I Decided To Become a Perfect Girl

175 – Superstar High School Girl (3)

Chopin, Queen Elisabeth, Tchaikovsky.

Just as there is a saying that it is the world’s top three competitions.

People used to classify competitions by level and importance.

Of course, this also applies to this narrow competition in Korea.

This is because it is a clear fact that there is a difference in level for each competition.

If I had to pick just one among them.

It is probably the largest competition in Korea, the Student Music Association Competition, where I won the overall grand prize several times.

However, these words were not always used.

Especially in high school, ranking major competitions has become meaningless.

Contest hosted by the university.

Contest hosted by a newspaper company.

Contest hosted by the association.

There are 12 competitions in Korea alone.

And even overseas international competitions recognized by the International Competition Federation.

All these competitions had one feature in common.

This is a competition that is recognized in college entrance exams.

In other words, the advantage of being an entrance exam portfolio meant that it made the level and importance of each competition the same, at least limited to high school students.

Because most high school students majoring in piano participated.

“Hello~!”

I greeted the practical teacher and lesson teacher brightly and calmly sat in front of the piano.

“Oh my, you’re Dohee? You look so pretty today too. Have you been practicing your song a lot?”

Then why is the university recognizing it?

Of course, this means that he presented a performance that was recognized by the university.

So what kind of performance is recognized by universities?

Here is an idiom that serves as a clear example.

Typical entrance exam art.

Of course, it was a satirical and humorous statement.

It was true that the art for entrance exams referred to conventional and schematic drawings that were biased toward showing technique.

From the beginning, the goal was to set a specific style and have students draw the same way accordingly.

The ideas and techniques were also bound to be similar.

So, playing the entrance exam song is the same thing.

Standard playing method, schematic expression that is not aggressive and can moderately reveal musicality, and structured rhythm.

It was a ‘typical entrance exam performance’.

More than anything, art high school was a process for entering art college.

All systems and curricula were designed for entrance exams.

“Have you prepared the preliminary song? Then, shall we play the final song right away?”

And the practical teacher sitting in front of me is also an elite who passed the entrance exam and graduated from a leading music college, although he did not become a pianist.

The accompaniment test teacher from earlier is also an elite who graduated from a well-known music school in Korea.

The teachers at the arts high school have followed the arts high school entrance exam curriculum.

Guiding students so that they can follow along.

As a result, they were hired to help students succeed in the entrance exam.

And that is the advantage of notice.

In a way, it was a disadvantage.

“Yes.”

I nodded and placed my hands on the keyboard.

It was obvious that the lesson teacher in charge would also ask me something.

‘I have to play it exactly according to the score, giving the minimum feeling.’

The song to play now is Chopin’s Ballade No. 4.

The song designated for the final round of this competition.

Of course, it is meaningless if you fail in the preliminaries.

You will need to practice the designated songs from the preliminaries before the main selection song.

It didn’t matter anyway.

Honestly, I felt like I could easily play the preliminaries, which lasted no longer than 2 minutes, in a regular manner as long as I practiced.

* * *

After finishing school, I took a taxi today instead of the manager’s van.

“Goodbye student~”

“Thank you.”

The place I got off was in front of the piano teacher’s house.

I was planning to come visit sometime when I have time.

I’m sorry, but today I didn’t just come to have fun.

When I rang the bell, I heard a familiar voice that I was always happy to hear.

─Let’s go~

Is there anything that has changed a bit since my previous visit?

The teacher’s son, Jinhyeon, can’t be heard crying.

I’m 6 years old now.

“Dohee!”

The door opened wide, and the teacher, who looked the same as before or now, rushed to hug me.

“Teacher, I’m here~”

“Really, what’s going on, superstar Dohee is coming to hang out like this?”

Now that I’m taller, I can’t wrap myself in a cozy embrace.

Still, it was still cozy.

Now you can see.

Big breasts are something that everyone, regardless of gender or age, likes.

* * *

“Dohee always comes to visit only during the piano competition. The teacher is a little hurt… But I’m glad that the teacher seems to be able to be of some help… And one day, Dohee will eventually forget the teacher. ..?”

“No, as I said before, I was really busy with Save’s activities for a while so I couldn’t come… If it wasn’t for the contest today, I’d go to my agency and practice…”

“I don’t know, I wanted to go to the Saven concert and support Dohee…”

“I gave you a ticket for that too, but you said you wouldn’t be able to come because of Jinhyeon…”

“Ugh, actually, her husband had a conference that day and had already made an appointment and left. Otherwise, Jinhyun would have just left it to him. When are we going to see Dohee’s first concert again? That was very bad.”

The teacher and I talked about our daily lives.

Of course, during this time, Jinhyun was sitting on my lap and held in my arms.

“Sister! Are you a princess?”

“Princess? Well?”

“Sister, marry me later!”

I used the teacher’s gift when I was young, so it was like paying back a little.

“Should Jinhyeon play with her dad for a while now? She has something to do with her older sister and mom.”

“No! I’m going to stay with my sister!”

“I’m sorry, Hwang Jin-hyeon. Who made you behave so rudely? Are you going to whip your mother?”

“Now~ Jinhyun, let’s play with dad~”

“Sir! It smells like daddy!”

“You too, me later!”

“No, no! Noona!”

The teacher’s husband forcibly took it away.

I turned away for a moment as Jinhyun stretched out her hand toward me.

You are as stubborn now as you were when you were 3 years old.

“I’m sorry, Jinhyun is at an age where I hate him.”

“Oh, that’s because it’s a baby. It’s cute.”

“When you came before, I saw how much you cried after you went home. It’s even clearer how pretty the kids are.”

We headed to the familiar piano room.

“Ugh, even when she was 5 or 6, our Dohee was a really good listener, smart, and pretty. You don’t know how many vain ideals I dreamed of because of her. I’m so jealous of Dohee’s mother…”

I am Jinhyeon…

Why is my mom so small?

What did Doa grow up drinking?

So we sat in front of the piano.

“I thought it was Chopin Ballade No. 4, Right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a very difficult song to designate.”

The teacher took out the sheet music for Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 From the booklet.

“Hmm… But actually, I don’t know if you can teach better than the arts high school teachers. Maybe Dohee can play better than me.”

“No way. I couldn’t even practice properly because I was an idol.”

“But Dohee must have played consistently for more than an hour a day.”

“…There are days when I don’t hit well… I guess?”

“That’s right.”

The teacher smiled happily.

“Wait a minute? I’ve played it before, too, so let me remember.”

And she slowly turned the pages, staring at the sheet music.

The page of the score, which was moving slowly, stopped at measure 211.

“Dohee, did you find the coda part difficult or was there anything you found difficult about it?”

Coda, a part added to the end of a piece of music, movement, or large section of a piece of music to emphasize the closing effect.

Chopin Ballade No. 4 Was the most difficult part for the players.

“Well…”

Honestly, there was none.

For me personally.

“Actually, if there are no technical problems in the coda part, the important thing is the expression, right? For example, a crescendo, decrescendo, melody in a strong coda or forte.”

The teacher placed his right hand on the piano.

And she played every note honestly.

“There is no need to play all the notes in the right hand of the melody like this. Just the soprano line, which is an important point… Make it more lively like this. Reduce the alto melody. That way, the emotions that explode in the coda will be conveyed accurately. Of course, that’s not an easy expression, right?”

This time, he pointed to the sheet music.

And then he placed his left hand on the keyboard.

“Then dig sforzando (especially hard) here with the left hand. Although it is expressed as staccato here, it is non-legato (played by slightly moving the notes apart)… Yes, to this depth. If you hit too aggressively, this part will become non-music. Because it feels like an enemy.”

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The teacher turned his head from looking at the score.

“But, Dohee. The teacher doesn’t think Dohee came here today because she doesn’t know these things. The teacher thinks Dohee can easily express this level.”

As the teacher said, this was an expression of skilled musicianship.

The techniques and emotions were difficult for a high school student to express.

An adult’s technique that does not deviate from the framework of college entrance exams.

“Even if I didn’t know this, my school teachers probably taught me this much.”

Today’s lesson teacher also highly praised my performance.

The messages are very clean and accurate.

But to me, it was just a feeling of recording and playback, not a performance.

Because it was a stereotypical performance method.

“Dohee has her own interpretation that she wants to see?”

I nodded slightly.

My impression of this song was different.

“I have a little bit.”

The teacher sat next to me and held her hand.

“Then let’s just say it like that. For some reason, I think Dohee will play it well.”

Then, he gently pressed one side of my head and made me lean into his arms like when I was a child.

“More than anything else, our Dohee, why is her hair so good? What kind of care do celebrities get?”

The teacher’s fingers lightly removed the hair that was tickling my eyes.

“I take care of my hair, but I’ve never dyed my hair. Kim Seo-yoon has dog hair.”

“On the outside, it looks okay.”

“It’s a trick. It’s a product. If you pull it gently, it falls off. It’s like dog hair.”

The teacher smiled cheerfully.

“Yes, I want to meet Seoyoon in person too.”

“When you debut this time, be sure to come to the showcase. Bring Jinhyun with you. Let’s all take pictures together afterward.”

“Okay, okay. Let’s do it.”

In the comfortable embrace, I smiled thinly and slowly closed my eyes.

My mind became increasingly peaceful.

I still felt burdened and had doubts.

But I think it’s right to just play the way you want to play.

If you can’t win the grand prize…

I’m sorry, Team Leader Sohyun, but I’ll have to think about it later.

Anyway, there is another major competition in a month.

I guess I can participate again in the revenge war, huh…

I remained in his arms with my eyes closed for a long time.

Even though I could hear Jinhyun whining and looking for me in the living room.

For the first time in a long time, I felt peaceful, free from everyday stress.