The S-Rank Paparazzi Reincarnates as an Idol - Chapter 58

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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 58
The Practice Room speakers vibrated softly beneath the thundering footsteps and the sharp tang of sweat.
Standing in a single line before the mirror, every eye was fixed on Kang Chan.
“On the count of three, you turn immediately. Got it?”
Kang Chan, who conjured choreography on the fly to match the arrangement, was as indispensable to our team as the Dance Trainer himself.
The mere whisper of his feet grazing the floor—a testament to his superior dancing—electrified the Practice Room’s atmosphere.
“Yes!”
The arrangement had come together smoothly, thanks to selecting a song that matched our concept.
I was grateful that carefully assigning positions and selecting team members had made the vocal distribution flow seamlessly.
But the choreography was the problem.
‘This dance is far more difficult and intricate than I anticipated.’
Understanding something intellectually and executing it physically were worlds apart.
“Let’s run through it again with the music.”
“Yes.”
At Kang Chan’s word, we repositioned ourselves before the mirror that dominated an entire wall, aligning ourselves with the formation.
As a grand organ-like intro poured through the speakers, the team members began to move, with Yoo Ho-seung at the center.
“Your movements are off.”
Less than thirty seconds into the music, Kang Chan’s quiet voice cut through the Practice Room.
“I apologize.”
“Let’s start again.”
An awkward tension began to settle between the team members, who apologized while gauging the mood, and Kang Chan.
‘The choreography difficulty is too high.’
In a way, it was inevitable.
‘Keeping pace with someone whose dance stat is overwhelmingly A+ is simply beyond our capacity.’
The team members had cheered when they first saw Kang Chan’s impressive dancing, but attempting it themselves proved grueling.
The real problem was that hours of grueling practice were draining the atmosphere entirely.
The beat poured from the speakers once more.
“Five, six, seven, eight!”
Everyone moved in unison to the count, but a discordant note—a half-beat off—echoed in the mirror.
“You’re late.”
Kang Chan stopped and spoke.
His sweat-dampened bangs clung to his forehead.
“Hah… No, you’re the one who’s fast.”
The Eldest Trainee shot back, gripping the mirror.
His voice was low, tinged with exhaustion and irritation.
In that moment, the air in the Practice Room shifted subtly.
“Hyung, this is a Royal Team concept stage. It demands precision.”
Firmness threaded through Kang Chan’s tone.
“Precision comes second to power. And you all were fast—I wasn’t late.”
As the Eldest Trainee finished speaking, their gazes collided head-on.
‘Are these two actually going to fight?’
I maintained my composure while observing the tense standoff.
I’d bet both my eyebrows that the Production Team would use this scene in their sensationalized editing.
‘I’ll watch a bit longer, but if it gets serious, I’ll have to step in.’
Stopping a fight isn’t always the right answer.
Sometimes people need to air their grievances and fight it out to reach a resolution.
‘But how do kids these days even fight?’
I was watching intently from the front row when it happened.
“You should acknowledge what’s true, right?”
“You…! How dare you be so disrespectful when you’re younger!”
‘Ah. It’s already over.’
This fight was Kang Chan’s victory.
As a side note, when an elder tries to settle things by pulling rank, it’s a sign they have nothing else to fall back on—a desperate move.
The moment someone brings up age, you can safely say the argument is finished.
“Come on, everyone.”
Yoo Ho-seung, our leader, stepped between them, slicing through the air with his palm.
“We’ve been practicing for so long that everyone’s getting tense. Let’s take a break and resume practice in a bit.”
‘You’re the most mature among us.’
Being the youngest and leading the team must be exhausting in its own way.
“Right. Let’s drink some water, rest for a moment, and start again in ten minutes.”
The two reluctantly separated as I offered my support.
“Understood.”
Kang Chan nodded indifferently and stepped out of the Practice Room.
“Hey, Kang Chan—isn’t he being too much?”
As if waiting for this moment, the Eldest Trainee’s voice dripped with resentment.
“Huh?”
“Just because he can dance a bit well, does that give him the right to act superior? People should know their limits when it comes to disrespecting others.”
The irritated elder’s voice echoed loudly through the Practice Room.
‘When did Kang Chan ever disrespect anyone?’
No matter how I thought about it, he never had.
He’d only pointed out mistakes in their dancing—that wasn’t disrespect.
“You’re right. His personality is like that.”
When another trainee agreed, the emboldened Eldest Trainee began openly criticizing Kang Chan.
“Does he think idols only need to dance? You have to be good at everything. Is it just me that finds Kang Chan annoying?”
“I heard from the other teams too—they say he has no manners.”
“Right? His personality is weird.”
“It is a bit odd. Honestly, the whole situation of one trainee trying to teach another is kind of funny.”
“And now that I think about it, I didn’t like it from the start when he chose the concept on his own without consulting anyone.”
As the team’s gossip continued, Yoo Ho-seung’s expression visibly hardened.
‘What pathetic nonsense are they spouting behind his back.’
I can’t listen to any more of this.
“But honestly, Kang Chan didn’t disrespect us.”
“…What?”
“It’s true that our dancing is inferior to Kang Chan’s.”
In that moment, the Eldest Trainee’s lips stiffened awkwardly.
“He’s taking time out of his schedule to give us feedback on our shortcomings. As teammates, shouldn’t we be grateful and learn from it instead of thinking he’s disrespecting us?”
‘People need to have some shame. Even if we were grateful, it wouldn’t be enough—and yet they’re complaining about this?’
“Our goal is to survive and debut. We should just focus on preparing hard together for that debut.”
‘We’re barely finding time to practice as it is. Is this really the moment for petty politics?’
“That’s a fair point, but people should have some sense of propriety, you know.”
“If we’re talking about propriety, you’re the one who’s lacking it.”
“…Excuse me?”
The Eldest Trainee’s expression visibly hardened.
‘Ouch.’
“If you have complaints, don’t talk behind his back—say it directly to him. There might be misunderstandings that need clearing up.”
“…”
“Either way, we’re going to be together as one team until the competition, and we need to prepare the stage successfully. If things go like this, the team atmosphere will become strange.”
The Eldest Trainee stood there with a stunned expression, unable to respond.
Bang—
The door swung open boldly, revealing the silhouette of a large figure with broad shoulders.
‘The timing is absolutely perfect.’
In the frozen atmosphere where no one could breathe easily, the expressions of my teammates reflected in the mirror were quite a sight to behold.
Kang Chan’s gaze swept slowly across all of us as he entered the Practice Room.
‘Did he hear everything outside?’
Considering the Practice Room’s less-than-ideal soundproofing, it was entirely possible.
“Ah… Has it already been ten minutes?”
The first to speak was the Eldest Trainee who had just been badmouthing Kang Chan.
His voice was far too light, and his trembling was completely exposed.
‘He can’t say a single word in front of Kang Chan, yet he started gossiping about him?’
The Eldest Trainee’s gaze wavered slightly.
“Yes.”
With just that one short answer from Kang Chan, the temperature in the Room seemed to drop several degrees.
‘He heard. He definitely heard.’
As an oppressive silence filled the Practice Room, I found myself stepping in to smooth things over once again.
“We’ve rested for ten minutes, so shall we start practicing right away?”
As an awkward atmosphere hung in the air, Kang Chan pressed the beat with an expressionless face as if nothing was wrong.
“Yes. Let’s begin practice.”
As the familiar accompaniment flowed out, someone finally exhaled deeply.
With increasingly intense dancing, the rather anxious group assignment began in earnest.
☆☆☆
Immersed in relentless practice day and night, the midterm evaluation arrived before I knew it.
Now that I saw the judges sitting in a row, I felt quite familiar with them from seeing them so often.
For reference, this midterm evaluation was held all at once in the Large Practice Studio.
The trainees sat on both sides of the floor, and the evaluation proceeded simply with teams called out one at a time.
“How have you all been doing?”
“Great!”
“I’m curious to see how much you’ve practiced over this past week.”
‘We literally practiced until we wanted to throw up.’
Looking at the fatigue accumulated in my stat window, my mouth twisted.
“Have you been practicing well?”
“…Yes!”
A voice lacking confidence, delayed by a beat from before, echoed through the practice room.
It seemed the pressure had intensified since only top-tier trainees remained in the increasingly heated Survival Competition.
“Ha, your voice is quieter than before?”
“Right. You don’t seem confident?”
“We’ll need to watch this very carefully?”
The judges continued with their teasing remarks toward the trainees.
The faces of the trainees, already marked with deep dark circles, grew even darker.
‘Take it easy, will you? At this rate, these kids are going to be completely drained.’
“We’ll proceed with the midterm evaluation in the order the concepts were selected.”
Before the atmosphere could escalate further, Park Chae-young quickly grabbed the microphone and smoothly shifted the mood.
“The first team to receive their midterm evaluation is the team that selected the Royal concept!”
I exchanged glances with my teammates and prepared to stand up.
“It’s such a special concept, so I’m even more excited. Royal Team, are you ready?”
Park Chae-young’s voice rang through the practice room.
“Yes!”
“Royal Team, please come to the center right now!”
The judges’ gazes, filled with eager anticipation and wide eyes, poured down all at once.
“Wow!”
“Isn’t this the Ace Team filled with top-tier trainees?”
As we lined up in the center with Yoo Ho-seung as our center, the Composer Judge grabbed the microphone.
“Yoo Ho-seung.”
Yoo Ho-seung, his expression tense, slowly lifted his head.
“Yes?”
“The youngest member of the team became the leader. Have you faced any difficulties while serving as the leader?”
The judge’s eyes sparkled as if he’d found prey.
‘That guy really went through a lot.’
Being a team leader is truly not an easy position.
As someone with experience leading a team twice in the Survival Competition, I understood it well.
A leader’s work never ends.
‘If I ultimately debut, I need to avoid being the leader no matter what happens.’
In truth, I’d already mentally marked down who I wanted as the leader of my debut team.
“Hmm….”
I tilted my head slightly at the sound of contemplation coming from beside me.
Yoo Ho-seung simply wore a composed, serene smile.
“I should have led the team better, but I think there were actually parts where I fell short.”
‘You? Not at all.’
Yoo Ho-seung was more mature than anyone else.
“Still, the hyungs helped me so much that there were no difficult or hard parts.”
‘That’s a textbook answer right there.’
It was the moment I confirmed that one reason Yoo Ho-seung, with 10 million followers, had maintained his position without any character controversy was his integrity.
“The team atmosphere here is really great. So why don’t we see how hard you’ve all been preparing with a performance?”
“Yes!”
Through the speakers came the familiar accompaniment to ‘KING’—a song I’d heard so many times my ears had calluses.
In training clothes, without any lighting, under everyone’s watchful gaze, the mid-evaluation performance began.
As the intro swelled grandly like an organ, Yoo Ho-seung in the center lifted his lowered head.
A heart racing down a path ready to burst
A hand grasping light in the darkness
Every time power flowed through the entire formation centered on Yoo Ho-seung, the judges’ gazes shifted subtly.
Every detail was being evaluated sharply—the angle of the shoulders, the flow of the gaze, the timing of expressions.
KING, burn my heart
Cutting through endless warfare
Surpassing every king
I alone will claim the throne
As the highlight performance ended, only heavy breathing remained in the practice room.
“How should I even describe this….”
‘The judges’ expressions look really bad?’
One judge, who had been tapping on the tablet with his fingertip, spoke first.
“How about changing the center of this team?”
‘…What?’

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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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