Chapter 24: A Reed in the Wind

Monday’s ordeal did not end there.

After the general education class, he had to prepare for his next lesson in a practice room.

If he had his way, he would have returned to his studio and slept until his evening shift.

However, his throat had been in bad condition since sleeping with Euigeon, and he had been so preoccupied with the opera that he hadn’t been able to practice personally.

He didn’t know when he would be able to book a school practice room again if not today.

So, he couldn’t put it off any longer.

The lesson piece would somehow affect his exam for the practical evaluation.
He had to prepare today.

“Senior, what should I do… My younger sibling suddenly got hurt, so I think I have to go to the hospital…”

He had asked a junior who could play the piano to accompany him, but just before entering the practice room, she came to him with a tearful face and said the following.

Her sibling getting hurt was an unavoidable situation.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t disappointed, but if he played the audio file on his phone in a pinch, he would somehow be able to practice on his own.

“I’m really, really sorry. I wanted to help.”

“It’s okay, it’s a family matter. You should hurry.”

“Ah, but still… what should I do? Wait a minute. I’ll see if there’s anyone in our department who can play.”

The junior searched through her phone contacts to find a replacement.

It was no use telling her to hurry and go.

Unlike the unexpectant Chaewoo, the junior, who was stomping her feet and agonizing, eventually came up with the worst possible candidate.

“Ah! Senior Euigeon plays the piano well! He should be at school now. I saw him in the department room earlier.”

That was absolutely not an option.

He could have just left, but to think he would try to stir up trouble on his way out.
Chaewoo firmly refused.

“I appreciate the thought, but I’ll just do it on my own. Hurry up and go.”

“No, Senior! Senior Euigeon really plays the piano well. Ah… but I don’t know if he would accompany you…”

The junior’s voice grew smaller and smaller.

Since Euigeon wasn’t the easy-to-approach type of senior, he understood how she felt.

He had no intention of asking him in the first place, so he wished the junior would just give up and leave.

He would be more comfortable bringing a stray cat from campus, putting it on the keyboard, and having it play by tapping with its paws than getting Euigeon to accompany him.

Even if the accompaniment was a mess, it would be cute, so at least the bright songs would come out well.

“Don’t worry about it. He definitely won’t do it. There’s no point in asking him… no. Anyway, I’ll take care of it, so could you please just go now?”

“You’re Senior Euigeon’s senior! Senior Euigeon might be difficult, but he’s good at any song, so you should at least ask…”

“Who’s good at what?”

But that unhelpful person, as if he knew they were talking about him, suddenly popped out from somewhere.

“Whoa, it’s Senior Euigeon!”

Why is this music department so damn small?

This was beyond the worst—the worst of the worst.

Chaewoo swallowed a scream and turned to look at Euigeon.

He knew that music students could walk down the practice room hallway anytime, but it was unbelievable that he would appear at this exact moment.

“Were you talking about me?”

“No?”

The junior couldn’t readily explain the situation to the difficult senior, Euigeon.

That was understandable; he wasn’t the type to look after his juniors, and anyone would shrink in front of such a big guy towering over them.

Seeing the junior hesitating, Chaewoo pushed him.

“Hurry and go. Go!”

The junior was seriously not listening to his senior.

After seeming to struggle with whether to speak or not, the junior suddenly firmed her eyes as if she had made a decision.

Chaewoo shouted inwardly.

‘Hey, no. Don’t do it. Don’t decide. Don’t look so determined.’

Unfortunately, today was a day where everything went against Chaewoo’s will.

“Senior Euigeon. Excuse me, but if you have time, could you accompany Senior Chaewoo? His lesson is soon, and he only has today to practice. I was originally supposed to do it, but something urgent came up and I have to go… Please.”

Chaewoo sighed.

His mind was a mess.

A sense of resignation, perhaps.

At this point, his only hope was that Euigeon would refuse.

‘Please, just go.’

“Shall I?”

“What?”

“Oh yeah, that’s great! Right, Senior?”

The junior chattered excitedly and patted Chaewoo on the shoulder.
Chaewoo looked at Euigeon with eyes that asked, ‘Are you really going to accept?’

“Aren’t you busy?”

The question seemed concerned about Euigeon’s schedule, but the tone was blunt, as if wishing he would get lost.

“I don’t have any more classes today.”

“Haah, really. Now I feel at ease. I’m glad I could be of help to you this way, Senior Chaewoo.”

‘You weren’t helpful at all. Far from being helpful, you just messed everything up.’

He wanted to snap something at the bright face, but he didn’t have the energy.
It felt as if someone had sucked all the life out of him.

“Thank you so much, Senior Euigeon. Then I’ll get going. See you later!”

The junior bowed at a ninety-degree angle to Euigeon and Chaewoo.

Then, as if she were really in a hurry, she bolted out of the building.

“What’s the song?”

Euigeon nonchalantly opened the practice room door, put his bag on the floor, and sat on the piano bench.

Even though he hadn’t given him permission to enter.

Chaewoo decided to give up.

Since things had turned out this way, he felt he should at least practice well.

“…Lascia ch’io pianga.”

“Rinaldo?”

“Yeah. The sheet music should be in there somewhere.”

“I can play it without the sheet music.”

Euigeon lightly tapped the keys.
The smooth flow of notes, rising and falling, filled the small practice room.

“Did you warm up your voice?”

“Not yet.”

“Then shall we start with warm-ups?”

And so, pushed by the situation, the practice began.

He had expected him to pick a fight or get on his nerves as usual, but Euigeon played the piano seriously, matching Chaewoo.

His claim that he could play ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from the opera Rinaldo without sheet music was true.

It wasn’t just that he could play it; he was a top-class player.

Euigeon had a large frame, with long, thick wrists and fingers.

When he sat at the piano, his build was so large that it created the illusion that the piano had shrunk.

He had expected his tempo and sound to be strong because of his large body, but he laid down the accompaniment while moderately adjusting to Chaewoo’s vocalization.

He was so delicate that one might wonder what it would have been like if he had majored in piano.

To be good at singing and also have this level of piano skill meant he was naturally gifted in the genre of music itself.

He didn’t know the detailed reasons, but he felt he could somewhat understand why Euigeon’s family wanted to have a child with the best genetic conditions early on.

Not that it justified a Reset Partner, but… for a family of musicians like this, it was understandable to be greedy about their children and future generations.

“Senior?”

“……”

“Senior Seol.”

“Ah.”

“What are you doing? You missed the beat.”

He had missed the beat while lost in other thoughts for a moment.

“I was just thinking about something else. Sorry, I’ll do it again.”

However, once his concentration broke, he went off-key in succession.
He repeatedly missed the beat, failed to produce the necessary volume, and had to stop the performance.

He knew he didn’t need to look good in front of Euigeon, but it was embarrassing to show him making mistakes one after another.

He should have just refused until the end, saying he didn’t need the accompaniment.

It was a mess.

Above all, he was embarrassed.

Since he hadn’t been able to practice since his heat cycle, he wasn’t even performing at half his usual skill level.

“Let’s take a short break.”

Chaewoo drank some water and pulled a small chair from the corner to sit on.
As he was debating whether to tell him to leave, Euigeon said something absurd.

“It hasn’t even been thirty minutes since we started.”

“So I can’t take a break?”

‘My throat is already in bad shape, and he’s giving me a hard time.’
Chaewoo grumbled.

“A craftsman without a soul is but a fleeting reed swaying in the wind, isn’t it?”

“……”

Euigeon’s expression was quite serious, so he was confused about whether to take it as a joke or answer seriously.

One thing was certain: he seemed to think Chaewoo should continue practicing.
Even though he was the one who had messed up his voice in the first place.

“That’s why I hate Brahms.”

“What’s wrong with Johannes Brahms? He was a court musician in Detmold at twenty-four.”

…What?
Is this guy a Brahms fan?

“I don’t like that conservative feeling. And Detmold wasn’t even that big of a court.”

“You don’t seem to know. Brahms also received the ‘Grand Medal for Arts and Sciences’ from the emperor in 1895.”

So he was a Brahms fan.

“Even the German emperor liked conservative things. Not my style.”

“Hmm. So you can produce that kind of voice even without a craftsman’s soul, Senior Seol. That’s a strength.”

“Whatever.”

“I hate hearing other people go off-key, but why doesn’t it bother me when you do it, Senior Seol? Strangely.”

Is he teasing me right now?

“My throat isn’t in good condition today. If you don’t want to hear it, you can stop.”

“See? I told you to drink water.”

“What water…”

Chaewoo paused.
He had no idea what he was talking about.
Then, he vaguely remembered what Euigeon had said before he fell asleep.

“Are you crazy?”

He hadn’t expected Euigeon to bring up that day first.
He had thought he would treat it as if it never happened again.

Chaewoo fiddled with the tip of his nose and avoided his gaze.
He was even more flustered because he didn’t know how to react.

“I’ve been wanting to ask for a while… are you doing this because you have something to say to me?”

After pondering the reason why Euigeon had been getting on his nerves for the past few days, he had come to the conclusion that he might have something he wanted to say.

“You only just realized that?”

Euigeon affirmed, as if to say he was slow on the uptake.

But what could he possibly have to say to him other than the contract?

If he had something to say, he could have just been direct from the start instead of provoking him.

Was it a topic that was awkward to bring up first?