Chapter 9.4 - Act 9: Whimsically 4 (2/2)

So why was she crying? She suddenly ran out of the classroom and now that she saw me, she broke out into tears. Did she hate me that much?

I was dumbfounded to the level such thoughts appeared and just watched her.

But actually, it was quite amusing to watch. Crouching down, she twitched her body before losing her sense of balance and collapsing backward onto her bum.

“Huak!”

Then, she started letting out tears more sorrowfully perhaps due to the pain and it even made me wonder if this was the cold Lee Suh-ah I knew. Staring at her collapsed on the ground, I opened my mouth.

“Hey, your panties are showing.”

“Hkk…!”

Her ears worked well in certain situations it seemed, as she immediately lowered the skirt with her hand. Then, she raised her head pantingly with swollen eyes and glared.

“It’s a… kuung, bloomer…!”

“…Yeah, whatever but if you’re going to cry, let’s cry somewhere else. If you cry in the middle of the corridor, the whole school’s gonna know about it.”

“Huu… Huu…”

I said it for her own good but Lee Suh-ah seemed more angry than before for some reason. Her panting speed increased as her wide, glaring eyes that detested defeat had drops of tear hanging…

Why, did I say something wrong? I stared at her with that expression when Lee Suh-ah threw words out between her tears.

“Hkkk… It’s all your faulttt!”

“What did I do?”

“You… you taught me something weird…”

Weird?

I tilted my head when suddenly a figure of a person appeared at a distance. When I saw that, I quickly snatched Lee Suh-ah’s hand.

“Hey, let’s go somewhere else first. You can cry or do whatever you want there.”

“Hnnnng…”

Perhaps she became more relaxed after a shout but Lee Suh-ah followed obediently as I led her by her arm.

*

“So, because you were practising how to embed emotions, you didn’t even get to sleep properly?”

“…Kng.”

Seeing her sniffling, I folded my arms.

After taking Lee Suh-ah to the lounge which we had visited before, I had a chat with her and realised that the situation was rather simple.

The emotions she had been practising with me. After seeing me succeed in it, she started practising crazily. While throwing away studies, she focused solely on singing.

However, no matter how much she practised, Lee Suh-ah couldn’t properly embed emotions and all the way until the day before the finals, she hadn’t been able to focus on her studies.

Due to that, her final results dropped by a large margin and I sneaked through that gap to steal her highest achiever position… was Lee Suh-ah’s explanation.

A sigh escaped my lips.

“Ehew… if it doesn’t work immediately you can just give up. It could work in the future or something.”

“…I can’t give up.”

I saw Lee Suh-ah with pouted lips and scratched the back of my neck. Well, putting myself in her shoes, I could somewhat understand her feelings. How many times had she been blocked by something during her singing?

It was obvious from her very song. Her high notes soared up nonstop without any difficulty and her timbre and techniques seemed to be gifts from god. There perhaps wasn’t a single failure within her entire life.

And yet, I suddenly showed her something weird before succeeding all by myself – something which she couldn’t do. From her viewpoint, that must’ve been impossible to hold in and would’ve felt suppressed like her road was sealed by something.

I knew very well because I had faced such walls very often.

“…Well, that’s okay. I understand that you failed the finals because you were practising but… was it something to be that upset about? Didn’t you say you were just doing it because you could?”

“…”

Lee Suh-ah hesitated a while and glanced at me before biting her lips. Then, she repeatedly raised and lowered her head with a frown before whispering ‘If it’s you…’ to herself and grumbled her words out.

“I… need to receive, kng, the scholarship…”

“Nn?”

“…Hkk.”

She again let out tears emotionally and explained her circumstances with a murmur.

Her father had been weak ever since her birth. After being chased out of his workplace and frequenting the hospital, her household’s financial situation took a large hit and for Lee Suh-ah who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, it would’ve been a massive shock.

Although opera required much less compared to other areas of classical music, it still required quite a fair bit of money.

That was why Lee Suh-ah attended Future Middle and High School with the goal that she must receive scholarships.

After blankly talking endlessly, she wiped her eyes and stood up. Then, she blinked for a bit before forcibly raising her eyes and opening her mouth.

“…I’m not blaming you. Just like how I needed the scholarships, you needed it as well. I just crie… got emotional because I was upset for not receiving it.”

“…”

With my eyebrows raised up, I thought inwardly.

I could finally understand why she cried; her house wasn’t financially stable either. And also, now that I thought about it, when my throat was sore, she was extremely concerned, as if she did not want to see anyone in pain.

Gazing deeply at her face, I asked.

“So, what are you going to do this time?”

“…”

Lee Suh-ah opened her mouth a few times before closing them back down. It seemed that she had never thought about it but it was natural considering that she was still a high school freshman. She was at an age where she would be clueless as to how to earn money.

Shrugging my shoulders, I threw her a suggestion.

“Do you have time during the holidays?”

“…What?”

“If you’re free, do you wanna go earn money with me?”

“Money…? How?”

I stared at her watching me with a depressed expression before raising my hand to point at my throat.

“How would singers earn money? We have to use this. I needed someone to go with me so that saves me the trouble as well.”

“…?”