The blonde looks at her nervously as she corners her in the cramped utility room.

"Hey," she greets in a friendly manner.

"Hey," Irene greets back before she starts explaining herself. "I didn't mean to ambush you like that. I should have told your first, but I just thought that it would be a funny surprise. I'm serious about auditioning, though. I wanted a part - not necessarily the lead role. In fact, I don't feel like I deserve it. I feel like I was chosen only because all of you know me personally. If you change your mind, I totally understand."

"The role is already yours," she assures her.

"Are you sure it's okay?"

She gives it some thought before deciding to just tell Irene the truth about what her groupmates and her discussed earlier, and also what Moonbyul said about working with people they really want to work with instead of being professional just for the sake of being professional.

"But what if I ?"

She chuckles and jokes, "Then all of us are going to repeat a semester, no big deal."

Irene taps lightly. "Don't jinx yourself."

"You're not gonna . I was honestly surprised at how natural you were earlier," she praises before changing her tone completely, acting betrayed. "How could you? I asked if you were a child actor."

"Uhm.. a few seconds on screen don't make me a child actor, Seulgi."

"Still.. you could have told me. I mentioned Letters from Pyongyang more than once."

Irene only smiles sheepishly.

"Don't tell me you were really in that diaper commercial I asked you about." She narrows her eyes, suspicious. Everything is possible with this girl over here.

"Pfftt, Seulgi, I have standards. I don't do diaper commercial."

She huffs. "You're unbelievable. These layers and layers of secrets of yours."

Irene giggles and gives her a peck, wiping off the pout from her face. "It's fun right, dating me? I told you I would make your time worthwhile, didn't I?"

She looks at her, eyes twinkling. Irene is crazy and she's crazy in love with her.

"You're annoying," she grumbles instead, masking her true emotion.

The blonde chuckles cutely and she can't help but steal a kiss from her. They spend the next few minutes in that utility room. How unromantic, but Irene definitely doesn't mind, because she wraps her arms around Seulgi's neck and returns her kisses even deeper.

-

Knock knock.

"Seul, we ran out of toilet paper." Seulgi's mother comes in, making her - and the girl on top of her - freeze.

It's another sleepover night at Seulgi's and it's important to note that they're not doing anything. is prohibited in her house. Irene knows that and they're only playing around; the blonde was teasing her, impersonating her horrible . However, it's still weird when your mother catches you in such suspicious position even though she can't see; the lights are off and it should be impossible for her to even make out their shadows.

She's about to cover Irene's mouth to prevent her from making a noise, luckily she catches herself before it's too late and puts a finger in front her own lips instead to signal the girl to keep quiet.

"I went grocery shopping earlier. It's still inside the bag near the door." She watches her girlfriend moving very slowly to get off of her and sits down on the bed.

"Oh, okay. Did you buy gochujang too?" her mother asks, sniffing.

"I did, they're all still in the bag. I'll take care of it tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll go get the toilet paper," she says, sniffing again. She's about to exit her bedroom when she turns around, "I smell Irene. Was she here?"

They look at each other. Irene then sends her a sleeping gesture.

"She's actually here, but she's sleeping." She lies through her teeth. "You were in the bathroom when we came home. She was waiting to greet you but she fell asleep."

Half of what she said is true. Irene is very strict about manners and she didn't want Seulgi's mother to see her as an impolite kid who comes in and out of the house without properly greeting the house owner.

"Oh." Her mother lowers her voice as to not disturb Irene. "It's okay, don't wake her up. Is she staying overnight?"

"Yes, it's late, so I asked her to stay."

"Okay then. I'll see her tomorrow morning. Good night, Seul." Her mother gets out, but not before telling her, "This door must remain unlocked. No hanky panky allowed in this house."

She shushes her mother but it's too late, the door has already been shut. A few seconds later, Irene wheezes under the blanket.

"Don't laugh!" She takes off the blanket, turning on the lamp, revealing her girlfriend with her cheeky face.

Irene is now sporting a new hair colour. The blonde is no longer a blonde, she's now a brunette; a commitment to her role in the short film. She wasn't expecting Irene to really dye her hair, she was only suggesting a wig, but the former blonde went the extra mile and dyed it instead, stating that she had been wanting to change her hairstyle for awhile now. The pinkish blonde was perfect on her, but the brown colour makes her look even more mature and Seulgi has been praising her a lot in the past 24 hours since Irene revealed her new hair.

"My mom said you smelled bad," she mocks.

"Hey!" She protests. "She didn't say that. She meant my wonderful scent."

She makes a face, teasing. "Narcissist."

Irene slaps her . Once, and then a few more times, like she's playing a percussion.

She squeaks. "Stop it! My mom said no hanky panky."

She laughs. "Your mom is funny. Who even says hanky panky anymore."

They settle down, snuggling comfortably with Irene's head on her chest. She her hair softly, pressing her lips on her head, smelling her. Irene always smells nice.

"Your mom is very nice," the now brunette says. "Despite this and that, I'm glad to know you grew up in such a loving environment."

She assumes this and that being her mother's eye condition and her father's non-existent presence in her life. "Yeah, despite this and that, this is a happy house."

Irene hums and nods. "I can feel it whenever I'm here."

The statement makes her smile. "That's great. You're welcome here anytime."

"My house is.. unecessarily big.. and cold.."

She turns to look at Irene, a little worried, but the naughty twinkle in her girlfriend's eyes tells her there's nothing to be concerned about.

".. but we can hanky panky as much as we want there, so we're equal."

She snorts, giving Irene a few taps on her as a revenge for earlier. "You're so annoying." She has lost count how many times she has said this to her girlfriend. Affectionately, of course.

"Hey, what do you say the four of us go have dinner together someday? Us and our moms, I mean." Irene shuffles, now resting her chin on Seulgi's stomach, hand circling her waist.

"Oh?" She's a little surprised by the invitation, never really thinking about having their mothers meet each other before. "You think that's a good idea?"

Irene raises her eyebrow. "Why isn't it a good idea? Is your mom an Oh Sunyoung's anti-fan or something?"

She bursts out laughing at how ridiculous that sounded. "No! Are you crazy? My mom is fan."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She'd be so excited. Do you know what she-" She halts, which only makes Irene curious.

"What? Do I know what?"

"Nothing, forget it."

Irene is persistent, but Seulgi can also be stubborn, so she shuts her eyes and pretends to sleep no matter how much the girl pokes and disturbs her.

'Wow, Kang Seulgi. If you two end up getting married, that means Oh Sunyoung and I would become in-laws? Don't ever let this girl go, Seul.'

-

There are two secrets being kept on that filming set.

One, Irene and her are dating.

Two, Park Gyuri is shamelessly flirting with her. They went ahead with offering the second lead role - it's a supporting role, they only say second lead to make it seem more prominent - to Gyuri and she accepted it.

It's much easier to keep the first one. Seulgi and Irene have both vowed to keep everything professional on set. Irene herself doesn't want people - other than Seulgi's friends who already knew about the status of their relationship - to know that they're dating to avoid accusation of nepotism. She still believes that this role didn't come to her one hundred percent fair and square.

The second secret is mostly being kept from Irene, who doesn't know about Park Gyuri's blatant interest in Seulgi. She herself doesn't take it seriously, convincing herself and her friends that the actress is just naturally a flirtatious person. She flirts with other people too, albeit not as aggressively. Moonbyul has been really enjoying these past few days getting to know Gyuri on a more personal level.

Irene is so deep in her zone, being all dilligent and nervous in preparing her role and memorizing her lines. Most of the time, she stays at her corner and doesn't really pay attention to her surrounding. However, after two straight days on set, she seemingly starts to catch on, especially after seeing Gyuri giving her unsolicited shoulder massage that slowly moves to her neck.

"You're so tense over here." Gyuri uses her thumb to press on her knot.

The sensation makes her wince and groan. She should have stopped it, but it feels so good. Gyuri knows what she's doing and in no time, her stiff neck feels much better.

"Holy , you're good." She turns around to face the actress. "Are you a certified masseuse or something?"

Gyuri scoffs, hitting her shoulder lightly. "Nah, I'm just really good with my hands," she says a little suggestively. "You worked too hard, Seulgi. Your body is all tense. Feel free to find me whenever you need help with that."

"I.. uh.." She chuckles awkwardly. "You shouldn't have. You didn't get paid enough for this."

"It's okay. I could use a little side hustle."

"And I don't have the money to pay you. Your acting fee is already expensive enough as it is." She says, only half-joking.

Gyuri smiles at her expectantly. "Oh, the massage can be free, if you take me out for coffee."

She clears , acting oblivious. "I know the coffee we provide here , but you can go ask Sakura for whatever from wherever fancy cafe that you want. It's on me." She gets up from her seat, ready to end the conversation. "Thanks again, for the massage."

-

"What's going on between you two?" Irene finally asks on the third day, probably after witnessing another one of her encounter with Gyuri. They're at a quiet corner, away from prying ears.

She doesn't want to play dumb and aggravates the situation. "You mean with Gyuri? Nothing, but I think she might be.. kind of.. flirting with me."

"She might be.. kind of.. flirting with you?" Irene repeats, mockingly, with a certain vice on her tone.

She gulps. "I don't know. I'm not sure. She's like that with other people too, so I don't know what to think."