The Road We Walk On

128 | Irrefutable

Juilliard School, New York

It is indeed an honour for both myself and Pitor and myself to really listen to your music. All of you are truly talented and I can see bright futures ahead for everyone here. But nonetheless, we are here to evaluate you.

Before we give the results, we just want to say that this evaluation does not define you. Ultimately being an artist; a musician is a life's journey. You are now here learning how to begin your journey. These results do not dictate who you can be in the future, but it would definitely help you as you grow. So please be open minded about it. Saioa and I decided to evaluate everyone with a very strict eye.

Correct, as much as we are aware that you are students, but I am sure for most of you - your ultimate goal is to continue to sing and perform like us two here. So we looked at you as professionals-in-training. As per what the Dean said, we have graded you. We looked of course at your technique, stage presence, dictation, breath control and others. Here are your score cards, we will call you one by one and we will hand it to you.

Correct, after you all have received your cards, and had a look at your results we will announce the best of the lot. I do believe everyone has the potential to be the best so keep it up!

With that, Pitor and Saioa called each student by name and they went to the front to receive their evaluation. Some showed their reactions on their faces while others were a lot more stoic. Each student was called in the order in which they performed. Rona's name was finally called and soon afterwards all the students had received their card.

Rona looked at hers and saw that her marks were overall high for everything. Looking at the numbers it seems they scored them on the scale of 1 to 10. Rona saw mostly 8s and one or two 9s on her scorecard. She felt really satisfied with her result.

Has everyone had enough time to look at their cards? Now remember, music and singing is always very personal but there are different ways to evaluate one's artform. You can see the different categories you were graded on. So as we both said just now, we would announce the best.

The one that impressed us the most overall was... Bae Rona. Everyone turned to Rona, who felt a bit awkward with so many eyes on her. She bowed in thanks as the class began to clap. The girls who were anti-Rona, had no choice but to clap along. Once again Rona beat them, and this time round if they complained of biasness. They would be biting off more than what they could handle. The two who evaluated them were award winning singers, to accuse them of favouritism was unthinkable.

The girls knew the entire process of this evaluation was completely free of biases; they realised there was no way that Rona could have (in any shape or form) bought her way to the top. It was then, that they slowly began to realise, Rona was indeed amazing. The girls never knew that as much as Rona could be classified as a genius, she worked really hard every single day. There was not one day that went by that she did not practice, even if it was basic such as scales or a very simple light song. She always made sure she was training her voice and her vocal chords.

Reality hit them like a ton of bricks, if they couldn't admit this now, then they were truly lost. Everyone congratulated Rona and Rona thanked everyone including the judges. Rona was not sure if she could win, but she felt that she did stand a good chance. Her hard work and her striving paid off, if this does not shut up her haters, well then Rona could not be bothered with even trying to convince them of anything.

With that, the staff member came in to debrief everyone. The students clapped and thanked the judges for coming down to spend the day evaluating their performances. After the judges had left the room, Professor Clark had come in.

I hope these results will satisfy the rumors that have been floating around. I have to admit that I am rather disappointed in the recent attitudes of some of the students at Juilliard. The very fact that you made it into this University should naturally tell you the quality of your fellow classmates. Instead of looking at yourself and seeing what more you can do and improve, a bunch of you chose to target others instead.

Let me tell you, this is not what it means to be an artist. If you spend more time focusing your energy onto someone else, then I can tell you frankly you will get left behind soon. So please students, you all are fantastic and you will be greater in the future. Everyone moves at their own speed, some just get to a certain stage faster than others. It does not mean you are bad. I do hope that after this, the drama that was totally unnecessary will stop. If this continues, then I am afraid that there will be disciplinary actions taken against those who continue.

With that Clark dismissed the students and the four friends left the room. Rona decided to pay no heed to those specific girls. While on their way back to the original dressing room, other classmates congratulated Rona along the way. Thanks. I am sure everyone did well. Let's use what we have gotten as feedback and continue to improve. Everyone else (despites those four) had really taken a liking to Rona as the weeks went by, everyone could see that she was not only talented but humble and hard working.

Yoo Jung, Stephanie and Ryo hugged Rona in congratulations. Overall the four did very well, in fact in terms of points Ryo was the closest to Rona followed by Yoo Jung and then Stephanie. Now that the evaluation was over, Rona felt a weight had lifted off her shoulders. Now she could channel all her energy into the upcoming competition as well as the final exams.

Rona knew that Seokhoon would be worried so she quickly made her way down to the library. Rona saw Seokhoon sitting outside the library, at one of the public tables; studying. Just as she was about to walk up to Seokhoon, she saw two girls (that she did not recognise) approach him. Rona was curious who those girls were, so she walked a bit closer to hear their conversation.