"Do you mind if I-"

"Persuade me." Irene says, cutting Seulgi off.

She has to admit that after a few months of coming to the cinema, she has grown a little attached to it. Maybe it really is worth saving; if not for profit purposes then for the people who come here, people who genuinely love the place and the arts like this girl sitting opposite her. Instead of playing a double agent and actively trying to let the business rot like she has planned before, maybe it's time to put her business degree to use and save this place.

Turns out, Seulgi is more than ready to do just that. She is handed a white envelope; a love letter of some sort for The Arthouse. She wants to open it right away but Seulgi asks for her to read it later after she leaves. The film student has told her earlier that she will be going to a barbeque party with a bunch of her university friends. 

She nods and puts the letter aside before walking around the desk toward Seulgi and gives her a kiss on the cheek. What happens after is quite entertaining as she witnesses the girl blushes hard as if they had never shared a kiss on the lips before.

'Freaking cute.'

It takes her a few hours after Seulgi left to finally open the envelope. To be really honest, she isn't actually ready to be persuaded. A part of her is afraid that she would not be able to say no to Seulgi and her conscience says that this girl should not be having so much power over her and her decisions. Another part of her remembers that this is what her mother wants and maybe Seulgi could be the reason she would agree to keep the cinema open willingly.

There are four pieces of A4 papers in the envelope; each filled with a few sentences from the students. Some of the handwritings are terrible, but she forces herself to read all of it. Seulgi wasn't joking when she said that there were a lot ot stupid things in there, because it's true. It's either the students are not very bright or they were forced to do it and wrote it half-heartedly. Though, it really doesn't matter because the genuine ones are good and she's lying if she said that the letter didn't touch her heart.

She arrives at the last one; a slightly longer one than the others. It has the same handwriting as the one on the envelope. 

'My mother brought me to The Arthouse when I was only a little kid and she was the reason for my love for independent films. It then became our regular activity for a little while until she gradually lost her eye sight. Being blind doesn't mean she has stopped watching films; she watches them through me as I would tell her the stories at home and witness how her eyes seem to light up. Even though The Arthouse might not be here forever, I'm incredibly grateful to this place for being the source of our happiness for many, many years.'

She reads through it and then reads it one more time. As her vision gets blurry, she realizes that there are tears in her eyes. She puts the papers down and blinks her tears away, feeling a certain pang in her heart; she isn't sure if it's sympathy or guilt, or both.

She looks at her phone intently before gathering her stuff and puts them in her handbag. She walks out and passes by the concession, informing Eunjung that she's calling it a day. She goes out and gets inside her car. After typing a location into her GPS, she drives away.

-

It's quite late and she isn't even sure that Seulgi would still be there but she saw a lot of people gathering at one side of the park. She stands there in the dark, a little hesitant to go into the crowd, until she recognizes a few familiar faces; SNU students who frequent the cinema. She stays rooted in the end because she doesn't know if they're even friends with Seulgi after realizing these are not the people the girl often come to the cinema with. Right when she's about to take out her phone from her pocket, she sees another familiar face that she's sure is Seulgi's friend. She walks towards the girl and waves at her, receiving a small bow back.

"Hi, you're Seulgi's friend, right?"

"Yes, I am. What are you doing here? Are you looking for her?" The girl asks.

"Yes. Do you happen to know where she is?"

The girl looks around, trying to pin-point her friend. "Oh, there she-" she stops herself, hesitating.

She follows her eyeline and finds the person she's looking for, talking very animatedly and rather intimately with another girl. She's too focused in watching them she doesn't realize the girl is now talking to her again until she feels a light tap on her arm.

"Y- yes?"

"Just wait here. I'll tell her to come to you."

"No, no, it's fine. Uhm.. she wasn't expecting me anyway. Just let her enjoy the party. I'll call her later." She says, backing away. "Thank you."

"Wait, Irene-ssi." The girl calls her by her name. "She would never forgive me if I let you leave without telling her. Please just wait here for a minute. I beg you."

She clears and nods her head. "Okay, thank you." She smiles and asks, "May I know your name?"

"I'm Moonbyul, Seulgi's bestest friend in the whole wide world."

She chuckles and offers her hand. "Nice to meet you, Moonbyul-ssi."

They shake hand before Moonbyul makes a little run to where Seulgi is sitting. She watches the best friend whispers something into Seulgi's ear and two seconds later their eyes meet. She sees Seulgi's eyes widen and her lips stretch into a smile. After saying something to her companion, Seulgi walks toward her with a plastic cup in her hand, giving her a tiny wave.

Once Seulgi is within reach, before the film student could even greet her, she grabs her wrist and takes her away as they quickly settle to a quiet spot behind a big tree, hiding themselves from the crowd. A smirk of satisfaction appears in Irene's face the moment she glances back and sees the girl talking with Seulgi earlier watching them. They're already so far away from the crowd but she's pretty sure the girl is sporting a displeased look.

"Hi." She greets Seulgi once the younger girl's back is pressed against the tree.

"H- hi, Irene. What are you doing here?"

Her confident facade slowly disappears once she heard the question. What exactly is she doing here?

"I.. uh.." She stutters. "I read the letters and I just feel the need to see you straight away," she explains, suddenly feeling inappropriate for showing up unannouced to Seulgi's campus event. "You know what, I'm sorry for coming here without even telling you. I can leave and we can talk some other time."

"No, don't leave." Seulgi grabs her by the shoulder gently. "We're just grilling meat and having cheap soju. I'd rather talk to you. What was it that made you come all the way here?"

She runs her hand down Seulgi's arm and takes her cup. "May I?"

Seulgi looks down to her now empty hand before looking up. "All yours."

She takes a big gulp and winces, receiving an apologetic look from Seulgi; she wasn't kidding when she said that they were having cheap soju. 

"I read the letters." She repeats. "And I saw what you wrote. I didn't know.. about your mother."

"You came here because of that?" She asks, seemingly touched. "It wasn't meant to be a sob story. My mom is doing really well. We're both doing fine."

"That's.. great to hear." She says carefully, worried of saying the wrong thing. "May I know what happened to your mother that made her lose her sight?"

Seulgi takes a deep breath. "You know, I was still so young at that time and my mom tried her best to shield me from things that might scare me so I'm not a hundred percent sure about everything but.. there was a moment in her life after.. my father.. left us when she was very busy and was under a lot of stress that when her vision started to deteriorate, she didn't pay attention to it and simply thought that exhaustion was the cause for that. It went on for months, maybe years until it got really bad that she finally saw a doctor and by that time it was already too late."

She listens and refraining herself from asking more questions - lots more questions. "I'm so sorry that happened to your mom. I can't even imagine how it must have felt like, for her and for you."

Seulgi puts out a sad smile before it turns a little more genuine. "Hey, I told you it wasn't supposed to be a sob story. We had time to prepare before she went completely blind so that helped a lot. My mom is a fully functioning adult. She's still working actually, as a guidance counselor at Inhun High School."

"Oh?" She's totally impressed. "That's amazing."

"It is," Seulgi says with a proud smile on her face. "It was hard at first, that's for sure, but it worked out well in the end."

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