Chapter 10: Cha Joon-ho's First Direct Conversation with Ellie

The practice room smelled of rosin and cold coffee when Ellie heard the front door.

Not a student's entrance—students came in with the particular hesitancy of people who were not yet sure they were allowed to want what they wanted, a half-second pause on the threshold that she had catalogued without meaning to over a decade of growing up in this building. This entrance was different. Deliberate without being loud. The footsteps in the corridor moved at the pace of someone who had already decided where they were going and found the concept of hurry beneath comment.

She did not stop playing.