Just a Game | Eugene Lee Yang x Reader fanfic

Under the Table.

I was going to Uber to the bar, but Ned called and offered to pick me up on his way since Eugene and I were supposed to be drinking a lot. Partially figuring I wouldn't need my car, and the other part wanting to make sure I'd get home okay. It was sweet, and I gladly accepted. 

It didn't take him long to get there once I gave him my address, and off to the bar we went. Thankfully he didn't bring up the fact all the guys thought Eugene was crushing on me, instead talked about our work days, and just simple small talk stuff. 

He parked outside the bar, and I saw the other three guys waiting for us to get there.  We went inside, and went over to the bar to order drinks.

"Sure you don't wanna back out before it's too late, honeybun?" Eugene asked, with a playful smile. 

I smirked back at him. "I'm sure. You sure you're not trying to get me to back out so you don't have to and look like a scardy cat in front of your friends, pretty boy?" I teased back. 

The guys made an "ooooh" noise. 

"Pick your poison, honeybun," he said,  joking getting in my face, looking down at me. He had a few inches on me, and I tried not to flush at the close proximity.

"Let's start the night right, pretty boy," I said, reaching up to pat him on the cheek. "Tequila shots." 

He smirked at me, and looked over at the bartender, ordering four tequila shots. It was clear by the look he gave me that these were for us, not for the other guys as well. 

When the shots came, we each tapped them on the bar, clinked them and shot them back, following suit with the second one. We both ordered a regular drink after that to nurse a little more, and the other three guys started with a beer. Ned was the designated driver, so he'd probably only have the one.

The five of us hung out, drinking, talking, bopping to the beat, Eugene and I keeping up our game. A song came on that I loved, so I got up and went out to the dance floor, bouncing around and just enjoying the buzz from all the alcohol. The guys were quick to follow my lead, dancing around, goofing off and just having fun. It made it a lot easier than getting my mind off the questions from early and just enjoy the night with my coworkers and new friends. 

Once I ran out of my current drink, I went to get more shots for Eugene and I, but when I came back to our table, he wasn't around.

"Where'd the pretty boy go? I got us more shots," I asked. 

The boys were already looking kind of guilty when I came up, but I just thought it was the alcohol. It got worse when I asked where our missing link was, and Ned was the one to hesitantly nod in a direction behind Keith's head. I followed my gaze over, seeing Eugene dancing rather sexually with a girl. I felt a pang in my chest, but tried to push it off. 

"More shots for me then," I said, downing them one after another. This was why I didn't get my hopes up, so when things came crashing down, I wasn't falling too hard. 

Much to the surprise of the others, Eugene didn't actually leave with the girl and came back to hang out more with us, but I kept a bit more distance, and took what he said with a grain of salt. He was a flirt, and that's all it was. 

---

(Eugene's POV, a few days later) 

It had been a few days since Y/N's first day, and our night of drinking, and we all fell back into the pattern. She still hung around us, though did seem to make other friends throughout the office and her division as well, and we still involved her in a lot of the Try Guy outings that didn't have to do with filming. One thing I had noticed after her first day was I felt like a wall had been thrown up in my face when we saw each other at work the next day. Yes, there was still a banter, but there wasn't as much nickname calling, and honestly, she seemed to favor the company of the other three. We seemed to get along pretty well the first day, so it was hard to understand what changed overnight.

There hadn't been much more change over the next few days, and I decided to make a little experiment. I sent a text to the group chat asking if they wanted to do lunch, and the four of them agreed. 

There was a good cafe down the street we went to on our break, and I decided to push a little to see if I could get the walls to come back down. 

I sat next to her at the table, making a flirty comment every now and then, or would brush my hand against hers, and each attempt was met with her pulling away. I'd understand if she just wasn't into me that way or something, but it was no stronger than the way we were the first day, which she seemed receptive to.

Girls made my head hurt sometimes.

I decided to enlist some help, asking Ned to hang back when we went to the office. 

"Have you noticed Y/N acting differently since our night of drinking?" I asked him, walking through the office out of earshot of the others.

Ned shrugged in response. "Not really. She seems a little more comfortable and getting into the swing of things, but that's it," he commented, glancing over at me. "Is she being different with you?" he asked, and there almost felt like there was something in that glance. Like he knew more than he was letting on.

I considered that, not sure if I wanted to open up about what was on my mind. I finally relented, even just to know what his look was about. "We were just kinda being flirty the first day, and after that, she's kinda shut down, and seems to favor time with you guys," I explained. 

"Ah, right.. about that," he said, trailing off in his thought.

I rose my brow at him. "What about that?"

Ned chewed on his lip, before stopping me in a more secluded area. "When we got back from the shoot, she asked about you being differently because you've said in videos about not liking being touched and hugged, and we were all saying you had a crush on her.. Then we went to the club, and you were dancing on another girl, so she - along with the rest of us- just kinda figured you were being a flirt, and that's all it was, so she backed off," he explained.

Ugh, dammit. Drunk me was a whore. I hadn't really known if I was flirting because I thought she was cute or actually liked her, and it was seeming more like the latter. 

"Listen, man, I care about you and you know you're one of my best friends, but if you're gonna pursue it, make sure your heart is in the right place, yeah? And it's probably gonna take some work. She has some trust issues," he commented. "I got a meeting," he added, hearing his phone go off. I nodded and waved him off, before heading back to my desk.

It was true, I needed to think it through. Did I actually like her, or was it bothering me now cause I wasn't used to not being able to get a girl? This was giving me a headache.