Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 68

< 68. The New Song Is Released >

Why is this guy suddenly grabbing my hand? Keshi stared at Rembrary, dumbfounded.

In any case, the absurdity suppressed his tension, completely erasing it. To be precise, it was thanks to Rembrary’s divine power that the tension disappeared, but Keshi had no way of knowing that.

The reporters were just as dumbfounded. However, they interpreted Rembrary’s ‘holding a member’s hand’ as a calculated move.

‘Brotherhood between members, a member giving strength, Wild Animal’s good relationship,’ they must have wanted to portray something like that! The reporters concluded.

But when Rembrary, who had reassured Keshi, deliberately switched places again to return to his original position, the reporters fell into confusion again. Wasn’t he trying to play the role of ‘comforting member’? Why is he going back to his place again?

Keshi also looked blank, as if it wasn’t a prearranged agreement.

However, Keshi quickly regained his senses and grabbed the microphone to answer.

“It’s a song that hasn’t been released to anyone yet. The music will be released at midnight today, and I think my seniors, juniors, and friends will share their thoughts then. I hope the reaction will be good.”

* * *

Although the atmosphere was chaotic due to a reporter’s sharp question and Rembrary’s sudden action, the articles that came out after the showcase were generally favorable.

Of course, there were a few articles that focused on Rembrary’s sudden action, and there were also articles that sensationally covered Keshi’s flustered reaction to the Yuli O story.

But the public was no longer surprised by Wooyeonwoo holding a member’s hand.

– So fake

– Acting nice for once?

Some people mocked Rembrary for pretending to take care of Keshi, but Wild Animal’s small fanbase worked hard to defend Rembrary’s actions.

– Even if Yeonwoo doesn’t do anything else, he seems to take good care of the members.

– I’m not a Wooyeonwoo fan, but Wooyeonwoo really has a good personality!

– I heard that Wild Animal has been through a lot, so the members have a good relationship.

The fact that Wild Animal had a good relationship was far from the truth, but the fans insisted that it was.

However, the incident at the showcase briefly stirred Keshi’s heart.

That evening.

“Hey.”

Keshi approached Rembrary, who was shaking the water out of his hair after taking a shower, and blurted out after hesitating.

“Thanks for earlier.”

“Earlier, when?”

“…When I was nervous. For holding my hand. It was a bit creepy, but I came to my senses properly.”

“Ah.”

“You son of a bitch, why did you have to grab my hand of all things?”

Keshi was embarrassed and avoided eye contact, then deliberately spoke irritably.

“Ah, whatever. Thanks.”

But feeling like he had said hello too curtly, he hesitated again and asked.

“You did that to cheer me up, right?”

“Where are you looking? I’m here.”

“Ah, come on!”

“I didn’t grab it to cheer you up. I grabbed it to make you come to your senses.”

“That’s the same thing.”

Keshi stared at the floor, awkwardly frozen, then grumbled again, “Ah, whatever. Thanks,” and ran into the bathroom.

Rembrary tilted his head, then casually put the wet towel in the laundry basket.

That night, all the members took their phones and sat side by side in the living room, waiting for the music and music video to be released.

Rembrary was tired and just wanted to sleep, but he had no choice but to sit next to them since all the members were out.

But he was bored just sitting still, so he took a few selfies, uploaded them to social media [SNS], and played around looking at the reactions.

– Yeonwoo’s beauty is crazy: Oppa [term of endearment for an older brother or male friend], what’s the name of the filter you use? The one with the halo behind it.

– YeonwooSloth: What photo app do you use, oppa? I looked for it but couldn’t find it ㅜㅜ [crying emoticon]

– Secret message from MintChocoPlease: Hello, excuse me for being rude. What filter do you use?

– Secret message from Seonwoosil: It’s not all about slapping on filters. Send me a picture. I’ll photoshop a few for you.

ㄴ Wooyeonwoo: Senior [term of respect for someone older or more experienced], are you good at photoshopping?

ㄴ Seonwoosil’s secret message: Hey, change it to a secret message

ㄴ YeonwooisSloth: Is Woosil oppa good at photoshopping?

ㄴ Seonwoosil’s secret message: Wooyeonwoo, you bad bastard

ㄴ Wooyeonwoo: Senior, how do I change it to a secret message?

A call came from Seonwoosil.

“Hello?”

[You nasty sloth bastard, are you going to delete that post right now? Are you at odds with me for photoshopping? If I make my eyes a little bigger, will your eyes get smaller? If I make my head a little smaller, will your head get bigger? Why are you always picking on my photos!]

“Ah, senior, that’s not it…”

While Rembrary was on the phone explaining to Seonwoosil.

Suddenly, cheers erupted from the side.

Rembrary was startled and looked to the side. The members were hugging their phones and dancing.

Even Jungseo was hugging his phone tightly to his chest with a dazed expression.

[What’s wrong? What’s all the noise?]

“I’ll call you later.”

Rembrary hung up the phone and asked Jungseo what was going on.

Jungseo showed him the phone screen he had been holding to his chest.

The number 10 was next to Wild Animal’s new song title with the word New attached.

“Oh, this…”

“It debuted at 10th!”

Rembrary asked, feeling awkward.

“Isn’t that pretty low?”

Hyegyeol shouted.

“That’s really high, okay? Hyung [older brother], I don’t think you remember, but we’ve never started in the top 100!”

“Ah…”

So it’s good.

Rembrary nodded along and clapped.

So, does this mean the ‘level’ that Maeng Wooshin was talking about has gotten a bit higher?

* * *

On Friday, Wild Animal woke up early in the morning to prepare for their first music show comeback stage.

After stopping by the salon to get their makeup and hair done and packing their outfits, they went to the broadcasting station. The number of fans gathered to support Wild Animal was much larger than usual.

It seemed to have increased fivefold just by looking at it. When Wild Animal greeted them, the fans cheered as loudly as the fans of other popular idols, and the members’ faces turned red with joy.

Rembrary spotted some particularly familiar faces among the fans and waved his hand excitedly.

Since he had been thorough in managing his followers since his days as a high priest, he felt proud and happy today, unlike his bewildered state yesterday.

Rembrary was very happy to see the number of his followers visibly increase, and he even greeted the followers he knew by name.

“Gwanwoo!”

The follower who publicly gained the nickname Gwanwoo made a sound that was hard to tell whether he was laughing or crying and waved his hand along.

Rembrary wanted to talk more with his followers, but he was rushed and had to quickly enter the studio.

And after two rehearsals, they had their comeback stage amidst people’s expectations.

– Wow, it’s amazing from the first verse ;;

– Wooyeonwoo seems to have poured his personality into his face ㄷㄷ [expression of awe]

– If you give me that face, I can use it better ㅜㅜ [crying emoticon]

– Wild Animal came out with a vengeance this time

The reaction to the stage was as hot as the music.

CEO Im was excited when the members returned to the company and hugged each of them, and Jongwoo even shed a few tears.

Seonwoosil, who was angry yesterday after his photoshopping activities were publicly exposed, was in a better mood today and promoted Wild Animal’s title track and Yeonwoo’s solo song on SNS, tagging them as ‘the most anticipated juniors’.

It was only a few lines of text, but Seonwoosil was a popular and talented singer. It was very meaningful that Seonwoosil was openly praising their skills. With Seonwoosil’s words, people who recognized his skills would put aside their prejudice against idols and listen to Wild Animal’s new song.

Saturday’s music show stage was also set up wonderfully without any accidents.

On Friday’s , they sang the title track and a group B-side, but today they specially sang the title track and Rembrary’s solo song.

Rembrary got excited by the enthusiastic response from his followers and briefly went berserk, but this problem was treated as a mistake by the camera director and lighting director of and passed over vaguely.

– Power Idol’s camera director’s skills are trash. The lighting behind Wooyeonwoo is too strong.

– Then isn’t it the lighting director’s problem?

– Why is the lighting like that? I can’t see his face.

– He’s only got his face to show, but they covered it up.

– Is the camera director an anti of Wooyeonwoo?

In the meantime, the music ranking rose to 7th place, and the agency was in a festive mood for two days.

In addition, Rembrary’s solo song ranked 9th, and another B-side song ranked 11th.

Jongwoo kept sniffling, saying that they should move the dorm as soon as they get paid.

“Let’s create a fan club, and let’s make the fan club’s motto ‘Defeat Oh Jungshin’.”

* * *

And on Sunday, they were preparing for their last comeback stage.

But after finishing the rehearsal and waiting for the live broadcast.

Keshi and Hyegyeol kept playing around together, and eventually Keshi covered his hand and said, “Ah.”

When he took his hand away, there was blood on the back of his hand.

“Oh, you troublemakers.”

Jongwoo clicked his tongue, but he couldn’t scold them strongly.

After the music entered the charts for the first time, the members were floating on air.

It had been a long time since he had seen them playing around with each other at a music show, so he felt sorry to scold them.

“Anyone have a band-aid? No one? …I guess not.”

However, they couldn’t go on the live broadcast like this, so Jongwoo sent Sagamjae to buy a band-aid.

“There’s a really small pharmacy behind the broadcasting station? It’s really small, but it has everything you need and it’s not that far. If you go and come back quickly, you won’t be pressed for time. Can you buy one for me?”

Sagamjae said okay and left.

But 10 minutes passed and 15 minutes passed, but Sagamjae didn’t come.

“Ah, we should be behind the stage soon.”

Jongwoo became anxious and called, but he didn’t answer.

In the meantime, Keshi’s bleeding had stopped.

“Is that bastard buying a band-aid or making one?”

Jongwoo kept grumbling and decided to give CEO Im a piece of his mind about Sagamjae.

He felt sorry to say bad things about a new employee, but to lose contact before such an important schedule. It was absolutely unacceptable as a manager.

Sagamjae didn’t appear until 5 minutes after returning to the waiting room after the live broadcast.

“Hey, Gamjae! What were you doing!”

Jongwoo was angry when he saw Sagamjae and shouted.

“If you act like this, can I trust you to handle the road alone? Will you just wander around and ignore my calls when you’re watching the kids alone?”

But the answer that came back was very embarrassing.

“A person collapsed. They were dying.”

Jongwoo was startled by the sudden scary story.

“What?”

“I was late because I was watching that. The phone battery was dead because I used it for the last time then.”

“Really? Oh my god, were you late because you called 119 [emergency services number]? Did you go to the emergency room with them? Good job, good job. You have to save people.”

“No. I just watched. I shouldn’t get involved.”

“What? Then the ambulance?”

“I didn’t call.”

“What? You crazy bastard! What happened to that person? What happened to that person?”

“Ah. They became a soul safely. Don’t worry.”

“!”

“I was a little late because I was trying to confirm that.”

“Are you kidding? Tell me it’s a joke… please.”

Sagamjae smiled blankly, and Jongwoo opened his mouth and hurriedly asked, “Where is it? Where is it?”

“It’s an alley between the back of the broadcasting station and the pharmacy, where humans rarely go.”

As soon as Jongwoo heard the location, he ran towards it.

As he was doing that, he heard someone running after him from behind.