40. I Met an Anti
"On Tuesday, we go find the person who wrote that post, and we set things right."
It was such a Jungseo-like thing for Rembrary to say that Jungseo could only arch an eyebrow. He wasn't wrong, exactly. It was precisely because that was easier said than done that things had gotten this far in the first place.
But Rembrary's face was brimming with confidence, as if failure were simply not a possibility. And in truth, Jungseo found himself certain the man wouldn't fail.
"And once things go well, ask the CEO for about three days off. Longer would be even better. But it has to be at least three days, no matter what."
"Three days?"
Jungseo's mouth fell open.
"Could it be... my mom—"
Rembrary nodded.
Jungseo bit down hard on his lower lip and dragged both hands down his face. He'd been hoping he could tag along if a visit became possible, and he'd been growing impatient with the waiting. But he'd swallowed the urge to ask, knowing how it would look to beg for a favor when he was the one being helped.
"Thank you."
"Hmhm."
"But why three days? Does the treatment really take that long?"
Jungseo glanced down at his own palm. Healing a bite wound like that took barely twenty seconds—no, not even ten. Did bigger wounds just take longer, then?
"That's not it. If you take a single day off, and I go along on the hospital visit that same day, and the miracle happens that very day—don't you think that's a bit too on the nose?"
"Ah."
Jungseo accepted the explanation. Rembrary was clearly trying to keep his abilities hidden, so it made sense that he'd want to cover his tracks.
"Besides, once your mother is well again, you'll want to spend time with her yourself."
"!"
The thoughtfulness caught Jungseo so off guard that, for a moment, he couldn't find a single word.
It was consideration anyone might have offered. But coming from Rembrary—a man who did everything strictly on his own terms—it somehow moved him all the more.
"Yeon-woo."
"Yeah?"
"I'll... make you tomato juice again this evening."
"?"
The day of the third round had arrived.
Rembrary and Cathy, who had been called to the agency at dawn for yet another round of rehearsals, made a quick stop at a shop before hurrying to the studio.
"The wait time is hardly long at all, so calling everyone in this far in advance is terribly inefficient, is it not?"
"I agree, Yeon-woo. But let's not say that once we're inside."
"Of course I won't. Do you take me for a fool?"
"..."
"Why aren't you answering?"
Cathy answered for him from the side—"Well, you're not a fool, you just have zero common sense"—then caught Jong-woo's warning gesture and clamped his mouth shut at once.
"I merely stated facts. What am I, some kind of criminal?" Cathy grumbled, but he didn't push the argument any further.
"Cathy."
"What."
"You are a spiteful creature."
"Hey!"
"Woo Yeon-woo. Don't pick fights in such a honeyed voice either."
As they traded jabs one after another, the van pulled up in front of the broadcasting station.
On his way inside, Rembrary spotted Believer 2—the woman he had healed—and gave her a small wave.
She used to follow him around only to music show recordings, but perhaps because she was in better health now, her range of appearances seemed to have widened.
When Rembrary acknowledged her, Believer 2 bounced up and down in delight, then rushed over to press an energy drink and a thermos into his hands.
"This one's a cold drink to boost your energy, oppa. And this one's green tea—I brought it in case your throat was sore. It's warm."
"My thanks. What thoughtful care this is."
"Hehe. Of course! I'm your very first Believer, after all."
"You are number two."
"...Sorry?"
Believer 2 seemed to take a small hit from learning her new designation, but she recovered quickly and started handing out the drinks and snacks she'd prepared for Cathy and Jong-woo as well.
"By the way, oppa—is there a promotion system? Can't I move up from two to one? It's only a one-step difference, it's such a shame."
"It is first come, first served."
"Ugh. So close."
"In exchange, if you train your combat prowess, I shall appoint you a Holy Knight."
"...Sorry?"
Believer 2 had no idea what Rembrary was talking about, but Jong-woo hauled him away before the conversation could go any further.
As he steered Rembrary toward the waiting room, Jong-woo clicked his tongue.
"Be good to your fans. The way they smile and play along with that weird concept of yours—they must all have been through some brutal office politics."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"They're sweet kids, is what it means."
Holding the cold drink in one hand and the warm one in the other, Rembrary nodded along.
Even without Jong-woo telling him, he had of course intended to direct his Divine Power to his believers first and foremost.
The land where Rembrary had lived had been full of believers and full of temples. Competition between temples was fierce, so drawing people to the Temple of Redrin meant taking good care of the faithful. Rembrary was far more practiced at tending to his believers than Jong-woo could imagine.
Meanwhile, the group arrived at the waiting room, set down the drinks Believer 2 had given them, and made the rounds to greet the contestants who had arrived before them.
After that, it was the same long wait as always.
"Last round, both Sunwoo Sil and Woo Yeon-woo took first place. Since Sunwoo Sil is the senior, he'll presumably get the first-place treatment and go last."
A staff member came in to announce the running order. Jong-woo bustled back and forth between Cathy's and Rembrary's waiting rooms, and Sunwoo Sil dropped by trailing a camera, playing friendly before wandering off again. Cathy, who had thrown an actual punch last time, suddenly turned on the charm the moment the camera rolled, but for the most part it was a long, quiet stretch of waiting. Going nineteenth somehow made it feel even longer.
Rembrary watched the other contestants' performances on the monitor in the waiting room.
Cathy, who had tied for last place and debuted slightly later than Yuli O, took the first slot and handled his dance and vocals flawlessly—exactly as expected.
Yuli O, on the other hand, went second and attempted a sexy dance like Rembrary's. The mood was sexy enough, but since she couldn't actually dance, she ended up looking like a courting emperor penguin.
Oh Jung-shin, member of a famous idol group, was something else entirely. He delivered a wildly unconventional performance and finished by launching his body into the air and spinning a full rotation.
But the contestant Rembrary watched most closely was Beta.
Partly because the man was genuinely skilled—but mostly because of what Jungseo had told him: that Beta belonged to the same agency as Maeng Woo-shin.
I should go pay my respects later.
So Rembrary thought as he took the stage when his turn came.
Exactly as everyone at LLL Entertainment had predicted, Rembrary's sexy dance looked like a stiff calisthenics routine.
He sang well, but the performance was such a mess that the vocals got buried—and even the song itself failed to carry any of that sultry atmosphere.
The final thirty seconds were an outright disaster. The dance teacher had calculated that a skilled partner would let the flaws blend into the background, but instead, dancing beside Yu Ri-hye only threw Rembrary's technique into starker, more pitiful relief.
When Rembrary came off the stage, Jong-woo couldn't bring himself to offer even a hollow compliment.
"Good work out there."
That was all—praise for the effort, nothing more.
"Tell me, do idols really not know how to dance?"
Sunwoo Sil, waiting backstage, snickered as he needled him.
"And do you dance well, senior?"
"I dance just fine."
Since Sunwoo Sil then took the stage and danced every bit as well as he claimed, Rembrary returned to the waiting room without a word.
And once the recording and the competition had wrapped up—
As everyone made the rounds exchanging greetings, Rembrary slipped off to find Beta.
He didn't need to become close friends. He just needed to get near enough that a mention of being a Maeng Woo-shin fan might earn him an introduction.
Jong-woo was going to be furious, but so be it.
"You've worked hard today."
After exchanging greetings at Beta's side, Rembrary—instead of moving along as he usually did—laced his fingers together and let out a sigh of admiration.
"Beta, your performance today was truly magnificent!"
"Your way of talking is so weird."
"I could not take my eyes off the stage. Truly. It was the finest."
And yet, even with his stage being called the finest, Beta's expression turned odd.
It was the face of a man who had just witnessed something hilarious.
When Rembrary only blinked in confusion, Beta finally doubled over, clutching his belly, and delivered the teasing blow.
"Hahaha. So this is the kind of thing you're into?"
It was Jong-woo, who had rushed over and dragged Rembrary away, who explained what Beta had meant.
"Yeon-woo, come on! How many times do I have to tell you not to broadcast your fetishes?"
"I merely complimented his stage—"
"You've never said a single word to the guy, and then the one day he shows up in hot pants barely a handspan long, you come out of nowhere to tell him his stage was magnificent? What does that sound like to you?!"
"Ah. So I was quite magnificent today, then?"
"...Be honest with me. You only went over there because you were looking at his knees, didn't you?"
"Knees?"
"You like knees. You've said so."
It was absolutely not true.
Back then, he had simply recited it as an attribute of the Unicorn—nothing more.
When Rembrary scowled and shot back, "That is not so," Jong-woo made him promise, over and over.
"Let's not have you going down the Cathy route too. Got it?"
At the very moment Rembrary stood inside the Sing Survival studio, Jungseo was at the agency's legal team office, receiving a list of things he could and could not say once he met the person behind the post.
"This is a small voice recorder. Just in case, keep it in your inside pocket."
The staff member walked him through one precaution after another, then asked with a worried look, "But are you sure about this? Wouldn't it just be better to sue?"
Jungseo had wondered the same thing himself, but he gave the opposing answer anyway.
"The situation's a bit ambiguous, isn't it? It's true that the person who wrote the post got hurt. Even if they're punished, the antis might not believe it—they'll just say it was lawyer money, or money talking. So instead, we'll—"
"Instead?"
Since Jungseo had no idea what Rembrary intended to do or how, there was no answer he could give beyond that. He thought for a moment, then smiled faintly and changed the subject.
"I'll tell you later."
The staff member still couldn't quite relax, and asked again, worried: "How about taking Jong-woo with you, just to be safe? Going alone feels like a lot. He's steady, sure—he'd never get rattled and he'd handle it well, but still."
"I'm not going alone."
"Oh, good. Then who—"
"I'm going with Yeon-woo."
"...Wouldn't it be better to go alone?"
Even after hearing that Jungseo wouldn't be by himself, the staff member's expression grew graver than before.
Jungseo just smiled without a word and carefully tucked everything the staff member handed him into a paper envelope.
"We'll go over all of it together, Yeon-woo and I, and handle it well."
And so, on Tuesday, Rembrary, Jungseo, and Jong-woo arranged to meet the author of the post at a quiet restaurant.
The person who hadn't even shown up when the company offered an apology had, surprisingly, agreed readily when Jungseo asked to meet in person.
Parking the car in front of the restaurant, Jong-woo looked at Jungseo and Rembrary with obvious unease.
"You're really sure I shouldn't come in with you?"
"If you do, the second they think the company's closing in on them, they'll bolt. It's fine."
"There's a window over there, right?"
Clicking his tongue, Jong-woo obediently pointed a finger at the big glass window.
"I booked that table on purpose. Sit there, and whatever you do, don't draw the curtain. I'll be watching, and if anything feels off, I'm coming in."
"If it looks like a fight's about to break out, I'll set a napkin on top of my cup."
Only after hearing that did Jong-woo finally relax and nod.
Inside the restaurant, Rembrary and Jungseo took their seats first.
Then, after deliberately ordering drinks, they set one of the cups close to the window.
It was nearly twenty minutes past the appointed time before the person they were meeting finally appeared.
A young man walking toward them with the faintest hint of a limp—and, surprisingly for someone who had written such things, an honestly pleasant face.
"There's two of you?"
The young man seemed not to have expected Rembrary to come as well, and muttered it in momentary confusion.
But he quickly smiled as if it made no difference, walked around the table, and sat down across from them.