Act 7: Lightly 4

The fact that the mid-sems were over meant that more than half of the first semester had gone past.

Half. It was a strange word.

Thinking that there was still another half to go, it seemed really distant but if you changed it up and said that there was only half of the semester left, it appeared like a short amount of time.

Also, it was a period where strange things would happen, just like today.

“An interim presentation?”

“Yeah.”

Replying nonchalantly, Yu Minji let out a yawn before changing her sitting posture.

“There’s not much time left until the song presentations so they’re having a mock test, because if there’s a problem, we need to change it as soon as possible.”

“I see.”

A mock test…

Unlike opera and other instruments, the composing department had to write songs themselves so it wasn’t weird for them to have these things. They did need some time to check their songs.

I was thinking with slight amazement when a question popped up in my head.

“Do I have to go though?”

“Have to…? Not really. I can just play it from a computer… but you wanted to know the process of composing songs right? There would also be things you learn by listening to others’ songs and that’s why I called you.”

“Ah… thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”

Seeing Yu Minji giving a reply indifferently, I felt somewhat strange. It was easy to say but taking care of others in subtle things like these wasn’t an easy task and it seemed like she had talked about me to teacher Ku Mingi as well judging from today’s lesson.

“…”

While staring at her with a complicated mood, I opened my mouth.

“…Sunbae. So when is the interim presentation?”

It would be my duty to try my hardest in the presentation at least. Vowing as such, I watched Yu Minji open her mouth with a yawn.

“Tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. I see, tomorrow huh.

I was nodding my head before halting and rapidly turning towards Yu Minji.

“When?”

“I told you, it’s tomorrow.”

“…What?”

“Ah right.”

I asked again to double-check, as Yu Minji searched through her bag before taking out a bunch of paper.

“By the way, I finished the lyrics yesterday so here are the new music sheets. The lyrics… memorise them by tomorrow if you can, but it’s alright to sing off the sheets.”

“…”

*

On that day of the sudden declaration of Yu Minji, I quickly tried to memorise the lyrics along with Song Mirae but it was far lacking. Just reading the lyrics was easy as I could remember it in less than an hour.

However, in opera where the use of mouth changed with every change of vowel and consonant, that could not be referred to as ‘understanding the song’.

In other words, giving the lyrics a day before wouldn’t solve anything and yet, this sunbae was yawning with a carefree expression off to the side…

When I flicked my gaze towards her and glared, she gave excuses with an awkward smile.

“It’s only a mock test so you don’t have to try that hard. We just have to do well in the last presentation so we can fail this one.”

“…The teachers and other seniors are there though?”

“And? It doesn’t count towards the final marks anyway.”

“…”

Look at how carefree she was; it was as if I was the one that composed the song.

With a sulky mood I glanced around and saw the classroom full of people. Inside the classroom with only one piano, the front row of tables seemed to have been cleared judging from the wide, open area at the front and the tables placed at the back.

The upperclassmen from the composing department seemed to be around 8 in number as they sat on each table. There were more performers than I thought and those students with instruments sat around the composing department students.

There were violin, cello, flute students as well as opera and piano students who were empty-handed like me. On top of that, there was a female helper wearing a conspicuous suit and a male with closed eyes next to her.

Kim Wuju…

Ha… right, Kim Wuju was here as well. I had to sing with him today despite the lack of preparations and would be compared for sure. Inwardly I was in despair when Song Mirae opened her mouth with complaints.

“Ah seriously… Yunjae, am I the only one thinking that this is too much? How can she give us the lyrics a day before! I barely memorised the lyrics… Ahhh! What do I do if the people listening think I’m super bad at singing?”

“What can you do? You just become a bad singer in their eyes.”

“Tch…”

Song Mirae pouted and turned her head to a side to stare at a different direction before tilting her head.

“Uh? Shihyuk?”

“Un?”

Shihyuk as in Jun Shihyuk?

Following the ends of her gaze, I saw a familiar face. Did he come here to help the composing department as well?

I stared while pondering whether I should greet or not when our eyes suddenly met.

‘Hello.’

Murmuring that with my mouth, I waved my hand when Jun Shihyuk’s expression crumpled all of a sudden.

…What was that

Feeling blank, I was at a loss as to why he was like that when Song Mirae flickered her eyes and bit onto the topic.

“What is this~? Why is Shihyuk like that? It’s my first time seeing that expression; did you guys perhaps fight?”

“No. I didn’t even really see him recently.”

“You sure you didn’t fight?”

“Oi if I fought with him, would I be this normal right now?”

Song Mirae shook her head and compared Jun Shihyuk’s build to mine – Jun Shihyuk who had completed his growth and me who was still in the growing period. Our body sizes were leagues apart and I was confident in losing within 10 seconds if we were to fight.

She made a strange smile.

“Ahah~ But isn’t Shihyuk a bit boorish? I like it when guys look normal like Yunjae.”

“…”

I was patting away her hand that tapped on my shoulder when a middle-aged man walked up the podium in large strides.

“Second grade students of the composing department and dear performers, hello. I am Ahn Kibum in charge of the second-grade composing department. Thank you all for gathering for this interim presentation.”

Teacher Ahn Kibum…

I had no idea who he was because my life had been one without any connections with composers. Shrugging my shoulders I looked around and discovered relatively positive reactions even from the freshmen students, evident from their sparkling gazes. Was he a famous teacher?

He gave off a comfortable vibe and appeared like an old gentleman.

“Now then… you’re all ready to present right? Let’s start from the leftmost student onward. I wish you all the best for the performers and… composers, please listen seriously as well even when you’re not performing. After the performances are over, I will ask for your evaluations and feedback on the songs.”

Hmm… the general framework was no different from our own. They had a feedback session that was always there after a performance and there weren’t any major differences despite being the composing department.

With a nod I glanced around and discovered that we were the third group from the left.

*

It was quite interesting listening to the performances of the first and the second group. Because they were made by students, it gave off a refreshing feeling. One of the songs had an interesting approach while the other was strictly adhering to the traditional, standard manner.

The whole vibe given off by the songs was different from the perfected songs I had been singing thus far and that was an enough reward for my visit today.

Listening to the lively results of the cooperation between composers and performers seemed to give me some enlightenment as well… Like that, I was appreciating the songs silently when Song Mirae staring blankly entered my sight.

Following her gaze, I discovered that her eyes were stuck on the soprano singing at the front. Only on the soprano, without any interest on the piano and cello being played next to her.

“…”

Glancing at her, I said.

“You’re drooling.”

“…Suup.”

I was just joking but she seemed to be in a daze and didn’t realise that.

“What are you looking at”

“Nothing. Just…”

“Just what?”

After some hesitation, she replied.

“Jealous.”

“…”

I blankly observed her for a bit before turning my eyes back to the stage. Watching the freshman student zealously singing, I thought.

‘Jealous huh…’

By ‘jealous’, she probably wasn’t talking about the skills because Song Mirae was quite high-leveled amongst the freshmen.

Then what was she jealous about?

It was then that the high note of the soprano left the stage.

“Ah ah—-”

High notes that seemed to be floating in the skies – the voice of a soprano that brought out the most of the softness unique to female voices.

It was a voice Song Mirae couldn’t obtain.

“…”

Soon, the presentation of the second group ended and several feedbacks came out.

“The overall composition is…”

“The parts allocated to the soprano were…”

“Harmonically…”

I was watching Yu Minji give general feedback when my eyes suddenly met with a man who was sitting at a corner of the class.

At the very right – Kim Wuju’s group.

[Kim Sukwon]

The upperclassman with a green name tag raised the corners of his lips into a smile.

“Group 3! Please begin!”

“Ah, yes.”

I quickly stood up from the seat.

*

“…I will~”

Closing my mouth, I glanced around to see the general reaction of the crowd.

Was that fine? Ah… I had no idea. Although I did try my hardest to perfect the lyrics, it was too hard to finish over one night. Besides, my throat was starting to hurt due to the leftover fatigue from the lessons yesterday with teacher Ku Mingi.

Well, I did sing it pretty easily thanks to the high notes I learned yesterday though…

“Group 3, thank you for your performance. Should we start the feedback from Group 1?”

“Yes.”

I got nervous thinking that feedback like ‘why the hell did you express the lyrics like that’ could come out but fortunately, there were no such thorny comments.

There were only comments related to the song like how the development of the song was good; the vibe was good and that the modulation at the middle was good, etc.

In fact, I guess it would be quite funny to badmouth the performers when it’s a presentation of the composing department, and it might be hard to raise negative comments against Yu Minji-sunbae, the top student of the composing department as well.

On the other hand, maybe they found us likeable despite being young freshmen, as I could hear some compliments as well.

“The tenor’s expressions of high notes are… really good. It fits perfectly into the song. Was he perhaps the inspiration of your song?”

“Yeah.”

When Yu Minji replied, their gazes gathered on me before soon dissipating.

Mhmm… was I the motive of the song?

But this song was really sad; so what did that mean?

With a blank face, I was pondering the meaning when it was finally the last group’s turn for feedback. The upperclassman with the name tag, Kim Sukwon, stood up before giving a smile towards us.

…I felt ominous as his mouth opened.

“First off, the song wasn’t bad. It wasn’t but… I think that maybe your choice of performers was way too off.”

“Performers?”

“Right. The tenor there is okay but that girl – there’s a slight problem with that girl. To be honest, I get doubts on whether she would be able to present this song in a month’s time, don’t you?”

“Ha.”

Scoffing, as if there was no worth in even replying to that, Yu Minji turned her gaze towards the teacher.

“Sir, we are here to talk about the composition of songs. It doesn’t have much to do with performers…”

Kim Sukwon interjected immediately.

“Why not? Composers choose the performers and it is thus their ability to choose able performers. And yet, choosing a person that can’t even perform the song? This is… I think there’s something wrong with your choice, isn’t there?”

“Who do you think you are to decide whether she can sing it or not?”

“Can’t you just tell from hearing?”

“Enough.” Slamming down on the table, teacher Ahn Kibum glanced at the two before scratching his cheek.

“Now now. Let’s not fight, and listen to each side rationally. First, student Kim Sukwon. What do you mean when you say there’s a problem with the performer?”

With a prideful smile, Kim Sukwon stared at us.

“You could tell as well right sir; the difference of their skills. The tenor’s good but the girl… doesn’t have any analyses on the song done yet. She’s just reading off the sheet and if it was like this, it might be better to just play it off a computer. No matter how good the song is, if the performer is like that, then who would be able to tell the true value of the song?”

Kim Sukwon – his tone was polite but each and every word of his was filled with hostility. It was subtle enough that only the person involved would be able to feel it and perhaps the teacher wasn’t certain either as he frowned in thought.

… On top of that, it was also a fact that we didn’t have enough time to analyse due to having received it yesterday. Overall, it was hard to refute.

“Hah seriously.”

She seemed to be angered by that as Yu Minji smacked the table.

“She didn’t have time to practise so mind your own business.”

“Why’re you angry? I was just worried. There’s only a month left so would it be okay after just some practice~? Wouldn’t it be better to admit it and just look for another one?”

“This bastard…”

While the two were in a battle of nerves, I turned my gaze to the side.

Song Mirae.

Since it was an awkward situation and we couldn’t just walk back to our seats, I was just standing out here with her but she wasn’t in a good situation. Her body was trembling; her eyes were glancing around and her shoulders were shrunk.

Maybe it was because she was from a rich family but it seemed like it was her first time facing this kind of hostility.

…On top of that, I for some reason remembered her expression which I had seen on the day of the Concerted Music presentation day – the face she made after listening to Han Dasom’s song.

A voice she couldn’t reach no matter how much she tried and her face that had been crumbled into pieces after seeing Han Dasom pull that off so casually. And yet if her little leftover pride was broken like this.

“…”

I could feel something bubbling up from within.

Sympathy, empathy, rage.

Whatever it was, that was okay. Emotions which were hard to tell apart due to the mix rose up the throat and left my mouth.

“Hey, sunbae.”

In that instant, the classroom turned quiet.

“…What?”

Was there too much emotion embedded into the voice? I breathed in deeply before forcing out a smile.

“It’s because she got the music sheets yesterday. She’s plenty skilled enough to sing that after a month.”

As if he had caught on something, Kim Sukwon gave a grin.

“Oh, is that so? You received it yesterday? Did Yu Minji finish the lyrics yesterday perhaps?”

“Yes.”

“Is that so? But then you see…”

Pointing his finger at me, he smiled.

“How did you polish it up so much~? You got it yesterday as well right? That’s very strange; one’s okay but the other one is a complete beginner? That’s a bit weird isn’t it?”

That was because I practised a bit more during the night but in any case, it might sound like an excuse without any proof.

…He attacked with this as the basis huh.

While I was glaring, teacher Ahn Kibum slammed the table before giving out a warning.

“Kim Sukwon. Stop it there.”

“Ah I’m sorry sir. I was just curious…”

“I told you to stop!”

“Yes.”

In the eyes of Kim Sukwon sitting back down with a grin appeared a strange prideful light of victory. Then, he raised his arms and shrugged his shoulders, making a gesture that he was only giving feedback.

“…”

Good. Feedback huh.

Good.

I can give feedback as well.

“…”

Sitting back down, I contemplated while staring at Kim Wuju who was in Kim Sukwon’s group.

Feedback. It would be difficult for me to give to the future Kim Wuju. How could the likes of me possibly say anything to the man who would later be called the best tenor? Besides, since Kim Sukwon was a composing department major, there wouldn’t be anything for me who was an opera major to point out.

But if it was now, with Kim Wuju who had yet to finish his growth and that inexperience unique to composing department students which even that ‘Yu Minji’ had shown.

‘There may be a chance.’