sleepless cinderella ☆ d.sc | ✔

04

As you were out to lunch with a few of the VIP lounge members—Ten, Yukhei, and Yangyang, who were promising distractions from your writer's block and the fakeness of your relationship with Sicheng—your phone buzzed. You ignored it, listening eagerly to Ten's newest gross and gory story of a surgery. This one was short for him, only four hours as opposed to his average of ten hours. But that didn't mean that the details were any less macabre, easily sparking morbid interest among you and the other two as you hung onto his every word.

The buzzing came again. Then again. Then it wasn't just your normal text buzz. Whoever it was, was now calling you. If this wasn't one of your roommates calling you to let you know that the apartment was burning down, then it wasn't worth it.

It wasn't. It was Sicheng.

You declined the call.

"Did you just decline a call from your boyfriend?" Yangyang asked in mock surprise.

"Not my real boyfriend, assholes," you grumbled as your friends snickered at your indignation. "Continue, Ten."

"Where was I? Oh yeah, so my intern started throwing up on the anesthesiologist—"

He got cut off by your phone buzzing again.

"This man better be dying, or I'll kill him myself," you growled before swiftly answering the call. "Yeah?"

"Did you decline my call?" Sicheng sounded incredibly offended.

Your speakers must have been a little loud, as your friends burst into silent laughter at this.

"Maybe. What do you need?"

"You should stay over tonight."

"What?"

"You should stay over tonight."

"No, no, I heard you. I mean: what the fuck are you on, Dong Sicheng?"

"We've never stayed the night at each other's places. That's what couples do."

"We're not a real couple."

He let out a short sigh of frustration, "There was an article published in a tabloid yesterday, speculating that our relationship is not real. It's started circulating on the Internet, and their main point is that there's been no proof of us ever spending nights together."

"You really think people care enough to point that out and obsess over such a small fact?"

"Yes. It's me, after all."

"Please tell me you're aware of how incredibly conceded that made you sound."

"I meant... they thought I was dating Yuqi for quite a while. And before her, there were a bunch of other female celebrities they were trying to say I was dating. There's people who still think I'm dating her, that I'm two-timing you, or that I'm a cheater. They're latching onto anything to make me look bad. And it's all centering around the fact that there's no proof we've spent a night together."

The way his voice faltered and dropped when he mentioned the fact that the press was constantly trying to make him look bad hit your heart in a way that had you agreeing to it before you could really think about what the hell you were agreeing to.

"My place, because you have roommates, right?"

"Right," you echoed hollowly, just starting to process it.

"I'll send you the address. And I'll be home around seven."

"Okay."

"Aright, see you."