Chapter 181: Fireworks (4) (1/2)
The Singing Contest was met with an extremely positive reception.
Fireworks were still embroidering the sky, but as expected of an event that was personally planned by the director of the PR department, the venue was crowded beyond what eyes could see. The seats were all filled up but more people around 1000 or so were standing without anything to sit on.
As if there was fire being added to the festival mood, cadets sang along whenever a famous song popped up, causing the area to be very noisy.
Various masked singers had their turns. An iron tin, a lion, a tiger, a snowman… 30 minutes soon passed and the sixth masked singer came up the stage but Kaeul was still nowhere to be seen.
“When’s she coming out?” asked Yeorum.
“Who knows…”
The singing order was determined by the PR department. It might be that she was allocated near the back because of the good impression she left during the rehearsal.
[Kaeuli ♥: adfasld;fkal T.T;]
That was when his messenger rang.
[Kaeuli ♥: snfdfnkijfnkiwd;]
[Kaeuli ♥: dsf23dsfnk]
Kaeul sent him an undecipherable array of letters.
[Me: ?]
[Kaeuli ♥: T.T T.T]
[Kaeuli ♥: T.T T.TT.TT.TT.T]
[Kaeuli ♥: I’m nervous ahjussi T.T]
[Me: You’re fine]
[Kaeuli ♥: How am I fine T.T]
[Kaeuli ♥: I’m not fineeee Q.QQ.Q…]
He could imagine her trembling from the words.
[Me: Where are you]
[Kaeuli ♥: Waiting room TT]
[Kaeuli ♥: Ah it’s seriously doomed–]
[Me: Why]
[Kaeuli ♥: I haven’t even understood the song yettt]
[Kaeuli ♥: Ahh T.T]
[Kaeuli ♥: Haha]
[Kaeuli ♥: Lolll]
[Kaeuli ♥: Lololololol]
[Kaeuli ♥: T.T T.T T.T T.T]
[Kaeuli ♥: Tqgejp jdffoslk]
Yu Jitae didn’t know how to reply so he instead showed the messages to Yeorum and Gyeoul. After reading the messages, Yeorum immediately tried a video call but Kaeul didn’t pick it up.
[Kaeuli ♥: I’m in the waiting roommm T.T]
[Kaeuli ♥: If by any chance, I go off-tone]
[Kaeuli ♥: Please buy me a loaf of bread. Haha]
[Kaeuli ♥: Hehe. I ‘love’ it… hehe]
[Kaeuli ♥: Hehehehe;;;;;]
[Me: I will.]
[Kaeuli ♥: T.T Nononono]
[Kaeuli ♥: I don’t need itttt Q.Q]
[Kaeuli ♥: Ehee up T.T]
Was it her turn to go? He quickly typed a message into the watch.
[Me: Don’t wrorry you’l;l do fine]
She didn’t read the message till the end.
However, after standing on the stage, Kaeul started singing a great song despite her worries. The singing contest lasted for about an hour and Kaeul happened to be the last one to sing, right when the cadets were starting to lose their focus.
But when Kaeul’s voice started flowing out with the music, the crowd immediately turned silent.
“Ohh,” “Wahh,” “Uwah…” Gasps of admiration were heard from here and there.
Like a glass marble rolling down a silver plate, Kaeul sang with a sorrowful voice that sounded like it could shatter with one mistake.
Soon, the general pitch of the song jumped and lyrics that pledged for the future began flowing out.
One day, I’ll climb the mountain with you, hand-in-hand.
One day, I’ll dance with you, feet-to-feet.
One day, I’ll be right next to you.
[Some time or other—…]
Her emotions dramatically exploded as her high and deep timbre resonated across the sky. The voice shook the ears of the listeners and caused a ripple to travel across their blood streams. It could be considered a thriller at this point, and enveloped every listener with shock.
For an instant, Yu Jitae felt like he was listening to BY of the 4th iteration.
She had always been lacking something compared to BY when singing but now it was different.
Did Kaeul perhaps realise something?
***
Closing her eyes and immersing herself into the song, Kaeul’s mind was solely dedicated to the song before realising it. The surroundings were dark but when she looked down, the ground beneath was even darker. In order to express the song in more depth, she had to go into that murky darkness.
The surroundings turned darker and darker the deeper she went, so Kaeul had always been hesitant of going deeper in. That had happened multiple times and in the end, she always gave up and climbed back up to the surface.
However, she decided to try going down just for today. After all, it was the last day and everything she had prepared for was for today. Shouldn’t she at least try fully immersing herself? While saying that to herself, she decided to go into the unknown depths.
It turned darker and darker.
There was something waiting at the bottom of this pit. A mysterious fear struck her when thinking about confronting the thing waiting at the depths. She was scared – so scared that she really wanted to run away from time to time.
But Kaeul still immersed herself deeper and at last came across the thing that was buried inside the murky swamp of darkness.
Who are you?
Why are you in such pain?
What’s making you so desperate?
The doubts that continued one after another became a realisation the moment she was confronted by the identity of the bizarre existence. In that instant, Kaeul almost fainted from astonishment.
Inside the very depths of her immersion,
A green hatchling was gazing up into her eyes.
It was Bom.
Right when the song came to an end, her mind returned to reality like the shattering of a window. Kaeul had definitely sung a good song and the crowd loved it, but she blankly returned to the waiting room without even realising it.
Immediately after returning to the waiting room, she threw the mask away and looked for Yu Jitae. In the midst of the audience, she found him sitting on a chair and he turned his head towards her with a doubtful gaze.
Kaeul didn’t know how to word it properly, but she had to sincerely convey the emotions that were trying to force themselves out of her mouth.
“Ahjussi. Where’s Bom-unni?”
“Why’re you already here. Don’t you need to wait for the awards? The other kids went to get ice cream for you.”
“No. That doesn’t matter. What matters is Bom-unni. Where is Bom-unni.”
“Why are you looking for Bom.”
“Where is she. Just tell me.”
His eyes turned sharper from her strange attitude.
“Who knows. I don’t think she’s here yet.”
Kaeul felt like her head was about to flip.