[Swallow me.]
Ka Jerim continued the song as if conversing with someone in front of him, then gradually wrapped around and pressured the other party.
If acting with your voice was a thing, would it feel like that? Everyone was amazed at the high lyric delivery power where the lyrics stuck in their ears as if watching a play.
Ding—
And Ka Jerim, who slowly stopped singing while pressing one piano key for a moment, immediately switched from chest voice to falsetto.
At first, Ka Jerim frowned as if that vocal range was somewhat burdensome, squared his shoulders, then deeply lowered his head. It was a visible struggle as he challenged a vocal range that was clearly burdensome for him, but strangely, it suited Ka Jerim’s original song well.
Everyone knew it was due to lack of ability, but he composed an original song that made even that look intentional. Knowing his own limits and composing a song that more than compensated for them was no easy task, so the producers’ admiration came naturally.
But at some point, the tension in his shoulders released with a thud. The song stopped.
Bang—!
But as soon as they let their guard down, Ka Jerim immediately struck the piano he was playing with force—bang! The bang sound echoed in the practice room and stopped cleanly, then everyone stared at Ka Jerim’s fingertips moving ceaselessly through the dazzling piano interlude as if seeing a ghost.
‘Was Ka Jerim’s piano skill at this level?’
Piano, singing, composition—nothing was lacking. Rather than a trainee’s stage, it felt like watching a well-polished performance. Ka Jerim’s presence created the illusion of making even the practice room’s yellowish lighting look like stage lighting.
And as the interlude part was ending, Ka Jerim raised his chin, exhaled a breath like a sigh, whispered the last lyrics in a low voice, and the song stopped along with the heavily descending piano sound.
Thud, Ka Jerim catches his breath on the stopped keys. At the same time, the illusion of musical notes that had been embroidering the air dizzily sinking to the floor in an instant is erased. And his presence, which had deeply revealed a pitch-black shadow under the bright yellow lighting, fades.
The trainees looked at Ka Jerim with entranced faces. It seemed the teachers were the same, as some of them stood up from their seats and stared blankly at Ka Jerim.
And amidst the silence, Onseol bit his lips once, then opened his mouth.
“What’s the title?”
Onseol asked, and people who heard Ka Jerim’s answer realized belatedly.
“<Poisoned Cup (毒杯)>.”
That Ka Jerim didn’t drink the poisoned cup—Ka Jerim was the poisoned cup.
In the practice room that had become as quiet as a mouse, a gentle soft voice cut through the silence.
“Good.”
Onseol opened his mouth, drawing a beautiful curve with his red lips. At his angelic appearance and low yet pleasant soft voice, the trainees’ gazes instantly converged.
“Ka Jerim, you’re totally really…… crazy, crazy! Did you go on a training retreat or something?!”
Director Gye, who had been staring at Ka Jerim with a dazed face until just now, jumped up from his seat and ran to Ka Jerim. Ka Jerim just stared blankly at Director Gye running toward him.
“Ugh, Direchtor-nim, it hurtsh (Ugh, Director-nim, it hurts).”
“I’m in charge of Class A kids, so I couldn’t catch a gem like you!”
Soon his face was kneaded in Director Gye’s hands. When Director Gye made a pleased dad smile at Ka Jerim’s appearance with his cheeks stretched out long, Ka Jerim struggled but smiled bashfully with his face scrunched up.
“I’m smiling, so why are you smiling?”
“I dunno (I don’t know).”
Leaving behind Ka Jerim and Director Gye who had fallen into their own world, the teachers and producers who saw Ka Jerim whispered quietly.
This end-of-month evaluation became an opportunity for everyone at O-All Entertainment to reevaluate Ka Jerim’s value. Ka Jerim’s vocals still seemed a bit unstable, but it was enough to be covered with practice, and most of all, the voice itself had distinctiveness. And there were no major mistakes, nor any particularly bad habits visible.
“First of all, the song really suited you well. Some chords are codes typically used in light songs, but with the vocal range, voice, and lyrics……”
“The vocals can’t be said to be perfect yet, but the voice itself is attractive.”
“Given that he handled a vocal range that’s hard for a man to handle in the first place, if we polish it a little, wouldn’t he be able to stably reach high notes?”
While the teachers and producers were chattering about Ka Jerim’s potential for development, there was one person maintaining silence—only Teacher Son kept her mouth shut tight and lowered her head.
‘He wasn’t like that before, was he?’
Teacher Son personally didn’t like Ka Jerim very much. Ka Jerim was a troublemaker and an eyesore, an annoying existence to the point that her Class B would be nearly flawless if only Ka Jerim wasn’t there. So the current atmosphere flowing around Ka Jerim didn’t please her.
“By the way, both your dancing yesterday and your singing today…… no, when did your singing skills get so good? Is this all thanks to Teacher Son? Right? Teacher Son is in charge of Class B.”
Director Gye was praising Ka Jerim when he suddenly called Teacher Son, so she raised her head with an awkward face.
‘Shit, what do I answer?’
Teacher Son was in charge of Class B vocals, but she had never directly taught Ka Jerim or properly laid a hand on him. But…… there were too many eyes watching now to say she didn’t teach him. Eventually, she hesitated and opened her mouth.
“Of course I taught……”
“Uh, that, I— I watched online lectures.”
“……What?”
But her words couldn’t continue. Because Ka Jerim cut off Teacher Son’s words cleanly and said with a bright smile that he watched online lectures.
“Online lectures?”
“Yes. There are vocal online lectures too.”
“Then what about Teacher Son?”
At the words that he studied through online lectures instead of leaving a perfectly good vocal teacher alone, Director Gye asked Ka Jerim with a dumbfounded face what kind of online lecture it was, and Ka Jerim turned his head, saying “That’s a secret.” Director Gye tried to ask Ka Jerim more because something felt suspicious, but at Ka Jerim’s shocking words that followed, Director Gye could no longer ask about the online lectures.
“Teacher Son was too busy, so I listened to a lot of online lectures alone. Right, Teacher Son?”
“What? You didn’t have lessons with Teacher Son and listened to online lectures? Teacher Son, what does that mean?”
Teacher Son was flustered. She didn’t expect Ka Jerim to say that to her. She looked at Ka Jerim with a caught-off-guard face, and Ka Jerim observed her reaction, then soon smiled with a deflated face and muttered.
“I guess not…… I guess there really wasn’t any.”
In fact, what Ka Jerim just said was to test her. If she hadn’t stammered like that and gotten angry instead, he would have said he combined online lectures and lessons. But seeing her reaction, it seemed his guess was true. Ka Jerim smiled bitterly.
But everyone didn’t have time to care about Ka Jerim. Because as soon as the story came out that Teacher Son didn’t teach him, the atmosphere in the practice room became not just cold but frozen.
“Teacher Son, is that true? Class B, you all have lessons too, and everyone receives individual lessons, right?”
“Yes. We receive them, but……”
“Oh my. Wasn’t not discriminating between trainees in teaching the most fundamental and basic clause?”
“That, well……”
Teacher Son looked around with a flustered face at the frozen atmosphere, then soon teared up. In the case of vocals, which is the most important for singers, they cared so much that they brought vocal teachers at expensive prices and even attached individual lessons. But at the fact that they actually taught while discriminating, starting with Director Gye, he had an immediately angry face.
“You know the CEO pays a lot of attention to the girl idol group, so I manage and supervise the male idol trainees, right? Did you do this all this time because I seemed easy?”
“No, it’s not like that.”
“And trying to exclude Jerim earlier, I’m quite disappointed. Then is the reason Jerim’s singing hasn’t improved all this time because of you, Teacher Son?”
“Why is that my fault—?!”
Eventually, Teacher Son, cornered and continuously questioned, couldn’t endure it and ended up shouting. Her voice echoed loudly through the practice room, and Director Gye slightly furrowed his brow.
‘Where are you shouting right now?’ Director Gye was about to say something while looking at Teacher Son with that kind of face, but the rebuke toward Teacher Son came from an unexpected place.
“I think it is Teacher Son’s fault though.”
Onseol, who had been quiet, opened his mouth. Teacher Son was momentarily flustered when Onseol, whom she always doted on, suddenly took Ka Jerim’s side. But whether Teacher Son did or not, Onseol just smiled like an angel and approached Teacher Son.
“Do you remember what Teacher Son’s expression was like when that friend Ka Jerim was singing? It was a puzzled face like ‘Why is he singing so well?’ Of course, everyone here had that expression, but Teacher Son shouldn’t have.”
“Seol-ah, it’s not that…… just, in a different meaning.”
“That friend is Teacher Son’s student, right? But you’re surprised as if hearing your student’s song for the first time?”
When the large-framed Onseol approached the short Teacher Son as if pressuring her, she couldn’t hide her flustered face and kept backing away hesitantly. Eventually, seeing her unable to properly answer his words, Onseol spoke in an absurd tone.
“My goodness, where is there a vocal teacher who has never heard their student’s song? That means you’re not qualified to be a teacher.”
At Onseol’s final nail in the coffin, Teacher Son could no longer make excuses and mumbled. The trainees also lowered their heads deeply as if they had been scolded, and even the colleagues who had shared joys and sorrows kept their mouths shut, unable to take her side in this situation.
