Holy Idol - Chapter 14

“Obviously…… not.”

Rembrary replied confidently, but he hurriedly changed his way of speaking so he sounded unconfident instead.

The composer rolled up the paper and tapped it on his palm and said coldly.

“Just try what you can. If your skill is limited to 8 points, take on a clear 8 points. Don’t take on a 10 pointer challenge and only show 4 points or 5 points.”

They were harsh words, but he’s someone who has been with Wild Animal since their debut. He clearly knew about the members’ singing skills. And the Woo Yeonwoo he knows has terrible singing skills.

Not to mention, the style of the song that he proposed to sing this time was tremendously difficult. The original song is a song full of narcissism, materialism, and an immoral aspect of coveting someone else’s lover.

Woo Yeonwoo said that he would use a sad and empty melody and facial expressions to sing this song in a choir style.

Once the people hear the song, they won’t accept the lyrics right away, but it will make them think it’s ironic and match the atmosphere of the choir.

It was a good idea, but it was an idea that would get ridiculous if he got off pitch.

So realistically, you’d have to say, ‘It’s too much for you to do.’

However, even with the composer’s cold words, Rembrary replied calmly.

“I can do it.”

The composer took Rembrary’s word without any trust, but said,

“Okay. Try it.”

He will ask him to try it once, to make him realize the difficulty, so he will bitterly tell himself that he will quit.

“Yes.”

Rembrary nodded, sliding off his paper out of the composer’s hand and unfolding it. And without hesitation, opened his mouth.

The composer closed his eyes indifferently.

But the moment Rembrary uttered just one single word, the composer opened his eyes and looked at Rembrary in surprise.

The tone…… is ridiculously clean. But it wasn’t the tone of the boy who’s just about to enter his puberty. The voice of an adult male is clearly conveyed, yet it is a clear tone.

The composer began to listen to Rembrary’s singing properly, and his expression became brighter and brighter without even knowing it.

Eunseon lifted the camera and captured all the scenes.

When Rembrary finished singing, the composer immediately raised his thumb.

“Hey you- you really- what the, why are you suddenly like this? You’re really good?!”

“I said that I can do it.”

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay. If you do good, it’s going to be crazy!”

The composer exclaimed with excitement and asked Jongwoo.

“What about the chorus? How many people are prepared? With these, the more people the better.”

Jongwoo mumbled “uh…” and asked Eunseon.

“Will this part be funded?”

“Yes, PD-nim said that up to five people can be used, whether it’s for the chorus or a dancer. Find someone and use them, and you can charge the labor cost later.”

When Jongwoo said to the composer, “That’s what they said,” the composer wrote the number 5 on the piece of paper that Rembrary gave him.

Then he asked KC.

“You? Have you prepared anything?”

With a strong impression, KC explained the style of arrangement he had come up with. But maybe because he heard Rembrary’s singing first, the composer’s expression didn’t look good.

“Hey KC. It’s better if you take advantage of your singing skills. Why are you singing worse than usual? Do it properly.”

The composer, who is worse than him, lectured him saying that he should keep up with the beat. But KC’s voice kept on cracking, so he sighed and said,

“Let’s end it here.”

KC murmured with a dark face,

“Thank you for your hard work.”

After the composer left, the atmosphere immediately turned awkward.

With KC’s obviously stiff expression, everyone noticed it.

Jongwoo eventually brought KC out.

KC’s cameraman quickly followed KC as if he was going to shoot a scolding scene. With only the two of them, with a light expression, Eunseon asked Rembrary.

“You’re really good at singing, why are you not in charge of vocals?”

“It’s because I am just a visual member.”

“Haha, you’re good at singing but your face is even better?”

“Yes.”

Eunseon took Rembrary’s answer as a joke and happily laughed.

While the two were doing that, KC came in with a forced smile. On the contrary, the cameraman who came after KC has a bright expression like he captured a scene.

Rembrary glance towards them, then focused on his practice again.

Somehow, the mother tongue of ‘Woo Yeonwoo’ came to him naturally, but he couldn’t understand nor recognize a foreign language.

He wrote the meaning and the sound of the pronunciation that he searched on the internet, but he had a hard time memorizing the pronunciation.

Rembrary mumbled and looked down at the paper.

Even after returning to their dormitory in the evening, Rembrary mumbled and memorized his lyrics.

But when he was humming in the living room, KC annoyingly nagged,

“Are you the only one practicing? Can’t you do it quietly?”

Rembrary looked at him in surprise, while KC stared back with a firm expression.

“Aish.”

He grumbled, then he got up and went to a room.

“Did I make a lot of noise?”

When Rembrary, who was sitting on the sofa, asked Jungseo, Jungseo calmly replied

“A little.”

And added,

“But KC was just as noisy.”

“……”

Rembrary sighed as he looked at the door where KC had entered.

***

From then on, and until they arrived at the practice room the next day, KC stayed away from Rembrary.

He wasn’t openly upset or irritable like yesterday evening, but much of his initial amiable attitude was gone.

Rembrary wanted to know ‘Just how much is he lacking confidence that he does that to me’, so he paid attention to KC’s singing for the first time in the practice room.

However, KC was surprisingly good.

Since he will take on a musical, he was practicing dancing, and if the dance teacher taught him the movements, he would follow the dance well, and the song also conveyed emotions and lines clearly.

“He is really good, so I do not understand why he is so sensitive towards me.”

In the end, Rembrary just outright asked Jungseo.

It wasn’t because he’s bad at it that he feels inferior. Even if he does well, he vent his anger out, feeling like it was unfair.

Jungseo surprisingly replied carefreely.

“He’s really skilled, but he makes a lot of mistakes on stage, that’s why.”

“Doesn’t everyone make mistakes?”

“Because the probability of making a mistake and the probability of not making a mistake are similar. The mental state is weak.”

“Mental?”

“Mentality.”

“Ah……”

“So he also fights a lot with Taein.”

“Aaah……”

Rembrary nodded his head and muttered anxiously.

“I hope you all do not get too jealous of me.”

“!”

***

The arrangement was completed on Thursday.

After listening to the music he had arranged, Rembrary nodded to show his satisfaction.

In fact, Rembrary explained the arrangement by thinking of his world’s choir, but as it is a strange music, the composer arranged it in the way of this world’s choir.

However, it wasn’t very different from the melody he had thought of, so Rembrary decided to go with it. Because Monday was the contest, there was not enough time to arrange it again.

After a couple of hours, he was visited by people in charge of the chorus, and Rembrary explained to them the feelings and melodies he wanted one by one.

Eunseon’s camera captured all these scenes, and Jongwoo looked Rembrary with complicated eyes.

And when it’s finally Monday.

Rembrary went to the broadcasting station with KC for the rehearsal.

Since the broadcast is not live text voting, the stage was set inside the broadcasting station and the entrances are strictly controlled.

Even though Eunseon was with him, Rembrary, Jongwoo, and KC had to go through the identity verification process in front of the door for about five minutes.

In particular, the confirmation procedure for Jongwoo was more difficult than Rembrary and KC, whose faces were known.

“The broadcast has not even started yet, do they have to do this much?”

Jongwoo was annoyed by repeatedly removing and taking out his ID card several times, but when he saw the famous singer and manager go inside after just saying hello, his expression became completely heinous.

Eunseon’s neck shriveled at the sight and apologized.

“I’m sorry. The talk about investment went smoothly and the reaction was also okay…… it’ll be less than this when we start broadcasting later.”

Finally, the verification is over.

Rembrary went inside with the group.

Once they went inside, the staff who were waiting in advance came and informed them of the waiting room.

“KC-ssi will be on this side, and Woo Yeonwoo-ssi will be on this side.”

But both rooms were surprisingly different.

“Oh? The two of them will use different rooms?”

Jongwoo hurriedly followed the staff and asked.

It was because he was the only manager, so if they used different rooms, it’ll be difficult to immediately deal with the situation.

The staff replied, frowning as if they were busy.

“Yes, KC-ssi has five dancers, and Woo Yeonwoo-ssi also called five people for the chorus, so they can’t be in one room.”

When the staff left, Jongwoo was at a loss, but he led the two separately first.

Since Jongwoo first went to the room with KC, Rembrary went into the waiting room alone and looked around it.

Do all the waiting rooms look the same? The interior of the waiting room is similar to the one he saw the first time he came into this world.

A long sofa, a TV on the wall, a mysterious machine in the corner of the ceiling, several vanity tables with large mirrors, a cold floor, a flat coffee table in front of the sofa, and so on.

As he was looking around, the door opened and five people, who were going to do the chorus, arrived at the same time.

While they were greeting each other, Jongwoo came back.

However, before Jongwoo could say anything, a voice was heard from the machine attached to the corner of the ceiling.

“Sing Survival performers, please come to the A2 area right now.”

Rembrary was briefly flustered by an area name that he heard for the first time, but thanks to Eunseon’s guidance, he was able to go to the area where the voice called them to.

When they arrived, the participants gathered one by one, and Kim Moorok PD was standing with a small opaque box in the center.

“For the next round, we’re going with the reverse order of the ranks, but since this is the first time, we are going to draw lots.”

Kim Moorok PD briefly explained once all the participants have gathered. Then he asked the person closest to him to draw lots.

As a result, Rembrary got to draw last, and after drawing, he was also the last performer for the round.

“This is not good……”

Jongwoo mumbled, and asked KC who he brought to the area A2.

“How about you?”

“I am the 12th.”

“You’re fine.”

Is being the last performer bad? Rembrary looked at the grinning KC and the reassuring Jongwoo alternately, then looked at the piece of paper on his hand.

The number 20 was written at the center.

Looking at it, Eunseon asked,

“You’re the last, will you be okay?”

It sounds like a concerned question, but the camera was still rolling in the middle of this.

Rembrary looked at the camera and smiled.

“I think it’s good for the other participants.”

“Wow, you’re so kind…”

“Yes, because after watching me, you won’t even think about the other participants’ performances.”

“?!”