Chereads / Mari-am / Chapter 2 - Chapter- 2

Chapter 2 - Chapter- 2

§ She arrives in front of her singing class center, which was an old cabin house, whose walls were decent and painted dull whitish-grey toned color, and a small garden nearby.

She enters inside, the walls were a dull yellow-toned color, and the room was packed with desk chairs upon which people of different age groups were seated, conversing with their friends, some practicing their musical notes, some playing their instruments and the rest remaining silent and eagerly waiting for her arrival.

§ Students of age from 4 years old to 60 years old were present, seated on their chairs along with a detachable table, on which music notebooks were placed.

Some of them appeared excited, some nervous, some curious, some unbothered, and a few of them looked confident.

She notices a folded paper on her table, she then looks around the room and recognizes that same small boy, who is her neighbor as well as her student. She observes him from her place, he looks happy and is memorizing musical notes sincerely, after all, he is one of her obedient students.

§ She announces her presence by greeting good morning all in a neutral tone, the room is tiny yet comfortable and also affordable enough by her monthly budget.

§ She then walks up to her desk table, and looks straight at them, while they are greeting her good morning by bowing their heads fully, which is a sign of showing respect, and she observes them with her neutral eyes.

Her jet-black eyes look intimidating yet dull against the low-toned yellow-colored wall, still, her students seem to like her because she is sincere, disciplined, and regular, which makes them learn music so much easier and smoother than other ways of learning music.

§ She asks them to keep practicing for more extra minutes as she needs to complete their music class weekly progress report for the past week, so, she resumed completing the reports of the remaining 2 students, which she couldn't finish yesterday.

After 10 minutes, all the progress reports were ready, then she notices that paper again, she unfolds it, and something was written on it.

She reads the whole letter and looks straight at that small boy again and speaks, "Yeong-cheol (영철), can you explain to me, why have you written this letter to me? You do not need to write a letter to me for a request or permission, instead, ask me directly, that's a better way to get my response fast and direct to you. Yeong, come here and the rest of you be ready to perform yesterday's homework activity given to you all".

Yeong stands and walks up to her table and looks at her with a happy expression on his face, she then speaks," Yeong-a, you are aware of the fact that you need more practice to perform in any musical competitions out there, you should be fully prepared before you step up on the stage.

You remember, last time, you were stubborn and forced your mother to register your name in a musical competition event in Seoul, and what happened at your turn, you surely remember that day, you played your Casio while singing a Korean song, which was simple but the performance was not up to their level and you were advised to practice more and come fully prepared next time.

After that you hid somewhere in that place, your mother and I were searching for you and found you after some minutes, you were crying and your eyes were red, and your clothes were half wet, your mother was devastated seeing you like that, she hugged you and tears were coming out of her eyes continuously.

Both of you were looking miserable and vulnerable, so I took both of you to my house and sat silently with you, and made a promise to you that I will make you fully ready for any musical competition.

But, the time has not come yet, you still need to improvise a little bit more, so, another upcoming winter musical event would be a perfect way to show your talent. 그게 분명해? ( Is that clear?)".

Yeong nods and replies in a sweet tone, "더 연습해서 무대에 설 수 있도록 준비하겠습니다 ( I will practice more and make myself ready to be able to perform on stage). Seon-Saeng nim (teacher), I have practiced my homework a lot, and I am excited to play the practiced tune on my Casio, which you gave yesterday as homework to everyone. Thank you, teacher. I will now go back to my seat".

Yeong turns and walks, then suddenly stops and walks back to her and takes out a flower from his shirt pocket and keeps it on her table, and informs her that this was given by his mother to her as a gift for helping her in gardening yesterday evening.

She says nothing and picks up the flower and rotates it slowly in her hand and caresses the soft petals. Yeong has already returned to his seat and she keeps that flower inside the drawer of the desk table.

She stands and then speaks in a firm tone," All of you, one by one, perform and play the tune on your instruments that were given as homework yesterday. Show me, how much you have practiced".

§ After some time, everyone had shown their performance, some of them faced the consequences for doing incomplete homework, which was an unusual yet hard punishment, and then, she compensates for their pain by giving them a good treat by playing Casio, a beautiful Korean song ' 시간과 낙엽 (Time And Fallen Leaves)' by Artist - Akdong Musician, and singing along with it.

§ After an hour, she brings them out in nature and teaches them another lesson, while playing some tunes on the guitar to help them ease their tiredness into more calm energy, then explains the rhythm and composition of that beautiful song.

§ After her singing class, she leaves from there and reaches her clinic, where she treats and cures animals. The clinic is small and located near the main streets of Daejeon city, South Korea, where she was born. Her clinic looks decent and well both from the inside and outside, she has been in this legal profession for the past 4 years. She enters her clinic.

§ In her clinic, one of her student's family visits her clinic to treat their pet rabbit, she sincerely and carefully examines the rabbit, then notices a tiny scratch near the neck, which was slightly infected.

She then immediately, took out the vaccine bottle and softly injected the vaccine via a disposable syringe into the rabbit's body, and advised them to take more care of this rabbit as she might feel weak for some hours, but after that, she would be fine, and also feed her nutritious vegetable diet necessary for her, they listened to her order.

Like, a few of her regular visitors came to her clinic for either medical check-ups of their pets or bring their pets as patients, sometimes they complement her multi-tasking and handling ability to be a part-time music teacher and also run her clinic every single day.

She just thanks them with a neutral tone, which raises questions in those visitors' minds at her unusual, plain, and dull look/personality, but then they just ignore it and consider at least her dedication and teaching process, an admirable trait.

One of her visitors was her student, who is in her late 60s and, quite fond of her and she gave her a dinner box made for her as today was her granddaughter's first birthday, on which she performed the song that she learned from her, she looked quite happy and content, so, she accepted her gift.

§ After clinic time is over around 7 pm, she closes her clinic and then returns home, she enters her flat, the hall room, a cozy sofa along with a beautiful night lamp beside, placed upon a small round table, television is attached to the wall opposite the sofa, a wall mounted organizer consisting of newspapers, tissue pack, umbrella, some cloth bags, and her footwears, at last, a double-sided window in the side wall, a small storage shelf below the television, a kitchen room attached with hall room, a nearby the main door, the walls are pastel light lavender colored, upon plant photographs are attached, and small pot indoor plants placed on the floor below the window, and then a bedroom with attached bathroom inside.

She sits on the sofa for a while, then takes a bath, and then changes into another outfit, wearing a greyish-white colored trenchcoat with a dark blue loose t-shirt dress and off-white jeans underneath it.

She grabs her handbag, picks up some cookie packets and some books from the storage shelf in the hall room, and puts it inside, then grabs her umbrella and then wears her black boots, walks out of her house, walks downstairs, walks up to the bus stand nearby the street.

After waiting for 20 minutes, a bus arrived and she entered and paid for the bus ticket, then after 15 minutes, the bus reaches in front of the railway station and she walks out and enters the train, which will take her to Upo marshland.

She arrives at her destination and walks some distance and enters the Upo marshland, a cabin present nearby its entrance, she had already booked a room there and she then spends 2 hours there, roaming in that place, which is one of the relaxing scheduled activities of her life.

§ Her flat is in a duplex building, in which each floor has three flats, the building is coated with cream-beige hue colors and some beautiful intricate flower patterns carved upon the top wall of the building, her neighbors include a small family, a bachelor student living in their respective flats in the second floor along with her and some neighbors that know about her little bit are, an old couple, an old man, that live in their flats in the first floor, some of them are neutral to her, some of them have a fishy feeling about her, less number of them are fond of her due to her discipline and respectful nature, very few of them care for her even though she is ignorant to it.

§ Somehow, those who suspect her personality, and misunderstood her. Some of the neighbors have ideas about her character, which may be 1% right as she presents herself as having an unpredictable/ intimidating vibe, and demanding privacy, still, they and she have the wrong perception about 99% of her personality.

§ She then returns home via train and then reached her building colony and walked inside her flat and ate her dinner around late 9 pm, and roams through the garden, near the entrance, then around 10 pm, as usual, then she walks upstairs to the second floor.

While she was passing by the corridor, she heard celebration noises, children's voices, laughing sounds, and music vibrating outside the neighbor's house, she also hears a young female's voice, who was saying thank you on the phone, in a cheery tone for the birthday gifts sent to her from her family.

She gazes at their door with a dull yet sharp gaze with a neutral expression like a dull mood. Then she glances straight and goes back inside her flat.

The night passes and the morning rises, with Saeng-sacho, starting her day as usual like every day, and then after completing her work duties, when the evening was setting in the beautiful soft orange-bluish sky.

Saeng reaches home, freshens up, and changes into an outfit, wearing a warm orange sweatshirt with white ankle pants and her usual black boots.

Around 8 pm, she reaches a place named Hanbat Arboretum, a spacious park, located in the Seo District of Daejeon city.

She enters and roams around, the park was a little bit dark and dimly lit due to the moonless sky tonight, which doesn't bother her at all.

She observes many different species of plants and clicks photos, and then she walks furthermore and reaches a lake and sits down, and dips her legs in the water, staring at the lake with a blank expression, and after 20 minutes, she leaves the Hanbat Arboretum, greeting the guards with a respectful bow with no hint of expression in her face, which puzzled the guards as they thought that she might look happy or relieved or calm but she looked same like when she came in, as these guards were new, so they didn't know about her much as the old guards do as they have seen her frequently visit this place from many years.

She went back home and slept.

Like this many days pass with the same daily schedule routines.