The Angel Next Door (Rosé X Female Reader)

Bonus: 01

Word Count: 1,529

Of all the animals, the one you like best is the cat. You like most animals, but cats are special. You have memories of begging your parents to take you to zoos, aquariums, and even farms when you were a young child, but ultimately, the creatures you felt the most affection for were the neighborhood cats. You liked them so much that you had always vaguely thought about getting one as a pet in the future, when you lived alone.

Despite that, as you grew older, you stopped openly saying that you liked cats. Around the time you entered high school, the house cat in your neighborhood had reached the end of its life span, and you’d stopped seeing it around. What’s more, your classmates had made fun of you for liking cats, so you had learned to keep it to yourself.

And now that you are in college, you live in an apartment building and rarely see stray cats, so you never have the chance to play with any. Instead, you satisfy yourself with watching cat videos online every day. One of the channels that you frequent put out a photo book, and you went out of your way to order one the very day it was released.

Even though you had gone ahead and reserved a copy, the book was going on sale close to the Christmas shopping season, and you were worried sick that there would be some kind of strange problem at the bookstore. You had spent the whole school day restlessly fidgeting, slightly on edge, and the only thing you had been able to think about was picking up the photo book on the way home and giving it a good read.

-

"Hey, welcome home. It's pretty cold outside, do you want something warm to drink?" Rosé had already arrived before you.

It wasn't unusual to find her in your apartment. You had gone to the bookstore and supermarket to buy ingredients for dinner, so it made sense that she got back first.

She greeted you as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and was surprised to see you in a good mood.

"You've been in a good mood all day," she said, and you felt too embarrassed to tell her that you were happy because you got the cat photo book you wanted.

You gave her a vague answer, but that only made her more curious. "Did something happen?" she asked.

"No, not really... it's nothing," you replied, but she could tell that something was up.

Feeling embarrassed, you looked away and tried to change the subject.

But that only made Rosé more suspicious, and she narrowed her brown eyes.

You both had an unspoken agreement not to meddle in each other's private lives, but if you did something inappropriate, it would be a different matter.

From Rosé's perspective, it was easy to see that you were acting suspiciously. She stared at you intently, making you feel even more guilty about your secret.

You didn't want to talk about it, so you had to worry about her suspecting you of something more sinister. Your eyes darted around unconsciously, but that only made you seem even more suspicious.

When her eyes fell on the bag from the bookstore, you held out the groceries, doing your best to distract her.

"It's really nothing; please don't worry about it. Would you put the groceries in the fridge for me? There are frozen things in here."

But Rosé wasn't convinced and said, "I can see that, but something seems off."

You begged her not to worry about it.

As you pushed the supermarket bag into Rosé's hands, the bag containing your book slipped off your wrist.

In a slight bit of good fortune, it happened after you had already handed her the other bag, so no one was hurt, but the photo book you had been doing your best to hide fell to the floor with a loud thud.