"Xiao!" You yelled out into your apartment, desperately looking through your jewelry box. "Hey! Chengxiao! I know you're home!"
"I am, but I am also terrified," her voice came from your doorway, and you turned around to see her peeking just her head in.
Standing up, you had your hands on your hips, "Did you take my earrings too?"
"What?"
"My silver and opal earrings that were in my jewelry box yesterday morning but have mysteriously disappeared."
"Uhm," she touched her ears nervously, and that's when you saw the silver flash on her lobes.
"You did!"
Chengxiao hurried to take them out and give them back to you, "Here, here. Sorry, I forgot to put them back."
You took a deep breath, well aware of how stressed and snappy you were being right now. The fact that you were going to a red carpet event with Dong Sicheng and you were the first person to ever get an interview with him might just be getting to you.
"Sorry, it's okay. Thanks for giving them back," you shook your head, leaning in front of your mirror to put them in your own lobes.
"So what are you wearing?" Your friend started looking through your closet.
"Uh, my only nice dress."
"Fair."
"Y/N?" Another familiar voice called for you, and it sounded like it was coming from your front door.
Your heart leapt to your throat as you thought that Sicheng might be here. He wasn't supposed to pick you up for another hour, and you were nowhere near ready.
"In my room!" You cried back out to Xuanyi, rushing to pull out your dress and heels.
She appeared in your room as well, looking almost relieved, "Oh good, you haven't left yet."
"Nope, not for another hour," you were definitely the most relieved, your blood pressure already going back down.
"I got something for you!" Xuanyi held out a plastic bag towards you.
You accepted it with a happy confusion, pulling out the contents. It was a dark black clutch with silver accents, that would go with most anything you could possibly wear. You looked back up at her, waiting for an explanation as to the sudden gift.
"So I can finally have my clutch back," she explained, snatching it from the top of your dresser, where Chengxiao had returned it after her date last night.
With a chuckle, you thanked her, and resumed your process of getting ready, accompanied and assisted by your roommates. You'd just adjusted your hair in your mirror when you heard Chengxiao yell out your name. Rushing out of your room, you saw her holding your phone out to you.
"WinWin says he's here."
"His name is Sicheng, I have no clue how or why people started calling him that. He hates being called WinWin, actually."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I learned that the hard way yesterday," your eyes habitually rolled as you recalled the memory.
You grabbed your phone from her hand and headed for your door, throwing a goodbye over your shoulder to your friends.
On the sidewalk outside your apartment building, you spotted a sleek black car parked just a few feet away. The window of the backseat rolled down just enough to reveal a set of familiar eyes. You walked over to the car, the door being thrown open from the inside.
You climbed in beside Sicheng, offering him a hesitant greeting.
"What took you so long?"
"I live on the sixth floor," you deadpanned. "Which, I'm guessing, is why you didn't come up to get me."
At his silence, you rolled your eyes and brought your phone out of your new black clutch.
"I have a few more questions."
By the time you reached the venue, Sicheng seemed annoyed by your interviewing him. Which was fucking ridiculous, he asked you to interview him. This whole situation felt so off to you. Especially when the driver stopped the car right in front of where the red carpet started. You weren't going to actually walk the red carpet, right?
But then suddenly Sicheng wasn't beside you anymore and instead he was outside the car, opening your door for you and offering you a hand. And your heart stopped. You looked at him with a mild face of fear, and he stuck his hand further towards you insistently.
"Did you practice your smile?"
"You didn't tell me I was going on the red carpet!"
"What did you expect?" He snorted, taking it upon himself to grab your hand. "Now come on, the sooner we go the sooner it's over with, okay?"
You gripped his hand back and let him help you out of the car. Squaring your shoulders, you couldn't help clutching your bag until your knuckles were white as you approached the carpet. Flashes went off, successfully blinding you for a good part of it, which was either a blessing or a curse depending on how you looked at it.
Sicheng moved to instead offer his elbow out to you, and you gratefully accepted it, instinctively pressing close to his side. In this completely unfamiliar scenario, you couldn't help but cling to the only thing that was somewhat familiar to you for comfort.
Surprisingly, he provided you with some, moving his arm again to instead rub the small of your back soothingly. He leaned in towards your ear as the cameras kept going off.
"Smile, Y/N. You look like I'm holding you hostage."
"Aren't you?" You said back through clenched teeth.
He shook his head, pulling away from you with a fond smile. You plastered on your own smile as you looked back to the cameras again. Various reporters tried to thrust microphones towards you two, yelling out questions that you couldn't decipher over the pure sensory overload flooding into your brain in that moment.
Finally, you were at the other end, entering into the theater and away from the flashing cameras and insistent press. Thank god you weren't going to be that kind of journalist. You didn't think you'd be cut out for being a vulture.
Inside, you immediately let go of Sicheng's arm and took a step away from him, catching your breath. A woman dashed up to the two of you, a look of surprise so wide across her face that it almost seemed mocking. She was definitely familiar to you, but you couldn't put your finger on it.
"Never did I ever think I'd see the day Sicheng brought a date to a red-carpet event!" She practically squealed, reminding you of Chengxiao when you told her about your attending the event in the first place.
Your shock at her words must have been apparent across your face as hers turned concerned and a little sheepish.
"Oh, I misread this didn't I?"
"I'm—" Your attempt at explaining who you were and why you were there with Sicheng, he cut you off.
Suddenly his arm was around your shoulders and you were being pulled into his side, "Yep, my date. Y/N, this is Song Yuqi, my co-star. Yuqi, this is Y/L/N Y/N. My date."
His introduction of you and stress on the word 'date' rendered you effectively speechless, looking down at your feet with burning cheeks. What was happening?
You could barely even process that you were currently conversing with Song Yuqi, an actress who you could now remember being in a few minor roles before. And you might have even asked if she was playing his love interest, or said anything mildly intelligent, instead you chewed on your lip as your nerves were effectively frazzled.
"Oh Y/N, you have to come meet the rest of the cast. Xukun is not going to believe this!" Yuqi seemed ecstatic, latching a hand around your wrist to pull you further into the building.
With Sicheng still attached to you, she didn't get very far, as he dug his heels in.
"Hey, Y/N, you okay?" He asked you with some concern, then spoke to his co-star. "Give us a second, Yuqi. We'll be right in there."
Yuqi seemed unsure, but left the two of you alone nonetheless. Sicheng guided you over to the side of the entryway, away from all the people still coming in from the red-carpet.
As soon as you two were mostly out of sight, the concern dropped from his face and instead was replaced by... aggravation.
Your own shock faded away into something akin to rage. It was at least indignation, "Dong Sicheng what the fuck was that?"
"I wasn't about to tell them you were a journalist," he retorted.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't do interviews."
You didn't think you could get any more indignant and offended, but you did, "Are you genuinely so embarrassed to be doing an interview that you'd rather lie about me being your date?"
"I mean—"
"Not to mention that my professor could choose my article to be published. What would you do then?"
"I hadn't thought this far ahead! I just didn't want anybody to find out I was doing an interview," he snapped, and muttered the next part so quietly you almost didn't hear it over the blood roaring angrily in your ears. "And for the media to stop saying that Yuqi and I were dating."
"I—wait. What was that second part?"
"Uhm—"
"...you really are a drama actor, huh?"
"What?"
Rubbing your face in frustration, you didn't even care if you unsettled some of your makeup. This was too ridiculous.
"You make half-assed plans that just end you up in new trouble. Fucking hell, fake-dating. How trite, cliché, and stupid could you be?"
He didn't seem to have a response, caught off-guard by your vehement cursing him out.
So you merely continued, "Listen here, Dong Sicheng, I am so not down to do the whole fake-dating thing and become the object of everyone's spite and fascination just because you didn't want people to think you and Yuqi were dating. This is purely an interview or it's nothing at all."
Sicheng took a deep breath, demeanor changing once again as he cocked his head to the side, "Then leave."
"Excuse me?"
"You said it's either purely an interview or nothing at all. Guess it's nothing at all, then. That means you should leave."
You were breathing heavily, still thoroughly pissed. But you had nothing to say. Not to mention, nowhere to go, either.
"Leave. Go around to the back, I'll call my driver and he'll take you home," he directed you, also panting slightly as he straightened himself up in the reflection of his phone screen.
You were frozen to the spot for some reason. Sicheng looked at you over the phone when you still hadn't left, a hint of a smirk coming to his face as he dropped his arm down.
"Or, you can stay, and we can come to an agreement. We keep up the fake-dating. You get to interview me, and I get the press off my ass about Yuqi and any other female I've ever looked at in my life."
A moment passed by as you considered this. You were still upset that he tried to trick you into it at first. But this might just work.
"As long as you don't get pissy as soon as I ask you any questions. You cooperate with the interview, and I'll cooperate on the fake relationship," you laid out your own terms, watching as one of his eyebrows arched just a little bit.
"Deal," he stuck a hand out to you.
You went to grasp it for a handshake, but instead found yourself being deftly spun into his arms again. Your ankles nearly snapped in your heels, but you were kept upright by his arm wrapping around your waist this time.