“Ah, it’s not that. Seol is busy, so we shouldn’t waste time.”
“What time waste?”
“Aw, Director-nim~ Why are you like this when you know everything?”
“No, I really don’t know?”
Teacher Son waved her hands dismissively at Director Gye, but Director Gye asked back as if he didn’t understand. Then Teacher Son spoke in a tone that was far too nonchalant.
“Jerim can stay separately after all the other kids are done. Seol came today by squeezing out precious time even though he’s very busy.”
“What?”
“Right? Jerim won’t make it anyway.”
* * *
‘Wow.’
In the practice room that had turned cold from Teacher Son’s words, I purely admired inwardly.
‘She’s making disparaging remarks about me right to my face, very openly. How impressive.’
Of course, that wasn’t a statement directed at me, Cha Hohyeon, but precisely at Ka Jerim, but through her words, I could tell at once what kind of treatment Ka Jerim usually received. Therefore, I didn’t need to get angry at those words and could just laugh it off. But.
‘Why am I so angry?’
My eyes gleamed coldly.
What kind of appearance do they want from me? A timid Ka Jerim who bows his head? Or Ka Jerim who runs out of the practice room crying? Or if not that, Ka Jerim who blushes and sobs at their mockery but doesn’t have the courage to storm out of the practice room?
“Teacher-nim.”
I called Teacher Son and stood up from my seat. Then I walked past the trainees staring blankly at me and stood facing her as she stood in an awkward posture.
“Oh, Jerim-ah.”
She belatedly grasped the situation and made an embarrassed expression. Fortunately, she didn’t seem completely oblivious, and I smiled slightly as I stood confidently in front of her, who was inwardly flustered by the cold atmosphere in the practice room. Naturally, in a situation that would make anyone angry, Director-nim worried beside me asking “Are you still sick?” seeing me laugh strangely, but I nodded once to mean I was okay and spoke to Teacher Son.
“I’d like to take the test too.”
“I-is that so?”
“Yes.”
As if she didn’t expect me to come out like this, she pushed up her glasses and avoided eye contact with a flustered face. Thinking she might permit it at this point, I was about to prepare, but……
“But Seol is busy……”
Even in the cold atmosphere, she ultimately didn’t bend her will. Hearing those words, Director Gye let out an empty laugh and was about to say something to Teacher Son.
“Ha.”
But then, Onseol, who had been staring blankly at us, suddenly smiled brightly along with the word “Ha.”
When Onseol, who had been still without any expression change in this thin-ice-like atmosphere, smiled brightly, everyone looked at him with surprised faces. Without showing any sign of being flustered by the gazes gathered on him, Onseol rather continued speaking with a good-natured laugh.
“Ah…… I’m sorry, Teacher-nim. Somehow I felt like the friend who just stood up would do really well, so I laughed.”
“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
“Huh? Thank you.”
Thinking it was a compliment, I reflexively bowed my head in greeting, and whether he found that funny, he uncrossed his legs and burst into laughter again. I stared blankly at him like that, then soon turned my gaze and opened my mouth toward Teacher Son.
“Then, Class B Ka Jerim, may I start now?”
“Huh? Oh, yes.”
The moment her flustered permission fell, I immediately walked toward the piano. Director Gye, who was standing behind, asked if it was an original song, and I nodded.
“What kind of person does an original song at a monthly evaluation?”
“Leave him alone. He’s originally peculiar anyway.”
“You usually get criticized for writing original songs at monthly evaluations. Wow, that mentality, really.”
Director Gye scolds the murmuring trainees.
“Quiet.”
* * *
I didn’t sleep yesterday. That’s because after returning from the hospital, I analyzed and practiced what kind of voice and vocal range Ka Jerim had.
[Current Playlist: 31 songs]
“Are these all original songs?”
Ka Jerim’s laptop at home contained original songs. I admired them because the composition of most songs was good, but the problem was that Ka Jerim’s singing recorded with them was worse than I thought. I was troubled by Ka Jerim’s voice singing numbly without any technique or emotion, like a child singing nursery rhymes.
“How did he get into an agency with this skill? Did he get in with dancing? Well, his body was incredibly flexible……”
I was shocked because he sang so poorly, but I’ll have to make it work somehow. Since I don’t have time to practice dancing right now, I chose one of POT’s songs and immediately focused on vocals.
First, I listened to Ka Jerim’s recordings and also sang with Ka Jerim’s body myself, finding Ka Jerim’s limitations and strengths that I felt and experienced, and wrote them down in an empty notebook.
-Ka Jerim doesn’t use falsetto or techniques at all.
-*However, the vocal range where he can use his chest voice is quite wide.
I drew a dotted line below that and wrote a new memo.
-*Cha Hohyeon is skilled at techniques and falsetto. He mainly uses falsetto.
-However, his vocal range excluding falsetto is narrow.
: Ka Jerim’s talent is outstanding but he lacks experience. On the other hand, Cha Hohyeon has excellent vocalization, breathing, and technique from long experience.
“In theory, it’s perfect……”
No matter how good the theory was, whether it was possible in practice was the key. After worrying about what song to choose for practice, I eventually practiced vocals by singing a song familiar to me because I didn’t have time.
At first, my throat felt blocked as if something was stuck, and even when falsetto came out, the sound was very unnatural because I tried to use a voice I didn’t use well. However, falsetto and technique were as natural as breathing to me, and the more I adapted to Ka Jerim’s wide vocal range, the more sound began to come out as if I’d oiled my throat.
Like that, I practiced singing all night while adjusting my throat condition, and because I wanted to give an impact with my presentation song, I wrote down the sheet music for the song with the clearest memory among the songs I composed in my previous life.
“Will it be done simply?”
Because time was so tight, the sheet music that was simple enough to play on piano—which looked quite sloppy in a way—could barely be completed around dawn. Of course, there were other songs, but even though they were my original songs, I couldn’t write all the sheet music smoothly right away, so I chose the most recently worked on song.
“If I had been alive, would it have come out?”
This song was about to be confirmed. Since Yoon hyung’s part was still empty so it wasn’t perfect, after confirmation, I was going to continue working on it with Yoon hyung. Well, now that I’m dead, it all went to waste and no one will use it……
“Cha Hohyeon, don’t have lingering attachments.”
I shook my head and cleared my distracting thoughts. After completing all preparations like that, I blankly watched the cool dawn’s blue light permeate the room and thought of one question.
‘Why, despite having such a good voice and talent, was there no development in Ka Jerim’s vocals for nearly 4 years?’
But this question was solved absurdly easily.
‘From the beginning, they had no intention of polishing the rough gem called Ka Jerim.’
I only now learned that the teachers at O-All Entertainment would have neglected Jerim, like that person called Teacher Son who just ignored me in this practice room where I’m standing now. And I will show them what talent of Ka Jerim’s they’ve been missing. Right now.
“Did he just take that out saying it’s sheet music?”
“What is that, is he serious?”
When I unfolded the creased, crumpled sheet music from my pocket, I heard slight mocking sounds from behind. The sheet music was tattered, perhaps from repeating the process of correcting, fixing, and correcting all night.
“Phew……”
It was a song I practiced all last night. If I had more time, honestly I was confident I could sing it absurdly well, but now is the time to trust Ka Jerim’s potential and Cha Hohyeon’s experience.
Ding—
Starting from the piano’s low register, my fingers bounced around and knocked on the piano’s door.
Mi, fa, sol—
My hands were a bit stiff, but they were pretty good.
And I moved my hands.
* * *
The melancholic piano sound slowly resonated through the practice room. The depressing melody that endlessly struck the ground was reminiscent of the sound of rain, making it even languid in a way.
And Ka Jerim opened his mouth. The start was breathing lowly and calmly continuing the lyrics, but gradually the notes began to intensify.
The content of the lyrics was very abstract, but you could tell that he was constantly advising someone to do something, and beneath that advice was contained a terribly deep temptation. But aside from the lyrics, people who heard Ka Jerim’s thick, sexy voice opened their eyes wide.
‘He’s completely different.’
They remembered that at the previous monthly evaluation, when Ka Jerim sang, the notes went up well, but for some reason, techniques didn’t work well. So Ka Jerim’s singing looked unstable overall and had a tendency more like nursery rhymes than pop songs, so no one had ever paid attention to Ka Jerim’s vocals until now.
But today was different.
Ka Jerim sang with volume control as if performing a precarious trick. The way he caressed the notes so skillfully and familiarly was as natural as if it had always been his. The gap between falsetto and chest voice was still clumsy, but the piano harmonized well as if that clumsiness itself was charming. After briefly admiring his high falsetto range that gave goosebumps as if scratching down their spines along with the melancholic piano, everyone swallowed their saliva at Ka Jerim’s slow fingertips moving leisurely.
The trainees who had mocked Ka Jerim’s bent back as he took out and unfolded that crumpled paper, the teachers including Teacher Son who had rejected Ka Jerim, and even Onseol who had been laughing—as the song gradually rose to its climax, their words and thoughts disappeared and they all began to focus solely on Ka Jerim.
