Another World

It began as an ordinary day.

After a full week of music show promotions followed by two consecutive weekday days off, the members of Wild Animal lay sprawled across the dormitory like freshly rinsed strands of seaweed left out to dry.

Rembrary was one of those seaweed strands himself, at least at first — until he ended up squabbling with Taein.

"Hey, Woo Yeon-woo. Your voice wobbles during the live vocals. Fix it."

The trouble started when Taein, watching a rerun of the music show they'd appeared on, decided to deliver a little lecture to Rembrary.

"It'd be weirder if it didn't wobble while I'm dancing. Shake a speaker around and the sound coming out of it will shake too."

Rembrary ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shot back the retort without a moment's hesitation, and Taein, evidently displeased, hauled himself up from where he'd been lying and scowled.

"Pushing through that is what separates a good live from a bad one."

"Shouldn't being good at singing come before being good ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at singing live?"

"Who said you can't sing? I'm telling you to work on your live vocals!"

"Which is as much as to say my singing falls short, you ignorant mortal."

"Ignorant? Wow, this punk just called me ignorant to my face?"

"Careful, or God Himself will smack your backside. Who are you calling a punk?"

They were still bickering back and forth when—

"Hyung, you've got a call?"

Flat on his back, Hye-gyeol nudged the phone toward Rembrary with his foot, tapping it twice.

Rembrary gave Hye-gyeol's shin a firm smack, then picked up the phone.

Hm?

He'd expected Jang Tae-ri, or Shin Jo-woon, or maybe Sunwoo Sil, Im Yu-han, Maeng Woo-shin, or Sa Gam-jae. Instead, the name on the screen was Jong-woo.

Granted, there was plenty to talk about with Jong-woo. But whenever the members were all home, Jong-woo usually relayed things through Jungseo. If he was singling Rembrary out with a call when all five of them were gathered in one place, it meant he had business with him alone.

"What's this about?"

Puzzled, Rembrary answered the call — and immediately yanked the phone away from his ear at the scream that burst through it.

When he cautiously raised it again, Jong-woo was spitting out one barely intelligible word after another.

He couldn't make out a word of it, but one thing was certain: that opening shriek had been a scream of pure joy.

"Jong-woo. Compose yourself."

Rembrary's soothing words had no effect. Fortunately, CEO Im's voice carried over the line: "Tell them once it's confirmed. Once it's confirmed." And then: "If it falls through after this, feelings are going to get hurt."

What are they talking about? Not following any of it, Rembrary kept the phone pressed to his ear and waited. Apparently CEO Im's intervention talked Jong-woo down, because the joyful shrieking subsided, and a little while later Jong-woo said,

"I'll tell you later."

And with that, the call ended.

Rembrary stared blankly at the phone, then wrinkled his face.

What in the world was that about?

He had retreated to the bedroom — lying around in the living room after fighting with Taein had lost its appeal — when a ding announced a text message.

Perched on the edge of the bed, Rembrary checked his phone. It was from Im Yu-han.

And an utterly random question at that.

When Rembrary sent back a photo of a tiger as an attachment, Im Yu-han texted again.

Rembrary tried to summon up a detailed image of the tiger-headed demon beast, but the only thing that came to mind was that it sported a tiger's head with a luxuriant set of whiskers.

In the end, he searched for tiger photos on his phone, picked out the one that most closely resembled the demon beast among all the different breeds of tiger, and described its appearance.

Rembrary pictured the tiger's head and tilted his own. Endearing, was it?

Was the way it smacked its lips and trailed after idols, licking its chops, supposed to be endearing?

Still, if he had to dig up a compliment... well, yes. The tiger youkai did have a rather stately, serious way of speaking.

Well, it is a tiger...

Well, it is a tiger...

Rembrary recalled how the tiger-headed demon beast had fawned over Im Yu-han, calling her "Lady Im."

He had noticed back then that the beast was fond of her, but listening to Im Yu-han now, it sounded as though the two of them were mutual in their affection.

Unfortunately, one of them happened to be in love without knowing the other's head was a tiger's.

While Rembrary was searching what on earth "Old Tiger Hodol" was supposed to be, Im Yu-han sent another message.

Rembrary stopped mid-search and typed his reply.

He had just pressed the send button when—

Tap-tap. Something knocked against the window glass.

He looked up to see the tiger-headed demon beast standing on the balcony.

The moment Rembrary went "Hm?" in recognition, the beast hurried inside, then pleaded:

"I have a favor to beg of you. Might you grant it?"

"What is this, coming straight in with demands?"

When Rembrary asked, sounding put out, the tiger-headed demon beast promptly dropped to its knees, pressed its paws together as if in prayer, and squeezed its round eyes shut.

"Make me human."

"......"

"I wish to know what it is to be human."

Rembrary stared at the beast with a dumbfounded expression.

"And what exactly do you expect me to do about that?"

The beast, which had screwed its eyes tightly shut, cracked one open and asked:

"Is there no way? Are you not the Great Demon King?"

"What nonsense is this?"

At Rembrary's words, the beast tilted its head back and forth, as if to verify whether he meant it, and asked again:

"There is no means by which my head might be turned into a human head, either?"

"The only change of head I can offer you is removing yours at the neck."

At that, the tiger-headed demon beast flinched backward. Whether the remark had been made in earnest or not, its face fell into a deep sulk.

With Im Yu-han and the tiger-headed demon beast gushing over each other in turn like this, Rembrary began to wonder whether the two really did get along — and felt a flicker of pity for them. It wasn't actually all that strange; even in the world where he'd lived, there were occasional cases of different species being drawn to one another in just this fashion.

Besides, hadn't he been the one who introduced the tiger-headed demon beast to Im Yu-han in the first place?

Feeling a slight weight of responsibility, Rembrary thought it over carefully, and then—

"Ah."

—he said.

"There is a way?"

"There is a human who possesses a most curious ability."

What Rembrary had in mind was Daeju.

There was a one-month limit attached, but Daeju had the power to grant wishes.

The scope of those wishes seemed to have clear limits of its own, but there could be no harm in at least asking whether something was possible, could there?

Besides, something about Daeju had recently begun to nag at him anyway. This might prove a fine opportunity to make use of it.

"That one has the power to grant wishes."

"Truly?"

"Though his strength is slight, so no grand wish would be within his reach."

"I shall go regardless! Where might this gentleman be found?"

"I shall send word to him ahead of you. You will go to him, say that I sent you, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠state your wish. I will look up the location on my phone now and tell you the way."

"My thanks! My thanks!"

"However."

"However!"

"When you find the one I speak of, you must look closely — watch whether anything seems amiss, whether any suspicious persons come and go — and report back to me."

The tiger-headed demon beast declared stoutly that it could be done.

Rembrary told him that the man he sought was called Daeju, described his hair and eye color, located the building where Daeju seemed to reside on the map, and pointed out the way.

And the instant the tiger-headed demon beast had gone, Rembrary sent Daeju a message of warning.

This time Daeju replied at once.

Given how their contact had once gone quiet for a long stretch, the answers remained every bit as deferential.

Rembrary started to type his acknowledgment — then hit the delete key, wiped out everything he'd written, and composed a new message instead.

The reply came roughly five minutes later.

Woo Yeon-woo opened his eyes inside a scene he had glimpsed only in fragments before.

It was pandemonium. Chaos, screaming, and unidentifiable roars filled the air everywhere he looked.

People were too busy running for their lives to notice anything else, and strange things chased at their heels.

The sky was shrouded in something like a pitch-black curtain, and creatures far too enormous to be bats flapped overhead, cackling unnatural laughter.

Buildings that must once have been beautiful lay shattered and strewn everywhere.

Woo Yeon-woo swallowed drily and scanned his surroundings — and spotted a praying mantis easily five times the size of a person charging straight toward him.

"Aaahh..."

He spun on his heel and bolted, stumbling every which way. Tears leaked out of him on pure reflex.

The unease that had gnawed at him throughout the whole "deal" surged up all over again.

What if the Demon King had scammed him?

The Demon King had said he would collect the Sloth himself and return to the original world. When Yeon-woo had asked why he couldn't just go to this "original world" or wherever it was directly, the Demon King had answered in a tone dripping with unpleasant glee:

"A person can't come and go through a mouse hole, can he? It's the same principle."

Think it over and over, and it still wasn't a scam... right? He was mid-thought when something snagged his foot and his body pitched forward.

Woo Yeon-woo went down on his hands, scraped his palms raw, and clenched his teeth against the sting.

But the pain evaporated the moment he glanced to the side. The "something" he had tripped over was a piece of a monster's corpse.

"Ughh!"

Woo Yeon-woo scrambled back up. But the strength had drained out of his legs, and running properly was proving difficult.

At that instant, something shot past with a whoosh.

He went down again, and as he tried to push himself up, he realized that the thing approaching with that whistling sound was the praying mantis — and his eyes went wide with horror.

The five-man-tall mantis was right in front of his face.

So this is how I die. Just as the profanity bubbled up out of him on its own—

a massive spear came flying from somewhere and skewered the mantis through the head.

The colossal mantis toppled over sideways in a single instant.

How does anyone manage to die that terrifyingly, even in death? Another spurt of tears welled up as Woo Yeon-woo hauled himself upright.

This time, he heard hoofbeats drawing near.

Now what? A horse monster this time? Trembling all over, Woo Yeon-woo looked to the side.

But what approached was no horse monster — just an ordinary horse. A large red horse, big, but not so big as to be called monstrous.

And astride the horse sat a woman draped in a white cloak.

The woman wrenched the spear free ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the mantis's skull, wheeled the horse around, and rode up to him.

"High Priest, are you unharmed?"