A Musical Genius Who Plays Memories - Chapter 20

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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 20. You Have a Friend (4)

– Hee-seong, let’s play piano together.

The child had somehow become bothered by those words.

Together.

Ajin liked that word.

That’s why there was always a boy who caught her attention.

The child named Hee-seong was always sullen, but he smiled when others talked to him.

How does he make such expressions?

And why does that prickly child, Aeyeon, suddenly smile so brightly for some reason?

She was curious about that.

The small piano in the corner of Moran Class was quiet, but the sounds coming from it were not small at all.

Sometimes like a rabbit hopping around.

Sometimes like splashing waves.

She wanted to listen more closely to those sounds that wrapped around her ears.

‘I want to see…!’

She became curious about the gentle hands that moved softly while playing the piano.

However, Ajin couldn’t easily approach.

She was scared.

Afraid that those small hands might push her away.

So even at Hanseol Preschool, she always wandered around alone.

The teachers who had been talking with her also went to other children.

No one talked with her.

As the child wandered around Hanseol Preschool, watching everyone leave one by one, she happened to hear it.

An unfamiliar melody.

Zing-♬

There was a child playing in an empty classroom.

Someone else was there too, but she didn’t know who the performer was.

“Garam plays well, doesn’t she?”

“Hehe. Thank you!”

Garam said in a loud voice.

It couldn’t be called violin playing.

It would be more accurate to say she was making sounds with the violin.

Ajin was captivated by that sound.

She wanted to do it too.

She wanted to perform, not draw.

Could I do it too?

“Huh? Who’s there?”

At the gaze that spotted her and the calling voice, Ajin quickly fled from the spot.

She was afraid of being caught.

The child didn’t know what she was afraid of.

She ran and ran back to Moran Class and sat down.

Opening the sketchbook where she always drew the same pictures.

That was the only thing the child could do.

‘Drawing…’

Even though two days had passed since hearing Garam’s performance.

The child was still staring at her sketchbook.

The sketchbook was always filled with vivid green and red colors.

The child wanted to draw vivid pictures.

Just pretty pictures.

She wanted to draw the flower field she had seen sometime before.

“I can’t do it…”

The flowers in her memory were so beautiful, but they were hard to draw with her small hands.

However, there was nothing else she could do.

That’s why the child had to draw.

‘I don’t want to draw…’

The child thought.

She wanted to do something other than drawing.

Because she was timid, because she was very shy.

She couldn’t approach other children.

That’s why there were no children who approached her.

She was afraid of others’ touch.

“Wow! Ajin draws really well!”

Garam’s voice approaching suddenly was quite unexpected.

That cheerful voice pierced Ajin’s ears.

“Let’s draw together!”

A hand extended first by another child, something that had never happened before.

Because it had never happened before, the child was flustered.

That act which should bring joy felt scary instead.

“You were drawing flowers! I’ll help you!”

Garam said, approaching with big steps while holding a yellow crayon.

However, perhaps she stepped wrong, as Garam’s body suddenly swayed.

As a result, Garam’s knee hit the desk.

Her left hand on the sketchbook, her right hand on Ajin’s face.

“Ow ow… Gasp! Ajin, are you okay?”

Even at Garam’s question, Ajin couldn’t say anything.

In such a sudden situation, all the child could do was.

“…Uh, waaaah!!”

Cry.

It wasn’t because a long yellow line was drawn across the picture she was drawing.

That didn’t matter at all.

The child had no feelings about the drawing.

Rather, she was happy because she didn’t want to draw anyway.

‘The, the hand… is scary…!’

The palm cast over her face was frightening.

That shadow, smaller than her own face, looked bigger instead.

That hand was so scary that Ajin ended up crying.

‘I should apologize to Garam…’

Because she cried, Garam got scolded.

Since the expression of the first friend who approached her wasn’t good, Ajin also made a tearful face.

And so class began.

Time to draw what you like.

‘What I like…’

Ajin began thinking about what she liked.

However, it was hard to say she liked anything.

Music? She liked it, but wasn’t good at it.

She had never learned it in the first place.

Drawing? She wasn’t good at it, and she didn’t draw because she liked it.

When Ajin was deep in thought, voices began to be heard around her.

“What does Hee-seong like most?”

“Music and piano. I really, really like them!”

Hee-seong was clearly stating what he liked.

Aeyeon, sitting in front, was drawing with more focus than anyone else.

Garam, sitting beside her, was doing the same.

The children sitting around him all had things they liked.

‘Flowers…’

Ajin drew flowers.

He wasn’t sure if he liked them, but flowers were the first thing that came to mind.

Fragrant flowers, beautiful flowers.

He began drawing them.

“Ajin’s drawing is pretty too.”

He was in the middle of drawing when Hee-seong spoke to him.

Ajin was flustered by the kind tone.

However, Hee-seong didn’t stop and continued speaking.

“Ajin likes flowers, doesn’t he?”

At those words, Ajin didn’t know what to do and just nodded slightly.

“My mom likes flowers too.”

“We have flowers at our house too.”

At those words, Ajin unconsciously lifted his head.

There was a moment of hesitation, but he still made eye contact with Hee-seong.

“Really…?”

Ajin didn’t know why he had said such a thing.

“Me too…”

Garam’s small voice was heard.

At those words, Ajin’s body naturally moved closer.

It was an action based on the child’s desire to talk with the first friend who had approached him.

However, they couldn’t have a conversation.

“Then, shall we tell the other friends what you like most? Who wants to go first!”

“Me!”

Starting with Cha Yu-ra’s words, one by one they began standing in front of the blackboard to talk about what they liked.

The other children began talking about their family dogs, toys, and such.

While the presentations were in full swing.

‘Huh?’

Aeyeon and Garam raised their hands.

Ajin stared intently at the backs of those children.

Ajin thought both of them were cool.

They were confidently talking about what they liked.

Especially Garam caught his eye more.

She was telling everyone what she liked without hiding it.

He thought he wanted to do that too.

However.

“Teacher! I think Ajin wants to do it too!”

Garam’s loud voice only made the situation worse.

Everyone’s eyes were focused on him.

He should open his mouth, but.

“Ah… ah…”

Nothing would come out.

He was afraid of all those stares.

‘I want to talk about what I like too.’

He wanted to step forward in front of everyone, but it wasn’t easy at all.

He wanted to say he liked music and flowers too.

But the child felt he shouldn’t say those things.

***

“Kids, come here.”

I called the children together.

It was time to tell them the method I had come up with.

“Why?”

“Hee-seong, what’s going on?”

Aeyeon asked.

She had her arms crossed with a sulky expression, while Garam was giggling beside her.

I spoke in a small voice in case someone else might hear.

“I think Ajin likes music too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. So, how about we do this?”

There was no doubt that Ajin liked music.

Although it was hidden by his hair, the child’s eyes when he faced me were very clear.

The eyes of someone who knew how to listen to music.

I decided to trust that.

I also had the intuition of someone who had been doing music for a long time.

“We’ll perform just for Ajin.”

“Just for Ajin?”

“Good! That sounds fun!”

“Really?”

“I’d like it if we can play with Ajin!”

“Me too.”

Aeyeon raised an eyebrow, and Garam spoke with a bright smile.

At their childlike reaction, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

However, since this was important, I suppressed my laughter as much as possible.

“This isn’t something to laugh about.”

“Huh! Why?”

“Ajin seems… very shy.”

“Shy?”

“Yeah. We need to approach him slowly so he won’t be startled.”

So the method I came up with was this.

Drawing attention through performance.

That was my goal.

And those two kids would handle what came after.

“Can I play the piano?”

“Huh? You, Aeyeon?”

Aeyeon, who had been thinking for a moment, looked at me and spoke.

I was caught off guard by her sudden suggestion.

But thinking about it, there was no reason for me to refuse.

There was even less reason for it to be bad.

“Sure! If Aeyeon’s performing, that’s fine.”

“Wow! I want to hear Aeyeon play too!”

“Get away. Don’t cling to me.”

Watching the two children play around with each other was nice to see.

It would be perfect if just one more person was here.

I looked beyond Garam and Aeyeon.

At the 5-year-old boy who was drawing alone.

His shaggy hair.

A child with a smaller frame than other children, with a round face and round eyes that were pretty.

It had already been over a week since she started attending Hansul Preschool.

I couldn’t approach the child who was hiding herself away.

I couldn’t look around me because I was busy adapting to preschool with Aeyeon.

‘Being alone isn’t good. Especially not for a 5-year-old child.’

So not being able to leave Ajin alone might be my own selfishness.

But either way, being with others would be better than being alone.

***

The March sun was disappearing faster than expected.

As dismissal time approached, children gradually disappeared and there weren’t many kids left in Moran Class.

I said to Aeyeon.

“Aeyeon, you can do it, right?”

“Of course. Just trust me.”

The fact that we had decided to help Garam and Ajin make up had somehow disappeared.

So now it was the children’s steps toward making friends.

That seemed like a better way to describe it.

‘Ajin is… drawing again.’

I caught a glimpse of Ajin’s eyes as she drew in the corner as always.

The color was more faded than when she had listened to music.

But it was okay.

I would soon see sparkling eyes.

“But where’s Garam?”

“I don’t know. He suddenly disappeared.”

“Hmm… Then I’ll play.”

“Okay. Fighting.”

Aeyeon headed straight to the small piano.

When the 5-year-old child sat down, it looked just like an adult sitting at a piano.

In the sparsely populated Moran Class.

Ding-da-ding-♬

Aeyeon’s performance began.

It was a good performance.

Since Aeyeon played piano well, there were few mistakes.

But even those mistakes became insignificant.

Seeing her just smile slightly and enjoy herself.

I found myself smiling without realizing it.

‘Ajin looks like she’s enjoying it too.’

And Ajin had turned her head and was listening to Aeyeon’s performance.

Her dull eyes were becoming bright and sparkling.

The hand that had been drawing also stopped, captivated by Aeyeon’s performance.

‘Good. Now it’s my turn to go and talk…’

However, the situation was flowing differently than I had thought.

Bang!

“Eek!”

A loud sound came from the classroom door.

Ajin’s startled voice could be heard.

Several other children were also surprised and looking toward the door.

Garam was standing there.

In one hand, he was holding a small violin.

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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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