The subway was crowded on the way home from work in the evening.
Office workers riding public transportation each had their own ways of passing the boring time.
Listening to music.
People-watching.
Thinking alone.
But perhaps the most common method was.
‘Is there anything to watch?’
Looking at their phones.
And this particular office worker was browsing YouTube.
Rather than needlessly entering an online community to look up the day’s issues and give himself a headache, he simply wanted to watch a light video and relax.
So when he found nothing worth watching while scrolling through the algorithm, he entered YouTube’s Trending Videos section, commonly known as Trending.
Among them, one video caught his eye.
[Hanseong Arts High School Vlog | What Does the Piano Department Learn? Piano Major Class]
—HyunaLog · 140K views · 1 day ago
‘A vlog?’
It seemed to have risen by sheer luck after being selected by the algorithm.
Every now and then, channels with fewer than a hundred thousand subscribers would appear on Trending as well.
Still, the man thought those videos generally had a certain charm.
‘Maybe the charm of this video is its healing quality.’
There was something inherently comforting about the fresh daily lives of teenagers.
And if it involved a classical instrument like the piano, even more so.
In other words, it was exactly the kind of video he had been looking for.
‘I should watch it.’
The man clicked on the video, and just as he had expected, it began with cute, plinking BGM and a pretty female high school student standing in front of the school gate.
[Hyuna: Today is major class day, Friday. There aren’t many people around, right? Yes, I’m just a little late.]
As was typical of vlogs, the female student called Hyuna rambled on while walking with her phone, reciting her schedule for the day.
[Hyuna: Anyway, today is our major evaluation, so I’ll be playing a prelude and an étude. Oh, and we also have an accompaniment exam today...]
The screen soon shifted to the classroom.
[Hyuna: Anyway, I’ll show you everything from today’s major classes!]
Subtitles explaining what sight-singing class was appeared on the screen, but—
“Huh?”
The office worker raised his head and looked ahead instead of at his phone.
An advertisement for contact lenses was pasted onto the platform screen doors directly in front of him.
‘It is her, isn’t it?’
It was unquestionably the same face.
Though, really, it would have been impossible for there to be two girls who looked like that in the first place.
* * *
The main audience for the vlog was still overwhelmingly Seven’s fandom, but from a certain point onward, it had clearly begun to reach the general public as well.
And the scenes that remained in the minds of those who watched the video were mostly similar, as were their impressions.
Sadly, but unsurprisingly, the target of those scenes was Dohee rather than Hyuna.
They went roughly as follows.
First, there was Dohee, absorbed in her first-period sight-singing class.
[Dohee’s side profile in her school uniform.mp4]
(Vlog footage)
─Sol la la♪
Absolutely gorgeous, goddess descending ㄷㄷ
—She’s seriously so pretty.
—Why does her face turning red when she gets stared at make her so damn cute? lol
└So awkward lol She’s freaking adorable.
—She really is insanely pretty. An idol who makes you instinctively think of the word “doll.”
—It’s surprising how much better she’s gotten at singing than I expected. Yeah.
└You can tell that from this short clip? lol
└For real, you can clearly see that she’s likable because she has the mindset that she needs to practice vocals a lot and improve... Even I, a music idiot, can see her singing getting better, so it’s admirable and cute.
└Seems like her bust is growing too.
The second was how Dohee spent her break.
[Characteristics of a loser loner during break at school.mp4]
(Vlog footage)
─[You’re solving another mock exam...? Honestly, there’s nothing else to do besides this.]
Pretending to sleep or pretending to study lol
—Where does the OP live?
—Fucking hell, is Lee Dohee a loner?
└She said there’s nothing to do if she isn’t studying~
└For real, another total extrovert cosplaying as a loner.
└Don’t take away our loner identity...
—But why is Lee Dohee solving mock exams as an idol? And a third-year one at that? Isn’t she seventeen?
└Dohee was always good at studying. She ranked first in her entire school from elementary through middle school.
└Seriously? I didn’t know that. Didn’t her parents push her too far ahead?
└No idea, but it’s not exactly a typical idol résumé.
└Even if you watch Dohee’s old Seven livestreams or vlogs, she’s always studying in her spare time. She says it’s part of her routine.
The third was an ear-training class at the arts high school.
[Seven’s Lee Dohee transcribes music directly into a score after hearing it played.mp4]
(Vlog footage)
─[Teacher! In the first measure... the first measure, five... Hyuna, that’s sol, fa, re, do, la... What? It goes all the way to la? This is driving me crazy.]
Apparently, ear-training class was where they listened to the teacher play and immediately transcribed everything into sheet music, matching both the pitches and the rhythm.
Additional note) This is absolutely not a perfect-pitch test. The arts high school has a separate perfect-pitch test.
(Dohee naming notes after hearing one note through six-note chords on a broadcast.mp4)
This is the perfect-pitch test.
They say ear-training class is somewhat harder because of the rhythm.
—Lee Dohee is just naturally good at music.
—So this is the level you need to win the grand prize in piano.
—But being able to transcribe music at this level is possible for anyone who plays violin or composes among graduates of the top music colleges in Korea. They’re just rotting away in classical music because they’re all doing pure music.
└Real music-nerd bullshit, holy hell.
└Agreed. The excessive praise is seriously bad. It’s not for nothing that so many people started hating Lee Dohee—fans create antis.
└People who would find fault with her no matter what she did are really rationalizing it lol
└The fact that a seventeen-year-old idol can even be compared to students from top music colleges is already amazing, you idiots lol
—For your information) When an ordinary girl-group picture gets posted, the standard here is to call it viral marketing or say the agency is recruiting her. If it’s a lewd picture, everyone drools in unison.
└Seriously lol The same bastards who sexually harass her and say “Lee Dohee’s got some weight to her” whenever a lewd post goes up are acting like this lol
Of course, since the post became a hot topic, people started arguing in the comments as well, and not all the reactions were positive. Regardless, there was no doubt that it had become a subject of discussion.
And the fourth and final scene to become a hot topic was a conversation Dohee and Hyuna exchanged quietly during their two-piano ensemble practice.
[Is Dohee perhaps entering a piano competition?]
(Vlog footage)
─[After two-piano practical training during third and fourth period, we’ll each go take our accompaniment exam and then receive our lessons. Everyone has to start preparing for competitions now, too...]
Naturally, this was the hottest issue among the fans.
* * *
One thing I realized after enrolling in and attending an arts high school was that it had more advantages than I expected.
One of those many advantages was this:
While everyone else was in class, I could rent a private piano room under the pretext of major practice, spend some time alone, and take it easy.
That would obviously have been impossible at a regular high school.
Rather than major-related piano classes, I would probably have had to study subjects that were of no use to me.
─Ding ding ding ♬
Of course, I wasn’t slacking off.
As usual, I was diligently practicing the piano.
─♪♭
It simply wasn’t coming out the way I wanted.
I had let my mind wander and ended up pressing the wrong key.
“Phew...”
I suddenly remembered the time I had spoken privately with Team Leader Sohyeon, just the two of us, before entering the arts high school.
That day, the team leader explained why she had had me apply to the piano department instead of the practical music department.
The biggest reason was consideration for me.
During my trainee days, and even while promoting with Seven—
She knew that I was more attached to the piano than I let on, since I had practiced and repeated it consistently.
And there was another reason.
─Dohee, would you like to enter a piano competition again?
She had asked whether I would consider preparing for a piano competition once more.
It meant that I should experience again the things I had been forced to put aside temporarily while preparing to become an idol.
Of course, she had been asking for my opinion, not forcing me.
If the team leader had been thinking solely from the company’s perspective, she would have stopped me even if I wanted to participate.
An image built on a history of awards could collapse from a single failure to win.
Moreover, I had won the overall grand prize every time until then, so the standard was exceptionally high.
In other words, it was an endeavor with greater risks than benefits.
But the team leader had merely asked me.
─Oh, really? I’m allowed to enter? Then I want to! I’ve honestly been curious about the high school division, and I really did want to try it at least once.
Naturally, I had answered that I would.
I had been brimming with confidence in myself.
“Phew... Ah, I messed up again.”
But now, doubt about my playing had been creeping in throughout my practice.
In other words—
I was only now beginning to feel the pressure.
Was it because of the accompaniment exam just now?
The accompaniment exam, actually—
For all that it was called an exam, it didn’t have much significance.
It was more accurate to view it as nothing more than a midterm checkup.
The real exam—the practical—would be held at the end of the semester.
The main purpose was simply to practice and perform the assigned piece under the pretext of an exam, then listen to the teacher’s advice.
The practical piece assigned by the school was—
Brahms’s Sonata No. 3, first movement.
I had prepared the piece after considering it in my own way.
Brahms: a composer who valued formal beauty despite being a Romantic composer.
Although it was Brahms’s final sonata, it was catalogued as Op. 5, meaning it was a very early work from his youth.
Despite containing that youthful vigor, it was simultaneously imbued with Brahms’s characteristic solemn and weighty music.
Tempo Sign: Allegro maestoso.
This combination, and the context behind it, were apparent from the tempo marking itself.
Allegro had a slightly excited, cheerful feeling.
Maestoso meant dignified and majestic.
Above all, the dotted eighth note followed by two thirty-second notes in the opening—
I thought the intention was to push the sound a little farther forward.
After all, Brahms was a composer who wrote while considering a wide variety of sounds and textures, like those of an orchestra.
Taking all those impressions into consideration, I had added several interpretations of my own in an attempt to express them.
And as always, I had played cleanly without missing a single key.
But the only thing the teacher had said to me was—
─Dohee, you’ve prepared a lot. But it’s a little aggressive. Why don’t we try playing it more conventionally first?
Advice completely contrary to my expectations.
It was the first negative comment I had ever heard about my piano playing, despite how confident I had been in it.
“Whew...”
I let out a sigh, but just as I was about to place my hands on the keys again—
─Knock knock.
The door to the private piano room opened with a knock.
“Dohee~ It’s your turn. They told you to come downstairs.”
It was Hyuna, peeking her face through the doorway.
“Ah, okay. Thanks.”
After the accompaniment exam came—
It was time for my one-on-one private lesson in preparation for the upcoming competition.
Without realizing it, I let out another sigh and left the room.