Chapter 9: Ellie's First Wicked Star Showcase

The venue was a converted printing press factory in Sangam-dong, which Ellie had selected herself from a shortlist of four options Wook-jae had provided, and she had selected it because the ceiling was six meters high and the acoustics were brutal and honest and would not flatter a performance that did not deserve it. She had told him this. He had said, "Exactly right," in the tone of a man confirming an answer he had already known.

She arrived ninety minutes before doors.

The stage manager, a woman named Hana with a clipboard and the specific no-nonsense efficiency of someone who had worked too many shows where the artist was late, handed her a running order without preamble. Ellie read it standing in the loading dock with the October cold coming through the open bay doors, smelling of diesel and old paper from the brick walls. Second slot. Twenty-five minutes. Three songs with a two-minute window between for tuning.