Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 88

Rembrary, observing people’s reactions, handed the phone back to Sa Gamjae and said,

“I don’t remember. I didn’t sing the second verse, Gamjae.”

“Do you remember following me because you had something to say? Very politely?”

“I did something like that?”

“You did such a lovely thing.”

“And? What did I say after following you?”

“You said you needed help.”

“What kind of help?”

“I didn’t hear from there. I suddenly collapsed.”

“Huh.”

Rembrary sighed.

“Gamjae, could that person who asked you for help have been Woo Yeonwoo, the original body’s owner?”

Sa Gamjae shrugged.

“I don’t know about that.”

Sa Gamjae added, as if it were nothing, that all he knew for sure was that the person was polite.

Rembrary didn’t pay much attention to that part because he also thought it wasn’t a big deal.

After that, Rembrary continued to stay at Sa Gamjae’s house, waiting for the real Woo Yeonwoo to appear again.

But the real Woo Yeonwoo didn’t show up.

Instead, Jongwoo called and sobbed with slurred pronunciation.

– Why are you really doing this to me? Hehehe, you hate me, right? Right?

“Your pronunciation isn’t good, Jongwoo.”

When Rembrary clicked his tongue, Jongwoo poured out a bunch of incomprehensible words and hung up.

Wondering what he said, Rembrary stared intently at his phone, and Sa Gamjae interpreted for him.

“He wants you to come to the shop at dawn. The CEO is coming there too.”

“You can understand Jongwoo?”

“How many people do you think I’ve dealt with?”

The real Woo Yeonwoo didn’t reappear by dawn the next day, and Rembrary hurriedly left the house at dawn, just like yesterday, and headed to the shop.

When he entered the shop, the members hadn’t arrived yet.

Instead, CEO Im was chatting and laughing with the makeup artists, but when he saw Rembrary, everyone’s gaze became very subtle at the same time.

“Unicorn.”

CEO Im pointed at Rembrary as soon as he saw him and said that.

“Let’s talk.”

“I’m a sloth, though.”

After Rembrary corrected him, he was startled for a moment, then asked the makeup artist who was mumbling next to him, “Can I use the room for a moment?” and took only Rembrary inside.

CEO Im, who entered the VIP skincare room, closed the door tightly and called out to Rembrary in a low voice.

“I really, really, really don’t want to think this is it, but I keep wondering, ‘Maybe? Maybe?’ so I’m asking you.”

“What is it?”

“Are you a double personality?”

Rembrary shook his head.

“No. Why do you ask?”

“Yesterday, people who don’t know anything said you were half-assing it during the performance, and I checked that performance video too. But when I watched it, for a moment, you went back to Yeonwoo’s appearance before he lost his memory.”

“Oh.”

“Yeonwoo can sing, but if he sings a difficult song without practicing, he sings like that. Besides, he would half-ass it if he was half-assing it, but he wouldn’t suddenly tremble, would he?”

‘He’s sharp.’ As Rembrary let out a small exclamation, CEO Im made a tearful face.

“Did you pretend to tremble on purpose? Or…”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Then? Why did you suddenly sing so terribly?”

“I don’t know why I sang so terribly. It wasn’t me who sang at that moment.”

CEO Im grabbed Rembrary’s head with both hands, terrified.

“You’re a double personality, aren’t you? You’ve become a double personality, haven’t you?”

It was a question, but he sounded sure.

“Yeah, I thought it was strange that a perfectly fine kid suddenly lost his memory. You didn’t lose your memory, you just got another personality. Right?”

To be honest, this was right. It was like another soul was born, but broadly speaking, it could be said that a personality was added.

“The kid who sang the second verse yesterday is the original Woo Yeonwoo, and the kid who sang the first verse is crazy Woo Yeonwoo, and you now are-”

“Sloth.”

“The Woo Yeonwoo who sang the first verse.”

CEO Im, who lowered his voice and sobbed as if he was about to cry, put his mouth close to Rembrary’s head as if it were a microphone and called out.

“Yeonwoo. Unicorn, Woo Yeonwoo, can you hear me?”

Rembrary stared with his mouth open, wondering what kind of crazy짓 [짓 can be romanized as ‘jit’, which refers to an action or behavior, often used negatively to describe something foolish or nonsensical] this was, and CEO Im called out with an embarrassed face.

“I thought the second verse Woo Yeonwoo might come out if I did this.”

“Do you think he’ll come out if you call him like that?”

“You’re a double personality, right?”

“I told you I don’t know.”

Rembrary said sullenly and added.

“It might be similar, though.”

CEO Im stared at Rembrary for a moment, then finally took out a sealed pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and tore it open.

Jongwoo, who arrived late and found the two, hurriedly stopped him as he was about to take out a cigarette and light it.

“CEO! Why are you doing this after barely succeeding in quitting smoking!”

“Leave me alone. I have to smoke at times like this. When else would I smoke?”

“If you smoke now, your quitting will be all for nothing!”

“I couldn’t handle him when he had amnesia, but now he’s a double personality, Jongwoo. A double personality.”

CEO Im put the cigarette in Jongwoo’s mouth and covered his face, sobbing, saying that his hunch was right.

It seemed that CEO Im and Jongwoo had talked about this for a long time yesterday.

The conclusion that ‘Woo Yeonwoo’ didn’t have amnesia but became a double personality seemed to be what they came up with, and Jongwoo looked at Rembrary with a heavy heart.

Rembrary shrugged with a ‘I don’t know’ face.

***

While sitting in a chair at the shop, getting his hair and makeup done.

CEO Im, Jongwoo, and Sa Gamjae were stationed next to Rembrary.

The makeup artists and hair artists, who came to work with sleepy eyes, widened their eyes at the sight.

One of the makeup artists, unable to contain her curiosity, asked outright.

“Seeing the CEO personally sticking around, you’re going to push Woo Yeonwoo hard, right?”

“Haha. I wonder.”

“There are three of you sticking around. You gathered to push him hard, didn’t you?”

“It’s closer to gathering to hold him tight.”

“Yes?”

CEO Im smiled maturely, unwrapped a packaged candy, put it in his mouth, and chewed.

“No. Please make our Yeonwoo look a bit decadent.”

While going to a different studio after finishing his makeup, CEO Im and Jongwoo were constantly busy monitoring various community sites, news outlets, popular online cafes, video corners where performance videos were uploaded in pieces, and YouTube.

At the same time, they constantly checked to see if Rembrary would turn into Unicorn Woo Yeonwoo again.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Rembrary remained in his normal Rembrary state.

The same was true after arriving at the studio. He was fine while doing two rehearsals and preparing for the stage.

However, since his personality suddenly changed during the performance yesterday, CEO Im and Jongwoo couldn’t rest assured.

How many hours had passed?

Jongwoo, who had been rubbing his eyes and looking at his phone for a while, screamed.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

CEO Im, who had been dozing off, hurriedly approached, and Jongwoo turned his phone over to show the music chart ranking table.

“Look at this!”

‘What is it?’ CEO Im, who was surprised, took the phone and also let out a cry.

Rembrary, who was taking a selfie to post on social media, turned around, wondering what was going on, and CEO Im and Jongwoo looked at each other with ambiguous expressions.

With faces that were hard to tell whether they were smiling or embarrassed,

“Why is that?”

The answer was given first by the message Im Yoohan sent.

[Congratulations on 1st place ^^]

“I got 1st place?”

Attached to Im Yoohan’s congratulatory message was a screenshot of Rembrary’s solo song being number one on the music chart with the most users.

Rembrary was also surprised and widened his eyes when he saw an upward arrow next to his solo song title.

“How could I when I ruined the stage?”

Jongwoo clicked his tongue and replied after checking the comments.

“The first verse stage and the second verse stage seemed like different people. There were a lot of comments saying that his singing skills suddenly changed drastically and that he was too half-assed, so people must have been curious and looked up the stage video.”

“But?”

“The people who watched that stage video watched the first verse stage and said the song was good, so they bought a lot of the music.”

CEO Im smiled bitterly.

“They’re calling our company the master of noise marketing [a marketing technique that involves generating controversy or buzz to attract attention]. They must think we ordered you to do it.”

***

Since ‘the real Woo Yeonwoo’ appeared during the stage yesterday, Rembrary was also prepared that it might happen again this time.

If that happens, will I see the illusion of the original world again?

Rembrary was determined to find out if it was an illusion or not.

However, his body didn’t change during this performance, and Rembrary performed the stage so charmingly that even the people who were about to curse him were impressed.

One or two hours after the stage ended, photos of the stage video edited into short clips were popping up everywhere.

The number one spot on the music charts, which had risen due to people’s attention, was maintained for over 24 hours, and the next stage was also completed without mistakes.

‘What is the difference between the first stage and the subsequent stages…’

The shadows flickered a lot during the first stage. Is that why?

Rembrary repeatedly compared his performance videos several times, but he couldn’t find the exact cause.

In that state, the first broadcast date of was approaching.

Was it because it was his first drama?

The members all gathered in front of the living room TV, saying they would monitor it. Even Taein, who doesn’t usually get along well with him, was there.

Taein was the only member who didn’t congratulate Rembrary after his solo song reached number one, but he seemed to be looking forward to the drama’s response.

Finally, after a long, long commercial, the first scene of appeared.

A dark night. It was pouring rain.

The streetlights were all on, but the surroundings were dark due to the pouring rain.

The camera briefly showed the reddish-orange light of the streetlight before focusing down.

A man was kneeling under the streetlight, crying.

It was Deungbaek.

He was crying and looked very sad.

Another man walked towards him with a black umbrella.

The camera showed only the toe of the man’s shoes getting closer and closer from Deungbaek’s point of view.

The approaching shoes stopped right in front of him.

Soon, the camera followed the figure standing in front from his shoes to his ankles, knees, waist, chest, neck, and finally showed his face.

It was Im Seo, whose eyes looked particularly dark because of the umbrella he was holding.

Im Seo, dressed in a priest’s robe, looked down at Deungbaek, who was kneeling, and smiled more deeply as he called out.

“Sunbae [a term of address for a senior colleague or mentor], why are you crying here?”

The bright streetlight flickered on and off with a creaking sound.

It was an eerie atmosphere.

At that moment, between the flickering streetlight, Im Seo turned his eyes to look at the camera, at the viewers.

Hyegyeol watched the screen with a pounding heart and gasped in surprise.

Taein also flinched.

He had seen scenes where characters spoke or acted towards the camera in comical scenes, but it was the first time he had seen a character look at the camera in a serious and grave scene.

In a serious drama, being aware of the camera was a taboo that hindered the viewer’s immersion. Suddenly breaking that taboo caused a moment of fear.

If he had done it wrong, the immersion would have been broken, but in that instant, Im Seo’s eyes and expression didn’t break the immersion, but instead dragged the viewers completely into his world.

Less than 10 minutes after the drama started, that scene became a complete hot topic on the internet.

The real-time search terms ‘Im Seo’, ‘Oh, God’, and ‘Woo Yeonwoo’ dominated.

The viewers, who were completely shocked by that scene, were secondarily surprised that Rembrary had no lines at all afterwards.

The staff was criticizing Rembrary’s acting, wondering how bad he was.

This was, well, there was no room to judge his acting skills or anything.

After an hour that rushed by like lightning,

Jeongseo patted Rembrary on the back and said with conviction.

“I think it’ll be a success.”

“I didn’t know I would be in the first scene. It was the ending scene in the script.”

“The director must have liked that scene.”

Rembrary smiled awkwardly, feeling a bit embarrassed, and quickly checked his phone when he heard a text message.

Thinking it would be Im Yoohan for sure.