Make Me STAY

i hate to admit

It was bound to happen eventually.

Rose had been expecting, waiting, for Chan to finally have a proper conversation with her. She knew that her soulmate was a busy man but as weeks passed by the weight hanging above their heads got heavier and she watched with bated breath for it to drop.

It still managed to take her by surprise though.

"Stop it! Just stop... being okay with this all the time!"

Rose blinked in shock at her soulmate. They were in his studio and Chan had just told her that he had to cancel their date night to attend a last-minute meeting. They hadn't had anything special planned, just a movie and takeout at home, but this wasn't the first time this had happened. Every time Rose said the same thing.

"That's okay. I understand. Your work is important."

But apparently, that wasn't the reaction Chan wanted from her.

"You're important too! How can you be okay with me constantly cancelling on you? Don't you want to spend time with me? Why did you even bother coming back?!"

It took a moment for her to recover from the hit she felt from Chan's words. The hurt morphed into anger, and she shouted right back at him.

"Maybe I shouldn't have! Your right. What was the point if we are not going to spend any time together? I mean, since I returned it's just been one mess after another. Don't you care?!"

Aside from the whole Hyunjin thing, videos of Chan and his soulmate at the airport had gone viral. The reaction had been mixed. While there was support for them, the hate was louder. Arguments were made that Rose had put Chan in danger, that she was weak for needing him to rescue her, that the reason she hid her face was that she was so ugly Chan was embarrassed to be seen with her, and the classic: she wasn't good enough for him.

"Care? Oh, I care. You're the one who cared so little that you left me!"

"I was trying to save your career!"

"You! - wait, what?"

The two stared at each other, Chan in confusion and Rose like a deer in headlights, while their anger fizzled out.

"Rose... what do you mean?"

"Nothing."

Part of her wanted to confess everything she had been keeping from him, but instead, she put on a mask to keep herself from breaking. Chan stepped towards her and cupped her face in his hands.

"No. No mask. You promised."

One of the things they had talked about after being reunited was the mask Rose would wear to disguise how she was truly feeling. Chan had asked her not to use it, at least with him, and she had agreed.

"Sorry."

"I had a feeling, more than a feeling really... I was pretty sure that was why you left."

Rose looked at him with wide eyes.

"What? How...?"

"JYP said something to you, didn't he?"

"He said a lot of things."

"It must have been bad if you thought the only way forward was to leave me."

As she stared into her soulmate's eye, Rose broke. Tears started running down her cheeks and Chan pulled her into a hug. After she had calmed down and they had gotten comfortable on the sofa, she told him everything JYP had said to her. Chan listened without interrupting as his suspicions were confirmed and afterwards, he just had one question.