When Ethan asked, the tuner gladly allowed it, but he frowned and looked at him and Dorothea.
Ethan didn’t care about it, went to the piano, checked the strings, and pressed the keys.
From the first key to the last key, his finger quickly skimmed up and down as if on a slippery slope, and the ‘Doremifasolasido’ that Dorothea knew flowed out clearly.
“Contrary to what I was worried about, the sound is clear and nice.”
Ethan smiled with a satisfied face.
Since it was used in the imperial family, it would have been a good piano in the first place, and even if it was left unattended, the environment itself was good, and simple cleaning management seemed to have been consistent.
“However, this sound is still a little…”
As Ethan spoke, repeatedly pressing one key, the tuner nodded.
“I’m still working on it. The space here is so nice…”
Ethan left the piano and exchanged a few words with the tuner.
Ethan’s ears seem to hear the parts that Dorothea’s ears couldn’t hear.
“It’s not the piano itself that’s bad, it’s just that it’s been neglected.”
Ethan said, gently sweeping the piano’s elegant body.
“you’re right. Just because it sounds wrong doesn’t mean the piano is wrong. All the keys of the piano are precious. You can’t just throw it away.”
The tuner nodded, deeply sympathetic to Ethan’s words.
If you carefully tune each sound to the desired sound, you will be able to produce a beautiful sound.
Just because it sounds a little wrong doesn’t mean you have to throw it away. Just like people and life.
The tuner, who had been talking with Ethan about the piano for a while, looked up and said what he wanted to say.
“By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, are you Master Ethan Bronte?”
“Ah yes. you’re right.”
Ethan smiled awkwardly.
There is usually only one reason to ask this.
“What an honor it is to see both the Princess and Ethan Bronte…!”
The tuner smiled broadly, not knowing what to do.
He recognized Dorothea and Ethan from the moment they walked in and started complimenting their looks.
It was a very boring story, so Ethan responded by nodding his head with a gentle smile.
However, the tuner seemed more interested in his playing skills than anything else.
It was because he had heard Ethan’s name many times while working as a tuner.
“If you don’t mind, can you let me hear Master Ethan’s performance even a little bit after tuning is done?”
He asked in a nervous voice because he wasn’t in a position to dare ask Ethan to play.
“To check the sound…okay, I will.”
“Thank you, Master Ethan! Well, then, I’ll finish it quickly and clean it up.”
The tuner bowed deep down to his waist and hurriedly picked up the equipment to finish tuning the piano.
“Ethan, you’re really famous.”
“That’s true. I only need to be famous for the princess.”
When Dorothea was amazed by Ethan’s fame, Ethan quietly answered in Dorothea’s ear so that no one could hear him.
At that, Dorothea covered her mouth and bowed her head, not knowing how to manage her expression.
Suddenly, a sinister voice came from behind them.
“Don’t play tricks on the princess.”
Surprised, Dorothea turned around to see that Joy’s eyes, which were guarding Dorothea’s back, were burning brightly.
“You mean, manipulative…”
Vocabulary selection.
In Joy’s eyes, unaware that Dorothea and Ethan had officially agreed to date, Ethan was nothing more than a clever wolf trying to eat Dorothea.
“The princess should also be careful about this guy’s beauty.”
Joy whispered secretly about Ethan in Dorothea’s ear, but Ethan heard it all.
Dorothea laughed at her.
“Okay. I’ll be careful.”
Just as Dorothea was beginning to wonder if she shouldn’t have a secret love affair after all, the tuner who finished the work stood up.
“it’s over!”
The tuner said as he stepped back with his eyes waiting for Ethan to play.
Then Ethan sat down at the piano to check it out.
Although it was a brief performance, Dorothea clapped lightly for his performance, and Clara and the tuner also welcomed him with applause.
Ethan grinned as he looked at Dorothea’s blue eyes focused on him and placed his finger on the keyboard.
As he began to lightly press the keys with his fingers, a clear sound spread like a drop of water on the calm waters.
He nodded once, as if he liked the sound of the piano, and continued playing.
A sound that is heard one after another, like the sound of light rain. Unlike the colorful songs he usually played, it was a simple and cheerful song.
But he soon developed variations on that simple song.
What started out as a warm note gradually rose higher and higher, becoming lighter and faster, then changed to a loud, heavy note as if it were thundering.
Then it slowly subsided and softened again, and as the rain stopped, his playing ended.
“You’re so good at it that I’m jealous.”
Dorothea heard Joy muttering involuntarily.
Joy was also a person who didn’t know about music, but Ethan’s performance had a strange power to captivate people.
Even Joy, who has never learned to play the piano and is not jealous of anything, is moved.
She seemed to understand a little why Dorothea had heard Ethan’s performance and thought, ‘Shall I learn an instrument?’
“I wonder if the keyboard might be a bit heavy for the princess to play, but it’s well-tuned. It sounds good.”
Meanwhile, after finishing the performance, Ethan smiled at the tuner and nodded his head as if he was satisfied.
Then, strangely, the tuner’s face turned red.
“Thank you, Master Ethan! It was such an honor today.”
Was his one word to praise the celebrity he admired?
Perhaps if he kept a diary, he would fill out a few pages of his diary today and mark today as a special day.
After the tuner said thank you, he said goodbye to Dorothea and the others and left.
When the somewhat chaotic atmosphere was cleared up, Ethan looked at Dorothea.
“Then I can teach now.”
It’s hard to do a class once.
Dorothea made sure Clara and Joy stayed out of the way during the lesson
Finally, it’s time for the two of them again.
“I’m going to take it seriously, Ethan.”
Dorothea declared in advance that this time she doesn’t want to spend a sweet time with him.
Of course, she indeed wanted to find an excuse to call him into the Imperial Palace, but it was also true that she wanted to learn an instrument, and she was always serious about learning.
‘If you’re going to do something, do it right.’ was an old credo of hers.
TL: Credo is a statement of the beliefs or aims that guide someone’s actions.
Knowing that well, Ethan nodded in agreement.
“I’m going to be serious about teaching you, too. I hope you don’t get mad at me for being strict?”
“Strict training is always welcome.”
Dorothea’s words brought a smile to Ethan’s lips.
Training is like someone who devoted herself to swordsmanship.
Dorothea took a seat on the piano chair where Ethan had just sat, and Ethan stood by her and watched her.
“Can you find where the middle degree is?”
“Sure!”
TL: The middle degree in Korean is called “gaondae” which means middle, and Is attached to the sound name ” Do “. The definition refers to the middle degree (middle C) on the piano keyboard.
‘I’m afraid she doesn’t know that!’
It’s common knowledge that there are two black keys in a row, and the front is wide.
Among them, the one in the middle is the center.
When Dorothea pinpointed the correct key, Ethan looked at her in surprise.
“I feel like I am being ignored.”
“It’s because you don’t know how much I know.”
Then Ethan leaned over to Dorothea’s side and placed his hand on the keyboard.
Dorothea’s shoulders stiffened as Ethan leaned in close.
His warmth and subtle scent awakened her senses.
“When you play the keyboard, put your thumb on the keyboard like this. You have to learn to fit the width of the keyboard.”
He placed his five fingers on the keyboard and slowly played Do, Re, Mi, Fa, and Sol one by one.
Dorothea followed him and placed her hand on the keyboard, and Ethan’s hand gently wrapped around hers.
It was obviously infinitely soft and warm to the touch, but that made the hairs on Dorothea’s arms stand on end.
“If your wrist falls, your wrist hurts later. It is better to raise the back of your hand so that it is level.”
He fixed Dorothea’s drooping wrist and held it steady.
“You can easily injure yourself with a crooked wrist when holding a sword, and it’s the same with playing.”
Dorothea smiled and quickly placed her hand on the keyboard in an upright position.
With the sword analogy and her eagerness to do that…. Ethan smiled again because that was so Dorothea.
Because he smiled even at trivial things, the muscles in his cheeks that had worked all day were aching.
After that, Ethan taught him to press the keyboard with both hands to a certain beat.
Because she’s young, it can be difficult to use her fingers fluently, but Dorothea has done it quite well.
In particular, she had the power to make a sound accurately and sharply, and it seemed that it was because she had muscles. After all, she didn’t neglect physical training or swordsmanship practice.
“The feeling of pressing the keyboard is pretty good.”
Dorothea, who had been pressing the keyboard for a while under Ethan’s guidance, said.
The feeling of pressing and hitting something with her finger subtly changed her mood.
‘Does the feeling of pressing something small and hitting something relieve stress?’
‘It would be really fun if one day I could freely press the keyboard and play my favorite songs.’
“What a relief. Because the princess likes the piano.”
“It may be a bit greedy to say things like this on the first day, but I hope I can play songs sooner.”
“You can do it.”
“Really?”
“Since you’re learning it as a hobby, today I will tell you an interesting song. It’s Wipimea’s <Stand March>.”
Ethan raised his two index fingers.
Then, naturally, he sat next to Dorothea and played symmetrical notes with only two fingers.
Dorothea, intrigued by the way the song was completed in a very simple way, quickly memorized the keyboard and followed it.
A simple variation on an easy-to-follow method.
“You saw it once and memorized it.”
“I can’t read sheet music, but I can memorize it well.”
As Dorothea smiled proudly and played <Stand March> again, Ethan watched it for a moment and then started playing next to her.
* * *
So cute and wholesome 🥰
I love them 🥹