Diamond in the Rough

Episode 3. Diamond in the Rough

Choi Jeong-yo and Park Pi-o are roused as the train arrives at their stop. The boys laugh at their adventure and split up. Jeung-so is off to the dorm and Pi-o off to his home. Both enjoyed the exposure to a public park audience. 

Professor Do Hyun-soo applauds and praises their progress doing duets during the practice session at his studio. He proposes that they are ready to do a recital for their school. Kang Pi-o suggests instead that they try out to perform for the Noblesse Concert organized by the Seodam Foundation. Professor Do comments that it was going to be a tough stage and said that the progress recital was a better start. Pi-o insists that they do the try out for the Noblesse Concert rather than the recital, if Professor Do would listen to his proposal.

They leave and Jeong-yo tells Pi-o that he should have consulted him if he wanted to perform in the concert. Pi-o apologizes and thinks to himself it was an important concert to get his grandfather ‘s confirmation as a pianist. He doesn’t tell Jeong-yo the real reason but asks him to just help him out in the concert.

As they practice, Jeong-yo continues to prod Pi-o to play the piece of Bach unconventionally. Hong Jae-in brings them snacks in the practice room and joins them and takes pictures with them. She listens to them play.

Kang Pi-o receives confirmation of their participation in the Noblesse Concert while in class and he excitedly runs home to tell his grandfather, Maestro Kang Seung-woon, that he was able to audition and got accepted. Maestro Kang got annoyed at the interruption and curtly replied to Pi-o that he would decide if he was to attend or not.

Pi-o is tense, while Jeong-yo complains about his clothes being tight including the bowtie and calls it a penguin suit that he has wear to play at the concert. He asks Pi-o to fix his bowtie but is abruptly told to stop. Then Jeong-yo asks him if he’s nervous when has performed a hundred times to lighten up the mood. Professor Do picks them up to go to the concert. 

At the Hanbit University of the Arts Graduate School of Music, preparations for the Noblesse Concert are underway. When Professor Do arrives with the boys at the venue, the sight of the hall transports Jeong-yo to a time when he performed there as a child when his mother got sick and had to be rushed to the hospital. The memory gives him jitters and he feels fright. 

Professor Do Hyun-soo is praised by Director Yoon Seong-ju for the one-month preparation of the boys and the performance at nothing less than the Noblesse Classic Concert. Song-ju expects Jeong-yo to prove himself in the performance as an outstanding pianist worthy of the scholarship. 

Meanwhile, Kang Ji-hye, Pi-o’s mother approaches Professor Do and praises him for bringing Pi-o to the Noblesse Classic Concert as a teacher. She points out the partner of Pi-o but he is called away when the hall opens. Let down, Ji-hye walks into the hall alone. 

They are called in as the first performers and the rising stars of the concert when Choi Jeong-yo recalls his mother’s accident again and runs out of the hall in panic and calls out to his mother. Pi-o asks him what is happening and assumes it as stage fright and tells him to listen to his voice and concentrate. He puts a blindfold on Jeong-yo and they return to the stage as he leads him by the hand to the piano stool, Pi-o shushes the audience as he puts the hand of Jeong-yo on the piano. Professor Do watches from the balcony in nervous anticipation of what is transpiring between the boys.

Kang Ji-hye recognizes the piano style of Choi Jeong-yo as Pi-o’s childhood rival in past competitions.

The boys bow while the audience applauds their performance. Jeong-yo embraced Pi-o when he realized that he had overcome his stage fright. Maestro Kang praised Pi-o about his performance and asked to be invited in the next. 

The buzz about the outstanding performance of the boys, particularly Jeong-yo surprised the parents and students from their school. Director Yoon confirmed this from the mothers who wanted Jeong-yo expelled earlier. Ji-hye on the other hand reprimanded her son for performing with his childhood rival whose performance outshined her son’s. She told him that Choi Jeong-yo would steal his top position again and to begin practicing for competitions immediately. Pi-o is devastated by his mother’s angry reaction instead of praise for his accomplishment.

Hong Jae-in caught herself praising Choi Jeong-yo more than Kang Pi-o and she immediately sends Pi-o a message telling him that she only had eyes for him.

Choi Jeong-yo is inspired by their performance and begins to write a musical arrangement for four hands. He messages Kang Pi-o but gets no answer and tries to call him but gets no answer. He begins to wonder what the matter was because he looked forward to their celebration. He receives a message from Director Yoon to accompany her the following day.

The girls swoon over Jeong-yo in the classroom. Pi-o treats him coldly as Jeong-yo talks to him about other pieces that they could play as a duet which stuns Jeong-yo.

Kang Ji-hye goes to Professor Do Hyun-soo’s house to ask why he matched Kang Pi-o with Choi Jeong-yo. He told her that he paired the two because of the positive synergy that they have, and how Pi-o’s potential emerged. He told her that there’s no need for her to be anxious because Pi-o was growing up fast and that he was more resilient than she thinks. She asks him to help Pi-o win first place in a major competition because he is the best person to teach the tricks of the industry. However, she tries to rekindle the past relationship by kissing him.

While Choi Jeong-yo was waiting for Director Yoon at the parking lot, Kang Ji-hye tells him that Pi-o doesn’t have time to play duets with him anymore because Pi-o is preparing for solo competitions. Just in time, Director Yoon tells Jeong-yo to get in the car as she asks Ji-hye if she was picking up Pi-o because she was bringing Jeong-yo to see Master Kang Seung-woo. 

Ji-hye accosts her son about the meeting between Jeong-yo and Master Kang. Kang Pi-o gets jealous at the thought that Jeong-yo has caught his grandfather’s attention while his mother rattles on about preparing for an international competition under Professor Do.

At Maestro Kang Seung-woon’s office, he was introduced by Director Yoon as the teacher of Professor Do. After playing the piano piece, Maestro Kang asks Jeung-yo why he doesn’t follow the score sheets and he answers that he felt the piece could be livelier and that changing some directions in some measures would give it space and feel more like a warm breeze blowing by in Chopin’s piece. Maestro Kang said that he was ignoring all the intentions of Chopin that were in the score to which Jeong-yo replied, “The score is just notes written on paper. I’m more interested in the music itself.” He said that nothing goes through his mind when he plays the piano. He was asked to audition for the upcoming piano concerto by Maestro Kang.

Director Yoon is excited at Maestro Kang’s invitation for Jeong-so to audition for the piano concerto because of Jeong-yo’s progress. She tells him that if Jeong-yo plays in the piano concerto, Pi-o would be disappointed but immediately says that he would get over it. 

Jeong-yo is startled by this and he asks what Director Yoon’s relationship to Pi-o was. 

Director Yoon explained that she was married to Maestro Kang and that made her his grandmother, legally speaking. She said that Maestro Kang was looking for a diamond in the rough for a long time to perform a concerto. Jeong-yo told her that he prefers not to audition for the concerto.

Choi Jeong-yo is torn by what just transpired and the effect on Pi-o. He messages and calls, but Pi-o ignores him. He confronts Pi-o about the reasons for the sudden treatment and is told that all Pi-o wanted when they practiced together was for Professor Do to teach him. Since the performance at the Nobless Classic Concert was done, he did not need Pi-o anymore. Jeong-yo tells Pi-o that he thought they were friends.

Jeong-yo is distracted and becomes aggressive in class. He attacks Pi-o as they play football and hits him.

Kang Pi-o is fed up with his mother’s nagging when she sees the bandage on his face and asks who did it to him. He tells her to stop it and retorts that he feels smothered by her micro-managing him. She hits back by saying she is doing it for him. He tells her that he has not been able to make her happy with his daily piano practices and that nothing that he does is ever good enough. He asks her how he is supposed to make her happy when she decided that she would never be happy unless he becomes the best in the world. She tells him to focus on the competition and stop complaining and clear his head instead. He tells her that he is hurting and that all she cares about is his winning. He walks away and doesn’t listen to his mother.

Professor Do asks Kang Pi-o to choose a piece for the upcoming Harmonie Competition. Professor Do notices that he is not mindful of the conversation and the preparations. Pi-o leaves the studio and overhears someone call Choi Jeong-yo and sees the loan shark Mr. Kim lock Jeong-yo’s head in his arm as he pulls him into the alley followed by another man. He follows them in the alley and hears Mr. Kim ask about the location of Jeong-yo’s father. Pi-o sees the man hit Jeong-yo when he answered that he didn’t know where his father was. Mr. Kim orders the other man to grab Jeong-yo. Pi-o throws a huge tile at a window to distract Mr. Kim and his companion away from Jeong-yo then runs into another alley with Jeong-yo. They are able to hide but the other man tells Choi Jeong-yo that he should stay away from this part of town.  

Kang Pi-o asks Jeong-yo why the man was chasing him and he tells him about his father’s debt and that he doesn’t know where he is. Pi-o asks what if Jeong-yo had a plan in case he encounters Mr. Kim again. Jeong-yo said that plans go wrong for losers like him and turns the question around to Pi-o about what was going on with him and the cold shoulder. He apologizes and says it was childish of him. Jeong-yo asks him to go with him to the Musical Instrument Arcade Traditional Market if he was really sorry.  They wear masks to avoid being recognized and enter the warehouse where Jeong-yo’s family used to repair old pianos and sell them except the oldest one. Pi-o learns that Jeong-yo’s mother taught him how to play the piano and that when she died, Jeong-yo hated the piano but felt soothed while playing. 

Pi-o noticed one musical score sheet that wasn’t used and learns that it was a duet piece that Jeong-yo heard and liked which his mother bought but never got to play it with his mother.  Pi-o suggested to play it and for Jeong-yo to keep the moment in his memory. On their way home, they played the piece by memory.

The following day, Pi-o tells Jeong-yo to practice with him because he wants to learn how to enjoy the music again. They both laugh.

Pi-o attempts to commit suicide and is stopped by Jeong-yo. Pi-o blames Jeong-yo for his misery.