Ch. 190: We love complex characters

Compton's character as the main antagonist to this arc of the story, serves to further highlight Heejae as the blade. The dichotomy between the first student and the last, and how they dealt with this blade was done so beautifully. Compton, the first to be wounded, had likely felt immense pressure to succeed being the first to be taught by Heejae. His teacher’s abusive pedagogy, almost as if done so purposefully as an act of disdain for his playing style was what fueled a hatred that turned him away from being a pianist, eventually morphing into deep-seethed resentment that masked his yearn for validation—an admiration far more profound than he could ever admit. Choosing to be a conductor was him showing that he could do without his teacher. The deliberate sabotage to Heejae's career, was his attempt to be acknowledged, and his vulnerability this chapter only confirms this. On the other hand, Garam being the student to dull the edges of this knife, using himself as the leather that wears down on its apex, while also simultaneously having the ability to sharpen it's metal burrs (I believe Garam implicitly acknowledges this during that chapter when him and Heejae played Rachmaninoff for Ms. Clarin) clashed sharply with this.

What's interesting is that Garam is very clearly portrayed as the ONLY one who would've been able to achieve this among all of Heejae's students. This was cemented early on in the story, from Heejae seeking out Garam's audition (?) piece to calm himself during bouts of rage, to ultimately sabotaging his other student such that Garam be the one to play beside him for Orpheus. Further supplementing this, Heejae was also the first to open that romantic connection with Garam when they first shared a kiss. While at the beginning, Garam was merely an object to Heejae's goal, Garam's drunken slur on Heejae's Chopin—how it revealed a lonely soul buried underneath a callous musician—was what tore away at that line.

Note: By audition piece, I mean the video that he submitted that got him the opportunity to be Heejae's student in the first place. Iirc, he was recommended by his previous teacher bc of his exceptional ability to comprehend and interpret pieces. So essentially Garam was favored from the very beginning bc of his playing style, but he was able go beyond that by being the only one to see past an exterior and peer into a lonely soul.

Tl;dr: Heejae is technically the bad guy and Garam is the only single thing redeeming his ass.