The Scar
After speaking, Maeng Woo-shin stole a sidelong glance at Rembrary.
But his expression was haughty — so confident that Rembrary would obviously be delighted and say they should go at once.
"Too late. I've lost interest."
The reply that came back, however, was flat.
"What?"
Maeng Woo-shin's eyes went wide as he stared at him.
Rembrary, for his part, was nonchalantly blowing into his straw, then sucking at it with a loud slurp.
It was the kind of spectacle that made anyone watching want to strangle him.
Bewildered, Maeng Woo-shin asked, "You said you wanted in?"
"The mood wore off. That's not how I feel anymore."
"Are you kidding me?"
When Rembrary simply shook his head, Maeng Woo-shin's face flushed red with fury.
Because of whom, exactly, had those bizarre tabloid rumors been circulating about him? The man had gone and said every last thing people could possibly misread, and now he claims he's lost interest? That he doesn't want in anymore?
"Wow… I knew it already, but you are seriously the most infuriating person alive."
"You didn't want me joining in the first place, sunbae."
"You were the one who begged to get in after I said no! And now that I'm letting you in, you're pulling out? Is this some kind of joke?!"
A few staff members huddled together, muttering and shooting furtive glances at Maeng Woo-shin and Rembrary.
Their position had drifted subtly closer to the two of them, though neither man noticed.
Rembrary looked down at his script and said flatly, "I never said I wanted to join completely. I just wanted to get a feel for it."
Someone muttered, "Wow, what a jerk."
Rembrary lifted his gaze from the script and looked toward the voice.
It was that same staff member who had once tried to offer him advice after claiming he'd fought with his girlfriend.
Concluding that the man was a busybody then and remained one now, Rembrary dropped his eyes back to the script.
"Ugh, the mood on set was ice cold," Maeng Woo-shin's manager grumbled as they climbed into the car after the shoot wrapped.
"Yu-han was smiling, sure, but the girl's radiating knives from every pore. And did you see her manager? Eyes bulging, scanning every direction like a meerkat."
"Missed it."
"Right, you were busy. They said she was shoved around by a stalker — honestly, I'm starting to think it might be true. It's just sad, you know? That kind of thing leaves scars."
Maeng Woo-shin flipped idly through the new script he'd received, feigning indifference. But his eyes were the only part of him on the page. His mind was elsewhere entirely — preoccupied with Woo Yeon-woo's sudden change of heart.
Even without Yeon-woo on his mind, Maeng Woo-shin would never have worried about Lim Yu-han.
She kept to her pure, delicate image because it sold, but she was among the most fearless people he had ever met. As far as he knew, she was quite capable in self-defense, too. If a stalker ever showed up, she'd be the one doing the shoving, not the one being shoved. Unless, of course, the other party was something beyond human entirely—
What if the culprit isn't human?
Maeng Woo-shin closed the script and opened his phone's photo album.
It was full of press photos of Woo Yeon-woo and Lim Yu-han from the past few days.
Everyone's fixated on how Yeon-woo's arm is perfectly fine. But what if the thing he spotted and chased after was never human in the first place…
"By the way, Wooshin. What exactly did you say to Yeon-woo? The whole staff's whispering about you two."
"They're just hashing over those tabloid rumors again. Leave it. They'll get bored and drop it on their own."
"Heard he snapped at you, though?"
Maeng Woo-shin's face crumpled like a crushed can.
"That wasn't me talking. He just… said things."
His manager hastily backpedaled, and Maeng Woo-shin swore under his breath several times before calling out to the road manager in the driver's seat.
"Hyung, drop me off somewhere."
The manager grabbed frantically for Maeng Woo-shin's bag. "I told you, that wasn't me talking! That's what people were saying!"
"I'm not getting out because I'm mad at you, hyung. I just remembered I have an errand."
"You have a schedule later!"
"In five hours. I'll be back in time."
Wresting his bag free from the manager's grip, Maeng Woo-shin gave the road manager a list of places to drop him off at.
The place Maeng Woo-shin headed to was, from the outside, a perfectly ordinary café. It was well-populated with customers and tastefully decorated.
Patrons carrying trays wound carefully between the tables, guarding their coffee from spills.
A few sharp-eyed ones recognized Maeng Woo-shin's face, and "Huh?" — their eyes went round.
Maeng Woo-shin walked past them and stepped through a door marked STAFF ONLY.
Inside was what looked like an unremarkable break room: two long sofas, a single table, a TV.
But when Maeng Woo-shin locked the door, flipped open the cover of the light switch, and pressed the tiny button hidden inside it, a door materialized in the wall — a second entrance leading somewhere else entirely.
He replaced the switch cover and stepped through the newly appeared door.
Behind him, the door reverted to looking like plain wall, and light flooded in from the fixtures along the long corridor.
Past the corridor, a bright and spacious room opened up.
It was styled like the front desk of an ordinary company, and apart from two people sitting apart on the sofas and one person at the desk, there wasn't a soul in sight.
The moment the person at the desk spotted Maeng Woo-shin, they broke into a wide grin and called out, "Long time no see!"
Maeng Woo-shin approached and asked, "I'd like to see Daeju."
The person at the desk checked the monitor and answered, "Ah, he's in. One moment."
After waiting roughly fifteen minutes in the reception area, Maeng Woo-shin was able to meet the man they called 'Daeju' in the inner room.
He was young-faced, but his hair was stark white, and his presence was cold as ice.
He looked like a man who despised all ornamentation — and yet, a striking jeweled earring hung from his ear.
The gem had a faint blue tint at its center, wrapped in a smooth layer of polished blue stone.
"What is it?"
Daeju called out upon seeing him, his voice as cold as his appearance.
But Daeju was always like this, so Maeng Woo-shin replied without much visible disappointment. "That 'another one' you told me to bring in — no, Yeon-woo. I met him today and talked to him. Asked him to come by once."
"I take it he refused."
Daeju murmured it, reading the answer straight from Maeng Woo-shin's expression.
"Yes. Apparently he changed his mind in the meantime. Which makes me wonder why he poked at it in the first place."
Grumbling, Maeng Woo-shin then recalled the thought he'd had in the car and asked Daeju again. "And the culprit who shoved Lim Yu-han — could it possibly not be human? Didn't you say so yourself, Daeju-nim? That the time of peace is ending, and soon beings who are not human will be walking among us?"
"That may well be."
Daeju gave a vague, noncommittal affirmation instead of a clear answer.
But his expression was so cold and impassive that it never felt like he was dodging out of ignorance.
For a while, Daeju stood with his hands clasped behind his back, lost in silent thought.
Maeng Woo-shin paced the room, waiting for him to speak.
A long while later, Daeju raised a hand, drew one of the earrings from his own ear, and beckoned Maeng Woo-shin over.
"Come here."
When Maeng Woo-shin approached, Daeju held out the earring.
"Why would you…?"
Maeng Woo-shin accepted it before he could think and asked.
Daeju wore this earring at all times; he never let it leave his person for a single moment. There was no making sense of why he would suddenly hand it over now.
"Show this to Yeon-woo. If he shows no desire to meet me even after seeing it, leave him be. But if, after seeing it, he says he wants to meet me — bring him to me."
What on earth is this supposed to mean?
Bewildered, Maeng Woo-shin looked down at the earring. It was ornate and lovely — but it was just a pretty earring.
No, wait. Show him the earring and watch his reaction—
Could it be that Daeju-nim suspects Yeon-woo might already know him?
Rembrary was in the middle of texting Lim Yu-han when the car came to a stop, and he lowered his phone and raised his head. Somewhere along the way, they'd arrived at a parking lot.
"Are we here?"
When Rembrary asked toward the driver's seat, Jong-woo answered with a short "Yep" and got out first.
Rembrary pocketed his phone and hurried out after him.
"Mask, mask."
The moment Rembrary came around beside him, Jong-woo hastily peeled the sheet mask off Rembrary's face where he'd left it sitting.
"Pat the essence in with your hands."
Jong-woo gave him that quiet instruction, then tossed the used sheet mask carelessly back into the car.
Today was the day they were filming the CF Rembrary had been cast in alongside Oh Jung-shin. It was a cosmetics commercial, and with the concept pitting Oh Jung-shin and Rembrary against each other as rivals, his skin condition had to be immaculate.
"And don't forget to watch your mouth. You're going for a mysterious persona from here on out. Got it?"
"I watch my mouth at all times, do I not?"
"Well… you have gotten a lot better lately, I'll give you that."
When they arrived at the set, a large crowd had already gathered.
"Follow my lead and bow."
Jong-woo gave the instruction barely moving his lips, then walked along, greeting every single passing staff member.
Rembrary followed suit, bowing again and again as he trailed after Jong-woo.
"That's Woo Yeon-woo."
"Wow, his hand really is fine."
"Whoa. He's stunning in person."
None of the staff here had ever seen Rembrary before, so their reactions were worlds apart from the crew of Dear God.
The Dear God staff had looked at him strangely too, after the incident — but the staff here gawked at Rembrary as if they were observing some rare exotic animal at the zoo.
Sensing the atmosphere, Jong-woo hunted down the director at top speed.
The moment the director spotted Rembrary, he let out a "Well, look who it is!" and came rushing over, thumping him heartily on the shoulder.
"Our hero! You saved a life, I heard!"
It seemed the director had chosen to interpret Rembrary's recent rumors in the most favorable light.
"I merely did what anyone would."
When Rembrary answered with flat composure, exactly as Jong-woo had instructed, the director roared with laughter, showered him with repeated praise for his modesty, and then asked, "You checked the storyboard I sent over?"
"Yes."
"I told you if it doesn't sell, we discontinue the product — but there's zero need to feel any pressure about it. If it sells well, I won't discontinue it even if sales numbers dip. I'll just say, 'The response has been so good, we simply can't discontinue it.' There, done."
"Is that so?"
"Absolutely. If it doesn't sell, sure, it gets discontinued — but that's just obvious, isn't it? Products that don't sell get discontinued. It's just wordplay. Wordplay."
After thumping Rembrary on the back a few more times to reassure him, the director went over the shooting concept with him once more in detail, then declared with total confidence that he'd make Rembrary look as stunning as humanly possible.
Midway through the shoot, a reporter from an entertainment news program dropped by for a brief interview before leaving.
A few days later,
the entertainment news program aired a short segment featuring the CF shoot with Oh Jung-shin and Rembrary, along with their interviews.
It was a clip of mere seconds, but the response was surprisingly good.
Oh Jung-shin's hot spring scene as the face of "End It in One Go, White" and Rembrary's waterfall scene as the face of "Perfect Black" were posted side by side as comparison shots, and word began to spread across a handful of online communities.
LLL Entertainment, which had accepted the CF on a modest roll of the dice, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
They'd never dreamed of outselling Oh Jung-shin's product in the first place — but at this level, it looked like they wouldn't be buried entirely, either.
The problem started with a single question post from someone who had watched the waterfall scene.
— End of Chapter 84: The Scar —