Into The Thrill

The weather outside had dropped a few degrees compared to yesterday. I put on my coat and gloves in the cold weather. With the violin case slung over my shoulder, I left the officetel. A taxi was parked on the road. I got into the back seat, and told the driver the address that Senior Choi had sent me by text.
We drove for a long time in the taxi. The taxi entered a deep forest, far enough from Seoul that it was hard to believe we were still near the city, and the driver asked several times with a suspicious look if this was the correct address. I half wondered if Senior Choi was playing a prank on me, and nervously sat in the back seat. Fortunately, as we passed through the forest, the mansion appeared in front of us, and the taxi slowed to a stop in front of it.

"Please wait until I'm done. I'll add the waiting time to the fare."
"Sure."
I asked the driver to wait and got out of the taxi.

It was the private villa of Mr. Kim Jeong-geun, somewhere in Yangpyeong. The beautiful villa, surrounded by a black forest, seemed like a gateway to another world, standing before me.
I looked around after getting out of the taxi. A tree that had been felled in the middle of the garden caught my attention. The traces of it being cut and burned were still clearly visible on the stump, now darkened ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) by the fire.
What kind of tree could have been left in such a terrible state?

The burned stump not only ruined the garden but also made the entire villa look gloomy and eerie. The luxurious and sophisticated atmosphere I had seen in the hotel was nowhere to be found. For a villa belonging to Kim Jeong-geun of the HanKyung Group, this place felt strangely abandoned.
Woof, woof!
Suddenly, the loud barking of a dog came from somewhere behind me, as if striking my back. I flinched. I had been bitten by a dog when I was young, so I was afraid of them. I quickly looked around, but although I couldn't see anything, the barking sounded very close. The sound alone was enough to guess the size of the dog. I couldn't see any shadows, but it felt as if the entire black forest and the villa were closing in on me.

A middle-aged man in a neat suit, probably the villa's manager, approached me with a puzzled expression.
"Are you Moon Haewon?"
"Yes."

"I’ll take you inside."
He tried to take the violin case from my shoulder, but I refused with a shake of my head and followed him inside. The large door opened with a swing.
"This way."

I followed the man’s lead, heading straight for the living room.
The well-lit living room was empty. There was no sign of Mr. Kim Jeong-geun, nor was there anyone to listen to my performance. The man who had guided me in was the only one there.
I looked around in confusion. It was eerily quiet. I wasn’t sure if it was only I who felt something was wrong, but the man politely asked,

"What would you like to drink?"
"If you have coffee, please. A warm one."
"I’ll prepare it. Please have a seat and wait."
"Light, please."

"Understood."
The man who had guided me also disappeared. It felt strange being left alone in this vast space. After a while, the man returned with the coffee. I sat alone, sipping the coffee he had brought.
After finishing the coffee, I took out my violin, ready to start playing as soon as Mr. Kim Jeong-geun arrived. I tightened the bow, adjusted the pegs and fine tuners, and carefully tuned the instrument. Once everything was ready, I placed the violin on my knee and waited for a long time.

The villa’s manager had disappeared, and no one was around. I was alone in this large mansion.
It wasn’t that I had mistaken the date or time. I looked down at my wristwatch. Forty minutes had passed since the agreed-upon time. For forty minutes, no one had appeared.
"Hah."

It had been so long, it almost seemed intentional. Many thoughts crossed my mind, but I had no desire to sympathize with their situation. Just as I was about to put the violin back into its case, the door to the opposite side of the living room terrace opened, and someone walked in.
"..."
"Sorry, I’m late."

It was Hyeon Woojin. An unexpected face in an unexpected place.
I hadn't answered his calls, and I had changed the door lock code for my officetel. I didn’t know if he had come to my officetel, but anyway, I hadn’t seen him since the night we kissed. That had been about a week ago, when he had disrupted my life so completely.
The memories and doubts about him were slowly fading. But seeing him now, everything from that night came back to me as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. I could vividly remember the taste of his lips and tongue, the temperature, the strength of his arms, and how his heart had beat.

Hyeon Woojin apologized for being late and sat on the sofa without any further explanation. He rested his arm on the armrest and crossed his legs. His hands were clasped together on his thigh. He glanced at me, standing silently, with a raised eyebrow.
"What are you doing? Aren’t you starting?"
"..."

"I already paid. If you’ve received the money, you should deliver the goods."
"I’ll return the money."
"No need."

"I’m not doing it."
"You came to perform, didn’t you?"
"If I knew you were coming, I wouldn’t have come."

As I hurried to gather my violin, he asked,
"So, who did you think you were meeting?"
"..."

"Of course, a violinist who doesn’t want to perform in front of people might bend that belief when asked by Kim Jeong-geun."
Hyeon Woojin was insulting me. He seemed to be accusing me of performing for Kim Jeong-geun but refusing to perform for him. He was misinterpreting the situation, thinking that I had some sinister intention when I had come alone to the villa at Kim Jeong-geun’s request.
I hadn’t come to impress Kim Jeong-geun. I didn’t need his money. Like when I didn’t believe Lee Jin-young’s false statement and he didn’t trust me, Hyeon Woojin was still misunderstanding me.

I had said that I didn’t want to perform in front of people, yet here I was at Kim Jeong-geun’s private request, alone in his villa. I didn’t want to explain the miserable situation of being coerced by Senior Choi’s request.
"Let me tell you something in advance. Mr. Kim Jeong-geun is a gentleman, so he wouldn’t be swayed by that kind of thing. He listens to music with his ears."
"..."

He was accusing me of coming here to seduce Kim Jeong-geun under the pretense of performing. He was misunderstanding me like that.
"Why are you looking at me with such a ridiculous face?"
"Because you’re saying ridiculous things."

I glared at him with all my might.
"So, you came purely to perform. No ulterior motive."
"Of course I came to perform. What else would I have come for?"

"But why aren’t you doing it?"
"..."
"I’m ready to listen, so let’s start."

I bit my lower lip gently. There was still a faint scar on his lips. I followed through with the warning and bit his lips hard. He bled profusely. If he annoyed me, I would poke his eyes or bite his lips, treating him like a wild animal. He stared at me with his bleeding lips and wiped them with the back of his hand, then grabbed a few tissues from the side table and pressed them to stop the bleeding. After a while, he looked at me standing there in silence, then just walked away. That had been a week ago.
"Let’s just do it. We’ve both carved out time for this."
He glared at me, his face twisted in frustration, and subtly rolled up his sleeve to check his watch, indirectly hinting that too much time had already been wasted.

If I didn’t play, it would look like I had come with ulterior motives to deal with Kim Jeong-geun. And I didn’t want to be seen as some prostitute to Hyeon Woojin. I didn’t care what he thought or said, but his misunderstanding made me feel dirty, like I had been covered in trash, and my pride urged me to crush his tall, handsome face.
I tightened the bow with plenty of rosin, threw the body over my shoulder, and prepared the first violin concerto by Bruch, which I had arranged as a recital piece, expecting there to be piano accompaniment. But of course, there was no piano.
I couldn't think of an appropriate piece to perform as a solo. If I said I couldn't play because there was no accompaniment, Hyeon Woojin would surely mock me. His mockery was something like a social skill of his, effortlessly making someone feel miserable without the need for lengthy persuasion or threats.

I recalled Bach’s Partita No. 2, Chaconne. Though I didn’t want to play something I liked for him, I couldn’t think of anything else. Also, I wanted to play a proper piece of music for him, to make him think twice about treating me casually in the future.
Without any signal to start or even a deep breath, I forcefully struck the string. The metallic sound cut sharply through the air. The sound was heavy and sharp, reverberating in the high ceiling and spacious living room. The sound structure allowed it to resonate widely and echo.
The living room of the mansion, with only Hyeon Woojin and me inside, felt excessively barren, like an enormous, desolate space in the middle of a plain.

Bach’s Chaconne begins with a D minor theme, which keeps changing and repeating, building into majestic variations that fill the room with just the sound of one violin.
Slowly, the theme rose. The simple combination of notes could sound sad or painful, depending on how it was played. The moment it soared into the high register, the strings split painfully. It was a sorrowful, aching sound.
It felt like walking through a bleak path in a minor key, following the bow's movement. After the ever-changing variations, it was filled with long arpeggios.

For Haewon, Chaconne wasn’t just a violin solo; it was a piece that conveyed loneliness through its melody. One music scholar claimed that Bach wrote the Chaconne to mourn his first wife, Maria, who had passed away. There was a sense of solitude and sorrow in the mourning, a desolation so deep it felt like crawling on the floor with the entire body.
Passing through the middle, the breathless cadenza stormed in like a tempest, and the playing became so dazzling it felt as if multiple violins were playing together.
Rosin powder rose like dust, and the rough playing broke the bow hairs. At the height of the climax, Haewon felt as though he was losing himself to the variations. Someone seemed to be squeezing the breath passage and ready to burst it open.

Haewon scratched near the bridge. The clear and delicate phrasing, sharp as if honed like a knife, was Haewon’s specialty. His fingers moved frantically across the fingerboard. He had to press three or four notes at once, not missing a single string.
Chaconne was long for a single movement, and the endless variations at the start of the first four measures required tremendous focus from the violinist who had to perform it alone.
Haewon began to forget about Hyeon Woojin’s presence. He erased him from his mind and immersed himself in the music, connecting the fierce phrasing.

Just as his consciousness began to blur, the passionate cadenza ended, and the melancholic theme from the beginning returned in a minor key, as though ready to burst into tears. Haewon drew the bow like it was going to snap. He tightened his wrist, gripping the bow tightly, and slowly drew it across the strings until the final measure, then gently released it.
"…Hah."
The breath he had been holding escaped. The silence around him was so still, it was as though you could hear the sound of a labored exhale. Haewon opened his eyes.

It was Mr. Kim Jeong-geun’s villa. The moment he opened his eyes, he realized where he was. Only then did Haewon notice Hyeon Woojin’s presence. He turned his head. There he was.
Sitting alone, Hyeon Woojin had not changed his posture. His legs were crossed, and his hands, clasped together, rested on his lap. He was staring intently at Haewon with a calculating expression on his face.
His gaze was so intense it felt like it could burn a hole right through his face. Haewon suddenly felt embarrassed under the weight of his stare. Regret filled him for playing so passionately and hurriedly packing up his violin.

He placed the violin into its case. Then, turning the screw to secure the bow, which had loosened, he zipped the case closed. He had played with such force that the bow hairs had broken, and it seemed he would need to replace them soon.
As Haewon silently turned away, he spoke, his voice rough and dry.
“I sent the taxi back.”

“….”
“Let’s have a drink. You must be thirsty.”
“I don’t have time.”

Haewon rejected him coldly.
“Then I’ll take you home.”
Hyeon Woojin didn’t insist further and stood up.

“Call a taxi for me.”
“There are no taxis around here.”
He turned around first. Haewon, who had been on full guard, sighed helplessly and followed him outside.

They stood outside, waiting for Hyeon Woojin’s car. The man who had initially guided him was nowhere to be seen. In this large villa, Haewon was now alone with him. That fact felt unsettling.
Somewhere, the clear cry of a bird could be heard, followed by the barking of a dog. In the daytime, the sound might have been beautiful, but at night, it became a sharp, threatening cry of a wild animal.
Haewon flinched again at the sound of the dog barking close by and looked around the dark surroundings. He couldn’t see the large dogs that sounded as if they were the size of a house. Although they were invisible, the barking was so clear it felt as though the entire garden, shrouded in darkness, was provoking a primal fear like a mountain seen at night.

In the middle of the garden stood the burned stump, surrounded by desolate winter trees. When the wind blew, they collided with each other, making eerie sounds. Kim Jeong-geun’s villa in Yangpyeong felt like a place Haewon didn’t want to be in, especially as a sensitive person.
Hyeon Woojin’s car stopped in front of him. Haewon opened the door. Hyeon Woojin took the violin and placed it in the back seat. Once Haewon was in the passenger seat and had fastened his seatbelt, he pressed the accelerator. The forest felt long again, just like when he had arrived by taxi, both the journey into and out of it feeling interminably long.
The sound of leaves and twigs being crushed under the wheels of the car filled the air, but there was no sign of life, no human presence.

The dark forest was so imposing that even the boldest person would feel uneasy. At one point, Haewon had thought that building a villa and retreating alone into such a perfectly isolated place wouldn't be so bad, but now, it felt too eerie, and he regretted even having that thought.
For the first time, Haewon realized that he was afraid of the dark. The dim, matte-black forest surrounded the area, creating a sense of being trapped. The urgent fear that he might not be able to escape the forest slowly began to rise from beneath his feet. Without saying a word, Hyeon Woojin suddenly stopped the car in this barren space.
Haewon was startled and turned to look at him. He wanted to shout at Hyeon Woojin to not stop here and to keep driving toward a road with light, but he didn’t say anything. He swallowed dryly.

“What is it?”
He wanted to scold him for stopping, to hurry up.
“There have been people trapped in this forest before. They got lost, and it took three days to find them.”

At the end of the branches, the moonlight barely pierced through the dry leaves, faintly sparkling as the wind blew through them.
“If we’re stuck here, no one would be able to find us, right?”
“Stop talking nonsense and just drive.”

“Are you scared?”
What was he trying to say? Haewon responded sharply toward Hyeon Woojin.
“You seem scared.”

“Who’s scared?”
“Then why are you wearing gloves? In the car?”
He pointed at Haewon’s hands. Haewon had been wearing gloves.

“Because my hands are cold.”
At his reply, Hyeon Woojin turned up the heater. It was warm, so he seemed to be saying that Haewon should take them off. Haewon didn’t want to seem like a sensitive person, nor did he want to appear scared of the darkness.
Haewon casually took off his gloves. Once his hands were exposed, Hyeon Woojin suddenly grabbed his wrist.

“What are you doing…!”
“Your fingers are really long.”
With awkwardly held hands, Hyeon Woojin placed his hand against Haewon’s. Haewon’s hands were smaller than his, despite the long fingers. Hyeon Woojin’s hand was warm, and Haewon could feel the heat. Hyeon Woojin carefully overlapped their hands, gazing at them intently. The moment his grip loosened, Haewon quickly pulled his hand away.

“Let’s go.”
“…….”
“Let’s go now.”

“…….”
Hyeon Woojin silently looked at Haewon. Haewon hated the way he stared at him. He hated being conscious of his breath. He hated trying to understand what was going on in his mind.
“And I won’t be playing like this again, so don’t contact the orchestra.”

“Well, you should have contacted them directly. I didn’t know it would be so expensive. Or was that the proper amount? You’ll make a lot of money.”
It was the price Senior Choi had negotiated for Haewon. He must have tested the waters to see if the other party would accept it. If the other person had rejected it, the price would have gone down, and if they had liked it, he might have pushed for an even higher amount. He must have regretted his own clumsiness.
“You should have just called directly.”

“Does that mean you’ll answer my calls from now on?”
Haewon had ignored Hyeon Woojin’s calls. If he hadn’t answered, the orchestra would have reached out to him, and Senior Choi would have negotiated Haewon’s price with them. It was more than just unpleasant.