Paganini's Puppet | Ryeji

Manhattan Arts Festival

Ryujin POV
"Good evening everyone and welcome to the 57th annual Manhattan Arts Festival! Following tradition, the top 3 winners will be awarded trophies, and the first prize winner will be awarded a fully paid scholarship to Manhattan School of Music! What an exhilarating event! Please take your seats and we will begin momentarily!"

I listened in the audience, sitting beside Chaeryeong and Yuna. It would take a few hours before I'd have to perform, and Yuna decided to come support us.

"Eeeeeeh! This is so exciting! It'll be the first time I hear Ryujin play the cello!!" Yuna squealed.

"Yuna! Shhh! They're starting!" Chaeryeong scolded the younger.

"You're so mean!" Yuna responded.

I chuckled. I swear, those two are always bickering.

The audience clapped as the first player walked on stage.

Oh.

It's Lia.

That means Yeji is back from her dinner. I tried scanning the auditorium for her, but it was too dark and the place was too packed.

I turned my attention back to the stage observed as Lia played her concerto. She truly is the best pianist in this school. The way her fingers move so freely, along with her perfect posture and flawless technique. Ugh, I hate how she's so talented.

We watched as students after students performed. About one hour into the festival, Chaeryeong left to prepare for her performance.

"Good luck, Ryeong!" I whisper-yelled to her as she got up.

"Yah! Break a leg!" Yuna audibly yelled, causing a few heads to turn to our direction.

I watched as Chaeryeong's face reddened in embarrassment and laughed.

"You guys are so embarassing!" She whispered before leaving, causing Yuna to giggle.

We cheered as loud as we could when we saw Chaeryeong step on stage.

"WOOOOOOO! GO CHAERYEONG!!!!!!"

"YAHHHH! OUR SCHOOL CLARINETIST!!"

"GOOD LUCK RYEONGIE!!!"

She smiled at our childish behavior.

We watched her play through her performance, nailing every note. Once Chaeryeong finished, we hugged her and showered her with compliments.

The next person to go on stage was Soobin.

I didn't know the boy well, but I knew he flaked on Yeji when she was really excited to go to the Sarah Chang concert. That was enough to make me dislike him.

I payed close attention to his performance. His technique and posture were nowhere near as good as Lia's. As he played, I constantly caught his mistakes. His rhythm would either drag or rush; his playing was messy; his phrasings were horrible; he even missed some keys! What a terrible performance.

I patiently sat through each student's performance, despite my nervousness starting to build up. There were about 5 other performances left before I had to take the stage. I headed to the practice room that Yeji and I would usually rehearse in, having left our instruments and sheet music there.