“Past Lives,” the breathtaking, Brooklyn-set romance from first-time feature film writer-director Celine Song, slow-boiled into an indie hit for distributor A24 this month through its employment of “radical restraint,” star Greta Lee told TheWrap. But some viewers may be left frustratingly, heartrendingly wondering why Lee’s Nora and her childhood love, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), never consummate their affections in a kiss after he travels from South Korea to New York City to visit her two decades after she emigrated to North America.

Answering why the characters choose to sit in their longing, Lee said that the film’s creative team was “betting on something more than that.” Speaking with TheWrap alongside Song ahead of the film’s national expansion on Friday, Lee even coyly added that “someone in our cast” (see: her) had been initially advocating for a kiss before realizing it wouldn’t have been truthful to the circumstances.