Buried Under a Dating Scandal
Jong-woo read the article in sheer disbelief.
Can fan love cure disease?
It was the story of a woman claiming to be Woo Yeon-woo's fan.
She had lived harder than anyone, only to receive devastating news at a routine health checkup.
An illness with a fifty percent survival rate.
People told her she was young, that she'd be fine, but all she could see was darkness closing in.
She quit her job to focus on treatment, and it was then that she made a decision: since she might die soon anyway, she was going to spend whatever time she had left happily.
One of the ways she chose to enjoy that 'happy life' was being an idol fan—
The article ran long, but the conclusion came down to a single line: Being Woo Yeon-woo's fan cured my illness!
"That's ridiculous."
Jong-woo muttered it without meaning to and snorted with laughter. Even coming from the idol he managed himself, that was a claim he could never accept.
But then a chill ran down his spine.
If he was reacting this badly, what were strangers going to say—?
He scrambled to check the comment section.
Sure enough. Total chaos.
Jong-woo skimmed only the most upvoted comments before letting out a long sigh. Everyone was just making fun of Yeon-woo.
He closed the article and texted CEO Im.
He had just pressed send when he heard it—a sound like an eardrum being scratched with a fuzzy swab, soft and ticklish.
He lowered his phone to find Yeon-woo on stage, letting the sound trail against the microphone. It was unbearably ticklish, and yet somehow it made your fingers curl.
His tone alone is unreal.
Maybe they really should pitch a solo to him. At the very least, suggest putting a solo track on the next album. Jong-woo made a mental note, then forced his focus back to Yeon-woo's voice.
Listening to that murmuring, whispering voice, it felt like everything would work out. His mind settled, his mood calmed. It was like a spring breeze—the kind that makes you realize winter has passed and the season has turned.
Then, in an instant—
A hammer blow of sound shattered the stillness, and the music plunged headlong back into winter.
Jong-woo's eyes flew open in shock.
Sunwoo Sil was holding the microphone upside down, screaming out high notes that swung between a third-octave A, A-sharp, and G-sharp—in full chest voice, no less. And even at that height, his enunciation never crumbled; every word came through crystal clear.
Yeon-woo's softly murmured lyrics were dismantled, phrase by phrase, before Sunwoo Sil's soaring vocals. The ticklish sound from moments ago was nowhere to be found; instead, a thrilling rush of sound tore forward like a storm.
That's Sunwoo Sil for you. As obnoxious as he is, the man can sing.
He was still marveling when the enormous sound suddenly cut off all at once, and Yeon-woo's voice came in right behind it. Jong-woo marveled a second time.
Low notes following a monster high note can drain all the momentum in an instant—but Yeon-woo did the opposite. As the sound dropped, he drew the listener in deeper, making them lean into every syllable.
Coming straight after Sunwoo Sil, his weaker enunciation did show, admittedly. But the charm carried in his voice was more than enough to cover for it.
That charm, of course, was Divine Power—though neither Jong-woo nor anyone else listening could possibly know it.
By the time the highlight ended—the two of them trading lines, riding high notes and low like a roller coaster—the watching staff had broken into spontaneous applause. Jong-woo clapped along without realizing, then came to his senses as the song ended and sighed.
If only he'd been able to sing like that before he lost his memory.
Having finished the song, Rembrary drew a slow, measured breath. He was well accustomed to singing from all his years of performing hymns, but hymns all tended toward a similar style. This was his first time singing a song like a battle fought note by note.
During practice it had left him short of breath and his throat raw—but now, off the stage and watching the people around him gasp in admiration, he felt a faint, heady lift. Something like exhilaration.
As he stood there, the MC came bounding over, spouting exclamations in a string: "Whoa, wa, wow, wow!" This was the same MC who had declared that Cathy and Yuli O seemed like lovers when they finished their song.
The MC wedged himself between Sunwoo Sil and Rembrary, went "Wowa" once more, then laughed awkwardly and asked, "How on earth do you two do this? A song like this?"
Sunwoo Sil simply smiled and said nothing. Rembrary also stayed silent, only staring at the MC.
The MC shook his head vigorously. "I'm serious, I was floored from the very first syllable. And during your part, Sunwoo Sil, I honestly wondered—wow, is that even a sound a human can make?"
"Thank you."
"No, really. But here's what's even more shocking: Woo Yeon-woo didn't get steamrolled by you, Sunwoo Sil. He took your hits and hit right back. Wow. It was the same in the choir version, but I had no idea Woo Yeon-woo could sing like this."
The MC stared at Rembrary with genuine astonishment. "Woo Yeon-woo isn't the vocalist of your group, is he?"
Rembrary answered exactly as he'd been taught. "I am the visual center."
Watching Yeon-woo up on the monitor, Jong-woo let out a silent, strangled scream—Aaargh!—right at that moment. Why, oh why, did he have to go and say 'visual' out of his own mouth?
The MC, apparently thinking the same thing, snickered while clutching his script cards, then turned to Sunwoo Sil. "Sunwoo Sil, how was the chemistry between you two? Any difficulties during practice?"
Sunwoo Sil answered readily. "There might not even be any practice footage."
"Why not?"
"Because we got along so well there was nothing to fight about."
"Whoa—you're that compatible?"
"As you can see, he's the visual center, so I had my reservations at first—" Sunwoo Sil flashed a playful smirk, gesturing at Rembrary's face with an open palm, "—but once we practiced together, the kid turned out to be the real deal."
"Ohhh."
"He's the junior I'm most excited about."
At Sunwoo Sil's lavish praise, the MC's eyes went wide—and then he threw out a deliberately provocative question. "Woo Yeon-woo is famous for having a rather…distinctive personality. I take it he was surprisingly pleasant, then?"
True to his veteran status, Sunwoo Sil answered with praise that had teeth to it but was still entirely believable. "When Yeon-woo practices, he works seriously hard. I couldn't tell you what his personality is like when he's doing other things. I'm not exactly a sweetheart myself."
Rembrary was heading back to the greenroom after coming off stage when Jong-woo finally came sprinting over and thumped him on the back.
"You did great. Seriously great! You were amazing!"
"Thank you."
"Sunwoo Sil, you were amazing too. You were always amazing, but you were even more amazing this time."
To Jong-woo's praise, Sunwoo Sil gave only a breezy, matter-of-fact "Thanks."
Yet even the behavior that would normally have grated on Jong-woo's nerves now looked positively endearing to him.
Sunwoo Sil, whose public image was spotless. Sunwoo Sil, famous for never hedging his opinions where singing was concerned, had praised Yeon-woo openly. Loudly. Extensively.
He'd received the stingy Sunwoo Sil's coveted stamp of approval—now all this footage needed was to actually air. Woo Yeon-woo's image was bound to improve, at least a little, right along with it.
And sure enough, the next day—
Just as he'd predicted, once the broadcast went out, Yeon-woo's image improved from where it had been.
Before the broadcast aired, Sunwoo Sil's fans had hated Yeon-woo with a passion—"Who even is this guy????"—even grumbling that he'd better not drag their idol down when they ended up on the same team.
But when the duet between Sunwoo Sil and Woo Yeon-woo turned out to be an unexpected success, the mood flipped completely. Sunwoo Sil's fans now praised Yeon-woo as a skills-first idol who'd been buried in obscurity, and went wild over his chemistry with their singer.
PD Kim Moo-rok's hand had played a part in this, too. Yeon-woo had behaved so tamely this week that there was no dramatic footage to mine, so Kim Moo-rok had simply edited the practice sessions to make Sunwoo Sil and Woo Yeon-woo look even closer than they actually were.
Every time the two appeared in practice footage, captions popped up on screen: 'Woo Sil looking after Yeon-woo again,' 'Woo Sil seeking out Yeon-woo,' 'Yeon-woo trailing after Woo Sil.' Warm, cozy music underscored every scene they shared. Watching the broadcast alone, you'd think the two were on the verge of calling each other brother.
But while Yeon-woo's image improved a notch, public reaction to Cathy careened in the opposite direction—straight off a cliff.
PD Kim Moo-rok had cut the kiss scene after striking a deal with Long Distance's agency, but he'd staged everything else so that anyone watching could tell the two were in the middle of something. When their hands brushed in passing, a heart would float up the screen. On screen after screen, Cathy stole glances at Yuli O and went red in the face, while Yuli O's voice changed whenever she stood in front of Cathy. Footage of the two bickering and then giggling together played out more than ten separate times.
Jong-woo was checking the reaction to the contest for monitoring purposes when he stopped mid-scroll and sighed.
Yuli O's fans poured every ounce of their fury onto Cathy.
That didn't mean Yuli O escaped the abuse, either.
Jong-woo clicked his tongue and closed his tablet. All this, and the kiss scene hadn't even aired. The thought of what the fallout would have been if it had made him dizzy.
Truthfully, if the partner had been some rookie idol, it wouldn't have made much news at all. Unfortunately, that was exactly the level of public recognition Wild Animal had at the moment.
"Ah."
Jong-woo, halfway out of his chair, stopped and picked the tablet back up. Come to think of it, there was that article CEO Im had sent him yesterday. He'd forgotten all about it while listening to the song—but he was curious how the reaction had developed since.
"…"
After a few clicks spent digging the article back up, Jong-woo let out an "Ugh" and shut the tablet again.
It had been absurd enough when he'd first read it, and sure enough: that was that. The story had gotten a brief round of mockery and died right there in its own comment section.
He was hearing plenty of good things after this stage, but apparently that was all they were. There didn't seem to be any fans devoted enough to chase down every single article like that one and rally in the comments.
Besides, the chemistry between Sunwoo Sil and Woo Yeon-woo, and Yeon-woo's unexpected vocal talent, were only hot topics among Sunwoo Sil's fans. The general public was far more preoccupied with the dating rumor between Yuli O and Cathy.
As for the man himself, Rembrary paid absolutely no attention to the fan interview that had briefly surfaced while he was singing and been promptly buried. To be precise, he didn't even know such an interview existed.
Rembrary learned of the fan's story at midday on Wednesday, when he went to the agency for a meeting about the new song.
The moment he stepped inside the building, an employee handed him a gift wrapped with a ribbon.
"A fan left this and asked us to pass it on to you, Yeon-woo."
As Rembrary accepted the gift, the employee added with a smile, "She wasn't sure how to get it to you, so she's been standing out front since this morning. She said her illness seems to have been cured thanks to you, and begged us to make sure you heard it."
Cured… because of me?
Rembrary thought of Believer 2—the woman on whom he had once let his Divine Power flow.