Conspicuous Favoritism
"Something's off. Seriously off."
Ever since Jungseo had made that tomato juice for Rembrary alone last night, Hye-gyeol had been muttering those suspicious-sounding words every chance he got.
Even during the quick breakfast the members grabbed before heading to the shop, it was no different.
"Why does Yeon-woo hyung suddenly get special treatment? That's so weird."
Truthfully, he had a point. Jungseo's attitude had shifted so blatantly that even Rembrary, the beneficiary, was taken aback. Last night it was fresh tomato juice; this morning, orange juice. Everyone else got one chicken breast — Rembrary got two. Anyone could see it was favoritism, and the fact that it was being lavished by the famously stoic Jungseo only made it weirder.
Yet Jungseo remained utterly unbothered.
"Special treatment? There's none of that."
"Then what was the tomato juice yesterday?"
"Yeon-woo lost his memory."
"Tomatoes bring memories back? That's a new one."
"Tomatoes are good for your health."
"Then what's with the orange juice today?"
Hye-gyeol gaped at the flimsy excuse. But Jungseo simply ignored him and turned to Rembrary.
"Want more salad?"
Rembrary had no idea whether this treatment would continue even after he healed Jungseo's mother — but apparently it would, at least until the man had secured a day off to take her to the hospital. At first Rembrary had been flustered by it all, but true to his nature as a High Priest who had lived in comfort, he soon gave orders quite naturally.
"Would you drizzle on more of the raspberry dressing? I find myself craving something sweet."
Wild Animal had no official schedule today, but they still had to film Cathy and Rembrary preparing for the third round of the competition. Since two cameramen were coming all the way to the practice room, the members stopped by a shop beforehand for "natural-looking" makeup — the kind that didn't look like makeup at all. Their hair, likewise, was styled to look artfully tousled, yet with every strand in place upon closer inspection.
By the time they arrived at the agency's practice room, the two cameramen soon filtered in.
"Hello there!"
"We look forward to working with you."
While the pair exchanged greetings and busied themselves setting up equipment, the dance teacher who would be helping choreograph the next performance also arrived. And a few minutes later, once the cameras started rolling, he asked Rembrary and Cathy a question.
"Have you decided what songs you'll be performing?"
Cathy, whom Rembrary had assumed would be too busy cursing Sunwoo Sil all day, answered immediately — surprisingly enough.
"Yes."
Really? He actually prepared something?
Rembrary stared at Cathy in astonishment.
"I'm going with 'Candy Kiss.'"
Rembrary had never heard of the song, but even the title alone sounded enormous. And when the dance teacher exclaimed, "Ooh, that'll suit you well," it seemed the song choice had been a good one after all.
The dance teacher then turned to Rembrary.
"And you?"
"···"
Rembrary couldn't answer right away, but since the dance teacher knew about his memory loss, he smoothly picked up the slack himself.
"We agreed you absolutely have to nail the dancing, right? Let's find you something easy to dance to."
"What if I use one of our own songs—"
"It'd work, but it'd be a cheap shot."
"I see."
"The tempo can't be too fast or too slow. If it's fast, you can't keep up. If it's slow, every movement gets emphasized, and your lack of skill becomes even more glaring."
With that, the dance teacher — apparently having come prepared — plugged his phone into the audio system and played a track. A melody drifted out that sounded vaguely familiar, as though he'd listened to it several times already.
"Watch closely," the dance teacher said, and promptly began dancing in front of the mirror.
"Hup-two, hoo-two. Boom, ba-ba-boom!"
Rembrary had always wondered — why did dancers attach those little grunts to their moves? He was drifting off into this idle thought when he caught Jong-woo's bulging glare and hastily refocused on the dance teacher. Finishing the routine, the man shut off nothing and asked, music still playing,
"So? Think you can do it?"
"Well, I've memorized it, but···"
At Rembrary's uncertain reply, Eun-seon, holding the camera, gasped in surprise.
"You memorized it already? Wow!"
"No, I've only just memorized it, so—"
"Yeon-woo is a total genius! How do you memorize it that fast? Idols really are built different!"
"···"
Jong-woo and the members, who knew all too well about Rembrary's dancing, bit their lips and bowed their heads, fighting back laughter.
The dance teacher simply waved a hand.
"Go on then, show me what you've got."
The music restarted from the beginning, and Rembrary danced.
Eun-seon raised the camera to her eye, brimming with expectation. She hadn't exactly gone around broadcasting it, but ever since being assigned to Rembrary, she'd done her own research on Wild Animal and on who Woo Yeon-woo was, catching up on their past broadcast appearances. It seemed like it would help her capture his character properly.
The Woo Yeon-woo she'd seen was practically peerless in looks, not noticeably bad at singing, and his dancing was good enough to draw gasps of admiration. But he'd turned out to sing far better than her research suggested — so wouldn't his dancing be doubly better too?
I'm going to film you looking absolutely amazing! Eun-seon shouted inwardly.
"Fighting!"
But the "Wow! Wow!" that had started so loud gradually tapered off, as though someone were slowly turning down the volume. When the dance finally ended—
Rembrary glanced over at her.
I knew this would happen. I should've just held the camera in silence from the start.
Regretting it, Eun-seon offered an awkward compliment.
"Wow! You really did memorize all of it."
Though to be precise, he seemed to have done nothing but memorize it.
Unable to bring herself to call it good dancing, Eun-seon hurriedly buried herself in her camera.
Unlike Eun-seon, the dance teacher — who had held no expectations in the first place — put on his broadcast-ready smile and said,
"Shall we go with this for now? Your timing's decent, at least."
"Yes."
Rembrary had noticed Eun-seon's reaction, but he gave no sign of it and simply danced as hard as he could, in his own way.
But the moment he finished, Taein let out an unmistakably loud scoff.
"You're really bad at that. And you call that dancing?"
He said it as if joking, but Rembrary and Taein weren't close enough for that kind of banter. It was mockery, plain and simple.
Rembrary stopped dancing and shot a glance over at him — but he had no intention of responding. There was no need for another fight, not like with Cathy.
Yet just as Rembrary was tuning him out—
"Looked fine to me."
Jungseo, who had been busy with something by himself in the corner, said flatly.
"What?"
Taein turned around, dumbfounded.
"Did it seriously look that way to you?"
"Yeah."
Jungseo answered just as bluntly as ever.
"It looked like you were making beautiful wingbeats. Like the dance of a swan."
At the outrageous praise, it was Rembrary — not Taein — who broke out in goosebumps first. Rembrary himself knew perfectly well that he couldn't dance. Being told this only made him more embarrassed than Taein's mockery had.
Taein's face scrunched up as if to say, Is this guy insane?
Hye-gyeol, pausing mid-stretch, chimed in too.
"What on earth did you two talk about in the bathroom to suddenly get so close?"
When Jungseo didn't answer, the dance teacher clapped his hands to reclaim Rembrary's attention.
"Alright. Yeon-woo, Yeon-woo. Eyes on me."
After Rembrary had spent about an hour learning the choreography, the dance teacher switched over to teaching Cathy.
In the meantime, Jungseo stepped out somewhere and came back with coffee, handing a cup to Rembrary. Perhaps because they weren't alone — just the members — the number of cups exactly matched the number of people this time: five members, manager Jong-woo, the dance teacher, and two cameramen.
But sure enough, there was one extra perk.
"What's this? Why is there only one slice of cake? Who's supposed to wear this on their face?"
At Jong-woo's question, Jungseo naturally held out the slice of cake toward Rembrary and replied,
"It's Yeon-woo's."
Jong-woo, who knew nothing about yesterday's tomato juice or this morning's orange juice, blinked at him.
"Huh?"
Jungseo was the leader of Wild Animal, but thanks to his calm, level-headed character, he'd earned the trust of not only his manager Jong-woo but CEO Im and the entire staff as well. CEO Im in particular had already marked Jungseo down to be the first member transitioned into an acting career once Wild Animal's promotions wrapped up.
Though LLL Entertainment boasted a fairly solid roster of actors, they were all acclaimed supporting players — faces the public recognized, but people who tended to take substantial supporting roles rather than leads. Rembrary had overheard once that CEO Im intended to make Jungseo the agency's first true leading man.
And when Jong-woo had heard that, he'd thought it entirely plausible. Jungseo wasn't the type to get tangled up in anything shady, and he managed himself rigorously. Though indifferent to others, he had a strong sense of responsibility — and above all, his sharp, handsome features were already the very image of an actor. With both male and female audiences currently favoring soft, gentle faces, Jungseo's sharp edges might actually be in high demand.
So then··· why is the kid acting like this all of a sudden?
Oblivious to or simply indifferent to the strange looks, Jungseo peeled the wrapper off the cake and held it out to Rembrary — who, in turn, accepted it and ate it as naturally as breathing.
Jong-woo tilted his head.
Even after the coffee was finished, the dance teacher still had Cathy in his grip. Perhaps Cathy — who couldn't memorize a routine immediately but was fun to teach — held more of his attention than Rembrary, who had memorized everything yet couldn't dance to save his life.
Rembrary was fiddling with his phone while he waited when yesterday's events drifted back to him, and he quietly pulled Jungseo into a corner of the practice room.
"About yesterday."
"Yeah."
"You were cursing that fellow Maeng Woo-shin in the bathroom, weren't you?"
"···Yeah."
"Who is he, that you'd do such a thing?"
Perhaps because he remembered asking Rembrary whether he was an angel, Jungseo's ears turned red even as his face stayed expressionless, and he opened his mouth.
"Back then, I···"
But he seemed self-conscious of the camera a short distance away, glancing back over his shoulder. Eun-seon's lens was pointed this way. When Jungseo looked, she waved cheerfully, as if to show she meant no harm — apparently trying, in her own way, to capture some member-on-member chemistry.
"Let's talk outside."
Jungseo stood up, deciding this wasn't a conversation for here. Only after they'd entered a completely empty room did he give his answer.
"That cult I mentioned. Maeng Woo-shin is the actor who explained it to me."
"An actor?"
"He's definitely a full member of it."
"Truly? Could you perhaps introduce me to him?"
"···We're not close."
Jungseo let out a sigh.
"Modern medicine can't cure my mom's illness. If her symptoms were mild, she could just get surgery whenever it flared up — but for her, even that's not an option."
A complicated look crossed his face for a moment before he continued.
"So while I was searching for a treatment, I ended up going as far as that man. I kept pestering him, and he told me all sorts of things — how his group borrows the power of angels to grant a wish once a month, that kind of nonsense."
Rembrary asked, startled.
"Do you know how to reach him?"
"No. I was half out of my mind chasing him back then··· When he started going on about angels, I figured I'd truly lost it, so I turned back in the end."
"Ah···"
"Besides, he's a famous actor. You couldn't just walk up and meet him."
"Then how did you come to meet him?"
"I was in one of Maeng Woo-shin's dramas for a while, as a minor supporting character."
Having said his piece, Jungseo suddenly went, "Oh," as if something had just occurred to him.
"You know that female rapper competing with you on Sing Survival?"
"Rapper?"
"Beta, I think her name is? She's under the same agency as him, probably."
Rembrary promptly recalled who Beta was. A skilled competitor who'd placed fifth in the first round and third in the second. They'd exchanged greetings, but never held an actual conversation.
"If you get close to Beta, you might get to meet him. Get a little friendly first, don't bring up the cult stuff, and then just ask — say you're a Maeng Woo-shin fan and see if she'll introduce you."
"If I go about trying to befriend this Beta, I suspect Jong-woo will try to kill me."
"Ah."
Satisfied at having gained the information, Rembrary returned to the practice room — where the dance teacher immediately scolded him for wandering off. He then ordered Cathy to rehearse the choreography they'd worked out so far, seized hold of Rembrary again, and resumed practice.
But no matter what they tried, Rembrary refused to budge past human-tree status, and the dance teacher finally shut off the music.
"This won't do. Time to change strategy."
"Strategy?"
"You can't dance."
"I know."
"But you can sing."
"That too, I know."
"The problem is, when you dance and sing at the same time, even your singing turns into a joke. Keep going like this and last place is guaranteed."
But I have the Last-Place Exemption Pass, Rembrary answered only in his heart. Even if he'd said it aloud, the dance teacher clearly wouldn't have cared. The man simply couldn't stand the very fact that Rembrary couldn't dance.
After a moment's hesitation, the dance teacher made a proposal.
"Let's go with a sexy dance."
"!"