[♩♪♫♪♩♪♫♪]
Hyunsoo plucked the notes from his mind, as clear as the stars in the night sky.
Sara’s voice was his muse and inspiration.
The sketchbook quickly filled with a galaxy of musical notes.
Though it was a beautiful sight in itself, Hyunsoo fell into deep thought with a somewhat dissatisfied expression.
‘I like the basic structure, but it feels a bit bland.’
He wanted the sound to be richer.
‘……!’
No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than the sound of Samuel’s gift,
‘Right, there’s no need to be obsessed with just the piano.’
Maestro S, the pinnacle of electronic instruments, encompassed the top sounds of all existing instruments, including strings, woodwinds, and brass.
‘Should I add violin, viola, and cello to this?’
Hyunsoo colored the universe on his sketchbook with various instruments he had experienced.
The result was a much more satisfying picture.
‘Maybe I should slightly add some flute, clarinet, and oboe.’
As he drew, he became more ambitious.
Paying attention to the combination of colors made him want to use more colors.
‘It’s still lacking. No matter what, it won’t be complete without trumpet, trombone, and tuba, right?’
Before he knew it, he had created a piece that required an orchestra.
‘Did I go too far?’
Hyunsoo looked at his first work with a troubled face.
‘It’s done.’
Kyle leisurely gave his greetings after finishing the presentation with Sara.
‘Look at that blank face.’
He wore a triumphant smile as he looked at Hyunsoo, who seemed somewhat dazed.
‘He would never have dreamed that I was hiding this level of skill.’
Even Sasha, whom he worried about the most, gave an overall good review.
“…It was good. If there was one regret, it was that the guitar performance and Sara’s singing didn’t blend into one. If you pay a little more attention to that, it will be a perfect stage.”
-What?? Is that the Joker Sasha we know?? Shouldn’t she be giving a smiling critique instead of a compliment? Is she sick?
-Is it because our expectations were low? That’s pretty well done. Sara, you’re not in the position to give advice at our level.
-Yeah, Sara carried it. Isn’t it more engaging because such a shy girl sings so confidently?
Feeling proud, Kyle placed his hand on Hyunsoo’s shoulder and said.
“Did you see? Unlike someone who’s only good at sports, I have sophistication too. It’s not too late now, if you learn instruments diligently, someday you might be like me… Hey. Where are you going?”
Just as he was about to savor his moment of victory… Hyunsoo ignored Kyle and walked past him.
‘What does he think he’s doing?’
Everyone in the classroom focused on Hyunsoo’s movements.
It was now Hyunsoo’s turn to critique. He suddenly handed Sara a sheet of music.
“Huh?”
She looked at Hyunsoo with a face that said she didn’t understand, then curiously started to look at the sheet music.
“…!”
At first, she was impressed, then she was astonished, and before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face.
After calming down a bit, Sara had a brief conversation with Hyunsoo and then stood in the middle of the classroom again.
Hyunsoo sat at the piano and said,
“I’m not very good with words, so I thought I’d critique in a slightly different way.”
“…?”
“Your stage was so good that I had some musical ideas, and I thought that if it were this kind of piece, it might better highlight Sara’s vocals. So, I took on an experimental challenge.”
“…??”
“Fortunately, Sara liked it, so we are now able to present
“…???”
Kyle, who didn’t know Hyunsoo very well, and most of the students had the same thought at that moment.
‘What crazy thing is this guy going to do?’
Even Jessie and Sasha, who knew him a bit better, had the same thought.
‘What crazy thing is this guy going to do again??’
Sara Wagner was from a small village in Germany.
Her father was an accountant and her mother a housewife. They weren’t in dire financial straits, but they couldn’t afford music lessons either.
However, if she had one advantage, it was that her mother loved opera.
Her mother even did prenatal education with opera and saved up to see it live once a year.
Naturally, Sara grew up humming opera tunes rather than nursery rhymes. She didn’t understand the lyrics, but she sang them well with a native-like pronunciation.
‘I liked singing because it helped hide my shy personality a bit.’
Conversations were difficult, but she felt good when she received praise for her singing.
-Sara, your voice is so good. Which teacher do you learn from??
-Mother! Not making her pursue music is a crime.
‘Yes. I was destined to sing.’
Her talent became well-known from a young age, and she sang at village festivals and gradually participated in larger competitions.
Though she was from a small village, she met a patron through connections. This led to many fortunate events, giving her the opportunity to receive education at the best music academies.
She started at the age of 11, which was 3-4 years later than other students at the same level, but through rigorous training akin to that of a professional, her talent gradually blossomed.
Every teacher who met Sara praised her in unison.
-You are destined to become a world-renowned prima donna representing Germany. With a bit more training, you’ll be able to handle everything from soprano to contralto, and the world will praise you as the reincarnation of Giuditta Pasta.
Giuditta Pasta was one of the most legendary opera singers of the early 19th century, known for her ability to effortlessly transition between the highest soprano and the lowest contralto ranges.
Sara was also seen as the new rising star in this lineage, garnering immense expectations from the music world.
But despite already making a name for herself in various competitions and entering the professional world, she found herself living a relatively peaceful high school life in the distant United States, albeit as a scholarship student, for a simple reason.
‘It’s suffocating.’
Since the age of 11, Sara had been undergoing rigorous training at renowned music academies across Europe.
-You started too late, so you need to work harder than other kids.
-When your skills are improving like now, practice even harder. Musicians also have growth plates. If they close, your efforts will be in vain.
-Your talent is so special that neglecting practice even a little is an insult to God. Many geniuses can’t even reach your toe despite their bone-crushing efforts. Aren’t you sorry for them?
The better you did, the more you had to do better in this world.
You had to keep singing as long as your voice allowed, and when resting, you had to constantly listen to music.
Even in dreams, she was tormented by practice.
Exhausting days. Sara escaped from the European stage, which she had been revolving around her whole life, to America.
Though she was still supported to receive advanced music education, she chose to enroll in Johannes High School because she liked the idea of blending in with ordinary students and living a normal school life.
‘I thought it would be great once I got here.’
She had more peace of mind. She also worked hard on music.
However, it was hard to erase the emptiness in her heart.
The more she sang, the bigger that emptiness seemed to grow.
Sara couldn’t find the reason for nearly two years.
‘Is it a slump?’
Every musician experiences a slump, and if you can’t overcome it, you can’t become a true musician.
She tried not to be anxious, but by her third year, it was hard to hide her unease.
Outstanding juniors were quickly catching up, and she felt like she had been stagnant for the past two years. The uncertainty of not knowing when it would end was the hardest part.
‘What exactly is missing?’
The turning point came at an unexpected place and time.
“Hi?”
There were many ordinary students, but few other scholarship students, so she knew about Hyunsoo.
However, his fame was solely in the sports field, not in music.
“Can you take a look at this?”
But the moment she saw Hyunsoo’s sheet music, she felt a shiver down her spine.
A black-and-white world turned into a myriad of colors.
“Wow.”
She could only exclaim in admiration.
Sara forgot it was class time and started humming to Hyunsoo’s sheet music.
It was a peculiar piece.
‘Is such destruction possible within the framework of traditional opera?’
On the surface, it was clearly traditional opera. The forms it took and the arrangement of instruments. One might think it would feel boring to modern people, but it didn’t.
‘Why? How is this possible?’
Sara dissected the sheet music measure by measure. Each part for each instrument. It seemed as if the structure and form were directly borrowed from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the golden age of opera…
“Ah!”
But when she added the woodwind part to the string part, it felt new. When she layered the brass and piano parts one by one, a completely new piece of music emerged.
Though the pieces were clearly taken from traditional opera, when put together, they painted a new picture.
Mixing fragments of traditional opera with modern music…
“How is it? Fun, right?”
It was then that Sara realized Hyunsoo had been patiently waiting beside her.
She was too embarrassed to answer and barely managed to nod.
“Then, do you want to sing it?”
Sara unconsciously reacted to such a ridiculous question.
“Now??”
Her shy personality aside, it was an absurd request!
‘This is my first time seeing this sheet music. I’ve never sung it before!’
Even if it was not a formal competition but a midterm check, it was still a stage.
She had never performed in front of others without practicing at least 100 times beforehand, as she had been taught in Europe.
It was a matter of etiquette towards the audience and her peers.
Hyunsoo seemed to read Sara’s mind.
“So what? The first time you sing a new song is always the most fun, right?”
“…!”
Sara felt like she had been slapped.
To others, it might have seemed like a meaningless statement.
But because she had been pondering the issue for the past two years, Hyunsoo’s words resonated with her.
‘Yes, the first time you sing a song is the most exciting and fun.’
For seven years, she had only sung with the goal of perfect interpretation and precise expression.
She had practiced and trained to become an ‘instrument’ that could sing the same, perfectly, anytime and anywhere, and had completely forgotten.
Why she started music in the first place.
Sara, although scared, forced herself to muster the courage to speak.
“Is it okay? If I sing it without practicing, it will be a mess.”
“Are you worried it will ruin the critique? I don’t care about the grade. As long as we can enjoy it, that’s enough.”
Sara burst out laughing at Hyunsoo’s nonchalant attitude.
-Hey, am I seeing things? Is Sara laughing and chatting? This must be a hallucination, right?
-Someone must have spiked something here! I see it too???
She didn’t have time to care about the students’ commotion.
‘This is crazy.’
Singing in front of others without any preparation felt like being stripped naked, but it was also liberating.
‘When was the last time I sang so recklessly?’
Not to learn, but just for fun, singing an unpracticed song in front of others was something she had only done when she was very young, in front of her parents.
Sara spoke clearly.
“I want to do it.”
Their performance started just like that.
It wasn’t technically a perfect performance.
There were no lyrics, so it remained at the level of humming a guide.
Because she had only seen the sheet music once, her pitch wavered, and she sometimes got lost in the overall melody.
-♫♩♫ ♪!
Whenever that happened, Hyunsoo would jump in with the piano. He would correct the pitch and boldly rearrange parts of the piece.
No matter how Sara sang, Hyunsoo would perfectly support her as if it were how the piece was originally meant to be.
‘This is crazy.’
Sara became more confident. It was the kind of confidence that usually only came after singing a piece perfectly ten times in a row.
A standard where you become confident that you won’t make a mistake even unconsciously.
Now, without any prior practice, she gained confidence through her trust in Hyunsoo.
Sara became more immersed in the music.
‘Is this pitch right? Is this rhythm correct?’
She didn’t worry about such things. She sang as she saw the sheet music, and as her heart led.
She stopped thinking about her limits and let go completely.
“…!”
Thus, Sara successfully sang the climax of the piece with the clearest and purest tone she had ever produced.
When the piece ended, there was a moment of silence.
Sara, Hyunsoo… and even the students watching didn’t make a sound.
Starting with Mr. Alberto’s cheers, everyone stood up in unison.
“Bravo!”
“Bravi!”
It was the most enthusiastic response among all the presentations. Everyone was genuinely captivated by the music and applauded sincerely.
Except for one person.
‘This, this is invalid. He tricked me!’
