A Musical Genius Who Plays Memories - Chapter 82

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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 82. Butterfly (2)

“Why did you come to see me?”

A few hours before the competition began, in the early dawn.

Yang Do-gyeong kept wiping away cold sweat.

She had just wanted to go for a brief walk, but encountered an uncomfortable person.

“I was just passing by.”

“This is a place only authorized personnel can enter, though?”

“I have a certain stake in this competition, so you could say I’m authorized personnel.”

The more Yang Do-gyeong looked at the man standing before her, the more uncomfortable she felt.

He looked like a snake, as if he might cause some harm.

She remained wary of him while trying to figure out his purpose.

“It’s nothing significant. I just… came to tell you to do well today.”

“Excuse me…?”

“Well then, I’ll be going.”

The Snake Man disappeared just like that.

She began thinking about what purpose the man had for seeking her out.

But the more she racked her brain, the more it hurt.

She looked back at the alley where the man had disappeared.

With an atmosphere where something might jump out at any moment, Yang Do-gyeong brushed her shoulders once and went back into the green room.

The empty hallway was quiet, and people were starting to enter the competition venue one by one from outside.

***

Waiting time was always long.

With this many people, that time would be even longer.

“Waaaah!”

Another child started crying.

Some time had passed since the toddler division’s stage began.

No matter how many people had participated, no matter how long we waited, it seemed endless.

‘If it was going to be like this, why did they call us so early? The green room chairs were comfortable and I wanted to sit there.’

Something seemed to have gone wrong on the competition organizers’ side.

Earlier, I had overheard the Principal talking with an official.

I was too far away to hear the details though.

But there was an even bigger problem – the children were trembling with nerves.

“Yang Do-gyeong has gotten out of hand.”

I reacted to the Principal’s voice right behind me.

She looked somewhat angry.

It wasn’t just now either.

Her expression had been dark with anger the entire way here.

From what I heard her say before, it seemed there was some bad history between her and this person called Yang Do-gyeong.

‘Just like me.’

I thought about what had happened a little while ago.

I had met someone from the past.

More precisely, I had seen someone with a similar, identical atmosphere.

He looked like a snake and I thought my heart would stop.

‘I’ve completely forgotten that person’s face too.’

I had forgotten a face I could never forget.

Thanks to that, bad memories were surfacing all too vividly.

Everything that happened until I closed my eyes came back to me clearly.

Thanks to that, my anger became clearer too.

‘Let me think about this later.’

A person similar to that person from the past.

I was concerned about the child who had been with him.

It felt like I was looking at my past self.

‘It’s probably just unnecessary thinking.’

But even trying to think that way wasn’t easy.

I shifted my gaze slightly.

There was a child staring blankly into space.

Those eyes had no emotion – you could say it was a doll and I’d believe it.

‘Was I… like that too?’

That thought occurred to me.

Maybe because I had talked with Friend in my dream recently, I found myself thinking about my past self.

‘And that I keep forgetting.’

I was forgetting the past.

How should I put it – I thought maybe it was because I didn’t have time to think about the past.

‘The name… I can’t remember…’

I remembered Danika and Lucie.

But I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t remember only Friend’s name.

‘Am I cursed? Or maybe…’

I looked at my two hands.

They were tiny little hands.

Perhaps I thought this was punishment for being reborn like this.

Forgetting precious people as the price for gaining a new life.

‘But I forgot that person’s name too.’

My head started hurting.

It was like looking at a blank staff with nothing drawn on it.

Right now, let me not think about anything and just focus on the competition.

‘And that child too.’

For some reason, I felt like I needed to pay attention.

And I had no intention of missing first place.

“Another one’s crying.”

The Principal muttered quietly.

As she said, the sound of a child crying could be heard from where the stage was.

What on earth were they saying to make so many children cry?

I couldn’t understand.

“Sigh…, Sa Hye-jun?”

Then an official called out a child’s name.

At the same time, the child the snake had brought raised his hand.

That child was probably Sa Hye-jun.

“Are you ready?”

Sa Hye-jun just nodded without answering.

He was like Ajin in the early days of Moran Class.

But the atmosphere was different.

In Ajin’s case, it was because she was shy around people.

‘That child… feels like he’s deliberately shutting people out?’

The child got up from his seat and began to walk.

Then he brushed past me.

The menacing feeling sent a chill down my spine.

‘What kind of kid looks at people like that.’

The look in his eyes as he stared at me was unusual.

Eyes full of venom.

He had an atmosphere like he’d throw a punch at anyone who annoyed him.

And I wasn’t the only one who felt it.

“That kid is scary…”

Ajin said.

Garam, who was beside her, also touched her own arm and said it was scary.

However, Aeyeon didn’t care about the atmosphere or what kind of look was in those eyes.

“I wonder if that kid plays piano well?”

That was all she was curious about.

And I felt the same way.

***

“What were you thinking when you performed?”

“Ah, well, that’s…”

The child couldn’t answer Yang Do-gyeong’s question.

The voice was damp as if about to cry, and soon the child burst into tears.

“Waaah!”

Sympathetic voices could be heard from here and there.

The child took an official’s hand and left the seat.

“Hah…”

Yang Do-gyeong sighed from fatigue.

It had been an hour since the children’s division judging began, after finishing the adult and high school student competitions that had continued since morning.

For the past few years, she had always been thinking this:

‘Do we really need to do this?’

Honestly speaking, there was nothing to judge in the children’s division.

They were still young children.

Therefore, the detailed parts were naturally inferior to adults.

And their expression was incomprehensible too.

Music is a message delivered through hands instead of mouth.

That was Yang Do-gyeong’s philosophy.

But the children’s level was more pitiful than babies’ babbling.

“Oh my. Another one started crying. Do-gyeong, I think it would be better if you went a bit easier.”

Then one judge said.

The judges of the Baek Music Competition were centered around Yang Do-gyeong.

But this time it wasn’t like that.

People who looked like they wouldn’t know the first thing about music were sitting there.

“That’s right. Yang Do-gyeong, let’s go easy, okay? The children who come out are crying.”

“That won’t do. Music must be listened to until the end. And evaluation must be done properly.”

“Come on! Don’t be like that. They’re just kids anyway…”

“If we do it half-heartedly, is that evaluation? Then, could you tell me what competitions are for?”

“Ah, no, that’s…”

Just as Yang Do-gyeong said, she thought judging children was meaningless.

But she was now sitting in a position to judge someone, and she had to do her best in judging.

The other judges remained quiet with their mouths shut.

They had no power.

They too knew that Yang Do-gyeong was someone with more professional knowledge than themselves.

‘Let’s just check the next child.’

She stopped paying attention to the other judges.

Their opinions were useless anyway.

She began to look at the list.

“Ah.”

And she realized.

The next child was the one brought by the man who had visited her recently.

Yang Do-gyeong gulped down cold water due to the rushing tension.

With a just-in-case feeling, she turned around.

Many people were sitting to watch or cheer for the children participating in the competition.

Yang Do-gyeong looked around for a while and soon found him.

“As expected…”

She muttered quietly.

That man was sitting there.

Wearing the black suit he always wore, smiling softly.

It was eerie, like a snake smiling.

Then the man, whose eyes met hers, bowed his head slightly.

Yang Do-gyeong quickly turned her head, pretending not to see.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Ah, no.”

“You seem tired from judging so much. Shall we take a little break?”

“Just after listening to this child.”

The elderly judge answered with a chuckle.

Normally, those words would have slightly annoyed her, but now she had no time to care about such things.

While she was looking back, the child was already sitting in front of the piano.

“Sa Hye-jun, please begin.”

One of the other judges said.

Sa Hye-jun raised his hands accordingly.

Ding-♪

The child struck the piano.

The piano’s melody began to run wild.

At the same time, it was unstable.

It was like waves.

Waves you’d see when fierce typhoons or tsunamis occur.

Waves that seemed like they would swallow anything and drag it down to the deep abyss were rising.

‘What…!’

Yang Do-gyeong doubted her own ears.

Could such a young child perform like this?

Yang Do-gyeong couldn’t answer the question she posed to herself.

She just froze with her mouth open.

She had no choice but to focus on Sa Hye-jun’s performance.

Ding!♪

The performance showed no intention of stopping.

Sometimes high notes became the center, sometimes low notes became the center.

There were no set rules.

Like the ocean, it wasn’t bound to anything.

The melody that continued the performance suddenly slowed down.

Only then could Yang Do-gyeong breathe.

‘Just how old is he?’

Yang Do-gyeong checked Sa Hye-jun’s age in that brief gap given to her.

The age written on the list was only 5 years old.

A 5-year-old child was performing like that.

With small hands, he was crossing octaves and even expressing emotions.

He was putting strength in his fingers to control dynamics and saying what he wanted to say.

The child had become a wave.

A wave that swallowed everything.

Yang Do-gyeong was swallowed by that wave and dropped her pen.

The child’s performance continued on.

Calm waves, rough waves, waves that destroy everything.

Sa Hye-jun was expressing all those waves.

And all those waves quickly disappeared.

Only tranquility remained, like the aftermath of a passing storm.

“Wow….”

Right after Yang Do-gyeong let out that exclamation.

-Clap clap clap!!

Applause overflowed throughout the competition venue.

Yang Do-gyeong carefully turned around.

The audience had risen from their seats, sending cheers.

Among them sat just one person.

‘Did you expect this?’

The snake-like man sat leisurely.

It was impossible to tell what expression he was making.

Yang Do-gyeong thought he was probably smiling.

“Hey, Yang Do-gyeong! Aren’t you going to judge?”

“Ah, yes. I should….”

“What are you looking at? Do you have a lover or something?”

The elderly judge chuckled.

They seemed more focused on tormenting Yang Do-gyeong than judging the children.

Yang Do-gyeong took a deep breath and looked straight at the child.

The child was looking at Yang Do-gyeong with hands clasped behind their back.

It felt like a viper was staring at her, and cold sweat unknowingly trickled down her cheek.

She picked up the microphone in front of her and spoke.

“Yes, I listened well for now. So this piece is….”

Yang Do-gyeong suddenly hesitated.

A thought flashed through her mind.

‘What piece is this?’

The piece the child had performed was one she had never heard once in her entire life.

So she thought.

‘Could it be that they composed it?’

There were often such cases.

People who didn’t perform the piece designated by the competition and brought new pieces instead.

In such cases, they usually performed difficult pieces or brought compositions.

And Yang Do-gyeong found such things interesting to watch.

‘They ignored what we specifically designated….’

The piece designated by the competition was essentially chosen by Yang Do-gyeong herself.

It was a piece that allowed her to immediately assess a performer’s level upon hearing it.

It was also designated with the meaning of practicing a bit more.

But bringing and performing a different piece was an act that ignored this.

‘…They’re confident. That must be it?’

“Did you compose this?”

“Yes.”

The child answered.

That short answer stung like a poisoned thorn.

It wasn’t the voice of a young child.

Though it was a thin voice, it somehow wasn’t easy.

“Who did it for you? I’ve never heard this piece before.”

Even to Yang Do-gyeong’s words, the child didn’t answer.

It was hard to tell from their expression whether they were pondering or ignoring her.

She waited a bit, but there was still no answer.

So she was about to ask something else.

“Great….”

The child’s voice was small and hard to hear.

Yang Do-gyeong asked once more.

“Could you say that again?”

“It’s a piece made by The Great Composer.”

Great?

People murmured at those words.

Along with the child’s answer, countless composers began passing through Yang Do-gyeong’s mind.

Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, Chopin, Paganini….

She recalled countless composers’ pieces, but none of them had composed the piece the child performed.

She could be confident about this.

She had conducted many pieces throughout her life.

Therefore, she had heard countless pieces and memorized them as well.

She could be certain.

The person who composed the piece the child performed was a composer she didn’t know.

“Could you tell me the name of the person who composed it?”

The child opened their mouth.

And in that fleeting moment, one person in the green room also opened their mouth.

“That’s a piece I wrote…?”

No one heard those words.

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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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