sleepless cinderella ☆ x.dj | ✔

02

In the middle of remembering when you two were twelve and were supposed to be watching Dejun's little brother Chenle, and you instead lost him for nearly an hour just to find him eating snacks in the pantry, you were interrupted. Sicheng had stood up and cleared his throat.

"Xiaojun, it's eleven."

"Oh shit, is it?" He cursed, checking the time on his phone. It was indeed 11:01.

Dejun swiftly opened his phone to the contacts as he apologized, "I'm sorry Y/N, I need to get back to the set. Put your number in so we can set up the interview."

"Ah, I understand," you reassured him as you typed in your phone number, already looking forward to the next time you were going to see him.

"Okay, I'll see you later then," he gave you a final smile as he took his phone back from you and joined Sicheng on the elevator that the actor was currently holding up for him.

"Bye, Dejun. Bye, Sicheng."

"Bye!" Your friend replied cheerfully while the actor grumbled something incoherent before the elevator doors closed.

"So... you guys were more than neighbors then?" Yukhei commented as soon as the pair had disappeared from your sight.

You tilted your head as you looked over to him, "What?"

"That night at the lounge, you had said that you two were 'neighbors.' I don't think neighbors covers six years of being inseparable best friends."

"I hadn't seen him in eleven years at that point, it took me a second to remember all of that."

"Got it," he nodded as a grin flashed across his face. "You two were cute."

"Excuse me?"

"Seeing old friends reminisce about their childhood is really cute to me. You guys had a lot of cute stories too."

"Me knocking his tooth out was cute?"

"I was thinking more-so the aquarium story."

☆

After chatting with Yukhei for a little longer—during which your blood pressure around him finally began to decrease—you excused yourself, your reason being that you had to get started on planning your actual interview with Dejun.

"Wait—" you stopped halfway to the elevator to look back to Yukhei. "So what happened at your last interview that made your company ban you from them?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled, crossing his arms childishly.

"Alright, okay," you relented, definitely not close enough with him to press him for more information. "But it wasn't like... illegal or anything, right?"

"No, not illegal. Just a mess."

Pressing the button on the elevator, you gave a final goodbye to the model before taking the smooth ride back down.

☆

As you waited for the bus to get back to your apartment, you called up your mother, thoughts still on Dejun.

She picked up after a couple of rings, "Hello, sweetheart?"

"Hi Mom," you couldn't help but grin at her familiar voice, it had been a while since you called her.

"What's up, Y/N?"

"Do you remember the Xiaos? They used to live next to us when I was little."

"Yeah, they had two sons, Chenle and... I forgot the other boy's name but he was around your age, you guys were good friends."

"Dejun."

"Yeah, that's it! Why are you asking?"

"You're not going to believe this but..."

☆

Through the bus ride up until you stepped foot in your apartment, you recalled the strange series of events that led to you reuniting with Xiao Dejun again: from the magazine, to the party, to Ten swapping out your tickets and somehow rigging the raffle, to your first terrifying encounter with the VIP members, all the way up to today, when you were able to get lost in your nostalgia and also set up the interview for your article.

"Wow, honey, that's wonderful that you got to see Dejun again," your mom's smile was evident in her voice as you set your laptop bag onto your kitchen table.

Xuanyi was sitting there, and you took the phone off your ear to put it on speakerphone.

"I just got to my apartment, Mom. Xuanyi's here too."

"Hi, Mrs. Y/L/N!" Your roommate greeted your mom excitedly, and you heard a door slam open from down the hall.

"Hello, Xuanyi, how's your fish? It's named Babyface, right?"

"Is that Momma Y/L/N?" Xiao burst into the kitchen, homing in on your phone on the table before Xuanyi could get a chance to answer.

"Hi, Chengxiao!" Your mother greeted your other roommate too.

Leaving the three of them to chat in the kitchen, you took your laptop from its case and plopped down onto the couch. You had to start planning for this interview.