Requesting Rescue
The makeup had to be finished right away, yet Jong-woo couldn't bring himself to grab a stylist and drag them over. After all, even that had been the man's own version of consideration.
Instead, Jong-woo studied Rembrary's expression.
He had no choice but to. Nobody on earth could hear that they weren't their parents' biological children and react with perfect calm.
Most people would, upon realizing their parents had loved them as dearly as any born child, manage to settle their own confusion — but the shock would land all the same.
"I see. No wonder the photographs struck me as odd. I am handsome, but my parents... are not."
Cursing came crackling through the receiver — Woo Sung-woo's voice, spitting out something about ungrateful little bastards. Frankly, given what had just been dropped on him, the reaction was more than justified, so Jong-woo averted his eyes and pretended not to hear.
At last Sung-woo seemed to collect himself, and his voice dropped until Jong-woo could no longer make it out.
But the unease didn't fade along with it. Sung-woo's voice going quiet didn't make a suddenly discovered birth secret evaporate. Jong-woo lifted his gaze and looked at Rembrary again.
Yet Rembrary, the man concerned, looked remarkably composed. He swung his feet while studying himself in the mirror, yawned, checked the clock. At one point he even mouthed, Isn't it about time we wrapped up?
He seemed utterly unmoved by the fact that he was adopted — and that his brother was too.
Was it because his memories were gone? Did losing them loosen his attachment to family, enough that a birth secret no longer registered as a shock? Jong-woo couldn't decide whether to feel relieved by Rembrary's composure or worried by it.
That was the moment.
"Hkk."
Mid-yawn, Rembrary suddenly released a breath he'd been holding, and his face crumpled.
"It's real, hyung?"
At that trembling, tearful voice, Jong-woo jolted so hard he snatched his hand away from his chin.
The one more shocked than Jong-woo was the man on the other end of the line — Woo Sung-woo.
The first shock was learning he wasn't his parents' biological son. The second was his little brother's unearthly calm about it. And now, when Yeon-woo had been answering with absent little grunts, the third came crashing down: the boy suddenly bursting into tears.
"Are you kidding me? You listened to the whole thing just fine, so what's this now?"
— Hyung. Are we really not blood brothers?
"I'm not in the mood for jokes."
— Neither am I. Who told you? Was it Mom?
"What?"
— Hnn... did Mom really say that?
Listening to that voice straining to hold back sobs, Sung-woo called out, uneasy.
— Yeon-woo? That you?
Not only had the tone shifted completely, the voice itself was subtly different. It was because the Divine Power that had always clung naturally to Rembrary's voice had drained away — but Sung-woo knew nothing of such mechanics. What he did know was that something was off.
— Hey, I asked if Mom told you! Answer me!
"Yeon-woo!"
Sung-woo shot to his feet, and the teammate stitching up his torn wound beside him went wide-eyed.
He'd risen when the needle was only halfway through his flesh, so the wound tore wider, blood welling up and running freely down his thigh.
The teammate, carefully reading Sung-woo's mood, silently picked up a gauze pad and dabbed at the blood.
Fortunately, Sung-woo was too focused on the call to notice what was happening to his own leg.
"Yeon-woo! It's you, isn't it? Your memory came back?"
— Ugh, is my memory the problem right now?!
"Then it's your memory! What else would the problem be?"
Sung-woo bellowed and sprinted to the window with the phone still in hand — as if walking over there would let him actually see Yeon-woo.
— The problem is that I have a shoot shortly.
But the voice that reached him the moment he reached the window was composed again.
"What?"
— I'm ending the call. I am busy.
"Yeon-woo? Yeon-woo!"
Sung-woo shouted frantically for his brother, but nothing came through but the dead tone of a disconnected line. Mouth hanging open, he stared at the screen — Call Ended — and finally let out a hollow laugh.
"What the hell is going on?"
His teammate hurriedly stuffed a few blood-soaked gauzes into the trash and asked, "What happened? What'd your brother say? Wait — that kid's your brother? The one who's all over the search rankings every day lately. The one with the, uh... unusual... personality."
When Sung-woo whipped around and glared, the teammate backpedaled in a panic.
"No, look — there's this idol I like, and word is she's dating a member of their group. And your brother's in that group, so I looked them up a little. This was absolutely not me investigating you behind your back."
Like a thief with guilty knees, the teammate — who had just confessed to things Sung-woo never even asked about — busied himself tucking the surgical thread and needle into the sterilization kit and stood up.
"Anyway, you just got back from deployment and you're already on duty? Wouldn't some rest do you good?"
"There's no such thing as rest in our line of work."
"Still, come on..."
"I had to come by for Yeon-woo's sake anyway."
Sung-woo said it coldly, slid his phone into his right pocket, folded up the palm-sized knife resting on the sofa, and slipped it into his left.
"They say this Saint might have ties to the entertainment world. Better I handle it myself than drag Yeon-woo into it for nothing. Easier on my conscience, too."
After the call ended, while the stylist came back in to finish the makeup, Jong-woo frantically texted CEO Im.
Then the messages stopped for about five minutes.
The CEO was presumably standing somewhere with trembling hands, caught between a pack of cigarettes and a handful of candy.
Only after a long while did CEO Im text again.
Meanwhile, Rembrary had finished his makeup and was rising from the chair. The stylist, still evidently reeling from the birth-secret bombshell, kept stealing glances at him — but Rembrary calmly checked the clock and called out to Jong-woo.
"Is it not nearly time for us to depart?"
"What's gotten into you today, watching the clock like this?"
"If the hour is agreeable, I should like to eat a slice of pizza."
"You just ate some, didn't you?"
"Senior Maeng Woo-shin stole mine."
"A whole truck of the stuff got delivered under his name, and he stole yours?"
"Truly, I cannot fathom what goes on inside that man."
"Tell me about it. Neither can I."
"Then may I have a pizza brought to me?"
Before Jong-woo could ask how on earth the conclusion had landed on pizza, the FD poked her head in, told them to stand by, and was gone without a backward glance.
The fact that 'Woo Yeon-woo' was adopted hadn't shaken Rembrary in the slightest.
Adopted or not, Yeon-woo was that family's son either way. And so long as Rembrary occupied Yeon-woo's body, he couldn't help feeling a quiet guilt, an awkwardness, toward Yeon-woo's parents.
What actually gnawed at him was the other thing — the gap in his memory from mid-call with 'Daeju', the one who had sent the earrings through Maeng Woo-shin.
"What are you brooding about? Focus."
"The pizza of mine that you are currently digesting, senior."
Even after promising to introduce Daeju to him, Maeng Woo-shin was as snappish as ever.
Truly an unknowable man. Clicking his tongue, Rembrary checked his script.
Hm?
Today, for some reason, the scene featured only two people: Yang-heung, played by Lim Yu-han, and Im Seo, played by Rembrary.
Deung-baek had left something behind at the dentist's office, so Im Seo went to fetch it in his stead — a brief scene of the two walking side by side. According to the script, it was in that moment that Yang-heung realized he had fallen for Deung-baek.
"Yes! Finally a two-shot with Yeon-woo."
Lim Yu-han, sitting in a folding chair and reviewing her script, grinned when she spotted Rembrary and gave her upper body a little shimmy, dancing for no particular reason.
"You are a poor dancer as well, senior."
Rembrary offered this review with a smile, then stepped over and picked up his script.
A short rehearsal followed, during which the director walked them through the blocking, and Rembrary gave his assent.
At last, filming began.
"What do you usually do with your days, Mr. Deung-baek?"
"I pray."
"What do you usually eat, Mr. Deung-baek?"
"I eat cereal."
"Doesn't suit you at all."
"..."
"What music do you usually listen to, Mr. Deung-baek?"
"I listen to Moonlight."
"Mr. Deung-baek... are you truly going to remain a priest?"
After that meaningless back-and-forth, the question slipped out of nowhere — and the instant Yang-heung said it, a startled look crossed his own face.
Im Seo regarded him with the flat, blank stare of a man wondering why anyone would ask such a thing.
Yang-heung stood frozen for a moment, then frowned and said, "What does that have to do with me?"
"You would know better than anyone, seeing as you are the one who asked."
"...Fair. Forget you heard it."
"Understood."
"Correction — ask him for me instead."
What a strange man, Im Seo thought, shooting Yang-heung a sidelong glance.
Yang-heung, meanwhile, was now muttering darkly to himself, "No, no, this is bad. This is really bad."
And with that, they reached the edge of the empty lot.
Yang-heung looked at Im Seo with something like regret, then said, "Next time, tell him to come himself. Stop making other people do your errands."
"It is no trouble."
"I just wanted to see his face one more time. That's all."
"Why?"
"Good question. Why indeed?"
Truly a strange man, Im Seo thought once more, gave a shallow bow, and turned to leave.
As he walked those first few steps, someone carrying a knife brushed past him.
"That's a wrap on your scenes for today."
Jong-woo said, handing Rembrary a portable fan as he came over.
"Looks like they've got another couple hours of shooting. Let's tell them we're heading out early today instead of waiting around."
"Are we permitted to do that?"
"I think we have to."
"Why?"
"That phone call earlier... don't you remember? For a second there, the, uh, Yeon-woo Number One seemed to come out."
"My memory did lapse briefly."
"Your memory lapsed?"
"To put it more precisely, I was watching a car-sized spider with twenty-two legs crawling toward me."
Jong-woo blinked rapidly, then sank into confusion. When a personality switched, the other one was... in hell? Or was that some psychological metaphor for the depths of Yeon-woo's inner world, something-or-other? They say that if you ask an anxious person to draw a picture, they draw something disturbing — was it the same principle? Scrounging through the random trivia he happened to know, Jong-woo scratched his head for no good reason.
But before the two of them could leave, a cheerful reporter came sprinting over, camera in tow, calling out, "Excuse me! Just one moment!"
"What now? We don't have any interview scheduled today."
Wary though he was, Jong-woo stood still and waited. This reporter was a regular on a big entertainment news program, and her face was fairly well known.
Out of breath from the run, she panted for a moment — and the instant she caught her breath, she looked between Rembrary and Jong-woo with pleading eyes.
"Um, if you're willing, could we possibly do an interview with you and Maeng Woo-shin together?"
"Our Yeon-woo?"
Jong-woo had heard that Maeng Woo-shin would be doing an interview for that program today. But he'd understood Maeng Woo-shin to be the sole interviewee, so he asked back, startled, "Why Yeon-woo all of a sudden?"
"After episode one aired yesterday, the chemistry between you and Maeng Woo-shin was all anyone could talk about! Especially that umbrella scene of yours — it was the best. The absolute best! A joint interview would get such a great reaction. What do you say...?"
"Will the interview questions be shared with us in advance?"
"Of course!"
The moment Jong-woo responded positively, the reporter whipped out the script she'd brought along and held it out.
The questions were there, even if the answers weren't. Judging this much to be safe, Jong-woo agreed, and the reporter raced off toward Maeng Woo-shin, relieved.
"Must we truly do this?"
"That show quietly pulls in serious buzz. It'll be good for you."
"Of late I feel little zeal for the world of entertainment, Jong-woo."
"Do a good job and I'll order you a pizza."
"Give me the script."
Texting back and forth with CEO Im, Jong-woo wrote out answers to the questions and handed the script to Rembrary.
"I'm not expecting you to suddenly be funny just because I slapped a script in your hands. All you have to do is stand there looking like you get along with Maeng Woo-shin. No pressure."
Rembrary said he understood and committed the questions and answers to memory.
Thirty minutes later, three chairs had been set up in one corner of the set, and Rembrary found himself seated side by side with Maeng Woo-shin.
Perhaps conscious of the reporter and the cameras, Maeng Woo-shin wore a friendlier smile than usual. Rembrary, by now well versed in the broadcast personas of celebrities, shrugged it off and put on a benevolent smile of his own as he faced the reporter.
Before long, the interview began.
It flowed along unremarkably at first. Every time Maeng Woo-shin tossed out a joke, the reporter laughed in exaggerated delight, and every time the two of them traded chummy banter, she thrust her thumbs up and declared their chemistry explosive.
Then came the moment the reporter, asking for a little insight into what kind of senior Maeng Woo-shin really was, brought the microphone up close to Rembrary's lips.
Woo Yeon-woo, who had been smiling gently along, blinked a few times — then suddenly seized the microphone in both hands and shrieked in a terrified voice:
"Somebody save me! The Sloth is after my body!"
— Chapter 90: Requesting Rescue — End —