May 25, Wednesday: MUSIC ROOM

Today is the general assembly of all clubs, except the student council. You enter the music room nervously and are greeted by a big Korean lady with corn rows.

"Hello, sweetheart, are you also an applicant?" she asks as she approaches you at the door.

"Um, yes, ma'am," you answer.

She giggles and says, "No need to call me 'ma'am'. Just call me 'Big Mama' like everyone else."

You grin and reply, "Okay, Big Mama."

She invites you to take a seat with the other students. The room has various kinds of instruments ranging from orchestral to Korean traditional to rock. And unlike your classroom, it's air-conditioned.

<3

You approach the rows of chairs where the students are seated. Jongwoon turns his head from his seat at the back and waves at you.

"Haneul!" he calls out. "Sit here! I saved you a seat."

"Thanks, hyung!" you say as you rush to the seat.

"I'm so glad you joined this club too," he says cheerfully, his eyes disappearing with his smile.

"Mhm!" you nod in agreement. "Good thing you're here too, or else I wouldn't have anyone to talk to."

"BIG MAMAAA!" you hear someone say. You glance at the door and see Henry Lau, that prodigy violinist you talked to the other day. He jumps on Big Mama and gives her a big hug. 

"Aw, Henry sweetheart, it's nice to see you again," Big Mama gives him a bear hug squeeze.

"O-OW HAHAHA," he laughs, trying to gasp for air.

"Have you been eating right? You got skinnier, I think," she says, checking his face.

He bloats up his cheeks.

"Really? I don't think so, I think I've been pretty good."

"Hm, I'm going to feed you more mochi so that you don't get sickly and skinny like usual Korean boys," she says. "How have your private sessions with Mr. Bashi been?"

"Oh, pretty good," he smiles. "It's always a... mind-opening experience."

She chuckles, "Well, that's Mr. Bashi. Go take a seat with the other kids, Henry."

He nods. He sees you and waves. "Hi, hyung!"

"Hey, Henry!" you wave back.

He sits in an empty seat in the front row and Big Mama steps in front of the room.

"Why are most of you sitting at the back?" she asks. "Sit closer to the front! Take up the front rows!"

"Come on!" you motion to Jongwoon. You quickly sit beside Henry and Jongwoon takes the seat next to you.

Sandwiched between two friends now, yay~ :D

Henry flashes you a smile and your cheeks flush. You quickly face the front to avoid him seeing that you can't stop smiling.

STOP IT HANEUL STOP IT STOP IT YEAH HE'S CUTE AND ALL BUT STOP IT

Big Mama opens her arms wide and smiles at all of you, "Welcome to the Music Club, kids. Thanks for signing up! Before we begin, let me introduce myself. I am known as Big Mama to most everyone, and I graduted from the Seoul Jazz Academy in 1997 and I've also lectured music in several other institutions around Korea in the past. Now, I make my base here at Seoul High School. Why am I telling you this? Because you might be sitting there thinking, 'This woman looks like she came from California with her hair and stuff! How can I be sure that she can help me hone my talents?' Well, there. Furthermore, I'm only one of the music coaches for this club. Which brings me to my next point..."

She pulls down a whiteboard from the ceiling with charts on them.

"There are several sub-groups in this club based on your chosen field of musicality. As you might have noticed, our instruments aren't just for orchestra. The sub-groups are: 1) Symphonic 2) Traditional and 3) Contemporary.

Maestro Kim is the coach for the symphonic sub-group. He conducts for the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and most of the time, he takes his sub-group members on field trips to observe and train with the Philharmonic Orchestra itself. Around half of the members of the current Philharmonic Orchestra used to be students of his sub-group.

Mrs. Jung is the coach for the traditional sub-group of the music club. If you see an ajumma (don't tell her I said that) walking around with pink curlers in her hair in the morning, that's her. She works together with professional Korean traditional dancers so chances are, if you join her sub-group, she'll require you to attend those kinds of performances.

And finally for the contemporary sub-group, there are 2 coaches: Mr. Bashi for the instruments, and yours truly, for vocals. We both have connections and experience working in that field underground with bands, in other countries, and on TV. You should all probably know that Mr. Bashi is Japanese and he tends to be a bit... eccentric. I, on the other hand, will feed you lots of cakes and mochi just like I do to Henry over here." 

Everyone laughs.

"So," she continues. "I have sign up sheets here for the sub-groups. Please write down your name under the specific sub-group you want to be placed in."

Everyone stands up and forms a line. You all take turns signing up. By the time it's your turn, some students have signed up under the Symphonic sub-group. There were a few who signed up under the Traditional sub-group. And there was a bunch who signed up under the Contemporary sub-group. You see both Jongwoon's and Henry's names under the Contemporary sub-group.

I think I know which one I'm going to join. xD

You write your name under the Contemporary sub-group.

"Everyone finished?" Big Mama asks. "Okay, please take your seats once again. For those who wrote their names down under the Symphonic sub-group, your club schedule will be every Wednesday. For those under the Traditional sub-group, your club schedules will be every Monday after class. And for the little chumps who decided to stick with me, we will be meeting every Friday.

Now for the process..." she says, pressing her hands together. "You each have to choose a specific instrument no matter what sub-group you are, and perform an audition piece in front of your music coach. This will help him/her evaluate your knowledge, ability, and skill in your selected instrument. It would make things easier for the coaches if the instrument you choose is something you're actually good at, but if you want to learn a new skill instead, that's perfectly fine.

Any questions?"

No one raises their hands. You hear a small voice from the back squeak, "Will you really feed us cake?"

She guffaws heartily and says, "OF COURSE I WILL FEED YOU!! Don't worry about that! Anyway, you guys are dismissed. Thank you once again for choosing the Music Club and for those who are under me, I'll see you this Friday for auditions. Come prepared! The rest of you start next week."

ON THE WAY BACK TO THE DORMS

You and Jongwoon catch up with Henry. He glances behind him as he hears you running towards him. "Hyung! What's up?"

"Just hoping for the best," you laugh. "By the way, this is Jongwoon. He's a good friend of mine."

"Nice to meet you, Jongwoon hyung," he says, shaking his hand.

Jongwoon is surprised. "You're not Korean?"

"No, I'm actually Chinese," Henry says. "I take Korean language class with Hangeng."

"OHHH," Jongwoon says. "Nice."

"I was wondering, Henry," you mention. "if you're a violinist, why did you join the Contemporary sub-group?"

"Oh, well I'm already sort of training with the Philharmonic Orchestra because of my scholarship. But I want to do other things too like piano, guitar, drums, singing, songwriting... Staying at the orchestra will only enable me to play violin. I want to explore my options some more."

"I see..." o:

"Why don't you try incorporating violin into contemporary music then?"

"Actually, I've been having private sessions with Mr. Bashi, the weird dude Big Mama mentioned earlier," he explains. "He sort of 'saw my talent' and said that he wanted to 'experiment' a bit. He does a lot of weird music but I like it. Come to think of it, I didn't really need to write on the sign-up sheet," he laughs. "I did it just out of formality so that it's not strange to the rest of the students, I guess."

You and Jongwoon laugh. You have reached the first floor of the dorms. You say goodbye to Henry as he goes upstairs to his dorm room.

"Haneul," Jongwoon says. "What are you going to audition for?"

"Well," you say, rubbing your chin. "I've been playing the drums for quite a while now, but I really want to try something else. Maybe singing or piano or guitar... Still haven't decided. How 'bout you?"

"I'm going to sing," Jongwoon beams. "I'll audition with one of my compositions so that Big Mama can also evaluate my song-writing."

"Good for you, hyung," you pat him on the back.

"Anyway, I'll go to my room now. See you around, Haneul!" he waves.

"Later, hyung!" you wave back.

You enter your dorm room. Heechul isn't back yet from his club assembly. You think about what exact instrument you should specialize in.

I'm not so confident about my singing voice. But I can always hone that, right? Or maybe I should learn guitar to be on the safer side of things? But I don't know much about playing the guitar... I don't even HAVE a guitar. Nor do I have a piano to practice on. I'd just make a fool out of myself. I should at least have SOMETHING to show during the audition...

You fall asleep.