Got Into a Fight With a Member
The truth was, Rembrary had been doing his utmost to avoid treating visible injuries ever since he arrived in this world.
Illness lurking inside the body couldn't be seen, so even if he used his divine power, a simple denial would settle the matter — no one would ever know. But external wounds were plain for all eyes to behold.
Even back in his original world, it had been the healing of outward injuries that people hailed as miracles. And so here, where he was no priest, he had resolved to keep his hands off them whenever possible.
Rembrary checked the locations where cameras were likely to be installed.
They seemed to be set up over there. No doubt there are others as well.
But with no lighting, nothing would show up on film. Besides, this man's flesh wasn't cut or torn — his hand had merely been bent out of shape. Even an injury this severe could be made to look like something other than divine power.
Unaware of the existence of infrared cameras, Rembrary reached that conclusion, then bent the man's hand back in the opposite direction of the break, channeling holy power as he did.
The man shrieked — and then cut himself off, staring down at his own hand.
"Huh? It doesn't hurt?"
Standing there beneath the bright lights, he likely had no idea his fingers had been broken only moments before.
"That's a relief."
Rembrary smiled as if he knew nothing of it, released the man's hand, and climbed the stairs in search of Yuli O.
As it happened, Yuli O was just approaching, an envelope she was meant to deliver clutched in her hand.
"What was that about?"
Her voice came out an octave higher than usual — perhaps she'd come running at the sound of the scream.
"Nothing at all. It seems to be over now, so let us be off."
"I heard screaming, though?"
"You did not."
Rembrary smiled serenely.
"Let's go."
The moment they stepped outside the set, Yuli O held out the paper envelope she'd been carrying.
"Here."
"Good thing I brought it with me in advance, after all."
For Woo Yeon-woo. Open it yourself.
At some point, Eun-seon had appeared in front of the set as well, thrusting her camera into view.
"What is it?"
Yuli O asked, visibly curious. Rembrary opened the envelope.
Inside was an ordinary-looking card with the words Exemption From Last Place — Next Week written on the front.
"An exemption from last place?"
Eun-seon cried out with delight.
"So even if you come in last next week, they'll leave you out of the slave penalty! And it doesn't even get deducted!"
Ah, right. Come to think of it, they did say three last-place finishes meant elimination.
Relieved, Rembrary held the exemption card up to Eun-seon's camera for a moment before slipping it back into the envelope and pocketing it.
Honestly, he had no confidence in dancing whatsoever, so this was a blessing.
A few minutes later, Eun-seon said her goodbyes and headed off elsewhere, and Rembrary and Yuli O found themselves walking side by side out of the set, a small distance between them.
Then, midway along the path —
"Um, excuse me."
Yuli called out to Rembrary cautiously. When he turned to look at her, she said,
"So... Cathy."
and gingerly broached the subject.
"Cathy?"
"Is he... holding up okay at the dorm?"
"What do you mean, holding up?"
"How should I put it — he's kind of like a sheet of paper. Mentally, I mean..."
"At the dorm as well, he is exactly like a sheet of paper."
"Ah. figures."
Love is love, it seemed. Yuli let out a worried sigh.
So Cathy has been struggling because of the dating rumors, even in front of Yuli herself.
But the conversation ended there, and the two of them went back to walking in awkward silence.
After a while, in the stillness, Rembrary found himself recalling something Jungseo had once told him — that there was a shady cult whose name kept cropping up in this line of work.
He wasn't sure exactly how far "this line of work" extended, but Yuli shared his profession, so surely she counted as part of it?
Yet Jungseo had acted as though that group left a bad taste in his mouth.
Was it acceptable to ask about this to someone else — someone who wasn't even in his own group?
But Rembrary knew that opportunities like this rarely came twice, and so he decided to ask. After all, hadn't the girl herself mustered the courage to ask him about Cathy first?
"Might I ask you something as well?"
"What is it?"
"I hear there's a cult that's become fashionable in this line of work..."
"A cult?"
"Do you happen to know anything about it?"
"Why do you ask?"
Fortunately, instead of finding him strange, Yuli just giggled and shot the question back at him.
"You're into that stuff? Well, I guess that tracks — you weren't scared at all in the haunted house earlier."
"Merely curious, that is all."
"You saw how I am earlier — I can't stand that stuff... I've heard rumors that it's going around, but I honestly don't know much. I hate hearing about that kind of thing, so I'd just cover my ears whenever it came up."
So the rumors are circulating, then.
The fact that she'd covered her ears meant quite a few people must have been talking about it.
As Rembrary was nodding along, Yuli blinked at him and asked,
"Oh, wait — if it's about that, wouldn't it be faster to just ask your group's leader?"
Leader? ...Jungseo?!
After a phone call with Jong-woo, Yuli O's manager drove Rembrary back to the dorm. Then, just before Rembrary could go upstairs, he grabbed him for a moment and made a request.
"Yeon-woo, now that I've seen you in person, you seem like such a serious, level-headed kid, so — I'm asking you this as a favor, Yeon-woo."
It was a bizarrely chummy attitude from a man he'd never so much as chatted with. Wondering what was going on, Rembrary turned to look at him, and the manager asked with a face on the verge of tears:
"Could you maybe... block things if it looks like Cathy's texting Yuli at the dorm?"
Why not do it yourself? As Rembrary stared at him, baffled by the out-of-nowhere request, the manager heaved a sigh.
"I know we're supposed to be managing them, but their long-distance brand recognition has gotten way too high. If I come down on them too hard, contract renewal goes out the window. We're entering a stage where I just... can't control things anymore."
"Ah."
So they extend their careers by renewing contracts, do they.
"If you just keep them properly separated, I'll owe you one. My agency has a rookie boy group, you know? Their debut song hit number one and the response right now is fantastic. Of course, as you'd know..."
Perhaps realizing this was no thing to say in front of a nobody idol, the manager abruptly started reading Rembrary's face, then smiled and coaxed:
"If you just rein Cathy in on your end — look, I'll ask my kids to publicly call Wild Animal a sunbae they respect. You know that's great publicity, right?"
Rembrary gave a suitably vague agreement and went up to the dorm.
It wasn't an especially onerous request. In fact, the other members already scolded Cathy every time they caught him carrying on with his love affair.
When he opened the dorm door and stepped inside, Hye-gyeol, Taein, and Jungseo greeted him in turn with nods of acknowledgment.
"Oh, you're back, hyung."
"Did it go well? Don't go causing trouble for people."
"Have you eaten? Eat if you haven't."
Cathy, it seemed, had not yet arrived.
Rembrary answered them as he headed straight for the refrigerator, then turned back around and called for Jungseo.
"Jungseo. There is something I would ask of you."
"What is it?"
Grabbing the arm of a puzzled Jungseo as he came over, Rembrary deliberately steered him out onto the veranda.
"What's going on? Is this secret-talk territory?"
Jungseo followed along meekly despite his bewilderment, closing the veranda door behind them. Rembrary nodded and began.
"I heard something from Yuli earlier."
"Yuli?"
"When I asked her about that cult, she said it would be faster to ask you."
At Rembrary's words, Jungseo's expression hardened instantly. But only for a moment. He let out a sigh and opened up.
"I did look into it, briefly. But the more I learned, the sketchier it got, so I stopped before long."
Then why did you not say anything?
"I told you to be careful about it, didn't I?"
When Rembrary frowned, Jungseo spoke with a touch of annoyance.
"It was the dumbest thing I've ever done. I don't see why I'd need to broadcast that to everyone."
"That may be so, but—"
"We done here?"
Rembrary grabbed Jungseo again as the man turned to head back inside.
"Wait."
As he did, his gaze swept naturally across the room and met Taein's — who had been watching them intently. The moment their eyes locked, Taein immediately looked away toward the TV, one hand reaching for the phone lying on the floor.
What was that? Before he could even register how odd it was, Jungseo asked in a colder voice than before,
"What now?"
He seemed tired of being cornered over this again and again. Rembrary tore his eyes from Taein and pressed on.
"I apologize, but... might you not share whatever information you found?"
"I'm telling you, it's a sketchy place. Stay away from it."
"I am merely curious."
"Curious about what, exactly?"
"My memory."
"!"
"My memories vanished despite nothing being wrong with my health. I find myself thinking that if I am somewhat... mystically entangled with the thing, then perhaps my memories might return."
Rembrary recited the excuse he'd prepared in advance to Jungseo, who so clearly detested the topic. Fortunately, it seemed to work — the annoyance drained from Jungseo's face at once.
He mulled it over for a moment, then let it go.
"Fine. I'll bring it to you later. It's not here."
Does he keep a notebook of his research, perhaps?
"Where is it, then?"
"...The hospital."
Did he mean the hospital where his mother was hospitalized?
But instead of explaining further, Jungseo slid open the veranda door and went straight back inside. Rembrary was following him in when the front door beeped with the entry code, and Cathy walked in.
"That son of a bitch. So what if he can sing a little."
Cursing under his breath from the moment he entered, Cathy had clearly had something happen to him.
Did something go wrong during the punishment?
As Rembrary looked over in puzzlement, Cathy raked a hand messily through his hair and then exploded at him.
"Hey! What the hell did you say to Sunwoo Sil that had that bastard grabbing me and running his mouth?!"
Hye-gyeol wrinkled his nose.
"Why are you freaking out the second you walk in, hyung?"
But Cathy ignored Hye-gyeol entirely and rounded on Rembrary.
"What did you do to make Sunwoo Sil act like that?"
"What is it you heard, exactly?"
"He asked me why you're not the main vocal! Said you've got talent on a whole different level from trash like me!"
Excessive comparison and excessive praise were, at times, no different from stirring up discord. Rembrary realized Cathy's pride had been wounded, and frowned.
Even as he understood why Cathy's ego was bruised, the whole situation irritated him. He'd been absorbing Cathy's tantrums nonstop as it was.
A sliver of the mental exhaustion he'd been suppressing, forcing into positivity ever since he arrived in this other world, began to leak out.
Still, he didn't let the irritation show directly. In an even, composed voice, Rembrary needled Cathy back.
"And what have you done, that Yuli O's manager worries over you and Yuli so dearly?"
"What?"
"Word has it you've been exchanging texts with Yuli all throughout your time at the dorm."
Cathy clenched his fists, seething.
I knew it was a mistake to engage him, Rembrary thought, and left it there, brushing past him.
It wasn't that he wanted to walk past deliberately — but with Hye-gyeol and Taein sprawled across the tiny living room, whether he was headed for the bathroom, the kitchen, or the bedroom, the only way further in was past Cathy.
But just as Rembrary drew level with him, Cathy suddenly swung his fist.
Rembrary dodged — or tried to — but a sharp pain still grazed across his cheek.
In that instant, Jungseo bolted over like lightning, wedging himself between them and shouting,
"Why is it always punches with you! How many times have I told you to fix that habit!"
"Mr. Perfect over here picks fights with everybody and then acts all high and mighty!"
Rembrary pressed a hand to his smarting cheek and clicked his tongue inwardly.
Come to think of it, he traded blows with Taein just days ago.
At the time, Taein had fought back, so he'd assumed it was an ordinary scrap between equals. Now it seemed that one was the habitual offender.
"Quiet."
Perhaps even Cathy found him frightening — the moment Jungseo spoke coldly, he deflated and shut his mouth.
"Put your hands down."
Having pinned Cathy down, Jungseo then examined Rembrary's face, frowned, and muttered a soft curse.
"Your face. God, this is a nightmare."
"My face?"
As Hye-gyeol came over to see what was wrong, he too looked at Rembrary's face and let out a strangled yelp.
"Oh no! This hyung's face got wrecked!"
I was hit with a bare fist, was I not?
Puzzled, Rembrary looked down — and there it was: a skull-patterned ring on Cathy's hand.
"Cathy, you—" Jungseo glared at him, then snatched up his phone and called Jong-woo. He stepped out onto the veranda, talked for a long while, and when he came back, he fetched an ointment from the drawer and handed it over.
"He says to put this on. Every hour. Slather it on thick."
Perhaps I should have held my tongue, knowing full well what a foul temper the man has.
The next day, Rembrary berated himself the moment he woke for having provoked Cathy in a moment of pique.
One avoids dung because it is filthy, not because it is frightening. A person of mature character — as he prided himself on being — ought to have steered clear of a reckless colt all on his own. So went his self-reproach.
Hurriedly throwing off his blankets, Rembrary walked to the bathroom, all the while regretting it. Then he squeezed toothpaste onto his brush, popped it in his mouth, looked in the mirror — and froze.
Oh no. The wound...
His body had, once again, gone and healed the injury on its own.
The problem was that this particular wound had been seen by every single member, and it sat right there on his cheek — making its sudden disappearance blindingly, unmistakably obvious to anyone who looked.