Singing of Love
Just as Hye-gyeol had said, this was practically enemy territory.
That was especially true for Jong-woo, who fought with Oh Jung-shin's fans on the internet on an almost daily basis.
They say enemies meet on a narrow bridge. This went well beyond a narrow bridge.
Every time Oh Jung-shin's fans tossed out a barbed remark, Jong-woo's heart lurched. But unlike online, there was no way to fight back openly here.
"Just ignore them and walk. Keep walking."
With those words, Jong-woo pointed the members toward the parking lot.
"Look at him, chickening out. He's straight-up scared."
"Won't even make eye contact. Hilarious."
"Acting all tough in front of the cameras, and now he's groveling."
The razor-sharp remarks came flying thick and fast.
The members waged dozens of silent battles in their heads, but swallowed their anger again and again and kept walking.
The only one who remained completely at ease through all of this was Rembrary.
Then, amid the din, a curse-laced voice slipped out: "That human-trash piece of shit, acting all innocent. What a load of crap."
Jong-woo was angry, yes, but he was more worried about Rembrary, and turned around to look back. No matter how strong Rembrary's mental fortitude was, being openly insulted loud enough to hear had to sting, and Jong-woo feared he might be hurt.
But the moment Jong-woo turned his head, he forgot every scrap of that worry and let out a soundless shriek of horror.
Rembrary, who had been walking along peaceably, had stopped dead in his tracks.
His long finger was pointed directly at the person who had presumably hurled the insult.
Oh no. Don't tell me he's about to pick a fight with someone else's fan!
If you're going to fight, fight on the internet — you must never, ever fight out in the open.
Or if you must, fight with a lawsuit in a courtroom — you do not fight with your fists.
Jong-woo rushed to grab Rembrary, but Rembrary closed the distance to the man in the blink of an eye.
Perhaps he hadn't imagined Rembrary would come straight up to him, because even the cursing man flinched.
"Wh-what! You gonna hit me?"
The man stepped back, but emboldened by the certainty that everyone around him was on his side, he shouted defiantly.
Having said it out loud, his courage only swelled. Go ahead, hit me right here. I'll end your career as a celebrity. The thought had even crossed his mind.
But Rembrary did not hit him.
Instead, smiling more brightly than usual, he spoke in a warm voice.
"God is looking upon your conscience."
"Wh-what?"
Startled by words that sounded like a cult recruitment pitch, the man flinched and shot back, "What are you talking about?"
Rembrary repeated himself in an even softer voice.
"God can hear every curse word you utter as well."
The whispered voice was husky and yet remarkably pleasant to the ear.
It was the result of Rembrary infusing his voice with Divine Power to its absolute limit.
The sound soothed the human eardrum to its most comfortable state and wiped away all mental fatigue in an instant, and the cursing man felt his battle readiness draining away against his will.
He had no idea what nonsense the man was spouting, but God, what a voice.
The man thought he could listen to Rembrary's voice for hours on end.
He tried to pull himself together by recalling Oh Jung-shin, but then, without warning, Rembrary began to sing.
One line in, the fan's attack and defense collapsed entirely, and he forgot all about Oh Jung-shin.
Jong-woo, meanwhile, who had been hovering a short distance away, waiting for the right moment to jump in, wrapped his arms around himself in sheer embarrassment the instant Rembrary started singing.
Jungseo lowered his eyes, and Hye-gyeol covered his face with both hands.
Even Taein couldn't bear to watch the spectacle and fled straight to the car.
It wasn't like this was some children's cartoon world — who just bursts into song in the middle of a fight?
And yet, something astonishing happened.
The foul-mouthed Oh Jung-shin fan, whose battle meter had been fully charged, suddenly began snapping his fingers and keeping time with the melody.
The fans further away were baffled — why is he doing that? — but the fans standing close to Rembrary understood perfectly why their comrade had suddenly stood down.
Rembrary's voice, coated in Divine Power to its maximum, carried the power to melt people down entirely and absorb them into him.
Without a microphone, the effect was strongest on those nearest to him.
The Oh Jung-shin fans clustered around Rembrary finally understood why the princesses in certain animated films had birds flocking to them whenever they sang.
When Rembrary finished his short song, Oh Jung-shin's fans lowered their battle readiness for their own various reasons.
Those bewitched by the Divine Power had fallen so completely for Rembrary that they no longer wished to attack him, while those untouched by it were simply too embarrassed to want to be anywhere near that lunatic.
"Yeon-woo."
On the way back to the dormitory.
Only after a full thirty minutes had passed could Jong-woo finally bring himself to ask Rembrary, "Why did you sing back there?"
"Because song is the most powerful force by which one's voice conveys love?"
Another wave of cringe-inducing shivers ran down Jong-woo's arm, and he decided to drop the topic entirely.
Either way, singing beat hurling curses and brawling. If he'd fought, they'd call him human trash, but a song wouldn't earn him that.
"He'll still get called a lunatic, though."
"Hmm? What did you say?"
"Nothing. Never mind."
As Jong-woo focused on driving, Cathy took his turn to ask. "What did you mean when you said God looks upon someone's conscience?"
At that question, Sa Gam-jae, who had been silently staring at his phone, glanced sideways at Rembrary.
"It meant that I will report everything to God."
"Hilarious. You snitch, and God actually listens to you?"
"Most assuredly."
The sheer audacity of the answer set Cathy off into a long stretch of teasing, but Sa Gam-jae continued to observe Rembrary with a subtle, unreadable gaze for a while longer.
Jong-woo had been listening quietly to the exchange, and finally spoke up with a hollow laugh.
"Still, that guy who was cursing so hard, and a few of the fans there — they all looked completely gone for your singing. Honestly, I hope they all just switch over from Oh Jung-shin to you while we're at it."
"No way that happens, hyung," Hye-gyeol muttered, waving it off, and Jong-woo said he'd only been joking as he turned the wheel.
But the very next day, Jong-woo's wish materialized into reality.
Some of the fans who had confronted Rembrary that day quietly changed their allegiance to his side.
Their reasons ranged from "seeing him in person, his face is even more gorgeous" to "the moment I heard that voice, I had no choice but to fall."
A few even said, "You could see his quirkiness, and it was cute."
Under normal circumstances, this could have been buried and forgotten. The fans present that day were only a fraction of the total fandom, and the defectors were a fraction of that fraction.
But Oh Jung-shin's fans, who despised Woo Yeon-woo with a passion, could not stomach even those few leaks. They attacked the defectors as "traitors" over the incident.
As a result, the defectors and the old guard spent the day firing official statements at each other across the internet, and the flames soon spread to the online communities.
Having checked the public reaction and the footage of Rembrary singing in front of the fans, Jong-woo let out a long sigh and switched off his phone.
Thankfully, this time around, apart from Oh Jung-shin's fans, there were few people trashing Rembrary.
Even within Oh Jung-shin's fandom, opinions were divided.
In particular, the fans who had been on the scene but had not defected testified as follows:
"Well, it's come to this, so there's only one option left: you all just have to blow way past Oh Jung-shin's group."
Jong-woo drove the members relentlessly, insisting they pour their very souls into the new album.
And so for several days, the members poured in not quite their souls, but certainly their stamina and health as they prepared the album. They filmed the music video, submitted the track for content review, and threw themselves into practice from morning to night.
In order to perfect the live vocals and choreography, they worked without a single day of rest — and on top of that, they underwent systematic weight training to add a subtle undercurrent of sexiness to their image.
Rembrary in particular had been even busier, squeezing in a singing competition on top of everything else.
Then, at last, the day of the Dear God recording arrived.
Since Jong-woo planned to send Sa Gam-jae along to Yeon-woo's individual schedules from now on, both managers followed Rembrary to the studio.
At the studio entrance, Rembrary collected the broadcast script and cue sheet, met the cast, ran through the day's scenes one more time, and then moved to the actors' waiting room.
Episode one was heavy on the male lead's past, so Rembrary, who had no flashback scenes, had a relatively small amount of screen time.
Of course, "small" only meant small compared to other episodes — it was still a hefty load for a single character, so inside the waiting room, Jong-woo kept a face mask pressed onto Rembrary's face the whole time.
"Episode one is where you have to land the impact. Even if you improve episode by episode, nobody's watching by then. You have to be good from episode one."
Even if it was just a single line, it had to be absolutely nailed, and Jong-woo nagged him over and over.
After the mask came off, Rembrary sat through light makeup, then changed into his priest robes and waited.
By the time three or four hours had slipped by like this, Rembrary confirmed that his shooting time was still far off and stepped outside for a bit.
Being cooped up in the room all day made his body itch with restlessness.
Could I possibly get close to Maeng Woo-shin during this shoot? And if so, could I get into that strange group?
Rembrary let out a sigh and seriously began calculating which path would be faster to infiltrate the group Maeng Woo-shin belonged to: becoming a top star, or becoming a monk and devoting himself to religious practice.
Come to think of it, I can't even become a monk while my contract is in effect.
Just then, as he wandered around aimlessly with his hands clasped behind his back, he spotted a woman standing in front of a sleek black car, talking on her phone.
She looked immensely wealthy.
Then the woman lowered her phone from her ear, and their eyes met.
The woman tilted her head as she looked at Rembrary.
And from that point on, she made no move to look away, simply gazing steadily in his direction.
Rembrary wondered, why is she staring like that? — and then it dawned on him.
She wishes to become my believer!
Sharp-eyed as ever, Rembrary caught on at once and showed the woman a finger heart, the gesture he had learned from Hye-gyeol.
Seeing this, the woman's eyes went round, and she burst into loud laughter.
Rembrary smiled contentedly along with her, hands behind his back.
Soon she would come over and shower him with praise. Let's see, what believer number would that make her?
But instead of coming over, the woman nudged her chin toward Rembrary, whispering something to the suited man standing beside her.
The suited man answered a few times, then approached Rembrary.
He walked right up in front of Rembrary and held out his business card.
When a bewildered Rembrary accepted it, the man spoke in a low voice.
"Our CEO says she found your proactive self-promotion quite appealing."
"?"
"If you're interested, simply contact us here."
"Interested in what, exactly?"
Rembrary asked at once, unable to make sense of any of it. Out of nowhere this man walks up, declares his boss is "impressed," and tells him to get in touch if he's "interested"?
As he stood there dumbfounded, the suited man added quietly,
"You already knew that much, didn't you? There's no need to hold back. You're hardly the only applicant."
"?"
"Applications start from a minimum of one advertisement. Take your time thinking it over, and then contact us."
< 59. Singing a Song of Love > — End
© Sinhwa-jin