I Healed My Friend's Mother
By the time Rembrary finished his business and returned to the company, the staff involved had already read the apology letter from the rumor-monger.
"I knew you could do it."
"You rascal, you're sharper than you look."
"You okay? That guy didn't try to threaten you or anything, did he?"
Jung-seo, repeatedly insisting to the swarm of swarming staff that it hadn't been his doing, ushered Rembrary off to CEO Im.
CEO Im, who had been monitoring the situation one step ahead of the employees, nearly pulled Jung-seo into a hug the moment he laid eyes on him.
Jung-seo shook his head once again and pushed Rembrary forward instead.
"All I did was sit there. Yeon-woo did the persuading."
"Huh?"
CEO Im looked back and forth between Rembrary and Jung-seo, visibly unconvinced. His face said he believed not a word of it.
"Ah... is that so?"
He pretended to accept it, but his expression still reeked of disbelief.
"It's the truth. And I emailed the recording to Jong-woo-hyung. I gave him the mini recorder, too."
*Really?* CEO Im eyed Rembrary with doubtful eyes.
Since either claiming or denying the credit worked out fine for him either way, Rembrary simply smiled and said nothing.
That smile only deepened the CEO's suspicion.
But it didn't seem like Jung-seo would lie about something like this, so CEO Im found himself trapped in a private gap between belief and doubt, blinking rapidly for a moment.
In the end, he decided to take Jung-seo at his word and apologized to Rembrary.
"Sorry. When you first said you'd go, I didn't believe you."
"I am no petty man, so all is forgiven."
"Are you saying *I'm* the petty one?"
"Hmm."
When Rembrary responded with a silent little cough, CEO Im's face reflexively scrunched up before he hurriedly tapped his own temple.
Now was not the time to get worked up over how the brat talked. The troublesome problem had been solved, hadn't it? He still had no idea *how*, but that was what the recording was for. Thinking this, CEO Im turned to Rembrary.
"Is there anything you want? Something to eat, maybe? Or should I bump up your parts in the next song? You solved it, so it's only right I reward you somehow."
Rembrary shook his head and sneakily jabbed Jung-seo in the side.
If he made the request himself, it could cause misunderstandings later — he wanted Jung-seo to be the one to say it.
The two had already agreed on this beforehand, so Jung-seo quickly stepped in.
"Yeon-woo's been through a lot preparing for the competition while dealing with memory loss. How about letting him rest properly for a few days?"
"Let him rest?"
"Yes. Once album preparations begin, he'll be busy juggling those on top of the competition, so it seems best to let him recharge beforehand..."
CEO Im readily agreed.
"True. Good point. Let's see, then..."
Muttering to himself, he walked over to his desk and checked the calendar he kept marked 'For Wild Animal's exclusive use.' CEO Im's desk was lined with calendars like that for all his talent.
"Hye-gyeol's been stressed out of his mind too. Alright. Everyone rests up until this Sunday."
*I can finally heal Mother!* Jung-seo clenched his fist without even realizing it.
The next day was an official holiday granted by LLL Entertainment.
Delighted at the five-day break they'd earned in ages, the members packed their bags and scattered to the four winds.
If the break had only been a day, they would have wandered the busy districts or slept around the clock, but with a stretch this long, they all seemed to be missing their families.
Rembrary, too, stayed behind with Jung-seo until the very last, then slipped out of the dorm late, disguised behind sunglasses and a mask.
The two took a taxi to the hospital and agreed to enter separately so as not to draw attention.
Rembrary milled about outside the hospital for a good thirty minutes even after Jung-seo went in, and only then stepped inside.
"Here it is."
When they reached the familiar hospital room, Jung-seo — waiting with the door cracked open — beckoned him in.
Rembrary entered.
"She's asleep."
Jung-seo said it in a trembling voice, then closed the door behind Rembrary.
Stepping into the room, Rembrary removed his sunglasses and mask.
Jung-seo studied him nervously.
On the surface, Rembrary looked entirely unbothered.
"Will it take long?"
When Jung-seo asked, Rembrary shook his head.
"No."
"Should I step out? If it would break your concentration, or..."
"It's fine."
At Rembrary's breezy reply, Jung-seo swallowed dryly, nerves and hope warring in equal measure.
Rembrary approached the patient lying in the bed and placed his hand on her forehead, as if taking her temperature.
Then, with his eyes half-closed, he began murmuring something incomprehensible.
It was a language Jung-seo had never heard before.
*What is that sound?* Just as puzzlement was setting in, Rembrary's murmuring turned into a hummed tune.
Jung-seo bit back the urge to ask what on earth he was doing and simply kept watching.
He had seen Rembrary's abilities many times by now, and he trusted him.
"... "
At last, Rembrary lowered his hand from her forehead.
Jung-seo rushed over before he could even ask whether it was done.
"Jung-seo."
Rembrary called out to him first.
"May I come?"
"Come."
The moment permission was granted, Jung-seo hurried over — then slipped and nearly fell, stunned by the sight of his mother.
The skin ravaged by her illness had been transformed into something astonishingly clean and clear, and the shock of it made his legs give out beneath him.
He had thought that even a recovery just enough for daily life would be a blessing. But his mother was more than restored — she was flawless.
There wasn't even a scar remaining on her skin.
Jung-seo stood there biting his lip, pressing his fist against his chin.
His mother, who had been in such grave condition she could barely open her eyes, lay there exactly as she had been before the illness ever took her.
Exactly as she'd looked in her healthy days — the days he'd believed he could only ever see in photographs.
The tears burst out with no chance of being held back, streaming down without restraint.
Jung-seo stifled his sobs, hiccuping again and again, until at last he couldn't bear it and sank down, burying his head beside the bed.
Rembrary gazed down at him quietly for a moment, then stepped aside to give him room.
Singing was fun in its own way, but in the end, he wanted to keep being a priest.
So Rembrary thought as he wandered off in his mask and sunglasses in search of a vending machine.
There were plenty of people who sang well, danced well, or were so charming they lifted everyone's spirits.
But the number of people who could become a miracle at the moment all hope seemed lost was vanishingly few.
Rembrary wanted to use his power to lift the despairing back to their feet.
*I have to go back.*
Pulling an ion drink from the vending machine and sipping it, Rembrary steeled his resolve once more.
He had no idea what state his original world might be in by now, but he had to return — and save whoever was left.
After finishing his drink, Rembrary headed down to the first floor.
*Wasn't there a café around here somewhere?*
He'd come down the opposite elevator, which made the layout hard to place.
At last Rembrary spotted the café he'd passed on his way in.
But as he walked toward it, a man and woman standing with grave expressions in a distinctly chilling atmosphere caught his eye for no particular reason.
Both wore black slacks and formal jackets, and their faces were so strikingly beautiful that everyone around them kept sneaking glances.
They were faces handsome enough that even Rembrary — who had marveled at celebrities, thinking *this world is full of beautiful people* — found himself marveling anew.
But it wasn't just their looks that made Rembrary study them.
*Something's off about them.*
It was the strange aura emanating from the pair.
Perhaps by coincidence, they both looked toward Rembrary at exactly the same moment.
Across a span of a few steps, the gazes of the three crossed.
"?"
Puzzled though he was, Rembrary ultimately just walked into the café and ordered two glasses of tomato juice, the drink Jung-seo seemed to like.
Paying with the card Jung-seo had given him, he glanced over — the two of them were gone.
In their place, he realized, the spot where they'd been standing was the passage leading to the hospital funeral hall.
*A bad feeling, and for no good reason.*
Tilting his head, Rembrary hurried back to the hospital room anyway.
When he arrived, Jung-seo's mother was sitting up against the head of the bed, and Jung-seo was brushing her hair beside her.
At the sight of Rembrary, her eyes widened in surprise.
"This is the friend I told you about."
Jung-seo said it quickly, and his mother, eyes brimming with tears, covered her mouth with her hand.
When Jung-seo had asked whether it was all right to tell his mother everything, Rembrary had said yes — so long as she kept the secret.
Because of that, it seemed the whole story had been laid bare while Rembrary was out.
From then on, another flood of tears began, lasting nearly thirty minutes.
His tactful exit had done absolutely nothing to help.
Rembrary, floundering as he tried to console them both in turn, finally decided enough was enough and said outright to Jung-seo:
"Jung-seo. Did the doctor not say he would make his rounds?"
"Ah. Right. Rounds."
Jung-seo snapped back to his senses, checked the clock, and hastily handed over the mask and sunglasses.
"Wait at the café out front."
This, too, had already been agreed upon.
"Stay as long as you like."
Rembrary nodded, offered a parting greeting to Jung-seo's mother, and slipped out of the room.
He then crossed to the café on the opposite side of the street from the hospital, found a seat, and settled in.
Sipping his coffee through a straw while scrolling through his phone, it wasn't long before texts started arriving from Jung-seo, one after another.
No more texts came after that.
Rembrary passed the time browsing the internet, searching up this and that.
And as he did, he suddenly remembered the members occasionally typing his name into search bars here and there.
*I wonder if the name Woo Yeon-woo comes up too?*
Of course it would. Why else would it hit number one on the real-time search rankings?
Rembrary nodded to himself, then typed Woo Yeon-woo's name into the search bar of the biggest portal site.
After about five minutes of clicking around here and there, his face flushed hot and he shut his phone off again.
It wasn't because of the insults — *his personality is trash* — or the complaints about how terribly he danced, or any of that.
It was the praise. Praise of an intensity like sugar, then honey, then jam smeared on top, and syrup drizzled over it all for good measure.
"Hrrmm."
Rembrary cleared his throat for no reason and set his phone face-down.
Thankfully, before long, it buzzed.
He flipped it over to check — Jung-seo said he was on his way.
Rembrary and Jung-seo moved once more, this time to a nearby Chinese restaurant.
It was a booth with screens around it — a space where they could eat and talk shielded from prying eyes.
After ordering their food, Jung-seo held out a paper envelope to Rembrary.
"There's not much in it."
"My thanks. More importantly — was everything all right at the hospital?"
"Mother keeps insisting she has no idea what happened, and I'm claiming it was already like this when I got there. The doctor looks like he doesn't believe a word of it, though."
"Does he, now?"
"Well, it's not like he can do anything about it either way. She's fully healed and being discharged."
"She's being discharged?"
"Yeah."
Jung-seo smiled awkwardly, and apparently in high spirits, scratched his forehead for no reason.
"It's all thanks to you."
"Naturally."
Rembrary acknowledged this, then quickly skimmed the notebook Jung-seo handed over.
But for all the effort that had gone into it, the haul was disappointing.
*Not much in it* turned out to be the honest truth — so meager it made him wonder if the other side had really been that stubborn about so little.
Rembrary let out an involuntary sigh and closed the notebook.
Jung-seo smiled sheepishly, as if he felt sorry about it too.
Watching him, Rembrary asked about something that had been nagging at him, beyond just the way home.
"Jung-seo. May I ask you something about the time before I lost my memory?"
"I'll answer anything. What is it?"
"It seems one of the members was threatening me. Can you make any guess as to who it might be?"