"Do you have any idea how many people would kill to be Oh Sunyoung's daughter?"

"There's no need to resort to violence, I'd gladly trade place with them," Irene answers lazily as she and Tiffany have breakfast together.

The didn't happen last night; she put it to stop before they could get any further even though she was the one initiating it. She apologized and offered to leave but Tiffany kindly told her to stay - not only in the apartment, but also in her bedroom. She couldn't really sleep and finally gave up trying at 4 in the morning and went to the balcony to enjoy the fresh Jeju air.

"Why don't you like your mother?"

She swallows and turns away, pretending to admire the sea view from the window. She feels mentally exhausted, and physically from the lack of sleep. There's a temptation to just pour everything out - the pain she has held since she was a kid - but she decides not to. It's way too personal to share with someone she has only met twice.

"It's not that I don't like her, she's still my mother. It's just.. complicated."

Tiffany smiles at her; a rather motherly smile that makes her feel a little warm inside. "There you have it, she's still your mother. You should try to fix the problem before it's too late."

And that's that. All the positive feelings she has for the chef have instantly evaporated. Tiffany doesn't even try to ask what the problem is, all she - and a lot of other people - is obsessesed about is for her to be a filial daughter. She's Oh Sunyoung's child, she's rich, she's pampered, she has everything. How dare she complain about life when she already has all that?

She feels like she's about to explode again, but she surpresses the anger inside her and only nods, trying her hardest to be polite to someone who provided her with food and shelter. "I think I should go visit my mother. The employees who saw me yesterday might mention to her that I came by the restaurant," she announces, standing up and clearing her dirty plate. She washes the dishes as a thank you and Tiffany lets her.

"Hey, you can come find me whenever you're in Jeju. Let's really hang out next time." Tiffany tells her, giving her a brief hug.

"Yeah, sure, let's do that," she says, thanking her once again before dragging her luggage outside where a cab is already waiting.

Her mother is surprised seeing her. She tells her the truth that she arrived last night but she went out drinking with Tiffany and stayed overnight at a hotel; it was a lie that the two of them had fabricated together. Her mother is about to and she quickly clarifies, "I stayed at the hotel, Tiffany went back to her own house."

"Sure," her mother responds sarcastically. "You're an adult, Hyun, you don't have to lie to me about this kind of stuff. I'm only gonna tease you this one time, I promise." She seems satisfied with the assumption that her plan to get her daughter to come visit had worked perfectly.

"Nothing happened, Mom." She stresses one more time. "We did not sleep together."

Her mother studies her face for a few seconds before deciding to believe her. "But, she's your type, right? Those girls with pretty smiles?"

She breaks eye contact as another girl with even prettier smile comes to her mind.

Her mother winks. "Mother knows best."

-

Irene is taking a break from work, eating an egg sandwich happily when someone knocks on her office door.

"Ms. Irene." It opens, revealing Eunjung's head peeking in.

"Yes?"

"Oh, sorry to bother you." She apologizes for interrupting her lunch time. "Uh, Kang Seulgi is at the lobby asking for you."

It's the second time now that Seulgi asks to see her and she still has no interest in seeing that little obnoxious snob. She pretends to check her phone and says that she's waiting for an important call.

"Should I tell her to wait?"

"No, just tell her I'm busy."

"Oh." Eunjung seems to get the hint by then. "Okay, Ms. Irene."

She manages to avoid Seulgi again a few weeks later when they accidentally meet at the lobby, but a week after that the girl appears once again, acting like she's some kind of a white knight on an invisible horse, trying to protect her from some neighbourhood thugs.

She has to admit that the action touches her seeing how Seulgi comes to her rescue - although not needed at all - without thinking of her own safety first. Seulgi then apologizes to her for what happened that day and she decides to not be petty and let the problem go as she accepts the apology, albeit still in a rather petty manner.

The next time Seulgi visits the cinema again, Irene goes to the coffee shop next door to buy her a hot chocolate drink. She has been feeling bad for acting cold toward the girl and she apologizes to her as well.

"Joohyun.."

She hears the sound of her own name coming out of the girl's mouth when she accidentally reveals her real name and she likes hearing it. No one calls her that anymore except for her mother but it just sounds so natural coming from Seulgi.

"Bae Joohyun, that's my name. But I prefer to be called Irene." That's a lie. She badly wants to hear Seulgi call her by her real name again.

"Oh, okay." Seulgi nods, seemingly disappointed for whatever reason.

They then exchange praises. Seulgi says that her hair is beautiful and she tells the girl that she has beautiful eyes, which is true. Those monolid eyes that looks at her with certain warmth.

Seeing Seulgi blushes makes her clench her fists, stopping herself from reaching out to pinch those cute cheeks of hers. She has to quickly change the subject before her intrusive thoughts win over. They then talk about the cinema and it's kind of sad seeing how troubled Seulgi is by the knowledge that her favourite place in the city is in risk of closing down. The girl even offers to write a letter to the owner. If only she knew who the owner actually is.

"Wait a minute. .. don't tell me.. you.."

Irene looks at her, confused and worried, thinking that there was a slip up she didn't even realize. "What?"

Seulgi leans forward, speaking in whisper, "A- are you.. the owner?"

There's a pause as she tries to school her expression before she throws her head back and laughs. It is a rather lengthy laugh as her brain works for a good, unsuspicious response. "No, Seulgi! How old do you think I am? I probably wasn't even born yet when this place first opened." That's not true, she was already a toddler when her mother opened this cinema, but it wasn't a lie that she wasn't the actual owner of the place. She doesn't even have an official position here, she's technically only a freelance financial consultant to The Arthouse.

Her face relaxes after that and she asks, "How old are you, by the way?"

"I'm 28. And you?" She asks back out of politeness, because she really doesn't want to know. It feels almost criminal allowing herself to get so friendly with a university student.

"I'm 26."

'Wait, what?' 

That day she finds out that Seulgi is only two years younger than her, which just solves a lot of her moral dilemma. However, now that one problem is already cleared, another is still looming over her. 

'I used to have such a huge crush on Oh Sunyoung.'

-

She decides to push that thought to the back of her mind for the moment as she asks Seulgi out one afternoon to get some tacos. All because she felt her heart fluttered when the girl watched over her from afar as she was talking to Hyunseung and Chanwoo, the two neighbourhood thugs.

She feels bad because the new taco place is so crowded and offers for them to leave and go find something else, but Seulgi convinces her to stay. So they stay on that long line and make use of the time to talk about everything and nothing. It's so easy to talk to Seulgi; they never run out of topics because the younger girl would always be able to come up with the most absurd questions.

'When you eat a gummy bear, which part of do you eat first, head or feet?'

'If you have to lose one finger, which one would you prefer it to be?'

'What do you think clouds taste like?'

'If you're in a hurry, do you think you can just swallow a coffee bean and get caffeinated?'

'Name one conspiracy theory that you think might actually be true.'

And she has the most absurd ideas.

'If you out the inside of a fry, that's basically mashed potato.'

'Let's rearrange the keyboard in alphabetical order."

They get so comfortable with each other so fast that she finds it fun to tease the girl. She might have gone overboard one time because Seulgi choked and blushed real hard when she told the girl to put her tongue to good use and do more exploring with that. It was just some typical naughty joke she would say to her Caucasian friends and no one would bat an eyelash, so she finds it incredibly amusing that Seulgi is getting so flustered by it.

They then start talking about more personal things that she doesn't really feel comfortable talking about like family and her childhood. She avoids going into details when asked about her parents and tries her best to sound like she has a normal childhood, focusing on certain stories that won't sound too bizarre or too extravagant.

On the way back to The Arthouse, they pass by a movie theatre and Seulgi asks her to watch the new Doctor Strange movie together. She's a bit hesitant to take their friendship too far, but she honestly doesn't want to miss an opportunity to spend more time with the girl. Spending time with Seulgi is.. comfortable, to say the least. And she craves comfort.

-