The Rockstar Who Loves Me

Song 32 ♫ Siempre Te Voy a Amar

As the saying went, no one was a prophet in their own land. While Tae Yang found his success in the US, I found mine in South Korea.

It started with a modeling contract for a skincare company promoting inclusion. They wanted a darker skin model to break into a market that needed more skin tone inclusivity, and what best opportunity but to recruit a beautiful foreigner with ties to a native elite.

I became both the face of their product, and also another product, as the girlfriend of The Choi Tae Yang.

Then, I got a gig at a variety show where all I had to do was stand and look pretty before an electronic board displaying the tasks contestants had to do. It was the easiest money I'd ever made, and turned me into somewhat of a household name in local entertainment. Already, this was two more gigs than I'd ever got in Venezuela after my beauty pageant run.

I received offers from a few local entertainment industries that I had to run through Tae Yang. In the end, the person who became my agent of sorts was omunim. She reviewed every contract I signed along with her son, and even went as far as buying an extra car to drive me around.

"Estoy muy orgullosa de ti," Mom said one time over the phone. "Pero como vas a hacer cuando te aprueben la visa pa' acá?"

I'd thought about that. A lot. My goal was still to return to the US, because no matter how well I did in Korea, my home was still with Mom, Tae Yang and my friends.

But I was a businesswoman, or at least I had to start acting like one. So every connection I made in Korea, particularly with people in the beauty industry, turned into an opportunity for me. That was how I gained two more investors for my future venture.

Meanwhile, THESUN released his debut music video to a record-breaking audience, and followed up a few months later with a couple more singles and a full album, officially making a name for himself in the music industry.

"It was about time," Ashton, his bandmate from Casual Friday Funeral, said in an interview. "A genius of his caliber deserves all the recognition."

"What a dork," Tae Yang told me after that interview came out. "He was the one who teased me the most for writing love songs."

I remembered that. In the early days of Tae Yang composing what would become his debut single, he'd mentioned his roommates had teased him a lot.

My boyfriend sighed. "But then again, I'd never been known to write romantic music until then."

"What make you start?" I asked him.

Since we were on a video call, he gave me an exaggerated look. "You."

"Aww, stahp," I said, giggling and waving my hand.

All he did was give me a Mona Lisa smile that made my cheeks heat up and my chest flutter. Maybe I should see a doctor.

Through all of this, the stay that should've been three months long went on for a year. Every day, more than once, I refreshed the US immigration website to see if there were any changes. But at least now without the panic component, since I was busy every day. When I wasn't working, learning Korean, or hanging out with Tae Yang's parents, I was on the phone with him, Mom or the girls.

Slowly, it felt as though I was building two homes, the one I wanted to return to and then new one I was in. And if my cheesy boyfriend lived in my second home, I might have been tempted to stay.

As it was, I only saw Tae Yang in the flesh once more that year, when he came over for a couple of weeks for a collaborative project with the top boyband of the moment, TBS.