The Reaper's Warning
"Uh... are you serious right now?"
The director asked with a doubtful look on his face.
"Yes. Is that a problem?"
Rembrary answered firmly, then shot the question right back.
The director scratched his head.
"No, it's not that it's *not* possible."
But judging by his expression, it leaned awfully close to no.
Is it really not allowed? Rembrary studied the director's face carefully.
The director asked, "That, er... you have actually read the script properly, right?"
"Yes."
Rembrary answered firmly once more.
"Good grief. And you genuinely want to do this part?"
"Yes."
"Good grief."
After the director kept reacting like this, even Rembrary started to feel something was off. Was this somehow a role one wasn't supposed to play as a cameo?
But it was marked with (CAMEO) right here, wasn't it?
What Rembrary had pointed to was one of the 'long, thin ghosts' — the creatures that drove the characters of the film into terror.
The trouble was that their true nature wasn't properly revealed until the latter half of the movie, and within the script, the long, thin ghosts were described as having blood-red faces.
In other words, taking this role meant getting his face caked in heavy makeup. And he was volunteering for it? A role where no one would even be able to tell who was playing it?
The director had set one of these ghosts as a cameo for a simple reason: he planned to ask a respected character actor, then later publicize it with a dramatic reveal — "That ghost was actually him all along!"
And now Woo Yeon-woo, of all people, was asking for that exact role.
"No?"
"Hmm."
The director scratched his head again.
That Yeon-woo wanted a role with no face to show, one where no one could even tell whether it was CG or acting. That Yeon-woo wanted a role that, in order to make waves, would demand genuinely chilling acting even with his face entirely hidden. On both counts, it was unexpected — and for those same two reasons, the director hesitated.
"This is a role that demands real acting skill, you know."
"I'm good at it."
"Ah... well, yes. You are, actually."
Remembering the surprisingly decent performance in Dear God, the director nodded and conceded the point. Fair enough. He had been good.
The director jabbed his pen at the thick stack of paper on the desk in front of him. Each jab made the paper give a little pik, pik.
The clock ticked away, and a few of the actors who had stepped out earlier filed back in.
Chatting among themselves as they entered, the actors noticed the director deep in serious conversation with Rembrary — the biggest headline-maker of the moment — and shot curious glances back and forth between the two of them.
"Then how about a quick try?"
Only after a long pause did the director stop mulling it over and ask. Then, before Rembrary could even answer, he pointed at Lee Il-baek.
"You'll need to chase Jeon-yeong, you see? Give it a go right here — chase him."
Lee Il-baek, having been kept waiting through the break because he'd been watching Rembrary, had been watching the whole spectacle unfold in a daze. Suddenly singled out, he asked with a flustered look, "With me? I'm in this too?"
"Yes, you too."
Lee Il-baek's face made his reluctance plain.
But apparently unwilling to pick a fight with the director, he dragged himself up from his seat.
Rembrary rose quietly and followed.
Honestly, he wasn't confident he could imitate a ghost. But a demon? That he could do. He'd seen plenty of them.
The script called it a ghost, but surely playing it like a demon would do just fine.
Lee Il-baek asked the director, "Am I just supposed to keep running around inside this room?"
The director told him to do exactly that, then turned to give Rembrary a brief explanation as well.
"The role Yeon-woo wants is of a thing in a space where the ceiling is lower than it is tall. Think of it as moving through that space as you chase Il-baek. Make it feel genuinely terrifying. Fear! Wham! Got it?"
Rembrary said he did, then lowered his body slightly, one hand pushing upward against the ceiling as if shoving it aside, the other braced sideways against the wall as if pressing it back. In that pose, he twisted his head to the side, as though there simply wasn't room to straighten his neck. It was the posture of something genuinely crammed into a space too small to hold it.
Puhk — the image was so convincing that a few of the actors, who had returned to their seats and were enjoying the show, let out a chorus of ooohs.
Even the director, who had only asked on a whim, wore a rather satisfied expression.
"Wow, the posture just comes right out of you, huh?"
At the compliments, Rembrary gave a faint smile while privately considering Lee Il-baek his prey. Just as demons would.
The truth was, if the director approved the cameo, Rembrary had been planning to use a touch of Divine Power on Lee Il-baek.
Not the kind that helped people, of course. What Rembrary had intended to deploy was a skill called Divine Dignity — an ability that, exactly as it sounded, borrowed and displayed a fleeting glimpse of a god's majesty.
Anyone struck by it would tremble in fear, as though standing before something vast and unfathomable.
One of his subordinates who had once suffered the ability described it as the feeling of hovering in open air above a sheer cliff so tall the ground could not be seen.
But that was the plan back then; Rembrary had no intention of actually using such a power here, today.
Not when Lee Il-baek might get scared and demand to drop out of the movie.
So in the end, Rembrary left the skill unused and simply approached Lee Il-baek with nothing more than the impression of mimicking how demons moved.
Even that alone was terror for Lee Il-baek.
Dragged without warning into a sudden chase scene on the director's orders, Lee Il-baek had privately figured, so what if that little twerp comes after me?
He'd even planned to overpower his opponent by acting scared the moment Yeon-woo crept up behind him.
Sure, word was that Yeon-woo was a better actor than expected — but that literally meant better than expected, didn't it?
Lee Il-baek had missed the final episode where a demon briefly possessed Yeon-woo's body, so the thought was only natural. For all the talk of his acting, Yeon-woo had barely had any screen time at all in Dear God.
But then Yeon-woo came toward him, trapped and feeling his way forward with groping hands... and well, well. The chill down his spine was deserved.
It clearly wasn't realistic acting — awkward spots showed everywhere you looked. And yet... something about it had a reality to it, and that reality was what made his skin crawl.
Lee Il-baek instinctively stumbled backward. A few steps back, only when he remembered this wasn't that kind of scene did he whip around.
Having witnessed all this, the director bellowed, "What do you think you're doing right now!"
The director was the kind of man who seemed endlessly kind when in a good mood, and endlessly terrifying when angry.
As his booming voice crashed through the room and rolled past, the actors and staff who had been lounging about all straightened up at once.
Lee Il-baek froze in place.
Rembrary lowered his hand and turned to look at the director too.
The director glared at him with the expression of a man who had just suffered an unspeakable insult.
"Jeon-yeong! Is this how you run? Where's your expression — your expression! What are we going to do if an idol with less than a year of acting under his belt has better control of his face than you do!"
At the director's shout, Lee Il-baek belatedly realized his blunder. He had registered the mistake in his movement and corrected it — but he had failed to manage his expression. It was an unmistakable error on his part.
Still grumbling, the director — his throat raw from yelling — announced he was getting water and walked out.
Three staff members naturally trailed after him, and after exchanging glances, two of the managers followed as well.
Lee Il-baek glared at Rembrary. As if all of this had been Rembrary's fault.
Rembrary responded with a gentle, tender smile, raised a finger, and drew it slowly across his own throat.
We will. Bring this holy war to its end.
***
Jong-woo didn't hear about the cameo until the second break, after one more round of the script reading.
"You think that's okay?"
The director asked, and Jong-woo waved the concern away, naturally.
"Oh, come on — it'd be an honor for our Yeon-woo!"
It wasn't empty flattery. It really was fine. No — it was great.
When two idols from the same group appeared in one film, some people might grumble that LLL was pushing them too hard. A big agency would draw that kind of criticism.
But LLL lacked the power to push anyone that hard. Even if people got suspicious, it would blow over soon enough.
As long as no one chose to see it in a twisted light, there was plenty of promotional material in the whole affair.
Granted, it was a role where his face never showed — but Jong-woo knew Yeon-woo was unexpectedly good at creepy roles. He did have his doubts that it had been Yeon-woo's other personality who'd played that part, but...
Even without that personality, Yeon-woo had a certain unsettling quality to him, so the horror acting would probably land well. And if it intertwined nicely with Jung-seo's storyline, it would make for easy publicity articles too.
Jong-woo clapped Rembrary on the back in praise.
"Nice work."
"Obviously."
Though that praise was promptly withdrawn when Lee Il-baek, grinning, threatened both Jung-seo and Rembrary with, "This is going to be so much fun on set."
Jong-woo stared at Rembrary, eyes wide.
"What happened? What on earth happened for that snide— no, for Lee Il-baek to evolve from snide remarks into outright threats?"
"I got scolded by the director."
"Then why is he taking it out on you?"
"Because the director praised me."
It was the truth, but Jong-woo remained convinced Rembrary had caused some disaster.
Clearly Rembrary had pulled something, and somehow the whole mess had gotten tangled up until the end result was Rembrary receiving praise while Lee Il-baek got chewed out.
It seemed all the more certain because Jong-woo knew how carefully Lee Il-baek managed his image in front of the director.
In the end, Jong-woo made a request of Sa Gam-jae.
"I was planning to keep him with us all day, but I guess not. Could you take Yeon-woo back to the company?"
***
In the car on the way back.
Since Jung-seo and Jong-woo had stayed behind at the script reading, Rembrary sat in the passenger seat.
Sa Gam-jae was quiet as always, and quiet behind the wheel too, so Rembrary yawned, idly turned the radio dial, gave up, and picked up his phone — intending to snap a few photos to post on social media.
He had just opened the camera app and raised the phone to eye level when—
Sa Gam-jae, silent for the past fifteen minutes, suddenly spoke.
"It's your choice to take on a frightening role."
"?"
"But there's a chance the 'Shadow' might take over your body again mid-shoot."
Rembrary lowered his phone and turned to stare at Sa Gam-jae.
"What did you say?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
Sa Gam-jae replied flatly.
Rembrary shut down both the social media and camera apps entirely and asked, "Why do you think that?"
It wasn't an accusation — he was genuinely curious. After all, whenever the real Woo Yeon-woo or that thing surfaced from the Shadow, Rembrary himself had no memory of it whatsoever.
Sa Gam-jae, on the other hand, was the one who had fished him out every time he lost his memories — and had even kept him at his own home.
"I can't be certain. But it seems to happen when the role leans toward... that sort of thing. When a camera is nearby."
"Is that so?"
"Or when you're in danger, or..."
Trailing off, Sa Gam-jae tapped the steering wheel lightly with his fingers.
From the radio Rembrary had abandoned earlier, a song drifted out — one that sounded like quiet weeping.
"I mentioned this briefly before, but in case you've forgotten, I'll say it again. If you lose control of your body once more and that dark presence takes it over, you will genuinely be classified as a dangerous entity by the Underworld. And we will come for you."
End of Chapter 154. The Reaper's Warning.