Self-Indulgence

3. Interviews and Dates

"What do you mean I have an interview scheduled with just Luka?" I whined to Minki.

"It means exactly what you just said. They only wanted you two. It probably has something to do with the cult following your ship has gained." Minki smirked at my misery.

The trailer for the show had been released a week ago, two months after I joined the cast. Multiple behind the scenes videos and interviews with the cast members had also been released and for whatever reason, the Luyin ship had been born. Yep, you guessed it. Luka and Yin. Luka's fans and my fans had somehow become convinced that we were dating—or at least that there was something going on between us. We both had huge fanbases and now that they had joined forces, the Luyin ship had basically taken over my twitter and the comments of every video related to the show.

There were minor disagreements about what had gone on between Luka and I, but all the fans seemed to agree on the general gist of the story. The utterly bullshit story of course, but if I was being honest it was quite amusing.

Apparently, when I had first come on set, Luka had been very cold to me and we had quickly come to hate each other. (That part was true I guess). However, that was actually all just an act and we had actually been dating for a while, a few years apparently (what the fuck?) and Luka had only been acting cold to me because he didn't want anyone on set finding out about our relationship. (Seriously, how did the fans even come up with this stuff?).

This story had been explained by a few hundred videos on youtube and complemented with an analysis of the interactions between us during interviews and in other videos. They mostly consisted of secret glances from either of us to the other and apparently jealous looks from Luka when I got too close with another cast member. I wasn't sure what they were calling jealous looks because the asshole always had that face on, but the videos were absolutely hilarious to me.

***

"Yin, could you move closer to Luka please?" The producer requested. I was currently sitting on one end of the sofa while Luka sat at the other. It was a reasonable request from the producer but I didn't like being reasonable when it came to Luka Plevnik. I moved over slightly so that I was now in the middle of the sofa but still quite far away from Luka.

"A little bit more." The producer was beginning to look annoyed. I slid over a tiny bit more and was about to settle down when Luka's hand reached out, wrapped around my waist and pulled me over right next to him. I yelped in surprise and glared at him. He just shrugged at me before nodding his head in the producer's direction.

"Thank you, Luka. That's perfect." The producer smiled gratefully at Luka before gesturing to the people behind the camera and the interviewer. "Okay, let's start."

"Luka, Yin. It's a pleasure to have you with us today." The interviewer started off.

"We're glad to be here." Luka smiled his annoyingly charming smile at her.

"Tell us about your new Netflix show, Up to Hell, which will be released later this year."

The first few questions were quite mundane and I was beginning to get bored.

"Yin, I understand the rest of your members are doing their compulsory military service at the moment. Have they said anything about your acting role?"

"Yeah, they said they're really happy I don't have to spend the next year alone. Changmin was jealous I got to act with Luka—he's a huge fan. Jaie just reminded me not to annoy the cast members too much because not everyone would be able to tolerate me as well as them." I chuckled fondly at the thought of my members.

"Is he hard to tolerate, Luka?" The interviewer chuckled with me and asked Luka.

"Not at all. He's a joy to be around. Always cheerful and sometimes annoying, yeah, but it's the cute kind of annoying." Luka smiled at me with an expression I had never seen on him before. Wait was that affection I was seeing? Wait did he just call me cute? What the fuck? I stared at him in shock. He seemed to have just realised what he said because he stared back at me in horror.

Remembering that we were in the middle of an interview, I quickly masked my shock before trying to cover up Luka's words that the fans were sure to take the wrong way.

"By that he means I'm like childishly annoying, right?" I nudged Luka as I said this. He coughed awkwardly before agreeing. Luckily, the interview ended quickly after that and I was hurried away by Minki because I had a flight back to Korea where I would be spending the next week filming a show.

***

When I woke up the next morning back in Korea and opened Twitter as I did every morning, I was surprised to find my fans even more enthused than usual. Scrolling through, I realised that the interview from yesterday had already been released. I guess they didn't do much editing. Which was probably why Luka's slip up was still in the interview and why the fans were going crazy.

Internally cursing Luka for his stupid choice of words, I put my phone away and got ready for the day. When the fans get hyped, it's better for me to avoid social media.

Twenty minutes later I was ready to go, but Minki was still not here to pick me up. That was out of character for him. Usually he had to be an hour early to make sure he had enough time to get me out of bed. I decided to call him.

"Minki? Where are you? Don't we have a schedule today?"

"Well, yes, but that's been postponed. Have you checked your phone in the last, say, ten minutes?"

"Nope. Why?"

"Photos just got released. Luka and Kimberly Earving on a date. There's reporters outside the company and the other cast members' houses."

"I don't even know anything about it. What the hell?"

"Well, you're associated with him right now because of the show so they're going to chase you around for a while. It happens every time Luka gets involved with a new girl."

"Of course he has to inconvenience everyone else as well every time he gets caught by the media on a date with some new celeb." I rolled my eyes.

"Your schedules for today have been postponed or cancelled so you have the day off."

"Okay, maybe this isn't so bad after all. See ya Minki." I said before hanging up.

Feeling kind of curious, I opened twitter and clicked on Luka's name which was currently trending. The photos immediately appeared and I clicked on one.

It was of Luka and Kimberly in a movie theatre. He had his arms around her waist and she was leaning her head on his shoulder. My mind flashed back to when Luka had put his arms around my waist to pull me closer to him. I quickly closed the app, suddenly feeling nauseous.