Chapter 138: The Excuse Doesn't Hold
“Ah, no, that's not what I—”
“Not what? Then what is it, you brat! There's nobody else here but me, so who the hell did you say it to, huh?”
The yellow-haired man seemed to grow angrier the more he spoke, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
Rembrary insisted he hadn't been talking about him, but from the other man's perspective, they were the only two people in the corridor — so of course he'd taken it as an insult directed straight at him.
The yellow-haired man blew a puff of air at his bangs, then demanded, “Apologize.”
When Rembrary only stared back, bewildered, the man repeated himself.
“I said apologize.”
“I haven't done anything wrong, so I don't know what you want me to apologize for.”
“You come storming up out of nowhere and talk down to your senior, and that's not a mistake?”
“I told you, I wasn't talking to you.”
“Hey, forget senior-and-junior — do you even know how many years older I am than you, you punk?”
“……You know my age?”
“Why the hell are you getting touched by that?!”
Thankfully, Jong-woo, who had come out looking for Rembrary, spotted the scene and hurried over to apologize on his behalf.
Rembrary frowned, glowering at the yellow-haired man.
Jong-woo apologized to the man over and over, then rounded on Rembrary with a scolding edge to his voice.
“Why would you walk up to a total stranger out of the blue and start talking to them? Now look at this mess!”
“I merely called out because a tiger spirit was walking right behind that man.”
Rumors of Rembrary's chilling anecdotes had been circulating in whispers, and both the yellow-haired man and Jong-woo froze solid on the spot.
The yellow-haired man glanced fearfully over his own shoulder for no reason, then — apparently furious at himself for being rattled by Rembrary's words — spat out a few more curses and stomped off.
Once he was gone, Jong-woo let out a long sigh and gave a warning.
“Please. I'm begging you. Tiger spirit, lion spirit, whatever's attached to someone — leave strangers alone. Got it?”
“How could I simply ignore such a thing?”
“Ugh, why do you only ever have to be good in the worst possible ways.”
“I shall be mindful of my surroundings.”
When Rembrary answered so obediently, Jong-woo shot him a suspicious look. Why is he agreeing so easily? But he couldn't exactly chew him out for being cooperative, so for now Jong-woo herded Rembrary back to the waiting room.
In truth, Jong-woo had nothing to worry about. Rembrary had only answered half-heartedly because his attention was already fixed entirely on the tiger-headed monster.
Is it wandering around freely because Senior Lim can't see it?
Rembrary looked around, but in the time he'd spent squabbling with the yellow-haired man, the tiger-headed monster had already slipped away.
And there was no other way to call it.
Worry gnawing at him, Rembrary opened the waiting room door, went inside, and took the innermost seat.
From what I saw earlier, the tiger-head seems to prey on humans just like the Ox-Head does. Is it really safe to leave it near Lim Yu-han?
He had delivered a firm warning, and he'd judged the beast intelligent enough to understand it, but…
Now that I think of it, I never told it not to touch anyone else.
Rembrary pondered for a moment, then took out his phone.
Since the tiger-head was impossible to find at the moment, the next best thing was to at least ask Lim Yu-han if she was all right.
About five minutes after he sent the message, a reply came.
“!”
This senior of mine has nerves of absolute steel. Rembrary was dumbfounded, yet genuinely impressed.
The signs had been there ever since she'd calmly texted him through the Ox-Head incident, but she truly did have a heart of iron.
So it did heed my warning not to harm Senior Lim, it seems.
Relieved by this small mercy, Rembrary let himself relax, if only a little.
After paying his respects to the director and returning to the dormitory, Jong-woo rapped his knuckles against the refrigerator and made an announcement.
“We're moving out next week, so everyone pack your stuff.”
When Hye-gyeol grumbled, “What stuff? You need to own stuff to pack it,” Jong-woo shot back, “Then try going with nothing but the skin on your back,” pulled out his phone to check the schedule, and continued.
“There's nothing special on the calendar for Chuseok, so… you can just take one group photo tomorrow and go home. The group photo will go up on the news as a holiday greeting, and the caption will be written by the company's PR team.”
Home? Rembrary raised an eyebrow. Did Woo Yeon-woo even have a home?
The first thing that came to mind was Yeon-woo's birth parents, but he'd heard they both lived in a far-off country.
If he asked how to get there, he could probably manage the journey somehow, but going all that way sounded like far too much of a bother.
Woo Sung-woo, Yeon-woo's older brother, seemed to live somewhere nearby, but Rembrary had no desire to go to him either…
“Am I permitted to stay here?”
When he finally asked after turning it all over in his head, Jungseo passed by and said simply,
“Come to our place.”
At that, Hye-gyeol thrust his hand up and shouted,
“Yeah, come to our place, hyung! My cousin is a total fangirl of your face! She's always begging me to get her your autograph — if I bring the real thing home, she'll pass out.”
Taein also smiled and gave his own warning.
“Don't you dare even think about saying you'll come to my place.”
Rembrary raised his third finger toward Taein, then turned to Jong-woo.
“May I stay here on my own?”
“Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't you be? Just be careful with any open flames. That's all I ask. But… you'll be okay?”
“I shall manage.”
Rembrary answered readily enough.
He had plenty of things he wanted to look into these days, so spending a few days alone posed no problem.
“But Yeon-woo, spending the holidays alone sounds pretty boring, no?”
“I can just play games.”
“That's you, Hye-gyeol, not him. Yeon-woo doesn't watch much TV, doesn't mess around on the computer, and doesn't play games like you do. What exactly are you planning to do with your time?”
Despite the worries of the members and Jong-woo, Rembrary decided to stay at the dormitory after all.
Then, as he picked up his selfie cam to record the day's events, he found himself recalling when the next Dating Process shoot was scheduled — and a text arrived from Shin Jo-woon.
Why did everyone keep inviting him like this? Rembrary was a little tempted. The two of them surely lived close by, and there would certainly be delicious food.
But turning down Jungseo and Hye-gyeol only to immediately go play with Shin Jo-woon and Jang Tae-ri felt rather unkind.
After much deliberation, Rembrary declined this time as well.
Shin Jo-woon didn't ask twice.
He didn't send any reply either, but thinking on it, Rembrary found himself oddly bothered by the silence — so in the end, it was he who texted first.
Rembrary harrumphed grumpily, then started searching the internet for what Chuseok foods there were.
He'd heard that Chuseok was a holiday, but he didn't know the details, and he was curious what dishes would appear.
He marveled at the pictures of songpyeon — half-moon rice cakes — swallowed hard at the pictures of tangsuyuk — sweet and sour pork — and then swallowed hard again at the picture of a table crammed edge to edge with every dish at once.
Perhaps I ought to go beg some songpyeon and tangsuyuk off of Shin Jo-woon and Jang Tae-ri after all.
But just as he was wavering over whether to change his mind, he caught sight of the trending searches beside him: the name ‘Woo Yeon-woo' had climbed onto the list. And nearby were the names Yuli and Kasy as well.
Wondering what on earth this was, he looked — and found people murmuring that Yuli and Kasy had had a lover's quarrel, and that the cause was Yeon-woo two-timing with Yuli.
Now what in the world is this?
While he was still gaping at the absurdity, Shin Jo-woon's text arrived before long.
It was followed by a text from Jang Tae-ri.
Rembrary flared up and replied “No!” to both of them, but he was genuinely flustered.
He thought Yuli was a good person, but she was hardly someone close to him. And yet, an affair?
Thankfully, most people didn't seem to believe it, but…
Someone claiming to be a staff part-timer posted it.
Believe it or not, the whole thing left Rembrary thoroughly displeased.
Who was this staff member who'd supposedly started the rumor?
But there were far too many staff members inside the broadcasting station for that bit of information alone to mean anything. What's more, there was a good chance the person who'd started the talk had lied about being staff just to make the story sound more credible.
For now, Rembrary texted Jong-woo exactly what people were saying.
Before long, Jong-woo replied right away.
He looked again, and sure enough, there was a freshly posted rebuttal article.
Reading the comments, the reactions were all over the place.
He skimmed the reactions and was just closing the internet when Jong-woo texted again.
Still, as far as managers go, Jong-woo is rather better than Sa Gam-jae.
Sa Gam-jae did nothing but draw attention with his face — Rembrary had no idea what work he actually accomplished.
According to the man himself, the number of Saints had dwindled because of Nakru, which meant the underworld couldn't fill its grim reaper positions, and so there was a severe labor shortage — but Rembrary had no grasp of how the underworld was structured here, so it all went over his head.
Just then, a text arrived from Woo Sung-woo this time.
Wondering if it was more about Chuseok or the rumor, he opened it to find something else entirely.
What in the world is wrong with this one?
Why is he asking me about that? Rembrary wondered — then froze at the words two.
He quietly cast his mind back several days.
The night of the 8th… now that he thought of it, that was the day he'd encountered the Ox-Headed Monster.
It was also the day that the evil spirit — or Demon King fragment — hiding in his shadow had fully seized his body for the first time, if only briefly.
And the fact that two people had been attacked, plus the pointed specificity of the question — there was no doubt. That was exactly the incident being asked about.
Rembrary panicked and lied.
— End of Chapter 138: The Excuse Doesn't Hold —