Chapter 3.2
Haewon looked at the mail on the living room table and discovered that the man who had given him a spare room was named Lee Jinyeong. Lee Jinyeong worked as an employee for a large corporation, specifically in the international sales department at Samjeong Trading.
He couldn't practice in his apartment. Lacking the funds to rent a practice room, Haewon practiced in a cramped room that his classmates had found by pooling their money. His professor, who was supposed to give him lessons, was overseas attending a seminar. Without him, Haewon couldn't reserve a practice room at school.
His classmates, who weren’t very close to him, began ignoring his messages because they didn’t like the idea of Haewon taking up a practice room. Haewon searched for places where he could practice despite the noise. He even played his violin in a karaoke room. Through the glass, he saw people walking by and talking. Judging by their lip movements, they seemed to be calling him a lunatic.
Faced with the inability to practice, Haewon unexpectedly discovered a new obsession with the violin he hadn’t noticed before.
Lee Jinyeong treated Haewon well, but as he treated him better, he started to ask for more. Sleeping with a man wasn’t a big deal for Haewon, but sleeping with someone like him was another matter. It couldn't be a simple or comfortable relationship.
He considered meeting Haewon in front of the hotel that day as fate. Haewon didn’t believe it was fate, and didn’t want anything that grand. It seemed Lee Jinyeong thought Haewon was naive because he was uncomfortable with anything beyond a kiss. No matter what Lee Jinyeong thought of him, Haewon didn’t care.
He gave Haewon expensive clothes as gifts. His luggage was already full, with two suitcases, but the clothes he brought would make it three.
That day, he presented Haewon with an extremely expensive watch, something that would make anyone’s eyes pop, given his salary as a junior manager in a big corporation’s international sales team. No matter how high his salary was, it was nothing compared to the wealth Haewon had enjoyed from his father for a long time. The watch was more than what Haewon knew to be Lee Jinyeong's annual salary.
Haewon felt a sense of urgency when he saw the watch. Even if he had to sleep on the subway steps clutching his violin, he felt like he needed to leave this apartment. He refused the gift.
“I can’t accept something like this.”
“Huh? Why? It would look great on you. With your pale skin and your eye color.”
As he was putting the watch on Haewon’s wrist, Lee Jinyeong looked surprised, as if he hadn’t expected such an answer.