46. The Venice Carnival
"So, surprised you earlier, weren't you?"
CEO Im asked as he drove Rembrary back to the dorm.
"Honestly, I have no idea what is going on anymore."
When Rembrary admitted it frankly, CEO Im laid out the whole story for him.
"Ah, Writer Shim's been a friend of mine since back when I was working as a road manager. Of course, back then she hadn't debuted either."
"Debuted with what, exactly?"
"I mean she's been my friend since before she'd ever put her own name on a drama."
"Ah, I see."
"Anyway, she's a pretty big-name drama director now, and apparently she saw your photoshoot recently. That one shot in a coffin, the one she mentioned. She saw it and said she wanted to cast you in a supporting role. That's why she had me bring you along — so she could see you in person."
The corner of CEO Im's mouth curled upward.
"This drama's already confirmed for broadcast, you know. If it does well, you'll make a proper name for yourself."
"So is my appearance in it confirmed or not?"
"Yep. All that's left is signing the contract. And honestly, it's going to go through."
"What manner of drama is it?"
"The title's Dear God and— ah, hold on a second."
When the traffic light turned red, CEO Im reached back with one hand, pulled a black bag from behind him, and set it on Rembrary's lap.
"There's a synopsis in there. Take a look."
Rembrary opened the bag. Inside sat a card wallet, a long wallet, a handful of candies, a cigarette case labeled 'Candy', and tucked neatly among them, a single well-organized file.
"This one?"
"That's the one."
When he unfolded the file, he found a synopsis with the words Dear God printed in large letters across the center.
Rembrary read through the synopsis. The genre was listed as romance and drama — but curiously, the male lead was a priest, and the female lead was a dentist.
"This priest — he takes lovers, does he?"
"Depends on the religion? But no, that male lead's a priest who isn't allowed to love."
"Then why is there a female lead at all? Is it a tale of his fall into corruption?"
"Just read it."
Apparently too lazy to explain, CEO Im smoothly turned the wheel to the side as he spoke. Rembrary stole a glance at his profile, then bowed his head and read on.
"The male lead is a devout priest who, through a chance accident, recovers memories of his past life..."
Within those memories of his past life was a woman the male lead had loved to the point of death. But through all manner of tangled circumstances, the woman died saving him. When his beloved perished, the male lead declared, "There is no God in this world," cursed God and the world and everyone in it, and took his own life.
And yet, after being reborn, he had somehow become a devout priest.
Tormented by memories of the past, the male lead's faith in this life began to waver as well — and it was then, on a visit to the dentist, that he met a woman. A woman who happened to be a dentist. The female lead.
The female lead looked exactly like his lover from his past life.
The male and female leads were drawn to each other with fateful intensity from the moment they first met. Still, the male lead tried to distance himself from her in his search for God — until he learned, to his horror, that she was his own age. That she had been born just one day before him.
In his past life, the two of them had died exactly one day apart. Even the dates matched down to a precise twelve-hour difference between her death and his birth.
Convinced the female lead, who had died saving him, was the reincarnation of his lost lover, the male lead's anguish only deepened.
Meanwhile, a new middle-aged couple joined his cathedral as believers — and that couple was the very pair who had tormented him in his past life and ultimately driven his lover to her death. They had simply lived on, untouched by fate, until middle age.
How the male lead, confronted with both the love and the enemies of his former life, would resolve his crisis — that was the great spine of the drama.
Rembrary looked up in astonishment.
"What manner of ending does this tale have?"
"Think it'll be fun?"
Rembrary's eyes went round as saucers, and he nodded vigorously. Being a priest himself, in a manner of speaking, he had found himself deeply drawn into the story.
CEO Im snickered as he glanced sideways at him.
"Check the character list down below. There's a name in there — 'Im Seo.' See it?"
"I see it."
Rembrary found the name under the section for characters connected to the male lead.
"That's the role you're taking."
At CEO Im's words, Rembrary read the description for the character named Im Seo. He was a priest who trailed silently at the male lead's side — a mysterious figure who, despite wearing a priest's robes, served only as the male lead's aide. He was born innately numb to the emotions of others, leaving him dangerously prone to a life of crime, but as a child the male lead had noticed this and, watching over him, taken him along wherever he went. Because of this unusual mental condition, an extra note explained, he didn't belong to any particular parish.
The very last line of the description read: Barely any change of expression. Never speaks. — underlined in red and marked with a star, whether by CEO Im's doing or not.
As Rembrary stared hard at that line, CEO Im asked, looking thoroughly pleased with himself:
"Perfect for you, right?"
"Hmm. I think I'd make a rather better male lead, in truth."
"Wow, you've got more ambition than you let on. Dream on. Either way, start practicing your acting now. I'll let Jong-woo know once the schedule's set."
On Sunday, Jong-woo came by the dorm to find Rembrary, and let out a long, low whistle of amazement.
"You said you wanted to get famous, and you've already landed yourself a supporting role on a public broadcast network? Seriously?"
The members were all flustered by the avalanche of things that had happened while they'd been away. A stranger — whether an anti-fan or a stalker, no one could tell — had left behind a letter lined with razor blades, and Rembrary had somehow been hand-picked for a substantial supporting role. It was hard to make heads or tails of any of it.
"Is this really a break, or are we falling behind or something?"
While Hye-gyeol grumbled, Jong-woo soothed him and then turned to Jung-seo with a word of his own.
"Jung-seo. Yeon-woo's starting acting lessons with Yeon-woo-sunbae soon — wait, no, with actor Yeon. You're going too."
"Me as well?"
"The CEO's orders. He says Yeon-woo's getting in because his image is a perfect match this time, but he's looking for a spot to fit you in too."
"!"
"He said if the reaction to Yeon-woo is good, he'll put you in right away. So get practicing ahead of time. If you want a role with actual lines, anyway."
Hye-gyeol pulled a face on the verge of tears.
"Hyung, what about me? What about me?"
Hye-gyeol had originally been an aspiring actor himself, and he clearly found the whole situation bitterly enviable. Jong-woo patted his shoulder apologetically.
"The CEO will look out for you too. It's just... your age right now — no, your face is a bit of an awkward fit."
"What's wrong with my face!"
"You look way younger than you are. Too tall to play a kid role, but a face too babyish for roles your actual age."
"I was born with a baby face — what am I supposed to do about that!"
"Exactly. If even you can't do anything about it, what are we supposed to do?"
Monday was the day the results of Sing Survival's third round were announced. Rembrary took his seat in the studio — practically familiar territory by now — and waited to hear the verdict. Everyone had assumed he would place last, so today, oddly enough, he was perfectly composed about it.
After all, he still had his Last-Place Exemption in hand.
But against all expectations, his song had performed well on the music charts, and he landed in fifteenth place.
The theme for the fourth round, announced next, was Carnival.
"Fifteenth place, huh. Might mean less screen time this go-round."
Jong-woo clicked his tongue, calling Rembrary's position awkward. Meanwhile, the contestant who'd placed last for the first time — someone who'd always hovered in the upper-middle ranks — was giggling to himself, apparently thrilled with whatever penalty he was now due to perform.
"That Yun-yong kid's got a few screws loose, honestly. The penalty's a bungee jump and he's THAT happy about it?"
"What is a bungee jump?"
"You strap yourself to a cord and leap off something insanely tall."
"An execution?"
"Around the body, not the neck."
Jong-woo clicked his tongue at the contestant again, but since the man was clearly delighted, it was a happy ending all around.
Just then, word came in that the third composer they'd commissioned for the new album had finished and sent over his song, so Jong-woo quickly loaded Cathy and Rembrary along with two cameramen into a car and drove to the agency. Even so, he kept prodding Rembrary and Cathy into conversation the whole way, trying to secure material for broadcast.
"Yeon-woo. You know what a carnival is?"
"Roughly, yes."
"You're gonna have to sing this one ridiculously flamboyant. It's a festival at its core."
While Cathy and Jong-woo chatted, Rembrary searched his phone for information on carnivals.
Watching him pull up the Brazil carnival, Cathy hurriedly piped up.
"I call the Brazil carnival."
Rembrary fixed Cathy with a flat-eyed glare, but Cathy just shrugged and looked away.
Cathy's cameraman, oblivious to the situation, grinned and teased him.
"The Brazil carnival means some pretty serious exposure, you know. You sure about that?"
"Totally sure. I'm super confident in my abs. Unlike that guy."
Rembrary pressed a hand to his own stomach in rebuttal — but the moment his flesh gave way softly under his palm, he decided that abs were of no importance whatsoever.
"Soft rolls. Marshmallow belly. Yeon-woo's tummy."
As Cathy jeered from the side, Eun-seon laughed awkwardly and asked Rembrary:
"What are you going to do, Yeon-woo-ssi?"
"One moment."
Rembrary flicked through the internet a while longer, then settled on a carnival that seemed nearly as famous as Brazil's, and rich with information.
"The Venice Carnival."
"Ooh, so cool. I'd love to see that in person someday."
"In person?"
"You know, with those gorgeous elaborate masks. How are you planning to do yours?"
"You want to play four roles in one?"
It was when the composer had come in for the arrangement work.
Hearing that masks would be involved, Rembrary finally laid out the idea he'd been turning over in his head all this time. The composer asked, flustered:
"Can you actually pull that off?"
"I believe so, if I wear a mask. Could you arrange the song so that it plays as a conversation between four people?"
"What did you have in mind?"
"Four masks — an angry mask, a smiling mask, a weeping mask, and a blank mask."
Rembrary showed the composer the mask images he'd saved in advance and walked him through the concept. The composer listened intently, then smiled and agreed it could work beautifully.
Cathy said he wanted to make his stage as lavish as possible, channeling the passionate, sultry, and dazzling spectacle of the Brazil carnival, and the composer promised to make Cathy's arrangement as sonically rich as he could manage.
Afterward, the members all gathered to listen to the new song the third composer had sent over — and it, too, was a pleasure to the ear. The addictive chorus in particular left a strong impression, sparking fresh debate over whether this track should be the title song or whether one of the others should take that spot.
On including all three songs in the album, however, everyone was in unanimous agreement.
Even by Thursday, they still hadn't settled on a title track. But the competition arrangement had come together beautifully, exactly as Rembrary and Cathy had asked — genuinely wonderful to hear.
And then, that evening.
With only practice left to do, the composer called Jong-woo to apologize.
"I don't know how to apologize enough, Jong-woo-ssi. With my schedule the way it is... I just can't take that job on after all."
Out of nowhere, he couldn't finish the arrangement work. Jong-woo practically leapt out of his skin and protested, but the composer was unmoved.
"It's quite all right. Is the song not nearly finished as it stands?"
Rembrary calmed Jong-woo down and said they would simply practice with what had been completed so far.
But the next day.
Eun-seon arrived wearing a stricken expression and delivered some utterly unexpected news to Jong-woo and Rembrary.
"I saw it at the meeting last night. You know the arrangement Yeon-woo-ssi has been working on? It's almost exactly like another contestant's arrangement."
"What?"
Rembrary whipped his head around to stare at her.
"Is that the truth?"
Jong-woo's eyes went round as well.
"No — how could that even happen?"
Eun-seon glanced around them, then lowered her voice.
"Up until Wednesday, that contestant was doing the Brazil carnival. But on Thursday he suddenly announced he was changing his concept — and showed up with an arrangement just like yours."