Hatred as told by the students

Truly do appreciate the story’s way of depicting differing types of hate/disdain from the students of heejae.

Like Choi Yerim being(at least what I think) the best display of hatred, aka indifference. She does not care whether heejae drops dead right in front of her. Her playing will be forever influenced by what she endured and she had decided to leave it like that, to her all heejae was, was a professor.

Walter Krueger on the other hand, shows a more typical depiction of hatred. That being actual rage and disgust with said object of hate. He stopped playing piano, completely went off the grid(in terms of the music world), and switched companies all to separate himself from heejae. His playing reminded him so much of heejae, that when he started to play again, for solely himself(and maybe garam) he started completely over. Learning the basics as a way to de-influence his body from the ways of heejae.

Garam obviously has an odder form of hatred. To me it seems like his initial hatred made him so curious as to why someone could behave in such a way towards their students. He disliked the competition he was forced into with naeun, disliked having to give up playing casually to begin playing as heejae wants, and disliked having to give up having friends(and a boyfriend) and other such things that would make college life bearable. He wanted to see why someone would force others to give up so much for the sake of this “music”. Then he heard heejae play and realized that he had the same kind of loneliness of one who solely focuses on their work. He kept people at a distance and tried to cut gems with the same bleak technique he felt like he had experienced. All to say that garam’s kind heart made him so curious about heejae that he couldn’t hate him anymore when he found out what made him tick.

Lastly is Compton. This is only my interpretation, but I do believe that Compton is displaying hatred for attention. He is heejae’s first and oldest student(timeline wise) though he seems like the student that heejae seems to not even think about. Garam is heejae’s lover he thinks about him all the time(even more so with this new arc), yerim is a successful gem that was cut, she endured and is completely independent, her playing can serve as examples so he thinks of her sometimes. Krueger was a failure(at least to heejae) and he thinks of him as such(still he does think of him). However Compton? Compton doesn’t even play the piano anymore, to heejae this means that Compton doesn’t even register as a person he should even spare a passing glance to, which frustrates Compton. He became a conductor with the hopes of irking heejae, of showing him that he doesn’t need to use force or other means to get people to make “music”. He can be the fun teacher, the one people joke with, hangout with, can feel inspired by, and can rely on. With these hopes in mind, Compton tries to get under heejae’s skin so that he will acknowledge these things about him, but they are all fake, and we see that with garam and his Rachmaninov practicing. I don’t doubt that Compton had some sort of feelings for the professor(I still think he does) and to me his hatred stems from a “what could have been” in his eyes.

Honestly had to get all this out cause the story is so compelling and every character is so multifaceted.


ALSOOO WALTER CAMEO MY BABY IS FINALLY SEEN AGAIN:333(づ￣ ³￣)づ