𝙎𝙐𝙉𝙎𝙀𝙏 𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙇𝙀𝙑𝘼𝙍𝘿 // 𝙍𝙊𝙎𝙀́ 𝙓 𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙀𝙍

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙞𝙫𝙚 - 𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙄𝙨 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙚́?

2024

"Did you feel like Y/N was changing who you were?"

I laugh, not because I'm trying to be rude but because I found it ridiculous. For years, people were trying to push the agenda that my wife was changing me to fit what she liked. I found it ridiculous because why would the only woman who had ever loved me for who I truly was be the one trying to change who I was?

"It's actually quite the opposite," Irene stops writing and looks up at me, "how so?" I hug my body a little tighter. This part was hard.

"Sure, Y/N made changes but they weren't with the intention to change who I was. We were in Hollywood and we wanted to be big, Y/N did all she could to help us achieve 'fuck you' success. She was just trying to reinvent us as performers, musicians. She gave us stage names but never made us legally change our names. At the end of the day I still was Roseanne Park, Lisa was still Lisa and Jennie was still Jennie. She helped us change our hair, helped us establish signature looks that went down in history but that was just about it. I was the one desperately trying to change who I was. It was never Y/N."

"Don't you think by giving you a stage name she was stripping you of your identity?"

Irene was a journalist, a writer, it was her job to push.

I take a deep breath, "Rosé wasn't my identity. Roseanne was. Roseanne was the name my mother gave me and that's who I was. Who I am. Y/N merely gave me a character to play, a character to embody when I was on stage. Rosé was like putting on a costume then once the sun set, I stepped out of it. Y/N giving me a stage wasn't the problem," I stare out at the night sky and realize that it's late. "What was the problem then?"

"We should probably continue this tomorrow. It's getting late," Irene looks like she has more to say but I'm tired and I just want to be left alone. I guide Irene to my front door, I stand by as she puts on her shoes and grabs her coat from the closet.

"Thank you for your time, Roseanne. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yes, eight o'clock."

"I'll be here."

Then she's out the door and Jennie and Lisa join me in the living room. "Are you going to be okay tonight?" I don't think my answer was ever going to change but they had families to get home to. "No-"

"Rosie-"

"But I'll be fine. Go home, I'm getting sick of your faces."

Jennie playfully smacks me and it's like no time has passed. Like we're not seventy-nine and eighty years old. We became fans of cosmetic surgery when we hit our late fifties. We didn't have major surgeries like nose jobs or jaw reductions, they were always just procedures for botox or face lifts when we felt our skin was starting to sag a bit too much and wrinkles were showing up a little. Cosmetic surgery has helped us look good well into our sixties and seventies and even eighties but being active, eating right and having Asian genes played a bigger part in helping us maintain the timeless beauty we're known for.

Jennie looks the same as she did sixty-three years ago just with softer skin and grey veins. Lisa still looked like a barbie and she was the last one who got cosmetic surgery out of us three.

We look good sixty-three years later. Not much people can say that.

"If you're sure, Rosie."

"I'm sure."

They hug me then slip out of the door.

Two seconds later, I wish I had asked them to stay.

-