8:1:1
The suit man grew even more impressed by his composure.
Meanwhile, Woo Sung-woo sat in the driver's seat, watching the scene unfold, unable to settle the tangle of feelings in his chest as his fingers drummed restlessly against the steering wheel.
The only reason he had brought his younger brother here in the first place was a strange story he'd heard from Hwan-shin.
"My partner tells me that white-haired one you brought along isn't human. Is that true?"
Woo Sung-woo had been stunned when he heard it. Granted, he and Hwan-shin saw the world through very different lenses and clashed on any number of personality points, but Hwan-shin did not lie about things like this.
Hwan-shin had an extraordinary interest in youkai. Since the youkai that fell into his hands never again harmed a human being, he maintained a decent working relationship with Nakru. More than once, Woo Sung-woo had relied on Hwan-shin's help to track down dangerous youkai — which made it impossible to simply wave this remark away.
Besides, Woo Sung-woo had already harbored quiet doubts about Yeon-woo's identity. He could accept the sudden memory loss as burnout from idol life. But a massive scar — one doctors had confirmed could never be erased, even with plastic surgery — vanishing overnight? That defied explanation.
A routine blood test had inexplicably unearthed a secret about his birth, and his brother had briefly regained his original appearance mid-saga, so Woo Sung-woo hadn't pressed the matter further. Even so, Hwan-shin's words were more than tempting enough to take seriously.
But now, actually standing by and watching Yeon-woo and Hwan-shin meet face to face, he found the waiting almost unbearable.
He was afraid, too. If Hwan-shin really did say Yeon-woo wasn't human — then what? Had Yeon-woo never been human to begin with? Had something merely taken on his brother's shape when the memories and the scar vanished? Or had he been human once and become something else — and if so, what was Woo Sung-woo supposed to do about it, and how?
While Rembrary had stepped out to briefly set foot in that strange space between humans and the not-quite-human, a fierce and thoroughly practical war of nerves was raging inside the small dormitory.
"I won the part fair and square after all those tests."
"And then you vanished the second the tests ended and real practice started. What was I supposed to do about that?"
"So that's my fault?"
"It's not mine, is it?"
"Right. It's not like you got kidnapped or anything."
"I didn't run away from home either!"
"Doesn't it not matter, as long as all three of us are doing the same song anyway? Did you really need to hog it all by yourself to feel better?"
"You two are the vocalists — you always get the fat parts! For once in my life I'm going up as the main vocal, and now you want to take even that from me? That's why!"
"You two? Excuse me? Wow, this punk's ego didn't just swell — it burst. You're saying 'you two' to your hyungs?"
"Yu Hye-gyeol. Kindly watch your language?"
It was a fight between Hye-gyeol, Taein, and Cathy over the summer song. It hadn't yet escalated to actual blows, but Cathy — owner of the lightest fists in the group by a wide margin — was slowly charging up, clenching and unclenching his hand as if arming himself.
Jungseo watched the three of them squabble for a moment, then turned away and pressed the button on the blender. A deafening vvvvrrrooom drowned out the bickering, if only for a while.
He watched the tomatoes purée smoothly, then pressed the button again. As the blender's roar died down, the quarrel came flooding back into the kitchen, coarser and louder than before.
Shooting them the occasional sidelong glance, Jungseo poured the perfectly blended tomato juice into a cup, wrapped it in plastic, and stashed it in the fridge.
Even so, beneath that deadpan, unbothered exterior, worries of every kind were piling up.
Rembrary's warning that a spirit might have slipped into the song. The three members fighting noticeably uglier than usual. Rembrary, off to meet a sponsor…
Jungseo glanced down at his watch. It had been—
"Three minutes left."
"What?"
"Thou shalt summarize thy point and bring this conversation to a close within three minutes."
At Rembrary's blunt pronouncement, the suit man furrowed his brow even as a smile lingered at the corner of his mouth.
After being refused a gloved handshake, and refused permission to fasten a necklace around Rembrary's neck, the two of them had settled into this delicate, protracted standoff.
Rembrary had delivered his firm refusal, and considered his business here concluded. But the suit man had neither taken his leave nor named any further business, and simply kept dawdling, dragging the minutes out in this halfhearted way.
Rembrary had promised Woo Sung-woo a mere fifteen minutes from the start, and was growing eager to wrap things up and return to the dorm.
"Behold."
When Rembrary showed him the rapidly draining timer, the suit man narrowed his eyes to slits and muttered under his breath.
"What was that?"
The words had been too quiet, and when Rembrary asked him to repeat them, the suit man shook his head. Then he pulled off his glove, extended a bare hand toward Rembrary, and smiled.
"Fine. Then let's shake on it bare-handed. You did say a handshake would be acceptable like this, didn't you?"
"Dost thou so desperately wish to clasp hands with me."
Rembrary clicked his tongue.
Among the believers, there had always been those unusually fond of physical contact. Most considered it an honor beyond deserving merely to meet the High Priest's eyes — but then, those whose courage ran a hundredfold bolder existed everywhere, did they not?
Rembrary supposed this suit man, so desperate to become his sponsor, was likely the same breed. Rejected as a sponsor, the man was now groveling about just for the chance to hold his hand for a moment.
So I shine wherever I go, even without the office of High Priest.
Rembrary let out the satisfied sigh known only to those tormented by too much love, and extended his hand.
"Very well. Here."
At that imperial, bestowing-a-prized-relic manner of his, the suit man felt an odd flare of irritation — but he was determined, by any means necessary, to confirm whether this creature was human or not, and reached out to meet the offered hand.
Many youkai harmed their counterparts through touch alone. Gloves and sealing collars were the safest tools for distinguishing a youkai's true nature — but it was possible to identify one through bare contact as well.
In truth, laying his own hand directly on the other party was the single most accurate method the suit man had for reading a youkai.
And then, at last, their hands met. It would have been an unremarkable moment, if it were nothing — yet Woo Sung-woo, waiting on standby in the car, and the faceless demon tilting its head, its features hidden, both stared fixedly at the sight of Rembrary and the suit man shaking hands.
For a moment, time crawled. At least, it did for the suit man.
The instant their hands parted, the suit man's eyes flew wide open. Staring at Rembrary with a face full of alarm, he murmured:
"Who… who are you?"
The moment Rembrary opened the door and stepped into the entryway on his return to the dorm, he raised his eyebrows in sheer incredulity.
What a spectacle. Cathy, Hye-gyeol, and Taein were rolling across the floor in a tangled heap, each clutching a fistful of another's hair while kicking out at one another.
But what startled Rembrary was not the sight of them brawling. It was the enormous torso hovering above their heads, laughing as it tugged at their hair.
The thing was easily fifteen times the size of an ordinary human's upper body, and it was playing with the three of them like toy soldiers, shoving and pulling — and every time it did, the three's eyes bulged bloodshot as they threw themselves at each other all the more savagely.
Rembrary gave a low whistle, and the giant torso that had been tormenting Cathy, Taein, and Hye-gyeol flinched in fright and hastily vanished from sight.
So that is the true face of that summer song?
Rembrary clicked his tongue.
With the massive torso gone, the three stopped fighting — but they were still snarling, glaring daggers at one another.
"Silence. Take thy quarrel outside."
Rembrary said flatly, then looked around for Jungseo. He worried the man might have been caught up in the brawl, but fortunately Jungseo was out on the veranda on a phone call. Noticing Rembrary's return, he hung up and hurried into the living room.
"Welcome back."
"What a pigsty thou hast made of it."
"They've been fighting over who gets to sing the title track alone."
Rembrary clicked his tongue and said coldly to Cathy, Taein, and Hye-gyeol:
"There is an evil spirit above thy heads. An evil spirit. How canst thou be so swayed by it and know it not?"
The three of them stared at him with faces that said is this guy insane?, then scattered in different directions.
Rembrary clicked his tongue again and turned to Jungseo.
"A remedy must be found, and soon. Whether it be evil spirit or ghost, it is making sport of these children most thoroughly."
"Can't the spirit just be driven out of the song entirely?"
"I fear not."
Evil spirits that nested in songs or dances were weak in power but stubbornly tenacious of life, and utterly erasing one was an immensely difficult task.
Even if Rembrary drove the thing out of the song here, the moment another person sang it, the spirit would simply migrate and wake anew.
"Oh, how did it go with the hyung? All settled?"
Jungseo belatedly remembered why Rembrary had left, and asked.
Rembrary nodded with perfect confidence.
"I told him outright that I shall do no such thing."
"Good call. Things are going well for you as it is — no need to get tangled up in anything shady."
"As if I wouldst."
"Also, while I was on the phone telling Jongwoo-hyung about the fight earlier, I heard about a new variety show."
"A variety show? Again?"
"Yeah. It's called Time Machine for Just One Week — a show where you live in a different time period for a whole week. This time they're filming an inner-royal-palace concept, and they said they want to invite the three of you — you, President Jang, and President Shin. The Dating Process team even agreed to let footage from the set air."
"Why, in the world?"
"They said it'd probably be funny."
"…"
"Jongwoo-hyung said nothing's confirmed yet — it's a week-long shoot, so President Jang and President Shin might not have the schedule. But just in case, he told you to look it up and watch an episode."
"Very well, then."
Nodding, Rembrary went into his room.
Left alone, Jungseo yawned, settled onto the sofa, and returned to studying the script for his audition.
Taein, who had been rolling an egg along his cheekbone, heard Jungseo bring up the variety show and glared at the closed door for a while with an angry face.
Rembrary had declared that he had settled the sponsor matter definitively — but that was Rembrary's judgment alone.
The suit man who had shaken Rembrary's hand had, in fact, come to regard the "white-haired one" with far more caution than before.
Originally, when his partner the demon had remarked that the white-haired one "wasn't human," his interest had been mere curiosity — fascination at the novelty of a nonhuman being trailing after Nakru.
Watching the white-haired one grasp his purpose at a glance through the necklace and gloves had earned admiration, sure — but that only sharpened his curiosity a notch. That was all.
But after actually shaking his hand to determine what he was, the suit man plunged headlong into shock.
[What is it? What's wrong? What could it be?]
Finding his contractor's state fascinating in its own right, the demon — who had been reading a newspaper held upside down — asked:
[That much? It was that much? That much, you say?]
The suit man ran a hand down his own face, then smiled faintly at the demon.
"It's mixed."
[Mixed with what? What is it? Mixed with what?]
"Something I can't identify, something human, and something devil-like — at roughly an 8:1:1 ratio."
— End of Chapter 119: 8:1:1 —