The Angel Next Door (Rosé X Female Reader)

31: The Interrogation

Word Count: 4,051

"Now then, I would like to ask you a bit about what happened the day before yesterday."

It was two days after my outing with Rosé. The day I had plans to go sing karaoke with Jennie and Chanyeol.

As soon as we had assembled and entered our reserved room, Chanyeol immediately turned to me with a smile.

I had prepared myself for an interrogation, but even so, I felt really awkward being asked about this again.

Jennie seemed to have heard about the incident from Chanyeol and was wearing an expression that said Uh-oh, you got caught! She wasn't even trying to hide her amusement.

After bringing the cup of melon soda I had gotten from the self-service drink bar to my lips and wetting my throat, I reluctantly began to explain.

"...It's nothing that serious. Jennie and Lisa knew about it already. Rosé and I live next door to each other. That was honestly a total coincidence. And well, a bunch of things happened, and we got closer, I guess."

"You got to know each other, and then you went out together?"

"Yeah."

We were obviously more than simple acquaintances. In the best-case scenario, we looked like friends, in the worst, lovers. But as far as I was concerned, for the sake of Rosé's honor, I had to flatly deny everything.

"It's definitely not the kind of relationship you're imagining, Chanyeol," I reasserted.

"And I have a feeling it's not quite what you're describing, Y/N."

"Come on—"

"Their situation goes way beyond friends, I'd say," Jennie interjected.

"Considering Rosé comes over to make dinner for her every day."

My cheek twitched as I glared at my friend. "Jennie!"

"The truth was gonna come out sooner or later, so it's better to just hurry up and spill it all now."

When she put it that way, Jennie was probably right, but by suddenly providing the detail that I was eating Rosé's home cooking every day, she all but guaranteed a misunderstanding.

"...So she's like your girlfriend?"

"Not even a little," I insisted. "We both live alone, so it's more convenient to split the food costs and make enough for two; that's all."

"Yeah, that's definitely all it is...," Jennie said without a trace of sincerity.

Chanyeol looked unimpressed. "That's not very convincing, Y/N..."

"Not you too, Chanyeol..."

Rosé and I definitely were not in love with each other, but I was having a hard time explaining that, and the way Chanyeol was staring at me was making me nervous. Not that I'd been all that composed to begin with.

"Normally, a girl won't hang around someone with sexual preferences like you... she doesn't approve of, and she definitely wouldn't follow into her apartment. Unless she's the one chasing after her anyway."

Chanyeol's addendum at the end sounded like it came from a place of experience, which reminded me how wary Chanyeol was of girls and their intentions. But he was right, more or less, I realized.

Girls, and Rosé in particular, were usually very careful and typically didn't approach people without reason. I recognized that the fact that Rosé associated with me at all was close to miraculous. But I knew this was a special case.