Irene watches the girl in front of her, forehead resting against the mirror, her breath fogging the surface, blurring their reflections. She sees her closing her eyes, getting lost in the pleasure. She makes sure to prolong the experience, doing things she has learnt over the time that Seulgi would like; a kiss over here, a bite over there, a over here, a rub over there.

Seulgi comes undone after a few deep s, almost sliding down if not for Irene holding her in place. They then both throw themselves back to the bed, placed just two steps away from the full length mirror. Seulgi is panting hard, while Irene is trying to shake away the cramp in her hand after such a rigorous task.

The film student notices and right away takes her hand, wiping the excess fluid carelessly on her own body before massaging it with the utmost care. Kisses are then planted on each of her knuckle.

"Two minutes," Seulgi says. "Give me two minutes."

She chuckles at the promise. "Take your time. We're in no rush."

It's true. The night is still young and they have until noon the next day to spend in this cozy little place just outside of Seoul; another Airbnb place courtesy to Kang Seulgi.

Seulgi is true to her words; she's on top of her in less than two minutes, all ready to return the favour - for the second time.

Kang Seulgi, who's always so eager to please. Her life-sized teddy bear.

She shakes her head violently. It feels almost criminal to have naughty thoughts about your childhood stuffed toy.

"What's wrong?" Seulgi stops, looking at her concerned.

"Nothing." She pulls her in closer. "Don't stop."

Seulgi kisses her neck and continues. Everything feels so good. Too good, even, that she starts making unholy noises. She isn't normally that loud, but with Seulgi she makes an exception. The younger girl likes hearing her expressing herself, especially knowing she's the cause of it. So Irene services her while being serviced.

However, she has forgotten that they left the windows open. There are people next door and they should be more considerate of the neighbours. When a hand covers , she snaps her eyes open, instantly feeling a chill running down her spine. She retaliates and pushes the girl on top of her so hard she almost fell over backwards.

There's a long pause as the two of them look at each other with wide eyes. Seulgi is seemingly torn between feeling hurt and worried that she might have done something severely wrong, while Irene herself is in the early stage of having a mental breakdown.

The mood has been ruined. None of them even think about anymore. They finally sit side by side with the blanket covering them both up as Irene tries to explain what actually happened. She shares with Seulgi the incident with her girlfriend in high school, how said girl covered during to stop her from protesting. She didn't even realize she has this fear until just now, though she does remember always feeling uncomfortable whenever she sees people's mouths getting covered in movies.

She has never shared this one little detail with anybody before; not with her therapist, and not with her mother during that big confrontation. It feels somehow freeing to be able to share this piece of information with someone. Even though that someone is now looking incredibly upset, concerned and apologetic.

"I'm sorry, I didn't kn-"

"You did nothing wrong," she interjects.

"Irene.." she calls. "You said you had a therapist before. Did she know about this?" Before she could ask, Seulgi explains, "Not just the hand thing, but the whole.." She looks in pain saying it. ".. forcing herself on you.. part."

Here it goes again. It feels just like yesterday when she had this conversation with her mother.

"Yes, she knew. But I didn't see it that way. That girl was my girlfriend at that time. I consented to having with her. I could have stopped her if I wanted to. She might be slightly bigger than me in size, but I was the sporty one between the two of us. I'm sure I was physically stronger than her." She pauses, taking a breath. "For some reason, I was just.. too.. tired.. to do anything about it. Or maybe, for an even more ed up reason, I wanted to add this to the pile of s-happened-to-me-because-of-my-mother. Incredibly ed up, I know." She laughs ironically as she watches Seulgi's expression; the girl looks so crushed.

"I'm a changed person, Seul. I'm in a much better place now." She tries convincing Seulgi, honestly worried that the girl might get scared of her; of how broken of a person she used to be and could still be. "I've been in a much better place for a long time, even before I met you. But now especially, after meeting you, after having that much needed talk with my mom, I've never felt so.. great. So.. please don't be scared of me." She croaks out that last sentence.

Seulgi shakes her head in disagreement and scoots closer, moving her hand to touch her before she retracts hesitantly.

She chuckles. Touched at how adorable Seulgi can be. She takes her hand and kisses it. "You can touch me, Seul," she says softly.

Seulgi cups her cheek and kisses her forehead gently. "You can be scary sometimes but I'd never run away from you because of your past." The girl gives her a peck on the lips. "I wish I went to school with you."

She raises an eyebrow. "Why?"

Her eyes hardened. "I would punch those people in their faces. I would keep you company and be by your side every single second you spent in school. I would.. I would make you mine so that you'd never be with those people who didn't deserve you."

Irene's heart melts like butter on a very hot summer day. She pinches Seulgi's nose and jokes, because she would cry if they continue on with this. "You're two years younger than me, you think you'd be able to fight your seniors? And more importantly, do you seriously think I would fall for a nerdy kid like you? In your dreams, Kang Seulgi."

"Why do you always have to ruin my moment?" The film student pouts. "I was quite cute and popular in school, you know."

The next half hour is spent with them looking through old photos of Seulgi in school uniform that's on her Facebook page. A kind friend uploaded those and tagged everybody just a year ago.

Seulgi did look very cute in her yellow blazer with her hair up in a ponytail. Irene also finds out that Seulgi was in a modern dance club for a year. There were pictures of her dancing, but sadly no videos. She begs her to dance, but the girl says that she hasn't been dancing since and would certainly only embarrass herself if she started dancing now.

"I dare you to give me a ," she challenges seductively, biting Seulgi's earlobe for an extra effect.

The girl groans reluctantly at first, but in mere seconds she's now on top of her, pinning her down domineeringly. When she starts grinding her bottom playfully on her lap, they cackle, because it's probably the worst ever given in the history of lap dancing. But Seulgi doesn't stop and she has to pull her down and lock her in a tight embrace to stop her from moving so sinfully undelicious.

"Seulgi.." Irene calls, covering them both properly with the blanket.

"Hm?" The girl lifts her head up from her chest.

She gulps, hesitant. "Try doing that again to me."

"Hm?" Her tone is now questioning.

"Not the , the.. uhm.." She her lips and goes to grab Seulgi's hand and pull it close to her face.

"Oh." She gets it. "Are you sure?"

She nods. "It's a stupid fear to have. I want to get rid of it."

Seulgi gives it a think before she moves to position herself more comfortably; her moves are slow and calculated. "You trust me, right?"

"Of course." She wouldn't have asked her to do that if she didn't.

"You know I won't hurt you, right?"

She nods.

Seulgi shows her hand. "I'm going to touch you, okay?"

She nods again, taking a deep breath.

Seulgi doesn't go directly to , instead, she gives her head a few , all the while maintaining eye contact with her, looking at her warmly and assuringly. The hand then travels to her cheek, caressing it with love, before it goes down to her chin, her thumb tapping it softly.

Her breath hitches when it happens, but it really isn't a big deal because of Seulgi's gaze on her. So different from that girl's; which was full of lust and selfishness.

Seulgi then rests against the back of her hand; their lips only separated by it, both almost crossed-eyes because of how close they are. "It's nothing scary, right?"

She hums agreeingly. Still, she thinks she would retaliate if it was someone else. She moves her lips and kisses the inside of Seulgi's palm. The girl finally removes it and kisses her right on the lips.

-

'A Tribute to Park Dongwoon at The Arthouse.'

Imagine that.

How ridiculous that sounds.

Irene almost fell over her chair hearing it.

How do you tell a woman that you cheered when her husband died?

You don't, because that's just absurd.

Irene's parents taught her better than that. And her parents are the only reason she hasn't told Park Dongwoon's wife to get the out of here yet. Instead, she politely says that their small, independent cinema might not be suitable for someone of Park Dongwoon's calibre.

Barf.

'Bae Joohyun, you fake .'

Aunt Yoojin smiles and shakes her head humbly. "You might be too young to remember, but this place holds a lot of memories for the four of us."

The woman goes on, sharing a few of those memories as Irene presses her imaginary auto mute button. She doesn't want to be reminded of her parents' tight friendship with the man who practically killed her father.

She's not going to allow such atrocity to ever happen at The Arthouse. However, she also realizes all the benefits that could come out of it. Park Dongwoon was a respectable director in South Korean film industry, after all. Imagine the people that would come and the spotlight the place would receive. This could be a total game changer. 

The Arthouse needs the much needed boost after the film festival. It was a humble event. A very independent