Chapter 6.2 - Faster 2 (2/2)

And yet talking about recommendations…

Ku Mingi opened his mouth as light flickered in his eyes.

“You’ve mentioned that Maestro Timothy Dickson wanted to meet some of the talented children.”

“… I did say that. And we have already formed a list of students who we would be showing to the Maestro.”

“There’s a student I would like to recommend to that list.”

Hearing that, the gaze in Song Muntak’s eyes deepened. At the end of his gaze was Ku Mingi staring back with a confident light in his gaze.

Who was Timothy Dickson?

He was one of the best conductors of the United States and was the previous music director that had led New York Metropolitan Opera. Even apart from that, he was someone that had led countless ensembles before.

In one phrase, he was a legend amongst the legends. If not for his personality that enjoyed travelling and meeting students after retirement, inviting him like this would’ve been impossible.

It was a chance to meet with such an important figure face to face so naturally, they had already picked out a number of students after debates upon debates. Making a dull expression, the principal opened his mouth.

“Didn’t we decide already to have it done accordingly to the admission rank? We’ve already decided on it so…”

“That’s true but isn’t this a truly special occasion? That Timothy Dickson is coming all the way here to give advice and… if it’s a talented child, we should add at least even one more.”

Hearing his explanation, Song Muntak made a frown. Teacher Ku Mingi. It’s been a while since they had met and yet he had brought quite a difficult request with him. Teacher Ku Mingi’s position was too high to downright reject his request as well…

After some contemplation, Song Muntak opened his mouth.

“Who in the world is that student for you to be like this?”

*

This may have been too obvious, but there were mid-sem exams in performing arts schools as well.

Mid-sems. When that test which had great implications on the final marks was right before their eyes, even the opera students that were carefree started to get fired up.

“…Oi. What’s factorisation?”

Throwing my gaze towards Noh Jusup who had asked that with a dumb expression, I saw an opened maths textbook. It was completely clean.

Wow… how can textbooks be that clean; he had been commuting for over a month though. I shook my head at the sight of the silent Noh Jusup before giving a reply.

“When a building becomes a factory.”

“…”

“Just joking. A factorisation is…”

After listening to my explanations for a bit, Noh Jusup gave a big yawn before collapsing onto the table.

“Whatever. Why study? Opera singers just have to sing well.”

Well, doesn’t mean opera singers should be stupid.

I was about to say that but decided against it and turned my head away. He was my roommate and naturally, I had already said that countless times. I’ve talked about studying together and tried teaching him but he always said he couldn’t be bothered.

Even though I was trying to teach, the one being taught was disinclined to learn so what else can I do? It’s his life.

With a shrug, I looked to the side and found a model student – Han Dasom tilting his head.

“Yunjae, this… why is there no ‘to’ here?”

She seemed quite focused as she pointed at one of the questions in the English textbook. Right, the ones seeking help should be like this.

With a nod, I glanced over the questions and discovered that they were all things I knew. In the first place, English was something I had studied after French so there should be no problems at the high school level.

“Verbs like ‘make’ or ‘have’ sometimes can have verbs coming straight after them…”

Seeing her nod her head, I glanced around and saw students studying hard in the library. Ever since around 2 weeks before the test, the school had roughly been in this atmosphere.

Noh Jusup was on his phone playing games at the side while Lee Suh-ah was studying off in a corner, seemingly vigilant of me. I would usually study with Han Dasom like this with Chloe joining in from time to time.

Han Dasom was surprisingly good at maths and science so she matched me who was good in humanities quite well. Thanks to that, my maths and science skills had gone up considerably.

Is it because my body had turned younger? It seemed that my brain was working quite well. Did perhaps something happen as the mature mind from before the time travel merged with the young body?

It felt like my concentration had gone up by a lot. With such thoughts, I moved the pencil around and the fingers were extremely light.

“Group them like this~”

Look at this. I was filling the question sheet with answers and yet there weren’t many places where I got stuck at – it even felt enjoyable since the questions were being solved easily.

While I was in the middle of going through the questions like that, I felt a gaze on me and raising my head up, I found Han Dasom staring at me. Her eyes were sparkling in envy.

“Yunjae you’re really smart…”

“Un?”

“You’re not asking me as many questions as before either… maybe I’m just in the way…”

“No way. You’re the one that lent me these questions as well.”

Seeing Han Dasom going ‘hehe’, I scratched back of my neck. Now that she had mentioned it, it indeed had been a while since I asked her a question.

…Did I really get smarter?

After some thought, I shrugged my shoulders.

Right, how hard could the first semester of high school freshmen be? There was also the fact that I had studied in between practices while resting my throat so that must’ve been another reason for this kind of result.

It would probably be harder to keep the marks after going up to the second grade… I need to at least get one scholarship before that though. I was in the midst of those thoughts when the speaker attached to the library suddenly made a noise.

[Freshmen 10th class, Jo Yunjae. Jo Yunjae. Please come to the principal’s room, the principal’s room immediately.]

Un? The Principal’s room?

Tilting my head, I was staring at the speaker when Han Dasom made a worried expression.

“Is anything wrong…?”

“I have no idea. I don’t think I did anything either.”

It was in the middle of the exam period as well so what would I have done? I’m not entering any concours nor have I left the school grounds either, and besides, it was the principal’s room and not the staff room. I haven’t seen the principal a single time after the admission though.

Did I do something unknowingly?

Blinking my eyes, I was in thought and it seemingly wasn’t something common either judging from the rowdy voices of the surroundings.

“Who’s Jo Yunjae?”

“Has the principal called anyone to his room before?”

“I can’t even remember his face.”

“The tenth class so… the music department?”

If I went there late and another announcement was made, it would disturb the people studying. Thinking that I quickly turned my gaze away from them towards Han Dasom.

“I’ll just go for now.”

“Wait…”

After searching through the bag, Han Dasom carefully took something out and placed it on top of my palm. It was chocolate covered in black packaging. Feeling the warmth that had brushed past my hand, I raised my head and found Han Dasom smiling bashfully.

“It’ll go well.”

“…I’m just going there to see the teacher but, thanks anyway.”

With embarrassment, I turned over the chocolate and it was from the brand I liked, with 60% cacao. Quickly I unwrapped the chocolate and threw it inside the mouth as the melting texture wrapped the tongue.

Closing my eyes for a bit, I thought.

…Sweet.