Chapter 7.1 - Lightly 1

‘Uuu…!’

Gritting her teeth, Song Mirae thought back on what had happened.

Lunch time.

It had begun with the words Jo Yunjae had said, about an upperclassman in the composing department looking for performers. She applied thinking it was an opportunity but was rejected.

‘Up to there’s fine…’

The problem came after that.

Song Mirae had definitely seen it. Han Dasom who had agreed to Jo Yunjae’s request – the light scoff hanging on her lips.

“…!”

Was she mistaken? It was there for so short a period that it might have been but… Song Mirae had definitely felt her gaze towards her before the smile. It was highly likely to be intentional.

It had to be intentional!

‘Han Dasom!’

While she was clenching her teeth, the message she had received from Han Dasom resurfaced in her mind.

[^^]

“Uuuuu…!”

Unable to hold back the anger, Song Mirae slapped the table unconsciously before pulling her aching hand back in surprise.

“Agh! Ahh… this is all because of that Han Dasom…!”

“…What are you doing?”

Lee Suh-ah who had been staring at her best friend’s stupid acts with a blank expression shook her head. Now was definitely not the time to be doing that, as something much more important was right before them.

After a deep breath in and out, Lee Suh-ah carefully held her phone and opened the internet window. On it was the homepage that was decorated fancily.

[Future Central Music Concour]

Prudently, she observed the announcements and soon found her objective.

[Announcement of the applicants that had passed the Future Central Music Concour Preliminaries]

“Huu…”

It was a nerve racking moment – the moment when the results of the concour that she had been practising for were coming out. It could mean a step closer towards her goal.

Carefully, her finger touched the screen as the results immediately popped up.

[Applicants who made it to the Finals]

…

– Future Performing Arts High School Freshmen

Kim Wuju

Chloe Denjelle

Lee Suh-ah

…

After checking up to there, she heaved out a sigh of relief. Although she thought she would pass the preliminaries, actually checking the results had made her be at ease. After all, it would be an honour for freshmen to just make it to the finals in this amazing concour.

With a relaxed heart, she went through the list again until her gaze was eventually stuck at one place.

She muttered unknowingly.

“Han Dasom…?”

*

Fortunately, the video we retook came out even better. Han Dasom had given some advice on how to use a camera to Chloe and I had gotten even more used to the change from opera to pop songs.

The video we took like that was edited a bit after asking for Yu Minji-sunbae’s help in editing and was finally finished. The thumbnail of the video was the back of my head, and a full face of Han Dasom staring at me as well as Chloe standing off in the back as a mascot.

Noh Jusup who had been watching youtube for a long time gave out a small sigh of admiration.

“…Iya… your views hit a thousand already.”

“Really?”

Taking my phone out, I checked it and indeed, the rise in views was exponential. It was higher than when I had checked this morning. Usually these videos tend to stop at around tens of views… but the strategy worked I guess.

After giving a few nods to myself, I turned over to Noh Jusup.

“But why’s your voice like that? A cold?”

“…No, it’s just.”

I turned my gaze from the somewhat downhearted Noh Jusup over to the side. Comparing the depressed Noh Jusup and the brightened Han Dasom, I could finally tell what was happening.

It was because I could see the eyes of the surroundings gathering towards the smiling Han Dasom.

“…Han Dasom made it to the finals of the Future Central Concour?”

“Seriously?”

“I heard there were only five people that advanced to the finals from the first-graders… and me in comparison…”

“Hey we have seniors in the school so it’s obvious that we can’t go up. It’s them that’s strange.”

Listening to it all, I felt my lips raising themselves up.

Right, our Dasom did grow quite a lot.

The first time I took her in, she was like, ehew, singing soft and feeble like she was about to fall. But now, she could sing love songs naturally in front of others and had even advanced to the finals of a concour.

Feeling proud, a smile resembling a dad’s appeared on my face. Is this the feeling of a disciple learning everything and shouting that he would descend the mountain?

…Actually, the only thing I did for her was raising her confidence so it was a bit weird to call her a disciple but… she felt like a disciple.

Like that, I was thinking cheerily when Han Dasom approached until she was right next to me before opening her mouth bashfully.

“…Thanks Yunjae.”

“Un?”

“I wasn’t too nervous thanks to you.”

Turning my head, I saw Han Dasom blinking her bright eyes. Inside her hand was the container of chocolate that I gave her and she had her lips raised up high. She appeared like a squirrel holding an acorn so I tapped her head with a grin.

“That’s nothing much. Ah right, since you need to prepare for the finals, it would be better for you to not help with the composition.”

“Composition? I’m fine though…”

“The concour is more important.”

After some arguing, she finally nodded her head.

Seeing her distancing back as she headed off to the lesson, I folded my arms in thought. Right, it was Han Dasom’s first concour in her life so I had to help her achieve the best result she could.

I turned around and touched my chin in thought.

“Now then…”

Although I told her to go ahead with vigour, there was a problem. The composition required a soprano… who could I invite? I thought for a while before picking up my phone and sending a message straight away to Lee Suh-ah.

[Oi Lee Suh-ah

Don’t you think composing songs would be super interesting?

Right?]

After around 10 seconds, the phone rang.

[Why composing all of a sudden?]

[The cooperation with the composing department. Let’s do it together.]

[? Didn’t you say you were doing it with Han Dasom?]

Right… I couldn’t say it was because of the concour since Lee Suh-ah was doing it as well.

But comparatively, Han Dasom was worse off than Lee Suh-ah so it was obvious that it would be rough for Han Dasom if she was to help until the presentation date. I couldn’t ask for it whilst knowing all that.

Besides even if she was having a hard time, Han Dasom wouldn’t say anything while if you were having a hard time, you would kick my shin immediately…

I wrote up to there but deleted it all because this would definitely not convince her and instead sent a short response.

[Just wanted to do it with you]

After around a minute, a reply came back.

[Nonsense]

…She can’t do it huh.

I asked for it continuously after that but Lee Suh-ah only sent scoffs and in the end, she rejected it with one message.

[…Find someone else.]

Someone else…

Clicking my tongue I scratched the back of my neck.

Which other sopranos did I know apart from Han Dasom and Lee Suh-ah? Rather, I didn’t even have that many acquaintances. Going through kakaotalk, the only ones I knew apart from them were Noh Jusup, Jun Shihyuk and Chloe.

I couldn’t bring them and say they were sopranos right?

Heaving a sigh, I scrolled through the screen when a name suddenly entered my sight.

‘Song Mirae’

*

“Hello Sunbae! I’m Song Mirae!”

“Hi.”

I wasn’t sure if it was to be considered fortunate but Yu Minji was wearing her school uniform today. Of course, it was obvious that a student had to wear a school uniform but I had never realised that a day would come when I would be thankful for that…

Feeling somewhat strange, I glanced to the side.

Song Mirae.

She seemed very happy from the bright smiles she gave off. Why’s she so happy when she was rejected like that by me before barely coming here? It made me feel a bit sorry.

“Hello sunbae. This is Song Mirae, a freshman soprano… and this here is Yu Minji-sunbae – a second-grade from the composing department.”

Staring at Song Mirae, Yu Minji blinked her eyes a bit as if she was examining something. Then, after a few seconds she abruptly opened her lips.

“Right. Fortunately she’s a mezzo huh?”

“Sorry?”

It really was abrupt. She said something I from the past had said in secret directly to her face. When Song Mirae made a sullen face, Yu Minji tilted her head.

“You’re not a mezzo?”

“I still…”

“Ah, you don’t know yet? You’re a mezzo.”

“…”

Song Mirae immediately made a sulky expression. She was definitely angry and it was the same expression she gave me when she was upset after hearing it from me.

“…I go up to D6 sunbae.”

“Really? But going up high isn’t very important when it comes to voice types. The important thing is the texture of the voice. I hear a mezzo though…”

Taking a step back, Yu Minji glanced over Song Mirae before nodding her head.

“On top of that, you look exactly like a mezzo.”

“…What does that even mean…!”

“Un… doesn’t it just hit you after seeing them?”

Seeing Yu Minji tilting her head, I thought a mediation was necessary and interjected.

“When you see opera singers’ faces and builds, they give off this vibe you know.”

“A vibe?”

“Yeah.”

Although I called it a vibe… it was closer to an estimate based on experience.

First, how high and low the notes go.

For male it would be tenor – baritone – bass

And female soprano – mezzo soprano – alto

Amongst these types, the singers that made lower notes were generally taller. It was because height tends to have a direct connection to the length of the vocal cords, and the longer the vocal cords were, the easier it was to make lower notes.

I mean look at violins. If you don’t hold anything, it creates a low note and when the string becomes shorter after holding it down with the fingers, it creates a higher pitch. The vocal cords were the same.

Shorter vocal cords meant that they could sing high notes better from birth. That was why there was a higher chance of tenors and sopranos being shorter and of course, there were tall tenors like teacher Kwak Jungsoo and others but that was the general tendency.

In that sense, Song Mirae was on the taller side from females so it wasn’t wrong to say that she looked like a mezzo. Was she slightly shorter than Yu Minji-sunbae?

After hearing my explanation, Song Mirae tilted her head.

“Is that so?”

Glancing at that innocent look, I replied calmly.

“Yeah, and there are generally lots of pretty mezzos.”

“Really?”

I was about to smile saying, of course I was joking, but Song Mirae was pointing her ears out seemingly about to believe it.

Feeling prankish, I forced the smile down and made a serious expression before slowly starting to talk about nonsense.

“Hey think about it. You know about low frequency treatments right? The thing about massaging the body with extremely low pitches. Low notes ringing the body makes your body relax and it’s good on the skin as well, which is why people are doing it.”

“…Huh?”

“And if you were to sing low notes yourself? It would spread to every part of your body so naturally your health and skin would be better right?”

“Is that how it works…?”

“No it’s even better. Not from a machine but from nature itself. It is the voice of a human so it is more effective than the massages.”

“…!”

“So become a mezzo.”

After staying in thought blankly, Song Mirae flashed her eyes and declared.

“I’ll try mezzo then!”

“…”

…Is she stupid?

*

After a simple persuasion on Song Mirae, the composition of the song proceeded rapidly. Song Mirae went through a light test before actually singing and then the song was edited slightly before singing again.

There was a reason why we had repeated this a lot.

“…No, sunbae. If you jump like this how do we sing it?”

“Why not? Just sing it well.”

“It’s impossible with the structure of a human throat though?”

“Why’s it impossible?”

“…”

Like this, composers just stamped the notes down without thinking about the comfort of the ones singing it. That’s why we had to verify them, by actually singing, on whether they were possible to sing and whether the structure allowed a smooth sound to prevent any accidents from happening.

If the pitch went up and down crazily in a manner that made no sense, even Pavarotti’s grandfather won’t be able to sing it.

After corrections upon corrections and editing it,

Finally, the song had been completed.