If this is a rom-com, kill the director | Jenlisa

Missing

"Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow."

Jennie runs in from the side of the set and is swept up into Lisa's arms as the Friar speaks. Her head rests in the crook of her neck, the two of them swaying as the Friar's words wash over them.

"Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more to blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath. This neighbor air, and let rich music's tongue unfold the imagined happiness that both receive in either by this dear encounter," Lisa says, her hands resting either side of her chin.

Jennie knows she's past the point of pretending that she still has any kind of malice towards Lisa. They're not enemies anymore, but they're not friends. She's her something. She just doesn't know what that something is.

"But my true love is grown to such excess, I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth."

She's starting to feel awfully wired when she's around her, like electricity is passing through her veins when she touches her.

It's quite distracting, really.

———-

She hasn't seen Rosie in days, and it's starting to worry her.

Lisa's been outside her door every single day, knocking and calling for Rosie to let her in, but she hasn't been getting any response. It's not going to be too long before all the filming is over, and she wants Rosie to be there when they're done.

She misses her cousin.

On the fifth day with no answer from Rosie, she decides to do something about it.

———-

Jennie's woken from her afternoon nap by someone knocking loudly on her door and yelling her name. She stumbles from her bed still half asleep, her limbs aching from where she's slept in an awkward position.

She opens the door and blinks bleary eyed at Lisa, whose face is stricken, her hand twisted in her hair.

"Lisa, what's going-"

"Rosie's gone missing," she says, before ahe can say anything else. "I was worried about her, so I went and asked reception if they could let me into her room to check on her and when I got there she wasn't there."

She's babbling now, and she hasn't taken a breath since she started the sentence.

"Hey, hey, hey," Jennie says, fully awake now that Lisa's upset.

She reaches out and takes her hands away from her face, gently pulling them down to the side, so she can look her in the eyes.

"It's going to be fine," she says. "Rosie's an adult, she can look after herself, wherever she is. We'll call her and let her know we're worried."

Jennie leads her back into her room and the two of them sit on her bed, Lisa's hands covering her face. She breathes in and out deeply before giving one long sigh.

"Sorry for freaking out on you," she says. "I'm just really worried about her, wherever she is. She's never been this alone before."

"She's going to be fine," Jennie says. "I know she's going through a bad time at the moment, but if there's one thing I know about Rosie, it's that she can take all of this in her stride. It might take some time, but I know she can bounce back from this. I'm sure wherever she is, she's working it out."

Lisa stares down at her fingers. "I hope you're right, Jennie," she says, her voice quiet.

—————

Word travelled fast about Rosie's apparent disappearance.

Everyone, of course, knew about the incident at the press party between Kai and Rosie. A few had been divided on their thoughts; most didn't care about her sexuality and believed that Kai should have kept what he saw to himself. Some though, leaned more towards Kai's side. Lisa didn't hesitate to put those people in their places. But everyone, even those who were on Rosie's side, didn't hesitate to speculate about where she might be. Jennie did her best to put a stop to any rumours, lest Lisa get wind of them. She really didn't want her to get upset about this. Jennie found herself spending a lot of time telling people that on no accounts were they to repeat anything they had said about Rosie in front of Lisa.

She said it was for their benefit, but (partly) she was lying.

———-

Kai's in Jennie's room again.

Jennie's still not sure how she feels about Kai. She's still angry, sure, she's furious. There's something so ignorant about Kai. He just doesn't seem to understand at all why his actions would hurt someone else. It's infuriating, and somehow, a little sad.

"Jen," Kai says. "Do you think Rosie left because of me?"

"Yes," Jennie says, her voice deadpan.

She's not in the mood to break anything gently to Kai. Why should she have to educate him on things he should have learned years ago?

"I just don't understand what I did," Kai says.

His voice isn't indignant anymore, it isn't stuck in this sense of self-righteousness, it's just sort of sad, and lost.

Jennie sighs and rubs a hand across her face. "You didn't know Rosie was gay, because she didn't want you to know. She didn't want anyone to know, and you revealed it in front of paparazzi. She's under scrutiny from everyone right now, and she's afraid of what people will say about her if they see her in the street. You basically made her afraid to go outside."

"Oh," Kai says.

His voice is low and struck with a certain kind of realization.

"I've been an idiot, haven't I?" he says.

"Yep."

"What do I do now?"

Jennie resists the urge to groan as she drops herself onto her bed, her head in her hands.

"You stop making it about you," she says. "You apologise publicly, you admit that you did wrong, and you expect nothing back from her."

As the words leave her mouth, she wonders if she's really the one qualified to say all of this.

———-

Lisa's not filming today, but Jennie is.

Technically, she's not even supposed to be on set, but she doesn't have anywhere else to be or anything else to do.

"Give me my Romeo. And when I shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun."

Her eyes flicker up over to Lisa, just for a moment, before flickering back in the direction she's supposed to be looking. For a split second, their eyes connect.

But just for a split second.