Life Is Hypocrisy
To everyone else, it still looked like proselytizing, but on Jo Sa-yeon it landed. As it happened, the assembly had been held just yesterday, so his conscience had plenty to feel stabbed by.
Still, he buried the guilt and laughed it off. "What's all this about religion?"
"Have a seat first. Let's talk."
Rembrary answered with perfect composure, then turned to the waiter. "How much longer until what I ordered is ready?"
"Shall we bring out what's already made first?"
"Yes. Thank you."
When the waiter held out two drinks, Rembrary took one in each hand and carried them over to the empty seats. The moment he sat down, a small shriek erupted somewhere nearby.
Ju Min-seo let out a sigh and walked over. "Min-seo, dear."
But just as she started toward them, Jo Sa-yeon subtly called her aside, out of the camera's view. When she turned around, he dropped his voice as low as it would go.
"Did you actually talk about religion?"
He wanted to know whether Woo Yeon-woo had said all that because he knew something, or whether it was pure coincidence.
"Sorry? Yes. That's all we talked about."
So he just genuinely enjoys the topic, then? He really doesn't know anything and brought it up out of nowhere?
Hearing Min-seo's answer, Jo Sa-yeon steadied himself and forced a measure of relief. Then, watching Woo Yeon-woo happily alternate between sipping his condensed-milk latte and his cappuccino, he thought it over once more.
Right. There's no way this food-obsessed weirdo knows anything about me.
Wearing his pleasant, good-natured smile, Jo Sa-yeon settled naturally into the seat across from Woo Yeon-woo.
Let's just write off the religion talk as coincidence.
What mattered now was the shoot, and what mattered in the shoot was the relationship between Ju Min-seo and himself. Woo Yeon-woo was nothing more than a stepping stone to move their storyline forward.
A stepping stone should behave like one. It doesn't get to steal the spotlight, and it certainly doesn't get to derail the story.
Putting religion firmly out of his mind, Jo Sa-yeon armed himself with the mindset of a rival celebrity competing for screen time. And when Ju Min-seo shuffled over and sat down beside him, he deliberately angled his body away, refusing to spare Woo Yeon-woo so much as a glance as he spoke to her alone.
"You scared me half to death, walking in on some strange man out of nowhere."
"What's so scary about that? It could happen."
"Sure. And yet it scared me anyway. Why do you think that is?"
"You're dating other people too, so it's my turn now. I can't just sit around staring at you forever."
"Hey, you're a grad student. You're supposed to be studying, not dating."
"You work for a living and you're still dating."
"How is that the same thing?"
"If it looks different to you, that's hypocrisy right there."
"……Are we doing a romance right now?"
"……Why are you like this."
After a conversation positively steaming with fake-dating-variety-show energy, Jo Sa-yeon stole a glance at Woo Yeon-woo. He wanted to confirm that the man had drifted completely out of their orbit. He'd worried, a little, that he'd shut him out too conspicuously——
Woo Yeon-woo was holding a straw between his teeth and taking selfies.
No. Why is that man taking selfies at a variety show filming?
At the sight, Jo Sa-yeon decided he'd been pointlessly self-conscious, working himself up over nothing, and the irritation made his voice go cold. "Could you focus over here for once?"
At that frigid tone, Woo Yeon-woo lowered his phone and looked up at him. And the expression on his face was… rather odd.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
A strange expression has a way of making a person uncomfortable. Feeling oddly put out himself, Jo Sa-yeon asked, and Woo Yeon-woo replied with the elaborate caution of someone trying very hard not to give offense.
"Do you mean… that?"
"?"
"Do you want me to watch over the two of you while you date?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Does he do this on purpose, knowing that his careful little attitude makes people even angrier?
Jo Sa-yeon's mouth fell half open before sheer incredulity forced an answer out of him. "It's not that. You're sitting with us, and you're the only one off doing your own thing. That's all."
"I'm sitting with you too, and you two are the only ones off doing your own thing. So."
"……."
I called him a weirdo, and he turns out to be quietly logical. Infuriating. Jo Sa-yeon's brow furrowed.
Meanwhile, the onlookers were busy watching the two participants squabble with shining eyes. Sensing all those gazes, Jo Sa-yeon cleared his throat loudly and managed his expression back into shape.
At any rate, now that the conversation had drifted this way, he figured he'd better at least pretend to bring up the matter—otherwise it would look like he'd been conspicuously pretending not to know anything. So, with an air of having no choice, he asked.
"By the way. Didn't you say earlier you had something to tell me?"
Only then did Rembrary fully lift his eyes from his phone and answer flatly. "I did."
"Which is?"
"The truth is, I suspected you might be the one who took something."
Jo Sa-yeon's face reflexively creased again. Weren't we doing religion? What is this now—taken what, exactly?
The spectators began to murmur, wondering if the answer would turn out to be some line about caring for Ju Min-seo after all.
"I took what, exactly?"
"Feelings."
'It's flirting!'
'Fire-level flirting!'
'Woo Yeon-woo is flirting with Jo Sa-yeon!'
'And Min-seo's smiling?'
Listening to the crowd's whispers, Jo Sa-yeon asked in disbelief. "Whose feelings did I supposedly take?"
The instant the question left his mouth, someone could be heard muttering, "Isn't he angling for him to say his feelings?"
Jo Sa-yeon went cold. Don't. Don't you dare.
He's not actually going to say I stole his feelings. Not here, not on camera.
Fortunately, Rembrary had no such intention. He was thinking about the brush Daeju had described. He hadn't been told the specifics of how it was used, but judging from the way Daeju had talked, the brush seemed capable of skimming not only one's own feelings, but other people's as well.
But the real culprit might not be Jo Sa-yeon, so it would be unwise to press the point here with specific examples—anyone watching the broadcast who was guilty would go on guard. And yet Rembrary had no intention of saying "my feelings" either. Whether Jo Sa-yeon held the brush, or anyone else did, he knew perfectly well that his own face was beyond their reach.
That meant he had to name someone else's feelings. And come to think of it—didn't this program have a designated lover for Jo Sa-yeon?
I'll simply say her name.
Having completed his calculations, Rembrary answered. "Kaitlin's."
Everyone who had been holding their breath to see whether Rembrary would say "yours" thought, in perfect unison: Wrong name!
"So it's sabotage?"
"He mentioned Kaitlin right in front of Min-seo……"
"Isn't it basically 'stop fooling around, you're dating Kaitlin'? Like, cheat on Min-seo and you'll pay for it?"
The spectators marveled at the spectacle of a two-timer lecturing a would-be cheater—an act of staggering, world-class hypocrisy—and admired it all the same. Cheating on your partner is an ugly thing, after all. Besides, Woo Yeon-woo's two-timing was a futuristic arrangement entered into with mutual consent, so the situation was a little different.
Ju Min-seo, the would-be transfer target, went stiff-faced. But deep down, she was impressed too. He talks complete nonsense, and yet somehow he still steers things back to the original storyline. She'd had him all wrong.
When you're conducting a transfer romance, you're supposed to need pushback from the people around you—and in Min-seo's eyes, Woo Yeon-woo was filling that role right now. It wasn't exactly the part originally written for him, but a role was a role.
In the meantime, the waiter set five fresh drinks down in front of Rembrary and shuffled away, utterly defeated. Rembrary pushed one drink toward Min-seo and one toward Jo Sa-yeon, and probed the actor.
"Jo Sa-yeon. Moving other people's feelings around without their leave is a wicked thing to do. Don't you agree?"
As he spoke, Rembrary watched him with meticulous attention—the flicker in his eyes, the corner of his mouth, every small muscle in his face. The instant Jo Sa-yeon showed the slightest crack, he intended to text Daeju and name him as a suspect.
Jo Sa-yeon, feeling like he was the one under interrogation, answered listlessly. "I suppose."
But then, feeling he'd somehow been cast as the villain while the actual two-timer sat there sipping lattes, he frowned and fired back. "Aren't the people who covet seats that aren't theirs worse, though?"
I'm a transfer, but you're a two-timer—and isn't two-timing the worse sin? It was a barb wrapped in a question.
Rembrary took the words at face value and asked his own. "And would you commit that wicked act, Jo Sa-yeon?"
"Huh?"
This isn't how this goes, Jo Sa-yeon thought—and shook his head anyway. But his expression had crumpled further than before, and turned more aggrieved. Watching him closely, Rembrary delivered his final question.
"A good lamb mustn't do such things. So if you have no intention of toying with other people's feelings, why not hand control of them over to me?"
"Control of them?"
"That thing there."
"That thing?"
"The long one."
"!"
While Jong-woo suffered his way through the comment section, Rembrary reached a firm conclusion: Jo Sa-yeon, in all likelihood, had not stolen the brush.
When feelings came up, the man had panicked; when the brush came up, he'd flailed about without understanding a word of it. That settled it.
Rembrary sent Daeju a text—
—and then, to film his video diary, picked up the self-cam and headed for the bathroom.
September 16th.
All the members had returned to the dorm. I'd figured we'd get at least a little rest once we were back—but no. The very next day we were hauled straight to the agency office for a concept meeting on the next album.
There were two items on the agenda. One was our next full album, and the other was the special solo album we'd supposedly be putting out once a month, taking turns member by member.
The next album, fine—we'd heard rumblings about that already, so I could accept it. But when they dropped the news about a special album every single month, I can't tell you how absurd it sounded.
Not to me, though. To the other staff.
Me, I had no thoughts on the matter at all. The special album was CEO Im's brainchild, apparently—some idea he'd gotten while getting his fortune read over Chuseok. The concept: release an album every month themed around zodiac signs. Once we'd done a full year, if the response was good, the next year would be monthly albums themed around birthstones.
In exchange, we wouldn't do music show promotions or music video shoots for every album—first we'd drop teaser photo shoots and the digital release, and only if the song cracked the top fifty would we be allowed onto music shows.
Jong-woo hyung and the A&R team lead said the fans would riot, but CEO Im showed no sign of changing his mind.
And so, one way or another, it was decided.
Our next full album concept: Monk Syndrome.
— The End of Chapter 146: Life Is Hypocrisy —