The moment Irene locks eyes with the doctor, she knows it's not working out. Extreme guilt washes over her. Seulgi rushes to her mother's side to help her get off of the examining chair. The doctor then explains Mrs. Kang's condition and why the surgery isn't possible. If it's painful for Irene to hear, she doesn't even dare to imagine how it feels like being Mrs. Kang and Seulgi right now.

The drive back home is mostly filled with Seulgi's mother's voice, who seems to be the least affected out of the three of them, which is bizarre considering this is about her own eyesight. She must have felt their disappointment and is trying her best to show them that it really is not a big deal.

"Seul, do you want me to go?" she asks, once they've reached the house and Mrs. Kang has gone inside.

Seulgi looks at her questioningly. "Why? Do you have somewhere to be?"

"No, not really. I just feel like.. you might not want me around right now."

The film student furrows her eyebrows. "Why would you think that?"

She raises and drops her shoulders. "Rich people, right? They think money solves everything," she says sarcastically.

"Irene.." she calls, looking a little disturbed by her words. Pulling her in, Seulgi embraces her. "It's not your fault it didn't work. It's just how it is."

She wriggles out of the embrace, feeling undeserving of it. "It's cruel to give you false hope."

The girl then kisses her forehead lovingly, sending warm signal to her heart. "Thank you for caring. You have no idea how much it meant for us," Seulgi says, sincerely.

She stays the night with Seulgi in her arms, comforting the girl who's silently dealing with her emotions. Despite what she said, it's clear that she's disappointed. Even Irene is pissed with herself for suggesting it in the first place. She's just relieved Seulgi didn't straight out blaming her for it.

It is way past midnight when Seulgi finally falls asleep, leaving Irene alone with her thoughts. She takes in the sight of the sleeping girl; now slightly more peaceful after hours of creased forehead. She has never felt this way before towards anyone else. It used to only be lust and desire, maybe a little bit of care, but never like this. She loves Seulgi, and maybe a little bit more. She wonders if this is how it feels like realizing you've met the one.

She smiles and presses her lips on Seulgi's temple tenderly. The girl stirs and snuggles up even closer to her, rubbing her face on her chest. Irene chuckles softly, suddenly remembering the stuffed toy she used to hug to sleep when she was a kid. Her mother is right, Seulgi does look and feel like it. She closes her eyes and lets the night lull her to sleep.

'Gom Gom.'

-

It's an important week for Irene and it starts out horribly. The Arthouse if having a week-long screenings for a carefully-curated European films. A total of 12 different films will be screened in the cinema - recent, high quality, critically-acclaimed, award-winning films that dominated film festivals in Europe last year.

Now, the problem is that there was a glitch on their website overnight and they have sold more tickets than they have seats. She feels like giving up on life right then right there, but fortunately Mr. Noh decides that it's time for him to finally be useful for once. He swiftly takes care of it; sending out notice and apology emails to the customers while arranging refunds straight away. She suspects that something similiar might have happened in the past, which is why he's able to handle it so experiencedly.

Seulgi comes in the afternoon right after class, bearing tacos from their regular food truck. This might be one of her happiest moments seeing the film student coming to the cinema, and it's not because of the tacos. Seulgi was the one coming up with the plan of having this film festival - an idea she shared that time after they slept together for the first time, as well as saying I love you for the first time. Irene wants this event to go perfectly, frankly more for Seulgi than for the good of The Arthouse itself. 

"I don't have the appetite to eat right now." She tells Seulgi, refusing the tacos. She always loses appetite when she's nervous. 

"Have you eaten anything today?" Seulgi eyes her suspiciously.

"I had breakfast."

"What did you eat for breakfast?"

"Coffee," she answers with a sheepish smile.

"That's not breakfast." Seulgi grabs on her shoulders to turn her around, guiding her to her office. "You should at least eat one taco. Just one! Please? I went all the way there to buy this for you."

The guilt tripping almost works because it's really hard to say no when Seulgi is looking at her like that. But she really can't force herself to eat right now without vomiting it out later. "Back when I was a kid and I couldn't eat because I was too nervous for competitions, my mom would buy me hot chocolate. She said it's easier to force yourself to drink than to eat. So...."

Seulgi catches her drift. "Wait here, I'll get it for you."

She stops her from leaving, rummaging through her bag to get her wallet and gives it to the girl. "Here, use mine."

Seulgi looks at her, seemingly a little disappointed. "I can afford a cup of hot chocolate, you know."

"I know. Of course. I mean.. I was the one asking for it, so-"

"Irene, keep your money." The girl says in a slightly stern voice.

She puts her wallet back into her bag.

-

There's a rumble coming from the audience when Irene goes to the front of the auditorium to give her opening speech. Gasps and praises of her beauty, mostly coming from the male species, fill the room and she wonders how people could be so shamelessly loud. Do they think she can't hear them?

She's used to it; the attention. What she's not used to is the face of her girlfriend; seemingly contemplating whether to be annoyed or proud of the attention she's receiving. It's cute.

She starts giving her memorized speech. 'Good afternoon. Welcome to bla bla bla. Thank you for bla bla bla. Our vision is to bla bla bla. We hope you bla bla bla.'

And then she takes out a small piece of paper from her pocket. Inside is a long list of names she would like to thank; from Mr. Noh to all the staff that made this event possible. She sees Junsu, Minhee and Eunjung looking estatic when hearing their names. They deserved it for working so hard and always giving their best; not only for this event but for the past year she gets to know them personally and work with them. Lastly, she thanks a certain Kang Seulgi; who came up with this idea and helped curating the films. And without saying it out loud, she thanks Seulgi in her heart for her existence, for coming into her life, for persuading her to save The Arthouse.

She thought mentioning Seulgi's name wasn't a big deal. She forgets that a lot of the audience today are students from SNU and Kang Seulgi is a familiar name to them. She sees some people are looking at each other questioningly while Seulgi slouches deeper into her chair, trying to make herself smaller as her friends start teasing her. She quickly wraps up her speech to shift the attention away from the poor girl.

The opening film begins. Irene feels like she can finally breathe easier once the lights have been turned off and people are focusing on the film. This must be what new parents feel when finally getting the peace and quiet for a couple of hours after putting their infant babies to sleep.

She stays in the auditorium for about half an hour before she exits to take care of a long list of things that need her attention. The rest of the day goes rather smoothly despite some minor incidents at the concession and a brief chaos in the bathroom caused by a clogged sink.

Seulgi and a bunch of her close friends have booked tickets for all three screenings happening today; it's her way of showing support to Irene and her friends' way of showing support to her. It's sweet. It's also exciting to get to see Seulgi every few hours for the whole day.

-

"Guys, let's have a quick break before people start coming out," Irene says, dropping four boxes of pizza and two boxes of donuts on the big table at the back office where most of the full time staff and part time workers are gathering.

They cheer so loudly she could go deaf right that second.

"Thank you, Miss Irene. You're the best," Eunjung starts and the rest follows suit.

"No, thank you to all of you for your hard work. But remember, this is only the beginning, we still have 6 more days to go. So please take care of your health." She points to the junk food she brought with her and chuckles, realizing the irony. "Today is an exception, we'll be eating healthy starting from tomorrow."

Mr. Noh pulls her aside after she finished her one slice of pizza. "Is your mother not planning to come? She'd be over the moon to see how crowded this place is."

No one working there except for Mr. Noh knows that Oh Sunyoung is the owner of the cinema. For whatever reason, her mother - who is notorious about guarding her privacy - wanted people to come to the cinema purely because they love arthouse films, not because they are some fans hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Her husband's name was the founder on paper - but it was her name that was on the real paper - and the staff were told that the founder had passed away. 

She wipes her hands and explains, "I don't think it's possible for her to make an appearance here. But I did send her pictures earlier and she was so happy seeing how packed the auditorium was."

"Tell her to disguise herself then," Mr. Noh suggests, half-joking half-serious.

She laughs. "You should go visit her in Jeju sometime. You should also go try the grilled black pork she's so proud of. The best in the island, she said."

He chuckles. "Yeah, maybe I should. I haven't seen her in awhile." He sighs. "Oh wait, we actually met at Park Dongwoon's funeral, but I didn't get to talk to her much there."

Her smile slowly disappears hearing that name being mentioned. She excuses herself to the restroom and tells the man to enjoy the food.

-

Seulgi sees her first.

They are at the lobby of the cinema. Irene is busy talking with Moonbyul when she hears Seulgi questioning, "Is that..?"

She turns to see who her girlfriend is talking about and sees the woman. She turns back quickly to avoid any eye contact with her.

"Irene?" Seulgi calls.

She must have frozen.

"You okay?" The girl asks again, pulling her to the side, away from her friends.

"How do you know her?" she asks, confused.

"Uhm.. I'm a film student. I bet at least a quarter of the people here know who she is."

"No, I mean why did you assume that I might not be okay knowing that she's here?"

Seulgi s