A/N: I decided to split the chapter into two because it was getting too long. So, this is the second last chapter. The next will be the real last one.

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Seulgi is in her room, wearing a graduation gown and a mortarboard, staring at her own reflection in the mirror. "I look weird," she pouts.

"What are you talking about? You look great." Irene praises, sitting on the floor beside Seulgi's bed, taking photos of her from behind while munching on chips. The gown is actually a little too big on Seulgi, but she's not planning to tell her that.

The film student is graduating tomorrow and she's trying on the costume she has to wear for the ceremony. She takes off the mortarboard and throws it aside. "Yeah, who cares." She takes off the gown, revealing only her bra and underneath it and plops down on the bed. "What's more important is what I'm gonna wear to Club 125 tomorrow."

The familiar name makes Irene stop munching. "Club 125?" she questions.

"Oh, I didn't tell you? We're going there after dinner to have one last party."

Now Irene remembers and she stays awfully silent as Seulgi excitedly walks to the wardrobe and starts taking out combination of outfits.

"Irene?" Seulgi calls after what she has been saying for the last minute apparently fell on deaf ears.

"Yes?" the brunette answers.

"Were you even listening to me?" she asks, jokingly putting hands on her waist.

Irene's cold answer immediately puts her on alert. "Were you listening to yourself?"

"W- what do you mean?"

"You're not going to a club," she tells her.

Seulgi is confused. They don't have this kind of a relationship; they don't forbid each other from doing anything, especially something as normal as going out with friends. "Yes I am. It's one last hurrah before everyone goes on with their own lives. Is something wrong?" she questions.

Irene stands up and walks closer to her, her stance threatening. "The last time you went to that club you were drugged, Seulgi." she says without raising her tone, which makes it even scarier.

Seulgi finally gets it. "Oh.."

They stay silent afterwards, each with their own thoughts, sitting on the bed with a gap between them.

The film student finally starts carefully, "I'll be with my friends, I won't talk to strangers and I won't get drunk."

Irene sighs, seemingly disappointed to hear that. "Can you guys just go to a bar or something?" she tries to compromise.

"It's not the same. They want to have fun, listen to music and dance," Seulgi reasons. "They've been planning this for the longest time. We always celebrate things there. It's too last minute to ask them." When Irene says nothing, she tries, "Why don't you come with us?"

Irene is already planning to join them for the dinner, but she didn't know about the club until right now. She swallows and shakes her head, declining the offer.

Seulgi exhales. They rarely have disagreement like this and she just isn't sure what to do in this situation.

"That was one mistake, Irene. I wasn't thinking straight at that time. I've been there so many times before that and nothing bad ever happened."

"You have no idea how scared I was.." Irene whispers. The image of unconscious, helpless Seulgi from that night still haunts her to this day.

The heavy weight in her tone crushes Seulgi. "I'm sorry," she whisper back. "And I'm grateful to you for helping me that day. I'm sorry," she repeats, putting her hand on Irene's lap.

Irene slowly puts her own hand on top of Seulgi's; it's cold. "I know that was a mistake and I know you'll be careful but I just can't. If you really wanna go then you shouldn't have told me. Next time just go without telling me." She stands up. "It's late. I should leave. Why don't you tidy up and get some rest? I'll see you at campus tomorrow?" she says in a soft tone, trying to make up for the fuss she's making.

"Wait." Seulgi immediately holds her back by the waist, preventing her from leaving just yet. "I won't join them tomorrow. We'll have dinner with them and then let's go somewhere, just the two of us."

Irene nods, relieved that Seulgi listens to her. In return, she makes a promise that they will circle back to this conversation sometime in the future. She kisses the top of her girlfriend's head. "I'm not telling you what you can and cannot do. It's just this one thing. You und-"

She interjects. "You're just worried, especially after what happened. I understand." She stands up and giving her girlfriend a kiss goodbye before sending her to the door.

-

Irene joins them for the dinner, watching them celebrate, reminiscing, teasing and trashing each other. A few tears are shed; the realization that they won't be able to see each other a couple times a week anymore hit them hard. New lives are about to begin, life and career opportunities in new cities, even new countries.

Seulgi and her groupmates received a lot of job offers after Before Darkness was screened commercially - if short film in little arthouse cinemas can be considered commercial. Jinhee has accepted the offer to work at a fast growing visual effect company in Hollywood, Moonbyul will be one of the Festival Programmers at the prestigious Busan International Film Festival, Sakura applied and was accepted to work at Studio Ghibli in Japan, Ara is getting married soon, and Seulgi..

Seulgi, who received the most love calls from the industry, has rejected all offers - for now - as she is still contractually obligated to return to her old job. Irene has told her to just pay the fine as she would be wasting away opportunities but she stayed stubborn. Filmmaking isn't really her passion; she likes it just the right amount, but she doesn't think she has the knowledge and life experience to be a great full-time filmmaker just yet - or ever - but time will tell.

'If I ever made a film again, I want to do it for fun. I don't need all that pressure on me. And trust me, making a film as a professional filmmaker is not that fun,' she had said.

Irene decided to trust Seulgi on that. It's true that Seulgi never really talked excitedly about filmmaking and has seemed more ambitious writing about a film rather than making it. Her girlfriend will soon be going back to her old workplace in a well-known film magazine company. The senior editor position promised for her is already waiting and she will be working under the mentorship of one of the country's most well-respected film critics. She will have the opportunity to be invited to press screenings for newly released films and possibly to film festivals all over the world. It truly is her dream.

On the other hand, being a filmmaker means the possibility of her having to be somewhere else for weeks or months worth of time and Mrs. Kang surely can't be left alone for that long. Seulgi never stated this as her reason of rejecting the tempting offers, but Irene suspected that it might be one of them.

In addition to that, on a slightly unrelated and rather selfish note, Irene spent years making peace with the fact that her mother is Oh Sunyoung. Maybe it's not such a good idea for her to end up dating some hotshot indie film director. She of course would support Seulgi one hundred and ten percent if she ever went on that path of life, but for now, she's secretly exhaling in relief.

She goes to the restroom when they're about to finish dinner. While washing her hands, she sees Moonbyul from the reflection of the mirror, approaching from behind.

"Hi, Irene!" The former film student greets, as if they haven't had a whole conversation back at the dining table.

"What do you want?" She questions, jokingly suspicious.

"Nothing." Moonbyul laughs as she washes her own hands. "So.... now that I'm gone, I'm gonna pass the baton to you, okay?"

"What baton?"

"Taking care of Kangseul."

She chuckles. "Seulgi doesn't need to be taken care of. She's actually really mature, you know." She pauses for effect before continuing, "When she's not around you."

Moonbyul snorts loudly before pretending to be hurt.

They both laugh while drying their hands until the girl turns to her with a serious face.

"Sometimes I look at you two and feel like it's all too good to be true."

"What do you mean?" She looks at her, confused.

"I mean, you're rich, you're beautiful, you're Oh Sunyoung's daughter. And Seulgi is.. my lame best friend from high school," she says with a grin; the two of them are always roasting each other. "I'm just scared that you have ulterior motive or that you'll hurt her one day, you know."

It might sound like an insult to others, but she knows Moonbyul enough to not get offended; she's only looking out for her best friend. Also, from the tone alone, she knows the girl is harmlessly wondering rather than accusing.

Therefore, she tries to answer as truthfully as possible. "I don't have ulterior motive towards her. I can't promise you the other one. There's a chance I could do something stupid in the future that could hurt her but I don't plan to." She sees Moonbyul chuckles and nodding her head. She continues, "I've never felt this way towards anybody before and I've never tried this hard in a relationship. Honestly, sometimes I feel like she's the one that's not serious enough about this.. but it's fine, we haven't been together for that long. Maybe she still has doubts, maybe she still wants to see what's out there. That's totally fair. She just graduated and will be entering a new environment where she gets to meet very interesting people; people who have a lot more in common with her." She starts rambling. "We'll see how it goes. But I promise you, I really love her and I seriously think that I'm a pretty good girlfriend. She can probably do much better but I honestly think that she can also do much worse than me."

After she's done pouring her heart out, she notices Moonbyul looking past her with a smirk on her face. She's about to turn around when an arm wraps around her above her chest. The familiar, comforting scent hits her.

"Byul, stop bothering my girlfriend." Seulgi threatens her playfully.

Irene bites her bottom lip, wondering how much of that did Seulgi hear.

Moonbyul grins, speaking to Seulgi like Irene isn't even there. "Frankly, I don't think you can do much better than this girl right here."

Seulgi chuckles, agreeing to her statement. "I think so too."

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