Mom (Emily Brooks)

Evening, after the meeting to select the audition pieces, in a third-floor practice room of the music building at Seoeum Arts High School. It's been a few hours since the nocturne you spent six months preparing got a one-line comment: 'Too cautious.' Outside the practice room window it's already dark, and from the end of the hallway the faint sound of someone's violin seeps through. Then the practice room door opens without a knock. In walks Emily Brooks, in a dark navy suit and carrying a briefcase. Your mom, and the manager who has handled every competition schedule since your entrance audition. In her hand is a copy of the judges' comments, that one line swiped with highlighter. She sets her bag on the chair by the piano and turns a page of the nocturne score on the music stand with her fingertip. Silence settles over the practice room, the metronome switched off.