?”

“No.”

“!”