Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Winter's Nocturne
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Winter took Seo-ha's silence as affirmation and pulled a sad face.
"A confession would be too much. Sure, I'm pretty, but let's not rush things from the get-go."
She certainly had a striking appearance. Hearing such words from someone so beautiful left Seo-ha unsure where the joke ended and reality began.
He swallowed his rising frustration and shook his head.
"Don't get the wrong idea. That's not what I meant."
Winter pouted her lips and shot back peevishly.
"Everyone says that at first. But fine, I'll trust you this once."
Seo-ha let out a relieved sigh.
"Thanks. There's a reason I'm asking you to play for me."
"What's that?"
"I can't go into details, but sometimes I need a sense of calm. And for some reason, your playing seems to have a special effect on me. When I listen, the chaos in my head clears right up."
Winter stared blankly at Seo-ha for a moment before nodding as if she understood.
"I knew it."
Seo-ha covered his face with both hands.
"That's not it either."
'This guy's fallen for me at first sight.'
That was already a settled fact in her mind. So Winter neatly ignored Seo-ha's protests.
"Alright! I needed someone to help with math anyway. You check my homework, and I'll play piano to calm you down. Sound good?"
"Spot on."
Winter grinned in satisfaction and adjusted the height of the piano bench.
"Then, as a celebration of our deal, I'll play one extra special piece. Any requests?"
Seo-ha's knowledge of music came entirely from encyclopedia entries.
"I'm not big on classics. Got anything mellow?"
"Perfect, I've been practicing just the thing."
Winter carefully examined the keys. Then she slowly closed her eyes.
Seo-ha noticed her expression turn serious in an instant.
Chopin's Nocturne No. 7, Op. 27-1.
Her left hand struck the low notes slowly, and the sound spread like gentle ripples.
With her eyes shut, Winter traced the notes with her fingertips.
Seo-ha rested both hands on his knees and watched her quietly.
'Incredible.'
There was an aura to Winter's playing.
Her body swayed with the flow of the music, like reeds bending in the wind—never fighting it, always natural.
Sometimes soft, sometimes passionate. She poured her entire body into the piano.
Chopin's beautiful, lyrical nocturne.
Seo-ha closed his eyes.
The notes piled up one by one, filling the music room. A beautifully ordered melody unfolding seamlessly.
The presence of Duckie, which he always had to suppress under constant tension, now lay dormant and quiet.
'You like this girl's playing?'
Duckie nodded.
'Me too.'
Winter continued with her eyes closed.
The notes followed the score, yet varied subtly each moment. They flowed softly, then surged with power, cresting before fading back into silence.
The noise that had rattled his mind vanished completely.
This utter stillness was unfamiliar, yet comforting—the first time he'd ever felt it.
"All good?"
When he opened his eyes, Winter had finished and was looking at him.
"That was moving."
Tears welled up in Seo-ha's eyes.
It was the backlash of emotions he'd learned to suppress from a young age finally loosening their grip. The release felt poignant and overwhelming.
"Wh-what? You're crying?"
Winter's eyes widened, and she hurriedly averted her gaze.
"N-no way... you like me that much?"
Her face flushed red all the way to her ears.
She flapped her hands in panic, trying to cool the heat from her cheeks.
"E-even if... we just met today. But if that's how you feel..."
Before Winter could finish, Seo-ha stood up. He slipped a note into her hand.
"You need help with math homework, right? Call anytime."
Seo-ha wiped his tears.
Then he turned coolly and walked away.
"..."
[Yoo Seo-ha, Dorm 40△ Room, 010-○○△△-▽▽□□]
Winter stared down at the note in her hand.
Neat handwriting, numbers perfectly aligned without a single flaw.
Her shoulders trembled.
Friday afternoon, after classes ended, Seo-ha stepped out of the dorm in casual clothes.
The campus bustled with students preparing to head home for the weekend.
Seo-ha walked in the opposite direction.
Following the path led to a massive library. With a blank expression, he pushed open the door and went inside.
The library was quiet.
He headed straight to the reference section, gathered several books, and sat at an empty table.
Harmony, Basic Music Theory, Counterpoint, Structure of Tonality, Music and the Brain, Psychology of Music.
Seo-ha had swept up every book on music and psychology he could find.
Leibniz, inventor of calculus, had said:
'There are no phenomena without reason.'
Seo-ha strongly agreed.
How could he explain the psychological calm he felt listening to Winter's playing?
There had to be a reason for it. He couldn't accept a vague answer like "the performance was just good."
Seo-ha's hand paused while flipping through a page.
'Pythagoras discovered that musical intervals could be explained by mathematical ratios.'
The modern seven-note scale was essentially a mathematical ratio system designed by Pythagoras and his disciples.
Seo-ha's exceptional mathematical intuition extended effortlessly to its variant: music.
Half the string length: octave. 3:2: perfect fifth. 4:3: perfect fourth.
Simple fractional ratios became intervals.
Seo-ha drew lines in his notebook and jotted down numbers. As they connected into curves, they overlapped with the piano keyboard layout. Notes stacked in precise ratios from the starting Do formed a complete system.
The reason began to emerge.
His subconscious recognized the harmony in the mathematical ratios embedded in Winter's playing?
But he didn't feel it with others' performances.
Perhaps the rhythms and harmonies she produced aligned uniquely with his brainwaves or bodily cycles.
Thud.
Seo-ha closed the book.
This was a conclusion he could accept.
Two people sat in the empty music room.
Seo-ha clutched his head, while Winter, arms crossed and dissatisfied, looked away.
A math book lay on the stand instead of sheet music. Winter's copy was pristine, untouched, without a single crease on the cover.
"This is middle school first-year level. Just grasp the basics."
"Don't you know I skipped middle school?"
"Actually, you learn this in sixth grade elementary."
The paper held a very basic polynomial. Sensing her level, Seo-ha set aside the advanced high school text and started from what she didn't know.
"..."
Winter sneaked a glance, then turned her head.
"I'm just off today. I usually know this stuff."
Her eyes looked elsewhere, but her earlobes burned red.
In truth, she had talent for studying.
You can't achieve greatness in music without a sharp mind. Winter, who remembered only her childhood successes, felt embarrassed in front of Seo-ha, the rumored math genius.
"I think people gifted in music have a high chance of excelling at math too. You just haven't had enough time or opportunity. So let's start from the beginning, step by step."
"..."
She'd only wanted homework help, but this kid was trying to fix her entire math ability. Winter felt grateful yet resentful. Having all her gaps exposed was too harsh a punishment for her pride.
Rather than compete in stubbornness, Seo-ha decided to be honest with her.
"Han Winter. I don't know about you, but I desperately need your playing. So I'd like this exchange to last as long as possible.
But if your math doesn't improve, these meetings can't continue, right? That's not what I want. So how about we admit it openly and give it our best?"
Pouring out his true feelings to someone was a first for Seo-ha too. He felt strangely unfamiliar being so candid only with her.
Winter's eyes widened at his sudden confession.
"You need me that much?"
"Yeah."
"How much?"
Winter leaned forward slightly as she asked.
"As much as breathing."
A confident smile bloomed on Winter's face.
"You think I'll fall for that exaggeration?"
"It's not an exaggeration."
"Hmph! Fine, if you put it that way. But just so you know, I'm not the type to get moved easily."
She seemed to be misunderstanding something, but Seo-ha chose not to dwell on it. He could never match the unique sensitivity of a music major anyway.
Seo-ha's explanations were simple and clear.
'Feels like teaching Seo-eun.'
Winter was diligent in learning and grasped concepts quickly. Seo-ha's breakdowns untangled the knots in her mind.
By the end of the day, she absorbed more knowledge than in the past six years combined.
Satisfied with her real-time growth, Winter smiled and sat at the piano. In high spirits, she even hummed a tune.
"Mind if I record it?"
Seo-ha pulled out his phone to test if it had to be live.
But the response was unexpected.
"Absolutely not!
You wouldn't get it since you're not in music, but recording a pianist's performance without permission is a huge breach of etiquette. I only want records on my terms, when I choose."
Seo-ha nodded.
It made sense upon reflection. Even as a student, she was already a proper pianist.
"W-well... if you really want, we could go to a studio later and record."
She turned her head away as if dodging, steadying her breath.
Winter's performance began.
Seo-ha kept his eyes open this time. He deliberately fixed his gaze, following her movements and the flow of sound.
'I can't rely on Winter forever.'
Seo-ha wanted to find his own path. To do that, he needed to understand first.
Her left hand laid down the rhythm first.
The right hand layered on harmony. Her touch varied in strength, with subtle fluctuations instead of rigid patterns. Yet Seo-ha found stability in that irregularity.
Seo-ha pulled out his notebook and began jotting notes.
Chord changes, pedal presses, tempo slowing then reviving. Everything recorded as mathematical variables.
He pondered if he could recreate her music in his own way.
That night, Seo-ha wrestled with the urge to play piano. More precisely, Duckie craved it.
'No place to play at this hour.'
After agonizing, Seo-ha opened his notebook.
'Duckie, write down the notes you want. I'll learn and play them later.'
The pen tip danced across the paper.
Notes Duckie whispered into his mind transformed into symbols one by one.
A note on one side drew a corresponding harmony on the other. Seo-ha thought it resembled the relation between a function and its graph.
After scribbling for a while, Duckie quieted in satisfaction.
The notebook brimmed with symbols blending music and math.
"What should I title it?"
After much thought, Seo-ha scrawled something at the top of the page.
[Theme of Duckie]