Chapter 239. (Im)possible? (2)

Finishing his call with Kang HyeSeon, KangYoon had a look at the number he just wrote down.

“Eas, huh.”

Organizing his information, KangYoon thought about what to say.

‘Her real name is An ShiJin. She’s thirty-five and is a member of an indie group named In-Us…. She’s trained second-tier girl groups like SeasonS and Sweetie. SeasonS was once a second-tier group, after all.

Then it made sense.
Although the cost of hiring should be proportional to her skills….
In the case of Jung MinAh, she had been through numerous vocal trainers while she was at Mg, but her vocal skills never went above a certain point.

‘Let’s try meeting her.’

KangYoon input the number on his phone.
Soon, some dialing sounds rang before a rather grumpy female voice replied to him.

– Hello?
“Hello. Am I speaking to miss An ShiJin?”
– You are, but I’m not interested in insurance, credit cards, cars, or phones.
“…Uhm.”

KangYoon was somewhat taken aback but continued speaking calmly.

“I am Lee KangYoon from World Entertainment. I heard about you from Seas…”
– World? Wait, wait! That’s right! Composer Lee KangYoon?
“That’s me, but, uhm…”

While KangYoon dazed out a little, the other party started rapping(?).

-Do-you-know-how-much-I-waited-for-you-to-call-me-after-HyeSeon-contacted-me-it-was-thirty-minutes-thirty-whole-minutes-what-are-you-going-to-do-to-compensate-my-time-I-was-really-nervous-waiting-for-your-call-like-badump-badump-but-are-you-really-World-am-I-really-calling-wait-what-the-heck-am-I
“…Uhm, hello?”
– Kyahahahaha!

After the rap(?), the other party started laughing all of a sudden.
KangYoon was taken aback at first, but as he had experience dealing with quirky celebrities, he quickly calmed down.

“…Am I speaking to Miss An ShiJin?”
– Yes, you are. You must be composer Lee KangYoon? Kyaa! It really is World! I’ve always wanted to meet you…

The other party did not stop talking.
Only after a while could KangYoon see that they were ready to talk. KangYoon spoke about why he called.

“…I’ve called you to ask you to train someone.”
– Ah, I’ve heard from HyeSeon. I’m supposed to be training a singer…
“Yes. I hope we can meet and have a talk.”
– Okay. I’ll come to the studio. Can I go there now?

When KangYoon accepted, she said that she’d be here in 30 minutes before hanging up.
Although the call was short, KangYoon felt extremely fatigued and returned to his office while shaking his head.

“Yes, yes. The location…”
“What? But…”

Despite his absence, the office was working normally.
Under Lee HyunJi’s instructions, the employees looked over all the artists’ schedules and added new plans accordingly.
As the number of employees had increased, the office had a leisurely feel to it.
When KangYoon sat down on his chair with a fatigued face, Lee HyunJi asked worriedly.

“President, you look exhausted. Did something happen?”
“…It’s not much. I just encountered a rather peculiar person…”
“A peculiar person?”

Lee Hyunji asked more out of curiosity, but KangYoon did not elaborate and just smiled.
After that, KangYoon gave Eddios’s next album some instructions before going back to the studio again.
Not long later, a rather skinny lady with sharp eyes appeared at the studio.

***

“…Maybe I should have utilized the special case enrollment.”

Inside the car that Kang GiJoon was driving, Min JinSeo grumbled in the back seat.
Kang GiJoon turned on the wiper due to the rain as he laughed.

“Really? I can arrange it for you even now if you want.”

Hearing that, Min JinSeo frowned.

“…Can’t you take a joke?”

The car was filled with Kang GiJoon’s laughter.
The car soon arrived at the academy.
As the CSAT was over, the academy pupils did two things.
One was to self-grade their answers and look for a suitable university to apply to. The second was to prepare for interviews and essay tests.
As Min JinSeo had given up on the special case enrollment, she had to prepare just like everyone else.

“What the hell is up with those grades?”

Ji YoonSeon sighed deeply while looking at her own self-graded score compared to the scores given by various companies.
Her grades were too lacking in applying to a university of her choice. Yet, she still had a lot of leeway for applying to other universities.
It was a vague score, so to speak.

“Where are you going to apply?”
“I want to apply to the school of management at U university, but… I’m not meeting the standards.”
“Oh no.”

U university was well-known for its school of management.

“JinSeo? What about you?”
“I’m going to apply to K university.”
“Oh, the drama department there? Hallyeo Arts university is known for music, and K university is known for drama, right? There are a lot of industry seniors too.”

Min JinSeo’s mind was already decided.
What was left now was to apply and prepare for practical exams.
As Ji YoonSeon also decided that she wanted to major in business management, all she had to do was prepare for her interview.
At that moment, Ji YoonSeon clicked her finger as though she remembered something.

“Should I apply to K university as well?”
“Really? I heard that management was quite good at K university too.”
“Then… Are we going to the same college?”
“I hope we can.”

The two ladies kept chatting as they compared their grades.

***

An ShiJin was a skinny lady with a sharp expression.

‘She looks strict.’

She was the ‘tough-girl’ style that girls usually liked.
This was KangYoon’s first impression of the lady sitting in front of him.
However, he wouldn’t be able to know for sure what kind of person she is without actually talking to her.
Having a conversation with An ShiJin, he started deciding whether she was a suitable person to teach Jung MinAh or not.

“…To produce a good voice, one must first draw a clear picture of the voice in one’s mind. Otherwise, it’s easy for the voice to distort.”
“You’re right. The people whose voices go flat midway are mostly because they don’t have a clear image of the voice in their mind. Do you think that MinAh doesn’t have a standard in her mind?”

An ShiJin nodded her head at KangYoon’s answer.

“Rather than that she doesn’t have one, I should say that it’s rather vague. I have to meet her to be sure of it.. but that’s the gist I get from listening to the recordings.”
“I thought that she couldn’t start off and end her notes properly, though.”

An ShiJin nodded her head vigorously.

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to say. You’re right! Muse is amazing!”
“…Uhm, miss ShiJin.”
“The problem with Jung MinAh is her beginning and her end. Her voice goes flat during the beginning bits and at the very end. That’s because her breath is leaking when she starts singing, and she lacks breath at the end. That causes overall instability.”
“…Understood.”

KangYoon’s eyes turned sharp.

“Then, can you change MinAh?”

Can she change MinAh’s habits after all the vocal trainers she went through?
Just like how an athlete had a hard time changing their bad habits, it was tough for a singer to change his or her habits in a short time.
However, An ShiJin smiled brightly.

“If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t be here, don’t you think?”
“……”

She looked very confident.
Although she had no known achievement to herself, she was strangely confident.

‘Career doesn’t decide everything.’

After talking with her, KangYoon felt that her knowledge was definitely not shallow.
KangYoon decided to accept her and watch over the lesson first.

“Alright. I’ll leave her to you then.”
“You won’t be disappointed.”

Although she said that, An ShiJin looked at KangYoon rather strangely.
In this field, career experience was definitely necessary.
Moreover, Jung MinAh was a successful artist. So her vocal trainer was essential.
Regardless, KangYoon stood up and spoke.

“Please tell me if you find anything inconvenient.”
“Yes.”

Jung MinAh’s vocal training started the next day.
Seeing a vocal trainer exclusively catered towards her, Jung MinAh seemed resolved.
Since there was a vocal trainer, they didn’t stop trying to get the part for one song right and tried to increase her overall skill.

“Even if it doesn’t seem –”
“Relax your mouth!”
“Yes!”

Watching Jung MinAh’s practice, KangYoon felt strange while looking at the notes that came out from Jung MinAh.

‘Before, the notes were always consistent…’

He rubbed his eyes before he saw again, but the notes produced by Jung MinAh changed according to the rhythm and the pitch. Interestingly, the moment An ShiJin pointed out wrongs in her voice was the moment the note started distorting.
And when those notes mixed in with the rest, grey light sometimes lingered.
Calming down his surge of emotions due to the grey light, KangYoon kept watching over their practice.

“You dumb idiot. How many times do I have to repeat myself? The ‘doesn’t seem’ part. Your tongue and your lips are stiff, right?”
“…Yes.”
“If you put too much tension there, they will restrict your vocal cords, and you’ll have a harder time singing. Again, your chin should be…”

An ShiJin grabbed her chin and shook it several times.
She was making Jung MinAh relax her chin.
Jung MinAh’s eyes twitched, but she endured since KangYoon was here.

“Haah, let’s do that again.”

Practice resumed, but Jung MinAh kept repeating the same mistakes.
An ShiJin kept scolding endlessly, and Jung MinAh kept practicing while shivering faintly.

‘Miss ShiJin’s methods are definitely a little rough.’

Seeing the practice, KangYoon realized why other people did not hire her as a vocal trainer.
However, at the same time, KangYoon saw the musical notes being corrected.
Yet, An ShiJin did not stop with her violent words.

“Your breath! Hey! You need to wait with light breaths. Hey, for god’s sake!”
“…..”

He solved one problem, but now another one popped up.
During the lessons, An ShiJin’s words were foul, to say the least. ‘idiot’ could be heard in every other line, ‘hey’ on every line, and every possible swear word that could possibly exist in the dictionary started popping out one after the other.
Unable to endure anymore, Jung MinAh’s eyebrows raised.

“…Excuse me.”

At that moment, KangYoon stood up from the sofa.

“Miss ShiJin. Let’s have a break for now. MinAh, can we have a talk on the rooftop?”
“Wait a minute, ahju…”
“MinAh.”

There was no way Jung MinAh could win against KangYoon.
She bit her lips before rushing out of the studio.

“…What’s up with her? Was practice that hard?”

When An ShiJin tilted her head cluelessly, KangYoon spoke with a calm tone.

“Miss ShiJin.”
“Call me Eas.”
“…let us talk for a little.”

At that moment, An ShiJin was taken aback.
KangYoon offered her to sit down before speaking seriously.

“Are you an idiot? Can’t you do something so simple? Little dipshit, you cripple.”
“Wait a moment. Why are you saying those things…”
“Please refrain from using those words to MinAh.”

She became absent-minded.
Actually, when KangYoon wanted to have a serious conversation. She thought that she was going to be fired just like that.
But what was this?

“It’s fine for you to tell her off when she’s doing something wrong. However, please do not say insulting words to her. She’s a proud girl, so…”
“……”
“Other than that. It’s fine. I ask you this as MinAh’s boss.”

An ShiJin was heavily pressured by KangYoon bowing down to her.
She ended up nodding subconsciously.

“…O, okay.”
“Thank you. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask me.”

When KangYoon left the studio, she was able to sigh in relief.

“Fuah… what the hell is up with that guy? He’s scary!”

When KangYoon went to the rooftop, he saw Jung MinAh trembling in frustration.

“MinAh.”
“Ahjussi!”

Jung MinAh shouted the moment she saw KangYoon.

“What the hell is up with that woman? How can such… she’s strange!”
“MinAh.”
“I mean, does she take me for a complete idiot! I mean, what the hell? Who does she think she is? Idiot? Cripple? Ah, is not being able to sing a sin or something?”

Jung MinAh kept venting her frustration to KangYoon.
KangYoon kept listening to her frustration and patted her back.
When she calmed down a little, KangYoon spoke.

“So, was it completely ineffective?”
“That’s…”

Jung MinAh flinched.
Today was the first day, yet An ShiJin managed to do something that everyone else couldn’t.
Perhaps it was due to her nervousness, but her scoldings made her improve quickly. She was able to grasp what singing was actually like.

“Miss ShiJin won’t say such harsh words like before. She said those words because she wanted you to do better.”
“…I don’t want to listen to such insults again.”
“She won’t do it from now on. But instead, you’ll need to do your best as well. Okay?”
“…Okay.”

KangYoon turned around first, telling her to cool her head off.
Seeing his broad shoulders under the sunlight, Jung MinAh felt the impulse to hug him, but she barely held on.

‘Fuu! I want to just hug… whoa! what the hell am I thinking…!”

Jung MinAh shook her head to shake off her thoughts.
A while later.
She returned to the studio.

“……”
“……”

An awkward silence flowed between the two ladies.
However, when Jung MinAh started exercising her voice, An ShiJin began to correct her posture.

“You can do it this time, right?”
“Yes.”
“The beginning is important. You’re doing well in the middle parts. Let’s try overcoming that hurdle first.”

The practice began again.

‘She’s becoming better.’

The notes coming from Jung MinAh were stabilizing.
KangYoon raised his thumbs up and praised her.

‘Heh.’

Jung MinAh winked back at her.

“Focus, focus! You’re straining your neck again!”

However, she was immediately discovered by An ShiJin, and KangYoon giggled.