Chapter 3.1
The party ended at 1 a.m. The piano was exhausted, and the string quartet was no better. They had practiced for more than five hours. In any case, Haewon had managed to catch up on the practice he'd missed, and he was paid for it.
He stuffed the cash from the envelope into the inside pocket of his jacket. The banquet hall, now empty of guests, felt eerily quiet—perhaps because the music had stopped, or maybe because the heat was gone, but there was a distinct chill in the air.
Haewon stood near the hotel entrance, waiting for his senior, who had gone to retrieve the car. A scarf, given to him by an unknown man, was wrapped around his neck. It was late at night, and the air had become even colder. Winter was settling in.
One by one, the staff members who had been visible earlier disappeared, and there was no one around the entrance. Haewon gazed at the entrance road, his head tilted forward as he waited for his senior's car, which would come from the parking ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) lot at the back of the hotel. He wished his senior would hurry. He pulled the scarf up to cover his nose against the biting cold.
A sleek gray car, resembling the ashen gray of the city, stopped in front of Haewon. It wasn’t his senior’s car. Haewon stood still, staring at the car, when the window rolled down.
"Do you want a ride? I’m heading to Seoul."
"......."
Unexpectedly, the person in the driver's seat was Prosecutor Hyeon Woojin. The man who, despite his fiancée's suicide, still acted as if he were Kim Jeonggeun's son-in-law, even though he seemed like the type to sever connections with anything reminding him of his dead fiancée.
Born into a family of doctors, he had rejected the family business to pursue another career. The man whom Taeshin had unrequitedly loved. The man Taeshin had called ten times before his death.
It was a sudden offer. He wondered if his senior had heard the gossip about Woojin being criticized after his fiancée's suicide. Though he didn’t know him, Haewon knew more about Woojin than he had realized.
He had been with a woman at the hotel. Taeshin had loved him. And they slept together. Despite being with a woman, he had slept with Taeshin. Whether it was just a one-night thing, or if he had felt sorry for Taeshin and slept with him because Taeshin confessed his feelings, Haewon wasn’t sure about the details, but he had a rough idea. He also knew that Taeshin, feeling hopeless after the accident, had committed suicide. Haewon had unknowingly learned significant parts of someone else’s life story.
Haewon turned his gaze away from him and looked toward the parking lot, replying.