65. The One Good Thing About Having Negative Reputation
Oh Jung-shin's fatal miscalculation was assuming that Rembrary would do whatever he was told to do.
Jong-woo braced himself for Rembrary to put his usual full effort into a chorus of *grrr, woof woof, arf arf*, but mercifully, it never came to that. Rembrary simply lowered his knees and palms to the floor in a perfunctory imitation of a dog and barked, flat as a board.
"Woof."
It was woefully half-hearted, but even this much was a source of immense joy for Oh Jung-shin. Once people turned this moment into reaction GIFs and spread it around, the humiliation from last time was bound to sting a little less.
Suppressing the sneer that kept threatening to crawl across his face, he glanced around, picked up a small ball, tossed it, and issued his command.
"Fetch."
At that command, Oh Jung-shin's manager gnawed anxiously at his fingernails. Something had felt off ever since the slave incident, when Oh Jung-shin started screaming Woo Yeon-woo's name three times over while doing sparring drills. It looked like he'd be paying Kim Murok PD a visit with a few expensive bottles of liquor the moment filming wrapped.
Rembrary shuffled over listlessly and batted the ball back with his hand, step by reluctant step.
"You're supposed to bring it back properly in your mouth. Your master is playing with you, after all."
"......"
"Answer."
"Woof."
Oh Jung-shin rolled the ball again, and Rembrary trudged after it with an air of profound annoyance, nudging it back with his hand once more.
Oh Jung-shin, who had thrown himself into the slave role with everything he had, frowned at the sorry sight.
"What kind of dog acts like that? Have you never even seen a dog before?"
"Woof."
"You can talk. Have you never seen a dog?"
"I've never raised one."
"Well, you still have a general idea of what they're like, don't you?"
"Would you prefer a more realistic dog, then, sunbae?"
"Yeah."
With that, Oh Jung-shin threw the ball again and repeated his demand.
"Fetch."
Rembrary let out a long, deep sigh.
Oh Jung-shin assumed Rembrary would trudge over and fetch the ball again, albeit grudgingly.
Instead, Rembrary trotted right up to him and clamped his teeth firmly around Oh Jung-shin's leg.
It didn't hurt, but the timing was so utterly unexpected that Oh Jung-shin's brain briefly went blank.
Only belatedly did he screw up his face and shout.
"Are you insane? You're the dog! Why are you biting a person?"
"You told me to be a dog. You told me to be convincing. We've only known each other a short while, so the trust level is still a little low."
Oh Jung-shin's forehead creased. What in the world was this useless commitment to realism?
"Do it as a loyal dog!"
Oh Jung-shin commanded with iron resolve. He could not let this bastard add yet another entry to his own catalog of shameful moments. He absolutely had to produce juicy bait for these anti-fans to gobble up by the mouthful.
Rembrary wore the expression of a man thinking, you really are a tedious creature.
But instead of acting right away, he paused to consider, then asked,
"May I use my phone chance? I'd like to search 'loyal dog.'"
Rembrary really had never raised a dog in his life.
"Five minutes."
Rembrary nodded, quickly pulled out his phone, and searched for 'loyal dog.' After a spell of rapid scrolling, he finally figured out what kind of picture Oh Jung-shin wanted.
"Ah. Understood."
Rembrary nodded, then beckoned Oh Jung-shin over with a crook of his finger.
"Throw it."
Oh Jung-shin flinched for a moment at the strange sensation of being ordered around in return, but muttering Woo Yeon-woo's shameful history under his breath, he hurled the ball as far as he could.
Then he called out, "Gooood boy. Go fetch it," as one would call to an actual dog.
It wouldn't have mattered if Rembrary half-assed it. In contrast to how hard he himself had worked as a slave, Rembrary would be the one getting called out for being weak.
Granted, he'd take heat for having a nasty personality too, but that was a problem for later — a few stories about how it was all scripted, all agreed-upon direction, dropped on some variety show appearance, and it would blow over.
Unexpectedly, however, Rembrary sprinted off with genuine passion and returned the ball in his mouth. With a dedication so thorough it left Oh Jung-shin flustered.
Before he knew it, Oh Jung-shin found himself holding out his hand, ready to catch it.
But that wasn't the end of it.
Rembrary did not stop. Unstopping, he kept barreling straight toward Oh Jung-shin.
Huh? The instant Oh Jung-shin registered that something was wrong—
"UGH!"
Rembrary launched his entire body at him.
"What the hell!"
Falling backward onto his rear, Oh Jung-shin spat out a reflexive curse. What is this lunatic doing? Is he picking a fight in front of the cameras? Those thoughts raced through his mind, but Rembrary didn't attack any further from that position.
He simply dropped the ball he'd been holding in his open mouth.
The ball bounced off Oh Jung-shin's face and rolled away.
The heat rose in him only afterward, and Oh Jung-shin snapped in a low voice.
"I said a loyal dog. Did I say a rabid one?"
"The videos I watched showed that dogs you're close with tend to charge at you like that. Rather crazily."
The curse climbed all the way up Oh Jung-shin's throat. This bastard is doing this on purpose, isn't he?
If Rembrary opened his mouth one more time, Oh Jung-shin felt certain every obscenity he knew would come pouring out, cameras be damned.
Gritting his teeth, he signaled Rembrary to get off.
"Okay, okay, so get off already."
Once Rembrary compliantly climbed down, Oh Jung-shin roughly brushed off his clothes, stood up, and forced his expression under control.
You think you won just now, don't you? Let's see who catches the flak once this clip airs, you lunatic.
Oh Jung-shin's manager let out a breath of relief as he watched his charge grumble and fume but gradually recover his composure.
Angry as he was, Oh Jung-shin was a professional after all. And with an opponent who was so impossible to reason with under normal circumstances, it looked as if the dog-play itself would simply fizzle out. Which was a relief.
Jong-woo, on the other hand, hadn't relaxed his guard for a second. He remembered all too well that Rembrary had a habit of dropping bombshells at the exact moments everyone felt most at ease. Oh Jung-shin was wearing the expression of a man thinking, do I have to keep this up, or can we just call it here? so the whole situation seemed about to wrap up — but he had to stay vigilant until the very last moment.
Jong-woo prayed Oh Jung-shin would do the broadcast-conscious thing and generously call it, "I'll leave the penalty at that."
And in fact, that was Oh Jung-shin's intention.
But then he watched Rembrary rise calmly onto two legs and brush off his clothes, and when his gaze drifted past those shoulders to the wall clock, he somehow felt cheated.
He had served out his slave role for a full, unbroken three hours. Why did this bastard get to wrap up after fifteen? Five of which, no less, had been spent searching on his phone.
Flaring up, Oh Jung-shin finally gave in to one last flicker of spite and needled him.
"I saw the broadcast from before. You were pretty good at doing a sloth, weren't you? But a dog imitation is just beyond you, huh?"
"The sloth is my symbol."
"Why a sloth, of all things? Honestly, a dog suits you better."
"Do you find me adorable?"
"You little sh—"
Catching the curse at the last second, Oh Jung-shin shook his head and sank onto the sofa.
Rembrary remained standing there awkwardly, staring at him, and asked,
"Is the penalty over now?"
"You were searching so hard for stuff about dogs earlier. If there's anything else you want to imitate, go right ahead."
"Eating. I'm a bit hungry."
"You really do want it all, don't you, Mr. Dog? Starve. You've done nothing to deserve food."
"Then may I at least sit down and rest?"
"No."
"Then may I lie down and rest?"
"Do you know I worked like a dog for three hours straight back then? No. And stop trying to take only the easy parts. Do something doglike."
"Mounting?"
"No, I don't want— HEY!"
The next day, when the seventh round results and the penalty performance aired, the internet exploded.
Not just community forums and news comment sections — the fight between Oh Jung-shin and Woo Yeon-woo became a trending topic across social media as well.
Oh Jung-shin's manager had gone to see Kim Murok PD, gift bottles of expensive liquor in hand, pleading that the editing be kept gentle. But Kim Murok PD was the kind of great man who could devour and digest a few liquor bottles without a burp if it served the ratings and the buzz.
The scene where Oh Jung-shin smiled sweetly and told Rembrary, "Become a dog," aired over and over — in the trailer, the clip uploads, the main broadcast, and the highlight reels alike.
When he said it, the caption on screen read: "Rise of the Slave."
In the clip of Woo Yeon-woo launching his entire body at Oh Jung-shin in the name of playing a dog, the camera alternated between close-ups of Rembrary's serene face and Oh Jung-shin's bulging eyes, slowed down for maximum effect.
Oh Jung-shin's fans, their blood boiling at that scene, fumed loudly and at length.
Rembrary's fans, by contrast, tore into Oh Jung-shin.
The steadily accumulating grievances eventually boiled over into a full-blown fandom war between Oh Jung-shin's and Woo Yeon-woo's camps.
The general viewing public, meanwhile, was mostly just entertained.
After the broadcast ended, Jong-woo combed through several major community forums and a handful of portal news sites, then finally exhaled in relief.
Woo Yeon-woo's and Oh Jung-shin's fans were at each other's throats, screaming that it was the other side's idol's fault, but the general public's verdict was a resounding "six of one, half a dozen of the other." The one ordering a man to become a dog was going too far, and so was Woo Yeon-woo for actually becoming one.
But since Yeon-woo's public image was already poor, most people just shrugged and let it slide. In other words, there was no room left to fall. He'd already been in the negative.
Oh Jung-shin's side, on the other hand, had seen their image as "a passionate idol devoted to song and dance" take a serious battering.
Things couldn't be allowed to escalate, so the managers would have a phone call later and float articles claiming it was scripted or set up — that would fix things, mostly. Still, there were bound to be people who didn't buy it.
Jong-woo considered that a negligible pinch of salt, and chuckled to himself.
But Jong-woo had no idea whatsoever how this broadcast would snowball the following day.
Neither did Oh Jung-shin, who was in the middle of swearing he would never, ever entangle himself with a lunatic like Woo Yeon-woo again.
The One Good Thing About Having a Negative Reputation — End
ⓒ Shinhwa Jin