Rosaleen | Taehyung [✓]

《 ONE 》 ROSSALEEN

She was a rose. Attracting me and drawing me near her. But as I tried reaching out to hold her she pricks me with her thorns.

She was my customer since the beginning of December. She'd rush in my shop during the first week of any month since then. I didn't think much of it til it became a task that I looked forward to monthly.

Strange enough as it is, she used up my services to fix her one thing. A wristwatch that I would repair every month. The brand was scratched off but I could tell that it was old and vintage. The rim of the small clock was metal that imitated the color of gold. Carved roses were decorated at the edges, along with her name at the top.

"Okay, Rosaleen. What happened to this again?" I asked even though it looked like it had been soaked in water.

Yes, Rosaleen was her name. Over the course of eight years I've been working and making this shop function, I've gotten used to knowing my customers' names while I fixed what they needed me to fix. I once complimented her saying that her name had the word rose that perfectly described her. Her freckled red cheeks said so. Her eyebrows would furrow as she would hear that from me, though.

"It fell in the river again," she replied, lacking the right emotions.

"Well, you already know the drill. Come pick it up next week."

"Will it be fine?"

"Barely is right now. I doubt that it'll be in the same condition as it last was before the water seeped in, but I'll do my best."

She frowned as her eyes stared upon the watch, placed on the glass counter. Her eyes turned dark. Darker than life.

"Also, the leather strap looks worn out. Would you like me to change it?" I offered.

The strap was all cracked and had started to peel off.

"Do if you must."

I got the watch to my working space whilst she started wandering inside the shop, staring at old watches, repair parts and such. I tried focusing on the wristwatch, but my eyes would be drawn to her.

In the first few glances I took I could only see her beige coat with her chocolate brown hair that reached her waist. She spun around, revealing her features that I sometimes describe as being unrealistically beautiful.

I gazed upon her eyes that were too busy examining other wristwatches displayed in the glass counter. They were pretty, reflecting the deep blue ocean.

"Is there something in my eye?" she asked as she blinked a couple of times.

Her middle finger roamed around the skin that surrounded her eye. I snapped my head back and erased the picture of her face in my mind.

"You look fine." I reassured her.

Staring blankly at the item, I found myself reading her name carved on it, again. My mind was adrift, wondering how the name got there in the first place. I've got a really strong hunch that it had been telling time for more than a century, judging its condition and look.

Or maybe I'm just being nosy again.

"Hey, is this wristwatch yours─I mean..originally?"

Her eyes beamed at me. Had I said something I shouldn't have said?

"Well not originally. That was actually my great grandmother's."

"You two share the same name?"

"Kind of. If you'd look closer, you'll see to it that her name is actually spelled with two S. It's spelled as R-O-S-S-A-L-E-E-N."

I squinted my eyes and brought watch closer to me. Another S was indeed there, and it was smaller compared to the other letters.

"My great grandfather forgot how her name should be spelled. That should explain why the extra letter was tiny," she remarked.

"You just read my mind!"

"Oh. Did I?"

Rosaleen laughed, and so did I. Only then did I notice that the hue of her eyes changed. No, they were still blue, just a few shades lighter. Her mood lifted, I could tell. The way the corners of her eyes crinkled convinced me she wasn't playing it fake.

I was feeling an awful lot better, too. Rosaleen isn't a new customer. I've seen her face a couple of times before, just as I had been fixing her watch. But I knew that I had only scratched the surface. I was only getting to know an extremely mysterious─and maybe introverted─young lady that happened to be named Rosaleen.

This story isn't about me. It's about her.