Act 11: Slowly 8

Seeing me remain standing with an awkward expression, the teacher let out an empty cough as he changed topic.

“Well, what I’m trying to say is that everything will be fine as long as you grow a bit taller. Even in my case, I received more attention from my master because of this size. So, how about you start drinking milk everyday from now?”

I gave a grin in response to his words and replied.

“Maybe I should.”

Even without doing that I would gain more than ten centimetres from where I was but it won’t be bad to grow even taller. Whilst having such thoughts, I was laughing by myself when the teacher changed the topic yet again, perhaps thinking that it was a silly imagination.

“Anyways, that’s all I discovered about your situation. Now the body and muscles have all found their spots so singing shouldn’t lead to an injury. So you can practise however you want for vocalisation methods and…”

“Yep.”

Although I had a rough gist about my own body’s situation, it felt nice to have it double checked. When I gave a nod, the teacher caressed his chin and threw a question.

“By the way, the society you joined this time around – why did you suddenly enter it?”

Society?

As I blinked my eyes from the sudden question, he continued while scratching his hair.

“Well, before I imagined that you would have done a good job by yourself but… RC Society was it? Whatever it was, the situation was worse than I expected.”

Hmm… it indeed isn’t in a good situation right now.

I rolled my eyes around avoided eye contact while the teacher started going through some points one by one.

“First, there are not enough members, and it seems to lack enough support. The teacher in charge is pretty much uninterested. Why did you have to join a society like this? You suddenly choosing to do a musical was also out of the blue as well.”

Listening to his words, I nodded and realised that the teacher still did not know why I was going for musicals and operas.

“I was thinking that maybe I should become an opera singer in the future.”

“Opera huh. Well, that’s normal.”

“And in order to get used to plays, I joined a musical society…”

After hearing up to that point, teacher Kwak Jungsoo immediately made a scowl.

“‘Get used to’?”

“Yes?”

Letting out a snort, teacher Kwak Jungsoo turned his gaze and matched his line of sight with mine.

“What grade are you in right now?”

Feeling a little overwhelmed by that, I replied.

“First grade, sir.”

“Right, first grade. Plus, it hasn’t been a year since you started properly learning vocalisation. Now, you can barely sing a few art songs and one or two arias here and there.”

“…”

Facing his eyes at me as I kept my mouth shut, he shook his head and continued his sentence.

“Yunjae. There’s a thing called procedure when learning right? For example in maths, you need to learn plus minus before going over to multiplications, divisions and equations. And in English, you learn the alphabet, memorise words and only then do you learn sentences.”

“You’re right.”

The teacher stood up on the spot.

“It’s the same with singing. First, you learn vocalisation and create enough space before you start slowly learning songs, from easy to hard, one by one. From lied to aria, after which you learn a group of arias in the form of one opera. A sequential procedure like that is the general format.”

“…”

While quietly listening, I nodded my head.

Indeed, when learning how to sing, the general method is to learn expressions and techniques firsthand, by singing various songs. Even if you know theory and basics of music in your head, a practical process to have the body adapt all that is required.

When compared to studying, it was similar to learning theory before memorising it by going through exercises.

And yet since I was babbling on about how I would write an essay straight after learning theory… for the teacher that was unaware of my 20 years of exercise book practices, it was natural for him to be baffled.

After all, he hadn’t heard me sing in the past half a year.

‘How should I explain this…’

While I was contemplating about the method, he glanced at me and let out a sigh.

“…Both vocalisation and height. Don’t be too worried about it just because I said a few things about it. Your talent is not bad so after you put in enough effort, there will come a day where it will see the light.”

“Yes.”

After seeing me accept his words in, he tilted his head.

“But the thing about joining a musical society, I don’t think it was you that just suddenly decided to… by any chance was it teacher Ku Mingi’s suggestion?”

Seeing his expression slowly changing for the worse, I quickly waved my hand.

“No no no. That… you know how Mister Dickson came for a master class last time?”

“I did hear about that.”

“That day, he had a personal meeting with a few students and shared some chat…”

When I finished every detail of Mister Dickson’s advice, teacher Kwak Jungsoo’s expression turned strange.

“Maestro Dickson did? He personally suggested that you join a musical society?”

“Um… yes he did.”

“…”

He stared deeply at me with a frown before soon giving a nod.

“There has to be some reason if the Maestro said that… well, doing it as club activities wouldn’t hurt so let’s just do it.”

As expected of Sir Dickson.

A free pass ticket without even much of an explanation.

Right when I felt relieved for successfully persuading him, teacher Kwak Jungsoo pressed his temples and opened his mouth.

“Okay. So doing a musical is fine but… your society is in a pretty bad state. There are few members and even those few people aren’t in a good relationship.”

That was true.

Seeing me scratch my hair, teacher Kwak Jungsoo let out a smile and tapped my shoulder.

“Especially the first grade girls. There was fire crackling in their eyes or something.”

“…They are indeed not that close.”

“What do you mean ‘not close’. They were blatantly fighting because of you. Han Dasom and Song Mirae, right? So which side are you on?”

From how the corner of his lips were jumping up, it seemed that he was enjoying it a lot. Feeling awkward, I heaved out a sigh while facing him.

“Not sure about Song Mirae but Dasom isn’t like that. She’s just following around because I taught her a bit on how to sing…”

“Haigu. Yes, judging from her actions, what you said must be right, 100%. You dense fool.”

“…”

For some reason, I felt more offended by the fact that I was hearing this from teacher Kwak Jungsoo.

“What about you. How’s it going recently with Miss Hong Yoojin?”

“…Why are you talking about teacher Hong Yoojin all of a sudden?”

“Do you seriously not have a clue?”

“Un?”

Seeing the dumb expression resembling a bear on his face, I shook my head.

I hope he gets married this time.

*

In the end, Song Mirae was chosen for the female protagonist role.

Since Han Dasom had received an overwhelming number of votes in the first vote, I thought she might be picked, but perhaps due to the recommendation of the club president and teacher, Song Mirae received more votes.

Thus, Song Mirae and I were chosen as protagonists and next week, we would decide on what musical to do and earnestly start practising. The issue was that the teacher had difficulty choosing a play due to the still lacking number of members.

Maybe I should bring someone random in.

‘Well, some way or another it would work out.’

I shrugged my shoulders before sensing a vibration in my pocket, thus taking my phone out.

[Korean Music Herald Concour]
– High school Male Opera section awards

Hmm… so the results for this one also came out huh.

Scrolling down the screen, I found my name.

[First Place]
– Future Performing Arts High School Freshman Jo Yunjae.

And in the female opera department, Han Dasom came first. Since this concour was a small one similar to that previous one, it was a natural turn of events. It was a little concour which those with skills did not enter.

‘But it does have prize money and since I can add one more line to my CV, I should try my best.’

I was moving the awardee list to my portfolio folder when Noh Jusup from the side started complaining.

“Ah seriously, the principal’s always late. If you’re going to be late like this, then don’t make us gather so early…”

After glancing at him, who was letting out a passionate speech about how having the practice session later on would be a benefit for everyone, I looked around and gazed at the surroundings.

A large auditorium, in which first and second grade students of the music department had gathered for the Subscription Concert practice and formed groups while chatting by themselves.

There were those that laughed and chatted noisily, while there were also some annoyed students like Noh Jusup. In the mix, there were also students like me who stood blankly doing nothing.

Since the principal who was the conductor hadn’t arrived yet, they were all wasting their time in their own way.

With my eyes facing them, I shrugged my shoulders and opened my mouth.

“If we have the practice session later, wouldn’t he be still late by that much more?”

“Haa…”

I turned away from him, who was shaking his head with a sigh, and glanced at what the other kids were doing.

First, Jun Shihyuk and Kim Wuju. They had their eyes shut while standing still, perhaps undergoing self-mind-control. Because they didn’t get the main vocal position in the last practice session, they must be practising diligently in order to take the spot away from me.

‘…Can I keep it?’

Last time, I won due to small tricks but it seemed extremely challenging for me to keep this place until the concert.

After a light click of my tongue, I then turned my head to look at the girls – Han Dasom and Lee Suh-ah. With an oddly nervous mood, I looked at where they were at but unexpectedly, I found the two of them sharing a conversation whilst smiling.

“…there’s a pasta restaurant…”

“…I went there with Mirae…”

Perking my ears and listening to their conversation, I scratched my hair and tilted my head.

Hmm… last time, Han Dasom was apologetic to the point of crying that she took Lee Suh-ah’s spot but as I thought, taking her around various concours must have had some sort of an effect.

After repeatedly winning against other kids, she must have realised that that was how competition was in its essence.

‘Thank goodness.’

I watched the positive atmosphere around them with a warm heart before stealthily carrying my feet. When I was close enough, Lee Suh-ah quickly noticed and raised one of her eyebrows.

“Why are you here?”

So bad-tempered.

After returning a wave to Han Dasom, who was waving her hand with a bright smile, I opened my mouth.

“Nothing. I was just bored. Did you practise a lot? The principal talked about how he would immediately change and use the better candidate even during practices.”

“Of course.”

Seeing Lee Suh-ah who was still confident, I nodded my head.

Right. Last time, Han Dasom won because she and I got together as a team but once Lee Suh-ah gets used to mics and the song, the gap between herself and Han Dasom will gradually decrease.

And at a certain point, she might surpass Han Dasom, since she was just that great. Who would be the final winner? I was glancing at the two of them in curiosity but as a sudden flash of thought popped up in my head, I threw a question out.

“Hey, how’s your society these days?”

“Society?”

Lee Suh-ah made a frown but soon seemed to understand what I was talking about as it eased out.

“Ah, the Musical Club? We’re preparing for the festival as well and recently we decided on what musical to do as well.”

Hmm… already huh.

Probably because they have a more systematic plan than us, their progress was slightly faster than ours. After stealing a glance at her, I dug for more information.

“So who are the chosen main actors?”

“Who knows. Most likely one of the second grade sunbaes. Kim Wuju and I will be one of the supporting roles.”

“Hmm…”

As expected, it seems that a first grade would be pushed aside no matter how good their singing was. Caressing my chin, I stealthily gave her the offer which I always threw at her.

“Hey but no matter what, isn’t it better to have more part than being a simple supporting role? Coincidentally enough, there’s an empty spot in our society…”

“…”

Staring at me with a strange light in her eyes, Lee Suh-ah opened her mouth.