Notes

Seulgi goes to Cebu with the intention to learn more about its art and history. She stays at a cheap hostel popular with young Koreans visit in the city and she stumbles upon Joy sitting against the wall outside her room, drinking a beer. Joy asks her drunkenly where she's from and what she's doing and she humors her for a while before excusing herself to go into her room. Joy traps her against the wall, and approaches her face, studying it, before kissing her. Seulgi kisses back a bit before stopping herself and saying she should go back into her room. She tries to shake the thought away, studying her intinerary before forcing herself to sleep. She wakes up too late so her schedule's a bit messed up so she rushes getting ready and whe  she gets out she finds Joy laughing as she leaves the room. Her tour group left her behind, just as she wanted them to, and she insists on joining Seulgi's tour for the day. They do the city tour and Seulgi takes photos on her film camera, which makes Joy curious, while Joy took photos on her phone and Seulgi happily took some for her. Joy tries to get Seulgi to take a picture of her on her film camera but Seulgi won't let her. They end the city tour at a French café and they try their luck at a claw game for a chance to win a phone. Seulgi unexpectedly gets an iPhone 8 and Joy is impressed but neither of them have a need for a phone rn. They said they'd decide what to do with it at the end of the trip. After getting full on pizza and bread and wine, the two suddenly decide to do the Skywalk half-tipsy and they have fun screaming and pushing each other and taking photos. They get back to the hostel in an uber and Joy's roommates have locked her out so she stays in Seulgi's room for the night. She passes out on tbe bed in her clothes so Seulgi hesitantly takes the liberty of putting her in more comfortable clothes, trying very hard not to even look at her body. She goes to sleep and Seulgi wakes up in the middle of the night with Joy shaking so she hugs her and soothes her, watching Joy calm down and sleep until she falls asleep. In the morning, Joy asks Seulgi if she noticed something last night and Seulgi plays it off as nothing and Joy is relieved because she dreamt that Seulgi was hugging her or something. Joy's bag is found right outside her actual room along with all of her belongings and she laughs in victory, asking Seulgi if she doesn't mind if Joy stays one more night. Seulgi agrees and they grab breakfast and get ready to take the hilltop tour. They make wishes for their personal life at the Taoist temple (both getting positive results and Seulgi sees Joy in tears but she pretends not to see but it hurts her heart because she really feels that Joy deserves the world), at the sira garden, and at a viewing deck at the top of the city where there are a bunch of other Korean tourists and Joy only slightly evades the tour group she ditched (she sees them on the van as they arrive, sliding down the seat of their uber to hide). They take a lot of photos and for the first time, Seulgi uses her film camera to take photos of Joy as she just stood there admiring the sunset. Joy catches her from the corner of her eye and she blushes, having fallen for her, and Seulgi explicitly asks to take a photo with Joy with her film camera even if she doesn't usually do selfies with it. Seulgi completes her roll with that shot and they manage to find a place to get the roll developed even if Seulgi has a film to digital scanner. Moments like that deserved to see print. They pick up the photos the next day. They would have their return flight that evening and it's only then they find out they coincidentally have the same return flight. Like fate. Returning to the hostel to pack, they check the photos together and everything turned out well, and Joy teases Seulgi about the candid photo she took of her because Seulgi once said she doesn't really do portraits unless it's of people who are really important to her. Joy asks if she's important to her and Seulgi says yes, she is. She's become very fond of her.
The two decide to have dinner at the airport. The nature of their relationship remains very vague and they haven't even talked about the kiss they had the first night they met. They eat at Zubuchon, completely having fallen in love with Cebu lechon, and talk about their plans when they get home over root beer and souvenir shopping. Joy reveals that she's going back to university for the spring semester and Seulgi says she will too. Seulgi will be a senior while Joy is just entering her sophomore year. They want to know more about each other but they knew it would be pointless because they would be separating ways anyway so they laugh about other things. Before they could admit their feelings, they get the boarding announcement and they quietly nervously wait in line to get on the plane. They picked seats next to each other for the four-hour flight to Incheon. On the plane, they hold on to each other and take medicine for motion-sicknesses as the plane steadies itself in the sky. Joy falls asleep first and Seulgi watches her before asking for blankets but it turns out she has to buy them so even if it's expensive, she does. She falls asleep on Joy's shoulder, who half-consciously holds Seulgi's hand with their fingers intertwined. They wake up mid-flight, with the lights turned off, only seeing each other's faces faintly through the reading light of someone sitting in front of them. They manage to make eye contact and they take deep breaths before sharing a deep, long kiss. After a long silence, Seulgi confesses that she's fallen in love with Joy and Joy confesses the same too. They are happy, but at the same time fearful for what will happen to them after the trip. This isn't spoken, but felt with how they grazed each other's knuckles with the pad of their thumbs and shared another, shorter kiss. When they arrive at the airport and take their baggages, they share a big hug knowing very well that their home country wouldn't take this in with the same acceptance or at least tolerance of the country they visited. No one is there to greet them at the airport and they take separate cabs back to their respective homes, bringing only their phone numbers. Before Joy gets on her cab, Seulgi gives her the photo they took with each other. Seulgi wrote her phone number and "after a lot of time passes, and we get over it a little, let's think of meeting up once". Joy cries and tells Seulgi she loves her and that she really made her happy and Seulgi cries too while walking to her own cab. They continue to communicate but it falters after a bit. Replies take longer and become shorter and colder. Seulgi decides that if it's meant to be, then it's meant to be. They will meet again. On the first day of an elective in acting, in her last year as a theater production major, she sees a familiar pouty girl seated towards the back of the lecture hall. After taking attendance, Joy receives a text with "Park Sooyoung? Where did 'Joy' come from?" Smiling, surprised, and nervous because she's convinced she's gotten Seulgi out of her mind, she searches the room and finds a girl with a messy bun and ears she knew very well. "I know I could recognize those huge ears from anywhere." The two agree to meet for lunch after class and after small talk they confront each other and apologize for disappearing, thinking that it would be a solution since they knew that as long as they were in Korea, they weren't really going to get anywhere. "Fuck that. I'll follow you anywhere." They laugh at each other and share a small smile. "Kang Seulgi." "Park Sooyoung." "Will you be my girlfriend?" "As long as you'll be mine."