Chapter 2
868 Words
Rosie hopped onto f*******:, only to find the hashtag #DylanRomance had already blown past the news of his Best Actor award, sitting right at the very top of the trending list.
On the other end of the line, Brenna was already screaming her head off. "Rosie, are you out of your freaking mind? You know Dylan is packed with girlfriend-fans! Going public without a heads-up—are you trying to tank his career the exact same day he wins Best Actor?
"Get your butt over to the office right now so we can fix this mess!"
By the time Rosie rushed over to the company, Dylan was already there.
They locked eyes for just a split second before Dylan coldly looked away.
Right then, Rosie's heart took a massive, painful dip.
Staying true to her brutal, no-nonsense style, Brenna immediately laid down the law. "The internet is completely losing its mind right now. There is absolutely no way we are taking this public!
"We're going to play dumb and deny the whole thing. As for you, you're going to put out a statement yourself, saying the photo is just an AI edit."
Tons of fans in the entertainment scene would Photoshop themselves with their idols anyway, so this was easily the most believable excuse.
Rosie just looked down, staying completely quiet.
After dating Dylan for four whole years, she really didn't want to deny their relationship, even if they couldn't officially go public.
Seeing her shut down, Brenna dropped her voice to a chill. "Dylan is a Best Actor winner now. You're just a low-level assistant—you were already punching above your weight to begin with. Do you actually want to destroy his future?"
Noticing Rosie still staring at the floor in silence, Dylan pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly annoyed.
"Look, I can admit we were together and tell everyone you were my girlfriend."
Hearing that finally gave Rosie a tiny bit of breathing room.
But a second later, Dylan kept going. "But I'm going to tell them we broke up on good terms six months ago. For now, you need to stay home and make sure we aren't spotted together."
Rosie was completely floored. She wanted to say no right then and there, but she froze the moment she saw how incredibly cold Dylan's eyes were.
After what felt like forever, she gritted her teeth and managed to force out a single word. "Okay."
That exact same night, Dylan filmed his clarification video.
"Yeah, Rosie and I were together for a while, but we split up on good terms about six months ago. We've totally moved on from each other, and I honestly wish her the best."
Once the video dropped, the hate didn't die down at all—it just completely pivoted toward Rosie.
A: [So they broke up six months ago when Dylan was at his lowest, and now that he bagged Best Actor, she's back to clout-chase? That is so toxic!]
B: [Thank god you guys split, you seriously don't deserve him!]
Reading through the comments one by one, Rosie felt this heavy, crushing weight in her chest, like her heart was being squeezed. It hurt like hell.
Taking a deep breath to get away from it all, she swapped over to her burner f*******: account.
The DMs and notifications on this account were also maxed out at 99+, but the vibe here was completely chill.
C: [OMG, the queen just dropped another masterpiece! Dylan looks ridiculously hot in this shot!]
D: [I'm telling you, I only became a Dylan stan because of her captions. The writing is seriously so good!]
This was Rosie's secret account, which she ran as a Dylan fansite. She was actually his day-one fan, backing him ever since he debuted.
Back when he barely had a few thousand followers, she was out here grinding for his engagement metrics day after day for years, eventually becoming a legendary figure among the fanbase.
If a celebrity wanted to stay relevant, they couldn't just pay for PR bots. They needed real fans hyping them up daily.
Retweets, comments, voting, all of that.
Running engagement wasn't a joke. It was a lot of thankless, behind-the-scenes grinding that nobody really noticed.
But because it was Dylan, Rosie did it happily without expecting anything in return.
Right after posting the new pics, Rosie saw someone tagging her in the fan group chat.
E: [Girls, did you see the trending topics? That female assistant who's trying to leech off him—did you ever spot her around when you were shooting photos before?]
Rosie froze for a second. She typed out a reply, deleted it, and after staring at the screen for a bit, she just logged out.
She honestly had no idea what to say.
Looking out the window, she noticed it was already pitch black outside. Rosie opened her chat with Dylan.
She had texted him three hours ago asking when he'd be home, but he had completely ghosted her.
So, she just called him straight up.
The phone rang for a while before someone finally answered, but it was Charlotte's voice on the line.
"Dylan's in the shower, what's up?"
- Writer
