If You Tell Me Where to Buy It
The one who emerged was Cathy. Cathy snapped a photo of the business card and thought to himself.
If he won't do it, I will. If this is what it takes to make it big, so what? How hard can it be?
Idol careers were, by the very nature of the job, short-lived.
Which meant you had to prepare for your post-group activities well in advance — and the problem was that a group succeeding and an individual member succeeding belonged to entirely different worlds.
Frankly, Cathy had no confidence that he was guaranteed success after Wild Animal disbanded. It would be no different even if the group blew up with this album.
Jungseo would succeed. His face alone was born for acting, and he was CEO Im's favorite leader. CEO Im would push Jungseo as far as he could as the next-generation actor, so Jungseo would be well set up to feed himself.
Hye-gyeol would probably settle into acting surprisingly well, too. Hye-gyeol had originally been an aspiring actor, so he could act decently, and as the dance position, he was good with his body.
Whether he parlayed that physicality into action roles or leaned into his naturally bright younger-man image, if luck cooperated, his chances looked promising.
Woo Yeon-woo, who dragged every rumor imaginable around with him while enjoying the best buzz of anyone, would also surely survive on his own. Even now, plenty of people claimed they didn't know Wild Animal, but they'd heard the name Woo Yeon-woo.
Cathy's situation, however, was different — and he understood himself well enough to know it. He had neither interest nor talent for acting. Singing was his strength, but neither his tone nor his skill was overwhelmingly superior enough to guarantee a successful solo career.
To make up for that shortfall, he'd have to scramble to raise his personal recognition and popularity — and Cathy saw this very moment as exactly the opportunity to do it.
After confirming the photo had saved properly, Cathy slipped back into the dorm bedroom.
Rembrary, entirely unaware that one of his members had actually decided to use that business card, handed it over the next day to Jong-woo, who had come by the dorm.
Having heard the story, Jong-woo accepted the card with a look of sheer disbelief — a look that shifted to mild astonishment once he'd actually examined it.
"You got this from that chairman?"
"Do you know him?"
"I can't say for sure. I've only heard things secondhand and thirdhand. So it's real."
"What have you heard through the grapevine?"
"This chairman — he's famous for sponsoring only actors, and only handsome ones at that. And when he does sponsor someone, he backs them fully, but apparently he never sticks with anyone for long."
"I see."
"No one knows why, but they say if you're not an actor, he won't give you the time of day no matter how good-looking you are."
Jong-woo stared at Rembrary with undisguised fascination.
What Jong-woo had heard "through the grapevine" was, in fact, well-established truth. The story went that a few companies of particularly poor quality would pick celebrities based on nothing but their faces, then hook them up with sponsors to make money and build them into stars.
There was even a famous anecdote about that company introducing an exceptionally handsome solo idol to the chairman, only to be rebuffed with, "Do I look like someone who'd play house with an idol?"
Nobody quite understood why sponsoring an idol counted as playing house, but anyone with an ordinary person's sense of common decency wouldn't be dabbling in this kind of sponsorship in the first place — so no one thought too hard about it.
Either way, that chairman was the man behind the business card. Only the secretary's name and phone number appeared on it, but the meaning was unmistakable.
"Does he like the slightly unhinged type or something? He seriously just sent his secretary over to hand you a card? Nothing else was said?"
"Ah. He kept staring at me, so I assumed he was a fan and shot him a finger heart."
"A finger heart?"
"This."
"That's a pincer, you idiot."
"Hye-gyeol said it was a heart?"
"Hey, Yu Hye-gyeol! You little punk — you can't pull pranks like that on a guy who believes every single word out of your mouth, you brat!"
As Jong-woo bared his teeth and gave chase, Hye-gyeol made a hasty escape into the bathroom.
Watching this unfold, Rembrary made a finger heart in Jungseo's direction.
"Does this look like a pincer to you?"
"It looks like the OK sign."
A short while later, Jong-woo, having finished unleashing a torrent of scolding at Hye-gyeol, returned and offered Rembrary some praise.
"Still, you did the right thing. If you accept something like this, you're in serious trouble down the line. If anyone makes you a similar offer later — even once — you refuse flat out. Never do it. Got it?"
"Understood."
After a brief morning run-through of the title track choreography, Rembrary headed back to the studio for the next shoot of Dear God.
Since the current scenes had Rembrary trailing after Maeng Woo-shin like a devoted shadow, he didn't have to wait long stretches in the green room.
Dressed in his priest robes with a solemn expression fixed on his face, Rembrary trotted along behind Maeng Woo-shin, thinking that acting was actually rather manageable.
Then came the dental clinic scene between Maeng Woo-shin and Lim Yu-han, which sent Rembrary to wait outside the set for a stretch. His dialogue scene with Maeng Woo-shin came right after it, so he couldn't retreat to the green room.
That was when a supporting actor — someone he'd exchanged only a passing hello with at the script reading — suddenly approached and muttered under his breath.
"Hey, Fox."
"I am a Sloth, actually."
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
And when Rembrary pointed out the error in his address, the man swore at him outright.
Why would someone walk up to me just to curse? Rembrary studied the actor's face once more.
Do Ji-ho, was it? Yes, that was the name.
His role was Jun-seo, son of the villain couple who had killed the heroine in her past life. According to the synopsis, he was good-natured and a devoted son, torn apart between his love for his parents and his conscience once he learned of their crimes... and so on.
But Rembrary genuinely remembered nothing about the actor himself.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
So Rembrary simply echoed the question back, and Do Ji-ho's face went scarlet. But mindful of the people around them, he couldn't come out with it right away and just fidgeted.
"Come here for a second."
Eventually, the fidgeting Do Ji-ho jerked his chin toward a corner of the studio.
The moment they reached it, Do Ji-ho hissed at him in that same lowered voice.
"Listen, you little bastard. Who do you think you are, poaching someone else's lover?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You called me 'sunbae' a minute ago, so why the sudden politeness? Feeling guilty?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you kidding me?"
Do Ji-ho's voice crept up a register.
When Rembrary shook his head, Do Ji-ho growled and pushed on.
"Don't play dumb, you son of a bitch. Because of you, I lost a contract worth billions of won."
"Your lover is a contract?"
"Hey—"
"A moment ago you said I poached your lover, and now suddenly I broke a contract?"
"Stop pretending you don't know."
Do Ji-ho glared at Rembrary coldly.
The truth was, the chairman who had handed Rembrary the card two days earlier had come to see Do Ji-ho.
Sensing the chairman was slowly growing tired of him — and with his advertising renewal approaching — Do Ji-ho had deliberately invited the chairman to the set.
Since the chairman favored actors, the plan was to show off a brilliant performance. Instead, the chairman had come and gone.
He'd called ahead to say he'd arrived and was waiting, asking where he should go. And then he'd left without laying eyes on him once.
After the shoot wrapped, Do Ji-ho called again to demand an explanation, and the secretary delivered staggering news.
"There will be no renewal. The chairman has taken an interest in someone new."
When Do Ji-ho leapt up and demanded to know who it was, the secretary offered only one word: an idol.
There was exactly one idol at the Dear God filming set. Woo Yeon-woo.
Do Ji-ho had combed through the cue sheets and confirmed that during the window of the chairman's brief visit, Woo Yeon-woo had no shooting scenes.
Which made the answer obvious. That sly fox Woo Yeon-woo had hooked and reeled in someone else's sponsor, lock, stock, and barrel.
But Rembrary's expression remained so placid that Do Ji-ho had no opening to dig into. Besides, fighting openly on set over a lost sponsor was beneath even him.
Gritting his teeth, Do Ji-ho jabbed a finger at Rembrary's face.
"You. Watch your back, seriously. I will never let this go."
Rembrary took hold of the offending finger and courteously folded it back down.
"Sunbae, you should be careful with that finger."
"Why... you... you insufferable little—"
Do Ji-ho huffed, spun on his heel, and stormed off.
Watching his retreating back, Rembrary tilted his head.
What a strange man. Does he think his lover is one of my devout believers?
"Woo Yeon-woo ssi!"
But the FD was calling him, so Rembrary promptly shelved the thought and hurried over to the set.
"Come on, quickly!"
The FD sounded a little on edge.
After that, the FD gave Rembrary a brief rundown of the next scene, and Rembrary nodded along.
In the meantime, the staff bustled about preparing for the shoot.
The next scene was a two-shot of Rembrary and Maeng Woo-shin, in which Rembrary — while Maeng Woo-shin's cheeks were puffed up from dental work — asked whether he might press on the wound.
And then, during the brief wait beforehand...
Maeng Woo-shin, waiting beside him, spoke up.
"I told you to raise your game, but isn't this a bit too extreme a method?"
The voice was neither loud nor soft, and it carried a faint note of mockery.
Rembrary, mid-sip of water, turned to look at him.
Maeng Woo-shin was in the middle of getting his makeup done — the "cheeks that merely look slightly swollen" treatment — his face pointed straight ahead, but his eyes fixed on Rembrary.
The makeup artists didn't so much as flinch at a veteran actor sneering at an idol; their hands simply kept moving, busy as ever.
Actors bickering with each other was nothing new. Proud veteran actors looking down on idol-turned-actors was nothing new. Feuds between senior and junior colleagues who didn't get along were nothing new, either.
As rookies, all of this might have been shocking. But the people attached to Maeng Woo-shin were not rookies. This much barely registered.
Rembrary asked Maeng Woo-shin:
"What do you mean by that?"
Maeng Woo-shin taunted him again, with pointed ambiguity.
"I mean exactly what I said. That thing you're doing — isn't it just because you're in a hurry to climb a rank or two?"
The "thing" Maeng Woo-shin meant was sponsorship.
He knew Do Ji-ho had a deep-pocketed sponsor, and he'd also heard that the sponsor was slowly losing interest in Do Ji-ho.
And now that same Do Ji-ho had suddenly dragged Rembrary into a corner and blown up at him? He didn't need to hear the conversation to guess exactly what it was about.
So Maeng Woo-shin had deliberately attacked Rembrary in front of everyone — hoping the sharp-eyed ones would overhear and start whispering about him.
With this, he intended to take revenge on Rembrary for calling him an attention seeker.
But Rembrary interpreted "that thing" as acting and answered calmly.
"That's your fault, sunbae."
"What?"
"If you'd taken me graciously from the start, I wouldn't have had to go this far."
In that instant, the brush darting across Maeng Woo-shin's cheek swerved wildly off course.
"I'm so sorry!"
The makeup artist, face flushing red, apologized and quickly dabbed and blended out the mistake with a sponge.
Maeng Woo-shin shot Rembrary a look, eyebrows climbing.
Rembrary continued, utterly unbothered.
"I'm the type who can't be satisfied until I've gotten inside anything that interests me. That's why I started. So don't change your tune, sunbae — just wait until I've earned the qualification. And in the meantime, you're not allowed to let anyone else in."
The staff member's sponge swerved violently sideways again.
Maeng Woo-shin shot to his feet and clamped a hand over Rembrary's mouth.
Once two of the staff had awkwardly cleared out, Maeng Woo-shin snatched his hand away and snarled, bearing down on him.
"Hey. Do your words come straight from your brain to your mouth with no stops in between? Are you insane? Do you not have a filter? Die. Go die somewhere. Fine, I get it, you're a lunatic — so for the love of god, think before you open your mouth, okay?"
"Sunbae, what does 'straight from your brain' mean?"
"HEY!"
Dear God — End of Chapter 61
ⓒ Shinhwajin