We Held a Showcase
The days devoted entirely to practice stretched on one after another, until at last the day of the showcase for the new album arrived.
After a week of intensive skin treatments, the members had spent the five hours before the showcase meticulously getting their makeup done, having their hair styled, and slipping into the signature outfits for this album's title track.
At a glance they looked like crisp white suits, but on closer inspection, the concept featured ornate, exotic accessories peeking out from within — visible one moment, hidden the next.
"If there's anything you want to photograph, take the pictures now and post them. Write things like 'please look forward to it' or 'we're counting on your support' too."
With Jong-woo's permission, Rembrary snapped a selfie in his stage outfit, posted it to social media, and appended a cheerful 'Please look forward to it.'
At last, the reporters had all gathered, and the MC who would preside over the showcase took the stage.
"We'll show the music video, give a sneak preview of the stage, and then take questions from the press."
While the MC explained the album concept and the MV to the assembled reporters, Jong-woo quickly filled Rembrary in.
The other members had done this several times and knew the drill, but since Rembrary had no memory of any past experience, Jong-woo made sure to brief him in advance.
"The questions are all supposed to be answered by Jungseo, so you just have to stand there quietly."
"But what if a reporter points directly at me and asks a question?"
"Signal to me. Then I'll tell you whether or not to answer. And when you do answer, try to talk as much like an ordinary person as possible."
"And what, pray tell, would be the standard of an ordinary person?"
At Rembrary's question, Jong-woo was seized by a sudden wave of anxiety and kept checking his watch.
He'd sent the expected questions out to the reporters in advance, and had also drawn up a list of likely follow-ups to practice with, focusing mainly on Jungseo.
He'd even given Rembrary a few probable questions and answers to memorize.
But now that Rembrary was asking things like that, Jong-woo couldn't shake a nagging sense of dread.
Unpredictable behavior wasn't Rembrary's alone. Reporters, hungry for a story, would sometimes lob out off-script questions out of nowhere to snatch an unguarded quote. What if at least one reporter like that was in the room today? Worse — what if that reporter had Rembrary in their crosshairs?
Jong-woo thought it over, then changed his approach.
"If things get dicey, look at me. If I cross my arms like this, forming an X, you absolutely do not answer — you leave it to Jungseo. If I nod, then you can go ahead and answer."
In the end, Jong-woo decided to act as a filter between Rembrary and the press.
It helped that he'd more or less gotten used to him by now — he knew exactly which situations Rembrary couldn't handle properly.
Rembrary was weak with difficult vocabulary and slang. Now and then his general knowledge fell short too, but the biggest troublemakers were always unfamiliar words and trendy expressions. If Jong-woo screened for those, the odds of disaster should drop.
"Understood."
Jong-woo thumped Rembrary on the shoulder again and again.
Meanwhile, on the big screen at the front of the stage, the music video was making its world premiere.
The MV's opening frame was a close-up of Rembrary's face, so large it filled the entire screen.
White flowers bloomed in profusion around his face, and it was from there that the intro music began.
Then, as the camera pulled upward, it revealed that what Rembrary had been lying on was a coffin overflowing with flowers — and Rembrary, seated atop it, began the first verse.
As the funeral guests recoiled in stunned murmurs, dancers in black suits and animal masks closed in and began to lift the coffin on which Rembrary sat.
Rembrary, singing 'I wanted to see you surprised,' smiled from atop the coffin and hurled one of the white flowers straight at the camera.
The blossom filled the frame completely, then swept past — and this time, the scene cut to Jungseo on a date.
In close-up, Jungseo played the gentle, warm-hearted boyfriend doting on his girlfriend — but as the song progressed and the shot widened, the umbrella he was holding over her turned out to be one he'd snatched from a stranger mid-unfurling, the cotton candy he handed her had been snatched from a child just about to take a bite, and even as he kissed her, he was casting a seductive glance at another woman standing over her shoulder.
When the girlfriend belatedly realized all this and shoved Jungseo away, turning on her heel, the screen flipped along with her — and there was Cathy, seated on a white throne, singing tender lyrics with an image of pure, spotless innocence.
But in the very next verse, Taein sang the exact opposite — the feelings hidden beneath — and when the camera swung around, it revealed that the black throne he occupied was a single set, back-to-back with Cathy's.
And as the camera's gaze rose upward, it showed that the thrones sat at the center of a space that evoked an inferno — a hellscape of people mired in mud, writhing and entangled, crawling over one another.
Because the song had such a firmly defined concept, the MV had been made with real experimental ambition. Jong-woo anxiously searched the reporters' faces. It was all or nothing.
To Jong-woo's eyes, every single frame showed how hard the members had worked, which only made him more nervous — he had no idea how the press would receive it.
But the reporters watching the MV kept chuckling and nodding along, and he began to breathe easier.
After the MV ended came the pre-release performance of the title track.
Perhaps thanks to the choreography the dance teacher had beaten and reshaped into submission, from a distance Rembrary's hopeless clumsiness wasn't all that obvious.
Up close, something sloppy lingered in his movements, but in the sections where the group had to lock into rigid synchronized choreography, his timing landed exactly on the beat — so the group sequences actually looked impressive.
When Cathy unleashed his high-level acrobatics, an audible gasp ran through the press corps, and when vocalists Cathy and Taein traded lines in rapid alternation — inner hearts and outer facades flipping back and forth — the reporters were scribbling away furiously.
Watching their expressions, Jong-woo relaxed.
At the very least, the song and the performance had landed with these people.
The real question was whether the public would embrace this experimental concept.
Suppressing his nerves, Jong-woo let out a long, slow breath.
Meanwhile, Rembrary had taken the stage to perform his solo song.
Assuming this was a breather segment, the reporters — who until now had been craning their necks forward — loosened up, slouching and crossing their legs.
Even when idols had album tracks, they typically performed only one or two beyond the title song, and only on comeback stages.
The prevailing assumption was that Rembrary's solo was just a song he'd briefly showcase during the comeback promotions.
Jong-woo actually had considerably higher hopes pinned on Rembrary's solo, but for the moment he pressed his back against the wall, whipped out his phone, and started texting CEO Im.
Yet the moment the first verse rang out, the strength drained from his hand and he nearly dropped the phone.
Jong-woo's eyes went wide as he stared at the stage.
The reporters' reactions were no different.
In that instant, Jong-woo had a premonition: this was going to be an absolute smash hit.
Did I mix in too much Divine Power?
When singing ordinary songs, Rembrary ordinarily kept his Divine Power clamped down as tightly as he could.
But today was a special occasion. Jong-woo had repeated that fact week after week, and the members had been on edge the entire time.
Watching all that anxiety had gotten him caught up in the mood, so he'd mixed in a little more Divine Power than usual. And even though he hadn't used all that much, the audience's reaction was extraordinary.
The crowd sat with their mouths half-open, listening to Rembrary's song as if entranced.
I had best avoid mixing this much again next time, Rembrary thought — and with that resolution, he brought the song to a close.
At last, the stage performance came to an end.
The members lined up across the stage, and the MC, who had been standing off to the side, returned to center stage.
The MC cracked a few jokes, announced that questions from the press would now be taken, and the reporters began firing off questions in a scramble.
There were song-focused questions — it seems Woo Yeon-woo's vocal parts have expanded a great deal, were there any difficulties preparing the vocals, how did this album's concept come about — but also questions blatantly angling for headlines: Is the recent fight between Woo Yeon-woo and Oh Jung-shin real? Are you two on bad terms? He's your senior in the idol world — aren't you worried?
A few of those questions were needle-sharp, but Jungseo batted them away one by one, exactly as they'd practiced.
However, the sharp questions weren't aimed at Rembrary alone.
"Cathy-ssi, you're dating Yuli O, aren't you? Has Yuli O heard the new album? Did she offer any advice?"
The members, who had rehearsed the interview with Rembrary's mouth as the main thing to muzzle, were momentarily thrown — and the most flustered of all was, naturally, Cathy himself.
His own situation was news from weeks ago. Since then, Rembrary had churned out one massive headline after another — the 'eye that recognizes the afflicted,' the ASMR rap, his blissful ignorance of knowing the Three Kingdoms only through video games, the Oh Jung-shin fight, the sponsor rumors. It was only natural to assume that any malicious question from the press would be aimed at Rembrary. Compared to all that, Cathy's own affair had barely made a ripple — by now, most people had probably forgotten it entirely.
And yet someone had just asked, point-blank, like a sniper taking aim.
Jong-woo glared at the questioner through gritted teeth. Reporters who were unusually chummy with certain entertainment companies, or whose whole purpose was writing sensational exposés, would occasionally pull questions designed to bait a bombshell quote. That reporter was almost certainly one of them.
Jong-woo signaled to Jungseo to answer in Cathy's stead.
Gripping the personal mic he kept on hand at all times, Jungseo spoke for Cathy.
"We haven't really sought out advice about the new album from any of our seniors or juniors yet."
But the reporter didn't let up.
"But Yuli O isn't just an ordinary colleague — you're dating her, aren't you? Cathy-ssi, as her boyfriend, is there really nothing at all you've received from her? Not even words of encouragement?"
Jungseo shot Cathy a sidelong glance. It wouldn't look good for Jungseo to flatly say 'absolutely not' here — after all, he wasn't the one at the center of the dating scandal.
This was a question Cathy himself had to answer—
But Cathy's paper-thin composure had already been torn half to shreds the moment the question landed.
When Taein gave him a discreet jab in the ribs, Cathy finally came to his senses and opened his mouth with an "Ah. Um. Well, you see."
Rembrary found himself wishing he could use his Divine Power to straighten out Cathy's scattered mind. Surely then the man would manage a proper answer?
But the distance between them was simply too great.
Rembrary stood at the very end of the line; beside him was Jungseo, beside Jungseo was Hye-gyeol, then Taein, then Cathy.
Standing at opposite extremes of the formation, even a subtle stabilizing touch of Divine Power was out of reach.
"Yuli O, she… I…"
Cathy's mind had gone utterly white; he just stammered.
Jong-woo shot frantic looks at Cathy, mentally screaming, Say you're not seeing her! Just say it!
The other members were thinking along the same lines.
But Cathy, who genuinely loved Yuli O, was terrified that if he answered with a clean-cut 'I'm not dating Yuli O, so I wouldn't know,' it would wound her.
Besides, with evidence of their relationship spilling out everywhere, a flat denial would only hand the antis an excuse to sink their teeth in deeper, screaming about being lied to.
But admitting it outright was impossible too. A rising idol openly declaring his girlfriend would wreck not only his own career but Yuli O's future as well. Cathy refused to let his own actions derail her idol life.
Then what? Then what was he supposed to say?
In the midst of the confusion—
Unable to watch any longer, Rembrary raised his mic.
What is that mouth of his about to say? Jong-woo flailed in horror, stretching out both hands and shaking his head wildly. Don't you dare step in! You must NOT step in!
But Rembrary's words came faster.
"Could you all please shift your positions for me?"
Why on earth the positions? Jong-woo stopped mid-wave and stared at Rembrary, dumbfounded.
The MC, equally baffled, said, "Uh, sure. Let's shift the positions," and the members scattered into a flurry of shuffling, glancing this way and that.
Rembrary strode briskly across the stage and planted himself squarely between Cathy and the MC.
Everyone stood there bewildered, wondering what on earth he was doing.
Only now within reach to transfer his Divine Power, Rembrary relaxed in relief — and took hold of Cathy's hand.
"!"