Already So Arrogant

"What?"

Sleep fled from Rembrary in an instant, and he scrambled out of bed.

"Come look at this."

Taein and Cathy were singing at the dining table, so Rembrary and Jungseo made their way to the living room sofa instead.

Jungseo fiddled with his phone for a moment, then played a series of short videos that had sprung up online — every one of them about Rembrary.

In the videos, Rembrary was in the middle of a photoshoot.

But not the one happening now — this was a shoot from weeks back, the results already published. The shoot where he had first become aware of his shadow.

The video held all of that day's commotion and astonishment, exactly as it had happened: the photographer and staff gaping in disbelief, a few of them trembling as they muttered about being scared.

Eun-seon's frightened voice was in there too.

The next clip was from when Rembrary had visited Sunwoo Sil's agency.

It showed Rembrary offering a handshake to San So-ra, being yanked back by Jong-woo, and then scrambling to explain himself.

"That senior from earlier. Her complexion was poor. She looked unwell," came his voice on the recording.

Jong-woo shot back immediately — "Poor complexion? Please. She looked the picture of health" — and in the very next scene, the news broke that San So-ra had collapsed.

The narration was in full hysterics the whole way through.

Then, with a massive COULD IT BE...? caption slamming onto the screen, the footage from the haunted house shoot began to play.

There was Rembrary, saying something distinctly odd to a terrified Yuli O: "It's all right. I don't really sense anything strange in this place."

And that wasn't the end of it.

Practice footage flashed by in brief cuts, each one zooming in with surgical precision on the moments his expression turned grave or strangely unreadable.

At one point the narrator could be heard mumbling, "Whoa, that expression..."

When the video ended, Rembrary clicked his tongue.

"Why is the ordering such a mess?"

It was all true. Every single event had happened.

But the editing had cunningly twisted the sequence, arranging them as though the events had unfolded one after another.

That alone was enough to turn Rembrary into a man with something going on.

He now understood, viscerally, just how mighty and powerful broadcast editing was in this world.

Jong-woo had witnessed everything firsthand and considered it all unremarkable — yet through editing alone, Rembrary had become a deeply suspicious individual.

Jungseo turned off the video and pointed at the heart count beneath it.

"Yours has an overwhelming lead in hearts and views."

"Hmm. It is certainly bewildering."

"What are we going to do?"

"What can be done, if it cannot be helped?"

"What if someone figures out it's your power—"

"It is ambiguous enough to pass for coincidence. Fear not."

Rembrary reassured Jungseo while replaying the scenes in his head.

Uncanny, yes — but truly. There was no single decisive moment of him wielding power.

No one watching those clips could possibly conclude that Rembrary possessed a gift of healing.

Though someone with a remarkably sharp eye might find the whole thing worth a second look.

By the next day, it turned out Rembrary had been right.

The other members who watched the video simply found it strange and amusing, nothing more.

Hye-gyeol just snickered through the whole thing — "Hyung, you got edited into something seriously uncanny" — and cackled some more.

Jong-woo had nothing to say about it either, and Rembrary prepared comfortably for the recording studio.

Since ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Jong-woo warned they might be stuck there all day, he'd dressed in comfortable clothes.

Arriving at the studio, Rembrary greeted the composer and the engineer, sang through the song together with the members in front of the composer, got called out on a few issues, ran through the song once more, and then they began recording one by one.

Even at lunch, the mood was warm and convivial.

Last night's broadcast, however, had rolled off in an entirely unexpected direction while they worked.

At first, everyone marveled and focused on Woo Yeon-woo's uncanny eye.

But as fans gushed over him, older stories got dredged up — how someone's illness had cleared up after fan-girling over Woo Yeon-woo, how a fan's son had recovered after taking a photo with him.

Everyone had laughed these stories off as jokes, mocking them outright — but when they were woven together with Kim Moo-rok's cunningly edited footage, a rather mystical picture began to emerge.

Jong-woo only learned of any of this after the members resumed recording and he picked up a call from CEO Im.

After hanging up, Jong-woo quickly checked his bookmarked communities before stepping back into the studio — the ones where celebrity gossip flew thickest.

There's no way the kid's spouting any crackpot cult nonsense, right? Anxious, he scrolled fast with his thumb.

But the reaction was far better than he'd feared.

The post everyone had once dismissed as absurd — I beat my illness by stanning Yeon-woo — was suddenly getting attention, and people were arguing over whether it was a coincidence or not.

The miracle-healing stories were still being treated as nonsense, but they were warping into something like a mild ghost story.

Half the commenters found it spine-chilling yet chalked it up to coincidence; the other half decided Yeon-woo genuinely had freakishly sharp instincts.

Either way, it beat having an image as a personality-less jerk or an ignoramus.

Jong-woo wasn't the only one pleased by this turn of events. There were a few others — and among them were the director of Dear God and screenwriter Shim Kyung.

"Ooh, this is actually good."

The director chuckled mid-meal with Shim Kyung, staring at his phone.

"What is?"

"The Im Seo role. Woo Yeon-woo."

"Did something happen? Don't tell me he shot another jaw-dropping photoshoot?"

"No. Someone turned a documentary into a drama."

"?"

The director held out his phone to Shim Kyung.

She took it with her rolled omelet still in her mouth, blinking in confusion.

What the director had been reading was a blog post summarizing this latest issue.

As she scrolled down through the whole thing, an exclamation burst out of her too.

"Wow."

They both knew exactly how ludicrous the rumors floating around the entertainment industry could be.

To be sure, rumors sometimes hid a grain of truth larger than themselves — but this one, at least for now, seemed pure ridiculousness.

"This is great!"

"Right?"

But it was that very ridiculousness that delighted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Shim Kyung so much.

"This image would fit the Im Seo role perfectly."

"Exactly. Combine it with that mysterious air and — wow, it'd make for an incredible picture."

Completely unaware of the director's and Shim Kyung's reactions, Rembrary was held hostage in the recording studio until two in the morning.

He'd assumed they would simply record it in one go.

But there turned out to be a surprising number of parts needing refinement, and layer upon layer of additional production, and so the hours stretched on.

Part of it was that the recording schedule — originally four grueling days from Tuesday through Friday — had been compressed into three.

The moment the members returned to the dorm, they collapsed, utterly spent.

"Ugh, seriously — what if the song still charts badly after all this?"

"Stop jinxing us with that garbage."

The other members at least had it easier. They could rest fully on Thursday and reload on Friday.

But Yeon-woo was locked in for his solo track recording too, so he had to head back to the studio on Thursday.

"Hello."

"Yeah, yeah. Good work."

The composer returned the greeting with dark circles sagging under his own eyes.

"Solo track today, right?"

"Yes."

"Read the lyrics and they're pretty intense. Noise marketing?"

"The concept is a devil. Can't exactly make that kid-friendly."

"Fair point."

The composer nodded and waved a hand.

"Alright, give it a go."

Clutching the lyrics he'd written himself, Rembrary sang it just as he had practiced.

"Kya, what a tone."

The composer closed his eyes and sighed in admiration the moment Rembrary delivered the first line.

In this line of work, he'd seen plenty of cases where the image and the actual personality didn't match.

Plenty of stars rumored to be legendarily rude who turned out to be absolute pushovers up close — and plenty of sweet, innocent-seeming idols who, once you got to know them, had the nastiest temperaments of all.

So the composer set aside every prejudice about Rembrary and let his exclamation fly purely on the strength of the music.

But the exclamation began to dwindle.

"...Hmm, something's a bit off."

The composer murmured under his breath, rubbing his arm with his palm.

The kid sang beautifully. Genuinely beautifully — but the feel was somehow...

"What do you think?"

Rembrary finally finished the song and lowered the sheet, looking up at the composer with hopeful eyes.

The composer answered honestly.

"You sound exactly like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what a devil from an exorcism movie would sound like if it sang, man."

Rembrary broke into a beaming grin and threw up a thumbs-up.

"Hey, that was not a compliment. Put the thumb down."

"That is precisely what you describe. It is what I sought."

After being thoroughly scolded — singing like a devil is your prerogative, but do you honestly think anyone's going to pay money for devil music? — Rembrary sat blankly on the windowsill, eating his chicken breast lunchbox.

His mind was in disarray.

Sa Gam-jae approached him and asked kindly,

"Is it very difficult for you?"

Rembrary answered honestly.

"Because it is a devil concept, I sing like a devil — and now you tell me it is too devilish. I confess I cannot follow the logic at all."

"......"

Strange. The one who had asked the question wasn't answering.

Rembrary looked up from his lunchbox and stared at Sa Gam-jae.

Sa Gam-jae was looking back at him with that peculiar expression that surfaced from time to time.

Rembrary found that gaze unsettling.

Whenever Sa Gam-jae looked at him like that, Rembrary somehow felt as though he'd been caught red-handed. As if the man knew something and was simply waiting.

Impossible.

This world had no magic. No priests channeling divine power like spells.

And yet... evil spirits exist. The sacred relics reacted to divine power, so divine power is not absent either. Perhaps there are other things in this world as well.

In the end, Rembrary resolved to find out whether Sa Gam-jae was an ordinary man or not.

For his first test, he chose to determine whether Sa Gam-jae was fundamentally a malevolent being.

Just as he had once tested his shadow by splitting it in two.

Rembrary deliberately walked over to the vending machine and drew out a can. Then, feigning the act of pulling the tab open, he pressed his hand against the can's sharp edge and cut himself.

"Ow."

At his short cry, Sa Gam-jae came over slowly.

Rembrary sent divine power flowing into the welling blood and held out his hand to him.

"Would you wipe this for me?"

Sa Gam-jae raised an eyebrow but obediently pulled out a handkerchief.

Rembrary snatched the handkerchief away and made his demand again.

"Would you wipe it with your skin?"

Sa Gam-jae obediently raised his own hand.

But before Sa Gam-jae's skin could touch Rembrary's blood—

"What do you think you're doing, Woo Yeon-woo! Are you out of your mind! Gam-jae is a sunbae!"

Jong-woo came sprinting over, smacked Rembrary on the back, and snatched the handkerchief away, dabbing the blood away in quick strokes.

Rembrary stared at him, dumbfounded — but Jong-woo was genuinely furious.

From where he stood, Rembrary looked exactly like a toxic celebrity tormenting the newly hired rookie manager.

Jong-woo wasn't thrilled about the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠oddball Sa Gam-jae either, but that was that, and this was this.

"Yeon-woo, you can't be pulling this stuff before you've even debuted."

Rembrary answered, "Yes," and handed the handkerchief back to Jong-woo.

But it was words and nothing more.

He squeezed out one more bead of blood, and in the blink of an eye, drew a line with it straight across Sa Gam-jae's forehead.

— End of Chapter 56 —