Chapter 2.7 - Bit by bit 7 (2/2)
Soprano lirico’s timbre.
My eyes closed by themselves.
Lirico. It was a timbre that did not bring shame to the meaning, ‘lyrical’ behind its name. Who could possibly shake their heads in front of that sound? Even during my 20 years of living in opera, I had never heard such a rich heart-ringing sound.
It was that magnificent…
“Uh?”
The voices of three members came to a sudden stop.
It was the feeling of a bright world filled with light being broken and torn apart. After being forced back to this world we blinked blankly before turning our heads.
At the end of our gazes, there was Han Dasom smiling awkwardly.
She said.
“Sorry… I stood out too much… right?”
*
Flash.
Opening my eyes, I could see the dark room in front of my eyes. Putting my hand around the pillow, I searched and felt a solid texture on my fingers. I immediately raised it to my eyes, resulting in a bright light overwhelming my eyes.
[7:00]
I actually woke up like a machine.
After vacantly staring at the numbers for a while, I slowly put on my PE uniform and left the room. Placing my hands into the pockets and leaving through the dorm’s automatic doors, a rather cold morning air wet my lungs.
Breathing in deeply I moved my feet.
March. It had been around one week since I was thrown into the spring of my life from the winter of December. I felt like I was doing somewhat fine.
After gazing up at the skies from the empty land in front of the dorms with little signs of grass, I began a light jog. My hair fluttered in the wind.
A while after I began jogging, the happenings from yesterday came to mind.
“Fuu…”
Yesterday.
During the time when the song was the most bright, in that climax, Han Dasom had killed her sound. Right, killed. That was the correct expression, as the beautiful sparkling timbre had suddenly turned tasteless.
After that we received a shock and stopped our own singing…
I suddenly got angry and kicked the ground hard.
No, but how could you make such a beautiful sound and just kill it immediately? Do you not feel its a waste? Do you not have any self-pride? An opera singer should never behave like that. They had to have responsibility in their own sound, in any situation…
After murmuring for a bit like a grumpy old man, I stopped.
What happened had happened. We tried playing the music again and sang but the previous sound had never been repeated. Han Dasom was too nervous that the timbre showed no signs of coming back.
Then, we left.
“…”
Well, it wasn’t that I couldn’t understand her.
Han Dasom was not from a performing arts middle school, which meant she did not have much experience singing in front of others. There really wasn’t much opportunity to sing in front of people in this modern society. A girl without stage experience becoming nervous during singing was natural – it was in fact weird for them to not be nervous. I was also trembling like crazy when I just started singing.
Right, lack of experience.
In the end, it was just that.
It was something that would be solved after lots of singing. From how Han Dasom had appeared on the TV in the future, it was something she had gone through in the past. A little bit of treatment should be able to fix it.
Suddenly I thought of what had happened when I first came to Future Arts High – what teacher Kwak Jungsoo made me do when I said I couldn’t sing in front of others.
I grinned.
After jogging until my legs felt wobbly, I returned to my dorm and looked into the mirror. A face I was still not used to was reflected.
“Hmm…”
Perhaps thanks to one week of eating well, sleeping well and exercising, it seemed that my complexion had bettered. Did I gain some weight – I wasn’t sure about that one.
In any case, I had to gain some weight quickly, to strengthen the resonance even slightly. After washing the sweat-filled body, I changed into some clothes with a refreshed feeling and headed towards the cafeteria.
“What’s today’s breakfast~”
I hummed and read the order of meals listed on the cafeteria entrance, which read toast and yoghurt. Ah I wanted some rice.
Flicking my head across and looking inside, it was relatively empty due to it being a weekend. Did a lot of them go back? I walked towards the area where they provided the meals with some complaints about the menu.
Placing two toasts on top of the still-expensive-looking tray, I gazed around. It felt a little weird eating by myself but because all of my group members had returned, there was no-one to eat with. I observed the cafeteria until a familiar face entered my eyes.
A blonde hair shining under the morning sun, large green eyes, a white skin and a tidy uniform. She appeared almost like a person from another world. Seeing as there was no-one around her, it seemed I wasn’t the only one feeling that way.
“…”
Remembering the prank from the first day, a little smile started to come out. Maybe she still thinks I can’t speak French
“Hello.”
When I placed the tray down on the other side of where she was sitting, Chloe became startled and looked up at me. After observing for a while, she made a welcome expression that seemed to remember me.
“hEllo.”
Her pronunciation was still a little strange, but I guess it was natural since it hadn’t been that long since she had come over. Did she stay behind because her house was far away?
It might be considered rude so I didn’t ask that.
“You’re up quite promptly.”
“Prompt?”
“Ah, you’re up early?”
“Yes! Every day… Un… I wake uup like this.”
Hmm…
After a little conversation I felt like I could tell why this girl had no friends.
She was slow.
She had the tendency to slow down the end of her words and when it came to words she was not used to, things were even slower. Her speed in forming sentences was slow on top of that.
Feeling like I might get cancer from talking like this, I added some subtle French inside.
“Chloe was from the piano department right? Judging from how you came in as a [high-achiever], you’re good at piano?”
“N, no. I’m not… that good at it.”
Did she not realise it?
Maybe she thought it was a proper noun. Seeing the innocent smiling Chloe, I hid the smile threatening to come out.
“Is that so, [You’re performing in two weeks? I’m looking forward to it].”
“Yes… yes?”
Chloe tilted her head seemingly finding something weird. She had a frown and was in a deep thought wondering about something.
[Why, is there something on my face?]
When I asked like I had no clue, she then understood and pushed my shoulder with a laugh.
[What, you’re good at French!]
After conversing for a while, I realised that she was quite the talkative person. Throwing out all her grievances of being unable to talk for the past few days or something, she poured everything on me so I asked some questions to avoid.
[Were you living in France the entire time? Where?]
[Paris. It hasn’t even been a month since I came to Korea. It was because my dad suddenly said we needed to go…]
[Paris huh. I went there a lot as well…]
Then, I remembered that I had not visited with this body… but it was already late, as Chloe was pointing her large sparkling eyes at me. And I couldn’t just just swallow my words either… Aye whatever. When I shamelessly talked about my visits, Chloe made a gesture and seemed to like it.
[I knew it. You talked like a Parisian]
[Yeah I went there a few times but it’s really good. ‘Plenders’s bread is really famous so I went there and it was really good.]
[Sorry? Where?]
Was my pronunciation not good? I repeated it but it seems she did not understand at all.
[You don’t know Plenders? There are a lot of people there.]
[Uh… Sorry, first time hearing it.]
[Hey how do you not go there while living in Paris?]
While clicking my tongue, I typed Plenders on my phone. Plenders is a famous place that is known for being sold out 1 hour after opening…
“Uh…?”
It’s not there.
No matter where I looked it wasn’t there.
While I was trying to find it through google maps, Chloe watched over with a warm gaze. Those were the eyes of a person covering for a show-off friend that had failed in his bluffs.
[Perhaps it’s not registered on google yet.]
“…Ah.”
This place opens 5 years from now.