Chapter 8.4 - Lively 4 (1/2)
After that, I practised with Chloe and Song Mirae several times because there was nothing better than practising when it came to improving teamwork.
Sometimes we practised together as three, and I practised with just Chloe when Song Mirae was busy and vice versa. We also tried some other songs if we got bored with singing the same song.
Like that, we practised joyfully while playing around and felt like I could see Chloe and Song Mirae’s rapid development with my eyes. It was fun watching talented people grow.
Especially Chloe.
Ever since the ‘as if singing’ incident from before, she seemed to have come to an enlightenment and her skills were… on a completely different league as if she had changed into a different person.
Yu Minji-sunbae’s team was sailing smoothly like that but… if there was a problem, then it would be that Chloe was having a strange misunderstanding recently…
“How do I do this?”
“This? I’m not sure either…”
“Uunn…”
“Well… play them separately like dan dan dan?”
“…!!!”
Like that, she would ask me something and when I returned a random reply, she would learn something by herself before turning a thankful look at me.
“Amazing…”
“…You’re more amazing I think.”
In any case, the practices that continued on like this marked its end with the presentation day right before us.
*
“Yunjae. I don’t look strange right?”
“It’s alright.”
“Is my hair okay? It doesn’t look messy?”
“I told you, it’s okay.”
“How’s my dress? Doesn’t it look too dark? Ah… I should’ve just gone with the red one…”
“…”
Seeing Song Mirae jumping around in anxiety, I ended up shaking my head. Right before the presentation of the song, we had gathered at the waiting room because there were lots of things we had to prepare for.
We had to change into formal clothing, warm up our throats, go over everything one more time for a final check…
All of that was why we had gathered and yet Song Mirae was whining about things for so long. She asked on and on about how her makeup was, her eyebrows and the angles of her eyelashes…
Now, she started talking about the dress which couldn’t even be changed at this point.
“Are you a main character or something? Why red?”
“But still, black is too iffy! It’s like a funeral.”
Song Mirae was heaving a sigh while grabbing onto her dress, but I became dumbfounded instead.
‘…Aren’t you way too fancy to be talking about a funeral?’
First off her dress. Although it was black… there were so many adornments that it didn’t look bland at all, and in fact, I even questioned whether it was okay for there to be that many laces.
How about her hair?
She designed it so much for this presentation and her hair was tied up in a strange manner in several layers of knots.
On top of that were the bright accessories hanging on the clothes. The number of accessories that were almost exactly the same as the amount allowed by school regulations appeared to show off a mathematical beauty even.
She looked exactly like a fancy peacock.
“…”
I clicked my tongue unconsciously.
Aye seriously, kids these days… the important thing is the song and yet… caring so much about the appearance… If it was me, in that time, I would go through the music sheets one more time and check my vocalisation one more time!!!!
Holding myself back from screaming out like that, I turned and looked at Chloe who was wearing a clean blue dress. Yes, that’s how you should dress.
I felt satisfied inwardly and nodded my head.
“No problems for you right Chloe?”
“We practised a lot after all~”
She raised her chin high up and crossed her arms. I was slightly in awe of how confident she was and stared back when Chloe lowered her chin slowly and gazed into my eyes.
Then, she whispered.
“And… Yunjae taught me.”
I blinked my eyes before making a smile.
“…Alright Chloe. You’ll be my second disciple.”
“Huhuh.”
Ehew. She really smiled so much.
Looking at her bright, wide smile that seemed to give off light itself, a thought suddenly popped up in my head; about Chloe before the time travel.
“Hmm…”
Thinking back, Chloe back then wasn’t like this.
How should I say it… From my memories, she was a quiet foreign girl making a lonely smile and at least, she was a lot darker than right now. She gave off a somewhat cold impression and due to her overwhelming piano skills, her unpolished Korean and her staying inside the practice rooms all the time, there weren’t that many people around her.
High schoolers were generally pretty bad in human relationships and in fact, were not very brave. Unless they became friends early on right after admission, people tend to be quite awkward with others.
Especially because it was a competitive performing arts school.
“Huhuh.”
…Seeing her smile like that made it harder to connect the two though. After staring at the bright Chloe for a while, I grinned and grabbed the music sheets.
Well, her bright expressions looked better.
Before, when I quit school in my first year, I hadn’t even seen her smile once and comparing the two, I think smiles suited her more than the previous dark aura.
It was then that Yu Minji who had been staring at us with folded arms gave a clap and shouted.
“Now guys! Let’s practise one last time before we go up.”
“Yes~”
*
“When does it start?”
“After 10 minutes.”
Glancing at Ku Mingi sitting next to him, Song Muntak leaned himself deep into the chair and returned his gaze to the front.
Inside a dark hall void of light, there was the stage with the sole source of light shining down brightly. Seeing that, Song Muntak thought in silence.