Shit shit shit shit. Cleo shoved the kit she was opening into someone else's arms before darting out into the hallway. She ran to the first empty room and pulled her phone out of her pocket. Crowded around the screen, with various looks of horror across their faces, all eight of the Stray Kids members looked back at her.

Cleo stared at her phone. The boys stared back. Her mouth fell open. Lee Know waved. After a few blinks Cleo came back to herself. "Oh, fuck me that's not good", and hit the end button. Before she could dwell too long on the fact that she had just hung up on Stray Kids, she tossed her phone onto the nearest nursing station and ran back to the trauma room- losing herself in the controlled chaos.

An hour later the patient was still alive and on his way to the ICU. They still didn't have identification and no one was sure if he would ever wake up. The head trauma he had sustained was severe, but at least he was alive for when they could find his family. The woman who brought him in had calmed enough to speak to police, so the circumstances were finally known. She'd been driving home from work when the snowstorm hit. The heavy falling snow made it difficult to see and she'd actually been in the process of slowing down on the highway when the man had suddenly appeared in front of her car. She estimated she was going close to 60 mph when she hit him. In her panic with the situation she had thrown him into the back seat of her car before rushing to the emergency department.

Cleo was unsure if the woman had acted incredibly bravely or stupidly. She likely got him here before an ambulance would have but who knows how much additional damage was done by handling him as roughly as she did. At this point though, it didn't matter. She was sure the woman would be severely psychologically affected by the events. It was finally the end of her shift, 7am, and Cleo was packing her bag to leave after giving report. As she donned her jacket she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Pulling her phone out, the screen showed an unknown number was calling from a New York area code. Not willing to risk speaking to Jason after the day she had, she silenced her phone and replaced it in her pocket.

On her walk through the parking lot she felt her phone begin to ring again. She didn't bother looking and immediately silenced it. She did not have the emotional capacity to deal with anything other than crawling into bed and knocking out. Despite how terrified she'd been to take part in the video call she was incredibly disappointed in how it ended. She also still could not believe she'd essentially sworn at them while hanging up in their faces. All she could imagine was their horrified faces and what she imagined they said to each other after the fact. Thank God it was technically against the rules to video record the calls because she'd like to go the rest of her life without reliving that experience.

RING

Her phone had auto connected to her cars Bluetooth and was ringing at full blast through her car speakers.

OH MY GOD Her despair spiral was momentarily blocked by anger, she jabbed the button on her steering wheel to answer, "Yes?! Hello?! Who is this?!".

A few beats of silence followed her outburst before whoever was on the line cleared their throat, "Umm, I'm sorry but is this Cleo?".

Cleo was grateful she hadn't started driving yet because she's certain she would have crashed in that moment. The voice coming through her speakers had an Australian accent. The only Australian's she knew were both members of Stray Kids. She's fairly certain her heart had stopped. In a voice that was significantly calmer than she felt inside she responded, "…This is Cleo, who am I speaking with?".

"Cool! I wasn't sure if the number our manager gave me would be correct. This is Chan! I wanted to check and see if you were okay."

"Oh. That's so nice, I'm fine. It was honestly an average day for us, they just usually come by ambulance. Are you guys okay? I don't know how much you could hear…"

"We could hear most of it. Actually, I was really calling because we felt bad you missed out on your video call and wanted to make it up to you!"

"You really don't have to do that, I know you're busy."

"… which is why we wanted to invite you to Seoul for two of our shows next month!"

WHAT

"What. That's not. You don't. What?"

"Yeah, we figured we have a weekend of shows coming up and if you're free we'd love to fly you out for them! We'd set it all up- hotels, flights, whatever you need as long as you have a passport. You do have a passport, don't you?"

What is happening

"I mean, yeah, I do. But that's seriously a lot. It's really not that big of a deal…"

"Do you not want to come?" Chan sounded so disappointed, Cleo couldn't stand to hear it.

"No! I mean, yes! I mean... I'd love to."

"Perfect! I'm calling from one of the staff's phone. I think they said they had your email already from the sign up. I'll have them connect with you and we'll get it set up. I've got to go though, the rest of the guys are waiting for me before we head home. See you soon!". And before Cleo could fully comprehend what had just happened, he hung up.

Cleo sat in her car for at least 5 minutes, just staring straight ahead, before she put her car in reverse, backed out of her parking spot, and drove home in silence.

She woke up hours later and stared at her ceiling. Since she didn't have work that night there was no reason for her to hurry out of bed. Which was a good thing since her brain felt like it had taken a turn through a blender. Had she hallucinated her conversation with Chan? Because there was no way that man had actually invited her to Korea. Not just invited but offered to pay for her to go. With a groan she covered her face with her blanket. It had to have been a dream. Satisfied with her conclusion, she threw her blanket off and began to get ready for the day.

While brushing her teeth her phone pinged. Based on the tone she knew she'd received an email. Continuing to brush her teeth Cleo opened her email app, expecting an email from work with the next schedule. Instead, the subject line read "Flights for Seoul". Her toothbrush clattered to the sink as she stared at those three words. The existence of this email meant she did not in fact hallucinate the phone call from Chan.

Inside the email was information for flight dates and times. It looks like they'd found two options for flight dates, but surprisingly both had her staying for more than a week. At this point Cleo decided the world had gone crazy and her right along with it. With this new revelation she dialed her manager, fully expecting her to deny the time off request. But keeping with the theme of the last 24 hours Maria seemed delighted to let Cleo off.

"You have to go Cleo! This is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not to mention we both know you could benefit from loosening up a little bit. In fact, if you show up for work i'll just send you home again. You have. to. go. Promise me!"

Taken aback, there was nothing Cleo could do but agree. Which is how she found herself packing a bag three weeks later while Allie sat on her bed, scrolling on her phone.

"Allie you're supposed to be helping me decide what to bring, not watching TikToks."

Allie rolled her eyes, "You've unpacked your suitcase at least 4 times since I've been here. What you have is fine, stop stressing out about it."

It was Cleo's turn to roll her eyes, "Allie the itinerary their assistant sent me has me meeting the entire group before the first concert. How would you feel if you knew you were going to meet…" Cleo flailed her hands around in exasperation, "I don't know! Bradley Cooper?!".

"I would shit, scream, cry, throw up, pass out, seize, maybe go into v-tach, wake up, drool, cry some more, and probably run a marathon", Allie had finally looked up from her phone, "But I still think the Doc Martens with the black skirt is the way to go."

Cleo threw the Doc Martens into the suitcase.

24 hours and one 15-hour flight later Cleo arrived in Seoul. As she exited through customs she checked the itinerary in her email for what must have been the thousandth time. They'd included the address for a hotel and she planned to take an Uber straight there before doing some sightseeing. According to the schedule she had 2 days of free time before her invite to their pre-concert on stage run through. She was just debating if she wanted to start at the palace or the Gwangjang market when she glanced up. Standing about 10 yards in front of her was a man dressed in a black suit with a black cap. He was holding a sign in English, a sign with her name on it. Confused, she walked up to him.

"Are you Miss Cleo?"

"Uh, yeah. I mean, yes, yes I am."

He gave her a curt bow, "I've been sent to see you to the hotel. Follow me."

He took the handle to her suitcase and turned. Cleo stared after him for a beat before hurrying to follow behind him. They walked out to the passenger loading area in awkward silence. He brought her to a sleek black van with tinted windows so dark the interior was completely blocked from being visible. She waited while he loaded her suitcase into the trunk, he'd brushed off her offers of help. Once he'd finished he slammed the trunk shut and moved to open the vans door for her. It had barely opened when she was greeted with a loud chorus of, "Welcome to Seoul!". Cleo dropped the phone in her hands. Grinning at her from the backseat was Chan and Felix. "We're your official welcome committee!", Felix chattered excitedly.

"Hope that's okay with you.", Chan added with a wink, "I told Felix I planned to act as your tour guide and he begged to come along."

Cleo thought she might be in shock, "I'm so sorry," she stammered out, "I wasn't expecting any of this."

Felix's smile faltered.

"But this is the greatest surprise ever!", she added quickly.

His grin returned tenfold as he reached forward to pull her into the van and into the spot between him and Chan. "We've got it all planned out. We're going to take you to the tourist highlights first and then we'll go to our favorite barbeque place for dinner, you'll love it!"

Cleo spent the next 4 hours sandwiched between Felix and Chan. Felix happily pointing out landmarks and chattering away while Chan supplied the histories behind them. In between they took turns telling stories and learning more about each other. What she'd expected to be awkward turned into one of the best travel days of her life. The three of them had much more in common than she thought and by the time they stopped for dinner it genuinely felt like she'd known them for years. Felix seemed to think so too. He had no problem showing skinship while in the van, leaning his head on her shoulder and playing with her rings while he talked away. Obviously outside of the safety of tinted windows he and Chan had to act the part of the idol, but Cleo didn't mind. They would sometimes stay in the van while she explored places that were too busy, so she didn't get overwhelmed by the crowds that could sometimes form in reaction to their presence.

It had been an extremely long day. On the ride back to the hotel Felix fell asleep leaning on Cleo and she felt herself drift off with her cheek resting on the top of his head. Chan had to shake them both gently awake once they'd arrived. Cleo clambered clumsily out of the car, expecting to say goodbye to the two boys. Instead they exited the van with her, indicating she should follow them, and the driver would grab her suitcase. She thanked the man profusely as he lifted it out with ease, waving her off. It was only when they'd reached the elevator that it hit Cleo, they were staying here as well. As if to confirm her suspicions Chan took a set of room keys out from his pocket and handed her one.

"We have the entire 8th floor, you're in 803 and we're in 812."

Cleo took the room key. Chan continued to smile, completely at ease. "I'm sure you want to sleep. The time difference is killer. I'll be by tomorrow morning around 8am to get you, until then you know where to find me if you need anything." He exited the elevator with a smirk and a wink as he and Felix headed towards their room. Cleo couldn't help but agree with Chan, she did need some sleep. She'd made it to her door and was swiping her key card when it hit her, what did Chan mean he'd come get her. She turned, intending to voice her question but the hall was empty.