I Think I Love You •Chaennie•

Chapter 18

Rosé's POV

I unzip the camera bag and pull out the little camera I've had to go back to after returning Jennie's equipment. Ever since we lost the vote to Jennie, which I'm not bitter about because I'm happy for her and whatever, I've been stressing about our subpar equipment.

Especially now that we're doing a nighttime shoot in Washington Square Park.

"Guys," I say from behind the camera, through which I can only see a black square. "I can see literally nothing."

A grainy white light pierces through the otherwise pitch-black shot, and I look up to see Tae standing on a park bench, holding his phone over his head with the flashlight pointed at the ground in front of me.

I grin at him. "Thanks. Now it looks like the Holy Ghost is making a cameo."

"Here, what if we move to the benches by the streetlamp?" Kai asks, pointing to the little round plaza in the middle of the park that houses the fountain and several tall black lamps.

I trot down the path to the large circular fountain, and unfold the tripod next to the new bench. It's more crowded in this corner. Music from three different musicians clashes over the sound of the water slapping against the walls of the fountain. It's also a bit brighter, but not much. I'll still look like a dark shape in front of the camera, especially since the giant arch that oversees the park will be behind me, ensuring that I'm backlit no matter where I stand.

Maybe I can pretend this was on purpose. The character's emotions are dark, she's plunged into despair, the truth is hidden in mystery. It's all very thematic. Poorly shot, but thematic.

I peer through the viewfinder long enough to set up the shot, then glance at Tae. He's busy with the mic setup, whistling as he fiddles with the audio recorder, and it grinds my gears to see him like that. Like he didn't make his girlfriend faint in the middle of her workplace mere hours ago. I mean, I know she lied, and I know I tried to defend him to Jennie, but...it wasn't cool.

I step away from the camera. "Hey, Kai, would you mind going to that Duane Reade we walked past and seeing if they have any flashlights or anything?"

I fish a wrinkled twenty-dollar bill from my pocket, and he jogs back toward Broadway, leaving me to face Tae alone.

"Are you okay?" I ask, even though he obviously is, which is the whole problem.

But then, to my surprise, his whole body deflates, like I've pricked him with a needle, letting all the cheer seep out of him and into the warm night air. "No. I can't believe Jisoo would do that to me. I know she loves Jennie, but I thought she loved me too. And instead she was lying to me the whole time we were together, like..." He swallows, and I grimace at the memory of the funk he fell into after Kendra Lyman cheated on him. "It's like she used me to win this stupid movie competition that she didn't even want to enter in the first place."

"That's not true. She loves you a lot."

He half turns away from me, his footfall echoing against the concrete path.

"If that's true, then it clearly means nothing to her, because she still did this to me," he says, throwing his hands up. "I don't know which is worse, that she never loved me, or that she did and it didn't matter."

I nod at the ground. "I get that. But then again, you love her."

"Yeah," he says, frowning at me. "That's why I didn't lie to her."

I shuffle my feet. "Yeah," I say, drawing out the word. I don't want to say the next ones, but I know I have to. "But you did go to her workplace to yell at her."

"Our whole relationship was a lie," Tae says.

"She fainted."

"She lied."

"She fainted because of what you did." I take a breath to steady the anger thrumming in my rib cage. The hazelnut smell of Nutella from the nearby crepe cart is comforting, but not enough. How can he not see that what he did was wrong? How can he keep justifying it?

"She was lying the whole time we were together," he says again, folding his arms in a tight ball across his chest.

Jennie wants me to twist the knife of his guilt. It should be easy. He was awful.

But then I remember that, no matter how badly Tae handled it, we have proof Jisoo lied. And if Jisoo lied, Jennie was probably in on it. Is she still in on it now?

"I didn't know what to do," he whispers, so low that I barely catch it. "She turned us into a lie."

"And you turned that us," I say, putting air quotes around it, "into a humiliating public spectacle. At her job. You could've gotten her fired."

"She could've cost me the film competition," Tae points out, but the bravado is leaking out of his tone. His shoulders slump forward. "You're right. I didn't handle it well."

He pulls his phone out of his pocket, casting his eyes around the park. He aims it at a passing cocker spaniel and snaps a picture, then starts typing. "I'll apologize."

I nod. "Thank you."

He hits send, and I reach out quickly for a hug, clutching his gawky frame in relief that our spat is over. I can't stand the thought of allowing the cracks in our friendship to come back. After our rocky reunion, they might never close again.