The Voice
“Whoops. Seems I've been caught.”
When Shin Jo-woon clicked his tongue and set down the tablet, his secretary answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“You reacted far too quickly.”
“Did I?”
“Give it at least a day.”
“He can't follow a word I say as it is. If I wait a whole day before responding, won't he just think I've gone mad?”
“That's precisely why you should wait a day. He can't follow along anyway.”
Shin Jo-woon smiled with a look of disappointment, and the secretary let out a sigh.
“Setting aside your reactions, you really are watching him far too often.”
“It's less than fifteen minutes a day. And there are plenty of days he doesn't broadcast at all.”
“……Sir. Woo Yeon-woo is not a radio station.”
Oblivious or indifferent, Shin Jo-woon rested his chin on his hand, fiddling with his phone while gazing at the tablet screen.
“What should I even say?”
The secretary sighed again.
By now, Shin Jo-woon was typing out a text message and deleting it, over and over. All the while, he kept up a steady stream of conversation with his secretary.
“And the palace maid ghost?”
“We've handed her over to the specialists. She'll be well taken care of.”
“Good.”
Shin Jo-woon typed out Are you mad? and deleted it again.
Woo Yeon-woo might wear a gentle expression, but watching him in action, there was a surprisingly petty streak in him. Ask if he was angry, and he might actually get angry.
Maybe I really should cut ties, after all…… Shin Jo-woon seriously mulled over this pointless dilemma, then suddenly went “Ah,” remembering something.
“What about Nakru? They didn't tail you this time?”
“No, sir. Not this time.”
“They've stopped using bait lately.”
With a serene smile, Shin Jo-woon finally sent the text and set his phone down.
“That dog is nearly ruined by now.”
No reply.
Rembrary had his self-cam running and was boldly staring down at his phone. There would be a reaction. He would be shocked. He who claimed to have such sharp instincts would surely be caught off guard. And the viewers, watching this, would gasp, My, how clever Woo Yeon-woo is!
But no matter how long he waited, no reply came. He told himself he'd give it just five more minutes, then waited six — still nothing.
Perhaps I was wrong.
It had certainly seemed like the man was watching the self-cam in real time……
Rembrary sulkily switched off the self-cam. The instant he did, a ding rang out and a reply came flying in.
He snatched up his phone to check — a single message had arrived.
Beneath it was a photo of food that looked impossibly delicious.
Rembrary's eyes went wide. King prawn… butter grill…!
Then another ding, and one more line arrived.
Rembrary wavered between petty self-indulgence and the truth — and chose the truth.
A few minutes later, having settled on a time to meet, Rembrary beamed contentedly, gathered up his self-cam and phone, and returned to his bedroom.
The next day.
Jong-woo had come to the dorm to round up the members, and finding Rembrary greeting him with a face positively aglow, he asked in bewilderment, “Did something good happen to you?”
“Jong-woo.”
“Why is your face so bright all of a sudden?”
“I……”
Rembrary had been about to brag that he was going to eat king prawn butter grill, but he shut his mouth.
Jong-woo lived and breathed diet talk and weight loss. If he mentioned he'd be eating king prawn butter grill, the man would no doubt move heaven and earth to stop him.
“I what?”
“When have I ever not been bright?”
“Well, I mean. You're usually pretty bright, sure.”
Sharp as ever, Jong-woo still found the whole thing suspicious and studied Rembrary carefully, but Rembrary avoided his gaze and hurried back into his room.
“Go change thy clothes.”
A little while later, Rembrary emerged in fresh clothes, but Jong-woo kept shooting wary glances his way as he spoke.
“Jungseo has an audition today, so I'm taking him there. Yeon-woo, you go to the filming set with Gam-jae. And listen up, everyone — we've decided to push the summer song to next year. It's still hot out, but seasonally speaking, it's already autumn.”
Dodging Jong-woo's gaze, Rembrary fiddled idly with his hair, then exchanged a look with Sa Gam-jae at the news that the summer song had been postponed.
So it ends in an anticlimactic fizzle after all. It was a relief, really, that it had played out this way. Of course, it wasn't scrapped entirely, so he'd have to prepare in advance……
Hye-gyeol, Cathy, and Taein, on the other hand, sulked at the thought of a rare opportunity flying away.
Jong-woo patted Taein on the back and continued.
“In exchange, we've got a schedule locked in for an idol trade stage for the Chuseok special. I'll fill you in on the details once I'm back from dropping Jungseo off.”
“A trade stage?”
At the mention of a singing stage, Taein's eyes went round.
“What's the concept? Are we performing this time too?”
It was a question without any real weight behind it, but Jong-woo flinched all the same.
However bad Taein's temperament might be, like Yeon-woo, he was an idol Jong-woo had groomed from the very beginning. Hearing him talk like that made Jong-woo feel a bit sorry for him.
Taein was especially ambitious about singing — and with Yeon-woo's variety and acting career taking off, his own activities kept getting pushed further and further back.
“The detailed concept isn't out yet, but I hear there are two formats: girl groups and boy groups singing each other's songs, and current idols trading songs with idols from earlier generations.”
Jong-woo deliberately kept his tone bright and positive, then patted Taein's back once more.
But for all his efforts to lift the mood, Hye-gyeol immediately turned to Cathy with a sly grin.
“Ooh, Cathy-hyung! It'd be awesome if we traded stages with Yuli-noona's group. Right?”
The words were barely out of his mouth before Cathy smacked the back of Hye-gyeol's head, and Jong-woo, startled, bellowed, “Cathy!”
Cathy dove behind Rembrary for cover, but Rembrary ducked neatly out of the way, and Cathy was caught red-handed on the spot.
“Yah, Woo Yeon-woo, you're such a coward!”
“I merely acted in accordance with mine own conscience.”
“Don't you dare dress it up with fancy words!”
Jong-woo grabbed Cathy by the cheek and squeezed hard.
“You're the one dressing things up! God, this temper of yours, I swear—”
“Aah, hyung, ow ow ow, hyung, sorry, I was wrong, ow, that hurts-yo!”
Meanwhile, Hye-gyeol — still smarting from the blow he'd taken — nimbly darted in and landed a resounding smack on the back of Cathy's head before bolting, and Cathy's eyes rolled back in fury.
“Yu Hye-gyeol, you little bastard! You're dead!”
“Honestly, you two…… Your fans are fight fans, not MMA fans! Would you quit brawling already!”
Jong-woo shouted in exasperation, but Jungseo, unfazed by the chaos around him, kept his eyes on his script.
Rembrary watched Hye-gyeol, Cathy, and Jong-woo chase each other in circles, then gave Jungseo a couple of light pats on the back.
“Go and do well.”
When Jungseo glanced up and gave a faint smile, Rembrary bestowed his blessing once more.
“Thou shalt do splendidly. For I hold thee in great favor.”
“What kind of baseless reasoning is that?”
Taein muttered in disbelief from beside them, but Jungseo calmly nodded.
The commotion was short-lived; thanks to Jong-woo's efforts, order was restored within fifteen minutes, and the members boarded the van and departed the dorm.
Afterward, the three of them headed into the company's practice room, while Jong-woo took Jungseo off to his audition.
Rembrary rode in Sa Gam-jae's car to the set of Dear God.
Receiving his script, Rembrary entered his assigned waiting room to review it.
Normally, the script would be uploaded to the cafe two or three days before filming, and the actors would print it out, memorize their lines, review the content, and rehearse.
But since the day-of script always differed slightly from the earlier version, even those who had memorized their lines in advance had to check the official script without fail.
Dear God was now entering its final stretch.
The couple who had been bitter enemies in a past life were investigating whether Yangheung really was an ordinary dentist — whether he was truly not the man they had killed — while Deungbaek began repaying the grudges of that past life to the couple, one by one.
And the more he did, the more the couple suspected Yangheung, who bore the exact face of the man they had murdered long ago.
Deungbaek, for his part, felt his original self crumbling away the deeper his revenge went — and tormented himself over the exhilaration he felt in that dissolution.
And to unburden himself of it all, he entered an empty confessional and confessed his sins.
But directly across from the confessional sat Imseo — and Rembrary's lines for the day consisted entirely of a few murmured words after hearing Deungbaek's confession.
“How comest my lines to be so few?”
“Be thankful your face is on screen the whole time, at least.”
“Dost thou make any progress in investigating Nakru?”
“I'm…… busier than I look.”
As Rembrary let out a scornful snort, a staff member came by to tell them to stand by, then left.
Rembrary was still reviewing his script on set when it happened.
Lim Yu-han and Maeng Woo-shin were talking nearby, and it was Maeng Woo-shin's question to her that caught Rembrary's attention.
“Come to think of it, isn't your birthday coming up?”
A birthday? Startled, Rembrary looked up from his script and turned to Lim Yu-han.
“It's my birthday? When, sunbae?”
At that, Maeng Woo-shin chided her from the side.
“You don't even know when your own sunbae's birthday is?”
Lim Yu-han wrinkled her brow, shoved Maeng Woo-shin firmly out of the way, and answered.
“Not long now.”
But without telling him the date, she walked off elsewhere.
Why answer and then leave? As Rembrary stood there puzzled, Maeng Woo-shin explained in her place.
“She didn't answer because she didn't want you stressing over a gift. Can't you read the room?”
“When is your birthday, sunbae?”
“November fifteenth.”
“That still seems quite far off……”
“That's my birthday.”
“……I wasn't asking about your birthday.”
“You were, though.”
“I asked about Lim-sunbae's birthday, not Maeng-sunbae's.”
“Hers is two days after mine.”
As Maeng Woo-shin repeated, once more, “November. Fifteenth.”
Rembrary remembered that Lim Yu-han could see demon beasts. She had surely been frequenting some group that commanded them.
Then what if he found her a harmless demon beast as a birthday gift? It would be unique, and perfectly tailored to her tastes — she would adore it.
But demon beasts themselves seemed scarce in this world. His worry was whether he could even find one fit for a gift.
I shall search diligently, for a start.
Just then, the director called for Rembrary and Maeng Woo-shin.
“Maeng Woo-shin-ssi, Woo Yeon-woo-ssi, over here, please.”
From then on, Rembrary filmed the usual scenes of trailing behind Maeng Woo-shin like a shadow, until at last it was time to shoot the scene with his lines.
Despite having acted flawlessly until that moment, Maeng Woo-shin took a moment during the camera reset to fix his expression and gather his emotions.
This was the scene where Deungbaek, believing no one to be on the other side of the confessional, honestly confesses his sins.
The darkness and hatred in his heart, his love for one woman, his revenge…… It was, quite literally, the scene where all of Deungbaek's innermost feelings poured out at once.
Handled carelessly, it could easily come across as rambling and overwrought — the emotional arc had to be conveyed with great precision.
At last, Rembrary and Maeng Woo-shin entered the confessional booth.
Things were likely similar on Maeng Woo-shin's side, but on Rembrary's side, cameras had been cunningly mounted at several angles.
As Shim the writer had instructed beforehand, Rembrary perched precariously on the chair with his legs drawn up against his chest, resting one cheek on his knee.
As he sat there in a daze, Maeng Woo-shin's voice began to drift over.
Unlike his usual bark, the low, quiet voice was pleasant to hear.
Rembrary listened to the voice rising through the stillness, a gentle smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
An atmosphere like this — a sinner confessing while he listened in silence — was familiar to him. He had heard it many times back when he briefly served as an inquisitor of heresy.
“Grant forgiveness for my sins, I pray thee……”
Gradually, Deungbaek's voice trailed off, fading to a whisper.
Right on cue, Imseo murmured in a low voice.
“If thou forgivest not, thou shalt not be forgiven.”
Deungbaek, unaware that anyone sat across from him, lifted his head in shock.
Imseo, still hugging his knees, turned his head toward the partition and whispered softly to the Deungbaek who lay beyond it.
“Thou hast failed the trial.”
In that instant, Maeng Woo-shin on the other side — forgetting the stage directions entirely — furrowed his brow without meaning to.
Rembrary's voice had sounded as though it were whispering directly against his eardrum.
As if a demon had truly leaned in close to his ear and murmured.
Sa Gam-jae, who had been watching the set without taking his eyes off it for a second, exactly as Jong-woo had solemnly warned him to do, also frowned.
Just now……?
— End of Chapter 129: The Voice —