Face Stamp
"Listen up, Sheep-Teacher."
The moment Rembrary opened his mouth, the MC let out a strangled aack and cut him off.
"No profanity, please!"
Rembrary stared blankly at the MC for a moment before offering a rebuttal.
"That was English, though?"
Beta hastily whispered from behind him.
"Yeon-woo, 'teacher' isn't ssam in English. It's teacher. Teacher."
Rembrary nodded with an ahh of understanding.
But "SheepTeacher" came out hopelessly awkward. Worse, it sounded far too much like a curse.
In the end, Rembrary decided to drop the teacher part entirely.
The important thing was the sheep, not the teacher—wasn't it?
Decision made, Rembrary turned to Mr. Yang and began his dis once more, keeping it simple.
"Sheep, listen to me—"
"Aack! Yeon-woo!"
The MC cut him off again.
"That sounds like a curse too!"
"That one as well?"
When Rembrary heaved a sigh of utter exasperation, the MC sighed right along with him.
So Yeon-woo can't speak English.
Yeon-woo is seriously terrible at English.
Well, considering the man thinks Guan Yu is a game character...
Fortunately for Jong-woo, Rembrary's image was so profoundly uneducated that nobody suspected he was swearing on purpose.
Nobody except Mr. Yang himself, the target of it all.
"I'm not a damn Yang-sshi, so could you lay off the 'sheep' already? You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"
When Mr. Yang protested, Rembrary denied it outright. "Of course not."
His expression was so utterly sincere that Mr. Yang shut his mouth for the time being.
Jong-woo was already smiling from some halfway-enlightened plane of existence. If anyone so much as patted his back right now, pieces of his cremated remains would tumble out of his mouth. What stung even more was knowing that it had been CEO Im who booked this schedule.
Meanwhile, back on stage, the MC addressed Rembrary one more time.
"No open profanity, Yeon-woo. The whole segment could get edited out."
But by then, Rembrary's fighting spirit had already drained away entirely.
The truth was, Rembrary had intended to use this dis battle to tell the audience about that absurd incident—the one where Wild Animal was the one who suffered from the choreography scandal, yet Wild Animal was the one forced to apologize in the end.
But after the flow was cut twice, Rembrary decided the whole thing was pointless. Publicly tearing someone down wasn't to his taste either.
If you were going to cut someone down, you should do it where no one could see. What use was there in doing it in front of a crowd like this?
In the end, Rembrary resolved that even if it cost him points in the dis battle, he would preserve the dignity of a High Priest, and instead offered his advice with quiet majesty.
"I do not slander others in front of a crowd. That is the way of petty people. I am a great man."
To Mr. Yang—who was evidently awestruck by the mercy of the High Priest—Rembrary bestowed a gentle, magnanimous smile.
The day of Wild Animal's new-song showcase fell on the eve of Halloween.
Since showcase day overlapped with a day of Dating Process filming, Shin Jo-woon and Jang Tae-ri had made a special trip to attend the event, and the filming crew had come along with them.
Under the MC's practiced hand, the showcase proceeded smoothly and without a hitch. A few reporters found the music video a little cringe-inducing, but the reception to the stage itself was broadly positive.
With Yeon-woo, formerly just the visual member, now effectively joining the vocal line, the group's vocals had grown solid enough to make the label of "performance group" ring hollow.
There was the fatal weakness that the main vocalist, Cathy, tended to hit sour notes whenever he got nervous, but the showcase was not performed live, so there was no fear of that happening.
"Wow, Yeon-woo's good. Isn't he?"
"Is there anything your precious piggy can't do?"
"He didn't seem able to cook."
"He can't dance either."
"No, his dancing is exactly average. Bad for an idol, good for an ordinary person. Look at that perfect finger angle. How precise is that?"
"If that precise angle doesn't match everyone else's, isn't that a problem?"
"No. Yeon-woo is right, and everyone else is wrong."
While Jang Tae-ri, in full look at my baby go mode, beamed contentedly and tried her best to shove her bean-pod-colored glasses onto Shin Jo-woon's eyes as well, Shin Jo-woon held fast to the truth—say whatever you like, the kid can't dance. Can't rap either—until he spotted a familiar face and raised an eyebrow.
That person...
"What is it?"
As Shin Jo-woon stared fixedly at someone, Jang Tae-ri turned her head to follow his gaze.
Once she confirmed who he was looking at, she pointed out the large man with her eyes and asked,
"Ohh, you're looking at the homma? He does stand out, doesn't he?"
"Homma?"
When Shin Jo-woon echoed the word back, Jang Tae-ri nodded and broke into a silent, toothy grin.
"Yeon-woo's personal fansite master. The guy shows up to events in a Rolls-Royce with a photographer, a bodyguard, and a driver all in tow?"
At that very moment, the so-called homma turned his gaze toward Shin Jo-woon.
Amid the noise of the blaring music, the homma's eyes and Shin Jo-woon's collided in midair.
The homma tilted his head slightly—whether he recognized Shin Jo-woon's face or not—and greeted him first, so Shin Jo-woon returned the silent nod.
The homma greeted him once more with a tilt of the head, then turned his gaze away again.
Watching the man's profile, Shin Jo-woon tilted his own head thoughtfully.
Where have I seen him before...?
"Yeon-woo's greeting! Yeon-woo's greeting!"
But Jang Tae-ri shook him by the arm, urging him to focus on the stage, and his thought went no further.
Isn't that the man who appears on variety shows with Yeon-woo?
Hwan-shin was thinking exactly that as he watched Shin Jo-woon and Jang Tae-ri, and when one song came to an end, he rose from his seat.
"Going to the restroom?"
The photographer, who had been diligently pressing the shutter, asked him.
The photographer was an employee Hwan-shin had hired, but he was also, at the same time, a genuine fan of the real Woo Yeon-woo—which was perhaps why his face was more worked up than usual.
"No. The car."
"Going to get something?"
"It's loud."
At Hwan-shin's listless reply, the photographer pulled a horrified expression, as if to say, Our boys are holding the mic right now, and you're calling it loud?
"This song is rather loud. Very."
Hwan-shin landed a second verbal jab on his way out, though he did not forget to tell the photographer to take pretty pictures. He had started all this for a different purpose, but if he was playing the homma, he intended to play the part properly.
Heading straight out to the parking lot, Hwan-shin climbed into the back seat of the car and leaned his whole body against the seat. He did not care for rowdy songs like that. Yeon-woo's voice was, objectively speaking, startlingly pleasant to listen to—but a group song was not sung by Yeon-woo alone, was it?
[Back already? Why back so soon? Not fun?]
Labrum, diligently reading a newspaper held upside down, shifted over slightly to make room and asked.
"However hard I take photos, nothing unusual shows up. Tiresome."
[Many places you can't go. Homma spots limited. Find another way?]
"Perhaps."
Hwan-shin was mumbling listlessly, turning his head, when he spotted Shin Jo-woon stepping out of the building.
Judging by the phone pressed to his ear, the man apparently had a call to make and had stepped outside because it was too loud inside to take one.
Hwan-shin was just about to turn his head back to face forward when—
[Hwan-shin. Human. Contractor.]
Labrum rolled up the newspaper and went tap-tap-tap-tap beside Hwan-shin's head.
Hwan-shin scrunched up his face and swatted the newspaper away.
"What is it."
Glancing naturally toward Labrum, Hwan-shin faltered for a beat. Labrum had pushed its mouth out and was grinning its jagged grin.
"What is it now?"
Hwan-shin turned to look at Shin Jo-woon as well, but Shin Jo-woon was simply carrying on his call with someone.
Labrum rapped him with the newspaper again and asked once more.
[Hwan-shin. Human. Contractor. Is that one maybe Nakru? Is he Nakru? Nakru?]
"Not as far as I know."
[Really? Is that so? I see.]
"Why do you ask?"
What aspect of that man looked like Nakru, exactly? Hwan-shin asked, belatedly growing a little puzzled.
Labrum tilted its head, said never mind, and unfolded the newspaper again.
After the showcase wrapped up.
Rembrary parted ways with the other members for Dating Process filming and headed to a spicy steamed shrimp restaurant with Shin Jo-woon and Jang Tae-ri.
There was no particular concept in play—the premise was simply the three of them relaxing peacefully on the eve of Halloween—so the atmosphere was not much different from when the three of them were usually together.
"It's the day before Halloween. You should've done the showcase in costumes or something."
"That idea came up, but most people said we had to wear the same outfits as the music video."
"Yeon-woo, are you going to post a photo in costume tomorrow?"
"Yes. I'm thinking of wearing something like a priest's cassock. Or maybe a monk's robe."
"You could just do a pig costume. A pig costume."
"Shin Jo-woon, get lost. What do you mean, a priest's cassock? Aren't there plenty of different kinds of cassocks? A monk's robe would suit you well too."
"The cassock of Pig-land."
"Shin Jo-woon, shut up. The cassock suited you beautifully back in Dear God too, Yeon-woo."
Framing Shin Jo-woon, Jang Tae-ri, and Rembrary through his lens, the VJ couldn't help thinking what an exceedingly peculiar relationship the three of them had. Whatever else was true, they had plainly grown much closer over the course of this program.
"What costume are you going to wear, Taeri?"
"What costume do you think would suit me? You pick for me, Yeon-woo."
"Guan Yu."
"......"
"Guan Yu would suit Jang Tae-ri perfectly. Should I go find you a beard?"
"Taeri, may I order one more plate?"
"No. Stop eating, you pig."
"!"
While Shin Jo-woon snickered at the sight of Jang Tae-ri's true colors emerging, Rembrary froze in shock at the betrayal of the very person he had trusted, and Jang Tae-ri searched her phone to see what on earth the mobile-game version of Guan Yu—the one that lived on Rembrary's lips—actually looked like, the two-timing team's filming for the day came to an end.
Jang Tae-ri had driven herself, so she headed home in her own car, and Shin Jo-woon decided to personally escort carless Rembrary back to the dorm.
This was thanks to the VJ having said filming would wrap right after the restaurant, and to Shin Jo-woon having asked Jong-woo's permission in advance.
Rembrary sat in the passenger seat of Shin Jo-woon's car, drifting off in fits and starts while the man drove, nodding awake and nodding asleep in turn.
Then, after they had traveled some distance—while passing down a narrow side street—Rembrary, who had been dozing as though hanging off his seatbelt, suddenly snapped his head up and stared at something.
"What is it?"
Shin Jo-woon reflexively pulled the car over to the corner and asked.
"A person."
Rembrary answered briefly, undid his seatbelt, and stepped out of the car.
Shin Jo-woon followed him out without thinking, trailing in Rembrary's wake.