PyCharm how to get os.mkdir to work properly

Question

When I run the code in terminal outside PyCharm's IDE:

    directory = "./exports./images"

    if not os.path.isdir(directory):
        os.mkdir(directory)

    with open(os.path.join(directory, "test"), "wb") as f:
        f.write(b"\xff")

It works perfectly fine; however, when running it in PyCharm, it gives FileNotFoundError. When running this in PyCharm:

    directory = "./exports"

    if not os.path.isdir(directory):
        os.mkdir(directory)

    with open(os.path.join(directory, "test"), "wb") as f:
        f.write(b"\xff")

It works perfectly fine. Why does the first one not work in PyCharm, and the second one does? And why does the first one work outside of PyCharm?