To Make a Living
The moment Rembrary sent Jungseo out and shut the door, the blood pooled along the shape of the shadow began to bubble and rise, blorp by blorp.
An evil aura...!
It was the phenomenon that occurred when divine power collided with malevolent energy.
So this shadow really was an evil spirit, after all?
But what manner of evil spirit?
An evil spirit that had seeped in from another world, as he had first suspected?
Was this the spirit pressing down on him while he occupied Yeon-woo's body?
Or simply an evil spirit that Yeon-woo had carried from the very beginning?
Or else...
Even as he pondered at length, Rembrary gathered divine power into his hand.
Whichever evil spirit it was, he need only purify it and be done with the matter.
Yet the instant Rembrary gathered his divine power—
The bubbling reaction vanished without a trace.
The shadow gave one great twitch, then fell completely still.
Eh?
The fizzing was still there, but smaller than before.
This was the reaction of something that was not an evil spirit.
Why?
Rembrary furrowed his brow.
Why had the reaction suddenly changed?
He considered for a moment, then, keeping divine power saturated in his palm, pressed his hand flat against the shadow itself.
The shadow rippled once, faintly.
But that was all. No further response came.
Pouring in more divine power changed nothing.
Rembrary withdrew his hand.
There was a reaction, and then it vanished... and my divine power took no real damage either.
A rough picture of what was going on came to him.
Both of them.
An evil being and a being that was not evil were both lurking behind that shadow—that much was certain.
The non-evil one was almost certainly Yeon-woo.
And the evil being that had reacted at first...
Must be the power that shoved me into this world.
The Demon King? Or some high-ranked demon?
Either way, the odds were low that it was an ordinary evil spirit.
It seemed that the evil being was holding the real Yeon-woo captive inside the shadow.
After all, if it were a mere evil spirit, what reason would it have to go to the trouble of making Rembrary possess Yeon-woo's body while keeping the real Yeon-woo locked away?
The reaction flickering in and out of existence, the fact that pouring in divine power had no effect—both were probably because the evil spirit was using the real Yeon-woo as a shield.
This is a bother.
If it were an ordinary evil spirit, he could simply destroy it and be done.
But this one hid behind his shadow and hid Yeon-woo behind itself in turn.
No matter how much divine power Rembrary poured out, neutralizing it would be difficult.
After long deliberation, Rembrary reached a conclusion for the time being.
Heal the hand first.
Right now there was nothing he could do about that evil spirit or about Yeon-woo either.
First, he had to deal with Jungseo waiting in the living room.
Rembrary healed the wound on his hand spotless, wiped the blood cleanly out of the basin, and dropped the bloodied towel into a basin of warm water to soak.
When he finished cleaning up and opened the door to step out, Jungseo was sitting on the sofa, arms crossed, staring straight at him.
As Rembrary approached, Jungseo commanded flatly, "Explain."
Rembrary first held out his open palm.
At the sight of a palm without a single scar, Jungseo's face creased in disbelief.
"But earlier, here—?"
"You misunderstood."
"There was definitely blood—"
"It was false blood."
"What? Fake blood?"
Rembrary trotted out the excuse he had prepared in advance.
"At the shoot, at the graveyard. Before filming began, the stylists handed me assorted items for various concepts, and that was one of the props they brought out."
"Then why on earth did you take the prop home?"
"It looked diverting, so I asked for it."
It was not entirely a lie.
The stylists really had brought fake blood, dabbing it on his lips, smearing it on his clothes, before eventually taking it away, complaining that it looked far too theatrical.
It was a lie built from that memory.
Jungseo knew neither the stylists' names nor their contact information, and Jong-woo had not been present for the wardrobe fitting.
So there was no way for Jungseo to verify any of it.
"······"
Jungseo's face said he wasn't convinced, but in the end he muttered, "Fine," and rose from the sofa.
In truth, it wasn't the blood that had made him check the hand for a wound. There was no way a hand could heal in so short a span of time, so however suspicious he found it, he had no choice but to take Rembrary at his word.
"Still, don't pull this kind of stunt in the middle of the night. It invites misunderstandings."
"Understood."
"We're heading out before dawn tomorrow, so get to sleep."
Rembrary called out to Jungseo, who was already heading back to his room.
"A moment, Jungseo."
"What."
"How did you open the door?"
"The bathroom door? It locks, but it opens right up from the outside. It's broken."
"!"
The next day.
The usual routine began.
A breakfast of chicken breast, three slices of cucumber, and grapefruit juice, eaten in a daze in the car while rushing to climb aboard; Jong-woo driving them to the salon while they gnawed half-asleep at their food; a hurried hair styling and makeup once they arrived at the salon; and then, off to the broadcasting station.
But there was something different about today.
Jungseo, apparently still rattled by the night's events, kept shooting furtive glances at Rembrary.
Rembrary, for his part, was mulling over whether he could use the evil spirit hiding in his shadow to return to his original world.
Besides, now that he knew the real Yeon-woo was trapped in the shadow, he had no choice but to vacate this body sooner or later.
Only then could the real Yeon-woo return to his own body as well.
As if that would be so easy.
But there was one more difference from the usual, too.
As they stepped out of the car to walk in, several people hoisting cameras swung their lenses toward the group.
Some carried only cameras; others held banners printed with the names of other idols.
Those people were snapping shutter after shutter in their direction.
There were even people shoving their phones out.
Of course, these people had been there before too.
But in the past they'd paid no mind to who walked past, caring only whether the singers they were waiting for had arrived or not.
Today, however, they were staring and murmuring names like "Yeon-woo" and "Cathy."
As the members' own gazes started darting around in step with them, Jong-woo said, "Over here," and instead of leading them into the entrance, planted them right in the middle of the road.
Why was he parking them here?
When Rembrary looked over in puzzlement, Jong-woo pointed a finger somewhere near the broadcasting station's entrance.
Three girls dressed so adorably they could have been triplets were standing in identical outfits, awkwardly flashing V signs.
In front of them, camera crews with enormous lenses had set up chairs and were fully camped out.
"What is yonder thing?"
When Rembrary asked quietly, Jong-woo answered in a very small voice, "A photo zone," and then gave instructions.
"See where those girls are standing?"
"Speak you of the spot before the reporters?"
"Yeah. When they're done, you go to that exact spot, line up, and hold poses facing the reporters for about thirty seconds? Forty? Then you come inside."
What manner of behavior is that?
Rembrary wanted to ask what the point of it all was, but just then the three triplet-like girls stopped posing and started heading inside.
Jong-woo, sensing his opening, shooed the members forward.
Rembrary, standing at the end of the line, followed the members almost by reflex.
Perhaps it wasn't entirely their first time, because the members, though awkward, struck poses toward the reporters.
Twining their fingers together, linking arms with one another, flashing wide smiles and V signs.
What are they doing just now?
Flustered, Rembrary's eyes flicked from member to member.
Was this also a form of photoshoot?
Ah—Jong-woo did tell me to pose.
He didn't know exactly what this was, but apparently he had to read the room and hold out for thirty-some seconds just like them.
As befitted a man with two photoshoots under his belt, Rembrary struck a stance, recalling his previous shoot.
The pose the photographers had loved.
AAAAH! I thought he'd been acting a little more normal lately!
Rembrary was striking the pose he had confidently chosen from the commute-day photo zone.
At the sight, Jong-woo pressed his hands together in open horror.
He'd actually been impressed that the man was reading the room and striking a pose at all.
But the pose he struck was far, far too high-fashion.
Looking at the stance alone, it was genuinely cool—but that was not the place for a high-fashion editorial.
This was a commute-day photo zone, where you were supposed to toss out a half-hearted heart or draw a V sign.
Holding a full magazine-shoot pose all by himself there made everyone watching cringe on his behalf.
The members looked equally mortified, their faces going pale.
The reporters, on the other hand, found it hilarious and hammered their shutters nonstop.
Jong-woo let out a groan and buried his face in his hand.
Does losing your memory mean losing your sense of shame too?
Watching Rembrary, currently doing his vampire impression, Jong-woo felt heat flood up his face.
"Wow. I guess the kid's got variety-show instincts too?"
Thankfully, to people who didn't know the situation, even that apparently looked like talent.
The manager of the next team waiting their turn at the photo zone smiled and offered the compliment to Jong-woo.
"You're Yeon-woo's manager, right? He's been getting talked about everywhere lately."
It was a manager he'd exchanged greetings with a few times recently while shuttling between music shows.
"Haha, he has, hasn't he," Jong-woo managed, forcing a laugh, and then, the instant the Wild Animal members disappeared into the broadcasting station, he bolted around behind the reporters and sprinted after them.
"How went it, just now?"
At the question as they entered the waiting room, Jong-woo's expression turned strange.
"Did it seem strange?"
When Rembrary pressed again, Jong-woo mumbled.
"It's hard to call it a compliment. But I can't really call it a mistake either."
"?"
"I mean... as long as your mental fortitude can handle it, it's fine... what else can anyone do."
Jong-woo's muttered self-mockery was hard to make out.
Rembrary frowned, but the moment they stepped into the waiting room, Jong-woo got slammed with work, so he didn't press further.
"Okay, okay, listen up. I have to go grab the cue sheet, so stay here. We'll do the greeting rounds separately later—if anyone comes by to say hi, receive them politely. If you need the bathroom, remember: one trip, one greeting."
Once Jong-woo left, the members sprawled across every corner of the sofa.
Having gotten up before dawn to prepare, they all already looked worn out.
But even amid all this, Cathy alone had his eyes wide open, busily trading text messages with someone on his phone.
Grinning to himself even as he typed, he looked in a far better mood than usual.
Rembrary observed closely as Cathy giggled and occasionally squirmed in his seat.
Jungseo, sprawled on the sofa, stared holes into Rembrary the whole time.
Nobody said a word, and so it went, quiet, for who knows how long.
After about twenty minutes, Jong-woo reappeared.
But unlike when he'd left, he was in a frantic rush.
"What's wrong, hyung?"
Jungseo, the leader, straightened up along with the question.
Jong-woo stretched his mouth into a wide grin and shot a question back instead.
"You guys know the Happy Talk segment, right?"
The moment those words landed, the other slumped members shot up one by one.
They'd been here just last week, so even Rembrary knew what that segment was.
It was an interview where the show's hosts walked into the waiting rooms with microphones in hand.
Jong-woo, saying they needed to monitor it, showed them the broadcast feed—on screen, a short interview was tucked in between songs.
Quick on the uptake, Hye-gyeol clenched his fist. "Whoa, no way—hyung, don't tell me?!"
"Yep! I just ran into a Power Idol writer, and they said they're doing us this time!"
The moment Jong-woo finished, a small cheer rippled through the members.
"Costumes! Costumes! Get dressed!"
Jong-woo hurried the members along.
And while they changed into their outfits, he nagged them about this and that—one item being about the animals assigned to Wild Animal.
"Those are our mascots, so when you introduce yourselves, you mention your animal. Got it? The producers specifically asked us to prepare introduction lines."
"Ugh, do we seriously have to, hyung? That stuff's so corny."
"It's corny, which is exactly why nobody else does it! So we do it!"
"······Agh, fine, whatever."
"Yeon-woo. Woo Yeon-woo."
"What would you of me?"
"The animal you got isn't a unicorn. What is it?"
"...A sloth."
"Right. And do not bring up the knee thing again. Seriously."
"It shall be as you say."
"Just loosely follow what the others do. Understood?"
He was in the middle of repeating his warnings yet again when someone knocked on the door.
When it opened, the show's MC stood there beaming and asked, "Is everything ready? Can we come in now?"
Behind the MC stood a camera operator with the words Power Idol emblazoned on the camera.
"Yes. We're ready."
After Jong-woo ran a quick check over the members, the host said, "Great, then we'll knock again," and slid the door shut once more.
A short while later came the knock again.
Jong-woo hurried over to flatten himself against the wall beside the door.
The members all rose together, so Rembrary rose with them.
The MC, walking in with a very different energy than before, chirped brightly at the camera:
"And the stars of this week's Happy Talk are... the hottest topic in town, Wild Animal!"
"Cathy and Yeon-woo of Wild Animal have been making huge waves on that siiing—ahem, singing program, right? And so! Even though this is a different network's show, I've snuck my way over here! It's a secret from our PD! Is now okay for the interview?"
The last question was aimed at the members.
The members smiled and answered as one, "Of course!"
At that, the MC beamed and handed out microphones to the members.
"Then let's have introductions, one at a time!"
The first to receive a microphone was Taein.
Thankfully, if things proceeded in this order, Rembrary would go last.
Jong-woo had already told him to do roughly the same as the other members anyway, so this worked out well.
I shall simply copy them in a suitably unremarkable fashion, Rembrary thought, turning his gaze to Taein.
That instant.
Taein let out a mighty rawr like a tiger, pressed a fist to his cheek and rubbed it, and declared in a voice pitched a full octave higher than usual:
"I'm Taein, the tiger of Wild Animal!"
Rembrary's blood ran cold.
'I am to do... THAT?'