It had been a stressful few weeks as Bang Chan waited for ATEEZ to come back from their World Tour. Changbin had asked Wooyoung if he had Rose's number, but he hadn't, so they had to wait until the other group came back to Korea to talk to her. Luckily, Stray Kids had been extremely busy preparing for their comeback. Truthfully, Chan was grateful for the distraction as he still wasn't sure what he was going to do about his recently discovered soulmate.

The leader had yet to share what had happened at the fan meeting with the rest of the group, even Felix. If he had, he might have discovered that the younger Australian had been messaging his newest friend. The dancer had been surprised when Rose had revealed that her native language was also English and the two had bonded over the fact that they had both moved to Korea for work and to pursue their dreams.

When ATEEZ had arrived back in Korea, Wooyoung had messaged Changbin to tell him that Rose had been fired. The dancer was blaming himself and when he mentioned that he was planning on visiting her Changbin asked if he could come along. They decided to hold off on getting Rose and Chan to meet again. After losing her job they thought that she might not appreciate the soulmate who had ignored her turning up at her door uninvited.

Wooyoung had raised an eyebrow at his friend when Changbin turned up in front of Rose's building carrying Dwaekki.

"What?"

"You brought Rose-Noona a present?"

"It's to comfort her!"

"Sure."

Wooyoung smirked and reached to ring the bell for Rose's apartment, but Changbin stopped him.

"Wait, before we go in... I know."

"You know what?"

"Why you asked me to get Rose a backstage pass."

Wooyoung was inwardly panicking. It was obvious that whatever had happened at the fan meeting wasn't the fairytale meeting he had been imagining. If his friend knew that Rose was Chan's soulmate then he would have guessed that Wooyoung had already known, so he only hoped that Changbin wasn't upset with him for keeping it a secret.

"I wanted to do something nice for Noona, that's all."

"No. You wanted her to meet her soulmate."

With the confirmation that Changbin knew Rose's secret too, Wooyoung decided that there was no reason to play dumb anymore.

"Fine. Yes. You're right."

"So you knew that Rose was Chan-Hyung's soulmate?"

"What?!"

The pair turned to see Felix staring at them with wide eyes.

"Felix? What are you doing here?"

"Is it true, Changbin-Hyung? Rose-Noona is Chan-Hyung's soulmate?"

"It's not our secret to tell -"

"Answer our question first."

Changbin and Wooyoung glanced at each other before turning their attention back to Felix.

"I brought Noona brownies. She really liked them, so I thought they might cheer her up."

"You know that she lost her job? Did she tell you?"

"What?! No, she just said that she'd had a bad week. Wooyoung-Hyung, why did she...?"

"Our company found out that her soulmate works at another entertainment company, and they were worried about her loyalty, or something stupid like that."

"No way! They fired her for that?"

"We can't believe it either. Noona was our favourite staff member, it was almost like she was part of the group. The whole of ATEEZ is distraught."

"Do you think she's okay?"

"She acts all tough, so it can be hard to tell with Rose-Noona. That's why I've come to check on her."

"Shall we go in then?"

"Hang on, how did you know where Rose lives?"

"Oh, I've been here before."

"What?!"

"When - How?"

"Um, we kept in touch after the fan meet."

"You mean, you have her number?"

"Yeah..."

Changbin was speechless and Wooyoung just patted him on the shoulder.

"Come on. We don't even know if Noona will let us in uninvited. Unless she's expecting you, Felix?"

The youngest Idol shook his head and smiled sheepishly.

"Actually, she might have specifically told me not to come over..."

In her apartment, Rose was curled up on the sofa with a blanket. She didn't know what to do with herself because everything managed to remind her either of ATEEZ and her lost job, or Stray Kids and her unrequited soulmate. Currently, she was watching BTS's soulmate Anna's YouTube videos, but even then, she wondered what it was like for the other girl being the soulmate of Idols.

The sound of her doorbell ringing made her jump. Rose wasn't expecting anyone, so she almost ignored it but ultimately decided to see who it was.

"Who is it?"

"Noona, it's Wooyoung... and Changbin and Felix. Can we come in?"

"Wooyoung this really isn't a good time."

Since she wasn't planning on going out anywhere, Rose had no makeup on, her hair wasn't styled, and she was wearing loungewear. Ever since she was a teenager, she hadn't let anyone see her in such a state.

"Please Noona. I brought brownies."

Felix's sweet voice made her pause. She could really do with those brownies. Rose had no snacks in her apartment. She reasoned that if she didn't buy it then she couldn't eat it. She was a stress eater, and she had spent all day fighting with herself not to buy any junk food.

"Fine. Felix can come up. What are the other two bringing?"

"I have a present for you."

"Is it edible?"

"No, but it's soft and cute."

"Okay, you can come in. Wooyoung?"

"I bring you my wonderful company."

"Eh, I'm not sure..."

"Noona!"

Rose chuckled to herself as she buzzed them in.

The three boys were so cute, even over the telecom, that for a minute she hadn't forgotten about her situation. For a moment she seriously considered making them wait while she got changed and made herself up, but she was tired. Not only did Rose feel drained because of her current situation, but she was also tired of putting on her mask.

She just hoped the Idols weren't too shocked when they saw her in this state for the first time.

When they knocked on her door, Rose took a deep breath before opening it. Wooyoung was hiding behind his two friends who were holding out their gifts while giving her puppy eyes. All three of them looked very nervous.

Rose took the box of brownies that Felix was holding out to her, immediately opening it and eating one of the small delicious chocolatey squares.

"You really did bring brownies! I thought it was a ploy to get me to let you in."

Felix looked panicked at her suggestion.

"Noona, I would never -"

"I know you wouldn't, Sweetie, but that one behind you would."

"Rose-Noona! I think you've got me mixed up with someone else. I'm an angel."

"Well, your halo's a little wonky."

Changbin was usually as talkative as his best friend, but this situation had not turned out at all as he had expected it to. Rose was making jokes and teasing his friends as if she hadn't recently had two major upheavals in her life.

"Changbin, it's nice to see you again."

"It's nice to see you too, Rose. Oh, this is for you."

The dark rapper handed over the plush that he had brought with him.

"Dwaekki! Thank you, and you can call me Noona if you want. Now that I've got what I wanted... why did you think that you could turn up at my door uninvited?"

"Umm... I..."

"It was Wooyoung's idea."

"I just want to make sure you were okay!"

"Do you want us to leave?"

Rose knew from the expressions on their faces that if she said yes, the three of them would leave straight away. Yet now that they were here, she was very much enjoying their company. They made her realise how much she didn't want to be alone.

"No. Please, come in."

They hesitated in the doorway until she encouraged them to enter. The three Idols shuffled into the apartment, and she led them to the living room.

"Make yourselves comfortable. Would anyone like a drink?"

While Rose was in the kitchen, the boys silently argued over where to sit. As the youngest, Felix grabbed the beanbag chair which was tucked away and placed it next to the sofa. Wooyoung was quick to jump onto the only chair, leaving Changbin to share the sofa with Rose.

"Wooyoung, swap with me!"

"What? You don't want to sit next to Rose-Noona?"

Unsuccessfully, Changbin tried to dislodge his friend from the chair. He was about to turn on Felix when Rose entered the room and he quickly sat down on the sofa.

Rose carefully put down the tray of drinks on the coffee table in front of everybody and then went to sit down next to Changbin. As she moved past him, she managed to trip, and he reached out and caught her by her hips. Once she was steady, he quickly let go and she finally sat down.

"Are you okay, Noona?"

"Yes, thank you. I'm afraid I'm a little clumsy."

"It's true. I can't count how many times we've saved her from almost falling over at work."

Wooyoung bit his lip as soon as the word left his lips and there was a silent pause for a moment.

"Is that BTS's Anna?"

They all looked at the open laptop on the table.

"Huh? Oh, yes. I was watching some of her videos."

"Did you see her cover of Phobia?"

"It was awesome. Did you know that she's a trainee?"

"That and her fan meeting must have been the biggest news in K-pop."

"We already knew. Yeonjun told us."

"I wish I could go to her fan meeting. I'd love to meet her."

Wooyoung and Changbin shared a look before going back to sipping their drinks.

"Noona, you look cute today."

The other two Idols almost spit out their drinks at Felix's forwardness.

"Thanks..."

Noticing Rose's strange reaction, Changbin turned to her in concern.

"Did he make you uncomfortable? I can beat him up if you want?"

"No. It's okay."

"Felix is right though, Noona. I don't think I've ever seen you not all done up. It's not fair that you can still look so pretty without even trying."

"Uh, thank you...?"

"Yah! What was that?"

"I was complimenting Noona!"

"I'm sorry, Noona. I think what Wooyoungie was trying to say, is that you always look beautiful."

Changbin's words caught Rose off guard. While she had brushed off the other two, the way the rapper had looked at her as he spoke made her blush.

They spent the rest of the time before they had to go back to work making lighthearted conversation. Rose consumed Felix's brownies at an alarming rate, which concerned Wooyoung as he had never seen her eat so much sugar. The other two didn't share his worries as they didn't know her as well as he did, and Felix was just happy to see her enjoy what he had baked for her.

"Sorry, we have to go already, Noona."

Inside she was dreading being alone in her apartment once again, but there was no way that she would tell them that.

"Nonsense, you must be so busy with your comeback just around the corner. Take care of yourselves. Fighting!"

After they left the boys shared glances before speaking.

"She's not okay, is she?"

"I wasn't expecting her to be, but she puts up a good front."

"So good that I'm wondering whether she's always been wearing a mask like that."

"At least we have one way to cheer her up."

"What's that, Hyung?"

"I have a phone call to make."

Felix watched curiously as Changbin got out his phone.

"Yeonjun, I need to ask you a favour."