Ahead of the Script Reading
"Hey! What do you think you're saying in front of a kid!"
Jong-woo hastily pulled the car over to the curb and whirled around, shouting in outrage.
Sa Gam-jae tilted his head, then smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling.
"Ah. Is that supposed to be a secret?"
Then he added, suspiciously casual.
Jong-woo felt an inexplicable shiver run down his spine, and wondered if he'd made a mistake hiring the new manager. Never mind that he hadn't actually been the one to hire him.
But no matter how startled Jong-woo was, he hadn't been nearly as shocked as Rembrary.
What does he know about me, to say something like that?
A thief's own feet itch, as the saying went. To Jong-woo, Sa Gam-jae's words must have sounded like nonsense — but from Rembrary's standpoint, it was a different story.
Did he see the evil spirit lurking in my shadow? Or does he know something about my power?
Granted, even if he did know about the power, he couldn't be understanding it correctly.
Rembrary's power was the sacred Divine Power — yet this man treated it as though it belonged to some wicked, depraved demon-folk.
There were any number of things he wanted to ask, but here he could hardly come out and demand, What are you, exactly?
For now, I'll watch and wait.
Since the Dear God script reading was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Jong-woo called Oh Jung-shin's manager and asked whether the errand filming could be done at ten in the morning.
They agreed that getting it over with early was better for everyone, and the schedule was set on the spot.
The filming location was decided: the dormitory.
Rembrary had gotten up before dawn to stop by the salon for makeup, and now sat cross-legged on the sofa, waiting in high spirits for Oh Jung-shin to arrive.
His curiosity about Sa Gam-jae could wait.
First priority was exacting legal revenge on Oh Jung-shin — who kept picking fights, and unpleasantly so, always acting like the wronged party when he was the one who started it.
At last the minute hand crept to the number ten.
As if he'd been made to wait on purpose, the doorbell rang precisely at that moment.
Rembrary rose from his seat and headed for the entryway. Eun-seon, who had arrived thirty minutes early, took her place by the front door with her camera in hand.
When the door opened, there stood Oh Jung-shin with a sheepish expression, trailed by his manager and his assigned cameraman.
Just like Sunwoo Sil, Oh Jung-shin's expression management in front of the camera was astonishingly flawless.
"That's twice now I've gotten stuck playing the slave."
His greeting to Rembrary came out sounding like a grumble, yet oddly cheerful.
Rembrary answered with a beaming smile.
"That's right. Round and round it goes, and here you are, my slave once more."
Oh Jung-shin's manager, mid-bow, whipped his head around at blinding speed.
Jong-woo also gaped at Rembrary in horror.
Ever since yesterday, when suspicious words like 'human speech' and 'whip' had come out of Rembrary's mouth, Jong-woo had been on edge.
In the end, he had personally sat Rembrary down and chosen tomorrow's errand for Oh Jung-shin himself — something not so difficult it felt like harassment, but not so easy either that the lingering knot of resentment wouldn't loosen a little.
Rembrary had agreed with a sullen face, and Jong-woo had breathed a sigh of relief.
And then that greeting — that mouth had the nerve to say that as a greeting!
Oh Jung-shin flinched, but laughed it off with a hearty haha, as if he'd just heard a good joke.
Rembrary, too, smiled benignly, as though it had all been in jest.
And the moment Oh Jung-shin's laughter died down, he smiled even more sweetly and gave the order.
"Call me Master for the next three hours."
Jong-woo buried his face in both hands.
Sa Gam-jae watched the whole scene with evident enjoyment.
It was only after his manager signaled from the camera's blind spot that Oh Jung-shin recovered his senses and let out an awkward haha.
Inwardly, though, he was thinking: Woo Yeon-woo has lost his mind.
They'd fought, sure, but like most colleagues in this industry, he'd assumed they'd play nice for the cameras. Even after being assigned the slave role, he'd done the math — he'd already taken a solid hit from Rembrary's fans over the beverage errand, so keeping the peace was the smart play.
So what was this psycho trying to pull, right out in the open?
"Haha... if you insist, Master."
Still, Oh Jung-shin complied obediently.
Acting out like that could only end one way, and it wasn't hard to guess who'd pay the price. Wasn't the real fool the one who couldn't even protect his broadcast image?
Oh Jung-shin made a show of being meek and cooperative, asking along.
"So what would you have me do?"
"What did you have Ma Bu-young sunbaenim do yesterday?"
"You had him give you a massage. Should I give you one too, Woo Yeon-woo-ssi?"
"Oh dear. Master."
"...Does Master want a massage too?"
The tendons stood out blue on his forehead, but Oh Jung-shin held his ground, refusing to drop the smile.
Jong-woo, terrified that Rembrary might break his promise and order some bizarre errand, was so tense he forgot to blink.
The other members, caught up in the tension, kept glancing back and forth between Rembrary and Oh Jung-shin.
Taein and Cathy in particular were feeling something very complicated indeed.
Part of them wanted Rembrary tormenting Oh Jung-shin to air on television; another part hoped he'd keep quiet, in case it blew up into a scandal.
Rembrary was infuriating, sure — but they hated Oh Jung-shin even more, and if Rembrary took heat, the whole group would suffer right along with him. Everything was tangled together in a dozen different ways.
Amid all this convoluted tension, Rembrary stated flatly:
"Entertain me."
"!"
PD Kim Moo-rok leaned back in delighted shock as he watched the footage Eun-seon and Oh Jung-shin's cameraman had captured.
He laughed out loud — a full-throated hyahahaha — then flung out a hand and whooped.
"That's it! The ratings are going to explode!"
In the footage, Oh Jung-shin danced, sang, and even acted out awkward little skits.
They were clearly errands straight from the list the production crew had prepared. But maybe it was the posture of the person watching? Something about the whole scene felt exquisitely, disturbingly off.
On screen, Rembrary lounged elegantly on the sofa, savoring Oh Jung-shin's antics while picking grapes off the bunch beside him — looking for all the world like a Roman emperor enjoying the performance of his slaves.
The languid ease born of real battlefield experience even read as the leisure of some sinister tyrant.
PD Kim Moo-rok smirked and asked his staff.
"Anything else in here that could make waves?"
A few suggestions surfaced. Then, partway through the discussion, Sunwoo Sil's cameraman suddenly shouted.
"Oh! Right!"
When PD Kim Moo-rok looked over, the cameraman balled his hands into fists and drummed them like a drummer as he spoke.
"Did you see the article about San So-ra collapsing early this morning?"
"Yeah, so? What about it?"
"A while back, Woo Yeon-woo went up to San So-ra once. Her manager thought he was making a move on her and chewed him out for it."
"Wait, wait — a dating scandal?"
The AD, who'd had zero interest in Woo Yeon-woo or anyone else and had been fiddling with his phone this whole time, finally lowered it to ask.
"Woo Yeon-woo likes San So-ra?"
"No, that's not it. When his manager confronted him back then, Yeon-woo explained it like this — that San So-ra had something wrong with her body, and that's why he'd gone up to her. Something like that."
"Whoa. Seriously?"
"Yep. Pretty wild, right?"
"Wild, sure... but that's just sharp eyes, isn't it? Would that even make headlines?"
Sunwoo Sil's cameraman laughed and said he'd only brought it up because it came to mind.
But hearing the story, PD Kim Moo-rok's thoughts drifted back a few weeks.
A few weeks ago, when Rembrary had said something unsettling on the haunted house set and behaved like an outright psychopath.
Eun-seon had mentioned that something strange had happened during his photo shoot as well, and PD Kim Moo-rok had ordered that footage kept on file.
Both the photo shoot footage and the haunted house footage were sitting safely archived — he'd been convinced a day would come when he'd need them.
And now, San So-ra?
"If we stitch it together, that'd make one hell of a picture."
PD Kim Moo-rok murmured with a smile.
An assistant director asked,
"But even if this gets out, people would just get curious about Yeon-woo, right? I don't see anyone trashing him over it."
"Hm?"
"What if we air the Oh Jung-shin stuff this week and save this for next week? Wouldn't that stretch the buzz even longer?"
PD Kim Moo-rok clicked his tongue and shook his head, as if he'd heard something absurd.
"I want buzz. I didn't say I wanted to turn Yeon-woo into a sandbag."
"...It wasn't?"
"Think about it. If Oh Jung-shin's fans just unilaterally tear Yeon-woo apart, that's boring. That's a firecracker — it flares up, gets swallowed whole, and it's over. But what if Yeon-woo's fans fight back with roughly equal force?"
"Then they'd... fight for a long time?"
"Exactly. Long fight, long buzz. A battle's more fun than a one-sided rout, no?"
PD Kim Moo-rok meant every word.
It was why, for the first competition, he'd packaged Yeon-woo as 'terrible personality, genius talent' for the sake of the buzz.
To PD Kim Moo-rok, Woo Yeon-woo was a clay doll he could shape however he liked, with his agency's blessing.
He fully intended to squeeze every drop of use out of him — but he had no intention of outright breaking him.
"Besides, airing it right after San So-ra collapses is what gives it impact. Wait a week and it'll look way too contrived."
"Ah..."
"Bring me all the footage. Let's build a proper puzzle out of this."
"Your career as a celebrity could be torn to shreds! You think idols are scared of Oh Jung-shin's fans for nothing?"
Jong-woo bellowed the entire drive to the Dear God script reading. His expression was lava spilling from a freshly erupted volcano, and his voice was as acrid as the ash billowing out of it.
Listening to Jong-woo radiate fury from every pore, Rembrary asked, puzzled.
"I gave him the errand you picked for me. I had intended to order something else entirely."
"Hey! The errand isn't the problem! Your face is the problem!"
"My face?"
"When Oh Jung-shin was groveling for you, your expression was unbearably smug!"
Rembrary brushed it off with a serene smile.
"Still, I feel somewhat lighter now, I must say."
Jong-woo's mouth flapped open and shut, and during a brief stop he gently thunked his head against the window.
"Fine... I'm glad your heart is at ease, at least. You know, Yeon-woo, I used to be most jealous of your face."
"?"
"Now I'm most jealous of your mental fortitude. Judged on mental strength alone, you'd be the best in the world."
But Jong-woo didn't nag any further than that.
After all, the more Oh Jung-shin's manager's face crumpled, the more satisfying it had been for him too.
And besides, even if Rembrary hadn't ordered the errand, even if his expression management had been perfect, Oh Jung-shin's fans would have thrown a fit regardless.
"When you think about it, it's actually pretty funny."
"What is?"
"Oh Jung-shin's fans. Right now they seem like the worst of the worst, but back in the day, they were the most pitiable fandom out there."
"Is that so?"
"They shot straight up from rookie days, so a bunch of the older fandoms ganged up to keep them in check — harassed their group and their fans like crazy. Then a huge rumor broke out about them. But they weathered it, the fans banded together tighter than ever, and now they're the ones doing the tormenting?"
Clicking his tongue, Jong-woo slid the car smoothly into the parking lot.
"We're here."
Rembrary stepped out of the car with the practice script Jong-woo had printed tucked under his arm.
Jong-woo pulled the keys and got out after him, patting Rembrary on the shoulder.
"Good luck in there. And please — watch that mouth of yours."