The Difference Between an Idol and an Actor?
A divine message from Lady Redrin, he said?
Rembrary stared at the man in astonishment.
Was it true? Or a trick?
But calling it a trick didn't add up — in this other world, no one knew anything about the goddess Redrin. Which meant the man knew something…
"This isn't really the place to talk about it."
Perhaps thinking the man was dragging things out too long, one of the event staff approached. "Excuse me," she said.
"We'll need to keep things moving. There are people waiting behind you."
Rembrary gave a nod and swiftly began firing off the rest of the signatures, one after another.
The staff member stepped a short distance away and fixed the man with a sharp glare.
The man watched Rembrary scrawl his clumsy, sprawling signature, then spoke in a low murmur.
"Come find me together with Woo-shin. I will be waiting."
Woo-shin… Maeng Woo-shin!
Rembrary realized then that the man was the 'Lord Daeju' Maeng Woo-shin had spoken of — the very Lord Daeju he had once gone to see and failed to meet.
"Who was that guy earlier?"
It was after the fansign had ended, while Rembrary was rubbing his stiff wrist. Beside him, Oh Jung-shin collected his pen, tucked it into his jacket pocket, and asked.
"A trainee at your agency? Bit old to be a trainee. New actor, maybe? Did he used to do theater?"
Rembrary pulled his hand away from his wrist and answered indifferently.
"Someone who keeps insisting on meeting with me."
After a few rubs, the soreness in his wrist had already vanished — his divine power had repaired his body at remarkable speed.
Oh Jung-shin recalled the man who had walked off with twenty products and shot back a response dripping with disbelief, as if to say that guy's tastes are seriously weird.
"Oh. A male fan?"
His own group had a handful of male fans too, but that was purely because the songs were good. And in Oh Jung-shin's estimation, neither Wild Animal's music nor Rembrary's solo work was the sort grown men would go for. A male fan walking off with a whole haul of products struck him as genuinely strange.
"No, he's not my fan. I believe he's Maeng-sunbae's… master, of a sort."
That would have been bad enough — but a male fan would actually have been preferable. Oh Jung-shin pulled out his phone, then jolted in shock and nearly dropped it.
"Huh? That person… that person? Him?"
"Honestly, I don't know the exact nature of their relationship either. All I know for certain is that he gives Maeng Woo-shin-sunbae orders."
Oh Jung-shin dredged up the tabloid rumor that had briefly made the rounds before Dear God aired — the one linking Maeng Woo-shin and Rembrary. Then the show's writer had gone and blatantly emphasized the chemistry between the two, so people started saying the tabloid piece itself was noise marketing on Dear God's part, and the gossip had died down…
"So why would someone like him get you to sign all that stuff?"
"He said he's coming back with Maeng-sunbae. Said there's something he wants to show me. Discreetly."
"Show you what?"
"Not something I can tell others."
Oh Jung-shin swallowed dryly. Something he couldn't tell other people, shown to Rembrary in secret — what could that be? A few possibilities flitted through his mind, starting with drugs.
"But why bother calling you over to show you?"
"He said he'd like to try having me serve him."
"!"
The number of cosmetics Rembrary had sold at the fansign was nothing to sneeze at either — it rivaled Oh Jung-shin's own sales. His fans had competed with one another to buy the products in bulk, and lately he'd been such a topic of conversation everywhere that even non-fans had swarmed in just to catch a glimpse of him.
Jong-woo, delighted that Yeon-woo had held his own against Oh Jung-shin — who only months ago had occupied some unassailable height far above them — asked cheerfully.
"Oh, right, Yeon-woo. What did you and Oh Jung-shin talk about back there? His face was something else."
"Apparently he took an interest in the person who got twenty-three signatures."
"Ah, that white-haired male fan? To be fair, that was wild. I've seen guys come get autographs before, but buying twenty-three? First time for everything, I guess."
"His interest seemed to lie somewhere else entirely, though."
"Huh? Really?"
"He wanted to know what my relationship with Maeng Woo-shin is."
"Maeng Woo-shin? You know Maeng Woo-shin?"
Rembrary gave Jong-woo's question a perfunctory answer, then beckoned to Sa Gam-jae, seated across from him.
"More importantly — Gam-jae. Come here and lend me your ear."
Sa Gam-jae, halfway through checking Rembrary's schedule for the next day, merely bent his torso slightly toward him.
Once Sa Gam-jae's ear was within reach, Rembrary asked in a low voice.
"Did you also see that white-haired man earlier? White hair, but a young face."
"I was watching him the whole time."
"Oh, were you?"
"He carried an unfamiliar aura about him. I could not take my eyes off him."
Jong-woo, glancing at the two of them through the rearview mirror as he turned the wheel absently, frowned.
The white-haired man was eye-catching by nature, granted. But for all his good looks and air of mystery, Jong-woo hadn't thought him remarkable enough for Oh Jung-shin and Sa Gam-jae to fixate on him this intently, so the direction of these conversations left him flustered.
Unaware of Jong-woo's feelings, Rembrary lowered his voice further — quiet enough now that even Jong-woo couldn't hear.
"That man spoke of my goddess."
Sa Gam-jae's eyes sharpened.
"You mean a god of the other world?"
"Yes. He claims my goddess sent a message through him."
"What did it say?"
"He declined to tell me."
Sa Gam-jae's expression darkened.
Jong-woo couldn't hear the conversation, but his own face darkened along with theirs. The moment Rembrary had suddenly dropped his voice to a whisper with Sa Gam-jae, he'd felt pointedly left out, and it stung. In the end, Jong-woo lodged a blunt protest.
"Hey, hey! There are three of us here — if two of you go whispering back and forth, doesn't the last guy get frozen out? What's so secret you two have to hiss about it?"
"We were talking about men."
"…Keep it up, you two. By all means."
As Jong-woo wearily returned his hands to the wheel, Rembrary gave him a baffled what's gotten into him? look, then resumed telling Sa Gam-jae about Daeju.
"He said I'm to come find him later, together with Maeng Woo-shin."
"Will you go?"
"Of course. Even Yeomra does not know the name of the goddess I serve, yet this man does. Friend or foe, he clearly knows something important."
"Shall I accompany you, in case it proves dangerous?"
"No need. From the way he treated me — as if I needed looking after — it didn't seem dangerous at all. More to the point: you. Did you secure the ox head?"
"One of its horns has gone missing."
"Are you writing an observation journal, or are you deaf? I asked if you secured it."
"…"
"And Nakru? Have you looked into them?"
"Not yet."
"I truly cannot fathom what it is you're actually good at."
The topic held no interest for him, but Jong-woo still hated being locked out of the conversation. Seizing the moment when the car paused at a stop, he stretched his head back between the seats — and caught a faint sliver of Sa Gam-jae's frosty voice.
"You seem to be laboring under a misunderstanding. My primary specialty is not tidying up after humans. It is killing them."
Right. I am never butting into these two's conversations again. Jong-woo retracted his head, gripped the wheel, and tried to ignore the way his heart was hammering.
Back at the dormitory, Rembrary ate dinner while wondering when Maeng Woo-shin would bring up the matter of going to see Daeju.
As it happened, the call came that very night.
"Let's go meet Lord Daeju."
Rembrary, dumbfounded, checked the clock. Eleven o'clock.
"At this hour?"
"Yep. And tomorrow you've got that… what was it. That pizza mukbang you're filming."
"It's a two-timing variety show, actually."
"'Pizza mukbang' sounds better. Anyway, tomorrow might get busy, so come out now. We'll make it quick."
Ordinarily he would never have gone. But the name of the goddess Redrin, which Daeju had dropped and walked away from, loomed far too large tonight.
Rembrary had no choice but to shed his comfortable pajamas and pull on a tracksuit.
Jungseo, who had been eating watermelon, took in the situation and rose hastily to his feet.
"I'll come with you."
Perhaps because of what had happened the last time Rembrary went out at night to meet Lim Yu-han, worry was written all over him.
But Rembrary refused, saying it was fine.
"This time I'm meeting Maeng Woo-shin, so there is absolutely no chance of a scandal. I'll be fine."
In truth, it wasn't that meeting a male idol or actor was safe — it was that he feared what nonsense Daeju might spout if Jungseo tagged along.
Jungseo knew Rembrary possessed mysterious powers, but he did not know that Rembrary was a false Woo Yeon-woo. And Rembrary intended to keep that fact secret as long as possible before slipping quietly back to his own world.
Jungseo might be well-disposed toward him, but surely learning that an otherworlder had taken up residence in his teammate's body would leave a sour taste. It was impossible to say it wouldn't.
"You'll really be okay?"
"Of course. I'll be back before you know it — worry not."
Having soothed the anxious Jungseo, Rembrary hurriedly pulled on his shoes and headed outside.
Maeng Woo-shin was already there, car parked, waiting for him.
As Rembrary approached, the front passenger door slid open and Maeng Woo-shin curtly told him to get in.
Rembrary climbed inside and dutifully fastened his seatbelt.
"Are we going straight there?"
"Yep."
"Did it truly have to be in the dead of night?"
"You're busy tomorrow, aren't you."
"The day after tomorrow would have worked too."
"You came out because you wanted to see him soon too, didn't you?"
"…That is true, I suppose."
Having given his brief answers, Rembrary considered asking what kind of person Daeju was — then changed his mind. If the man was genuinely connected to the goddess Redrin, better to see and speak with him directly. Instead, Rembrary took out his phone and quietly notified Jong-woo of his night out.
But no sooner had he sent the text than Maeng Woo-shin snapped at him from the driver's seat.
"You're a kid calling your manager by name like that? Cocky little — and why are your emoticons so damn cute?"
Rembrary scrunched his face, shielded the phone screen with one hand, and demanded an answer.
"Why are you reading other people's texts?"
"It had a repulsive little emoticon attached. My eyes went there on their own."
"Repulsive? Everyone says it's adorable."
"Who's 'everyone'?"
"My believers… my fans."
"For people to be fans of yours, your mental fortitude must be at least 10cm thick. Your rose-tinted glasses must be a good 20cm."
Flabbergasted, Rembrary flatly told him he was wrong, then waited for Jong-woo's reply.
But five minutes passed with no answer, and Maeng Woo-shin's words needled at him.
While he was waiting anyway, Rembrary decided to test the waters and texted Jang Tae-ri.
Jang Tae-ri replied almost immediately.
Rembrary smiled in satisfaction. So Maeng Woo-shin had been talking nonsense after all.
Jang Tae-ri called it cute, and she wasn't even his fan.
Puffing up with pride, Rembrary turned to Maeng Woo-shin to present the evidence — behold! — but Maeng Woo-shin was driving this time, not peeking at his texts.
Rembrary waited until the car hit a red light. He almost showed him then, but first he sent a text to Shin Jo-woon as well.
The more case studies refuting Maeng Woo-shin's claim, the better.
But no matter how long he waited, no reply came.
The message had been read — only the reply was missing.
Rembrary tilted his head, puzzled, and this time texted Sunwoo Sil.
Sunwoo Sil replied even faster than Jang Tae-ri had — with a question.
But even Sunwoo Sil, who had been firing back replies at top speed, went silent after that.
Rembrary shot Maeng Woo-shin a sidelong glance and scowled.
Was this emoticon genuinely repulsive? Had his believers lied to him out of blind devotion?
After a moment's thought, Rembrary texted Jungseo. In truth, Jungseo was more trustworthy than Sunwoo Sil anyway.
Jungseo replied in two seconds flat, sharp as a blade.
Not only had Jungseo replied at lightning speed, he'd dispensed some genuinely wise counsel as well.
So this emoticon is not repulsive after all. Rembrary arrived at his smug little conclusion and turned to Maeng Woo-shin.
Maeng Woo-shin, at some point, was already looking down at his phone screen.
And even though Rembrary had proudly shown him Jungseo's reply, instead of admitting he'd fed Rembrary garbage information, he wore an extremely unpleasant smile.
Smiling that smile, Maeng Woo-shin made a demand.
"Send that to Yu-han too."
"Why Lim Yu-han-sunbae?"
"She likes that sort of thing."
There was no downside. Rembrary fired off the text at once.
About three minutes later, an answer arrived.
She showed no sign of finding it repulsive either, so Rembrary thrust his phone out — behold!
But the instant Maeng Woo-shin saw Lim Yu-han's text beside Rembrary's, he let out a strangled yelp and clapped a hand over his own mouth.
"What is wrong with you two, tag-teaming like this! Do it like you used to, both of you! It's unsettling!"
He even scrubbed at his own arm furiously with his hand, as though he genuinely felt something crawling on it.
When Maeng Woo-shin kept picking fights, Rembrary finally snapped and demanded:
"Do you not use emoticons, sunbae?"
"Hey, idol."
"?"
"You're an idol, but you want to be an actor too, don't you."
"Do I?"
"Actors don't use that stuff."
"Lim Yu-han-sunbae used one, though?"
"She doesn't normally either. If you want to become an actor, drop that squinty-eyed emoticon."
Rembrary wrinkled his brow.
"Then what am I supposed to do instead?"
Maeng Woo-shin let out a sigh, then drew a ^^ emoticon on the car's front window for him.
"Use this. This is the actor's emoticon."
Rembrary went dead serious at this thoroughly unconvincing claim, and Maeng Woo-shin defended himself with total confidence.
"I mean it, you brat. Whatever emoticon you send, slap a ^^ after it and you're halfway home."
"Truly?"
"It's a universal language. Even if you say something a little off, as long as there's a ^^ behind it, everyone assumes you're joking. You can't spit into a smiling face, after all. And the more of them you pile on, the warmer and kinder you look."
"And if >-< is attached instead — what do people think then?"
"They think, man, why does this punk keep cracking jokes?"
Rembrary wavered a little. Love him or hate him, Maeng Woo-shin was a famous, successful actor. And since the man's master seemed to have some connection to him, he was unlikely to hand out bogus advice.
Right on cue, Jong-woo's reply arrived.
Rembrary, following Maeng Woo-shin's instructions, sent back a reply liberally sprinkled with smiling marks.
So it was bogus advice. Rembrary flared up and thrust his phone at Maeng Woo-shin in accusation.
But the car braked hard just then, throwing him sideways, and he failed to show it properly.
As Rembrary moved to protest, Maeng Woo-shin spoke with a face gone abruptly serious.
"We're here."
— End of Chapter 104: The Difference Between an Idol and an Actor? —