Chapter 16: Wook-jae's Other Artists

The message arrived at 11:47 PM on a Sunday.

Ellie had been in the practice room since nine, not practicing. The notebook was open to the page with Se-young's name on it, the asterisk, the eight words she had written in small capitals: DISTRIBUTION PARTNER. KNEW THE TERRAIN. EIGHT MONTHS. Beneath that, a second line she had added on Thursday: TAEWO'S EP REGISTRATIONS. PUBLIC RECORD. HIS NAME ONLY. And below that, in the space she had been leaving deliberately blank for ten days: KIM SORA — nothing.

She had found two references to Kim Sora in the Wicked Star press archive: one in a trainee showcase program from the company's second year, listed as a vocalist in the ensemble credits, and one in a background interview Wook-jae had given to a mid-tier industry newsletter in which he mentioned, in passing, that he had helped a young artist navigate a difficult departure from a major label. No name in the second reference. She had matched it to Sora's timeline by cross-checking the newsletter's publication date against the showcase program. It was the kind of research that required patience she was not currently able to locate, so she had been sitting with the blank space instead, waiting for it to produce something.