The S-Rank Paparazzi Reincarnates as an Idol - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1
“Cha Si-woo! Have you lost your mind?”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
A gray newspaper was hurled across the desk, landing among the neatly stacked documents.
The front page featured a striking photograph: a youthful man kneeling before a middle-aged woman, tears streaming down his face.
“The photo turned out beautifully.”
“Is that really what you should be saying right now?”
‘Well, what else is there to say in this situation?’
“Photography truly is an art form where no one can match my skill, wouldn’t you agree?”
The impeccably composed shot made the subject stand out even more prominently.
“Hey!”
‘Ugh, that’s irritating.’
“Please don’t shout. You know Manager Yu has high blood pressure. If something happens to him, I’d feel terrible.”
“And you’re the one who caused all this?”
Manager Yu’s face flushed crimson with escalating fury as he ran his hand through his hair.
‘He’s angry again.’
I picked up the newspaper, suppressing the laughter that threatened to escape.
“‘A Large Conglomerate Chairman Kim’s Secret Hobby’—the Media Outlet certainly knows how to craft a sensational headline.”
Manager Yu’s brow furrowed deeply as his gaze fixed on the newspaper.
‘At this rate, those wrinkles will only deepen.’
“Listen, Cha Si-woo.”
“Yes?”
“You know Chairman Kim doesn’t have a good reputation, right?”
“I’m aware.”
“You’ve been in this business long enough. And you’re telling me you sold VVIP photographs to a Media Outlet?”
‘A VVIP doesn’t put food on my table anyway.’
“I took those photographs, so I have the right to decide what happens to them.”
Crash!
‘That startled me.’
Manager Yu slammed the desk and exhaled heavily.
“Have you finally gone insane?”
“That would be Chairman Kim, not me. How could he treat someone young enough to be his grandson like a slave?”
“What does that have to do with you! You’ve never been the type to care about such things.”
“Come on, I have a strong sense of justice.”
“That’s rich coming from a paparazzi.”
“There’s no shame in any honest work.”
“For crying out loud. It’s about money, isn’t it? How much did the Media Outlet offer you?”
‘It was quite lucrative.’
Instead of answering, I flashed a professional smile.
“Even if you need money, there are people you shouldn’t touch. You’ve seen all kinds of things during your paparazzi career—so why deliberately provoke a VVIP?”
“It’s too large a sum to turn down.”
‘And I don’t like the way he carries himself either.’
Large Conglomerates were prime targets.
In paparazzi work, the more sensational and controversial the photograph, the higher its value.
News agencies competed fiercely to purchase such images, and the more famous the subject, the steeper the price they offered.
‘It’s quite a lucrative business.’
When Chairman Kim’s name came up, Media Outlets typically offered prices nearly twenty times the standard rate.
‘Rarity and risk demand a premium price for the photograph.’
Manager Yu swept his hair back and released a heavy sigh.
“Why are you selling your life for money? Isn’t it all just to make a living?”
“I’ve done worse things than this before, and it worked out fine.”
“You’ve got guts, kid. But what if you get caught?”
“I’ll live longer than you, sir.”
“Death doesn’t wait for anyone! Is it… because of your Younger Sibling?”
In that instant, the image of my Younger Sibling lying in the Hospital ICU flashed through my mind.
My chest tightened slowly, and my breath caught.
‘While I’m here laughing and talking, that kid is enduring unbearable pain.’
“…You know.”
“Still, take it easy, kid. You need to be around your Younger Sibling for a long time.”
“Stop worrying about me and worry about your own blood pressure instead.”
“You little bastard···!”
Manager Yu’s nagging continued for several more minutes.
I let it go in one ear and out the other until he sighed and gestured toward the door.
“Get out of here!”
“Yes, I’ll be going then.”
The moment I closed the Manager’s Office door behind me, I stepped into the quiet Corridor.
‘The silence is nice.’
I’d been doing paparazzi work for five years now.
A sudden accident took my parents, and my eight-year-old Younger Sibling became a vegetative patient.
From that moment on, the ordinary life I thought I had was completely transformed.
I’d done anything and everything to earn money.
I worked day and night, but money flowed out faster than it came in.
The hospital bills needed to sustain my Younger Sibling’s life were beyond what ordinary income could cover.

When my bank account reached its limit, I started working as a paparazzi, and that’s how I managed to cover the hospital bills.
“Wow. Time really flies.”
‘In five years, I’ve experienced every conceivable hardship.’
Getting rushed to the hospital from malnutrition and overwork had become routine.
Working with celebrities meant threats and blackmail were constant companions.
‘There were so many death threats.’
A wry chuckle escaped me.
But whenever I saw the money flowing into my account, it all felt worthwhile.
As long as the pay was generous,
I welcomed any threat that came my way.
In a world where money was necessary to treat the sick, I would do anything to save my Younger Sibling.
‘My only…. family.’
Bzzt bzzt.
The sharp vibration of my phone jolted me back to reality.
“What is it?”
I pulled out my phone from my pocket and saw an unexpected name on the screen.
[Minhan General Hospital]
‘Why would the hospital be calling at this hour?’
PTSD—the moment I saw those words, my heart began racing uncontrollably.
I took a deep breath and pressed the answer button.
“Hello?”
[This is Minhan General Hospital’s ICU. Are you the guardian of Cha Si-hyun?]
“Yes. That’s me.”
[Your Younger Sibling’s condition has taken a turn for the worse, so we’re calling you.]
“…”
‘No. Please, no.’
My trembling hand gripped the phone precariously.
“How…. how bad is it?”
[I think you should prepare yourself mentally. You need to come to the hospital right now.]
‘Damn it.’
“…I’m coming right now!”
I tried to stay calm, but my voice betrayed my panic.
[Yes. Please come quickly to the ICU on the ninth floor.]
My hands shook so violently I could feel the tremor in my bones.
I had never once imagined a life without my Younger Sibling.
The image of their smiling face from childhood remained vivid in my mind.
‘Prepare myself mentally…! How is that even possible?’
I steadied my trembling legs and rushed toward the elevator.
I pressed the down button and looked up at the floor display—it read 1.
“Damn it! The elevator’s always on the first floor when you need it most.”
Every second the elevator climbed felt like ten minutes.
Even the time spent waiting for it to ascend slowly seemed wasted.
‘This won’t do.’
I pivoted toward the Emergency Stairwell beside the elevator.
Screech… Crash!
The heavy metal door slammed against the wall as I bolted down the stairwell, using the cacophony as my backdrop.
With each thunderous footfall, I felt my heart racing wildly in my chest.
Descending the endless stairs like a madman, blood surged into my throat and my breathing grew ragged.
‘Please… let my Younger Sibling be safe.’
I had never believed in the divine, yet in this moment, I desperately implored every god that existed.
“From now on, I’ll believe in you. I’ll do whatever you ask! So please…!”
In an instant, my toe caught on the sharp edge of the cold concrete step.
“Ah… no!”
My body lost its balance and lurched forward.
My hands flailed through empty air—nothing to grasp, nothing to steady myself against—and I fell.
A searing pain, as if burning through my skin, struck my legs with brutal force.
“Ugh.”
The metallic scent of blood from scraped flesh mingled with the cold air at the tip of my nose.
I tried to push myself up slowly, but my legs refused to obey.
“Damn it! I’m dying of urgency here!”
Gripping the stairwell railing, I hauled myself up and resumed my frantic descent.
At last, the number “1” came into view.
“Haa… haa…”
As I shoved open the heavy Emergency Stairwell door, the familiar Company First Floor Lobby unfolded before me.
‘I need to catch a taxi immediately.’
I quickened my pace, jostling past people in my way.
Upon pushing through the company’s main entrance, I spotted a yellow Taxi in the distance with its “vacant” sign lit, approaching at a leisurely pace.
“Hey! Taxi, hurry!”
Seeing my urgent gesture, the Taxi accelerated toward me.
The low, sharp screech of tires echoed across the asphalt.
The moment the Taxi stopped, I yanked open the door and scrambled into the back seat.
“Sir, are you injured? Why are you rushing like this?”
The middle-aged Taxi Driver glanced back with a puzzled expression.
“Minhan General Hospital!”
“Pardon?”
“Get me to Minhan General Hospital as fast as you can!”
At the word “hospital,” the Taxi Driver’s expression hardened with resolve as he gripped the steering wheel firmly.
“Ah… yes! Hold on tight. I’ll get you there as quickly as possible.”
The Taxi surged forward at high speed across the smooth road.
My already racing heartbeat thundered even more wildly.
Please… let me be safe. I don’t want to prepare myself mentally for the worst.
Through the window, the densely packed buildings of the city skyline blurred past in rapid succession.
The thundering sound of my own heartbeat echoed loudly in my ears.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Everything felt unstable.
Calm down. There has to be a way. There’s still hope, isn’t there?
“Huff… huff…”
I closed my eyes and was slowly exhaling in ragged breaths when it happened.
Screeeech!
A deafening screech tore through the air.
CRASH!
The sharp shattering of glass and the bone-rattling impact twisted everything into chaos.
“Ugh!”
Metallic blood flooded my mouth, bitter and hot.
My entire body shattered into fragments—a sensation I’d never experienced before—and consciousness slipped away.
Against the backdrop of fading sirens and people’s screams, the world turned pitch black.
***
“Ugh… my head.”
I clutched my head against the overwhelming pain and forced myself upright.
My blurred vision came into focus after I blinked several times.
“What is this?”
A small one-room apartment filled my field of vision—a bed and a small desk taking up most of the space.
“I was in a taxi just moments ago?”
I turned my head and looked around.
The musty smell of a semi-basement apartment lingered at the tip of my nose.
The blue tape patched over the broken window and the worn linoleum flooring were identical to the one-room apartment I’d lived in when I was twenty.
As cold air seeped through the window cracks, my foggy mind suddenly cleared.
Suddenly, I heard a phantom echo of that sharp metallic screech, and goosebumps erupted across my entire body.
“That was… definitely a major accident.”
My body felt as though it were being torn apart, and a chill ran through me.
The last thing I remembered was the massive impact inside the taxi, but I’d opened my eyes in a completely different place?
The incomprehensible situation brought another wave of headache.
“Wait, why am I here instead of in a hospital?”
Unsettled by the strange disconnect, I brushed aside the hair falling across my vision.
“No matter how I look at it, this is the apartment I lived in until I was twenty. What is this? Am I dreaming?”
Ding.
As if answering my question, a familiar notification sound chimed.
“…What the—!”
An opaque blue rectangular window suddenly materialized before my eyes.
[Have you regained consciousness?]
A chill ran down my spine in an instant.
The air in the room seemed to freeze, and I remained motionless for a long moment, staring at the opaque blue rectangular window.
“What? Am I seeing things now?”
[You are not hallucinating. Cha Si-woo, you are dead.]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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