The S-Rank Paparazzi Reincarnates as an Idol - Chapter 9

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

Chapter 9
“Hey, should we practice more?”
“Ah, I need to head back to the Dormitory and rest.”
‘There are some surprisingly pure-hearted kids here.’
“Anyone want to hit up the convenience store~”
“Me! I’ll go!”
The trainees from the same Entertainment Agency clustered together for practice, their familiarity evident, while others filtered out into the hallway.
In the corner of the Practice Room, a camera with a glowing red light continued recording.
‘Dancing is the most pressing issue right now, so let me focus on that first.’
I immersed myself in practicing the Cheer me on choreography, watching my reflection in the mirror as the music played.
I surrendered my body to the rhythm, concentrating on the fundamentals exactly as I’d learned them.
‘Fundamentals are always the most important thing, no matter what.’
After some time had passed, my feet burned with a sizzling heat, and sweat pooled across the floor.
“Huff… Dancing isn’t easy.”
‘My body won’t follow what my mind envisions.’
A maddening thirst suddenly washed over me, and I lifted my head.
Brushing my sweat-soaked hair back, I glanced around and realized the Practice Room was completely empty.
“How much time has actually passed?”
Looking at the clock on the wall, it was approaching 9 PM.
‘Dinner time has already come and gone.’
The Cafeteria would be closed by now.
Growwwl.
My stomach let out a sound like it was scraping the bottom.
It was a signal I’d lost count of hearing.
“I’ll just grab some water.”
Besides, I didn’t want to waste time eating dinner anyway.
‘It’s not like I’m starving—skipping a meal or two doesn’t matter.’
I walked toward the Practice Room door, thinking of the Water Cooler’s location in the Corridor.
Click.
The moment I turned the handle and swung the door wide open—
“Ah!!”
“Ugh!”
A boy wearing a cap pulled low stood right in front of the door.
‘Startled me.’
“…”
“…You’re my roommate, right? What are you doing here?”
He always kept his head down in the Room, so I couldn’t quite place him by sight, but hearing his voice made it certain.
He was the trainee living on the upper bunk of my bed.
The gray-haired boy in a black leather jacket looked, in a word, like trouble.
‘He really looks like he’d cause headaches.’
Gray hair stuck out haphazardly from beneath the cap.
With eyes tilted upward, the impression was cold and sharp enough to seem fierce.
The pointed jawline and facial contours were sharp yet refined—a textbook delinquent appearance.
“…Yes, that’s right. I’m Seo Ha-yul. I….”
A low, measured voice trailed off mid-sentence.
Seo Ha-yul, who had been bowing slightly, suddenly lifted his head with determination.
“This!”
My roommate’s hand held a pink HeartPing Bread.
“…Excuse me?”
‘HeartPing Bread? What is this?’
Seo Ha-yul’s fingertips trembled faintly as our eyes met, and he quietly averted his gaze to the side.
‘Why is he avoiding eye contact while offering bread?’
“You… you didn’t eat and just practiced. Please have some bread while you practice.”
Seo Ha-yul’s fingers trembled slightly as he quickly lowered his head.
His exposed ears had turned bright red.
“HeartPing….”
‘Could he have bought this after seeing me perform the HeartPing stage during my introduction?’
I decided that was overthinking it and looked at the boy before me.
“…I like HeartPing too!”
His noticeably trembling hands looked ready to drop the bread at any moment, so I quickly took it from him.
“Ah. Thank you.”
“Phew… Well, fighting.”
Seo Ha-yul answered in a faint voice and quickly turned around, beginning to run down the Corridor.
“…?”
Soon his gray hair disappeared around the corner of the Corridor.
“What was that?”
It felt like I’d just encountered a gray cat.
“I was hungry anyway, so this works out. I should have it with water.”
As I opened the HeartPing Bread bag, small square stickers popped out from inside.
“I should give these in the Room.”
With the stickers in my pocket, I walked toward the Water Cooler.
“This is the first time I’ve ever received bread from a guy.”
For some reason, my thirst seemed to have diminished—a strange feeling.
***
Time flew by, and the day of the theme song stage re-evaluation had already arrived.
For the past ten days, I had slept only three to four hours a day, dedicating myself entirely to practice like a zombie.
The production staff who had initially worried I might collapse and tried to stop me had grown accustomed to it by now, and I had even earned a nickname.
The practice machine, they called me.
Still, looking at the results, the effort of sacrificing sleep for practice had been worthwhile.
‘Hey, pull up my stat window.’
[Understood.]
[Stat Window]
Cha Si-woo (20)
Appearance: A-
Singing: C+
Dancing: D (UP)
Charisma: B+
Stamina: B+
Ability: ???
Status: A paparazzi who regressed five years into the past.
Remaining Stats: +2]
After ten days of blood-and-sweat effort, my dancing stat had improved by one tier.
Based on my experience so far, stat growth accelerated faster when an expert provided guidance beside me rather than practicing alone.
And the one who had greatly contributed to my dancing stat growth was none other than my roommate.
“Did our gray kitty show up?”
“Si-woo… please don’t call me that!”
“Alright then, Ha-yul kitty.”
“Ugh…”
Seeing Seo Ha-yul’s flustered reaction made me want to tease him even more.
“Ha-yul sure has an entertaining reaction.”
“Ah… hyung! Please stop!”
Watching Seo Ha-yul’s cheeks flush red, I couldn’t help but let out the laughter I’d been holding back.
‘If I tease him any more, he’ll definitely pout.’
After grabbing the cute little seals from HeartPing Bread, I found myself practicing together with Seo Ha-yul before I knew it.
Since he was my roommate and we were in the same grade, our schedules aligned naturally, making it feel seamless to practice together.
Above all, Seo Ha-yul, who had trained as an entertainment trainee for three years, gave me feedback on dancing, and my skills steadily improved.
Somehow, I ended up not only keeping up with the B-Grade Line that Park Soo-gyeok mentioned but also improving my dancing.
‘What a dependable guy.’
Despite his appearance, Seo Ha-yul had a shy personality and was a wholesome teenager who loved HeartPing Bread.
While I was enjoying and adoring the gray kitty’s reactions, a Staff Member who had finished setting up cameras stepped onto the stage.
“We’ll start the theme song mid-evaluation stage in fifty minutes. Trainees who have finished makeup, please sit down by grade and wait.”
“Yes!”
I moved to the Makeup Room with Seo Ha-yul to get our makeup done.
In the busy space that looked like a warzone, the Makeup Artist I had seen before grabbed my wrist.
“Cha Si-woo!”
“Oh?! Hello.”
I bowed deeply at a ninety-degree angle, expressing my gratitude, and she smiled softly.
“Welcome. I was actually waiting for you. Please come this way.”
“Ah… Yes! Understood.”
I took a seat in the empty chair as the Makeup Artist guided me.
“Just trust me. Got it?”
“Of course. You did such an amazing job with my makeup last time too. I trust you completely!”
“I hear Cha Si-woo really knows how to talk. That’s right! Today I’m going to show you what truly professional makeup looks like.”
“Yes! Thank you so much!”
The passionate Makeup Artist began applying makeup with renewed determination.
Her brushstrokes were more careful than last time.
For some reason, at the end she applied a shimmering cosmetic around my eyes.
Large particles reflected the light, making the area around my eyes sparkle brilliantly.
“The point is glitter shadow! Since Cha Si-woo has attractive eyes, I went bold with a sparkling accent. It’s pretty, right?”
The radiant face staring back at me in the mirror still felt strange and unfamiliar.
‘Is this really me?’
The artistry of makeup was truly remarkable.
“Yes. You’re really skilled!”
“Oh! Cha Si-woo really does speak so beautifully. I’m glad you like it. Trust only me next time too!”
“Yes, thank you!”
After bowing at ninety degrees, I followed the Staff Member’s guidance to the seating area where the B-Grade Line trainees were gathered.
The trainees wearing Star picking5’s signature school uniforms were seated in perfect posture, arranged by grade level.
‘Here I am wearing a school uniform alongside children….’
My conscience still pricked at me, but there was nothing I could do about it.
It was time to adapt to the glamorous makeup and school uniform.
Hiding my discomfort, I looked around and spotted Seo Ha-yul, who had arrived earlier.
‘I’ll sit next to him.’
As I approached the seat beside Seo Ha-yul, a sharp gaze shot at me diagonally.
‘…?’
I looked up to see Park Soo-gyeok flaring his nostrils with a blazing look in his eyes.
‘What are you looking at?’
Since I was wearing a microphone, I mouthed the words instead of speaking, and Park Soo-gyeok, unable to contain his joy, turned his head away.
‘That kid’s embarrassed.’
Finally, as I sat beside Seo Ha-yul, bright lights flooded the stage.
The familiar opening music flowed from the speakers.
The filming location, which had been restless at Yu Hae-in’s appearance after ten days, fell silent in an instant.
“Star picking5 trainees, it’s been a while. Have you been doing well?”
“Yes!”
“Have you been practicing a lot?”
“Of course.”
“Yes!”
Yu Hae-in picked up the cue card and began delivering the opening remarks.
‘System.’
[Yes.]
The familiar translucent blue window materialized before my eyes.
Before the theme song stage rating test began in earnest, I needed to boost my stats.
‘Let’s raise my stats.’
[Have you finally decided what to raise?]
‘Yeah. A man goes all in.’
Over the past ten days, my dance and singing stats had automatically increased by one point each through practice, but these numbers were nowhere near sufficient to reach an A-Grade rating.
The stat allocation was decided quickly.
‘Let’s put everything into dance!’
To become an idol where dance and performance were paramount, I couldn’t afford to hear that clunky sound anymore.
‘I need to raise my weakest stat—dance—to at least a baseline standard if I want any chance at an A-Grade.’
And a dramatic skill improvement from a trainee who couldn’t dance would make for compelling narrative while scoring well with the judges.
In survival auditions like this, narrative and growth arcs are everything.
[All reward stats will be applied to dance.]
Ding.
[Stat Window]
Cha Si-woo (20)
Appearance: A-
Singing: C+
Dance: C- (UP)
Charisma: B+
Stamina: B+
Ability: ???
Status: Paparazzi regressed five years.
‘This is looking respectable now.’
Compared to the beginning, the growth trajectory was dramatic.
‘I really am living with all my might.’
“Now we’ll officially begin the theme song stage rating evaluation.”
As Yu Hae-in handed over the cue card and gestured, the black curtain concealing the back of the stage began rising slowly.
Whoosh.
As the curtain rolled upward toward the ceiling with a heavy mechanical sound, the figures hidden behind it gradually came into view.
Beneath the blindingly bright stage lights, the judges already seated on stage waved their hands in greeting.
After a brief introduction of the judges, Judge Park Chae-young picked up the microphone placed on the table.
“Trainees, you’ve all worked hard these past ten days of practice.”
The dance judge also picked up his microphone.
“Since you’ve trained diligently, we’d love to see you give your all on stage.”
As the four Judges finished their remarks, Yu Hae-in flipped to the final cue card.
“We will begin the Theme Song Grade Evaluation in order, starting with A-Grade trainees.”
“…!”
The unexpected turn of events sent a ripple of shock through the Filming Location.
Until now, the Star picking series had always evaluated trainees starting from the lowest grades.
‘Why the sudden change?’

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