A Dangerous Element
“Tied something to my shadow, you say?”
Rembrary asked back, genuinely puzzled.
It wasn't that he didn't know something was attached to his shadow. He knew it as well as Sa Gam-jae did, as well as Yeomra did — the problem was that Sa Gam-jae had asked such an out-of-the-blue question, as if he himself didn't know.
Sa Gam-jae exhaled a sigh and frowned.
“There is an evil spirit and the real Woo Yeon-woo in my shadow. Are you not aware.”
Thinking the man hadn't understood him, Rembrary explained again — and Sa Gam-jae shook his head.
“I am aware of that as well.”
“Then why?”
“Because that evil spirit may not be an evil spirit at all.”
“It may not be an evil spirit?”
Rembrary flailed his hands wildly.
“Hold on, wait.”
Only now, mid-sentence, did it dawn on him that he had overlooked something far more important.
“You mean to tell me that while my memory was gone, this time an evil spirit took possession of this body?”
“It appeared and vanished in a flash, so I could not observe it closely, but it was not a presence one could dismiss as a mere evil spirit and be done with. And yes — it did take over your body.”
“I had been on the verge of battling the Demon King back in my original world, right before I entered this body. Could that be connected?”
“It may well be.”
Rembrary rose from the sofa and rubbed his eyes.
“This is troubling. I wish to return to my own body, and soon.”
Borrowing another's body did not sit well with him. The real Woo Yeon-woo was evidently chafing in his own borrowed situation, and whatever fragment of the Demon King had followed him across — call it a shard, call it what it was — showed no intention of staying quietly confined to the shadows either.
And if they were to seize this body…
Rembrary cast his mind back to the span during which his memory had vanished.
Come to think of it, when the 'real Woo Yeon-woo' had seized control of the body before, he had ruined a stage, yes — but he had still known the song lyrics by heart.
“Gam-jae. Did the evil spirit that manifested in my body happen to recognize you?”
“I fainted on the spot, so I could not say.”
Rembrary turned over what he knew of his own memory-less hours. On the assumption that an evil spirit, once it possessed a body, retained its memories the way the real Woo Yeon-woo did, he alone — unlike the others — could not recall what happened whenever he lost control of the body.
Did they retain a view of the world because they lingered in the shadow, while he, once displaced, lost even his sight of it?
“Did this evil spirit strike you as clever?”
Sa Gam-jae recalled the demon Woo Yeon-woo muttering short, biting complaints at Saint Woo Yeon-woo, and nodded.
“It could form proper speech and seemed capable of conveying emotion. Saying that, it almost sounds like some clever pet, but it was well beyond that level.”
“How complicated.”
“Please be careful.”
“You worry for me?”
Rembrary laughed it off as if it were nothing.
“But fret not overmuch. They want me to succeed as an idol even less than I do, do they not?”
Woo Yeon-woo had wanted to become an idol from the start.
The stowaway evil spirit's lifelong dream was probably world conquest, but if it was as clever as claimed, it surely wouldn't go out of its way to wreck things either.
Sa Gam-jae snapped his newspaper shut, sighed, and rose to switch off the television that kept grating on his ears.
The news segment about the two college students had ended, and now an unknown actor was riding a motorcycle down the screen, shouting the name of some beverage. Then light shimmered across the sky, and through a part in the clouds an enormous bottle of the drink materialized.
Rembrary's mouth slowly fell open at the sight. What he was thinking was painfully obvious.
“What in the world is that, Gam-jae?”
“Is the beverage the problem right now?”
“Is it so delicious that one must ride a motorcycle and cry out its name? Is it a flavor bestowed from the heavens?”
“No. In reality, that would simply get you called insane. And kindly focus.”
Sa Gam-jae went to the kitchen and returned laden with an assortment of food.
The moment he arranged everything on the coffee table with a rustle, Rembrary's concentration snapped back into place.
“Right. So if not the beverage, what exactly is the problem?”
“If matters go poorly, you could be classified as a top-priority VIP by the Underworld.”
“Am I not already a VIP? Is that not why you tag along after me? Protection and surveillance in one?”
“You could be classified as a considerably more dangerous VIP.”
“Because of the evil spirit?”
“Whether it is an evil spirit, a minion sent by the Demon King of Woo Yeon-woo's world, or a piece of the Demon King himself, I cannot say. What matters is not its identity but whether it is dangerous. If it is judged dangerous, you could find yourself detained in the Underworld under surveillance.”
Rembrary's eyes went round as saucers. Detained in the Underworld — in that hideously decorated place? He wanted no part of it.
Besides, if he were sent to the Underworld, making Believers would become all but impossible.
Returning to his original body was admittedly the best outcome, but failing that, he wished to stay here — eating delicious food, gathering Believers with ease, and carrying out Lady Redrin's word.
“Very well, I understand. But this is not a matter for me to be careful about, is it?”
When Rembrary returned to the dormitory with Sa Gam-jae, Jong-woo was already there waiting.
Rembrary had expected him to blow up and unleash a torrent of nagging, but instead Jong-woo just looked troubled and asked anxiously,
“You okay? They said you collapsed?”
At the sight of Sa Gam-jae, the man merely shrugged with an expression that said well, it's not untrue.
Fair enough. That much was true. Rembrary had no memory from the moment the evil spirit had pushed him out of control, but the body had, in fact, crumpled to the floor.
“I do feel a bit drained,” Rembrary replied listlessly, and Jong-woo merely pursed his lips, worried for no good reason.
It bothered him — the kid kept dropping like a fly. Could it be connected to the memory loss?
The last health checkup had come back clean, but still, just in case, shouldn't they get him re-examined at a different hospital?
Rembrary left Jong-woo to his worrying and went to his room to change clothes.
Watching him so composed, blissfully unaware of anyone else's concerns, Jong-woo felt his own heart lighten a little in spite of himself.
Still, he made Sa Gam-jae promise firmly.
“You two only met by chance, but he's collapsed in front of you twice now. Maybe there's something about you he unusually trusts. If you run into him anywhere else, take good care of him.”
“Of course.”
A little while later, Rembrary emerged in a training outfit. There was no scheduled agenda for the day, so he had dressed for comfort — though "comfort" meant a well-tailored set that matched top and bottom perfectly, so it hardly read as loungewear.
But contrary to Rembrary's expectation of a free day, Jong-woo herded the members not to the agency office but to a broadcasting station, explaining as they went.
“The Chuseok special I mentioned through Jung-seo got confirmed. The participating teams meet in advance to greet each other, put faces to names, and get briefed on a few ground rules.”
“Should you not have told us in advance, Jong-woo?”
“Why?”
“Look at my clothes.”
“They're pretty. They suit you. You look sharp?”
“That is not the clothes being sharp — that is the hanger wearing them.”
Cathy had thought Rembrary looked perfectly fine in them. But the sulky face was too good to pass up, so he kept needling him.
Yet once they actually arrived, he found he was in no position to tease anyone.
“Huh? It's Yuli noona.”
Hye-gyeol said it to rib Cathy, but it was true — among the Chuseok special's filming lineup was the group that Yuli O belonged to.
The PD in charge of the special soon arrived and gave the assembled teams a brief rundown of the program's concept and performance format.
Yuli O visibly startled at the sight of Cathy, but made a point of not letting on that they knew each other.
After that, they drew lots — which songs the boy groups and girl groups would cover in their own style, and which group songs the currently active idols and the retired idols would perform — all by lottery.
Only after the PD had walked them through the rules and procedures a few more times did the members pile into Jong-woo's car and head straight back to the office.
Their faces stayed grim the entire ride.
Jung-seo, as the leader, had stepped up to draw the paper slip — and of all the groups they could have been assigned, it had to be Long Distance, Yuli O's group.
Long Distance's choreography was full of high-difficulty synchronized routines, but what gnawed at them more was that it was Yuli's group.
The members kept stealing glances at Cathy the whole way. He was pale as a sheet, reduced to gnawing at his fingernails.
And who could blame him.
Cathy's fans and Yuli's fans alike wanted the two of them kept apart — no more entanglement of any kind, whether in tabloid articles or at broadcasting stations.
Neither side had officially confirmed the dating rumors, but most people already assumed the two were together; the comments brought it up constantly.
And now, on top of all that, Wild Animal was going to perform a song by Yuli's group. Just imagining how both fanbases would react was enough to make his whole body go stiff.
The discussion over which Long Distance song Wild Animal would cover got pushed back a little after they reached the agency.
It wasn't just the dating scandal — there was the question of which Long Distance song could be performed without damaging the image Wild Animal had been crafting lately, how it should be rearranged, recruiting an arranger, a composer, a choreographer… There was so much to decide that they first had to gather everyone who needed a seat at the table.
While they waited, the members each drifted off to their own tasks. Jung-seo seemed a little on edge, waiting on audition results; Cathy took his frustration out on nothing in particular, blaming it all on Hye-gyeol's big mouth; Tae-in hummed to himself, working out his own rough arrangement of a Long Distance song.
In the meantime, Rembrary met with Ox-Head on the rooftop.
It was lucky for him that Ox-Head had come looking first — there had been something Rembrary absolutely needed to say to him yesterday, before those men presumed to be from Nakru had intervened and cut the questioning short.
[Strong! So strong! Far stronger than I thought. Could it be the Great Demon sent you for our sake? My heart went pitter-patter, pitter-patter!]
Rembrary stared strangely at Ox-Head, who was acting far more delighted than usual, and answered flatly.
“I am not.”
[But so strong! Very strong! The cows applaud you, they applaud!]
“More to the point — what I tried to ask you yesterday. May I ask it again?”
[You may ask the Great Demon anything!]
“How many times must I tell you, I am not the Great Demon.”
[But……]
“Setting that aside — Mooyae. A build about your size. The form of a large human male, and as for the face, any demon beast will do so long as it has one attached. Could you find me such a demon beast?”
[A demon beast?]
Ox-Head pointed a finger at himself.
“Not you. Another demon beast. But it must be thoroughly gentle in temperament. Do you know of one?”
[Gentle? Gentle? Gentler than Mooyae? How am I?]
“How are you gentle in any way?”
The fellow tore out both his own horns whenever he got angry and swung them around like weapons. Rembrary clicked his tongue and gave the order again.
“A disposition that will do no harm to humans. Can you bring me one?”
[By when?]
“By today.”
Demanded to produce a large but gentle demon beast within a single day — in this world, where youkai were few and far between to begin with, Rembrary's request was an unreasonable one.
Yet whether one should call it fortunate or not, there were far more demons about today than usual.
The demon beasts and demons hoping to curry favor with Rembrary after last night's events were prowling the area close by.
Daring not to approach, they simply circled round and round in the vicinity, so Ox-Head singled out the one among them that best matched the conditions Rembrary had described and brought it back.
[Will this one do?]
Rembrary nodded with satisfaction.
The demon beast Ox-Head had fetched was broad-shouldered, possessed the body of a large human male, and had a perfectly intact tiger's head attached.
It matched Im Yu-han's requirements exactly — a perfect gift to present to her tomorrow.
— End of Chapter 132: A Dangerous Element —