Chapter 2.4 - Bit by bit 4 (2/2)

No no, let’s not overthink it. In any case, receiving a few lessons was a great opportunity already. He was a baritone teacher with a tone similar to mine so it should be of help.

It is an opportunity but…

My head tilted by itself.

‘But I already have a teacher in mind.’

Before my time travel, the one who had led me to the world of opera, my benefactor.

Teacher Kwak Jungsoo.

He was a teacher I truly appreciated and respected and perhaps was the best teacher from my point of view. A teacher who had turned a nameless brat into a famous baritone – if I, who now had loads of experience from my time travel, learned from him…

After some thought I shook my head.

“I don’t know~”

Let’s eat first before thinking.

Raising my head, I realised that I had arrived at the main building’s entrance. Slamming the doors open, I was met with the cold March wind.

“Ah, couldn’t they have connected the main building and the cafeteria with a corridor? Why is it outside?”

Running and murmuring some complaints, I soon arrived at the entrance.

Lunch time. It seemed I wasn’t that late. There were still signs of first graders pushing each other as they entered the cafeteria.

Right, the meal was in the order from 3rd graders downward. I could understand why the first graders were having their meals now.

Following behind the kids through the automatic door, the clean inside of the cafeteria entered my eyes.

Future Arts High Cafeteria.

I could see expensive-looking marble tables here and there. On top of that there was the clean wooden texture on the walls, as well as the black tiles on the floor. The elegant lamps…

A rich school indeed. Queueing up for the food, I realised that the trays we were given were not made of steel and were instead of white ceramic.

A short train of thought flashed in my head.

‘My admission fees were put into these.’

… Am I too much like an old man to think like this…

Receiving the food and looking for an empty seat, I could see the big head of the elongated Noh Jusup. I could tell with a glance that Han Dasom and Lee Suh-ah were sitting next to him with their own food.

Watching that made me suddenly feel betrayed.

Now that I think of it, that Noh Jusup just left me while I was receiving the file and ran away by himself. Should I give him a fist to his head… I was thinking until Noh Jusup found me and waved his hand.

“Oh Yunjae. Were you at the toilet?”

Lee Suh-ah who was sitting next to him glared at him.

“Don’t talk about toilets when we’re eating. It’s dirty.”

“Puph.”

I didn’t go, you…

Sitting down with a sigh, I placed the tray down. When I picked up the fork and looked up, there was Han Dasom. Seeing how she was giggling, it seemed that she had found the toilet joke funny.

Right, smile. Smiling made her appear brighter and looked better. It resembled my memory of her appearance on the TV. She didn’t have her bangs back then, and wasn’t that a lot better than it being messy like right now? Well maybe it wasn’t something I, who had no sense of fashion trends could say.

Suddenly remembering Han Dasom’s voice during the concerted music, I gave her an honest compliment.

“You are good at singing. The soft diction was nice.”

“Uh…?”

Her eyes trembled strongly and she lowered her head.

“Thanks…”

The reaction she gave was enough to make me, the speaker feel awkward. She was really shy. How did a girl like this decide to become an idol? I stared at her swinging bangs before looking away.

She must’ve had her own reasons.

Getting rid of the side thoughts, I stabbed the spaghetti with the fork. The white cheese mixed here and there within the red tomato-based spaghetti could be seen. Rolling the noodles into a circle and pulling it straight up, the cheese would follow and made it pleasing to the eye.

The mozzarella was on point.

Carrying the fork into the mouth, the smell unique to spaghettis filled the nose. A sour tomato sauce, and noodles that properly soaked all that in, along with the smell of fresh cheese.

Damn, it wasn’t some heated up frozen stuff. It really was a school that was expensive for a reason.

While I was busy indulging myself to the spaghetti, Lee Suh-ah started a conversation.

“So where were you actually”

Glancing to the side, I found her wearing an indifferent expression while having some soup brought to her mouth. Her posture appeared quite elegant.

“To receive the recording. I wanted to listen to what I sang during the lesson for some feedback.”

“Is that so?”

Lee Suh-ah then placed the soup she had been eating to the side and took out a phone before typing something in.

*

Song Mirae tilted her head.

“That’s weird…”

Jun Shihyuk raised his head and looked at Song Mirae. Noticing that her eyes were facing somewhere, he followed her gaze and found Jo Yunjae’s group chattering away at the table next to them.

“What is”

“That guy, Jo Yunjae.”

Twitch. Jun Shihyuk’s eyebrows slightly raised themselves up.

“What about him”

Oblivious to Jun Shihyuk’s uncomfortable feelings or not, she quickly continued her words.

“He’s so different to what I had seen at the interview. Both his singing skills and his attitude. When I saw him at the interview it was really the worst so I was really surprised when I saw him sing today. If he sang like that during the interview I wouldn’t have been so upset when he said that to me so why…”

Listening to Song Mirae’s continuous complaint, Jun Shihyuk stopped his fingers.

Jo Yunjae.

He was the type of person Jun Shihyuk hated the most.

People that didn’t try hard.

Jun Shihyuk turned his head back and glanced over Jo Yunjae. A skinny body without a sign of trained breath, vocal cords that weren’t used to singing and severely lacking resonating chambers.

His body made it obvious.

That he pretty much had never practised.

“Tch.”

If they loved singing, no, even had a tiny bit of interest in singing, they wouldn’t have a body like that. Becoming somewhat upset, he used his spoon to swirl the soup.

“Maybe he sang half-heartedly back then.”

“Was that how it was? Well, he was better than during the interview but compared to you, he was still far below.”

Soon losing interest, Song Mirae bustled around before taking a selfie and uploading it onto SNS.

A flash on the tray and a flash on her prettiest expression.

[Today’s lunch is spaghetti!]