The Scout
Rembrary was taken aback by the sudden talk of being scouted.
"Scouted, you say?"
Jong-woo had followed him out, worried by the strange look on Rembrary's face as he left, and at the out-of-nowhere word scout, he gaped in alarm.
"Scouted? What do you mean, scouted?"
Rembrary scowled and waved Jong-woo off with a hand. But that only made Jong-woo all the more suspicious.
Since Jong-woo refused to budge, Rembrary moved away to the stairwell himself and spoke again.
"Scouted by whom, exactly?"
- I heard it from Du-sin.
"Who is Du-sin?"
- The guy who got stabbed by a horn while waving at you and got carted off.
"Ah."
So the spear-wielding man's name was Du-sin.
The woman went on.
- You have the Eyes, don't you?
The spear-wielding man had used that same word about Rembrary before — that he had 'Eyes.'
Rembrary judged that what they meant by 'Eyes' was not the literal eyeball, but the ability to see youkai.
Meanwhile, Jong-woo couldn't stop turning over the word 'scout' that Rembrary had let slip. Shin Jo-woon had lately been hinting, none too subtly, that he wanted to poach Rembrary — luring him with shamelessly delicious food, no less!
And now Rembrary was talking about being scouted, glancing around furtively before scurrying off somewhere else. To Jong-woo, that reeked to high heaven.
This was Rembrary, after all. The man who never gave a damn who was watching.
In the end, Jong-woo crept after him to find out what was going on.
Following the corridor to its end, he spotted Rembrary standing by the window, phone pressed to his ear, deep in conversation.
Rather than pushing closer, Jong-woo kept a careful distance and strained his ears. Just then, Rembrary's voice drifted over.
"So being able to see ox-headed beasts is what you call 'having Eyes'?"
Ox-headed beasts?
- That's right.
"But offering a scouting deal just because someone can see ox heads seems odd to me."
So he IS being scouted! Jong-woo had caught it red-handed. The terms sounded strange, admittedly, but he leaned in to catch the rest.
- It's not something just anyone can see, you know.
"Is that so?"
- Yeah. People born with the gift tend not to realize how rare it is.
"…Tell me more."
- Are you interested?
"Not interested, but I am curious."
- Ordinary people check their eyes when they want to judge someone's health, right? It's the same for us. No matter how strong you are, having sight like yours is straight-up cheat-tier.
"What's a cheat key?"
- If you helped us with our work, things would get a lot easier — that's what I'm thinking.
"And what exactly is your work? You should start by telling me that."
- Hunting the things you saw. Those ox-headed beasts and their kind.
Rembrary mulled over the woman's words with a grave expression. Was that the truth, or only half of it? Was the one speaking speaking for Nakru — or merely some group that hunted youkai?
If she spoke for Nakru, then it was half-truth; if she belonged to some other band of youkai hunters, then perhaps it was the honest truth…
He turned it over for a moment, then put his mind to work and asked a roundabout question instead.
"Why, though?"
Nakru was an organization with its own deep-rooted values and history. Which meant that if you asked why they hunted youkai, they would surely produce some reason different from everyone else's — that, at least, was his calculation. If he asked point-blank, Are you with Nakru? or Do you hunt Saints?, she would only grow suspicious.
- Why do you think? To make money, obviously.
But there was nothing even remotely Nakru-like in the woman's answer.
So they're not Nakru?
"You can make money doing that?"
- Of course. Rarity like that commands a price.
Truly not Nakru, then?
Now it was getting confusing. Rembrary grimaced, tripped up by his own question.
Then why had Woo Sung-woo worn a sheep mask and stormed the place where Daeju was? Had the masked man not been Woo Sung-woo? Just someone with a similar build and a similar necklace? Was the feeling that it was him mere coincidence?
It was bewildering.
And Jong-woo, eavesdropping in the shadows, was every bit as bewildered. What kind of scouting offer was this, exactly?
At first he'd assumed it was an invitation to another agency, but the more he listened, the stranger it sounded.
The man was scouted for being able to see ox heads, and now he was asking whether that made money.
Jong-woo couldn't for the life of him figure out what this 'that' was that Rembrary kept referring to.
In the meantime, Rembrary's voice turned a touch firmer.
"I'm an idol. I'll be settling my earnings soon enough. You think I'd take up such an unstable line of work at this point?"
- It's a base salary plus per-job rates. If you're good, this could outearn that gig of yours.
"Still, no."
- A side gig's fine too. Treat it like a part-time job.
"A part-time job?"
- Yep. You wouldn't even have to put yourself in danger. Just show up, lend us your eyes, that's all.
"You say 'just show up,' but people say one thing and mean another all the time."
Jong-woo had no idea what the offer was, but Rembrary seemed to be refusing it well — good, good, he cheered silently — before jolting again. His body? A part-time job?
"Besides, what if people see me doing something like that? My face is plenty famous already."
Something like that? Jong-woo's face hardened fast. The more he heard, the less it sounded like another agency trying to poach him. Even switching agencies, his face would still be sold, wouldn't it?
- Hmm. I wasn't going to bring this up.
"Bring what up?"
- Want me to send you your phone call records?
"…"
- Kidding. If I did that, your brother would throw a fit anyway. Look, just come by once and see for yourself. If it feels right, help us out. If not… well, we can talk about it later.
"…All right."
- I'll text you the details.
Jong-woo watched Rembrary let out a sigh after hanging up, then darted forward and snatched the phone right out of his hand.
Rembrary, who had been thinking, Well, at least it's confirmed Woo Sung-woo belongs to some organization or other, whipped his head around in shock. Jong-woo's face had gone ash-white.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Instead of answering, Jong-woo asked urgently, "Are you going?"
"Going where?"
"You didn't get offered some weird part-time job or something, did you?"
"How did you — Jong-woo. Were you eavesdropping on my call?"
"Don't do it. Whatever it is, don't."
"Do you even know what I intend to do?"
"No, but I don't think you should do it."
"That is not your concern."
Rembrary scowled and reached out to reclaim his phone.
But Jong-woo dodged his hand, pulled up the call log, and dialed the most recent number before Rembrary could stop him.
Rembrary flared up — but the woman he'd just been speaking with answered at once.
- Made up your mind already?
"Our Yeon-woo does NOT need a sponsor!"
Jong-woo bellowed it into the phone and hung up on the spot.
Rembrary stared at him, utterly dumbfounded.
"What in the world was that?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
But as flabbergasted as Rembrary was, no one could out-flabbergast the woman who'd just had the phone slammed down on her.
"What was that?"
When Woo Sung-woo asked, the woman shook her head, baffled.
"No idea. Someone called on your little brother's phone and announced that your little brother does not need a sponsor."
At that, Eon Du-sin — who had been lying blankly in his hospital bed — clutched his belly and burst out laughing.
"A sponsor. Ah. That hits the old stitches. Aigo… aigo, my stomach."
The woman glared at him, but Du-sin was laughing too hard to register her terrifying expression.
"The Team Leader. A sponsor. Ah, hahaha. It suits you. Hahaha. Ah, my stomach. The stitches… Doctor? Could we get a doctor in here?"
With a sigh, the woman handed the phone back to Woo Sung-woo.
Woo Sung-woo gave Du-sin a withering look, then accepted the phone and asked, "But were you really planning to bring Yeon-woo in here?"
"Why? Upset I scouted your little brother?"
"…Not thrilled, no."
"The ones who only lend their Eyes never do anything dangerous."
"And Du-sin?"
"He doesn't have to, but he insists on hogging all the action for himself."
Woo Sung-woo still looked uneasy.
The woman smiled pleasantly and gave his shoulder a pat.
"What's with that face? Shouldn't you be happy that both brothers get to join a great cause? This is a big deal, you know. The two of you, protecting the world."
"…"
"Besides, this is an opportunity. Your little brother's a celebrity AND he has the Eyes — who knows, he might even track down the Saint, the one so deeply tied to the entertainment world."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"No."
"It's true, though?"
"Absolutely not. Absolutely."
"It really is, right?"
"How many times must I say it is not."
Rembrary and Jong-woo stood in front of the elevator, locked in a pointless back-and-forth.
By the umpteenth repetition, Rembrary's irritation finally boiled over, and he twisted his face into a scowl even fiercer than usual.
Jong-woo, laboring under the delusion that Rembrary was about to take a sponsor, gave up asking and reluctantly handed the phone back.
"I'll trust you."
"Hmph."
Rembrary accepted the phone with his brow still knotted.
Sa Gam-jae's problem was that he paid this side far too little attention; Jong-woo's problem was that he paid it far too much.
At any rate, the two having reached their uneasy compromise checked the clock and hurried back to the room where the staff had gathered.
The meeting time had come and gone — the fight had made them both forget it entirely.
"Oh, there you are!"
As the two bolted out of the elevator and scrambled down the corridor, a staff member who'd stepped out to look for them snapped irritably for them to hurry up.
Following the staff member into the conference room, they found every relevant employee already assembled — everyone except the two of them.
White-faced, Jong-woo bowed and apologized in every direction before rushing to his seat.
"What took you so long?"
The A&R Team Leader chewed Jong-woo out one more time, establishing the proper rebuking atmosphere.
"I'm very sorry."
Jong-woo apologized profusely, then shot a pointed glance at Rembrary as well.
"My apologies as well."
Once Rembrary, too, offered a grudging apology, the A&R Team Leader reluctantly softened her expression.
Rembrary was the hero who, memory-less and left to fend for himself, had single-handedly lifted a sunken group up from the depths.
What's more, with The Dating Process and Dear God both airing these days, he was a talent whose future only looked brighter.
His contract term, meanwhile, was steadily shrinking. There was no sense picking a fight with a talent on the rise.
"Now, now."
With the air still awkward, CEO Im stepped in, clapping briskly to freshen up the mood, and changed the subject.
"Team Leader Yoo, fill Jong-woo and Yeon-woo in on this too."
Jong-woo had no idea what 'this' was, but he clasped his hands together, made his eyes gleam, and stared at the A&R Team Leader as if utterly fascinated.
The A&R Team Leader gave the CEO a meek "Of course," then began.
"It's about Wild Animal. Before the next album, we're thinking of releasing a summer special album — something light, a breather. Jong-woo, what do you think?"
"A summer album?"
Jong-woo echoed, bewildered. "Right now?"
"Yep. Why? Not feeling it?"
"A special album itself is fine, but… the timing, the season. If we start preparing now, it'd probably come out in, well… fall."
"Right. But we just got our hands on one seriously refreshing solo track. It's the kind of song that's like pouring a mix of ocean waves and soda straight into your ears. Perfect for right now — the kind of song you want to hear this very second. There is a slightly spooky backstory behind it, but honestly, that stuff is all superstition anyway—"
"Ah — so we'd rearrange it and give it to the whole group…?"
"No. We're giving it to one member. It sounds best when sung by a single voice."
"Sorry?"
"So the idea is, one member sings that song, and the remaining four each take on solo tracks of their own. In other words — we put out a summer special album with five solo songs and see how it lands."
The Team Leader tipped her chin toward Yeon-woo.
"After all, this last round, Yeon-woo's solo track got a better reaction than the title song. Surprise, surprise."
Jong-woo nodded. "Ah… I see. Sounds good to me."
A song with a spooky backstory and a 'that stuff is all superstition' disclaimer did leave a slightly sour taste — but if the Team Leader was pitching it this enthusiastically, it had to be a genuinely well-made track. Of course, he'd have to hear it for himself first.
Then a problem struck him, and he asked awkwardly, "But… which member were you planning to give it to?"
End of Chapter 110. The Scout.