Chapter 251

Translator: Dreamscribe

Seo-ha stared blankly at the stage.

Had Gyeo-ul always been the kind of pianist who could give such a fiery performance?

A man who had been hurt, who had bled, and who, despite it all, had loved life to the very end was fully embodied in her performance.

It was Chopin himself.

Even after the final note rang out, the entire hall remained so silent that it seemed everyone had stopped breathing.

Then the cheers erupted.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

The notoriously hard-to-please experts and aficionados began rising from their seats one after another.

It was the first standing ovation of the competition.

“Brava!”

“Woooo!”

Applause and cheers poured in from all directions. Conductor Wisławski turned around and urged Gyeo-ul to acknowledge the audience.

“....”

Gyeo-ul couldn't bring herself to rise from the piano bench.

It wasn't because she was exhausted and had lost all her strength. Her heart was simply too full, and she was afraid that if she moved even a single step, the lingering emotion would slip away.

'What is this?'

It was a sensation she had never felt before.

She had stood on countless stages over the years, but never once had she exposed her inner self so completely to an audience.

“Woooo!”

She finally managed to rise from her seat and bowed deeply toward the audience.

“Brava!”

“She’s Chopin reincarnated!”

The hall shook so violently that it felt as though an earthquake had struck.

Maria took out a handkerchief and wiped away her tears. This was the kind of music she had wanted to hear. A raw yet beautiful sound that seemed to rake across the very depths of the soul.

The other jury members also wore expressions that could not conceal how deeply moved they were.

“This is Chopin.”

“Perhaps we've been pursuing perfection too much all this time. I suppose it couldn't be helped, given that we're the ones who have to judge them.”

Their gazes lingered on Gyeo-ul for a long time. Maria spoke with a pleased expression.

“I very much like Gyeo-ul's interpretation. I think even the brief moments of uncertainty that surfaced during her performance actually heightened the emotional impact of the piece. Chopin was a fragile and unstable man. But perhaps that was precisely why he was able to write music so beautiful and so deeply human.”

It hadn't been intentional, but Gyeo-ul's performance had revealed Chopin's human side exceptionally well.

Gyeo-ul bowed toward the audience again and again.

A vast sea of cheers rose from the thousands of people before her. Amid it all, Gyeo-ul's eyes were drawn toward Seo-ha as if pulled by a magnet.

He was cheering and applauding more enthusiastically than anyone else.

The moment their eyes met, Gyeo-ul felt the tension weighing on her heart slowly melt away.

'Have I closed the distance between us, even a little?'

The sight of the jury members leaping to their feet and applauding just like the audience seemed to answer her question.

***

The lingering impact of Gyeo-ul's performance did not remain confined to the audience. The ones who suffered the hardest blow were the finalists scheduled to perform the following day.

A concours was an intense battle of nerves.

Everything would be decided through a single performance with the orchestra, so if the performer before them made an overwhelming impact, those who followed were bound to feel enormous pressure.

The waiting room backstage.

Stella, representing Germany, stared blankly at the monitor.

On the screen, the audience's standing ovation for Gyeo-ul continued without end.

“Why did she have to go right before me....”

Someone gave a weak laugh.

“I'm supposed to go onstage tomorrow after that? I'd rather just go home.”

“Exactly. I'm worried whether the judges will even be able to score us properly after that.”

Anxious voices followed one after another.

The Preliminary Round, followed by the first and second Main Rounds.

They were monsters who had climbed this far after defeating countless competitors. As world-class performers, they instinctively realized exactly what kind of crisis they were facing.

Scrape.

Poland's rising star Johann pushed back his chair and stood.

“If you're that scared, go home.”

The atmosphere instantly turned cold.

“What did you say?”

“Say that again.”

Johann shrugged.

“I'm just going to play my own music. If you can't even do that, why not quit being a pianist now?”

The finest art could break someone down, but at the same time, it could also pull them to even greater heights.

Watching Gyeo-ul bow her head, Johann muttered quietly.

“Thank you.”

He immediately headed for the practice room.

Tomorrow.

He, too, would step onto the stage with everything on the line.

If the Chopin that Gyeo-ul had shown them was one truth, Johann firmly believed that the Chopin within himself was another truth as well.

***

The second day of the Final Round.

The audience watched the stage with puzzled expressions.

Mistakes, then more mistakes.

Errors that the performers would never normally have made kept occurring.

Some performers even came out with interpretations completely unlike their usual styles.

“I expected this, but the situation is worse than I thought.”

Jan, the chairman of the jury, spoke with a sigh.

As the pianists lost their rhythm, the orchestra that had to follow them struggled as well. The conductor glanced toward the audience.

'This is going to be a difficult day.'

They were applauding mechanically, but they looked distracted and unable to fully concentrate. Gyeo-ul's performance from the previous day was undoubtedly still lingering in their minds.

Maria spoke with a faint smile.

“This will be a good experience for everyone, Gyeo-ul included.”

Some crumbled in the face of a crisis, while others discovered a new version of themselves within it.

That was the life of an artist.

Just as she had thought, not everyone fell apart.

Johann of Poland, who performed last, gave a far better performance than he had in the first and second Main Rounds.

And with that, the Chopin Competition finally drew to a close.

***

[Breaking News : Pianist Han Gyeo-ul Wins the Chopin International Piano Competition!]

A little past midnight after the Final Round performances ended, the judging results were finally announced. Although it was early morning, broadcasters interrupted their regular programming and began airing breaking news reports one after another.

“Viewers, we have wonderful news. South Korea's Han Gyeo-ul has won the Chopin International Piano Competition, one of the world's most prestigious piano competitions. She is only the second Korean in history to achieve this feat, following the first victory in 2015.”

The screen immediately switched to footage from the venue. Gyeo-ul stood surrounded by countless reporters and local fans as a barrage of camera flashes poured down around her.

The anchor continued excitedly.

“Local critics have showered Han Gyeo-ul with praise, describing her winning performance as though Chopin himself had returned from the dead.”

The moment the broadcast ended, congratulations flooded online communities.

[Han Gyeo-ul Wins the Chopin Competition]

-I'm sure all the classical fans watched the performances live. I stayed up until dawn watching too, and it was exhausting. I knew she'd win. That woke me right up.

Congratulations, Han Gyeo-ul. All the people who mocked her for being some kind of celebrity can shut up now ㅋㅋㅋ

└She only got unfairly hated on because her looks are basically cheating. Everyone already knew she had the skill.

└Yeah. You think the Curtis Institute of Music is a joke?

└I watched it live, and I thought my heart was going to explode when they announced the scores. The second they called Han Gyeo-ul's name, I got goosebumps.

└Wasn't that Yu Seo-ha in the corner of the screen?

└Yeah, that's him ㅋㅋㅋ

└Are they really dating? Looks like he went all the way to Poland to cheer her on. I figured as much, but damn, I'm jealous.

└Her Final Round performance was genuinely legendary. It was like she was possessed.

└Her personality has to be awful, right? No one should be allowed to have everything!

└Our Gyeo-ul is nice. Seriously!

└But if those two get married, what kind of stats would their kid have?

└That's a web novel. ‘I Was Born with SSS-Rank Genes.’

└Their genes are way too powerful.

└Imagine being born and finding out both your parents are number one in the world ㅋㅋㅋ

Online communities and social media were practically in festival mode.

Famous singers and actors joined in one after another, sharing the news of Gyeo-ul's victory. Korean comments exploded across the Chopin Competition's official channel, which drew classical music enthusiasts from all over the world.

A pianist with an angelic face. And one who had won the Chopin Competition.

South Korea was now in the grip of Han Gyeo-ul syndrome.

***

Nine in the morning.

Gyeo-ul and Seo-ha sat across from each other at a table in an outdoor café in Warsaw.

She scooped up a spoonful of soup and put it in her mouth.

“...It's good.”

After the competition ended, Gyeo-ul returned to good health. She was eating properly again, and as soon as ten at night rolled around, she fell fast asleep.

Gyeo-ul soon raised her spoon again.

Żurek, a Polish sour rye soup, was perfect for the cold weather. She had never tried it during the competition because she had no appetite, but it tasted far better than she had expected.

“Does it feel real now?”

“Yeah. I really won.”

Gyeo-ul answered Seo-ha's question with a sheepish expression.

For the past few days, she had felt as though she were dreaming.

The awards ceremony, the reporters' camera flashes, congratulations and handshakes from strangers, and the gala performance she could barely even remember playing.

Apparently, Korea was in an uproar right now.

Her agency manager had called her in an extremely excited voice.

“You're already a world-famous pianist. I always knew you'd become one.”

“So, do you feel like I've gotten farther away from you? Are you worried I might leave?”

Gyeo-ul asked with a playful expression.

“A little? You're definitely going to get busier from now on.”

“I....”

“Yeah?”

Gyeo-ul began speaking as though she had made up her mind.

“I always felt that way while watching you. When you received the Fields Prize, when you proved the Riemann Hypothesis, and even when I saw the article saying you were becoming a professor. I hadn't accomplished anything yet, while you seemed like you were already so far above me. It always made me anxious.”

Seo-ha gave her a gentle smile.

“There's no point thinking like that.”

“I know. So this time, I'll say the same thing back to you. Just be good and wait for me. I'll come back once I finish my European tour.”

Seo-ha would be going back. And she would spend the next two years traveling the world.

They understood each other deeply, but they hadn't spent much time together. They had always lived apart, each fighting fiercely within their own world.

Parting was no stranger to them. And yet, for some reason, Gyeo-ul found this particular moment unbearably difficult.

Pretending to sip her coffee, she carefully studied Seo-ha's face.

'He really is handsome.'

Well-defined features, kind eyes, and a guileless smile.

Gyeo-ul took in the sight of Seo-ha for a long time, as though afraid she might somehow forget this day.

***

“Has it already been three years?”

Today was the discharge date of Director Yu Seo-ha, who had begun his service around the same time Lee Hyun-seok had taken office. It was the very date he had marked with a red circle on his calendar.

Minister Lee Hyun-seok looked in the mirror and straightened his crooked tie.

He was sorry to see Seo-ha go, but by now he understood. Yu Seo-ha could not be confined within the small boundaries of South Korea.

'No, perhaps even the United States couldn't contain him.'

Knock! Knock!

With the sound of knocking, the door to the minister's office opened.

When Lee Hyun-seok turned around, Seo-ha entered in a neat suit. He stopped in front of the minister's desk and stood perfectly straight.

“Sa! lute!”

His salute was as crisp as that of a new recruit. His booming voice rang through the room.

“Team Apex Korea, Yu Seo-ha! As of today, I have completed my term of alternative service as key national security research personnel. I hereby report my discharge. Salute!”

“Salute.”

Lee Hyun-seok raised his hand and returned the salute.

Neither of them had experienced military life beyond basic training, but in spirit, they were both active-duty soldiers.

“Director Yu.”

“Yes, Minister.”

Minister Lee Hyun-seok slowly began speaking.

“On behalf of the nation, I would like to thank you for all your hard work for South Korea. This country owes you a great debt.”

“It's something every man has to do. I never intended to avoid it in the first place.”

A pleased smile appeared at the modest response.

Lee Hyun-seok walked over to Seo-ha and firmly clasped his hand with both of his own.

“When you return to Boston, you'll become a professor at MIT while still in your early twenties. I can't even begin to imagine what you'll accomplish from here on.

Spread your wings and pursue your dreams to your heart's content. If there's anything you want, just say the word. I'll do whatever I can. Congratulations on your discharge.”

With his discharge certificate in hand, Seo-ha stepped outside and looked up at the blue sky.

The sunlight was dazzlingly bright.

“Whew!”

Seo-ha drew in a deep breath and muttered.

“Freedom.”

But there was no time to savor the joy.

Classes were set to begin in early February, less than a month away, and the battle for course registration was already raging at MIT.

*****

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