Chapter 3.6 - Passionately 6 (2/2)

Maybe it was both, I thought and turned back to the stage to find Chloe bending her back. Greetings and farewells were also a part of the performance and were likewise important. The smile hanging on her lips appeared likeable so that was another positive.

After creating an evaluation sheet filled with positive feedback, I turned over to Han Dasom.

“Just write like this.”

“…”

Han Dasom faced her cold gaze at me before heaving a deep sigh.

Why is she like that after I tried teaching her?

With a shrug I went over to the next part of the evaluation – the negatives. Of course, Chloe also had her share of weak points. In general, they were the lack of basics and stamina.

The perfect expression gradually crumbled slowly towards the end and during sudden jumps, the timbre showed a little faltering. This would require a diligent practice.

Also like Chloe, I became good at managing breaths for short periods of time but I was weak at sustaining them for a long time. The book training method proposed by the teacher was not so good for stamina so should I allocate less time in it and prepare another training method…

*

Staring at Chloe leaving the stage, Kim Munchul that had been sitting at the judges’ seats shared his admiration.

“Iya… this year’s students are really superb. I heard there were two geniuses from the opera department so I wasn’t expecting much else but, the top student of piano is also extremely highly skilled.”

“…”

There was no reply.

Feeling a little embarrassed, Kim Munchul scratched his head and turned to his side.

Ku Mingi.

He could see Ku Mingi staring into the phone without a single word. Seemingly in total concentration, it appeared that he did not hear Kim Munchul’s words at all. After staring blankly for a bit, he opened his mouth.

“Teacher Ku Mingi…?”

With a start, Ku Mingi raised his head.

“Ah, sorry. I was captured by the evaluation sheets for a bit.”

“Evaluation sheets?”

“It’s a student I’m interested in, but his evaluations were quite intriguing.”

Ku Mingi handed the phone over to Kim Munchul with a smile.

The Evaluation Forum. The posts that could only be viewed by the students themselves and teachers were listed on the screen. New posts were being made every second.

Why evaluations all of a sudden?

Blankly receiving the phone, Kim Munchul tilted his head.

“It’s just a freshman’s evaluation so how could it… un?”

His eyes that had been turned over to the phone turned circular. There was a screen full of words, and judging from the scroll on the side that went down with ease, it was different from other evaluations in terms of sheer volume.

Slowly going through, he found out that the words were even more staggering.

After listening to performances that were less than 6 minutes long, an analysis with a complete dissection had been written. The introduction was like this and that with the strong points and somewhat unfortunate parts, while the following pages had even more words written.

And that continued throughout, until the end of the song.

A list of information that was hard to believe to have been written by a highschooler after only one time of listening was there. Besides, there was not a single wrong bit. Starting from their own analysis of the song to the executant’s analysis were flawless.

As if he was a student trained for more than 10 years…

“Great, right?”

“Please give me one second…”

Quickly finding the name of the post’s author, Kim Munchul entered the name onto the forum search bar.

Jo Yunjae.

There was already a new post. Seeing the title, he could tell that it was the student that had just performed… Without even a time lag, it appeared that he was writing all of that on the spot.

He checked it just in case, but it was full of a perfect analysis just like the previous post.

“…”

After reading all the evaluations, his eyes were lit on fire, and flicking across, he met his eyes with Ku Mingi. Then, he opened his mouth with words that sounded more like growls.

“Please send him to the Conducting department.”

“Conducting department, is it.”

Staring at Ku Mingi who was giving a dubious smile, Kim Munchul started his fierce storm of words.

“This guy… he must conduct. He has the talent. His ears are extremely sensitive and is skilled in musical analysis as well. Let alone theory, he seems to have some knowledge on the instruments as well… We can probably place him straight onto the position of a conductor and he’ll be able to tune up the musicians. If he is like this as a mere highschooler than in the future…”

“I don’t know.”

Cutting off his words, Ku Mingi turned behind and saw Jo Yunjae glaring forward with serious eyes – with his eyes glued on Kim Wuju on the stage, focusing to not miss a single bit of his song.

A while after staring at Jo Yunjae who was not moving a tiny bit, Ku Mingi opened his mouth.

“Try persuading him.”

Kim Munchul beat his chest as if finding it heart-wrenching.

“I mean… aren’t there lots of great kids in the opera department? Kim Wuju is not even Pavarotti but is singing Nessun Dorma, and Lee Suh-ah is also great so just one student…”

“It seems that you have misunderstood me. What I meant was…”

Thinking of how to put his thoughts into words, Ku Mingi hesitated before sparkling his eyes at the discovery of Jo Yunjae’s evaluation post that had been newly created. Click, with a light touch on the post, a writing shorter than he thought had appeared.

Or rather, could this even be called a writing?

[Kim Wuju evaluation – Nessun Dorma]

Perfect.

Becoming intrigued by it, Ku Mingi lowered the scroll and read the words written below. Underneath, a detailed comparison between himself and Kim Wuju was written.

No, more specifically, it was a comparison of his weak points with how Kim Wuju had overcome those as Jo Yunjae lamented his own lack of skills. Just by reading the post, he could feel the post author’s feelings coming across and finally, the post that had been deprecating himself with tears of blood ended on a calm note with a sentence.

[If Kim Wuju had more experience, he would be able to leave his name in history.]

Ku Mingi felt his gaze deepen.

Tapping on the chair for a bit, he then scratched his chin and smiled.

These words… were quite interesting if one was to delve in deeper. Didn’t this mean that Kim Wuju was currently lacking in experience?

After staring at the audience that was still filled with claps despite time passing since Kim Wuju’s song, Ku Mingi turned to find Jo Yunjae once again.

Jo Yunjae was clapping while glaring daggers towards the stage.

Ku Mingi opened his mouth.

“First, let’s wait and see next week.”

“Sorry?”

Looking at Kim Munchul make a confused expression, he gave a smile.

“Conducting and singing – shouldn’t we at least see which one he is more talented in? He’ll be performing next week so we can see then.”

“… I understand. Is he perhaps better at singing?”

“I’m not sure about that.”

Re-reading the post, Ku Mingi laid his hands on top of the word, ‘experience’.

These kinds of words would come out subconsciously…

What an interesting guy, thought Ku Mingi.