Hayle is living with his two friends, Amelia and her husband. The three got along very well, living in a mansion together as Hayle tried again and again to find his proper place in the world. Ever since he was orphaned, Hayle has felt that he was a burden to those who cared for him, such as his aunt who paid for his college education, where he met the husband. Now, he considers endeavoring into fields ranging from archeology to painting. He settles on painting, though at first he is markedly bad at it. For fifteen years, he would practice painting and though he became much better at it, he never quite found success. This is because Hayle was in the habit of not drawing a portrait which he was commissioned, rather, he would take artistic liberties with all his artwork that often left his patrons unpleased, or other times he would simply never finish his pieces. He is comforted by Amelia, who shares his artistic appreciation and forms a close bond to him, a bond which the husband feels ostracized from. One day, Hayle decides to make a portrait of Amelia and after six weeks of posing, he finally reveals the finished product, much to the couple's horror. He had not drawn Amelia, but a highly stylized and artistically influenced version of her that ultimately hardly resembled her at all. The painting hurt Amelia badly, with her proclaiming that he did not love her after all, which causes all parties great distress. Hoping to amend his failure, he spends multiple days locked in his room working on a new piece of her. Whereas before he would often lounge around with them and take walks with Amelia, he remained in his room up at all hours working on the revision. When finally he left a note telling them to claim what was theirs in his room, they walked in to find the room abandoned, knowing that he had left in the middle of the night. The one artifact remaining was the portrait of Amelia that perfectly captured her essence and beauty.