Chapter 1: The Beginning of a Legend
A 40-seat bus with Seowoon Angels written on the side stopped in front of the hotel.
The bus doors opened, and the students got off one by one.
“Wow, the weather is amazing.”
“So this is Milan. This place is incredible.”
Their teacher, Lee Chae-hwan, spoke to them.
“Everyone, grab your luggage and gather in the hotel lobby.”
A little later, about thirty students were standing in the lobby.
“Listen up. The performance starts at 7 p.m., two hours from now. You’ll have one hour of free time, then meet back here at 6. We’ll do one rehearsal before going on stage.”
The students excitedly started talking among themselves.
“Where should we go first?”
“If we’re in Milan, we have to see Piazza del Duomo.”
“Let’s get some gelato.”
A handsome boy named Na Young-jun raised his hand.
“Teacher, where’s the practice room? I want to rehearse.”
The other students immediately teased him.
“Seriously? Even after coming all the way here, you’re still practicing?”
“Leave him alone. The top student even studies on school trips.”
Young-jun smiled awkwardly.
“I have a solo today.”
“The concert hall is across the street. The practice rooms are backstage. You can practice there.”
After smiling proudly at Young-jun, Lee Chae-hwan looked at Yoo Jin-woo.
“Jin-woo, can you help me? There are two boxes of bottled water on the bus. Take them to the hotel auditorium. That’s where we’ll rehearse.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jin-woo was the biggest and strongest student in the choir.
He stood up, walked outside, picked up the two heavy boxes with ease, and carried them to the auditorium.
As Lee Chae-hwan watched him walk away, his expression darkened.
Yoo Jin-woo… that bastard.
The Seowoon Angels, the choir of Seowoon Arts High School, were touring Italy. The performances had been organized by the Seowoon Foundation to encourage Koreans living overseas.
Lee Chae-hwan remembered what Principal Oh Tae-sik had told him before they left for Italy.
“I recommended you for the new professor position. Just make sure this tour goes smoothly.”
His future appointment depended on this performance. Now that the one obstacle was gone, he couldn’t waste the chance.
He lowered his voice.
“Everyone, listen.”
The students, who had been about to leave for their free time, turned toward him.
“Free time is canceled. We’re heading to the concert hall right now.”
“What?”
The students stared in surprise.
“But teacher, you said the performance starts at seven.”
“No. It starts at five.”
“What?”
“This is an important performance. If we mess it up, the Seowoon Angels’ reputation will suffer.”
He continued.
“You all know how much being part of the Seowoon Angels helps with college admissions. But if we ruin the performance and lose our reputation, what do you think will happen?”
The students’ faces quickly became serious.
“So we’re performing without Yoo Jin-woo.”
The students were shocked for a moment, then one by one nodded with satisfied smiles.
“Now hurry to the concert hall.”
As Lee Chae-hwan rushed out, the students quickly followed him.
***
After putting down the water, Jin-woo returned to the empty hotel lobby.
“So they’ve all gone already.”
He pulled out his phone and searched for famous places in Milan.
“What should I do? Piazza del Duomo, Milan Cathedral, Galleria…”
He was about to leave but stopped himself.
“No. I should practice instead.”
He clenched his fist.
“I have to practice while everyone else is having fun. Even that’s still not enough.”
He headed toward the backstage practice rooms that Lee Chae-hwan had mentioned.
“Huh? Young-jun said he was coming here to practice.”
But the rooms were empty, and the whole area was silent.
“I guess even he wanted to go sightseeing after coming all the way here.”
Jin-woo entered the practice room at the very end of the hallway.
***
The stage and audience were completely silent.
Only nervous breathing could be heard.
The students watched Lee Chae-hwan’s baton closely.
“Haa…”
He took a deep breath and raised his baton.
The silence broke as the Seowoon Angels began to sing.
The song was Nella Fantasia.
It had become famous in Korea after being used in a popular TV variety show.
The performance opened with Young-jun’s solo.
His gentle voice filled the stage.
“Wow… his voice is so smooth.”
Just as the audience was becoming absorbed in his singing, another voice echoed from somewhere else.
“Aaaah~”
Lee Chae-hwan’s face twisted immediately.
What’s that? Vocal warm-ups? Is someone practicing backstage?
He recognized the voice.
Don’t tell me… Yoo Jin-woo?
Jin-woo’s voice was so loud that it was just as audible as Young-jun’s, even from the backstage practice room.
The audience frowned.
But as the performance continued, their expressions changed into barely suppressed laughter.
Soon the entire audience burst out laughing.
“Hahaha!”
Young-jun’s beautiful singing and Jin-woo’s horribly strained voice somehow blended together into a bizarre new performance.
The moment the concert ended, Young-jun rushed off the stage and ran straight to the practice room backstage.
As soon as he saw Jin-woo, he grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
Bang!
Jin-woo’s large body hit the wall with a loud crash.
“You crazy idiot!”
Jin-woo forcefully pushed his hand away.
“Let go.”
Young-jun stumbled backward from the strength of the shove, quickly got back up, and glared at him.
“You were practicing during the performance? Are you insane, you idiot?”
“I didn’t know. Nobody told me. I thought the concert started at seven.”
Only after a staff member rushed in and stopped him had Jin-woo learned that the performance time had been changed.
Young-jun stepped closer until their faces were almost touching.
“You think everyone stays quiet because you’re good at singing? No. It’s because you’re just a big idiot with muscles. You know what everyone calls you behind your back? Practice freak. A bug that does nothing but practice. That’s what you are.”
Young-jun couldn’t forgive the fact that Jin-woo had turned his performance into a joke.
“At this point, you just don’t have any talent. Stop making trouble for everyone and quit already.”
***
The cold Italian wind brushed against Jin-woo’s face.
Tonight, the air felt colder than ever.
Young-jun’s words kept repeating in his head.
“Bug.”
Without realizing it, he whispered the word aloud.
As he wandered aimlessly, he found himself standing in front of La Scala Opera House.
“I want to sing well too, damn it. I wanted to stand on the La Scala stage. But no matter how hard I try, I just can’t. What am I supposed to do?”
He finally let out all the frustration he had been holding inside.
People always say hard work never betrays you.
For Jin-woo, those words were meaningless.
He had learned that sometimes, no matter how hard you worked, it still wasn’t enough.
As he shouted into the night, he suddenly lost his balance.
His heavy body crashed to the ground with a loud thud.
A small stone sticking out near the corner of La Scala had caught his foot.
“Damn it.”
In anger, he kicked the stone.
Instead of staying in place, it came loose surprisingly easily.
“Huh?”
Underneath where the stone had been, he saw a flat wooden box buried in the ground.
“What’s this?”
Curious, he dug it out.
It looked incredibly old, probably more than a hundred years.
“Could it be treasure?”
His heart pounded as he carefully opened it.
Inside was an old notebook without even a title.
He flipped it open.
The pages were filled with strange symbols he couldn’t understand.
“Hieroglyphics?”
Whatever it was, it clearly wasn’t valuable treasure.
“Damn. I thought I found something amazing.”
Disappointed, he sighed.
“But just in case, I’ll keep it.”
He remembered a TV show he watched every Saturday morning where ordinary-looking antiques sometimes turned out to be priceless historical artifacts.
He slipped the notebook deep into his pocket and headed back to the hotel.
***
The next day.
Before returning to Korea, the group toured La Scala Opera House.
“Opened in 1778, La Scala is one of the world’s five greatest opera houses. Performing here is the dream of every opera singer.”
Jin-woo wasn’t paying much attention to the guide.
Instead, his eyes were drawn to a magnificent statue.
The guide led the students toward it.
“This statue honors the legendary tenor Enrico Lucci, who performed in the early 1900s. He was especially famous for Turandot…”
Jin-woo smiled.
Enrico Lucci was his favorite legendary tenor.
Then a voice, smooth as butter yet powerful, reached his ears.
“That idiot was a legendary tenor? Did everyone here stuff pasta into their ears?”
Jin-woo almost laughed.
Someone’s insulting Lucci? Here at La Scala? And that loudly?
He turned toward the voice.
The man had sharp eyes, a high nose, a stylish beard, and striking features, like someone who had stepped out of a Hollywood movie.
As Jin-woo admired his appearance, something suddenly felt strange.
Wait… I’m pretty sure he was speaking Italian.
The man kept grumbling in Italian for quite a while.
Yet every unfamiliar word and sentence somehow translated itself naturally inside Jin-woo’s mind.
Confused, Jin-woo stared at him.
At that moment, the man looked directly back at him.
The instant their eyes met, Jin-woo quickly turned away.
Cold sweat ran down his body.
He started trembling.
What was that? That man… he didn’t have any legs.
It looked exactly like something from a horror movie.
His upper body was perfectly clear, but everything below his waist was pale and transparent.
Did I imagine it?
Trying to calm himself, Jin-woo looked back again.
He’s gone?
The man had completely disappeared.
Maybe I was just seeing things.
Relieved, Jin-woo turned back around.
“AAAH!”
He screamed and fell backward.
The foreign man was suddenly standing right in front of him.
The man looked down at the terrified Jin-woo with his sharp eyes.
Then he slowly opened his mouth.
“Hey… can you actually see me?”
