Seulgi wakes up in the morning feeling disoriented. She looks around and instantly knows where she is; the place, the smell and everything give her a sense of comfort - and butterflies in her stomach. Bits and pieces of memory from last night starting to come to her. The conversation with a man at the bar, who she only entertained because she was bored. The voices of her friends calling her and tapping her face repeatedly to keep her awake. The familiar lavender scent pressing so close to her body, struggling to get her to climb up the stairs. The soft hand on her cheek and the most gentle way she was tucked in.

She was half-awake at those times and honestly could have forced herself to wake up but she was worried that Irene would then tell her to go home. Therefore, she surrendered to the sleepiness and let whatever drug she was made to consume last night took care of her fate. And here she is, in Irene Bae's boudoir.

She turns around to see the other side of the bed untouched. She wonders where the house owner slept last night. The realization that Irene let her sleep in her own bedroom instead of one of the guest bedrooms hits her and she feels her heart ache because of how much she didn't deserve this kind treatment.

She gets off the bed and goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth and makes herself more presentable. There used to be a spare toothbrush for her but of course it isn't there anymore. She knows Irene stores the new toothbrushes inside the mirror cabinet and opens it to grab one for herself. That's when she notices she's wearing Irene's pyjamas. Her dirty clothes must have already been washed and pressed nicely like the first time she had her impromptu sleepover.

When she makes it to the living room, it's empty, but she can hear the sound of water splashing outside. It's her first time seeing Irene swimming and the girl wasn't exaggerating when she said she was really good at it. Seulgi is impressed by her posture, her movement and her speed. She watches the former school athlete doing lap after lap of different styles of swimming; stroke, freestyle, backstroke and swimming at the bottom of the pool from one end to the other without taking a single breath.

She walks slowly and unsurely outside, getting closer to the swimming pool. Irene pauses for half a second during her swim, probably noticing her presence, but she continues with her regiment. She stops by the pool and squats down at a considerate distance; Irene is about halfway on her deep dive.

"Good morning," she greets timidly when Irene finally reaches her end of the pool. "I want to thank you for everything and apologize for.. this. Moonbyul called you, didn't she? She shouldn't have. I will talk to her later to make sure she would never do that again." She blabbers immediately, not even giving Irene the chance to greet her back.

The blonde takes off her goggles and dips her head backward to get the water to smooth her hair. "You need to find better friends," she suggests calmly. "How exactly did you go to a club with a bunch of your friends and still managed to get your drink spiked? Isn't the basic rule to take care of each other?" she questions, now seemingly irritated. "And then they just left you with me? They don't even know me that well, how could they be sure I wouldn't do anything bad to you?"

"You wouldn't," she says softly, surprised and touched that Irene obviously still cares about her.

"But they didn't know that!" She raises her voice. "ing irresponsible," she curses, throwing her goggles away in frustation.

Seulgi her lips nervously, suddenly feeling the emptiness in her stomach. She hasn't had anything since the early evening last night. She tries explaning the situation. "I'm not the most exciting person to be hanging around with these days so I told them to go have fun without me, and they did. It was my own fault, I wasn't careful enough around this stranger."

"Why were you even talking to this guy in the first place?" Irene questions with a lot of judgment in her tone.

Seulgi shrugs. "He was there and he talked to me so I was just entertaining him."

Irene rolls her eyes and says nothing.

"Thank you for coming to my rescue even though it wasn't your responsibility. I really appreciate it. And.." Seulgi clears . "I'm really sorry for everything. I'm sure you don't want to hear any more excuses so I won't say anything except that I'm sorry and I didn't mean to hurt you and I feel really bad for doing so."

Irene keeps her silence and only looks at her, making her even more anxious that she already was.

She continues, "I told you I'm not like everybody else, but I am, aren't I? You're a really nice person, Irene. You didn't deserve to be treated that way and I'm very, very sorry for adding the same pain. I hope you find someone who can treat you right one day and I hope you're surrounded by people who appreciate you for who you are, not because of who your mother is."

She feels her heart pounding seeing Irene moving closer, looking up to her from the pool with the water up to her neck. Those eyes are too beautiful, especially seeing them so clearly under the sun. She looks at Irene confusedly when her right hand comes out of the water, reaching out to her. The next thing she knows, she's being pulled into the water, landing face first. It hurts.

She panics. She doesn't know how to swim and the side of the pool is suddenly more than an arm length away from her. She manages to get her head above the water and sees that Irene isn't even looking her way anymore as she's getting ready to exit the pool.

"Help!" she cries out desperately. "I can't.. swim.."

Water gets into and nose, making her cough violently. Within seconds, there is a big splash and Irene is now by her side, holding her by her arm. She grabs onto the swimmer tightly and tries to resurface to take a breath.

She succeeds in breathing but now she feels someone hitting her from below. In her panicking state, she apparently has climbed onto Irene and pushed her down. She doesn't know what to do, she doesn't want to drown the girl but she's scared of getting drowned herself. She tries to not put so much pressure on Irene and after a little struggle, the blonde appears on the surface, inhaling a sharp breath before coughing.

"Seulgi, for god's sake, relax your body and stop fighting me!" she commands. "You're not gonna drown, I'm holding you." She assures.

She feels Irene's hand gripping the back of her shirt and she relaxes. Once she has stopped moving around so chaotically, she feels her right feet touching the bottom of the pool.

"Are you standing?" Irene checks, looking into the water. "The pool is only 1.5 metre deep."

In her still traumatic and now humiliated state, she slaps Irene's shoulder. "What was that for!?"

"A revenge, for being a total jerk. And to sober you up." Irene says, gently pushing her to get out of the pool. "I didn't know you couldn't swim. Sorry."

She climbs up and lies down on the deck, exhausted. "It's fine," she quickly says, feeling like she doesn't have the rights to be angry. "You're right, the water woke me up."

 A huge towel is suddenly covering almost her entire body.

"Breakfast should be ready by now. You should dry yourself up and go eat something." Irene says, walking to the lounger to sit herself down. She doesn't have a towel with her, the one Seulgi is using right now must have been for her.

She stands up immediately and walks to her, giving Irene what is rightfully hers. The towel is fortunately not that damp yet.

The blonde looks up and pushes it back to her. "Use it. You're shivering," she tells her. "I'll just sit here for awhile and go take a shower after."

She notices Irene wearing a normal black swimsuit, nothing too revealing, except for those smooth thighs. She wraps the towel around the blonde and sits down at the edge of the lounger. "Why are you still so nice to me?" she questions - confused and somehow relieved.

There's a small smile on Irene's face, it's comforting to see after the coldness after coldness she has been displaying. "Would you rather I drown you again?"

"Please don't do that."

Irene then gives her the towel again, wrapping it tightly around her this time. "Warm yourself up, go eat and then take a shower. I'll send you back home after."

She stares at her, incredibly touched. Irene hasn't responded to her apology yet but her action says it all - she doesn't understand how someone like her exists. A true saint. She grabs the edge of the towel and slides forward, hugging the older girl while wrapping them both in that big white cloth. Tears start to drop as relief washes over her. "You shouldn't forgive people so easily, Irene. Some people just don't deserve it. Some especially need to be burned at the stake."

Irene stays rigid for a moment before she wraps her arms around Seulgi, patting her back gently to stop her from crying. About half a minute past before she sounds off, "My gut says that you deserve it. And those people.. I'm not even thinking about them; they're not worth my time."

She takes a deep breath and pulls herself back to see Irene's face. "You've really forgiven me?" she asks, needing the confirmation.

"You're forgiven," Irene answers simply.

She feels the knot in her chest getting untangled instantly, it feels so freeing after weeks of pure torture of her own making.

"I promise I won't make the same mistake again." She promises between sniffles.

Irene nods and gives her a small smile. They look at each other in that close proximity. Irene's eyes never left Seulgi's eyes, while the latter is trying hard not to look down to her lips. She misses her so much and she misses kissing her so much, but Irene broke up with her and she has lost the rights to claim those lips no matter how much she wanted it. However, she finds it hard to stop herself because everything feels right at that moment.

She closes in as slowly as she possibly could, as a way to request Irene's consent without having to ask verbally. Irene stays still but her eyes dart down to Seulgi's lips for some miliseconds. Their noses touch and she feels a sense of panic when Irene suddenly moves. However, it isn't a move of rejection, instead the blonde is pulling the towel to cover both their heads entirely. That's when she knows she's fully allowed to kiss her, so she does.

The kiss is slow; full of apology and gratitude on her part, and a lot of tenderness on Irene's part. She feels her broken heart magically being mended right that second, as if a pair of gentle hands are putting back the pieces to the right places and holding them together firmly.

They pull apart and stare at each other once again. The towel is thick, but the sun is shining so brightly they can see each other clearly like nothing is covering them. She admires Irene's beauty, particularly her eyes, feeling herself getting lost in them. They must have looked bizarre from the outside. She just wishes that none of the maids are there or they would have thought that they were doing something inappropriate.

"Seulgi, do you still want to be with me?" Irene asks quietly, averting her gaze.

She frowns, surprised and suspicious of the question both at the same time. "Why are you even still thinking of getting back together with me? Even after everything?" She tries to remove the towel but Irene holds onto it.

"Don't question my question and just answer me," Irene says; playfully, commandingly, pleadingly.

"Of course I want to," she answers in a heartbeat even though she feels undeserving of the proposition. "I just don't understand why. I've hurt you, in a way that's unforgiveable considering your past."

"Maybe I was overreacting," Irene says, way