Chapter 15: Ji-soo Chooses to Stay

The sheet music arrived on a Thursday, tucked inside a manila envelope addressed to the academy in handwriting that was neither Bin's nor any manager's—too careful for the first, too personal for the second. Ji-soo found it on the front desk when she came downstairs at seven-fifteen to start the morning practice log, still in her cardigan, her tea not yet made.

She recognized the arrangement immediately. It was the folk melody. Their folk melody, which she had privately refused to name that way for six weeks.

She stood at the front desk for a moment longer than necessary, holding the envelope, and then she put it under the desk and went to make her tea and thought about something else with the determined thoroughness of a person who has had considerable practice.