NIS Agent Reincarnated as a Genius Actor - Chapter 1
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1. Died and Became a Star
When did I feel this sensation before.
Another déjà vu perhaps.
I deeply inhale the blowing wind to smell it.
Sometimes when smelling the night breeze, old memories suddenly come to mind.
The life of a spy who lived multiple false lives while changing cover identities.
“Now I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
Crackle―.
– Former Team Leader. What did you say? I didn’t hear you clearly.
At Jeon Su-hwan’s soliloquy, Baek Yu-hyeon’s voice came through the radio, having been dozing off momentarily.
“No, just talking to myself.”
Jeon Su-hwan, who was in the Middle East operational area for intelligence gathering, was conducting surveillance at a designated point according to intelligence from above.
“Baek Yu-hyeon, you should also transfer back to administrative support before it’s too late. You’re a guy with a family.”
– I’m suited for fieldwork. It might sound like I’m being cocky in front of you, Team Leader, but it really fits my aptitude.
Jeon Su-hwan chuckled and continued.
“If you rot in the field too long, you’ll eventually get devoured.”
– Come on, don’t try to scare me.
After watching motionlessly from the hill for hours, the desert night was quite cold.
“Should I wrap myself with more blankets…”
Just as he was about to move, he heard the sound of air being cut.
Whizz―.
And then the gunshot sound coming from far away, belatedly.
Bang―.
But Jeon Su-hwan couldn’t hear it.
The bullet that flew faster than sound had already passed through Jeon Su-hwan’s head.
Crackle―.
– Team Leader! Former Team Leader!
Yu-hyeon’s voice came through the radio, but there was no one here who could answer anymore.
***
An agent who died in the line of duty during an operation.
To honor the noble death of one whose name cannot be revealed, a nameless star is carved in the central entrance of the National Intelligence Service building.
Jeon Su-hwan also ended his life becoming a nameless star, but when he opened his eyes again, he had awakened in the body of a boy he had never seen before.
“Will the weather warm up around next month?”
Yeon-woo climbed the mountain trail near his house with quick steps as if running, blowing warm breath on his hands due to the still cold weather.
This was a morning routine he had always maintained since his days as an agent.
Su-hwan, who now lived under the name Ryu Yeon-woo, reflected on the past two months.
The first week, he obsessed over why he had died.
However, finding out about his own death, whose very existence was secret let alone the operation, was nearly impossible.
The questions of why he came back to life and how he entered another person’s body were no longer that important after thinking about them extensively.
He simply concluded that some god of some religion, or aliens, or whatever it might be, had taken pity on his lonely, devoted life and given him an opportunity.
“It’s only been two months, but I’ve lost quite a bit of weight.”
It had already been two months since being discharged from the hospital after a suicide attempt.
The original owner of the body Su-hwan had entered, Ryu Yeon-woo, had been bullied since childhood due to his weak personality and obese appearance.
Then he swallowed a handful of his father’s insomnia medication – perhaps a common story in modern society.
The only connection Jeon Su-hwan found between Ryu Yeon-woo and himself was that the time he died during the operation was identical to when Ryu Yeon-woo was brought to the emergency room.
Thus, he, a soul with loneliness, had entered the place where that pitiful soul who had only been bullied had departed.
“Either way, I can’t waste this second chance at life.”
He touched the stone pillar erected at the 800-meter summit and vigorously descended again.
Yeon-woo’s body, which couldn’t escape the shackles of obesity, was meeting its new owner and being overworked for the first time in its life, losing weight.
Beep―.
Yeon-woo had already descended and returned to the apartment where his new family stayed, opening the door lock.
His dual-income parents who had gone to work, his younger sister who went out to play with friends.
In the empty house with no one around, he took off his sweat-soaked training clothes and did bodyweight exercises in his underwear for a while before finally washing up.
“He really is handsome.”
While drying his hair and looking in the mirror, Yeon-woo praised himself.
No, calling it self-praise was actually a stretch.
Yeon-woo had only been living as Yeon-woo for barely two months.
The reflection in the mirror still felt like a stranger.
This must be what an unscratched lottery ticket feels like.
When Yeon-woo removed the double chin and chubby cheeks that had been with him since elementary school, surprisingly sharp and distinct features gradually emerged.
He hadn’t even lost all the weight yet.
The reflection in the mirror still showed a relatively chubby figure.
Even so, compared to the past when he weighed in the triple digits, it was a world of difference.
He didn’t know how he would change once he lost all the weight.
“He’ll definitely become handsome. Handsome enough to be an actor.”
In contrast, Jeon Su-hwan from his previous life was a man with relatively ordinary looks.
Having ordinary looks was actually an advantage for a National Intelligence Service agent, where standing out could be problematic.
But living as a nameless and faceless third party all the time gradually fostered a longing for a glamorous life where he could make his name known and receive attention from others.
Perhaps that’s why, despite his blunt personality, he made sure to watch movies and dramas no matter what, even when stationed abroad, enjoying it as a hobby.
When assigned overseas, he would watch musicals and performances as a hobby in his stationed country, and when touring musicals came to his country, he would watch them two or three times.
Gradually, he came to admire actors and yearn for such a glamorous life, sometimes imagining ‘what if I became an actor in my next life?’
“Honestly, all the conditions were against me.”
His appearance, status, and everything else in his previous life had already strayed too far from pursuing such dreams.
However, his secret passion for that dream didn’t fade for quite a long time.
Eventually, he even secretly broke the organization’s rules that prohibited identity exposure, timing his vacation to participate in filming a commercial movie as an extra, literally just a passing pedestrian role.
No one knew, and he didn’t even have a single line, but seeing himself on screen brought great satisfaction.
Jeon Su-hwan looked again at Ryu Yeon-woo’s reflection in the mirror.
‘Honestly, being reincarnated with this face and at this age, I could actually achieve those vague dreams from my previous life.’
The noble sacrifice of his previous life was certainly a brilliantly shining star, but couldn’t he become a slightly different kind of star this time?
***
Ring ring—.
“Ah, a phone call.”
He rummaged through his discarded clothes and pulled out his smartphone from the pocket.
The word “Mother” appeared on the screen.
Having lived his entire previous life as an orphan, it was a truly awkward title.
Shaking off various thoughts, he swiped the screen to answer the call.
“Yes, Mother. It’s Yeon-woo.”
His own name and the title “Mother” still felt somewhat awkward.
If the original Yeon-woo hadn’t consistently kept a diary, Yeon-woo would still have to pretend to have amnesia.
And perhaps influenced by the original Ryu Yeon-woo’s heart, he didn’t feel any rejection toward the existence of family, which he was experiencing for the first time.
-Are you home?
“Yes. I came home after exercising and took a shower.”
Yeon-woo deliberately answered more brightly and cheerfully.
Lee Seon-ok was surprised yet secretly happy that her son, who had always been depressed, timid, and sometimes rebellious, had changed 180 degrees after the incident two months ago.
-Is there anything you want to eat for dinner?
“Come on, I’m managing my diet these days, remember?”
-Oh right, that’s true. I understand. What is So-hyeon doing?
Yeon-woo hesitated for a moment, then answered naturally.
“She went to the convenience store just nearby. She’ll be back soon.”
-That girl didn’t go out to play again, did she?
“So-hyeon probably wants to hang out with her friends too. I’m really okay now. You have no idea how happy I am these days.”
After her son’s suicide attempt, Lee Seon-ok wanted to stay home with him, but had to go to work out of necessity.
Worried, she had given her daughter strict orders to stay by her brother’s side throughout the vacation, causing hardship for her younger sister who was at an age when she should be having fun.
– Alright, alright. Mom will trust her son, okay?
“Yes, Mother. See you at dinner.”
Click.
Yeon-woo’s original family had lived in Seoul, but after the incident, when the family learned that Yeon-woo had been bullied, they moved to Daejeon where his maternal grandmother lived.
Of course, the students involved were punished or forced to transfer schools according to the severity of the incident, but they moved for Yeon-woo’s fresh start and also for his father, a civil servant who had been transferred to Sejong last year.
His new parents were people who had lived earnestly—not wealthy, but a household that lacked nothing.
A reasonably harmonious family with a younger sister who had grown up without a care in the world.
Yeon-woo soon made a phone call.
“So-hyeon.”
– Yeah, oppa! Should I come home right now?
The fact that her real brother had gone through such a terrible ordeal must have been quite a shock for his young sister too.
Though she seemed ready to come home immediately for her brother’s sake, her inner desire to keep playing was evident in her voice.
Judging by the singing he could hear, she must have gone to a karaoke room with her newly made friends.
“No, I’m sorry you had to transfer schools because of me.”
– There you go again! Saying sorry. I’m fine. The kids here seem nicer than the ones in Seoul.
“Really? Why are you so sweet? You have such a kind heart.”
– Aaaah! I heard something I shouldn’t have! Stop the verbal violence!
Though So-hyeon usually got along well with her brother, she was at that adolescent age where direct expressions of affection embarrassed her.
So-hyeon thought that her brother had been talking more like a father ever since he went through that terrible incident.
Yeon-woo, who had been a complete orphan without even siblings, simply didn’t know how cringeworthy expressions of affection between Korean siblings could be.
In fact, based on his previous life, he had suddenly gained a younger sister who could be his daughter.
He was simply happy to have this kind, cute, and lively little new sister.
This bright and cheerful sister, who stood at the opposite end of the spectrum from his own dark life, somehow felt like she neutralized the darkness he carried.
“Alright. Acting all dramatic, just like a middle schooler should. I’ll hang up now. Have fun and come home safely.”
– Okay. Got it.
Click—.
‘I never even knew what my parents looked like, let alone had a sister.’
After ending the call, Yeon-woo felt inexplicably sad for his past self, Jeon Su-hwan from his previous life, who had been so dark and lonely, because this new life’s family circle was so bright and cheerful.
If he had even one family member in his previous life, wouldn’t he have been less lonely?
Telling himself it was a pitiful thought, he tried hard to suppress such thinking.
***
Time passed, and before he knew it, winter break was over, and Yeon-woo was making his first trip to the new school he had transferred to in Daejeon.
Since he had entered a new body, he thought he should live a new life.
However, when he actually put on his school uniform and prepared to go to school, he felt strange.
Counting from his previous life, wasn’t he actually approaching his forties?
“Hmm, wearing a school uniform at this age.”
“Huh? What did you say, son?”
Yeon-woo answered as he opened the passenger door of his new father Ryu Cheol-woong’s car.
“Nothing, Father. I’m off to school.”
“You’re so bland, kid. Are you really okay going alone?”
“I’m a high school student.”
Ryu Cheol-woong was worried about whether he should accompany him on his first day at the new school.
He was anxious that if he followed along when his son was discouraging it, he might provide ammunition for more bullying by being called a papa’s boy or something.
However, at that moment, Yeon-woo was confidently walking up the hill past the school gate, having already finished planning what he should do first in his new life.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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GeminiZwei
Woow, I can’t wait to read this story again!! Thanks for translating it!