Chapter 3.7 - Passionately 7 (1/2)

Cough cough.

When I let out a cough due to the strange prickly feeling on my throat, Lee Suh-ah threw a glance towards me.

“A cold?”

“No…”

“Then?”

“I think my throat’s a bit sore.”

Lee Suh-ah frowned.

“Don’t you know the bodies are the instruments for opera singers?”

“You’re right…”

Leaning down onto the table, a cold touch embraced the stinging throat. Rubbing it for a bit, the cold feeling spread out towards the entire neck. Ah, it feels nice. I’m being healed.

Closing my eyes, I dedicated myself to enjoying that feeling that was no different from a paradise. After a while, I heaved a deep sigh.

“Haa…”

Suddenly, I thought of the songs I heard yesterday – the songs from the concert. Thinking back on those, the hopping melodies passed by inside my head. The few melodies that sprang out in that manner soon intertwined against one another before beautifully mixing in.

Lee Suh-ah’s song flowing nonchalantly above and Kim Wuju’s song creeping into it. While I was grinning and appreciating that melody, a sudden depressing song interjected and made me burst my eyes open.

“…”

I slowly glanced at the surroundings. It was still the classroom with slight sounds of laughter here and there. Due to the throat aching once again, I placed my hand on top of it and tried massaging, but it didn’t lead to any great results.

Ah this doesn’t go down easily. I did practise a bit yesterday but it seemed like my throat was a little weaker than usual… I had no idea what the issue was.

“Hey.”

Turning my head over, I saw Lee Suh-ah holding out something with her hands. With a glance, I saw something familiar on top of her palm – a circular candy in the shape of an orange jelly. When I accepted it without thinking, she opened her lips.

“You don’t like ipalats?”

“… Do you have any mint-flavoured ones?”

“Just eat it.”

With a small grin, I threw it into my mouth and felt the strange flavour spread out onto every single location inside my throat. As expected of a famous candy for sore throat, it did feel quite effective.

I continued lying down and massaged my throat for a bit when Han Dasom approached carefully.

Looking up, I found a face full of worry.

“Yunjae… should we skip today?”

Skip what, I thought as I stared at her face until it came to me. Ah, she’s talking about the concerted music practice.

“Maybe?”

When I replied like that her eyes sparkled in response. It was a rather familiar expression… back when I was giving lessons, I’ve seen it a lot from those students.

Barely stopping the smile from coming up, I asked nonchalantly.

“You’re right, it would be a bit bad for me to sing when my voice is not even coming out properly, right?”

“Un un. Rest well.”

“Right, I’ll rest and you can sing.”

“…?”

*

At a garden prepared behind the dorms of the Future Arts High, I strode towards the bench and sat comfortably in the middle, and found Han Dasom grumpily staring at me. I gave a nod asking what was she doing.

“Is there anything you want to sing? It’s a bit strange to sing choruses by yourself so do you want to try something new?”

“…”

Standing alone with a pout, it seemed that she really did not want to sing alone. Well, it was understandable. If two crazy people were singing together then people might think, ‘is that some new concept?’, but if it was one person singing then they’ll just think it was a crazy person.

But what else can we do?

To stand on a stage in the centre of hundreds of eyes without trembling, we had no choice but to be slightly crazy.

I thought of the songs that would fit Han Dasom from my head with a grin. Let’s see… Han Dasom’s voice, a soprano solo and a song fine without accompaniment… ah I want to hear this.

Clicking my finger I asked.

“Do you know the Song to the Moon from Rusalka?”

“No…”

“What about Come Scoglio?”

“…?”

I tried asking but there was no song she knew.

… Right, she was just a normal highschooler.

There was no way she had a wide repertory so there would be no meaning in me choosing a song. Waving my hand, I gestured to her to do whatever she wanted and Han Dasom opened her lips after thinking for a bit.

“I’ll… try the song, Think of Me from the Phantom of the Opera.”

“Un?”

That was quite a surprising selection of a song. After all, that was a musical. She didn’t know any opera songs but knew about musical songs huh.

I’m sure they wouldn’t have been any helpful during the admission interviews though. After staring at her for a bit, I nodded my head.

“That’s good. I think it fits you.”

After a bashful smile, Han Dasom stood straight up. I thought of the song while gazing at her.

‘Think of Me’.

As it was a song from a famous musical, I knew it very well. Like how most soprano arias were, it was a pitiful love song, confessing to not forget herself. However, being a song from a musical, it made the analyses quite difficult and complicated.

I’m looking forward to how she’s going to sing it.

Throwing my gaze at Han Dasom, I found her scanning the surroundings a lot. She was still quite averted to singing alone apparently. After looking around the quiet garden for a while, she slowly opened her mouth.

A whispering voice tickled my ears.

“Think of me~ Think of me fondly~…”

The timbre was good and the vocalisation wasn’t bad either. There was a slight suppression of the sound but that couldn’t be helped since it was her first time singing it. After appreciating her singing for a bit, I gave her a round of applause when the Cadenza part ended.

“Well done.”

“Tha…”

“Well done but,”

“…”