Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 67

The days were filled with relentless practice, and finally, the day of the new album’s showcase arrived.

The members, who had undergone extensive skincare for a week, meticulously applied makeup and styled their hair five hours before the showcase, then donned the signature outfits for this title track.

At first glance, they looked like white suits, but upon closer inspection, the concept involved wearing flamboyant and peculiar accessories that seemed almost see-through.

“If you have anything to photograph, take it now and upload it. Write something like ‘Please look forward to it’ or ‘I’m excited.'”

With Jongwoo’s permission, Rembrary took a selfie of his outfit and posted it on social media, adding the caption, ‘Please look forward to it.’

Finally, the reporters gathered, and the host came out to conduct the showcase.

“We’ll show the MV [music video], pre-release the stage, and then take questions from the reporters.”

While the host explained the album concept and MV to the reporters, Jongwoo quickly briefed Rembrary.

The other members were familiar with this process, but Rembrary didn’t remember his previous experiences, so he was informed in advance.

“Jungseo is supposed to answer all the questions, so you just stay still.”

“But what if a reporter specifically points at me and asks a question?”

“Signal me. Then I’ll tell you whether to answer or not. And when you do answer, try to act as much like a normal person as possible.”

“What is the standard for that normal person?”

At Rembrary’s question, Jongwoo felt a sudden sense of unease and repeatedly checked his watch.

They had already circulated the expected questions to the reporters and practiced answering potential questions, mainly with Jungseo.

Rembrary had also been briefed on a few possible questions and answers.

But now that Rembrary was asking such a question, he couldn’t help but worry.

Unexpected actions weren’t exclusive to Rembrary. Reporters also sometimes threw out unagreed-upon questions to snatch answers for news stories. What if there was at least one such reporter today? And what if they targeted Rembrary in his current state of mind?

After thinking about it, Jongwoo changed his instructions.

“If you feel uncomfortable, look at me. If I make an ‘X’ with my hands, you absolutely must not answer and let Jungseo answer instead. If I nod, then you can answer.”

In the end, Jongwoo decided to act as a filter in the middle.

He had become somewhat accustomed to it, knowing when Rembrary couldn’t answer properly in certain situations.

Rembrary struggled with difficult words or slang. He sometimes lacked common sense, but the biggest problem was with vocabulary. So, checking this would reduce the probability of an accident.

“Understood.”

Jongwoo repeatedly patted Rembrary’s shoulder several times.

Meanwhile, on the large screen on the stage, the music video was being revealed for the first time.

The first scene of the music video featured a close-up of Rembrary’s face, filling the entire screen.

Rembrary’s face was surrounded by white flowers, and the intro music began.

Then, as the screen moved upwards, it was revealed that Rembrary was lying in a coffin filled with flowers, and Rembrary sat on top of it, starting the first verse.

As the guests attending the funeral murmured in surprise, dancers in black suits and animal masks approached and began carrying the coffin with Rembrary sitting on it.

Rembrary laughed on top of the coffin, saying, ‘I wanted to see your surprised faces,’ and threw one of the white flowers at the camera.

When that flower filled the camera screen and passed, this time, Jungseo’s dating scene appeared.

The close-up of Jungseo showed him as a sweet and warm boyfriend on a date with his girlfriend, but as the song progressed and the screen widened, the umbrella he put over his girlfriend was one he had snatched from someone else, the cotton candy he handed to his girlfriend was one a child was about to eat, and even while kissing his girlfriend, he sent seductive glances to another woman over her shoulder.

Then, when his girlfriend belatedly realized this and pushed Jungseo away, the screen abruptly changed, and Keshi, sitting on a white throne, appeared with a pure and innocent image, singing gentle lyrics.

However, in the next verse, Taein sang the exact opposite of his true feelings in the lyrics, and when the camera changed direction, it was revealed that the black throne Taein was sitting on was a set that faced Keshi’s back-to-back.

And as the camera’s gaze moved upwards, it was shown that the throne was in the middle of a hellish landscape where people mired in mud writhed and crawled, intertwined.

Because it was a song with a firm concept, the MV also demonstrated an experimental spirit… Jongwoo anxiously watched the reporters’ reactions. It was all or nothing.

In Jongwoo’s eyes, the members’ hard work was evident in every scene, making him tremble, but he was at a loss as to how the reporters would view it.

However, the reporters who watched the MV laughed and nodded repeatedly, giving him a sense of relief.

After the MV ended, the title track stage was pre-released.

Thanks to the dance teacher who grabbed his head and corrected the choreography, Rembrary’s clumsiness wasn’t very noticeable from a distance.

If you looked closely, there was a clumsy feeling in the movements, but in the parts where he perfectly matched the group dance with the other members, the beat was right, so the group movements looked cool.

When Keshi showed off his high-level acrobatics, exclamations erupted from the reporters, and when the vocalists Keshi and Taein quickly switched between their inner thoughts and appearances while singing, the reporters quickly wrote something down.

Jongwoo felt relieved looking at the reporters’ expressions.

At least to those people, this song and performance seemed to work well.

Now, the question was whether the public would accept this experimental concept.

Suppressing his anxious heart, Jongwoo took a deep breath.

In the meantime, Rembrary was on stage to show his solo song.

Perhaps thinking it was a bit of a break time, the reporters, who had been craning their necks, sat back comfortably or crossed their legs.

Usually, even if idols had B-side tracks, they would only sing about one song on their comeback stage and end it.

They seemed to think of Rembrary’s solo song as just a song to be briefly shown on the comeback stage.

Jongwoo had higher expectations for Rembrary’s solo song than that, but first, he stuck to the wall to text CEO Im and quickly took out his cell phone.

However, the moment a verse came out, the strength drained from his hand, and he dropped his cell phone.

Jongwoo stared at the stage with wide eyes.

The reaction was no different for the reporters.

In that moment, Jongwoo predicted a definite hit.

* * *

‘Did I mix in too much divine power?’

Rembrary usually suppressed his divine power as much as possible when singing regular songs.

But today was a special day. Jongwoo had repeatedly emphasized this fact for weeks, and the members had been anxious about it.

Watching them, he got excited and tried mixing in a little more divine power than usual. Even though the amount he mixed in wasn’t that much, the audience’s reaction was tremendous.

People listened to Rembrary’s song as if possessed, with their mouths half-open.

‘I should avoid mixing it in this much next time.’

Rembrary thought so, but first, he finished the song.

Finally, after the stage performance ended.

The members all stood side by side on the stage, and the host, who had been to the side, came back to the center of the stage.

The host threw a few jokes and said he would take questions from the reporters, and the reporters rushed to throw out various questions.

From questions focused on the new song, such as whether Wooyunwoo’s vocal portion had increased a lot, whether there were any difficulties in preparing the song, and how the concept of this song came about, to questions that openly sought to dig up issues, such as whether the recent fight between Wooyunwoo and Oh Jungshin was real, whether his relationship with Oh Jungshin was very bad, and whether it would be okay since he was a senior idol.

Among those questions, there were a few that were as sharp as awls, but Jungseo immediately blocked those questions as practiced.

However, the sharp questions weren’t only aimed at Rembrary.

“Keshi, you’re dating Yulli O, right? Has Yulli O listened to this new song? Did he give you any advice?”

The members, who had practiced the interview by blocking Rembrary’s mouth, were momentarily embarrassed.

Among them, the most embarrassed was Keshi himself.

His own affair was already a matter of weeks ago, and since then, Rembrary had caused several major topics, from ‘an eye for recognizing sick people’ to ASMR [autonomous sensory meridian response] rap, ignorance of the Three Kingdoms as a game, Oh Jungshin’s fight, and sponsor rumors.

Naturally, he thought that even if the reporters asked malicious questions, they would ask Rembrary. Compared to those things, Keshi’s own affair wasn’t such a big topic, and most people would have forgotten about it by now.

But one person openly asked such a sniper-like question.

Jongwoo gritted his teeth and glared at the reporter who asked the question. Reporters who were particularly close to other entertainment companies or who aimed to write sensational articles sometimes brought out questions that induced explosive remarks like that. It seemed that the reporter was one of those reporters.

Jongwoo signaled Jungseo to answer instead.

Jungseo grabbed the microphone that he had been holding exclusively for himself and spoke on behalf of Keshi.

“We haven’t sought any particular advice from other seniors or juniors regarding the new song yet.”

However, the reporter didn’t give up and continued to ask.

“But Yulli O isn’t just an ordinary senior or junior, he’s dating Keshi, right? Keshi, as a lover, do you really not receive any advice from Yulli O? Even encouragement?”

Jungseo glanced at Keshi. It wouldn’t be a good look for him to say ‘absolutely not’ here. After all, he wasn’t the person involved in the dating rumors.

Keshi himself had to say these words…

Keshi’s thin paper-like mentality seemed to have been half-torn from the moment he received the question.

Taein subtly poked Keshi’s side, and Keshi finally came to his senses and opened his mouth, saying, “Ah. Um. That is.”

Rembrary wanted to refine Keshi’s mind with divine power. Wouldn’t he answer properly then?

However, the distance between Keshi and Rembrary was too far.

Rembrary was standing at the very end, next to him was Jungseo, next to him was Hyegyeol, next to him was Taein, and next to him was Keshi.

Standing at opposite ends, it was difficult to even slightly stabilize him with divine power.

“Yulli O is…”

Keshi stammered, his head turning white.

Jongwoo gestured to Keshi, silently shouting, ‘You have to say you have nothing to do with him!’

The other members thought similarly.

But Keshi, who sincerely liked Yulli O, was afraid that if he flatly denied the dating rumors by saying ‘I don’t know because I’m not dating Yulli O,’ he would hurt Yulli O.

Besides, if he flatly denied the dating rumors in a situation where there was plenty of evidence of dating, the anti-fans would bite him even more for lying, saying he was hateful.

It was also difficult to admit it. Saying that a successful idol was his lover would ruin not only Keshi himself but also Yulli O’s future. Keshi didn’t want Yulli O to have his idol life affected because of him.

Then? Then what should I say?

In the midst of confusion.

Rembrary, unable to watch any longer, grabbed the microphone.

What is that mouth going to say? Jongwoo was horrified, reaching out with both hands and shaking his head. Don’t step up! Never step up!

But Rembrary’s words were faster.

“Please change my position.”

Why suddenly the position? Jongwoo stopped shaking his hands and looked at Rembrary in confusion.

The MC said, “Oh, okay. Change positions,” while still feeling dazed, and the members looked around in confusion.

Rembrary walked step by step and stood in the position between Keshi and the MC.

While everyone was wondering why he was doing that.

Rembrary was relieved that he could finally transmit divine power and grabbed Keshi’s hand.

“!”