the 1 | chaennie

32. Starlight

He said, "Look at you, worrying so much about things you can't change
You'll spend your whole life singing the blues if you keep thinking that way"
He was trying to skip rocks on the ocean, saying to me,
"Don't you see the starlight, starlight?
Don't you dream impossible things?"

Like "Oh my, what a marvelous tune"
It was the best night, never would forget how we moved
The whole place was dressed to the nines,
And we were dancing, dancing
Like we're made of starlight, starlight
Like we're made of starlight, starlight

Ooh ooh he's talking crazy
Ooh ooh dancing with me
Ooh ooh we could get married
Have ten kids and teach them how to dream

-

"I didn't tell my mum about the fact that Jennie and I were kind of dating, or trying to figure it all out, the first time I spoke to her after we'd had our meeting with our teams, but within a matter of days, everything was being prepped for my new PR boyfriend and I had to bite the bullet and tell her."

"How did she take it?" Nayeon asked.

With a short laugh, Rosie winced slightly, "ah, well, she'd come around to the idea of me dating women then - exclusively - so the issue wasn't so much the fact that I was dating Jennie, but more so that I was dating Jennie again. Unofficially at that point, but for the third time."

"Did your parents like her?"

"God, well you've met her!" Rosie laughed, "surely you weren't immune to that charm."

Arching an eyebrow as she smiled faintly, Nayeon nodded slightly in amused agreement, "she's a character."

"She's just so warm. So down to earth and genuine, and my parents got along with her like a house on fire. My sister too, for that matter. They'd only met Jennie a couple of times by this point, but my mother did like her. Unfortunately, she'd just had to be the bearer of my heartbreak and wasn't entirely convinced that it would be much different this time. Ultimately, I suppose she was right, but I was twenty-two; why on earth would I listen to my mum?"

With a laugh, Nayeon sat back in her armchair and they both glanced over to where Clare was standing against the far wall, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. Quietly chuckling, Rosie turned her attention back to Nayeon, laughter trailing off into a faint sigh, and gave her a wistful look.

"I was in love! I was young and wanted to believe that this time would work. This time was the one. I don't think you can have that mindset without a little bit of childish naïevety, which is funny to me, because I've always thought that I was mature for my age. Perhaps it was just the pressure of the industry, the constant stress of having to present myself as a certain way. But when it came to love, I was terribly unsophisticated. I think them pairing me with an older man only further tried to push that angle."

-

With the PR stunt coming together quickly, Rosie had no choice but to call her mother and explain the situation, sheepish and nervous, which quickly brought Clare to the decision to get on the next flight bound for Miami. Resigning herself to her mother's frank honesty and, at times, overbearing presence, Rosie tolerated the detailed planning of her team and Clare as they micro-managed every part of her life to spin this new PR stunt into a fleshed-out relationship.

Her hair stylist did a fresh dye job and trimmed her bangs, a round of teeth whitening at the dentist that left her scowling as she drank tepid water through a straw, her sensitive, brilliantly white teeth unable to bear anything else, and a mandatory hour a day spent sitting out in the sunlight to chase away her pasty complexion the slightest amount. Clothes were brought in from numerous stylists for Rosie, Irene and Hyeri to bicker over for her first public sighting with Loren Lee, and his own manager sent over a fact sheet that Rosie was forced to memorise.