He Sharpened Himself to Repay a Debt
Rembrary opened the bathroom door and scanned the room beyond.
He had been the first to wake, and mercifully, everyone else still seemed to be asleep. Muffling his footsteps, he slipped outside, retrieved a bandage from the medicine box Jungseo had dug out the day before, and returned to the bathroom.
Thank the goddess I studied how to use it beforehand.
When Taein and Cathy had brawled with their fists, Rembrary had seen one of these pressed over a wound. He finished washing up, stuck the bandage over the injured spot on his cheek, and stepped out.
He had just begun pulling chicken breast and salad from the refrigerator when the members started stirring one by one and shuffling out of the bedroom. Fortunately, they were all so coldly indifferent to one another that the most anyone offered was:
"Oh, you put a bandage on."
And that was all. They left him alone. Yes, keep ignoring me. Continue as you are. Relieved, Rembrary went back to his salad.
But Jungseo, the leader, was a problem.
"No, you can't use that one."
For all his stolid, unbothered nature, the man was possessed of a heavy sense of responsibility. The moment Jungseo laid eyes on Rembrary, he declared this with grim certainty, marched over, and peeled the bandage right off.
"Use the kind that doesn't leave scars."
"I shall do it myself."
Rembrary detached Jungseo from his arm and asked, "Where might that bandage be?"
"Did you put ointment on first? You're supposed to apply it before the bandage."
"I applied it."
"For something like that, it's way too smooth-looking."
Jungseo rattled off his scolding in an icy voice, then went to the drawer and returned with a container shaped nothing like the bandages Rembrary had used. Before Rembrary could even reach out to take it, Jungseo ripped the bandage off his cheek.
"......"
The moment it came free, Jungseo froze. So did Rembrary.
They stared at each other, stiff as statues, until Rembrary hastily raised a hand to cover his cheek. But Jungseo's eyes went wide, and he hauled Rembrary into the bathroom, shut the door, and locked it.
"I think I might be saying something insane right now, but......"
He means to ask about my divine power!
Gauging where this was headed, Rembrary rushed to cut him off. "If you intend to spout madness, cease at once."
Then, pointing a finger at the doorknob, he deflected. "Did you not say this thing was broken?"
But Jungseo said flatly, "I have to ask."
Despite his resolute tone, the words didn't come right away — his mouth just opened and closed. Finally he asked, his voice tight with tension:
"Are you...... an angel?"
I've been found out! — was his first thought, followed by pure bafflement. "What? An angel?"
Why on earth would angel come out of nowhere at a time like this?
Jungseo, apparently realizing how insane he himself sounded, flushed scarlet and raked both hands backward through his hair. "Shit. I really am losing it, that son of a—"
Maeng Wooshin?
"Who is that?" Rembrary asked, wondering who this Maeng Wooshin person was supposed to be. Jungseo took a few deep breaths and tried again.
"Amending my question. Are you...... some kind of healer? Like in games—no, wait, you wouldn't know games."
"Do you mean a physician of wounds?"
"Something like that! Is that what you are? Can you heal people? With magic or — or something? Or superpowers, whatever. Anything."
Rembrary deliberated, then answered, "No."
It felt like an brazen lie, told so flatly to a man who had already seen his cheek. But deflecting for now seemed the wiser course.
Yet what Jungseo had witnessed was not one thing but many. Ever since the shocking day he'd seen that palm sliced open by a knife, he had been watching Rembrary closely. Nothing stranger had happened since then — but instead, he'd dredged up strange anecdotes on the internet.
One fan claimed their illness had been cured after stanning Rembrary. One netizen claimed their child's sickness had vanished after taking a photo with him.
Both had been dismissed as lunatics by everyone else, but Jungseo — who had seen the knife wound on Rembrary's palm with his own eyes — could not so easily wave their claims away. And more than that, if even the tiniest possibility existed, Jungseo had to seize it. Just as he had wandered and searched after hearing rumors about that mad cult.
"Tell me honestly. I'll keep it secret."
"It is not so."
"I swear. Absolutely, absolutely — unless you want it known, I'll never tell a soul."
"I said no. And where in this world does magic exist, that you speak of it so?"
Rembrary, who came from a world where magic existed, denied it with a perfectly straight face. There is magic in my original world, but none here, so it is no lie. Besides, hadn't Jungseo himself refused to treat him like a madman, saying there was no such thing as demons or gods?
But Jungseo's expression crumpled as if he were about to cry, and Rembrary flinched.
"Please, tell me the truth. Is it really not you?"
"I am......"
Elevated to High Priest at a young age thanks to his innate divine power, Rembrary had always leaned on that power more heavily than his fellow priests. He had never even volunteered for charity work of his own accord. But he had lived his whole life as a priest all the same, and he was weak to situations like this — someone clinging to him, begging for help.
For him to go this far, there must be some circumstance weighing on him. Something truly urgent, it seemed.
As Rembrary's answer stretched on, Jungseo dropped to his knees outright. Then, overcome with emotion, he clutched at Rembrary's legs and pleaded.
"Your palm that day. And the cut on your cheek just now. Your fan. That kid's father. It was you, wasn't it? Please — please tell me it was!"
He wasn't actually shedding tears, and yet he looked for all the world like a man weeping.
"What in the world has happened, that you carry on so?"
Deciding he should at least hear the man out, Rembrary helped Jungseo to his feet. Does he have a child who is ill, perhaps......
Jungseo hesitated, but in the end he laid it all out honestly. "When I went to the hospital before. Remember how I didn't let you see my mother?"
"Aye. I remember."
"......"
"It is all right. Speak. Say you need my help, if that is what this is."
Jungseo began heavily. "Do you know what neurofibromatosis is?"
"Neurofibromatosis?"
Rembrary shook his head. When healing with divine power, the name of a disease meant nothing. One need only let the holy power flow. Memorizing disease names was work for physicians.
"What manner of illness is it?"
Jungseo pulled out his phone, searched for neurofibromatosis, and showed Rembrary the pictures. Rembrary recoiled in shock.
He had healed countless patients, but this was a disease even he had never once laid eyes on.
"They say it manifests differently in every person, but my mom has it really severe. She can barely walk. It's hard for her just to get through daily life."
"Such a thing......"
"And because the symptoms show on the outside too, she doesn't want to see anyone anymore."
Jungseo bit his lip hard mid-sentence, as if trying to hold the emotion down. But his contorted face betrayed how much he was suffering.
He set the phone on the sink and begged. "If by any chance you have that kind of power...... could you help me? Please?"
Then, without warning, Jungseo began gnawing at his own palm.
Startled, Rembrary grabbed his wrist to stop him — but he had bitten down so hard that blood was already welling up. The flesh hadn't torn away, but the bite marks were deep and ugly.
Rembrary looked at it for a moment, then sighed and reached out his hand.
Where Rembrary's fingers touched, the wound on Jungseo's palm melted smoothly away.
Jungseo's eyes went enormous wide, but he made no sound. The tears he had so stubbornly held back were finally gathering at the corners of his eyes.
The way he had when he was a priest, Rembrary stretched out both arms and pulled Jungseo into a tight embrace. He patted the man's back a few times, then released him and gave his answer.
"I shall help you."
Jungseo stood there silently again, biting down hard on his lip. Rembrary expected him to offer his thanks, but after standing like that for a long while, what finally came out of Jungseo's mouth was:
"Wait here."
"Eh?"
And with that, he walked out.
"What are you two doing in the bathroom?" Taein's brusque voice drifted in through the open door.
"Shut it," came Jungseo's flat reply.
A moment later, Jungseo returned with the scar-proof bandage — the one he'd left on the table earlier — in hand.
"If you put this one on, Jong-woo-hyung won't tear it off either."
Saying that, Jungseo pressed the bandage over yesterday's wound, then stood awkwardly staring down at the bathroom floor before speaking.
"Thank you."
"Aye."
"I'll think of you as my benefactor for the rest of my life. I'll pay you back."
"You have already said so. Now hold your tongue."
"No."
Jungseo said it firmly, then looked down at the palm Rembrary had just healed and murmured, "Really. I really will repay you. I swear it."
Tuesday night.
Rembrary was monitoring the broadcast of yesterday's Sing Survival shoot with the members when his own figure appeared on screen glowing green, and he nearly jumped out of his seat.
"It was dreadfully dark inside that place. Why does it come out like that? I never saw a speck of green light."
Hye-gyeol answered breezily. "Something about night-vision cameras. That's how they film stuff in the dark."
"Is that truly so?"
"The evidence is right in front of you. Anyway, hyung — you're blowing up online again. They're saying you're a total nutcase."
"A nutcase? What might that mean?"
"Like, a crazy weirdo? Something along those lines?"
"......"
Rembrary sighed, though he still counted himself fortunate. As he'd feared, the darkness hadn't concealed everything after all. But because the injured man had spent the whole time clutching his own hand, the finger snapping fully backward never showed on camera.
In any case, I must be careful in dark places in this world as well. Rembrary filed the information carefully away in his mind.
Meanwhile, the TV was showing Cathy performing his last-place punishment. Sunwoo Sil stood on the street while Cathy sang and danced in front of him, and passersby were filming the whole scene on their phones.
Hye-gyeol snickered and let it slide. "Whoa. Look at Sunwoo Sil's face. He's looking at Cathy-hyung like he's a piece of garbage."
Rembrary understood, very slightly, why Cathy had exploded in such a fury yesterday. Not the lashing-out-at-him part — the part about being angry enough to storm inside in the first place. While Cathy sang a love song for his punishment, Sunwoo Sil had stood with his arms crossed, watching with the most supremely disapproving expression imaginable.
Even when they were at each other's throats, he'd at least pretend to be friendly in front of the cameras — yet it seemed that where music was concerned, even that Sunwoo Sil couldn't manage his own face.
Then, as Rembrary kept watching the TV, something slid into view in front of him. A glass filled with a red drink. Just the one glass. The person holding it was Jungseo, expression stony as ever.
So that's what he was in the kitchen grinding away at by himself.
But why would he bring this to me?
"What is this?" the flustered Rembrary asked, and Jungseo answered with curt flatness.
"Tomato juice."
"?"
"For you to drink."
"!"