Chapter 6: Faster 1
“Shall we hear you sing first?”
“Yes.”
Facing my eyes to the front, I could see teacher Ku Mingi.
Lesson time. It had been two weeks since we had been in the same lesson room but after only a few greetings, we went straight to checking. He would check my situation and show the way forward, because that was the reason we were having lessons.
“…”
Standing there with slight nervousness, I slowly started singing the song I had prepared.
The morning song, Mattinata.
After practising with Lee Suh-ah repeatedly during this past week, I felt like it was sticking naturally to my mouth. The practice had been very effective because the song sprouted out naturally, like it was attached to my body.
It felt slightly suffocating and constrained when singing but… is this because I’m still not skilled enough?
“L’amor!”
Tilting my head, I finished the song and turned my gaze over to teacher Ku Mingi but the atmosphere around him was a little odd. With a rather astonished expression, he was staring at me, and only when I looked back with blinking eyes did teacher Ku Mingi change his expression.
“Uhum, good. You must’ve… practised hard.”
“Ah, yes.”
I was thinking, why was he like that, when teacher Ku Mingi slowly started to add more words.
“Student Jo Yunjae. How many years did you practise singing again?”
He’s asking another difficult question. Avoiding eye contact with the glaring teacher, I racked my brain as hard as I could.
Let’s see. Do I tell him 20 years honestly…but then I’m only 19 years old. Unless I started singing from my mother’s womb… or rather my dad’s body, it did not make any sense.
Then…
After a quick round of calculation, I gave a reply that wouldn’t seem odd.
“That… around 10 years I think.”
“Hmm…”
With a deep look in his eyes, teacher Ku Mingi stared at me before suddenly making a smile. With a grin, he stared at me as if he was looking at a treasure chest and opened his mouth.
“You said you haven’t learned vocalisation officially. You continued one vocalisation method after learning it yourself, which means the one you learned just recently would be something you were trying out for the first time in your life.”
“Uh… yes.”
When I replied with a dull voice feeling a bit ominous, teacher Ku Mingi suddenly placed both of his hands on my shoulder and met his eyes with mine.
Um, it’s really uncomfortable though.
Looking at me who was pulling his neck back like a turtle, teacher Ku Mingi continued his words with a fiery tone.
“That habit which had lasted 10 years, student Jo Yunjae had gotten rid of it in 2 weeks.”
Uh… is that how it is? But in fact, it had been less than a month since I started using this body so it wasn’t that hard though… While I was blinking my eyes, words fell out rapidly from his mouth.
“Student Jo Yunjae. Do you know why a habit is called a habit? Unconsciously, without even thinking, the body does it – that is a habit. To carry forth an action rapidly, the brain makes some sort of a framework.”
With his eyes stuck on me who was rolling my eyes to avoid eye contact, teacher Ku Mingi continued.
“The reason why this habit is important is simple. The things that an executant does when singing can be dissected into dozens of actions – the height of the velum, shape of the mouth, location of the tongue, and the height of the larynx… it’s impossible to control all this consciously as there is a limit to multitasking.”
While tapping his head, he stared at me.
“That’s why with vocalisation, we fix it as a habit. What state does the body have to be in to create the most beautiful sound? After finding that out, we make a rough average of all these aspects and group them together, and after decades of work, it becomes the asset of the executant under the name, ‘vocalisation’.”
Ah
I was starting to get embarrassed. It wasn’t like I could shout, ‘It’s because I travelled back in time!’ either. While I had my eyes tightly shut, the teacher whispered softly.
“And yet being able to change that in mere 2 weeks…”
The hands that had grabbed my shoulders left and taking rapid steps back, the teacher touched his chin. After contemplating in that state for a bit and pacing around the lesson room slowly, he opened his mouth.
“Student Jo Yunjae. There are countless songs in the world. Opera where one would sing while acting, arias with just singing, and oratorios with the main focus on choruses… If we said there were one thousand songs, how many songs would one opera singer be able to sing, do you think?”
It didn’t sound like he actually wanted an answer so I just stared back at the teacher. After making a smile, he replied.
“It would be considered fortunate if he could sing a hundred out of a thousand. The darkness or the brightness of the timbre and the vocalisation style… after matching all those aspects, the songs one can sing become limited, and in the end, they can only repeat the songs they had sung before.
Teacher Ku Mingi suddenly halted his feet.
“But, if you could change the vocalisation style to match the song?”
Wearing a smile, he quickly added.
“A dark timbre for dark songs; a bright timbre for bright songs. If one could find out exactly what the composer’s intention was and easily change the vocalisation style to match that aim!”
After spouting out words like a raging storm, the teacher suddenly made a dreamy expression. Looking blankly into the air like that, he then opened his mouth.
“Then, they would be able to sing a thousand songs alone.”
“…”
I could see transparent eyes that seemed like a thin coat of ice was laid on top. As soon as those eyes met my own, he declared.
“And, he will become a heaven-defying opera singer.”
*
“…”
Heaven-defying…
An opera singer that could provide the exact vocalisation style the composer was wishing for. Could such a person really exist?
I have no idea – at least, I had never seen such a person. Vocalisation was something built up and polished bit by bit, not something exchanged casually like a mask.
However, teacher Ku Mingi had said I would be able to. In fact, although I wasn’t sure if it was because of the time travel, I did change it pretty quickly and I felt like it was possible to easily return to the previous vocalisation method with a single thought.
That meant I had at least two styles myself – teacher Kwak Jungsoo’s and teacher Ku Mingi’s.
Even from just that, the repertory of songs I could sing would expand exponentially.
Then…
“Yunjae, are you not eating?”
When I came to myself after deep contemplation, I found Chloe smiling brightly from the side.
Ah, right, it was lunchtime.
Raising my head and gazing around, I saw the kids eating their meals rowdily – Noh Jusup sticking his nose into the tray on my right, Lee Suh-ah and Song Mirae bickering and chatting, Han Dasom stealing glances at me and Chloe staring at me after emptying her plate clean.
Seeing those sparkling green eyes, I grinned and replied.
“Yeah. I have some things to think about and don’t feel like eating.”
“Then give me please!”
“Okay.”
“Huhuhuh.”
Making a bright smile, Chloe clumsily used her chopsticks to pick the last piece of the red chilli prawn up. She then opened her mouth wide before putting it in… she really loves eating huh.
Seeing her diligently chewing, I opened my lips.
“You eat like that and yet you’re really slim.”
“Slim?”
Because Chloe was tilting her head, I repeated it kindly in French.
[Not fat]
[Huhu. I don’t get fat easily~ Here.]
With a grin, Chloe pushed forth her arm signalling me to touch so I did and realised what she had said was true. She was this thin but my eyes reflecting the clean tray were not deceiving me either.
Where is all that food going to?
Being surprised at the peculiarity of human body, I pushed the tray over to her. I brought a lot of food intentionally to eat a lot but perhaps because the growth spurt hadn’t hit me yet, it was hard to finish it all. At least I was able to escape the impoverished state from a month ago and was more like a normal person but…
It would probably take more than a semester until the whole build would increase in size. Thinking that, I scanned around before stopping my gaze at Lee Suh-ah who was eating while looking at her notes.
She’s really a one of a kind as well.
Although it was mid-sem soon and there were several people studying in the cafeteria, Lee Suh-ah was different and even a bit strange.
Look at that.
Whilst eating, she chattered with Song Mirae and also went through her notes. Even then, the fingers flipping past the notes were rhythmical, seemingly not losing a single bit of focus.
…Can I beat someone studying that hard with test scores?
Thinking that, I opened my mouth.
“Oi Lee Suh-ah.”
“Why”
“What grade did you get in the mock test?”
Glancing up, she primly opened her lips.
“1st grade.”
“…”
She then returned her eyes over to the notes like there was nothing else to talk about. That probably meant that she had gotten the first grade in all subjects.
Why is an opera student studying that hard?
After staring at Lee Suh-ah with a sulky look, I turned to the side and looked at Chloe who had finished the tray with a bit of remaining food, sitting with her head raised up.
“What grades did you get?”
“1st grade! Except for Korean that is, huhuh. What about you Yunjae?”
Ah right, Chloe was from the piano department. It was a department that required quite the diligent studying so she seemed to have good marks.
…With a nod, I tried to slither through the question like a snake without answering but the eyes gathered.
Lee Suh-ah stared while raising her eyebrows, Han Dasom and Chloe were looking at me with expectant eyes while Noh Jusup who knew my scores was grinning.
Heaving a sigh, I replied having no other choice.
“Me… well, on average, around the 4th grade?”
“…Un?”
The surprised gazes felt prickly.
Well… if I was to make an excuse, the mock test in March was held straight after admission so there was no time to prepare for it. Who would do well if they were told to solve high school questions after 20 years? On top of that, I was an opera singer who had no use for maths or science!
Besides I had been indulged in practising singing after coming back in time so there was that as well. If I were to sit the test right now, I was confident in getting good results.
…I think.
“Ah… that… it’s okay! Opera can just sing well!”
Taking my eyes off of Chloe who was trying her best to fix the situation, I glanced at Han Dasom and Noh Jusup and saw them twitching.
I wasn’t the only one that failed huh. When I faced a warm gaze at them, the two fiercely avoided eye contact.
In the midst of all that, Song Mirae gave an empty cough.
“…Uhum!”
Song Mirae.
She seemed to be fidgety, looking to find a chance to enter the conversation like she had something to say. When I faced her, she searched through her bag before taking out a shopping bag and handing it over to me.
“Eat this and study hard.”
A shopping bag with something inside.
When I accepted it somewhat blankly, Song Mirae opened her eyes wide and blinked and with an expression that made me feel uncomfortable, she opened her mouth.
“I heard your body wasn’t good, Yunjae. I prepared it because I felt worried.”
When I took it out with curiosity, I found candies inside red packagings. Flipping one of them upside down, I read the label.
[Red Ginseng Candy]
“…”
After staring at that for a while, I turned towards Song Mirae and made a bright smile.
“Hey, how did you know I liked this? Thanks.”
“…”