The Pursuit
For Rembrary, who had sworn to devote his entire life to the goddess, it had been the simple truth. He didn't particularly care for Cathy, but he had genuinely intended to guide him into the faith of Redrin. After all, one cannot accept only the people one likes as believers.
Redrin has commanded me to gather believers to her….
But to Cathy — who, for all that he'd fought with Yuli, had no intention whatsoever of breaking up with her — Rembrary's words had landed with the weight of a curse. To be told he lacked the fortune to ever welcome a spouse.
Even so, the quarrel didn't escalate much. The shop was crowded, and Yuli, having been followed here earlier by her fellow member, soon reappeared after the two of them had a private word. Cathy kept glancing at Yuli's expression, then went quiet again, fiddling with his phone and affecting the air of a man transcended beyond worldly concerns.
Yeah. She definitely rejected him.
Rembrary harbored this perfectly reasonable suspicion, but Jong-woo kept signaling watch your mouth from across the room, so he refrained from pressing Cathy further. Apparently the boy needed no consolation.
A believer I could have gained.
Rembrary lamented the missed opportunity, but what was done was done. All he could do was wait for the next one.
"Ah, Director Kang. Could you keep the boys' makeup a little softer than usual today?"
"You mean, downturned at the corners of the eyes?"
"You can judge that yourself once you've looked at their faces… It's just, we're going for this whole heartbroken, suffering-after-a-breakup vibe. I want that feeling to come through."
"Ahh, so you're singing a breakup song. What are you performing?"
"Come on, where's the fun in it if I spoil it now?"
"It's no fun even without spoilers."
"Haha, my apologies. Oh — but do Yeon-woo's makeup the way you did for his solo song. That same mood… you know what I mean, yes?"
The makeup artists at the shop had handled Wild Animal's styling throughout this entire album, so they shaped the members' images exactly as Jong-woo envisioned. Makeup flowed into hair, and soon all the preparations were completed quietly and efficiently, and the members of Wild Animal climbed back into the van.
But even after they arrived at the broadcasting station, the awkward atmosphere refused to lift.
They had all gathered to record the same program, so before long Long Distance arrived as well.
Even while greeting the staff and the PD, Cathy and Yuli refused to so much as glance at each other, exactly as they had at the shop.
It was so blatant that eventually even the staff picked up on the strange current between the two and began exchanging meaningful looks of their own.
Finally, while they were waiting in the green room, Hye-gyeol could no longer contain his curiosity and stepped in to ask.
"Hyung, did you seriously fight with Yuli noona? What happened?"
"Dunno. Quit it." Cathy waved a hand as if his head were splitting.
Hye-gyeol, who had asked exactly one question, waved his hand right back, needled for no reason.
"What, I ask one thing and I'm being noisy?"
Under normal circumstances Cathy would have snapped back instantly, but he was too thoroughly drained to answer.
Still, no matter how deflated Cathy was, unless he was physically ill the schedule had to go on. One could hardly skip a broadcast with the excuse of I fought with my lover.
At last, after two rehearsals, Wild Animal — who had been standing by for the main recording — took the stage.
The concept of this program was simple: no talk segments, no games — the performers simply presented their own songs as though appearing on a genuine music broadcast.
Accordingly, when the MCs introduced the songs, they handled it as though Long Distance's song were simply one of Wild Animal's own.
It was a stroke of fortune for Jong-woo. Rembrary, who couldn't dance to begin with, would at the very least have no opportunity for a verbal blunder.
Besides, once Rembrary was up on that stage, what he lacked in dancing skill he more than made up for in visible effort. Sure, his lines were a mess and his body creaked like an old door, but Jong-woo could see exactly how hard Rembrary was working to force his body to move. It would have been nicer if the results matched the effort, though.
But that voice — that voice really is something else.
The rap that wove through the middle of the song genuinely made one wonder: if a devil ever whispered to a man, surely it would sound like this.
At last the song ended, and Rembrary and the members came down off the stage. Though the music-broadcast format was only borrowed, there was no on-air announcement segment, so Jong-woo whisked the members straight back to the waiting room.
The moment they arrived, Rembrary yawned and began nodding off. He hadn't slept properly the night before, having spent it investigating Labrum; then Jong-woo had arrived, and they'd headed straight for the shop. The sleep debt was collecting itself now, his eyelids growing heavy all at once.
The other members were every bit as exhausted, and one by one they began dozing off together in the waiting room. There was no announcement to film, but they still had to greet the director and staff once shooting wrapped, so they were enduring it there on standby.
Then a call came from Jang Tae-ri, and before long Rembrary had to step out of the waiting room.
"Butter-grilled shrimp? Jo-woon doesn't know a thing. Shrimp is meant to be steamed. Have you ever had steamed shrimp?"
"No, I haven't."
"Do you want to try some?"
"I would, very much."
He was in the middle of this cheerful phone call with Tae-ri, walking down the corridor, when a familiar head slid past in the distance.
Rembrary's brow furrowed.
The tiger head?
It was the Tiger-Headed Monster.
Rembrary was genuinely thrown. Why was that beast demon here? Shouldn't it be at Im Yu-han's side?
"Miss Jang Tae-ri, forgive me — may I call you back a little later?"
Having gotten Tae-ri's understanding, Rembrary hung up and quietly trailed after the Tiger-Headed Monster.
And what do you know. The Tiger-Headed Monster was following a yellow-haired member of some boy group.
He couldn't quite recall the group's name or the member's, but there was no doubt it was one of the idols recording at the station today.
Not an idol currently active, if he remembered right — one of those groups that had disbanded when their contracts ran out and scattered to the winds. That would be it.
Completely unaware that Rembrary was on his tail, the Tiger-Headed Monster smacked his lips over and over, eyes fixed on the yellow back of the head bobbing along ahead of him.
Him?
At that very moment, Woo Sung-woo was still deep in regret. Hadn't he handed over Hwanshin's contact information for nothing? What if his brother got tainted by some deranged Cheonripung ideology? What if his brother, who claimed he would command youkai, ended up embracing some nonsense creed that couldn't even hold water? A thousand anxious thoughts came rushing in all at once.
Beside him, the Team Leader was delivering some grim news to the team members.
"A few days ago, U-13 Team went out on a job and got attacked by some bizarre individual. Several of them were injured."
"What do you mean, bizarre?"
"No idea. According to them, the guy had his face completely wrapped up — sunglasses, mask, hat."
"Pfft, hilarious. Does he think he's a celebrity or something?"
"Wait, isn't that U-13 Team? The ones who swing axes around…?"
"Seriously?"
"That's them."
That was the team whose choice of weapons alone was enough to make onlookers shudder for no good reason. And that team had been attacked and injured — not by a youkai, but by a human being?
"Were they walking around without their weapons? Did they get jumped while unarmed?"
"No. They were tracking the Ox-Headed Monster, and apparently the thing hid behind a certain person. And that person shielded the ox-head."
"Cheonripung?"
"They attacked on instinct, figuring the guy would just dodge — but instead of dodging, this suspicious person took them all down in the space of a heartbeat. When they came to, they were in the emergency room. They'd been knocked out cold."
Even as he wrestled with his worries over his brother, Sung-woo had been hanging on the Team Leader's every word, and he cut straight in.
"The person who protected the Ox-Headed Monster — could they be a Saint?"
The Team Leader answered with a flat, decisive "No."
"You know what all Saints have in common? They're all absurdly weak. Knocking out two trained people in an instant? Not happening."
It was a fair point. Saints were weak. Not that their bodies wasted away — they simply couldn't fight. Which was precisely why Saints usually kept people capable of protecting them close at all times.
"For now, the fact that the guy protected the ox-head suggests he might belong to a youkai-friendly group. I'm going to make inquiries with Cheonripung."
Eon Du-sin — the man Rembrary called "the spear wielder" — fiddled with his bandages and asked,
"Could it be the work of those people?"
Du-sin hadn't said anything so very remarkable, yet in an instant the air in the room went ice-cold.
Everyone stopped talking and shot furtive glances at one another.
The "those people" Du-sin referred to were the ones who, some time ago, had abducted a member of C-16 Team.
And that wasn't all. They had a record of abducting Nakru personnel even before that. And before that. And before that, too.
At first it hadn't been properly known who they were, but by now it had come to light that they deliberately called themselves Runak — a mockery of Nakru's own name.
Their target appeared to be Nakru itself, and every person of Nakru's they had taken was never seen again. Not once. Not ever.
Talking it through had gotten Du-sin's blood up, and he was practically snorting.
"If it's those bastards, then this time we have to respond too."
As a matter of principle, Nakru could not kill anyone who was not a Saint.
"Those lunatics are just common criminals! If it turns out they're behind this, then we should respond the same way we do when we hunt Saints — that's what I'm saying!"
Beneath the sharp edge of Du-sin's words ran a faint but unmistakable thread of fear. It was one thing for them to attack and kill Saints — who were, after all, still human beings — but becoming prey themselves was another matter entirely.
The Team Leader shook his head.
"That, we don't do."
"If it's their doing, responding is the right call. We can't just stand there and take it from someone simply because they happen to be human!"
"The moment we start hunting people who aren't Saints, our justification for existing is gone. And Saints are not our prey. They are noble beings who sacrifice themselves for the sake of humanity."
The Team Leader said it with finality, then added,
"First, I'll make inquiries with Cheonripung. Whether it's one of theirs or not. If they say it isn't, we'll set a trap and find out whether it's Runak's work that way."
"Funny, earlier you said don't respond."
"I said we don't kill. We can capture them and hand them over to the police, can't we?"
At the Team Leader's ironclad tone, Du-sin shot a resentful glance toward the TV. The TV, for its part, was displaying absolutely nothing at all.
Just then, one of the other team members turned to Sung-woo.
"By the way — that spot where U-13 got attacked. Isn't it near your brother's dorm?"
"Oh, right, it is," the Team Leader said, and made the suggestion.
"Ask your brother whether he's seen or heard anything strange lately. He has the 'Eyes,' after all."
"Desist at once."
Having judged that the Tiger-Headed Monster was harboring ill intent, Rembrary advanced on him, his voice cold as frost.
The Tiger-Headed Monster, who had been trailing his target while smacking his lips, froze solid at the sound of Rembrary's voice, rooted to the spot.
When he turned around, he wore the flustered expression of someone only just now realizing that Rembrary existed.
The yellow-haired idol, who could no more see the Tiger-Headed Monster than fly, mistook Rembrary for having addressed him, and asked with a startled face,
"…Me?"
"Not you, senior."
"There's no one else here but me."
"My words were not meant for you, senior."
Rembrary shot the Tiger-Headed Monster a look that demanded, and what, pray tell, are you doing here? — and the monster kept shuffling backward, inch by sheepish inch.
The yellow-haired idol, evidently deciding he was offended, screwed up his face.
"Everyone kept saying he was a nutcase, and turns out he really is one. There's nobody here but me — who exactly was he talking to? Fame's gone to his head already, has it…?"