Chapter 7.7 - Lightly 7 (1/2)
May. It was about time that we could feel the warm weather with our skin. Green grass filled the area behind the dorms like a carpet and the once-slender twigs were full of green leaves before I could realise it, shedding green light into the classroom.
Is it summer soon…? I should get my summer uniform ready.
I was appreciating the sound of leaves touching each other when the doors were shoved open as teacher Kang Heewon appeared from behind.
“Please get seated everyone!”
Glancing at her, I found out that she was holding onto something. It seemed like a folder from how it appeared to be made of plastic but what was it?
After proudly bringing it forth for everyone to see, she let go of it on the lecture desk.
Ah, I could sort of tell what it was…
Looking around, I found despair colouring the kids’ faces and they seemed to have guessed the true identity of that bunch of paper inside.
She verified their guesses with her following words.
“Everyone, come out and take your exam results!”
“…Ah…”
Later, the students walked up one by one as the teacher called out their names. During the repetition of the process of names being called and students walking up, their reactions were all different.
Some of them walked up with a smile, while some came back with unwilling expressions and some walked up with nervousness.
“Jo Yunjae!”
Which of those did I fall under?
Thinking that, I held onto the results as the rough texture met my hands. I didn’t know why I felt so nervous but that thin piece of paper felt very heavy. I turned it around with my mouth closed as the numbers greeted me.
[Korean] Rank (1/147)
[Maths] Rank (7/147)
…
I glanced over but the results were quite good,
They were actually really good…
To think there would be a day where I receive such good marks… Was this all for real? I should have known when the studies were going that well for some reason…!
Grinning, I went over the rest and discovered that I had succeeded in coming first for every subject except for maths and science.
At this rate… it would work as long as I did well on the remaining prac test right?
Perhaps seeing my expression turning bright, Noh Jusup sent congratulations with a grin.
“You were studying real hard at the dorms as well and you seem to have gotten some good marks? What rank did you get?”
“Rank?”
Oh yeah, were there any ranks out of the whole department or anything like that? I tried turning the paper back but I couldn’t see anything similar.
Well, wouldn’t I be in the top ten at least with these scores? That was actually more than enough in getting the scholarship because prac was weighed more heavily in the final marks.
While I was in thought, Noh Jusup snatched my results before dropping his chin.
“Damn why are there so many 1s here? Aren’t you like rank 1 of the school?”
“What rank 1? I didn’t do so well in maths and science.”
“No but still…”
Our boy Jusup had a loud voice indeed as all the kids in the class turned their gaze towards us after hearing the word rank 1… why don’t you just sing huh.
I quickly snatched the result paper back when Jun Shihyuk stood up from his seat with a loud screeching noise of the chair.
He then walked straight out of the classroom.
“…Oi let’s be quiet.”
“Yeah.”
*
Jun Shihyuk slowly walked down the corridor.
Jo Yunjae
Thinking of that name, Jun Shihyuk slowly heaved out a deep breath. Jo Yunjae – a student in the same department as him and a classmate, as well as a student sharing the same lesson teacher as himself.
“…”
At the start, he had no real thoughts.
Teacher Ku Mingi was looking after Jo Yunjae as well now? His thought in response was that, well, that could happen.
However, as time passed, he could definitely feel the change in teacher Ku Mingi’s attitude.
“Well done student Shihyuk!”
“That was good, should we just go with that?”
“That’s good, let’s just go with that.”
“It’s time now. See you later.”
And the peak point of that change was just a few days ago.
He entered the lesson room with a somewhat blank expression with ‘La fille du régiment’ crumpled into his folder messily. The lesson then proceeded in an obviously half-hearted manner.
After asking him carefully and digging around, Jun Shihyuk reached closer to the truth of the matter.
“…”
He opened the door of a practice room without a word.
*
Amongst the ’41st freshmen*’ of Future Arts High, there was a special association. It was called a ‘study group’ and quite literally, the activities they did were simple.
Singing practices.
Well, calling it an association made it seem great but it was just a small group of people gathering and practising their singing. It was a small group of a few freshmen students and could be considered a small club activity.
“But… isn’t it better to just practise by ourselves…?”
Han Dasom who I was walking with carefully opened her mouth.
“Un? Why?”
“Un… it seemed a bit weird after thinking about it… If we sang like that with everyone gathered, wouldn’t we ultimately lose our singing time…? If us two just practised by ourselves…”
Seeing Han Dasom stealing glances at me, I nodded my head.
Well, it was possible to think like that.
If we practised for an hour with two people, each of them could sing for 30 minutes but if it was with 6 people, then it would mean only 10 minutes of singing each.
But in fact… there was a set amount of time you could actually sing for. Because there was a limit on how much the vocal cords could sing, we couldn’t sing forever without stopping.
Then during the time we rested our throats what do we do; do we play around?
During that time, we were going to listen to others’ songs, analyse their pros and cons and absorb all the good points into our own singing – that was the objective and merit of a group practice.
Even I could only sing ‘Pour mon âme’ thanks to all the experiences I had gathered through practising with other kids.
“Un… I see.”
I wasn’t sure whether she understood or not but she replied feeling a little downhearted. Watching that, I thought of the other reason for this group study.
It was that the members of this ‘study group’ were really spectacular.
The top soprano of Future Arts High, Lee Suh-ah, genius tenor Kim Wuju, Jun Shihyuk, Song Mirae, as well as a teacher whom Song Mirae – the person who made the study group – invited after paying a lesson fee.
It wasn’t an overstatement to call it the gathering of the top students of the freshmen opera department. With this much, even if the study group had walking as their sole club activity, there would be people trying to enter for sure.
But wouldn’t it be helpful for everyone to train with skilled people since it was a group practice? That was why the members of this study group were picked strictly and was also the reason why Han Dasom and I were invited only now.
Han Dasom was because she entered the finals of the Future Central Concour and I…
‘Why me? Did rumours about me doing stuff at the composing department already spread?’
With my head tilted, I opened a door as the room appeared from behind. It was a practice room, but a bit wider than the normal ones. Off to the side, there was a piano showing off its black lustre with a large screen and podium at the front.
In the middle, there were four students and one teacher sitting in a circle.