Less than a Lover

RaeRae Reacts

Okay. First listen? Pretty. Very pretty. Maybe too pretty, because I spent most of the song waiting for it to turn into something bigger and then it ended. I actually checked the time bar like, excuse me, are we done? That is my main problem with “Less than a Lover.” The mood arrives. The hook arrives. JENNIE sounds lovely. Then the song circles that same feeling a few times and slips out the side door before anybody can ask for another verse, a bridge, a vocal switch, a mild emotional breakdown, anything. I do not need every song to explode. I am not asking her to start screaming on a cliff. I just needed the music to move somewhere after it got me comfortable.

And yes, I know the shortness matches the whole point. This is not a full relationship. It is not even trying to be one. The song gives us the nice part, refuses the rest, and leaves before the bill comes. Cute. I see what happened there. I am still allowed to be annoyed. A concept being intentional does not automatically make the listening experience satisfying, and I think people sometimes get so excited about explaining why a song is brief or repetitive that they forget to say whether it actually feels finished. To me, it does not. It feels like a very good beginning that decided being mysterious was easier than becoming a whole song.

What saves it is JENNIE. She does not oversing it or try to force a grand confession into a song that clearly does not want one. Her voice stays light, close, and a little cautious. It sounds like somebody saying, “No, really, this is fine,” while already knowing it may not be fine. That tiny bit of doubt is where I started caring. If she sang it like a confidence anthem, I would have rolled my eyes. The words are too messy for that. You cannot invite somebody into your life, enjoy all the soft couple things, and then act shocked when feelings show up with luggage. JENNIE lets enough uncertainty into her voice that the song does not sound smug about it.

The guitar and old-keyboard sound help. Nothing is shiny or aggressive. It feels sun-warmed and slightly faded, like a photo you forgot was in your phone until winter. That is probably why the song is already more addictive than I want to admit. It does not demand attention. It just sits there being pleasant, and then the hook crawls back into my head when I am doing something else. Annoying. I listened again while writing this and caught myself humming it after complaining that it needed more music. So there is that.

Do I love it? No. Am I going to play it again? Apparently, because my own brain has betrayed me.

The relationship is a bad idea. That is why it works.

I do not hear this as a confused “what are we?” song. She knows what she wants. She wants the warmth, the flirting, the private jokes, the physical closeness, the beautiful days, and the person looking at her like she is the only woman in Spain. She just does not want the part where the relationship starts expecting things from her. That is not confusion. That is somebody trying to build a custom package out of another human being’s feelings.

Which is messy. Also honest. People do this all the time and then hide behind the lack of a label as if nobody can get hurt without an official title. Please. Your heart does not care what you named the group chat. You can call it casual, temporary, summer fun, “we are just seeing where it goes,” or whatever other foolishness people say when they want boyfriend benefits with plausible deniability. If you are making memories, building habits, and reaching for the same person every day, something is happening. The paperwork is not the relationship.

The song knows she is making a mess. It also refuses to turn her into some cold villain. She likes him. That is obvious. The problem is that liking him creates a future she does not want to promise. Maybe she values her freedom more. Maybe she does not trust the feeling. Maybe she knows this only works because it has an ending. Maybe she just wants what she wants and does not have a prettier reason. People are allowed to be selfish without becoming monsters. The other person is also allowed to decide the offer is trash.

That is the part I wish the song itself dug into more. What does he want? Does he know the rules? Did they agree to this, or did she decide for both of them and put it in a catchy chorus? The video gives him enough presence for me to wonder and nowhere near enough information to answer. I do not need his diary. One crack in the fantasy still would have made the story hit harder. Let him hesitate. Let him look disappointed before she pulls away. Give me one moment where the cost belongs to somebody besides the person controlling the story.

Now, the video? The video understood the assignment.

The video opens like JENNIE is pitching us a movie. There is a girl. There is a boy. There is a summer. There are rules. Immediately, I knew she was going to try to control the story, because why simply have feelings when you can put them in a screenplay and pretend they belong to a character? That little film-within-a-film idea gives the whole thing more bite. Every beautiful moment can be dismissed as a scene. Every look can be acting. Every touch can be blocking. Very convenient for a woman singing about wanting intimacy without the consequences.

Then Girona starts doing the most. Old stone, narrow streets, water, driving with the top down, coffee, all that warm European light. The location is shamelessly romantic. Nobody goes through all of that on camera and expects me to believe the relationship is casual. You put two attractive people in a beautiful city during summer and let them stare at each other for several minutes; I am going to start planning their imaginary wedding. That is between me and God.

Nah Kai barely gets anything to say. That works here. His job is mostly to be present, comfortable, and just hopeful enough that the almost-kiss hurts. The chemistry works because they look like they have slipped into a routine without noticing it. It is not all dramatic staring. They move around each other like people who have already spent enough time together to stop performing every second. That makes the ending worse, because the closeness does not look theoretical anymore. She can keep calling it less than love. Their bodies have clearly missed the memo.

And then she pulls away. Of course she does. The kiss would ruin the arrangement by making it feel too real, too complete, too much like the ending of the romance movie she keeps insisting they are not in. So she stops it. I yelled at my screen, but I was not surprised. That is the first decision in the video that feels more important than the scenery. Until then, she has been enjoying the fantasy. Pulling away is where she proves she is serious about the boundary, even when she hates it too.

The “to be continued” ending is rude. I mean that as a compliment and a complaint. It gives JENNIE an escape hatch, leaves the audience making theories, and guarantees people will replay the video looking for clues. It also means the video gets to avoid answering the question it created. Are these two actually falling for each other, or is she writing a prettier version of a relationship she already plans to leave? I do not know. JENNIE does not know. The editor knows and is laughing at us.

Easter Eggs & Surprises

This is the section where I start poking at the details, because the video is doing more than putting JENNIE in cute outfits and letting Spain carry the background.

• The screenplay is her shield. If she writes the scene first, she can pretend she controls what it means. The problem is that the chemistry keeps looking less scripted as the video continues.
• Girona is perfect for a temporary romance. It is gorgeous, unfamiliar, and separate from regular life. Vacation logic makes bad decisions feel harmless because everybody knows there is a departure date.
• The camera gives them an excuse. They can act like a couple and blame the movie. That works until the almost-kiss, when the performance asks for something real.
• She stops the kiss, not him. The boundary belongs to her. So does the responsibility for what happens after.
• “To be continued” is not closure. It is bait. Loving, stylish, calculated bait. I clicked replay anyway, so congratulations to everyone involved.

My favorite little surprise is how the video changes the song without changing a word. On audio alone, “Less than a Lover” can float by as a soft situationship track. With the video, it becomes a story about somebody trying to direct her own feelings and discovering that feelings are terrible employees. They ignore the script. They miss their marks. They start improvising. Then she has to call cut before the scene gets away from her.

Credits I actually wanted to know

JENNIE did not just show up, look gorgeous, and go home. She participated in writing and composing the song, and the video story is credited to her. Choeey directed the video. It was filmed in Girona, Spain, with model and actor Nah Kai playing the man trapped inside this beautiful nonsense. The release comes after Ruby, and it feels like a smaller, softer side road instead of another giant “look at me” solo statement.

I am not posting the full lyrics here. I also do not need to paste every line to tell you what they are doing. The song keeps returning to the same request: come closer, but not too close. Be important, but do not ask what that makes us. Give me the feeling. Please keep the consequences in your carry-on.

Final take

“Less than a Lover” is not one of my favorite JENNIE songs. I want more from the writing, more movement in the production, and at least one section that makes the track feel finished instead of tastefully abandoned. The video is stronger than the song and adds most of the emotional mess I wanted the lyrics to explore.

But I am not dismissing it either. JENNIE sounds good, the hook sticks, the guitar is warm, and the whole thing has that dangerous quality where a song you called “a little undercooked” somehow ends up on your playlist. It is pretty. It is frustrating. It knows exactly how much it is withholding. Fine. I will listen again. I will complain again too.