Please Acknowledge Us
Rembrary thought of Lim Yu-han.
At first, the Ox-Headed Monster had shoved Lim Yu-han, and afterward it had positioned itself right between her and Maeng Woo-shin.
If the thing had a target, there was a good chance it was her.
But was there really any reason for the Ox-Headed Monster to single Lim Yu-han out so deliberately?
"Seriously?"
"Youkai love people who are beloved. Because when that person dies, so many people suffer. Efficient, right? In that sense, celebrities are exactly the prey that suits their palate."
If that was true, then Lim Yu-han was absolutely worth targeting. She was, at this very moment, one of the most beloved actresses in the country.
Rembrary fell deep into thought. He considered Lim Yu-han a good person, so if she was in danger, he wanted to help.
But helping this man — whether he was with Nakru or not — felt unsettling. If it was the Ox-Headed Monster, Sa Gam-jae would handle it on his own... wouldn't he? Could Sa Gam-jae actually handle it on his own?
"Is this something that requires such grave deliberation?"
When Rembrary hesitated, the man asked again. Rather than being swept along, Rembrary pressed for something more concrete.
"Then how exactly am I supposed to help?"
"Ah, it's nothing major."
"Where did you run off to?"
"Just went to the bathroom real quick."
The moment he returned to the event venue, Oh Jung-shin — his co-model for the cosmetics advertisement — stared at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
"The bathroom's in the opposite direction from where you were standing, though?"
But there was no time to be pressed for answers. Rembrary tossed out a breezy reply and went to stand in his spot in the corner.
His head was still swimming with what that man had told him.
The man had said that Rembrary should just film as usual, and if the Ox-Headed Monster appeared, he wasn't to engage with it — just make contact. Then he'd handed over his phone number.
He really did have to grab Sa Gam-jae by the collar and shake the answer out of him: was that man Nakru or not? Handing over a contact number — wasn't that a signal that the man's side would come calling again even if Rembrary never reached out?
Throughout the entire event, Rembrary was so consumed by the thought that he couldn't properly focus on his work. His expression remained as gentle and serene as ever, but his eyes kept drifting around in search of that spear-wielding man — who, oddly enough, was nowhere to be seen from that point on.
After the event ended, on the way back to the agency.
"Gam-jae."
Rembrary finally called Sa Gam-jae over, told him the whole story, and pressed him on how the investigation was coming along.
"The spear-wielding one came and went again."
"Is that so?"
"You said you would find out whether that man is with Nakru or not. How goes it?"
"He is clearly no ordinary human. He uses his abilities to cut off his own trail with great skill, so he cannot be pursued."
"He gave me his contact information before leaving. Would this be of use for finding things out?"
Rembrary relayed the contact information the man had given him to Sa Gam-jae, then went on to explain about the Ox-Headed Monster as well.
"And that man is hunting the Ox-Headed Monster — and the Ox-Headed Monster is after one of the cast members of Dear God. From what I saw, the one it's targeting is most likely senior Lim Yu-han."
"I shall assign a reaper to protect her."
Rembrary was somewhat dubious about the notion of a grim reaper serving as a bodyguard — but then, he couldn't exactly trail Lim Yu-han around and keep watch over her himself, not when it was unbecoming for a man to hover so close to a female celebrity.
"Honestly, that senior of mine. So popular that even the youkai are in an uproar over her."
The next day.
Since the Dating Process shoot was scheduled before Dear God, Rembrary headed to the studio on time.
A VJ whose face had become quite familiar was waiting in front of the studio parking lot, and when Jong-woo pulled the car over briefly, the man slipped into the van and punched the shooting location into the navigation.
"Today we're filming the scene where you meet Jang Tae-ri's father."
As Jong-woo tapped away at the navigation, he blinked in surprise. "Her father?"
"Yes. Her father."
Jong-woo — who had taken medical leave after having his pizza stolen by a ghost — had never heard the VJ mention Jang Tae-ri's father, so his eyes went perfectly round with shock.
Still, he was quick on the uptake, and grasped the situation at once — then shot a glare at Sa Gam-jae, who had neglected to share this crucial information with him.
Yeon-woo was always like that by nature, so expecting any tact from him was a lost cause — but Sa Gam-jae was his junior in the manager hierarchy. Shouldn't he have been the one to fill him in?
However, Sa Gam-jae was calmly fiddling with his phone, entirely unaware of whether Jong-woo was glaring at him or not.
In the end, Jong-woo heaved a sigh, finished entering the address, and set the parked car back in motion.
Meanwhile, Rembrary took the script the VJ handed him and committed it to memory.
"Today's lines are quite tame."
"Your lines are always tame, Mr. Woo Yeon-woo."
"Still, today they're unusually plain."
After reciting the lines a few times, Rembrary memorized them in no time and smiled at the VJ.
"I don't think we'll have any awkward, floating-in-the-air moments today. You know, when neither I nor my partner has anything to say and the air just... hangs there? You know what I mean, right?"
"Ah, I know exactly what you mean. When you look at the editing, there's surprisingly a lot of that."
The VJ burst out laughing along with him.
"But it's fine. Every other team is just as awkward as we are. Even when you're given talking points, you have to shape the situation to match the words. In a way, it's actually quite difficult."
Following the address, they arrived at a neighborhood nestled along a low hill. It was an area where large buildings rose up thickly around the roads, though there seemed to be few high-rise apartments here. And among them, one house stood out with a distinctly yellow roof.
"Ah, there it is."
The VJ checked the photo of the entrance Jang Tae-ri had sent to his phone, then subtly let Jong-woo know that the yellow-roofed house was Jang Tae-ri's home.
"Whoa, this is pure old-money territory..."
Jong-woo voiced his envy as he pulled the car up in front of the main gate.
"Hello there!"
As they parked and climbed out one by one, Jang Tae-ri — who had been waiting just inside the gate — opened it and came out to greet them warmly.
"You can park over there. I'll open the parking lot for you."
After waiting for Jong-woo to park the car, the whole group headed inside the house together.
"I nearly had a heart attack when they asked if I could meet your father."
As she guided the group through the house, Jang Tae-ri giggled.
"Did you only find out today too, Miss Jang Tae-ri?"
When Rembrary asked, Jang Tae-ri shook her head.
"No, not that. The PD called me yesterday morning to ask if it would be okay."
When the VJ chimed in from the side with his permission and Rembrary offered his sincere thanks, Jang Tae-ri laughed heartily and waved it off.
"My father watched the show too, you know. After seeing it, he said he really wanted to meet you, Mr. Yeon-woo. He kept saying he wanted to hand-feed you pizza himself—"
"Wow."
Just as Jang Tae-ri had said, her father had been waiting for the group at the entryway and welcomed them with open warmth.
Perhaps because Jang Tae-ri was a self-made heiress, her father had the look of a genuinely kind man, with a humble, unpretentious air about him. There was none of that overbearing, authoritative presence that presses down on people, and even the VJ — who had been on high alert since entering the neighborhood — relaxed and let his shoulders drop.
The VJ explained the situation once more to Jang Tae-ri's father.
"You already know everything, sir — that Tae-ri is dating Shin Jo-woon while carrying on with Mr. Woo Yeon-woo here. But you want Tae-ri to marry Shin Jo-woon. So you're going to treat Mr. Woo Yeon-woo very poorly, alright? You know how it goes in dramas. You're not fit for my daughter! — that sort of thing."
Jang Tae-ri's father guffawed and said he'd always wanted to try a line like that once.
But he seemed to feel guilty about the thought of being cold to Rembrary in front of the camera, because before filming began, he quietly pulled Rembrary aside and cautioned him: everything he said from this point on was not to be taken to heart.
Rembrary said he understood, and the VJ raised the camera.
The opening shot was Rembrary stepping in through the entryway, with Jang Tae-ri greeting him radiantly.
Jang Tae-ri's father would be sitting on the sofa, glaring at the scene with visible displeasure — and once Rembrary approached and gave a respectful bow, that would be his cue to start treating him coldly.
Rembrary followed the script, exchanging a cheerful greeting with Jang Tae-ri, then turned to greet her father — with whom he had, strictly speaking, already exchanged greetings earlier during the off-camera moment.
"It's an honor to meet you, sir. I'm Woo Yeon-woo."
Jang Tae-ri's father gave Rembrary a look of remarkably convincing disdain and clicked his tongue.
"Dad." Jang Tae-ri's voice carried a faint note of warning from beside him.
It was exactly the kind of voice a child makes when their parents are embarrassing the lover they've brought home, right in front of them.
Only upon hearing that did her father toss out a single gruff line — "I'm Tae-ri's father." — and turn his scowling face toward the television.
Since the TV happened to be off, the VJ hurriedly switched it on for the sake of a natural bit of staging.
The screen flickered once and brightened — revealing a rerun of a music broadcast.
And of all possible timing, there on the screen was Rembrary himself, singing his solo track.
It was no coincidence. Having heard that Woo Yeon-woo was coming, Jang Tae-ri's father had been watching a rerun of a music show featuring Woo Yeon-woo.
Jang Tae-ri, who knew exactly what had happened, let out a small snort and turned her head away.
Her father, growing a bit embarrassed, covered half his face with his hand.
Rembrary seized the moment.
"Sir, are you a fan of mine?"
Jang Tae-ri's father, staying perfectly in character, denied it flatly.
"I like the song, that's all!"
But since his character's whole purpose was to win over the father of the woman he loved, Rembrary pressed on undeterred.
"Then shall I sing you the song that's playing on the TV right now?"
"What?"
"One, two — beat. Beat. You hypocrite, may three generations of your bloodline be cursed. Your descendants will chew the dirt from your grave—"
"AAAH! Don't sing it!"
The moment the profanity-laced lyrics that had once sent CEO Im into hysterics poured out live, Jang Tae-ri frantically clapped her hand over Rembrary's mouth.
Rembrary stopped singing and stood still for a moment. Then, once Jang Tae-ri withdrew her hand, he hesitated briefly before delivering a line straight out of a lover's playbook.
"Sir, with Tae-ri's hand touching my lips like this, it feels as though my heart is melting away."
Jang Tae-ri clamped her hand back over his mouth.
Jong-woo pressed his hand to his forehead.
That was a line from Dear God — the one Maeng Woo-shin delivers when Lim Yu-han's hand brushes against his lips.
A blackout, the two of them alone in the pitch dark, a razor's edge of tension, eyes locked on each other, murmured in a low voice steeped in guilt — like a confession of sins.
Why on earth was he delivering that line now...
No, okay, he was technically saying something romantic, but why — of all places — in front of Jang Tae-ri's father, reciting it like he was reading off a reaction card?!
Jang Tae-ri's father stared blankly, blinking his eyes over and over.
From the solo track's lyrics all the way to that last line. His face plainly said he had no idea what he had just been made to listen to.
Rembrary quickly gave a respectful bow of apology to Jang Tae-ri's father and delivered one of his mandatory lines.
"I apologize for summoning you here on such short notice, sir."
Only then did Jang Tae-ri's father pull himself together, recalling everything he'd looked up about the boy — how rumors abounded that Woo Yeon-woo was a complete lunatic.
A lunatic, yes — but a lunatic with the good habit of going around saving other people's lives.
So it's all true. With that thought, Jang Tae-ri's father recovered his composure and delivered a line worthy of any father-in-law conflict in a drama.
"Hmph! Trying to score points with me is useless!"
"I wouldn't dream of such expectations."
"What's this, then? You think it's over if you steal my daughter? Is an elder's opinion worth nothing to you?"
"Well, Tae-ri is going to marry Mr. Shin Jo-woon anyway."
"You spineless brat! You're giving up already?"
"I have no grand ambitions, sir. As long as Tae-ri is happy, that's all I need."
"Heavens."
"But I have no intention of leaving her, either."
"You mean to carry on an affair, is that it?"
"Mr. Shin Jo-woon has offered to lend us a spare room."
"You intend to move in?!"
"Someday, you will acknowledge me."
As the mandatory lines and the improv he'd wedged in on the fly tangled together of their own accord, a thoroughly bizarre result emerged.
Halfway through the conversation, Jang Tae-ri's father panicked and called out to his daughter.
"Tae-ri! What on earth is this boy talking about?"
Jang Tae-ri, who had been listening to the exchange in a daze, recited the single mandatory line allotted to her with a slightly put-upon expression.
"Please acknowledge us, Dad..."
Jang Tae-ri's father's eyes went as wide as chestnuts.
"There's three of you?! The three of you?!"
— End of Chapter 102: Please Acknowledge Us —