A Musical Genius Who Plays Memories - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 17. You Have a Friend (1)

Dinner time.

My attention was entirely focused on Aeyeon.

The Aeyeon I saw at preschool seemed somehow empty.

That song she played during music class was filled with such immense sadness that I couldn’t easily forget it.

The heavy, wooden-toned performance.

Just thinking about it made me feel like tears would burst forth.

“Heeseong, what’s wrong? Are you sick somewhere?”

Mother spoke as she watched me sitting blankly without eating during mealtime.

Since it would be strange to keep thinking like this, I quickly forced a smile.

“No, I’m not.”

“I see. How is preschool?”

“I like it!”

I answered honestly.

There wasn’t really anything to hide anyway.

My parents seemed very curious about whether I was adjusting well to preschool.

It had been a little over a week since I started attending preschool.

They probably thought it was about time I had gotten a feel for what preschool was like.

“Have you made many friends?”

I wasn’t someone who paid much attention to making friends.

But looking into Mother’s eyes, saying “I don’t have any!” somehow felt a bit awkward.

“…Yeah.”

I quickly racked my brain.

I tried to think of children at preschool I could call friends.

‘First there’s Aeyeon and Aeyeon. Aeyeon, Aeyeon. …Aeyeon.’

I don’t have any friends, do I?

Why is my friend from my previous life’s face even coming to mind?

I started to feel a little afraid that I might follow the same pattern as my previous life.

“I, I have lots of friends!”

So I ended up lying without realizing it.

I was worried they’d be concerned if I said I had no friends.

“Of course! There’s no child who would dislike our Heeseong. Haha!”

“F, Father…”

“Oh my, don’t exaggerate. But Father is right. Who could dislike our Heeseong?”

“M, Mother…”

Things seem to be getting bigger and bigger…?

***

8:47 AM, when children were starting to arrive.

I was lying on the floor looking up at the ceiling.

The conversation my parents had last evening was swirling around in my head.

‘Our son has many friends, ah, ah…, ah…’

Why did I say such a thing?

But there was nothing I could do about the mistake I had already made.

While I was wallowing in my misery alone.

“Heeseong!”

I heard a bright voice calling out to me as I lay there in a daze.

When I turned my head, Aeyeon was running toward me.

Seeing her smiling so cheerfully.

‘The conversation with her mother must have gone well.’

As if to confirm my thoughts weren’t wrong, Aeyeon put her bag in the locker and immediately started chattering away with her small mouth.

“Heeseong! You know what, you know what! Mommy said I only have to go to one academy!”

“Really? That’s great!”

“Yeah yeah! Now I can play lots and lots of piano that I love!”

Aeyeon seemed truly happy, showing a smile I had never seen before.

Yesterday she had been sulking, which was quite pitiful to see.

“Heeseong! What should we play now?”

But seeing her smile so brightly like that made me smile without realizing it.

Indeed, Aeyeon looked much better smiling brightly like that than when she was gloomy.

Seeing her looking at me with sparkling eyes, I felt I should say something.

‘What should we play…’

Since Aeyeon asked that, I was also troubled.

There were many things to play with at preschool.

There were toys that children enjoyed playing with, including blocks and dolls.

There were drawing tools and educational posters on the walls for studying Korean, numbers, and English, but.

“Garam! Let’s play house together!”

“Yeah! Let’s do it!”

Other children had already taken those spots.

“…”

The same was true for the area with drawing tools.

Various children had gathered in small groups, chatting among themselves.

Wait.

Everyone has already become friends, but I’m only hanging around with Aeyeon?

Just like in my previous life, am I going to have only one friend this time too…?

‘That would be pretty pathetic…?’

I tried to suggest playing with other children, but thinking about it, that wasn’t easy.

‘For Aeyeon’s sake too, I need friends.’

This is all for Aeyeon’s sake.

Anyway, that’s how it is.

While I was lost in thought by myself, Aeyeon spoke to me.

“Heeseong? What are you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing. Um… Aeyeon, should we play piano?”

“Yeah! I’d love to!”

Actually, there weren’t many things we could play with together.

Building blocks or playing house wouldn’t be fun for me.

‘Actually, it would be embarrassing to do that.’

At my age, could I really say things like “Yum yum!” or “Stop! I am the hero Yoon Hee-seong!”?

I definitely can’t do it.

And Aeyeon also seemed uninterested in such things.

Aeyeon, who lived and breathed piano, was always busy talking only about piano-related topics.

Of course, so was I.

And this is a music preschool.

When we played piano, interested children would gather and say things like “I know this song!”

‘So using piano to draw attention is a very good choice.’

Since Aeyeon also plays piano well, other children would like it.

So we could become friends quickly.

“What should we play today? Is there something you want to play, Heeseong?”

“There are too many…”

Living in modern times, I realized there’s so much good music.

And I wanted to perform all of those pieces.

As soon as possible.

“Hmm….”

Aeyeon rested her hand on her chin and tilted her head 90 degrees.

I was amazed at how she managed such strange behavior.

Maybe children’s bones are more flexible because they have more of them.

Since maintaining that position for long didn’t look good for her neck health, I hurried to correct her posture and made a suggestion.

“Aeyeon. You want to play piano, but you don’t have a song you want to play, right?”

“Yeah, it’s like that every day.”

“Then let’s do it like Young Teacher!

“Like Young Teacher?”

“Yeah! Young Teacher said that. If you have a warm-up song, you can play piano better. Let’s choose one too.”

“Good! I’m going to become Young Teacher too!”

Aeyeon clenched her fists and nodded her head vigorously.

Actually, this was also an old habit of mine.

I chose one of my favorite songs to warm up my hands.

And I played it every day.

Jeong Mi-rae chose ‘Unknown Country’ as her warm-up song.

That’s why ‘Unknown Country’ became the song I heard most often.

But I was the opposite.

I chose my favorite song as my warm-up song so I could hear it a lot.

‘The song title is….’

Aeyeon’s bright voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Hee-seong! I’ve decided!”

“Huh, what? Really?”

“Yeah! I’m going to warm up with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!”

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?”

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Such a simple song that it didn’t even seem like it would warm up your hands.

Still, Aeyeon chose it as her warm-up song.

She was smiling so brightly that I wasn’t going to say anything about it.

“I think it’s good.”

“Right! Hehe. What song will Hee-seong use?”

“I….”

Unfortunately, my voice couldn’t continue.

“Waaaaahhh!!”

At one child’s pitiful crying, everyone in Moran Class focused their attention on one spot.

There was a flustered-looking girl and a crying boy.

***

“Kids! What’s wrong?!”

Park Jeong-a, wearing a blue apron and taking care of other children in the class, came running over.

She tried to wipe the crying boy’s tears while trying to get him to stop crying, but.

“Waaaaahhh!!”

He didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping his tears.

“Ajin, what happened? Don’t cry, can you tell the teacher?”

“Hic, sob! Waaaaahhh!!”

My ears went numb from the incredibly loud crying voice.

If my ears hurt even from a little distance away, how much worse must it be for the girl and Park Jeong-a right in front of him.

Park Jeong-a’s lips twitched for a moment, but she maintained her expression and said.

“Oh my. Yes, yes. Let’s go out with the teacher. You must have been very sad.”

Park Jeong-a took the child named Ajin and left the classroom.

And the girl who had been with the boy just stared blankly at the scene.

She kept her head down, clutching a yellow crayon tightly in her hand.

‘Hmm…. Where did Cha Yu-ra go?’

At times like this, an adult should comfort the child.

“Hee-seong.”

“Yeah?”

“Garam is crying. Let’s go to her.”

“…Huh?”

Aeyeon’s eyes were sparkling brightly.

It was hard to say no to those eyes.

With the difficult situation gone, Aeyeon was flying around like crazy.

Greeting other children brightly, and stepping forward like this too.

This seemed like her original personality.

Come to think of it, rejecting her surroundings like a hedgehog wasn’t like Aeyeon.

‘I should step up, sigh….’

I sighed inwardly and then approached Garam.

“Garam, are you okay?”

Aeyeon quickly approached Garam’s side.

I also slowly approached Garam’s side.

“Sob….”

I could hear Garam’s sobbing voice as she clutched her clothes tightly and kept her head down.

Her shoulders were shaking as if she was trying to hold back tears.

“I, sob! I, I just, sniff…!”

Garam’s tear ducts burst.

She had something she wanted to say, but the tears that leaked out blocked it.

Aeyeon wiped away Garam’s tears and said.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.”

I was slightly surprised by Aeyeon’s mature way of comforting her.

She always acted childish around me, but now I could see she was quite skilled at wiping away a child’s tears.

It was just like watching a mother.

I watched from behind and then spoke to Garam, who was calming down.

“Hic, sob…!”

“Don’t cry, Garam. What happened?”

“I, sob! I tried to draw a picture with Ajin….”

Garam’s words trailed off.

She was avoiding my gaze like a student who didn’t want to be caught doing something.

But she seemed to want to talk, so after hesitating for a moment, she spoke in a small voice.

“A, Ajin told me not to draw. Sob! He told me to go away…. I made a mistake.”

So to summarize the situation, this was it.

Ajin was drawing a picture alone, and Garam approached and suggested they draw together.

But for some reason, Ajin didn’t want to draw together and pushed Garam away.

Nevertheless, when Garam kept insisting they draw together, the crayon in her hand touched the sketchbook.

‘That’s how this mess happened.’

I fell into thought.

Now I just needed to tell this to Cha Yu-ra or Park Jeong-a.

What remained was the question of whether they would listen to me well.

“Does Garam dislike Ajin?”

That’s when Aeyeon spoke.

I was flustered by the sudden question.

Was she bold enough to ask such questions?

Garam was also surprised by Aeyeon’s question and opened her eyes wide.

“Oh, no… I want to play together!”

Garam clenched both hands into fists.

Her spirited way of speaking, more than anyone else’s, seemed to genuinely show she wanted to play together.

‘It’s just like music.’

That thought crossed my mind without realizing it.

One side trying to approach, while the other pushes away.

It was like a discord.

I don’t know what their personalities are like yet, but that’s how it felt to me.

I turned my head to look at the sketchbook placed on the small desk.

A drawing of someone smiling.

And a yellow dot stamped on top of it.

It was like a semitone placed over a smoothly flowing melody.

“Garam seems to want to play with Ajin!”

Aeyeon quietly approached my side and whispered in my ear.

She definitely had some scheme in mind.

“Let’s help Garam and Ajin get along!”

“…Why?”

“That’s what they did on Chuchoo yesterday!”

What’s that supposed to be.

When I looked like I didn’t know, Aeyeon looked at me with disappointed eyes.

“Hee-seong, you don’t watch Chuchoo?”

“No.”

“Hah… I can’t believe this is happening! Why don’t you watch Chuchoo!”

Aeyeon smacked her own forehead.

What’s this, am I feeling stupid?

Still, I think I understood what Aeyeon was saying.

Make the two of them get along.

That means clearing up the misunderstanding between them and making them friends.

‘This kind of thing doesn’t suit me.’

But it seemed like it would be rewarding.

I should make friends too.

I couldn’t just hang around with Aeyeon forever.

Aeyeon should get along well with other friends besides me too.

Creak.

While the conversation with Garam was continuing, the door to Moran Class opened.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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