Chapter 1.4 - As if Singing 4 (2/2)

Finding Chloe and her pronunciation worrisome, the teacher checked a few more times before going back to the computer.

‘Hmm… Chloe wasn’t good at talking Korean it seems.’

Is she only good at listening? That was possible considering that she had come from France, a country on the other side of the globe. Chloe who stood by herself in the middle of a foreign land looked pitiful. Wasn’t she just a little girl at the age of 17? It was easy to tell that she was nervous from a glance.

The tightly sealed lips, a hand swirling the hair and a constant cough. She looked too anxious so I gave her a whisper.

[Relax. What we’re doing now isn’t included in our grades]

[Thank you.]

Chloe who replied nonchalantly suddenly went ‘eh?’ and turned her head with a jump.

[Just then, in French…]

“3, 2, 1.”

To the countdowns of teacher Kang Heewon, Chloe rushed to face the screen.

The giveaway first stage was easily broken through as well as the second and the third.

Easy.

Me standing here doing this was too easy to the point it was embarrassing.

‘I think I can go through the eighth stage too.’

The level of the eighth stage was one you would never face in real life working as an opera singer… but the basics are the same, aren’t they? There are notes on the stave and I just have to read it.

Music symbols were nothing more than a language. No matter how complexly written a Korean phrase was, it wouldn’t be impossible for a Korean to read it.

Fourth and the fifth stage.

Chloe who was the only one left had dropped out and only I had reached the sixth level.

I could feel the class’s eyes gathering on me and that made me feel like a clown once again.

‘Should I just fail randomly and drop out…’

I closed my eyes and changed my thoughts.

No.

If I did it carelessly and entered a low-level class, I would be stressed for a whole semester for sure. And if I played around with kids on a lower level it would make me feel more miserable.

So I decided to do it properly.

“3, 2, 1”

Raising my head, the score that was getting more and more complex could be seen.

However, it was still within a simple range.

Pulling a note, changing a note suddenly and taking care of repeated notes was something I had done hundreds and thousands and millions of times as an opera singer.

If I got something wrong here, that would be the most shameful thing…

“Ah?”

In the middle of softly reading out the score, I suddenly stopped.

I could feel teacher Kang Heewon who had been nodding away at my sight-reading turning towards me, as well as the eyes of thirty or so students gathering on me.

The bewildered expressions were gathered on me.

“Hmm? This is not a hard part though?”

The teacher asked with a questioning tone. That was with reason because it really wasn’t hard – a lot simpler beat and note compared to the ones before. There were no special music symbol and just an eighth note on the stave, nowhere to get it wrong.

‘Except for the height of the note that is’.

F4

In other words, a 2 Octave F.

So…

“Um… this part’s too high and I can’t sing it.”

It felt more shameful now that I sounded it out, and my face reddened.

Shit. This is really embarrassing.

Kang Heewon who saw through the situation from my red face smiled lightly and patted me.

“Ahaha… so Yunjae? Yunjae must not be an opera major. Sorry. Why is there a high note in there? There must’ve been a problem, we usually don’t make it that high…”

The teacher’s consideration digs deeper into my bones. I was wondering if I should say I was an opera major here until a playful voice reverberated from the back of the class.

“Miss. He’s an opera major. I saw him at the interview!”

A burst of light laughter filled the class.

“Is… is that so? Let’s go over to the next row.”

Putting the hurrying teacher to the back I turned my body and looked towards where the voice had come from and saw Jun Shihyuk’s group laughing at me.

It didn’t sound like Jun Shihyuk’s voice though.

Looking around at all the members sitting around Jun Shihyuk, my eyes met those of a slightly fat boy. I could see him retreating his head with a start. Glancing at the nameplate, I could see the name, Kim Dongsik.

Kim Dongsik… Considering that I had no recollection, it seemed that he was someone unrelated to me as an opera. After looking at him for a bit, I snorted and returned to my seat.

Sigh. What am I doing fighting with kids? It was also a fact that I couldn’t sing a 2 Octave F as a baritone.

Looking forward, I looked over the sight-reading when I heard a voice from the side.

[The sixth stage is also really good. What’s so funny that they’re laughing?]

“…”

Looking over to the side, Chloe was frowning as if she was the one being wronged. That cute expression made me want to pull a prank.

‘Let’s pretend to not know French.’

When I looked forward pretending to not know anything, Chloe carefully spoke up.

[Um… You know how to speak French right?]

[…]

[Didn’t he speak to me before?]

[…]

[What’s going on…]

The sulking Chloe almost made me burst into laughter, but I was barely able to hold it in.

When I was about to open my mouth after looking at Chloe who kept glancing at me, the next row was beginning so I closed my mouth. There couldn’t be any background noise.

The sight-reading test that continued finally ended at the last row.

Song Mirae failed at the fifth stage, Jun Shihyuk at seventh, and that DongSik guy at the fourth. In the end, the first place went to Lee Suh-ah.

“Well then, shall we go over to music dictation?”

Kang Heewon who gathered everyone’s attention back gave out empty staves and continued.

“The rules are simple. You hear the sound and write it down onto the staves. There would be no-one cheating here, right? You would get 0 if you do, but also if you enter a class not suited for you, it’s going to be harder to study.”

“Yes.”

The loud voices quieted down one by one.

And the test began.