Chapter 5.9 - Softly 9 (1/2)
Lying on her bed, Lee Suh-ah looked at the windows. Through the curtains, she could see moonlight creeping through. It was night-time after everything was done – one of the only times she could relax.
After staring outside for an unknown period of time, she suddenly remembered everything that had happened today. Today – the eventful day had begun with watching Han Dasom and Song Mirae’s war of nerves. After that was Song Mirae’s request to introduce her to Jo Yunjae; followed by the sudden approach from Jo Yunjae and entering the practice room together; and Jo Yunjae’s song.
Then, the song she sang…
“Uuut Jo Yunjae!”
Grabbing her hair, Lee Suh-ah let out a scream while her fingers and toes curled just from thinking back on it. After relieving her anger by slamming the bed, she closed her eyes tight and reflected on the song.
Let me weep, Lascia ch’io pianga.
It was a soprano aria by Hendel in the opera ‘Rinaldo’. A song that perhaps became more famous thanks to the movie, Farinelli.
There was no real reason as to why she had picked that song – she just suddenly wanted to sing it.
She didn’t practise it, nor did she analyse it carefully. Besides, she felt that singing a song she had practised would be giving away information to Jo Yunjae.
It was a song she had sung with such a casual heart, but the result that had returned was definitely nothing casual.
“Haa…”
Heaving out a deep sigh, she buried her face on the pillow, and from her dark vision appeared the expression Jo Yunjae had made.
That disappointed look.
Seeing that, which she had never seen before from his gaze, Lee Suh-ah was daunted.
‘You… are you doing it halfheartedly because you’re doing it with me? You can sing better right? Liven it up with feelings and don’t have it that flat.’
No, I wasn’t being halfhearted but I was singing it for the first time. It’s not unreasonable that I wasn’t able to analyse the feelings yet; aren’t you saying too much?
Mumbling things she couldn’t say in front of him due to her pride, Lee Suh-ah thought back on the advice that started to flood out.
The vocalisation habit is a bit weird; in that situation, this would be better; make your pronunciation clearer; although that’s what it says on the score, it’s often sung like this…
Words that she would hear from her teacher flowed out, but what was more frustrating was that they were all correct and that she could not deny any of them. While she was twisting her body thinking, I should’ve sung something I practised, a thought suddenly entered her head.
‘How does he know all that though?’
Thinking back, it was a bit weird.
Although the advice was good, they were too detailed. As if he had been inspecting her for a long time, he knew every detail about herself. He pointed out minor habits which would be impossible to tell after only hearing once so…
It did not make sense for him to have heard her sing a lot either and at most, it would be one time from the Improvement Concert. Jo Yunjae wasn’t from the Future Middle School so when would he have heard Lee Suh-ah’s solos?
‘Ah, those videos from middle school. Those were on the school website as well.’
She remembered that the school had uploaded several concert videos, but did he look up all that from every corner of the website? From that many people, he picked and analysed just herself? Why?
Don’t tell me… after thinking up to that point, Lee Suh-ah rubbed her overworked head on the pillow and got rid of her thoughts. Jo Yunjae was such a weird guy so she had to give up on trying to understand him.
Concluding as such, she turned and glanced towards the side.
Next to her,
She could see Song Mirae lying on the bed searching diligently through SNS.
It was because of her that I agreed to practising with Jo Yunjae. Thinking that and suddenly getting angry, she stabbed Song Mirae with her elbow.
“Ehew.”
“Ouch! Why?!”
Seeing Song Mirae complaining, Lee Suh-ah decided to report what had happened.
“I promised Jo Yunjae to practise together from today onwards.”
“Un? All of a sudden?”
“You told me to get closer to him.”
Sparkling her eyes, Song Mirae approached.
“Did you already start acting to introduce me? Ehew, our Suh-ah is really kind!”
“You only say that in situations like this.”
Awkwardly throwing away the hand that started patting her head, Lee Suh-ah opened and closed her mouth several times before deciding to just leave it closed.
…There was no need to explicitly say that it was Jo Yunjae that had approached first.
While Lee Suh-ah was being still like that, Song Mirae started pouring her with chatter. What’s his ideal type; what kind of girl does he like; food, drinks, music preference…
Lee Suh-ah listened on but soon found it bothersome and covered herself with a blanket.
“Ah I don’t know! I’m going to sleep.”
“Please ask him for me~ Jo Yunjae keeps on avoiding me, and ignores my messages sometimes!”
“How do I ask him things like ideal types!”
“What’s your mouth for huh?”
“It’s for singing.”
After bickering on for a bit, the two soon fell asleep in peace as if all that fight had been an illusion.
*
“Hi.”
I looked forward.
Long hair, relaxed eyes and attires that reflected a somewhat delinquent-ish vibe.
Glancing at the green nameplate, I saw the name, ‘Yu Minji’ written on it and being green meant that she was from the second-grade. Checking up to there, I bowed my head in greeting.
“Hello.”
“Yu Minji.”
“I’m Jo Yunjae.”
Seeing us give greetings, teacher Ku Mingi nodded his head and opened his mouth.
“I’ve explained it before but let me introduce you officially. This is Yu Minji from the second-grade composing department, and this is Jo Yunjae from the freshmen opera department.”
When I gave another nod, the teacher continued his words.
“The reason why I’ve gathered you two is because student Jo Yunjae had accepted the cooperation with student Yu Minji. Yes?”
Making eye contact with the teacher, I thought.
Cooperation. The composing department of Future Arts High, of course, majored in composing songs. Learning about composing their own songs and by actually making them, they would show results – that was their main focus.
In other words, like how we performed songs at the Improvement Concert, they had to present the songs they composed. But although they could compose just fine, how would they present songs if it required several performers?
Naturally, they had to look for the required number of performers themselves. They could either ask the same students, or find it themselves somehow and that was why this upperclassman was looking for me that desperately.
Thinking up to here, I nodded and replied.
“Yes, I will.”
Glancing over, teacher Ku Mingi made a smile and continued his words.
“Good, the tenor will be done by student Jo Yunjae… student Yu Minji, did you find the other performer?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, if its student Yu Minji, you would be able to find it. You’re a great student after all.”
I looked at Yu Minji-sunbae who was calm in front of the compliments and when our eyes met, she formed a faint smile.
Yu Minji.
In fact, after receiving teacher Ku Mingi’s suggestion, I looked into it by myself for a few days. Since I from the past had never received any request for cooperation from any composers… I knew nothing about the composing department.
And thanks to asking here and there for every bit of information, I found out that Yu Minji-sunbae was quite a famous person. She was a person that had rampaged through the composer concours which were limited in numbers and had entered the Future Arts High last year as the top student.
While I was lost in my thoughts, teacher Ku Mingi continued his talk.
“I’ve mentioned it before, but it would definitely be a good chance for student Jo Yunjae as well. Seeing the process of a composer writing a song and receiving direct feedback would give you plenty of opportunities to learn.”
Looking directly at my eyes, the teacher added.
“In the end, the one writing the song is the composer – if you could remember that, you will be able to become a good opera singer.”