Holy Idol

Chapter 6 – Let’s Try Having A Photoshoot

Rembrary didn’t know he was a bad dancer because he had never danced before. No one expects the god’s representative to dance in the temple, so it was only natural. However, it was surprising for the dance teachers and the members.

“Woo Yeonwoo. Bba-bba-bba-bba-bba. Bba-bba-bba-bba-bba-bba. You just have to keep up with the beat, alright?”

“The right hand goes up, the left hand goes down, and then crosses them… right?”

“That’s right. But the beat is completely different.”

“… I will try again.”

Rembrary was embarrassed and followed what he had learned.

However, the dance teacher’s expression did not show any signs of improvement.

“Yeonwoo-ya. Uh… your flexibility is good, you know? But… We’re not doing gymnastics, right? Why don’t we try to match our movement to the music?”

“It’s lala’la’, right hand up and lala’la’, left hand down, right?”

“I mean, the movements are right.”

The dance teacher put his hands on his face and asked,

“How do I say this? Yeonwoo-ya, have you ever seen a puppet show?”

“I have.”

“No matter how well they manipulate the dolls, they still move differently from humans. You know that, right?

“I know.”

“That’s exactly what you look like. You look like a wooden doll.”

“!!”

“You’re good at memorizing the moves, but you don’t look like you’re dancing.”

“That’s about it.”

“If you don’t want to go around getting in weird memes, let’s do it right. Hm?”

However, practising for hours proved to be fruitless.

The dance teacher sighed several times. Nevertheless, he couldn’t scold him recklessly, because he memorized the moves properly. He memorized it and danced, but the problem is that it looked funny.

Jongwoo put his hand on his forehead when he saw the scene.

He’s being criticized because of his personality. If he goes on stage like that, he’ll be even more criticized for not dancing properly.

He can already see the darkness in front of his eyes.

 (T/N: He can already see the darkness in front of his eyes: he can tell that things won’t go well)

Noise marketing has noises that work and noises that only cause backlash. Not being sincere was neither noise marketing nor anything else.

“When you go back to the dorm, make sure Yeonwoo practice a lot.”

Jongwoo weakly persuades the members.

However, the next day, things didn’t change much.

Yeonwoo’s dance was still creaky and funny-looking.

“Hey, you guys, did you get him to practice?”

It was so terrible that Jongwoo, who couldn’t do better, vented his anger on other members for no reason.

“I have practised and also memorized the dance right away.”

“He has already practised his dancing smoothly, what more can we do about it.”

With the way things have worked out, they went to vocal training.

Jongwoo had already given up halfway.

When he lost his memory he also lost his sense of rhythm, Jongwoo convinced himself that. He didn’t think that his skills would get better just by practising for a few days.

The vocal trainer also met Yeonwoo without expectation after being informed of Yeonwoo’s condition by his dance teacher in advance.

“Come on. Can you read the music sheet?”

“I am unable to read the music sheet, but I have memorized the notes.”

“What about the lyrics?”

“I memorized almost everything.”

Still, the vocal trainer gave him a score with lyrics.

“Take this.”

But the moment he started singing, the unenergetic vocal trainer’s eyes began to sparkle. And Jongwoo, who have half given up, sitting against the wall uttered,

“Huh?”

Then opened his eyes wide.

The members who were betting on Yeonwoo’s poor performance were also disappointed. Rembrary was surprised when he lowered the score after the humming.

All six people were looking at him with strange expressions.

“Why are you doing that?”

When Rembrary asked, they were too surprised that they couldn’t even speak properly.

It was a long time before the vocal trainer shouted a mix of curses.

“Crazy, wow, you punk, when did you learn to sing so well?”

Rembrary shrugged nonchalantly.

He has never danced, but he has sung the chant from the time of his apprenticeship. He sang at least twice a day until he became a High Priest, and practised more for special occasions.

He still sang often even after he became a High Priest. Because singing is a great way to spread divine power evenly.

“I am a little better at singing.”

“You’re not just a little better though? You’re really good! The singing is great, but the tone is the best part!”

“Is that so.”

“There are no technical skills, but the tone is so good that it sounds cleaner. I’m not going to make you do anything hard. Just go with this one tone! This is the exact feeling!”

The vocal trainer clapped and praised, and askedJongwoo.

“Why is a good voice like this hidden? Don’t you think Yeonwoo’s voice can be the main character for the next song?”

Jongwoo nodded unconsciously instead of clapping.

To put it into words, It was a tone that could be expected from a soloist. Jongwoo was sure that tone would at least attract the maniacs.

However, Jongwoo was so amazed by the unexpected tone, so he didn’t notice the darkening expressions of the main vocal KC and lead vocalist Taein.

* * *

“But can a person suddenly change his voice like that?”

It was when he entered a locomotive engine called a car, not a carriage, and settled down, as soon as the door closed and the carriage left, KC murmured quietly.

Rembrary took out his cell phone and glanced at KC instead of trying to browse the Internet.

The yellow-haired KC looked sour with his chin on the window.

“So he can’t dance a dance that he was good at before, but can sing a song that he can’t sing before, you b*st**d.”

Hyegyul, who has a foul mouth, answered on Rembrary’s behalf.

KC, with a sullen face, did not answer.

The lead vocalist spoke coldly this time instead.

“I’m glad Yeonwoo can’t dance, but we don’t need three vocalists in the group, do we?”

Hyegyul responded on behalf of Rembrary once again.

“The more members there are that can sing well, the better. The three of you can ask for a vocal unit then.”

The leader, Jungseo, said nothing and kept on looking at his cell phone, and Jongwoo, who was in front of him, was busy talking on the phone.

Rembrary glanced at the members after noticing that the atmosphere had become strange. He realized that Taein and KC, whose positions overlap, were on guard after listening to him sing.

It’s not a big threat yet, but it seemed clear that they were stimulated.

Rembrary smiled bitterly and lowered his eyes on his cell phone.

This also happened even when he was a priest in his original world. No, it was even more so because divine power is 100% determined by the god’s love alone.

No matter how hard you pray, obey the rules and act morally, if god favours the person next to him, then that’s it.

There’s always an invisible war of nerves within the temple in this kind of situation

After becoming a High Priest, such things disappeared, but before becoming a High Priest, Rembrary was also always checked on a lot.

‘It is all because I am so good.’

Rembrary who was self-convinced, nodded.

It was then when. Jongwoo, who’s been on the phone all this time, suddenly…

“Yes!”

shouted out loud

Then he turned around in the front seat and said to Rembrary.

“Yeonwoo! Woo Yeonwoo!”

Rembrary lowered his cell phone and looked at him, and then Jongwoo shouted excitedly.

“Do you know the writer Song Daebaek? A Photographer. He’s from the House of JJ.”

“?”

“Well, you can’t even remember your age, there’s no way you’d know him. He’s a photographer that has been getting famous lately.  He wants to take a picture of you to promote his homepage!”

Rembrary searched for the ‘photographer’ on the internet. It was because he didn’t know what writer Song Daebaek and what a photographer was.

However, when the members noticed Song Daebaek’s name at once, they shouted for a short time.

“Isn’t that the photographer with a lot of individual fans?”

“He’s so popular on Instagram.”

“I know right.”

Rembrary looked up after searching for ‘photographer’ and ‘photo’.

Jongwoo was staring at him as if he had a star in his eye.

“Is this a good thing? That much?

“Honestly, the amount isn’t big. But he has a lot of individual fans, so it’s really good for attracting attention and raising popularity.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. And he wants to put it on his website for publicity, so if the photographer does his own promotion with your picture, he might keep an eye on your picture and call you later. Advertising company or other photographers…”

‘Aren’t you drinking too much kimchi soup?’ Taein whispered quietly.

(T/N:  drinking too much kimchi soup: assuming/getting excited too much)

Jongwoo coughed and continued

“I guess he liked the interview photos from Osola. Your words are arrogant, but your face is as innocent as a priest? I can see that, that’s why they want to take a picture of you.”

(P/N: Yeah right ‘innocent’)

“… You have a pretty good eye.”

Jongwoo, who took Rembrary’s admiration as a compliment, frowned and asked.

“Woo Yeonwoo. You can’t be condescending until you get famous. Of course not even after.”

Rembrary nodded, then Taein being sarcastic said.

“It sure is easy to gain popularity.”

The leader, Jungseo, shook his head to signal Taein telling him to stop it. Taein shut his mouth, and Jungseo patted Rembrary on the back.

And for two days, Rembrary continued to focus on vocal training and dance practice.

On Wednesday, only Rembrary, along with Jongwoo, went to Song Daebaek in a white building.

Jongwoo explained that it was a studio.

Upon entering the building, there was a very skinny person who looked like a skeleton. He was carrying a machine that was similar to what Osola’s photographer had before, but larger.

Above the building were things that looked like an umbrella turned upside down, and white walls were built.

A man and a woman in comfortable clothes walked around it, clearing the rows of rope stretched on the floor.

“This way.”

Jongwoo dragged Rembrary and approached the skinny person and greeted him with his business card.

“I’m Lee Jongwoo, manager of LLL Entertainment’s Wild Animal.”

When the skinny person received the business card, murmured while he felt around his behind.

“Ah, my business card… I don’t have one.”

“That’s all right.”

Perhaps the skinny man was Song Daebaek.

While Jongwoo was greeting Song Daebaek, Rembrary looked carefully inside the studio.

He has learned how to surf the Internet, however, he was just typing words and looking for explanations.

Being in a place full of these big devices, which name he didn’t even know, made him puzzled.

After greeting Jongwoo, Song Daebaek looked at the Rembrary and muttered.

“Woo Yeonwoo? You look better in person.”

Only then did Rembrary realize that he didn’t greet Song Daebaek, but Song Daebaek didn’t care.

Jongwoo is the only one who gave a silent scream.

Rembrary raised his eyebrows.

They said he’s a photographer.

Song Daebaek was looking at his face to an extent that it became burdensome. Finally, he smiled as if he were giving a score.

“It’s fascinating that you couldn’t float for three years with a face like that.”

Jongwoo intervened cautiously.

“I, Writer Song-nim, as you said, I brought him without makeup. Still, is it okay not preparing anything before shooting?”

“Let’s take a picture without makeup first. If I take a picture in that state and check it, we can see what makeup to put on to make it better.”

“Ah. Yes.”

As Song Daebaek told Rembrary to come towards the simple white wall, Jongwoo hesitatingly stepped back.

Rembrary followed him without knowing what to do.

When Jongwoo took a picture, he said he could just stay still or do whatever he was told.

It was hard to understand the principle of photography with such words only.

Song Daebaek, who had Rembrary standing in front of a simple white wall, nodded, stepped back, picked up a strange, large machine he had been holding and held it in front of him.

Then he glanced at Rembrary through the machine and asked him bluntly.

“How much can you expose?”

“What?”

“I said, how many clothes can you take off?”

“!”