Confrontation
Confrontation
"Aria, are you really okay?"
"Hmm? About what?"
"Tomorrow. The duel."
Back home, Aria was lounging on the sofa in her usual dolphin shorts, looking tired.
Was she really going to be fine like this?
Victoria had even said she would give her about a month out of consideration, but Aria herself had said to do it tomorrow.
"Oh, I'm fine. Thank you for worrying about me, Brother."
Aria smiled as if she was simply happy about my concern, but she still showed no sign of practicing.
"Aria, aren't you worried? The duel venue was arranged by Victoria's side. If they bribe the audience in advance, wouldn't that be dangerous?"
In the hall Victoria's side had booked, between already scheduled performances, the two of them would each perform as special guests, and the audience would vote for whichever performance they thought was superior.
Since the audience members had already bought tickets, Victoria couldn't fill the seats with her own people in advance, but wouldn't bribing them with money be entirely possible?
"If that's what you're worried about, you don't need to worry at all."
"Why?"
"Victoria has high pride and pursues fairness. Toward herself, and toward others. Even if she beat me that way, she herself wouldn't be able to accept it."
"Well, that's true. If she were a coward, she wouldn't have been angry that you disappeared—she would've been glad."
How many people would be furious when their strongest rival conveniently vanished on her own?
"But what about the instrument?"
Right.
The hall already had a piano, but it didn't have an organ installed, which was Aria's specialty.
In the first place, finding a place with an organ installed was a job in itself. Even for Victoria, she had to secure a venue and audience for tomorrow's performance, so arranging a place with an organ would have been difficult.
That meant Aria would have to play a different instrument, yet she was completely unbothered.
"That's fine too. My performance comes after Victoria's, so I'm going to use the same instrument Victoria used."
"Wait, is that okay?"
"If she won't lend it to me, I can just use the piano in the hall."
It wasn't a matter of whether she would lend it or not—I knew that tuning an instrument to fit an individual's playing style was important.
I was curious where that confidence and composure came from, the idea that she could just use someone else's instrument as-is, but I kept my mouth shut.
Aria had far deeper knowledge of music and instruments than I did. There was no point in a layman like me nitpicking.
So I voiced a different question.
"But is there a reason you insisted on tomorrow?"
"Because annoying things should be finished quickly so I can feel at ease. When I don't even have enough time to enjoy being alone with you, Brother, I don't want my schedule tied up by something like that."
I still didn't understand the source of the composure that treated a performance deciding whether she would return to the music world as "something like that," but I could fully understand the feeling itself.
Even for an exam you're confident you'll pass, you still end up looking at your books one more time during exam period, and when you have time to spare, you end up working through practice questions.
* * *
The next day, Aria and I arrived at the hall where the concert was scheduled. Since we had to dress appropriately for the venue, Aria was wearing a dress, but her face openly showed how annoying she found it.
I had no choice but to clear my throat and quietly say to Aria,
"You look pretty. In the dress, too."
Aria's face instantly flushed, and she made an expression that was both happy and regretful.
"Hehe. Really? I'm happy you said that, Brother, but on the other hand, it's a little disappointing. This was a dress I wanted to show you first on a more important occasion..."
"Well, today is an important day too, isn't it? We're dueling with my honor and your return to the music world on the line."
"That's true, but let me correct one thing."
Aria, who had been walking a step ahead, spun around once with her hands behind her back and looked at me.
"It's not a duel. It's a ravaging, Brother."
When we entered the hall, the person waiting at the entrance was Lucas. Lucas bowed politely when he saw us.
"You've arrived, Mr. Si-hyeon, Ms. Aria. First, I will escort Ms. Aria to the waiting room."
We passed through a long corridor toward the performers' waiting room.
In front of the waiting room, Aria spoke to me with a serene expression.
"Then I'll see you later, Brother."
"Good luck, Aria."
The waiting room door closed carefully.
Then Lucas spoke to me.
"I will escort you to the VIP seat, Mr. Si-hyeon."
"Did Victoria arrange it?"
"Yes. However, for the sake of fairness, you will not be able to vote, Mr. Si-hyeon. Instead, we will take responsibility for all other accommodations."
I followed Lucas to the VIP seat at the very front.
The audience seats were already packed with people.
"For a concert with this many audience members, they managed to secure time for a duel."
"It's a bit different from that, Mr. Si-hyeon."
Lucas gestured sidelong at some of the other guests in the VIP section and spoke to me.
"Because of a single rumor that Ms. Aria, who had suddenly gone into hiding, would be performing, even the empty seats sold out in an instant. There are also several famous conductors, performers, and critics who came from overseas."
"Huh..."
I let out an exclamation.
I knew Aria was famous, but seeing it reach this level made that fame feel real.
Lucas then scanned the surroundings and added in a low voice that only I could hear.
"This isn't something to discuss openly, but I heard even scalped tickets sold for absurdly high prices. I heard VIP scalped tickets went as high as fifty thousand dollars."
So the seat I was sitting in right now was worth fifty thousand dollars.
No matter how you looked at it, Aria and Victoria's performance was nothing more than a surprise intermission event. The fact that people would pay a huge sum like fifty thousand dollars just on the strength of that rumor to sit in the VIP section was itself shocking.
"Then I'll take my leave. If you need anything, please tell the security personnel nearby."
As Lucas said, I could see several people in suits wearing sunglasses and radios at various points around the hall.
I sat in my assigned seat and waited, and soon the originally scheduled ensemble began performing.
The ensemble playing now was by no means lacking in skill. In fact, they were quite excellent, and the audience was listening with full attention.
But the gazes of the people in the VIP section were dry and indifferent.
As if Aria's upcoming performance was their only purpose.
* * *
"You—do you actually intend to take this seriously?!"
Victoria, wearing a red dress, shouted at me.
She must have thought I was half-assing this.
"Don't worry. I'll be sincere about the performance."
"A person like that didn't even bring her own instrument? And on top of that, you're asking me to lend you mine! My God, I'm speechless!"
"Finding an instrument I'd be satisfied with at a late hour like yesterday would be a job in itself, wouldn't it? If I couldn't get an instrument, I could just use the piano set up on stage."
It was a reasonable decision by my own standards.
Still, the reason I was insisting on borrowing Victoria's instrument was that, if possible, I wanted to completely crush Victoria under identical conditions.
"Wait, then how did you practice?"
"I didn't?"
"Ugh, you really...!"
My behavior must have looked arrogant.
Honestly, it looked arrogant even to me, so I had no room to argue.
But truly, for me, practicing or not makes little difference.
The instrument Victoria brought was a violin.
The violin is an especially sensitive and delicate instrument.
So much so that even skipping practice for a little while shows immediately.
And a person who hadn't practiced was saying she would perform using someone else's instrument—that certainly sounded insane to anyone else.
"Well, you were like that back then too. Fine. I'll lend it to you."
"Back then?"
"My God, don't tell me you don't remember? The day we first met!"
"I remember that we first met at a competition."
To be honest, I didn't remember it well.
At the time of our first meeting, Victoria and I were literally just performers participating in the same competition.
But no matter how arrogant I was, except when using an already-installed instrument like a piano or organ, I had never gone to a competition without bringing my own instrument.
"I still can't forget you from that day. In the waiting room, you were clumsily playing the violin, and then when the actual performance began, you delivered a sharp, fantastic performance."
Ah, hearing that, I remembered.
That was probably the first day I ever played the violin.
Once you watch a famous performer and correct your posture, the rest isn't difficult.
You just check what sound comes out when you play a certain way, and after that, finishing the tuning is enough.
I knew. I knew how I must have looked to the people around me.
I must have seemed like an arrogant, unreasonable genius.
But other people's gazes are none of my concern.
The reason I was building a career now was entirely for a happy future with my brother.
Someone might say it.
That I'm not sincere about music.
And that such an attitude is an insult to those who seriously devote themselves to music.
That's true. To me, music is nothing more than a means.
If they feel insulted, that can't be helped.
However, I had never once been insincere about the performance itself.
"I'm asking this now, but is there a reason you're so obsessed with me?"
Other performers avoided me.
Even when they ran into me at the same competition, they just considered themselves unlucky.
Because something incomprehensible is no different from a natural disaster.
But Victoria alone kept following me to every competition I entered. She even practiced unfamiliar instruments to do so.
"Isn't it obvious? Music is my everything, my destiny. If I can't even beat a lazy genius, it's beyond words! Until I defeat you, I will follow you."
"Don't tell me you learned Korean because of that too?"
"Of course! The moment I heard you had gone to Korea, I studied hard."
Wow. Obsession at this level was practically an illness.
At the time, I was so furious about my brother being insulted that I didn't think of it, but I should have added something like “no more obsessing over me” to the terms of the match.
Before long, applause rang out from the audience, and the stage went dark.
"Then I'll go first, Aria Lindblom. Listen carefully to my performance."
Victoria went up on stage holding the violin and bow.
I felt sorry for her, but I couldn't focus on her performance.
Because I had to find my brother somewhere in the audience.
* * *
Victoria was the first to take the stage.
There was no need for lengthy explanations or speeches.
As if the only language permitted to a performer was the melody produced by the instrument, she bowed silently with an elegant motion and immediately raised the violin.
As the bow scraped roughly across the strings, a heavy yet passionate melody filled the hall.
I didn't know what piece it was, but at the very least, that melody certainly had the power to move people's hearts.
Anger, longing, sorrow.
And beyond that, a fighting spirit.
It was as if a heavy axe or hammer was mercilessly striking the eardrums, and the brain beyond them.
But there was no unpleasantness.
Rather, the shock reverberating through my brain heightened my emotions.
The imbalance of producing a heavy melody with the sharp tones of a violin was a feat that not just anyone could perform.
To put it metaphorically, it was tightrope walking at extreme altitude without a safety device. Even within that precarious beauty where the balance could completely collapse with the slightest misstep, she continued her performance without a single mistake.
Even the audience was watching the performance in a daze.
Even a complete layman like me could feel it.
That this performance was a realm reachable only when a born genius, after bone-grinding effort, threw every emotion into it.
Victoria probably never neglected practice for a single day. As if she were always on a battlefield, she must have driven herself relentlessly for a performance with Aria that might happen at any time.
This was that kind of melody.
At last, the performance ended. Amid the thunderous applause that followed, she bowed elegantly, just as she had at the beginning.
Then, as if she had said everything she needed to say, she left the stage without lingering.
And then, as if taking her place, an angel descended to earth and stepped onto the stage.
She merely gave a slight bow, but her natural beauty and grace made it as elegant a motion as Victoria's.
In Aria's hands was the same violin Victoria had played. Without any additional performance or tuning, Aria began preparing to play as it was.
The first melody was sharp, like a well-honed rapier.
It was the complete opposite of Victoria's heavy, passionate performance. It was chillingly sharp, yet plaintive and lyrical.
Her bow danced across the strings. If Victoria's performance had been like walking a tightrope in midair, this was like running barefoot across razor-sharp blades.
Take a step and you die; fall and you die.
Even within a melody where only ruin was ordained, Aria outran even that ruin, charging forward like a runaway locomotive.
Within that fast and dazzling melody, the audience fell into the performance, forgetting even how to breathe.
Was this what a siren's song would feel like?
Like people who are bewitched by a beautiful voice and throw themselves into the sea, the people held their breath in this ocean of melody.
Someone in the VIP section was even weeping in a daze.
With their mouth covered, afraid that the sound of their sobbing would disturb the performance.
Was it emotion, sorrow, or admiration?
I didn't know. I wasn't knowledgeable enough about classical music to analyze the piece systematically.
But I could at least describe what I felt.
Because unlike Victoria, who performed with her eyes closed the entire time, Aria performed while maintaining eye contact with me from beginning to end.
This was probably a confession of love.
Directed at me.