we keep this love in a photograph

Chapter 75

Jennie returned to J Corporations a week later at Rosie's urging, normal life creeping back in and dragging her back to her office at the top of the skyscraper, her desk vacated of all of Jisoo's things and a million emails and post-poned meetings for her to attend to as she navigated her way back into the business with slight difficulty. It was a jarring change of pace for her after months of absence now, but Jennie was nothing if not efficient and intelligent, picking up the thread of things with Jisoo's help as her CFO helped her transition back into her role as CEO, staking her claim in all of the new projects, proposals and conference meetings.

She kept to strict work hours, not arriving at the office until the tardy employees had made their way up to their respective floors and not staying a minute past the time when everyone clocked out for the day. It was still exhausting though, but it provided some much needed routine and normalcy to Jennie's life, and gave her and Rosie some space to themselves. As much as they loved each other and felt anxious being parted, it was a necessary part of ordinary life that Rosie had to adjust to life back home without relying on Jennie, and Jennie had to resume her job as CEO and owner of J Corporations and take care of herself as well.

It didn't stop her from going home on her lunch breaks to spend it with Rosie, or meeting her at a local salad bar of café with Jisoo, or Alice or Ashley, trying to incorporate other people into Rosie's daily life so that she'd feel more comfortable being out in public. It was a big adjustment for them both but it felt more normal and they had things to talk about when Jennie got home from work at night, Rosie taking over organising dinner, greeting her with the smell of sizzling steaks or homemade curry Ashley had helped her make. It began to feel like this was what their life together would be like, the sort of future Jennie could envision for them - albeit, with a lot of time and assimilating.

It was just past lunch when Jennie called her mom, returning to the office and sitting behind her desk as wide swathes of sunlight filtered in through the windows, warming her back as she listened to her phone ring. Taeyeon answered on the third ring and they exchanged the necessary pleasantries before her mom cut to the chase.

"How's work?"

"It's okay; the same as ever, I guess."

"Yes, I know what the work is like, but how are you doing being back?"

"Fine," Jennie said, rolling her eyes as she tapped her fountain pen on the desk. "I leave when everyone else leaves - you'd be impressed. I think ... it's good for us both to have some time away from each other to adjust back to normal life. Rosie's happy with it, at any rate."

"Are you?"

Jennie's lips twitched and she swallowed a sigh, "sure. I mean, I spend most of my day worrying about her, but she's getting better. She still acts like nothing happened, which is probably why she was so eager for me to come back to work. She acts as if she never left, didn't almost ... die. I don't want to force her to confront it but ... well, she's going to therapy, which is more than I'd hoped for. And you thought I was stubborn."

"I can guarantee you the only reason she's going is because you're so stubborn."

"Mm, probably."

"She missed out on a lot of things while she was gone though - not just while she was missing - and she can't pretend that chunk of her life didn't happen. Didn't you say she catches up on all the movies and TV shows she missed while she was away? Maybe you should try something like that to help her come to terms with the fact that she was gone."

"What, should I buy a copy of every newspaper and magazine that was printed while she was gone so she can catch up on the not-so-current affairs of our esteemed nation," Jennie sarcastically replied.