The show just finished, and even though Vaidas made it to the final, he's not completely happy with tonight's results, because Monika was the one eliminated. They met this year - his first one taking part in the preselection, while it was her fifth – and there seemed to be an instant connection between them from the very beginning. They've become close friends by now, so not having her in the final has really affected him as well.

He passes by her dressing room; the door isn't completely closed, and he hears her crying inside. His heart breaks, and he walks inside slowly, suddenly feeling the need to hold her and comfort her, and not quite understanding where it came from.

She doesn't know he's there, because he still hasn't said a word, since he's not quite sure about what he could tell her anyway. But he knows he has to break the silence eventually, or otherwise the purpose for him being in the room will be kinda defeated. 'Hey', he says, simply.

Monika turns around then; she recognized his voice. 'Oh, hey, it's you', she replies, trying to sound cheerful so he won't notice she had been crying, but at the same time wiping away her tears. 'I didn't get to congratulate you earlier for making it to the final and wish you good luck for it.'

Vaidas crouches before her and takes one of her hands in his. 'I'm sorry they kicked you out today. You deserve the final much more than I do, if anything after all the times you've tried before.' She starts crying again and looks down, and he just feels even worse for her.

'Well…at this point going to Eurovision has become an impossible dream. I mean, I really would love to, but after all these years being unsuccessful…maybe it's not meant to happen. Maybe I should just give up. I'm seriously thinking about it.' She says that with a voice that sounds truly defeated, and he can't let her think that way, because that's not true.

'No way. You're not giving up, you know why? Because you're going to make it.' He squeezes her hand softly but encouragingly, and comes even closer to her.

'Easy for you to say. First time you try, and you're in the final', she says, knowing fully well that she's pretty much accusing him of something he's not guilty of. 'I'm sure at this point they're just so tired of me competing year after year.'

He doesn't hold the accusation against her, or even acknowledges it, because he knows it's not really her speaking, but the disappointment of seeing her dream disappear one more time. 'Monika, listen to me. They're not tired of you, otherwise they would have voted you out much earlier, don't you think?' She seems to think about it for a moment, and then shrugs. He smiles, because that's a step in the right direction.

So he brings a hand up to take a bit of her hair away from her face. She looks up at him, and suddenly he's completely overwhelmed by how beautiful she is. It's not that he hadn't noticed before, but it's hitting him like a truck right now. Without quite realizing, he runs his thumb over her lips, and both of them start closing the space until they're just nose to nose, and then they just kiss. It's sweet and slow and tender and short and they don't know why it happened, but it did, and they most certainly don't regret it.

He rests his forehead against hers and she closes her eyes. He smiles to himself and kisses her shortly again, and now she's smiling too. 'No giving up, you hear me? Don't even dare. I want to see you here again next year. And you're going to win this. Even if the only way is that we sing together.' She opens her eyes and laughs at that, and she really wishes she could see it as clearly as he does.