Chapter 6

Holy Idol - Chapter 6 (6/902)

6. Trying Out a Photo Shoot

Remble didn't know she was a bad dancer.

She had never danced before.

It was only natural that no one expected a high priestess to dance in the temple.

But to the dance instructor and the other members, this was not at all natural.

"Yeonwoo. Pa pa pa-pa-pa. Pa pa pa-pa-pa. Just move to the beat, right?"

"Your right hand goes up, your left hand goes down, then you cross them... Isn't that right?"

"The movements are correct, but the rhythm is completely off."

"...I'll try again."

Remble, flustered, tried to follow the movements she had learned.

But the dance instructor's expression showed no sign of improvement.

"Yeonwoo, you're doing the movements well, but what is this? We're not doing calisthenics, right? How about trying to match your movements with the music a bit more?"

"Right hand up on 'la la la la,' left hand down on 'la la la la,' isn't that right?"

"The movements themselves are correct, but the rhythm is completely different."

The dance instructor, covering his head with both hands, asked:

"What should I call this? Yeonwoo, have you ever seen a puppet show?"

"Yes."

"Puppets, no matter how well they are controlled, move differently from humans, right?"

"Of course."

"That's exactly what you look like. Like a wooden puppet."

"!"

"You remember the dance well, but it doesn't look like you're dancing."

"Is it that bad?"

"If you don't want to look like a weird meme, let's do it properly, okay?"

But even after hours of practice, there was no improvement.

The dance instructor sighed several times.

He couldn't just scold her, as she was learning the movements correctly as they were taught.

The problem was that she looked ridiculous when she performed them.

Seeing this, Jongwoo put his hand on his forehead.

He was already getting criticized for his character.

If she performed on stage like this, she would get even more criticism for not dancing properly.

He was already feeling dizzy at the thought.

There is noise that works and noise that only causes backlash in noise marketing.

Being insincere is not an option in noise marketing.

"Make sure to have Yeonwoo practice a lot when you get back to the dorm."

Jongwoo weakly encouraged the other members.

But even the next day, the situation didn't change much.

Yeonwoo's dance was still awkward and ridiculous.

"Hey, did you guys really practice with her?"

Jongwoo, unable to bear it, lashed out at the other members, who were in a terrible state.

"She memorized the dance, but we can't make it smooth for her."

"She has to practice on her own; there's nothing we can do."

This led to the situation where, when they went in for vocal training,

Jongwoo was already half-giving up.

He had just accepted that she had lost her sense of rhythm along with her memory.

It didn't seem like her skills would improve in a few days.

The vocal trainer, who had been briefed on Yeonwoo's condition by the dance instructor, met her with no expectations.

"Okay, can you read sheet music?"

"I can't read sheet music, but I've memorized the notes."

"What about the lyrics?"

"I've almost memorized them."

Despite this, the vocal trainer didn't seem very confident and handed her a sheet of music with the lyrics.

"Sing it."

But the moment the song started,

The vocal trainer's eyes began to sparkle.

Jongwoo, who had been leaning against the wall in a half-giving-up state, also

"Hey?"

and opened his eyes wide.

The members, who had been betting on how bad Yeonwoo was, were also taken aback.

After humming the song, Remble, lowering the sheet of music, was surprised to see

all six of them staring at her with strange expressions.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

When Remble asked, they were too flustered to respond.

After a while, the vocal trainer, swearing, exclaimed:

"Damn, wow, when did this kid get so good at singing?!"

Remble shrugged nonchalantly.

She had never danced before, but she had been singing hymns since her apprenticeship.

She sang hymns at least twice a day until she became a high priestess, and practiced even more on special days.

Even after becoming a high priestess, she often sang.

Singing was a great way to spread her divine power.

"I'm pretty good at singing."

"You're not just good; you're amazing! Your voice is the best!"

"Is that so?"

"Even without any technique, your voice is so good that it sounds clean. It feels like you're going to win with just your voice, without any unnecessary techniques."

The vocal trainer, clapping his hands, praised her and then asked Jongwoo:

"Why are you wasting such a good voice? Wouldn't it be good to make Yeonwoo the main vocalist for the next song?"

Jongwoo, who had been clapping, unconsciously nodded.

Indeed.

It was a voice that could be expected to perform a solo.

With such a voice, she would certainly attract a fan base.

However, Jongwoo, amazed by the unexpected voice, didn't notice that the main vocalist Kashi and the lead vocalist Taein's expressions had darkened.

* * *

"But can a person's voice change so suddenly?"

This was when they settled into the vehicle, which was called a "car" rather than a "carriage."

As soon as the door closed and the car started, Kashi muttered softly.

Remble, who had taken out her phone to search the internet, glanced at Kashi.

Kashi, with her yellow hair, was leaning against the window with a bored expression.

"You can suddenly become bad at something you were good at, and you can suddenly become good at something you were bad at, damn it."

Hyejeol, known for her coarse language, answered for Remble.

Kashi, with a sullen face, didn't respond.

Instead, Taein, the lead vocalist, spoke coldly:

"You might be glad that Yeonwoo can't dance, but we don't need three vocalists, do we?"

Hyejeol, once again, defended Remble:

"The more good singers, the better. Maybe we can form a vocal unit with three of us."

Jungseo, the leader, was busy looking at her phone and didn't say anything, while Jongwoo was on a call in the front seat.

Remble, noticing the strange atmosphere, glanced at the members.

She realized that Taein and Kashi, whose positions overlapped with hers, were wary of her singing.

While their wariness wasn't severe, it was clear they felt threatened.

Remble smiled bitterly and lowered her gaze to her phone.

Even when she was a priestess in the world, such things happened.

No, it was even more so because divine power was determined 100% by the love of the gods.

No matter how well she followed the rules, prayed diligently, and acted morally, if the gods favored someone else, that was the end of it.

This led to constant, invisible power struggles within the temple.

After becoming a high priestess, such things disappeared, but before that, Remble was often scrutinized.

'This is all because I'm good.'

Remble nodded to herself in understanding.

At that moment,

Jongwoo, who had been on the phone, suddenly

"Hey!"

and called out loudly.

He turned around from the front seat and called out to Remble:

"Yeonwoo! U Yeonwoo!"

When Remble lowered her phone and looked at him, he excitedly said:

"Do you know Song Daebak? The photographer. He's part of House of JJ."

"?"

"Of course, you wouldn't know him since you don't even know your age. He's a rising photographer right now. He wants to take your photo for his website's promotion!"

Remble searched the internet for "photographer."

She didn't understand who Song Daebak was or what a photographer was.

However, the members, who immediately recognized Song Daebak's name, let out short exclamations.

"Doesn't that photographer have a lot of personal fans?"

"He's really popular on Instagram."

"Exactly."

After searching for "photographer," "photo," and "shooting," Remble looked up.

Jongwoo was looking at her as if stars were in his eyes.

"Is this a good thing? To that extent?"

"To be honest, the pay isn't much. But because he has a lot of personal fans, it's really good for raising your profile and popularity."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. Plus, since he wants to use it for his website's promotion, if he uses your photo for his PR, you might get contacted later by advertising companies or other photographers."

Taein muttered, "Isn't this jumping the gun a bit?"

Jongwoo cleared his throat and continued:

"He seems to have liked the interview photoshoot with Orola. He saw that you have a proud mouth but a clean, priest-like expression, and he wants to capture that."

"...He has a good eye."

Jongwoo, taking Remble's admiration as a show of superiority, frowned and warned:

"U Yeonwoo. You can't act superior until you become famous. And even after, you can't."

Remble nodded, and Taein snorted:

"It's so easy to become popular."

Jungseo, the leader, silently shook her head at Taein.

Taein closed her mouth, and Jungseo patted Remble's back.

After two days of intense vocal training and dance practice,

On Wednesday, Remble went to a white building with Jongwoo to meet Song Daebak.

Jongwoo explained that it was a studio.

When they entered the building, there was a person as thin as a stick.

He was holding a machine similar to what the Orola photographer had, but larger.

There were umbrella-like things on the upper part of the building, and a white temporary wall was set up.

Around it, men and women in casual clothes were moving around, clearing away the wires on the floor.

"This way."

Jongwoo led Remble to the thin person, quickly handed him a business card, and introduced himself:

"I'm Jongwoo from LLL Entertainment, the manager of Wild Animal."

The thin person, taking the business card, muttered while patting his back pocket:

"Oh, a business card. I don't have one."

"It's fine."

It seemed that the thin person was Song Daebak.

While Jongwoo was greeting Song Daebak, Remble carefully observed the studio.

Although she had learned how to search the internet, she was only at the level of typing words and looking up explanations.

Being in a place filled with large, unknown devices, she was quite bewildered.

Song Daebak, who had finished greeting Jongwoo, looked at Remble and muttered:

"U Yeonwoo? You look even better in person."

Remble realized she hadn't greeted Song Daebak, but he didn't seem to mind.

Only Jongwoo let out a silent scream.

Remble raised an eyebrow.

He said he was a photographer.

Song Daebak was scrutinizing her face to an uncomfortable degree.

After a while, he smiled as if giving a score and said:

"It's surprising that you haven't become famous with this face in three years."

Jongwoo cautiously interjected:

"Mr. Song, as you requested, I brought her without makeup. Do we need to prepare anything before the shoot?"

"Let's take a few shots without makeup first. Once we see the photos, we can decide what kind of makeup would be best."

"Ah, okay."

Song Daebak motioned for Remble to come over to the white temporary wall, and Jongwoo stepped back hesitantly.

Remble followed him, not knowing what to do.

Jongwoo had said to just stand still or do as told during the shoot.

But that didn't help her understand the principles of photography.

Song Daebak, setting up Remble in front of the temporary wall, nodded and stepped back, then raised the large, strange machine to his eyes.

He stared at Remble through the machine and asked in a monotone:

"How much skin can you expose?"

"What?"

"How much can you take off?"

"!"