It's almost 11 in the late evening and Irene is still there in the living room, watching the news on her iPad that is currently reporting on the mass shooting happening a few hours earlier in the States at a club she had visited once a few years ago. She turns the volume down when she hears the noise outside and waits. About a minute later the sound of footsteps coming toward her.

"Hyun. You're still up?"

She nods, asking back, "How's the flight?"

"It was alright. A bit bumpy during landing."

"Oh. When are you going back to Jeju?"

There's a scoff of amusement and a tiny bit of disappointment. "I just came and you already want me gone?"

"It's just a question," she says.

"Saturday."

Irene counts in her head and gets four days as an answer. "Oh," she responds simply while turning off her device; the news is now only repeating the information she has heard before.

"Another shooting. Horrible."

"Yeah." She sighs.

"I'm always worried whenever you're in that country, especially back then when you were still in college."

She gets up from her seat and excuses herself. "It's late. I should get to bed; I have an early day tomorrow."

"Okay. Thank you for waiting up for me."

She gives the person a lackluster side hug and proceeds to leave.

"Hyun." The voice calls again. "How's the place?"

She takes a pause before turning back. "It's hopeless. I've told you."

"Mr. Noh told me some things."

She rolls her eyes and scoffs at the mention of the cinema's manager. "The world has changed substantially since the last time he was in college studying business. We didn't see eye to eye and he just couldn't accept the fact that I was right."

"You promised you'd actually look into it and not just there to try to tear the whole place down." 

"I was just making a smart business assessment."

"You've always hated that place since-"

She interjects, "No, not the place, just what it stands for."

There's a few seconds of silence before a more pacifying tone comes, changing the subject entirely. "Hyun, are you free tomorrow for dinner?"

She wants so badly to just say no. "Yes. I''ll make the reservation tomorrow and get back to you."

"Great. Good night, honey."

"Good night."

-

'There she is again.' Irene watches from afar the scene unfolding in front of her eyes; it is something that she previously only got to witness through the CCTV. This has become some sort of an entertainment for her. The girl is interesting; no matter how many times she has been here, she will always stand in front of the counter staring at the popcorn with her eyebrows furrowed like a confused little girl. 'Cute.'

"Junsu, you can go take a break now." She instructs the concession worker in a low voice.

He turns at her, still wiping the soda dispenser. "Are you sure? The movie is about to start." He reminds her of the rush that usually happens before people go into the auditorium.

"I'm sure I can handle four, five customers."

He chuckles. "That sounded so sad." He then notices the girl who is still watching the popcorn. "Oh, that's Seulgi, the loyal customer I've told you about."

She takes a look as if she didn't notice the presence before. "I'll be sure to take a really good care of our most valuable patron."

He snickers and finishes the wiping before taking his leave. "Okay then. Thank you, Ms. Irene."

She waits for him to be gone before approaching the customer. "Good evening, how may I help you?"

It takes a while before the girl finally looks to her and she stutters, which does nothing but boost Irene's ego. The customer orders popcorn again, even after she has tried offering some other alternatives.

"Sweet or salty?"

"Ssssss..." It's fascinating that even up to the very last second, she's still unable to decide.

She can't help but chuckle at that.

As a kid, Bae Joohyun dreamed of working as a checkout operator at the supermarket. Her bestfriend and her would spend hours and hours making their own mini market and they would take turn being the cashier; her parents had bought her quite a fancy electronic cashier machine that was battery-operated and functioned almost as well as the one they had in the real supermarkets.

This is technically not a supermarket, but there's also a cashier machine and she can certainly get used to working at the concession. It's fun.

-

Irene finds out that Kang Seulgi has the cinema membership and has the habit of booking a ticket through the website one day before the showing date. Matching the time with the information that she has obtained, she volunteers to work at the concession again, to the surprise and amusement of Eunjung who is working that day.

"I want to observe our consumers' buying behaviour." She reasons when asked. It's partly true. Of course she's not just there only to socialize with the college student no matter how interesting she seems. She doesn't really care about age, but college kids are not exactly her type - especially when a lot of people her age are starting to get married and have children.

She manages to take over and shoos Eunjung away right in time before Kang Seulgi makes an entrace. She isn't sure if the girl did it on purpose, but she queues last and that results in them having more time to exchange pleasantries. She enjoys talking to her; the girl will blush and stutter sometimes while trying hard to keep her cool. It's fun to know that she has that effect on people and it's even more fun knowing that this girl is no exception.

One day, she arrives late to the cinema because her humble Kia Sorento just wouldn't start, which resulting in her having to drive her less humble Porsche Cayenne to work. She has never driven it to work before, for obvious reasons. It just seems too cocky, even though the employees there know that she's supposedly the owner's daughter.

As if the universe is testing her, Kang Seulgi appears out of nowhere. She panics and squats down immediately, trying to hide herself.

"Nice car."

She jumps and can only stare at the intruder, trying to keep her cool. There's no way Seulgi would actually think that she owns this car, right? For all the girl knows, she's just a concession worker juggling life with minimum wage. Therefore, she stays calm and plays along. The next thing she knows, Seulgi is holding her hand and dragging her to run away.

-

She has made a change to the menu to allow costumers to have both flavours of the popcorn in one bag and she wants so badly to be there when Seulgi sees it to tell her the good news herself; but here she is in Jeju Island, gardening with her mother. Or more specifically, watching her mother gardens while she sits on a bench, playing with her phone.

As much as she hates to admit it, it's actually a peaceful afternoon. There's just something about being in nature that puts her mind at ease. There's also something about seeing her mother under the sun and getting her hands dirty, living life like a normal person, that brings joy to her.

She has almost fallen asleep when her mother sits down next to her and pours sweet iced tea into two small glasses and passes one to her.

"Come with me to the restaurant later. We have a new pastry chef I'd like to introduce you to."

She finishes the drink in one go before asking, "Why?"

"I think you two would get along nicely. She's quite impressive; she graduated from École de Cuisine Alain Ducasse in Paris."

"She learnt culinary in France and came to work at a Jeju black pork restaurant?" she asks, being a little bit skeptical. To be fair, it's a high end restaurant, but one doesn't really need to have the name Alain Ducasse - whoever that is - in their CV to be able to work there.

"She was born and raised here. Also, this island is a major tourist spot. Don't look down on Jeju." Her mother gently flicks her ear. "Have I told you that she's beautiful?"

"Who, the chef?"

"No, Mr. Kim, our soju supplier." Her mother rolls her eyes. "Yes, the pastry chef."

"Are you trying to set me up with her?"

"I just think that if you two clicked then maybe you'd come visit me here more often," Her mother says playfully but she could hear the longing in her tone.

She sighs. "I'm more of a city person. I never know what to do here."

Her mother chuckles. "I should have moved here when I was still pregnant with you," she mumbles. "I heard you've been spending a lot of time in the cinema."

She po