Chapter 9.10 - Act 9: Whimsically 10 (2/2)

[Suh-ah and Yunjae came to sing the wedding song at that guy’s wedding ceremony today. Were you the one that called them uncle?]

Reading that, Song Muntak made a frown before slowly typing words into the phone.

[It wasn’t’… me… Jo Yunjae… he came to… that bastard’s wedding ceremony…?]

[Yeah. He said he was there for a job.]

Song Muntak slowly read the message and contemplated.

A job? Now that he thought about it, he remembered that Jo Yunjae’s household wasn’t very well-off. Maybe he was doing some casual jobs during the holidays to make up for the insufficient funds even after receiving the scholarship.

The instant his thoughts reached that point, Song Muntak’s thoughts stopped at one word.

‘Scholarship?’

In a flash, countless thoughts flashed past his head like bolts of lightning.

Scholarship.

The stubborn Jo Yunjae.

Moving to the conducting department.

On the face of Song Muntak who was contemplating while sitting down, a faint smile surfaced.

‘Needs a scholarship huh… then I can just give him a scholarship.’

He leaned back onto the chair. The relatively comforting texture embraced his mood gently.

*

The Prac High-achievers Concert, although extremely obvious, was a concert in which prac high-achievers performed in.

Students that scored the top marks in each of their fields – it was a concert that aimed to show off the abilities of each and every one of those students to outsiders.

Thus, the structure of the concert was similar to the Improvement Concert and was a solo performance of one musician. For opera however, it was two with the accompanist as well.

So it was important to find a good accompanist but… thanks to Chloe suddenly requesting me to let her be the one, I could find one without much trouble.

[Me: Are your accompaniment preparations going smoothly?]

[Chloe: Yes! I finshed all the preperations so we just have to match it upp later.]

When I saw the message I received from Chloe, a faint smile appeared on my lips. Although she was good at listening, her writing was still slightly off at places. Holding myself back from the urge to fix those mistakes, I sent a reply saying that I got it and stood at the main entrance.

“Hmm…”

Before leaving, I was deciding which shoe to wear as I continued thinking about the Prac High-achievers Concert.

This concert which was held straight after the prac test had a short preparation time because it was held straight after the holidays.

It was merely a month.

With just that, it was slightly lacking to prepare a proper song. That was why most prac high-achievers used an under-handed method for their song choices.

It was none other than recycling – singing the song they sang at the prac test again.

‘There’s no particular restrictions on what we can sing after all.’

From the shoe rack, I took out the pair of runners and forced my feet into it while justifying myself. I mean, recycling isn’t a bad thing right?

In the prac test, the teachers were the only ones that heard the song after all, so it was a waste to just throw them away like that. Those were songs we prepared with tons of effort.

It would be great if we could let as many people hear it right?

‘Ah, the shoes are a bit tight. Am I going to get taller?’

Having some stray thoughts for a second, I tapped my feet on the ground and opened the gates. Facing the sudden rays of the sun threatening to pierce through my eyes, I raised my hand to avoid them. And while quickly carrying my feet, I organised my thoughts.

In short, I was going to recycle as well.

It was the first ever concert in this life so I should present the song I was the most confident in for it to be a good memory right?

Thus, from the two prac songs Elf King and Tristesse, I was planning on singing the Elf King again.

‘Elf King’.

Getting on a bus, I stared at the passing scenery through the windows and blankly thought back.

The reason I picked Elf King out of the two… wasn’t due to anything great.

It was just that the expressions I saw on the faces of the judges and their reactions after that, as well as the feedback Sir Timothy Dickson gave me were stuck inside my heart.

“The second song, I really enjoyed it.”

“Tristesse huh? Your ability to embed emotions is amazing.”

With my eyes closed, I thought for a bit before heaving out a sigh slowly.

In fact, I was very glad that the evaluations I received from Tristesse were higher than I ever expected. The fact that they enjoyed my song was something to be extremely grateful for and was a joyous occasion for sure.

But even then, the fact that my first song, ‘Elf King’ was comparatively shunned left me with some bitter feelings.

Elf King was a song I really tried hard in and was a song handpicked by teacher Ku Mingi. Was this not good? Was it not as impactful enough? Those thoughts couldn’t help but appear in my head.

I had the greed for both of the songs I sang to be liked. Was I being too greedy?

“…”

Closing my eyes, I stayed still but when I heard a dinging sound, I immediately shot out from my seat.

“Excuse me!”

Walking through the crowd of people, I escaped from the bus as steaming heat welcomed me outside.

Wow, it’s hot. As expected of summer.

Feeling my head immediately burning up, I took out my phone and walked while following google maps.

Right turn here… left turn here… and straight here…

“Is it here?”

Arriving at the entrance of a group of apartment buildings, I stopped my feet from the sheer pressure it gave off.

Since I was also living in an apartment, I thought it would appear familiar but… it was high-level to the point I pondered if the place I was living in could be called by the same word ‘apartment’ as this building here.

Right next to the main entrance where expensive cars drove past, there was a security building that stopped passersby from entering. Within that building were people throwing glances at me.

The security was strict to the level that it made me wonder if this was a modern version of a castle gate.

“…”

Slowly raising my phone back up, I double-checked the messages Chloe sent me.

When I scrolled up, I could see the conversations I had with her before.

…

[Me: When should we practise together?]

[Chloe: What about next Monday?]

[Me: Ok, should we meet at the school’s practice room?]

[Chloe: The school piano is a bit uncomfortablee…]

[Me: Really? I do remember hearing that it feels weird to use an unfamiliar piano. What should we do then…]

[Chloe: Do you want to just come to my place?]

…

Glancing over the conversation we had, I scrolled a bit down and found the way to enter.

‘So… tell them the apartment number and the house number…’

And after a long trouble, I finally arrived at Chloe’s house.