Chapter 8.3 - Lively 3 (2/2)
[I was able to develop further thanks to you. There’s nothing I can give you apart from my gratitude.]
…Why was she so stiff all of a sudden? There wasn’t even anything to be grateful for because she just learned things on her own…
I scratched my hair feeling slightly awkward when Chloe quickly returned to her usual expression after a smile.
“Do you want to learn the piano as well Yunjae? It will be fun! I will teach you. Huhuh.”
Feeling a little relieved, I joked.
“Wow really? Our genius pianist, Miss Chloe is going to teach me? For real?”
“For real~ I think you’ll do well!”
The moment our eyes met again, a smile appeared on my lips.
I felt joyful.
This felt good. Just watching Chloe grow up felt nice and more so because I had helped a great pianist in drawing her future. Because I wasn’t able to leave anything behind in the past, it felt all the more joyful.
Besides, this was able to make me feel more confident about the song presentation. Our accompanist suddenly had a breakthrough and we would have more practice time, plus a better harmony than Kim Sukwon’s group…
At this point… it would be impossible to lose even if we wanted to right?
“Ha…”
A smile sneaked past my lips.
Ahh I want to present the song right now! I feel like we could win against anyone!
*
Song Mirae sat blankly and stared at the front.
She could see a fancy dining table. On top of that were fancy sets of cutleries placed neatly, with small plates of delicious food and wine glasses brightly reflecting light.
Staring at her own reflection that appeared on the wine glass, Song Mirae thought back once again, on what had happened just a few hours ago.
A sigh of admiration left her mouth.
‘Wow… how is our Yunjae so good at teaching piano as well?’
Song Mirae closed her eyes. It seemed like she could still hear Chloe’s performance in her ears. She could first hear the bland performance at the start, soon changing with Jo Yunjae’s guidance.
‘Such a lively performance…’
She, who had attended a performing arts middle school while also following her uncle to several concours could tell that a performance at that level wasn’t something that could be easily seen.
Those were things that could only be heard from the top pianists that had nationwide fame. It was a performance that resembled the unique, personal songs of those bigshots.
‘He made that happen with just a few words?’
After some thought, Song Mirae raised her head in a flash and looked forward. She could see her uncle Song Muntak boorishly chewing on a piece of steak.
“Uncle.”
“Hn?”
“Is it… I mean, I have a question… I want to know whether this is easy or not.”
“What is? Is our little princess curious about something~?”
Seeing Song Muntak giving a wide grin, Song Mirae sipped on the grape juice that had been poured into the wine glass.
“I told you I was working with an upperclassman from the composing department right?”
“Yeah you did. Yu Minji right? She’s good at composing and besides, she’s a girl.”
Song Muntak was nodding away with a satisfied smile when Song Mirae opened her mouth.
“Un. There’s this boy I’m performing with…”
“A boy?”
She saw Song Muntak’s startled expression and frowned.
“Stop cutting in please.”
“…Ah, sorry…”
Song Mirae then started talking about what happened. She talked about a boy that taught Han Dasom and Han Dasom who reached the finals of a concour after a rapid development, as well as how he defeated an upperclassman of the composing department in a debate and awakened Chloe’s talents.
When she ended her words with a question asking whether this boy who made all that happen was normal or not…
Song Muntak’s expression turned serious.
“…From the opera department was it?”
“Yeah. He’s good at singing as well.”
“Hmm…”
He tapped on the dining table before squinting his eyes. Light flashed through his pupils.
“If what you said is correct… he’s gifted with a nurturing ability. Bringing up a kid in the lower ranks to the finals of the Future Central Concour in a short period… even a famous lesson teacher won’t be able to do that, or rather, I have never seen such a person.”
“It’s that great?”
Song Muntak looked at her with a calm gaze.
“Of course, it might have been a fluke. However, there was another successful case right? Besides, if he suppressed a composing department upperclassman with words… at least he is above a second-grader in terms of knowledge in music theory.”
His eyes turned bright.
“Judging from his knowledge and the results he made… it is impossible to call that a fluke.”
“Right? Right? He’s really amazing!”
Seeing Song Mirae making a bright smile, Song Muntak made a serious expression while resting his chin on his hand.
“Right, it’s amazing. Impressive. With those talents, rather than opera, education would be… no, even better than that, the conducting department would suit him more because conductors need to bring the most out of the members’ abilities… oh yeah, what did you say your friend’s name was?”
Song Mirae scoffed in response and stabbed a piece of meat with her fork.
“Hmph. Are you trying to look into him and stop me from meeting someone again? Don’t~ wanna~ I’m not gonna tell you~”
Song Muntak’s serious expression crumpled all of a sudden.
“No… that’s not it and I just wanted a new talent in the conducting department…”
“I know that’s what you did every time to stop me from meeting people! So annoying. If you do it again this time, I’m going to be really angry!”
“…”
Clicking his tongue inwardly, Song Muntak thought.
Because his niece was a middle-school student, he had interfered every time saying that it was too early for romance and… she seemed to have found out. Should he have been more careful? It was wrong of him to assume that it would never be discovered just because she was a little foolish.,.
After thinking up to that point, he leaned back and let the chair embrace his body.
It didn’t matter.
It was fine because his niece had fortunately let several clues out during the conversation unknowingly. He silently sat and reminded himself.
‘The song presentation…’
Let’s see who in the world that guy was.