Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 46

46. Venice Carnival

“Were you surprised earlier?”

Representative Im asked, driving me back to the accommodation.

“I don’t know what’s going on at all.”

When Rembrary confessed honestly, Representative Im explained the whole story.

“Ah, Writer Shim is a friend from when I was a road manager. Of course, back then, she hadn’t even debuted.”

“What ‘bong’?” [Bong is likely a slang term or inside joke, here implying ‘before she was famous’.]

“I mean, we were friends before she had any dramas with her name on them.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Anyway, she’s a very famous drama writer now, and she saw your pictorial this time—the one you took in a coffin, the one she mentioned earlier. She said she wanted to cast you as a supporting character after seeing that. So, I took you there to show you in person.”

Representative Im’s lips curled up.

“It’s a drama that’s been confirmed for broadcast, so if it goes well, you can make a real impression.”

“Is my appearance in it confirmed?”

“Yeah. Just sign the contract. But you’ll probably go as is.”

“What is the drama about?”

“The title is … Ah, just a moment.”

When the traffic light turned red, Representative Im reached back with one hand and placed a black bag on Rembrary’s lap.

“There’s a synopsis inside. Take a look.”

Rembrary opened the bag.

There was a card wallet, a long wallet, candy, a cigarette case with ‘Bong’ written on it, and a neat file in between.

“Is this it?”

“That’s it.”

Opening the file revealed a synopsis with written largely in the center.

Rembrary read the synopsis.

The genre was described as romance and drama, but uniquely, the male lead was a priest, and the female lead was a dentist.

“Do priests date here?”

“Depends on the religion, right? But the male lead there is a priest who shouldn’t be dating.”

“But why is there a female lead? Is it about corruption?”

“Read it.”

Representative Im, seemingly annoyed to explain, smoothly turned the steering wheel.

Rembrary glanced at his profile before lowering his head to read the synopsis.

“The male lead is a devout priest, but due to an accidental event, he recalls his past life…”

In that past life’s memories, there was a woman the male lead loved to death.

However, the male lead gets entangled in various circumstances, and the woman dies after saving him.

When his lover dies, the male lead hates God, the world, and people, saying, “There is no God in this world,” and commits suicide.

Then, after being reincarnated, he becomes a devout priest.

The male lead’s faith in his current life begins to waver because of his past memories, and then he goes to the dentist and meets a woman.

A dentist, the female lead.

A woman who looks exactly like his lover from his past life.

The male lead and female lead are drawn to each other from the moment they first meet.

Still, the male lead tries to distance himself from the female lead while seeking God, but he is shocked to learn that the female lead is the same age as him and was born one day earlier than him.

In his past life, the two of them died one day apart.

Even the dates of death and birth are exactly twelve hours apart.

The male lead thinks that the female lead is the reincarnation of the lover who saved him and died, and he becomes even more tormented.

In the meantime, a middle-aged couple comes to the male lead’s church as new parishioners, and that middle-aged couple was the couple who tormented him in his past life and eventually caused his lover to die.

They have lived on as they are and have become middle-aged.

The male lead’s decision to discover love and confront his past life’s enemies is the main storyline of the drama.

Rembrary was surprised and asked Representative Im.

“What’s the ending of this?”

“Do you think it’ll be interesting?”

Rembrary widened his eyes and nodded.

Being a current priest [referring to Rembrary’s past life], he was very emotionally invested.

Representative Im glanced at Rembrary and chuckled, saying.

“Look at the character introductions below. There’s a name ‘Im Seo,’ right?”

“There is.”

Rembrary found the name in the male lead-related character section.

“You’ll be playing his role.”

At Representative Im’s words, Rembrary read the description of the name ‘Im Seo.’

A priest who silently follows the male lead around, a mysterious figure who only plays a supporting role to the male lead even though he’s wearing a priest’s robe.

He was naturally insensitive to the emotions of others, making him prone to falling into crime, but the male lead noticed this when he was young and took care of him, bringing him along.

Due to this special mental state, it was also explained that he was specifically in the same parish.

The last line of the description read, ‘Almost no change in expression. Does not say anything,’ and Representative Im had underlined it in red with a star drawn next to it.

As Rembrary stared intently at that part, Representative Im proudly asked.

“Perfect for you, right?”

“Hmm. I think I’d be better at the male lead role.”

“You’re surprisingly ambitious? No way. Start practicing your acting from now on, at least. I’ll let Jongwoo know when the schedule comes out.”

* * *

On Sunday, Jongwoo, who came to visit Rembrary at the accommodation, was very impressed.

“Hey, you said you wanted to make it big, and you immediately snagged a supporting role on a public broadcast?”

The members were bewildered by all the things that had happened while they were away.

Someone, whether an anti-fan or a stalker, had left a letter with blades stuck in it, and Rembrary had suddenly been cast as a significant supporting character.

It was hard to know what was going on.

“Isn’t this a disadvantageous time, not a vacation?”

While stopping Hyegyeol, who was grumbling, Jongwoo also instructed Jeongseo.

“Jeongseo. You’ll be taking acting lessons with Yeonwoo from now on, so go and listen together.”

“Me too?”

“The representative told me to do it with you. This time, the image fits Yeonwoo perfectly, so Yeonwoo is going in, but the representative said he’s looking for a place to put you too.”

“!”

“He said he’ll put you in as soon as Yeonwoo’s reaction is good, so you should practice in advance. If you want to have a role with lines.”

Hyegyeol made a tearful face and

“What about me? Me?”

he asked.

Originally, Hyegyeol also aspired to be an actor, so he seemed very envious of this situation.

Jongwoo felt sorry and patted him on the shoulder.

“The representative will take care of you too. But you’re at an ambiguous age right now, or rather, your face is a bit ambiguous.”

“Why is my face!”

“You look too young for your age. You’re too tall to go as a child actor, and you look too much like a baby to do it at your age.”

“So, what am I supposed to do about being born with a youthful face!”

“That’s right. We can’t do anything about something you can’t do anything about.”

* * *

Monday was the day the results of the third competition were announced.

Rembrary, who went to the studio, sat in the now-familiar chair and listened to the results announcement.

Everyone expected Rembrary to be in last place, so he was rather calm today.

After all, there was also a last-place exemption ticket.

However, unexpectedly, he achieved good results in the music charts and ranked 15th.

The theme for the next 4th competition was Carnival.

“If you’re 15th, you might have a little less screen time this time.”

Jongwoo clicked his tongue, saying that Rembrary was in an ambiguous position after ranking 15th.

On the other hand, the contestant who came in last place for the first time had always been in the upper-middle ranks, but he was chuckling because he seemed to like the penalty he had to pay this time.

“Yoon Yoong, that kid is surprisingly strange. The penalty is bungee jumping, why is he so happy?”

“What is bungee jumping?”

“Jumping off a really high place with a rope attached.”

“Execution?”

“On the body, not the neck.”

Jongwoo clicked his tongue at the contestant, but anyway, it was a happy ending since he was happy.

Just in time, a call came that the third composer he had commissioned for this album preparation had written and sent a new song, so Jongwoo quickly took Keshi and Rembrary, along with two cameramen, and drove to the agency.

At the same time, he encouraged Rembrary and Keshi to keep talking in order to secure broadcast footage.

“Yeonwoo. Do you even know what a carnival is?”

“Roughly.”

“You’ll have to sing incredibly flamboyantly this time. It’s basically a festival.”

While Keshi and Jongwoo were talking, Rembrary searched for information about carnivals on his phone.

Keshi saw Rembrary searching for the Brazilian Carnival and quickly said.

“I’m doing the Brazilian Carnival.”

Rembrary glared at Keshi with narrowed eyes, but Keshi shrugged and avoided his gaze.

Keshi’s cameraman laughed without knowing the situation and teased Keshi.

“If you’re doing the Brazilian Carnival, there’s a lot of exposure, are you okay with that?”

“I’m okay with it. I’m totally confident in my abs. Unlike him.”

Rembrary pressed his stomach to refute, but when the flesh went in softly, he decided that abs weren’t important at all.

“Water fat. Squishy fat. Yeonwoo’s belly fat.”

As Keshi snickered next to him, Eunseon smiled awkwardly and asked Rembrary.

“What are you going to do, Yeonwoo?”

“Just a moment.”

Rembrary quickly searched the internet again and chose a carnival that seemed as famous and had as much information as the Brazilian Carnival.

“Venice Carnival.”

“Wow, that’s cool. I really liked going there.”

“Mask?”

“They wear really fancy masks, right? How are you going to do it?”

* * *

“You’re going to do four roles in one person?”

When the composer came to arrange the song,

Rembrary shared the idea he had been thinking about ever since he heard the word mask.

The composer was taken aback and asked.

“Can you do it?”

“I think I can do it if I wear a mask. Can you arrange the song so that four people are talking to each other?”

“In what way?”

“I’m going to use four masks: an angry mask, a smiling mask, a crying mask, and an expressionless mask.”

Rembrary showed the composer the mask images he had saved in advance and explained.

The composer listened intently and smiled, saying it would be okay.

Keshi said that he wanted to make the stage as rich as possible with the passionate, fiery, and flamboyant appearance of the Brazilian Carnival, and the composer decided to make Keshi’s arrangement as sonically flamboyant as possible.

After that, the members all gathered together and listened to the new song sent by the third composer, and the third song was also very pleasant to listen to.

In particular, the addictive chorus was impressive, so they discussed again whether to make this the title track or another song the title track.

Everyone agreed to put all three songs on the album.

After that, they still couldn’t decide which song to make the title track until Thursday.

However, the arrangement for the competition was completed very pleasantly, as requested by Rembrary and Keshi.

But that evening.

In a situation where only practice was left, the composer called Jongwoo and apologized.

– I’m so sorry, Jongwoo. Due to time constraints, I won’t be able to do that work.

Suddenly, he said that he could not finish the arrangement work.

Jongwoo jumped up and protested, but the composer was adamant.

“It’s okay. The song is almost finished anyway.”

Rembrary comforted Jongwoo and said that he would practice with what had been completed so far.

But the next day.

Eunseon, who came with a hurried face, told Jongwoo and Rembrary unexpected news.

“I saw it at the meeting last night—what Yeonwoo has arranged so far. It’s incredibly similar to another contestant’s arrangement.”

“What?”

Rembrary looked at Eunseon in surprise.

“Really?”

Jongwoo also widened his eyes.

“No, how?”

Eunseon looked around and lowered her voice.

“Until Wednesday, that person was doing the Brazilian Carnival. But on Thursday, he suddenly said he was going to change it, and he brought an arrangement similar to Yeonwoo’s.”