Chapter 3.2 - Passionately 2 (2/2)
How did she find out
I stared at her without a word and Lee Suh-ah started talking loads after a deep sigh.
“You might not know but Teacher Ku Mingi is an amazing person. Amazing enough that it doesn’t make sense that he is teaching mere high-schoolers. Do you know how much you have to pay to learn from him?”
“I know.”
“Uh?”
She blinked in a fluster.
Perhaps she thought I refused without knowing anything, and had come to tell me against it. Was she thinking for my sake? That was quite unexpected.
“I know too.”
But how would I not know how great teacher Ku Mingi was? Even after 20 years, he had been famous, and in fact, he had become more famous with age under his belt.
Whenever there was a Kim Wuju – Ku Mingi student-teacher recital, a wide concert hall would be packed with the audience so that was enough said. I remembered a song they sang – something that I heard at the little corner of the hall and remembered their rich resonance.
“You refused after knowing it?”
When I realised, Lee Suh-ah was staring at me. I shook my head and tied a firm resolution.
“Yeah I know that teacher Ku Mingi is awesome. But I thought teacher Kwak Jungsoo was better at teaching so I’m learning from him.”
“Better? On what grounds?”
I gave a sigh seeing Lee Suh-ah not accepting and carried my feet.
“Whatever, there’s that. Anyway, how was it practising for concerted music, Dasom?”
“Uh?”
Han Dasom, who had been suppressed by our discussion that was like a fight, and looking around, couldn’t find words when I suddenly pulled her into the conversation. Her fumbling with her words appeared quite cute.
I grinned and continued.
“Our concerted music song. You were a little nervous on Friday and weren’t able to sing it properly.”
“That… I practised hard but…”
From her tone, she seemed to lack the confidence. Right, if practising at home was enough to fix that, then it would’ve been solved ages ago. Nodding my head, I was planning to just give her a rough outline of a training method when her lowered head caught my eyes.
I could see my previous self in her.
I who had entered the performing arts high without knowing anything, and I who had become hopeless at the continuous rebukes. The song that was at least filled with confidence had soon turned into something that made me conscious of others, and the more that happened, the more horrible my song became.
That was what singing was. If the confidence was killed, then the song would be killed as well. But for me, there was someone that had directed me towards the road called opera.
Teacher Kwak Jungsoo.
“I’m still not confident…”
While I was gazing at Han Dasom slurring the ends of her sentences, a sudden impulse opened my mouth.
“Let’s practise together from tomorrow.”
“Practise…?”
Meeting my eyes with hers, I could see her surprised expression. Her innocent and down-slanted eyes, with eyes always facing the ground.
Han Dasom.
In fact, she was different from me.
She was a great girl full of talents. Even without the likes of my help, she should be able to go through this much adversity alone. After all, in the future, she had been able to sing confidently in an audition programme without shaking.
But that would require a lot of time. From how I had never heard of her during the Future Arts High days, she must’ve been lost for that long of a period. Looking into her trembling eyes, I decided.
“Right, practise.”
I didn’t want to see someone full of talent like this stay buried in the dirt. With a smile, I replied.
“It’s a group assessment. All of our group members must do well to receive good marks.”
Her eyes which had been dully staring at mine regained focus. She made a determined expression and said,
“I’ll try my best.”
*
After everything was over, I laid down on the bed and fell in a deep thought. Han Dasom, would she be able to digest the training and would there be an effect in the first place?
No matter how many simulations I ran, a certain conclusion couldn’t be made. A person’s personality was not so easily changed after all. No-one could say, ‘You do this and you’ll definitely change!’ for sure.
Just like the saying, ‘The man proposes, and God disposes’, as humans couldn’t read the future, all they could do was to plan ahead as much as possible. After a while of raising the books with my stomach and having several thoughts run through, I called Noh Jusup who had been immersed in his gameplay.
“Hey.”
“Uh why”
“Come here and sit on top of my stomach.”
“What?”
He stared at me with eyes that said, what crazy things are you spouting, but soon came running after seeing my continuous calls with a grin.
Uh… why does he appear so big all of a sudden
Whether he knew about my trembling heart or not, he gave a wide smile and asked.
“Where?”
“Here on top of my stomach.”
“Kukhk. I will go up, okay?”
“Yeah.”
I put force into my stomach and opened my eyes wide in reply, while Noh Jusup slowly placed his bum on my stomach with a constant smile.
A heavy feeling assaulted my body.
Uh… it’s heavier than I thought?
But as soon as Noh Jusup’s feet left the ground, that thought had immediately turned into a scream.
“Aaak!!”
“Hkkhhh, why, didn’t you tell me to come up?”
“Come down right nowww!!!”
After crazily pushing down Noh Jusup, I somehow regained the ability to breathe.
“Huk, huk…”
Aigo my stomach, aren’t my ribs broken?
I quickly flipped the shirt up to find a thin stomach. Fortunately, there weren’t any signs of bruises, but there was a feeble body with no signs of muscles.
“… I need to exercise more.”
A sigh escaped my mouth.