Chapter 59
Italy. Florence, to be precise.
There were going to be two busking performances here as well.
This was a city of considerable significance to me; Florence had been the hometown of one of the idols I managed in my previous life.
Since she was a girl who had come to Korea alone and had no one to rely on, I had listened to her talk a lot, and most of what she talked about concerned her hometown.
She had told me so much about what the tourist attractions were like, what the atmosphere was like, what the food was like...
Like most girls, she immediately noticed whenever I only half-listened and would sulk, so I had always had to listen carefully to her stories.
Thus, even though I had never once visited this place, I felt an odd sense of familiarity with the city of Florence.
“So this is the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.”
“Do You Like Music?” was a music variety show, but it also incorporated elements of mukbang and travel.
It was a variety show that was practically a chimera, cramming in everything popular these days.
But its ratings and YouTube views were good, which meant the public must like these chimeras.
In Barcelona, the torrential rain had kept us from doing any proper sightseeing, but the weather was quite nice this time, so we visited several places known as Florence landmarks.
The Basilica of Santa Maria Novella was one of Florence’s representative tourist attractions.
It was pretty, but there were so many people that I couldn’t really enjoy it.
‘Still, it is pretty.’
The intricate marble patterns carved across the cathedral’s enormous outer walls shone dazzlingly in the afternoon sunlight.
Having finally come face-to-face with “the world’s most elegant stripes,” which that girl had always mentioned when talking about her hometown in my previous life, I felt a strange tickle in one corner of my heart.
“Wow, it really looks like it just popped out of a textbook. Siyeon, don’t you think it’s amazing too?”
Baek Yuyeon repeatedly exclaimed in admiration and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. I simply nodded and gazed at the tip of the cathedral’s spire.
‘This person never even looked at her textbooks back in school... What does she mean, textbook?’
I had that disrespectful thought, but I didn’t say it aloud. No matter how chic an elementary schoolgirl I was trying to look like, being rude was a separate matter.
As I stared blankly at the cathedral, someone beside me spoke to me in a whisper.
“Siyeon.”
“…Nghyat! N-no, you startled me.”
“Hehe. Did I scare you?”
I frowned.
Why was she suddenly speaking Japanese? Was it just slipping out of habit? I suppose it was because Saki was Japanese.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“What? You know Japanese?”
“…I studied.”
There had been a lot of Japanese trainees, after all. That was why I had studied hard in my previous life.
My pronunciation was lousy, but I could communicate at a passable level.
“Anyway, that song from yesterday. What are you going to call it?”
“Oh. It’s called *platonic love story*. I wrote the melody with that title in mind from the start.”
“So it was inspired by the stars, after all?”
“I suppose it was. You fell asleep after reading a single page... How do you know what it’s about?”
“I looked it up on the internet! I figured you weren’t actually going to read it anyway.”
I stared at Saki in disbelief for about 0.1 seconds.
Do people these days read books through wikis?
Anyway, after visiting the cathedral, we ate lunch at a decent place.
T-bone steak was a bit much for lunch, but it was incredibly delicious regardless.
After coming here recently and eating so much delicious food I couldn’t get in Korea, my palate seemed to be growing more refined.
I had to return to Korea next week and eat the orphanage’s army-style cafeteria food... I was already terrified.
‘I do have to escape the orphanage...’
Originally, I had planned to bolt the moment Singerstar ended, but it felt awkward to turn down a dorm and even a private room they had set up for me and leave.
The problem was that, even in the new dorm, we had to share the single bathroom on each floor. There wasn’t even a refrigerator, so we had to share the one on the first floor.
At least I was a little better off because I had a beverage fridge in my room, but...
Even so, there were still more than a few things that made me want to escape immediately.
‘I should just rent a practice room and move out. I’d only go there to sleep.’
I should look into that first thing upon returning to Korea.
If I brought someone from the agency along, I could probably find a decent practice room somewhere nearby.
“Siyeon. Hanyul wants us to practice.”
“Oh. Yes. I’ll be right there!”
At Florence’s first busking performance, I wouldn’t sing. Instead, I would take the stage three times using only the violin, the instrument I handled best.
And at the final busking performance in Florence, I had to sing two songs.
I considered singing the new song I had written, but... It felt wrong to reveal in full here a song I would probably use as the title track for my full-length album.
It was also still unfinished, so for this program, I decided not to write a new song and just use familiar ones.
“Wow. You really know how to handle that violin.”
“Hehe. Thank you.”
“Who was it again? Your playing reminds me of that Grammy winner. Ah! Ms. Yoo Seona.”
“Haha.”
Yoo Seona, the Korean violinist who won a Grammy, was the mother of Park Heesu, Blooming’s bassist.
My skill was still nowhere near hers, of course.
* * *
Time passed quickly, and we managed to finish the second busking performance in Florence as well.
For one song, I sang an internationally famous pop song, and for the other, I sang *Starry Night*.
Surprisingly, *Starry Night* was better received by the audience than I had expected.
“No, maybe they were just fascinated by a little kid singing.”
On this trip, I had played much the same role as a zoo monkey whose job was to draw people in.
Whether as a session musician or a singer, whenever I joined the busking lineup, an unusually large number of people stopped.
The beautiful idols like Saki and Jia probably contributed to that too... but there was no denying that I had the greatest influence.
It seemed that in any country, a little kid who played an instrument and sang at the same time was bound to attract attention.
During my stay in Florence, I wrote several more songs that might be included on my album.
Though calling it “writing” was generous, since they were little more than rough scribbles, I had no idea how many of them would actually make it onto the album...
“Hey, Siyeon. If you’re not going to use them, give them to me!”
Judging by people’s reactions, maybe the quality wasn’t all that bad, either.
The theme of this album could probably be summed up as “the thrill of travel.”
After all, songs inspired by the excitement of my first trip abroad and of filming a variety show would form its core.
“At this rate... this should be enough.”
And after continually polishing the unfinished *platonic love story*, it had finally reached a fairly decent level of quality.
Since I’d bought an expensive paid MIDI program immediately after Singerstar ended, my workflow felt more efficient than before.
Once again, I was reminded that money was everything in this world.
“Come to think of it, I need to go to the hospital, too.”
I should probably get a growth checkup as soon as possible.
Even when I first took over this body, I had thought it was strangely well-developed for a nine-year-old, but lately, my physical condition had seemed unusual.
Since I was already short for my age and seemed to be entering my growth spurt early, I might end up not growing as tall as I expected.
Honestly, I didn’t really mind being a little short, but surely I should at least make it past 150 centimeters, right?
‘I should have gone ages ago.’
But I had been far too busy for that.
Still, perhaps I should be grateful I’d at least made an appointment before coming.
Of course, if I used the company’s connections, I could go straight to a university hospital in Seoul without an appointment or anything, but I had simply booked one at a nearby university hospital.
Because going all the way to Seoul was a hassle.
Especially if I needed treatment, since I would have to keep traveling back and forth to Seoul.
“Oh my gosh. It’s absolutely gorgeous!”
Jia, sitting beside me, leaned toward me and cried out while looking out the window.
Outside the window, we could see a panoramic view of Athens and the Mediterranean.
The view itself was breathtakingly beautiful, but the soft flesh of Jia’s body pressing against my cheek seemed a little more beautiful somehow.
‘They say she’s currently the undisputed queen of fancam views...’
There was surely a reason she had risen as the new powerhouse in that field. How could someone so stick-thin have curves like that?
It was nothing short of a mystery of the human body.
“What do you think, Siyeon? Pretty, right?”
“Yes. It’s beautiful.”
I didn’t specify what exactly I found beautiful.
But it was obvious that what she had in mind and what I had in mind were slightly different.