The New Manager Knows Something
Still, Rembrary didn't let his misgivings about the new manager show on his face.
Jong-woo, completely oblivious to the fact that Rembrary found the new manager off-putting, smiled brightly.
Then, with a proud look on his face, he pointed out the members one by one.
"Let me introduce you. This is Jungseo, our leader."
"Nice to meet you."
"This is Taein, our lead vocal. And that's Hye-gyeol, the maknae. Over here is Cathy, main vocal."
"Yes."
"And this is Yeon-woo. The one I mentioned earlier."
Rembrary had no idea what exactly Jong-woo had said earlier, but the new manager's expression turned remarkably peculiar.
"You'll probably be spending a lot of time with Yeon-woo. He's about to take a supporting role in a terrestrial drama, so his solo schedule is going to pick up."
"I see."
The new manager answered flatly, then abruptly turned to Rembrary and stuck out his hand in greeting.
"The name's Sa Gam-jae."
He hadn't even bothered to greet the other members. Yet toward Yeon-woo alone he insisted on a handshake — Jungseo tilted his head at the sight.
Jong-woo, apparently taken with the rookie manager, simply laughed and said it was great.
"Listening to how he talks, he and Yeon-woo should get along just fine."
Rembrary still found the new manager distinctly unsavory, but he accepted the handshake anyway.
The instant their hands touched, a cold sensation made his fingertips prickle of their own accord.
The new manager's face was extremely pale — and his body temperature really did seem to run low.
If his hand hadn't been somewhat soft, it would have felt exactly like a corpse's.
What a strange human. Rembrary clicked his tongue and tried to withdraw his hand. Tried to. But it wouldn't come free.
Hm?
Flustered, Rembrary stared at Sa Gam-jae.
Sa Gam-jae wasn't letting go. Even when he pulled with force, the grip refused to budge — what in the world gave this man such absurd strength?
Worse, Sa Gam-jae stared unblinking straight into Rembrary's eyes, and that gaze was deeply strange.
It wasn't a look of goodwill. It was the look of someone observing something.
Even Jong-woo, who'd been standing there smiling, noticed something was off.
"Are you two fighting?"
When Jungseo lightly chopped his hand down between Rembrary's and Sa Gam-jae's clasped hands, Sa Gam-jae finally released his grip, flashed an utterly artificial smile, and bowed.
"Nice to meet you."
Sa Gam-jae's strange behavior didn't end there.
When Monday came around and they headed out to hear the results of the fourth preliminary round, Sa Gam-jae — accompanying them for the first time — refused to leave Rembrary's side, even with five members to look after.
But if you asked whether he was actually taking good care of him, that wasn't it either.
The moment people's gazes converged on them, he covered his own face and left Rembrary standing there completely exposed.
"Uh, Gam-jae? If you're trying to become a celebrity, I'd welcome it, but if not, how about lowering that hand and looking after Yeon-woo instead?"
At Jong-woo's words, Sa Gam-jae quickly lowered his hand, but Jong-woo quietly doused some of the expectations he'd held for the man.
The slightly off-kilter behavior reminded him of Woo Yeon-woo's own brand of overwork-induced oddness.
Where on earth does the CEO find these Yeon-woo clones...
The results of the round came out.
Rembrary had placed second — by a razor-thin margin.
He took first place in the digital streaming score, but Mabu-young, who had decorated her stage as lavishly as a carnival festival, beat him out on the YouTube score, pushing him down in the overall ranking.
Oh Jung-shin came in dead last yet again. When the results were announced, he took it playfully — "Ahhh, story of my life" — but the moment his eyes met Rembrary's, his expression turned to something out of which molten lava might pour at any second.
It was obvious he blamed all of this on Rembrary. He still did.
"The fifth round will be a lip-sync performance."
After filming wrapped once they'd heard the theme for the next round, Rembrary quietly asked Jong-woo.
"If Oh Jung-shin draws the penalty again and gets paired with me, am I to stand by and do nothing today as well?"
Jong-woo, who knew Rembrary had fought Jung-shin, answered in an even smaller voice.
"Careful behavior or not, his fans already have it in for you. If he comes to run errands, just make him do them."
"You're sure?"
"If you take the abuse silently you get hated, and if you do anything at all you get hated — might as well do something and be hated. It's one gram better, at least."
Rembrary didn't know this, but Jong-woo had been fighting Oh Jung-shin's fans on the internet at every opportunity.
Every time they manufactured and spread rumors, he posted rebuttals, and sometimes he even mobilized the staff to camp out on a single community page for hours on end.
There was no telling how many rounds of curses and vulgar insults had been exchanged.
If anything, Jong-woo was actually more upset about the whole Oh Jung-shin affair than Rembrary was.
He copied the stage. And then he got angry first, acting like the wounded party.
There was no way Oh Jung-shin's fans would ever look kindly on Rembrary now, so Jong-woo decided to take the reins off him where Jung-shin was concerned.
"Go stomp him with that mouth of yours."
"What did you say?"
"It's your specialty, isn't it? Pissing people off with your nonsense."
This person...? As Rembrary gazed at Jong-woo — ally or enemy, impossible to say — with flat dead-fish eyes,
up in the control room, PD Kim Moo-rok was buzzing with excitement, chatting with an assistant director.
"What was the original penalty supposed to be again?"
"Eating food blindfolded, then guessing what it is."
"Who on earth decided on something that lame?"
"Whoever decided it would know, I suppose."
"And who decided it?"
"..."
"It was me, wasn't it?"
"If I answer 'yes' right now, will it affect my career?"
"It was me, then."
PD Kim Moo-rok smacked his lips. Now that he thought about it, he did seem to have some memory of that.
But he quickly waved a hand.
"If I decided it, I'll change it. Let's do something else."
"Sir? So suddenly?"
"You know about the fight between Oh Jung-shin and Woo Yeon-woo, right?"
"The hallway argument? Or the fact that Jung-shin's fans trash Yeon-woo every single day?"
"Both."
"Yes, I know."
"Right now Jung-shin's in last place and Yeon-woo took second."
"Yes."
"So what do you think happens if Jung-shin gets the penalty and gets tangled up with Yeon-woo?"
"Chaos all over again. From Jung-shin's fans."
"Exactly. Exactly! So we have to put the two of them together."
At PD Kim Moo-rok's words, the assistant director asked, dissatisfied.
"Um... is that really okay?"
Oh Jung-shin's fans already had a track record of terrorizing the show's website bulletin board over Yeon-woo, twice now.
And they were going to pair the two up again?
"Well, it'll keep Jung-shin's fans watching, at the very least."
"Ah. Then the penalty..."
"Make it errands, like before. The last-place contestant runs errands for the top-ranked contestants. Except this time, we decide what errands get assigned."
After the penalty was changed,
the staff called in the remaining contestants ranked first through third, along with last-place Oh Jung-shin, and explained what the penalty would involve.
"Errands, sir?"
"Yes. Since Oh Jung-shin came in last, we'll be filming him performing errands. Mabu-young placed first, so today we film Oh Jung-shin running errands for her. Woo Yeon-woo's is tomorrow, and the day after, third-place Gil Mary will do it. The time limit is three hours this time as well."
Jong-woo's face, listening in beside them, crumpled.
He'd told Rembrary to do whatever he pleased in grand tones, but he hadn't expected the field to actually be leveled for him to do exactly that.
Rembrary nodded along, then stole a glance at Oh Jung-shin.
Oh Jung-shin, listening to the explanation across from him, was feigning illness — no doubt conscious of the camera that had come in with the staff.
"Three whole days, right before the round! This is too much!"
But the moment the camera shut off and the staff walked away, his expression hardened instantly.
Toward Mabu-young he cooed,
"Please take good care of me, sunbaenim,"
all honeyed and sweet, but when his eyes met Rembrary's, he said nothing at all.
Then again, he didn't look away either.
Face-to-face with Oh Jung-shin's I can't stand you expression, Rembrary broke into a beaming smile and delivered his resolve.
"Tomorrow, I shall show you a true caste system."
Gil Mary, who had placed third, exchanged anxious glances with her manager before catching the words and breaking into a coughing fit.
Rembrary smiled gently at Gil Mary, then turned and walked away.
From behind him came the muttered words, "That psycho bastard," but he paid it no mind.
Jong-woo fell deep into thought once more — perhaps he really was the one who needed to be holding Rembrary's reins.
Oblivious or indifferent, Rembrary was busily pondering what tasks there might be worth assigning to Oh Jung-shin tomorrow.
In the original world, slaves who refused to obey were disciplined with the whip.
If he did the same this time...
"Jong-woo."
"What."
"If I train Jung-shin with the whip, do you suppose harm would come to the other members?"
"...What exactly did you watch before bed last night?"
"Nothing at all."
"Don't. You'll get arrested. The whip is absolutely off the table."
Jong-woo suddenly felt a chill of fear. Hadn't he been told, once, never to say "do as you please" to Rembrary?
In the end, after confirming no one was around, he got into the car and said,
"Tell me in advance what you're planning to do with Oh Jung-shin tomorrow."
But before Yeon-woo could answer —
"Ah, this!"
The staff member who'd explained Oh Jung-shin's penalty came rushing over and held out a small slip of paper.
"They said to tell you that you can pick from this list for the errands."
Jong-woo took the paper through the window and asked, suspicious.
"This is fine to use as-is, right? You're not going to edit Yeon-woo into looking weird or anything?"
"Come on, the fact that the list was passed along early — all of that's going in."
The staff member subtly pointed at the cameraman in the back.
Jong-woo nodded and rolled up the window.
Fair enough. There were three separate people assigned to carry out the penalty.
If they didn't want three separate agencies raising hell, that part would be handled properly.
Starting the car, Jong-woo passed the slip the staff had given him to Rembrary with one hand.
"Here. You pick from these for tomorrow."
Rembrary took the note, scanned its contents quickly, and clicked his tongue briefly.
A sign of displeasure.
But Jong-woo was actually relieved. If he was displeased, the errands on that note were clearly far tamer than whatever he'd originally wanted to order.
"What does it say?"
"Have food prepared. Have food fed to me by hand. Order a shoulder massage. Order thirty lunch boxes made for the fans. Order thirty gifts wrapped for the staff. Order housework done... every last one of them is trivial."
Rembrary clicked his tongue.
There were nearly fifty types of penalty listed, but as far as Rembrary could see, they were all harmless errands.
A shiver ran down Jong-woo's spine at his words. Some of those errands actually looked pretty demanding. What on earth had this kid been planning to order?
"Yeon-woo."
"What is it."
"Be honest with me. What were you originally planning to make him do?"
"Do you know what the word 'human' means?"
"I don't know what it means, but I don't think you need to explain any further."
Rembrary shrugged and studied the list intently.
Cathy leaned his head in as well, tossing in an opinion or two — make him do this, no, make him do that.
He looked thoroughly delighted to be having errands run by Oh Jung-shin.
Then Sa Gam-jae, the new manager who had maintained total silence the entire time, suddenly asked Rembrary:
"Why are you holding back?"
Rembrary lifted his gaze from the paper and looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"You, Woo Yeon-woo."
"?"
"From what I can see, you and that Oh Jung-shin person are on very bad terms. I am asking why you're holding back."
Rembrary raised an eyebrow.
"And if I don't?"
Jong-woo frowned at Sa Gam-jae through the rearview mirror.
Why is he poking at a kid who's already a ticking time bomb? he thought to himself.
But this was Jong-woo's first time actually taking Sa Gam-jae along, so for now he decided to quietly observe.
He wanted to see how Sa Gam-jae — his own direct junior, no less — went about handling the celebrity under his care.
"For you, Woo Yeon-woo, killing a person without so much as a mouse noticing wouldn't even count as work, would it?"
The car swerved sharply to the side with a screech of tires.