Genius of a Performing Arts High

“That is?”

I rolled my eyes in thought. A reason for not attending the concour, and something that won’t make the teacher disappointed. What could be there?

Thinking hard, I suddenly remembered a sentence written next to the concour announcement, that long number next to the attendance fee.

“That... our house isn’t very well off. The fee was too expensive so I didn’t apply for it.”

“... For students with not so much money, we give funding for them. It is important to have stage experience so you should register for at least one concour.”

... Why is this school so generous in some places despite being stingy on the scholarships? Isn’t that worth around a few hundreds of thousands of Won? To normal students, it would be something worth rejoicing for, but it was nothing more than a waste of time for me.

In response to the teacher’s counter punch, I thought quickly for a bit but couldn’t come up with an answer. What should I do... I decided to just man it up and go from the front.

Wearing a serious expression, I replied.

“Sir. I... must get the scholarship – the scholarship that only goes to the first in each department. As for the concour, I’ll participate in it as soon as I have time on my sleeve.”

“...”

Carefully glancing up and meeting my eyes with the teacher’s, I could see his rigid face. His face continued changing along with a constant change in emotions.

Deep thought, helplessness and sympathy.

Whatever he was thinking, after gazing silently at me for a bit, he opened his mouth with his heavy voice.

“... Right. If that’s your choice, then that can’t be helped.”

From how he stopped there, it seemed that we had moved on from the topic. While I was heaving a sigh of relief, the teacher opened his mouth.

“Then now, let’s start the lesson. The thing you have to practise from now is simple.”

After saying that, he touched his own stomach and breathed in deeply, as a thick stomach started to rise heavily.

“Breath management. If you don’t even have this basic stuff, then it’s impossible to do anything. In gaming words, you’re no different than a character with 1 mana.”

“... You’ve played games before as well?”

The teacher glanced down at me to which I avoided my eyes and stood properly.

“Breath. It is the basic of singing, and the basis of sound. The breath filling the lungs must leave through and vibrate the vocal cords to make a sound. This breath must be perfected to freely express any sound and also helps in creating a high pitch. After all, even if you can’t make high notes, you can just force in large breaths to go high.”

“Yes.”

After glancing around, the teacher brought a long table as he continued his explanation.

“You’ve probably heard some stories about opera singers’ breaths. Well there are videos about holding a piano up just relying on the stomach but, that is way too much and I’m not even expecting that much.”

“...”

With the side of my eyes, I stared at the black piano. That one was an Upright so it should be slightly lighter but a grand piano would easily go over 0.5 tonnes. While I was thinking as such, teacher Kwak Jungsoo lied down on the table. His relaxed form made it seem like he was in his bedroom.

What’s happening

I was staring at the teacher’s protruding stomach when he suddenly turned his head towards me.

“Come up.”

“...Sorry?”

“Sit on top of my stomach.”

“...”

Without caring about my befuddled gaze, he tapped on his stomach. The massive body on top of the table looked somewhat unstable.

Isn’t that table gonna break?

Carrying my feet carefully, I placed my bum on top of his stomach. To sit on top of my benefactor... it felt weird. He didn’t do anything like this before...

While I was sitting dazedly, the teacher opened his mouth.

“Look.”

Along with that sound, his stomach bulged up and lifted me into the air. I could feel tight tension on my bum and it seemed I had gotten 5cm closer to the ceiling.

“Huk!”

Wow it’s almost like a roller coaster.

After casually raising me up and down with just his stomach, the teacher pushed me onto the ground before opening his mouth.

“If you’re an opera singer, then you should easily be able to carry someone with your stomach. So continue practising your breaths from now on. Right, if it’s at your level, putting some books on top of your stomach and breathing should be good.”

“Books?”

“Thick books. If you don’t have any, then stack lots of them on the stomach and practise.”

Books huh...

It sounded quite good.

Until now, I just repeated breathing in and out deeply, but this should indeed be better, similar to doing weights. In the past, I had gotten breaths naturally with time so I wasn’t too interested in it and therefore had no idea that such training methods existed.

I nodded my head with admiration and the teacher set up a goal for me.

“If you can raise me up within 2 weeks, then you can sing that Magic Flute one.”

“...Sorry?”

When I asked back with my eyes looking at his massive body, the teacher coughed and turned his head away.

“Mhmm... Maybe I might be a bit too heavy. Practise enough to at least hold your friend up.”

“Yes.”

*

After receiving the lesson for a while, I left the room to find that the sun was almost about to set. When I was stroking my stomach and walking through the corridor, from the other side of the corridor, I could see Lee Suh-ah and Han Dasom talking.

Lee Suh-ah would talk about something in a quiet voice and Han Dasom would give a little smile. From what I could hear, it sounded like a talk on songs – they had really boring personalities as well.

... Well it’s not something I who had no friends during his high-school life could say.

I was in the middle of a self-deprecating analysis when Lee Suh-ah motioned with her chin at me after finding me.

“Hello.”

Han Dasom shyly raised her hand from the side and greeted. Right, hello to you too.

The three of us paced down the stairs together as the red sunset pierced my eyes through the windows. It’s already dinner-time... what was today’s dinner again? In the middle of some stray thoughts, Lee Suh-ah interjected.

“Specialist Prac?”

I glanced and found her looking forward indifferently. Going down two steps I replied.

“Yeah, I had my Improvement Concert song evaluated and practised it.”

“...”

Turning at the corner of the stairs, I couldn’t find Lee Suh-ah next to me. Flicking back, I saw Lee Suh-ah standing still, with her hand guarding against the red sunset, seemingly finding it bright.

She casually opened her mouth.

“You picked the Specialist Prac teacher yourself? After declining Teacher Ku Mingi.”

Our eyes met. Her frowning face reflected a rather serious atmosphere.

How did she find out

I stared at her without a word and Lee Suh-ah started talking loads after a deep sigh.

“You might not know but Teacher Ku Mingi is an amazing person. Amazing enough that it doesn’t make sense that he is teaching mere high-schoolers. Do you know how much you have to pay to learn from him?”

“I know.”

“Uh?”

She blinked in a fluster.

Perhaps she thought I refused without knowing anything, and had come to tell me against it. Was she thinking for my sake? That was quite unexpected.

“I know too.”

But how would I not know how great teacher Ku Mingi was? Even after 20 years, he had been famous, and in fact, he had become more famous with age under his belt.

Whenever there was a Kim Wuju – Ku Mingi student-teacher recital, a wide concert hall would be packed with the audience so that was enough said. I remembered a song they sang – something that I heard at the little corner of the hall and remembered their rich resonance.

“You refused after knowing it?”

When I realised, Lee Suh-ah was staring at me. I shook my head and tied a firm resolution.

“Yeah I know that teacher Ku Mingi is awesome. But I thought teacher Kwak Jungsoo was better at teaching so I’m learning from him.”

“Better? On what grounds?”

I gave a sigh seeing Lee Suh-ah not accepting and carried my feet.

“Whatever, there’s that. Anyway, how was it practising for concerted music, Dasom?”

“Uh?”

Han Dasom, who had been suppressed by our discussion that was like a fight, and looking around, couldn’t find words when I suddenly pulled her into the conversation. Her fumbling with her words appeared quite cute.

I grinned and continued.

“Our concerted music song. You were a little nervous on Friday and weren’t able to sing it properly.”

“That... I practised hard but...”

From her tone, she seemed to lack the confidence. Right, if practising at home was enough to fix that, then it would’ve been solved ages ago. Nodding my head, I was planning to just give her a rough outline of a training method when her lowered head caught my eyes.

I could see my previous self in her.

I who had entered the performing arts high without knowing anything, and I who had become hopeless at the continuous rebukes. The song that was at least filled with confidence had soon turned into something that made me conscious of others, and the more that happened, the more horrible my song became.

That was what singing was. If the confidence was killed, then the song would be killed as well. But for me, there was someone that had directed me towards the road called opera.

Teacher Kwak Jungsoo.

“I’m still not confident...”

While I was gazing at Han Dasom slurring the ends of her sentences, a sudden impulse opened my mouth.

“Let’s practise together from tomorrow.”

“Practise...?”

Meeting my eyes with hers, I could see her surprised expression. Her innocent and down-slanted eyes, with eyes always facing the ground.

Han Dasom.

In fact, she was different from me.

She was a great girl full of talents. Even without the likes of my help, she should be able to go through this much adversity alone. After all, in the future, she had been able to sing confidently in an audition programme without shaking.

But that would require a lot of time. From how I had never heard of her during the Future Arts High days, she must’ve been lost for that long of a period. Looking into her trembling eyes, I decided.

“Right, practise.”

I didn’t want to see someone full of talent like this stay buried in the dirt. With a smile, I replied.

“It’s a group assessment. All of our group members must do well to receive good marks.”

Her eyes which had been dully staring at mine regained focus. She made a determined expression and said,

“I’ll try my best.”

*

After everything was over, I laid down on the bed and fell in a deep thought. Han Dasom, would she be able to digest the training and would there be an effect in the first place?

No matter how many simulations I ran, a certain conclusion couldn’t be made. A person’s personality was not so easily changed after all. No-one could say, ‘You do this and you’ll definitely change!’ for sure.

Just like the saying, ‘The man proposes, and God disposes’, as humans couldn’t read the future, all they could do was to plan ahead as much as possible. After a while of raising the books with my stomach and having several thoughts run through, I called Noh Jusup who had been immersed in his gameplay.

“Hey.”

“Uh why”

“Come here and sit on top of my stomach.”

“What?”

He stared at me with eyes that said, what crazy things are you spouting, but soon came running after seeing my continuous calls with a grin.

Uh... why does he appear so big all of a sudden

Whether he knew about my trembling heart or not, he gave a wide smile and asked.

“Where?”

“Here on top of my stomach.”

“Kukhk. I will go up, okay?”

“Yeah.”

I put force into my stomach and opened my eyes wide in reply, while Noh Jusup slowly placed his bum on my stomach with a constant smile.

A heavy feeling assaulted my body.

Uh... it’s heavier than I thought?

But as soon as Noh Jusup’s feet left the ground, that thought had immediately turned into a scream.

“Aaak!!”

“Hkkhhh, why, didn’t you tell me to come up?”

“Come down right nowww!!!”

After crazily pushing down Noh Jusup, I somehow regained the ability to breathe.

“Huk, huk...”

Aigo my stomach, aren’t my ribs broken?

I quickly flipped the shirt up to find a thin stomach. Fortunately, there weren’t any signs of bruises, but there was a feeble body with no signs of muscles.

“... I need to exercise more.”

A sigh escaped my mouth.