Just a Game | Eugene Lee Yang x Reader fanfic

Producing.

A/N: I don't do this a lot, but I just wanted to put kinda a disclaimer, since this chapter has to do with being vegetarian/vegan; I'm not being preachy or telling anyone to eat. You do you, boo. It's just something important to me, and I noticed Buzzfeed doesn't do a whole lot of videos on it. 

After we celebrated a bit, Eugene and I went to one of the closed offices so we could sit down and really get it going. I had all the papers our boss gave me, looking over all the requirements, and also put down what I'd already found out. 

"What idea did you guys settle on?" Eugene asked as he looked over the papers.

"Vegetarian options at regular restaurants and he said if it's received well and fans want it, it's possible to make a sequel that's vegan options," I explained, getting out the reference sheet of different previous vegan/vegetarian videos Buzzfeed had done over the years, as well as restaurant options.

Eugene nodded, looking at the budget report. "Okay, before you go into the actual video ideas, who do you want in it? We've got plenty of vegetarians around the office, do you want any ominorves as well?" 

"I mostly want to keep it vegetarian people, cause it's meant to be stuff that just happens to be veggie friendly. Basically, I started being a vegetarian in Florida, and we really didn't have any vegan/vegetarian restaurants, and going out to eat was really hard. We're blessed in LA cause there are a lot of options, but with picking big named chain restaurants, it opens it up to more people across the country," I explained. 

"I can definitely see why you got approved," he commented, glancing up at me with a smile. 

I flushed softly, before looking back to my paper. "I definitely want Chanty involved. I'm thinking of asking Hillary, I definitely want to try to get Eric or Dartanion, if not both. It's kinda a stereotype that it's mainly young white girls who are vegetarian, and I want to break that mold," I said. 

"Do you actually want to be on camera yourself, or just behind it?" He asked, writing down the names I gave him. 

I considered that. I wasn't really used to being on camera, just doing the one video with the TGs, but it may be fun. "What do you think? Do you think it would be too stressful producing and being in it?" 

He thought about it for a minute before shaking his head. "It's not going to be a high-stress video when you're actually filming, it's mostly the before and after, so you should be fine," he answered.

I nodded, thinking about it while I looked stuff over. "I think it'd be fun to do it. I liked being in front of the camera with you guys, and I'd love to introduce myself to the Buzzfeed audience more," I decided. I felt it would be a little easier to control the narrative if I could actually talk and say what was on my mind too. 

"Okay. Go check with those four, see if they're available for the next few days and if they'd be interested, and then we can go from there," he told me, putting the stuff back in a file and gave it to me. I knew he couldn't do any of this for me, he was just trying to show me the ropes of how it's done, and be my "How To" guidebook.

I went around to find the four, getting a yes from everyone but Hillary who had a heavy workload and couldn't do it. It did even us out, which was good, and she promised to be in a future one. Afterward, Eugene and I met back up, and he had me call the places I was thinking about to make sure they'd be okay with us filming there and having some people from the restaurant who would be okay being on camera if needed. 

We spent some time going through my list of big chain restaurants, ticking off ones I wanted to call and make sure it would be okay. I made a schedule of starting the day off with Starbucks, then go to P.F Changs, Red Lobster and finish off at Red Robins. It seemed like a good way to cover a wide basis, and I wanted to make sure all the places wouldn't be just getting a veggie burger or a salad. 

I let Eugene go back to his own work while I worked on booking the studio for a bit for introductions and conclusions, got the proper cameras, sound, and anything I'd need. I worked on typing up some stuff I definitely wanted to include in the introduction, as well as gathering the list of vegetarian options at the different restaurants, so we'd all have options. 

I was buried in my work that I nearly jumped when I heard a knock on the glass door, glancing back to see Eugene with his bag, and motioned for him to come in.

"Almost everyone has left the office," he commented, and I looked at the clock on my computer to tell me it was almost an hour after the time I would normally head home. Oops.

"I got buried in my work, I kinda lost track of time," I said, sheepishly. 

He laughed softly. "I get it. I've been here until the middle of the night before. And there... may have been a time where the guys came, they thought I was early but really I'd been there all night," he said with a guilty smile.

"Totally something I would do," I said, saving my work. There wasn't much more to do, other than set stuff up tomorrow and get to really filming.

"C'mon, let's go get food. After spending so much time reading over it, I'm sure you're hungry by now," he offered, moving to hold the door open.

No walls, I reminded myself. It wasn't a date, it was just hanging out with the walls down. I nodded, putting my stuff in my bag, and got up to go out with him. 

We decided to go to one of the restaurants on the list that didn't make the cut since we knew it meant I'd have food. Once we ordered, we were able to chat more, which was nice after talking about work all day and our relationship turning very business very quick.

"Out of curiosity, what made you want to be vegetarian?" he asked, which seemed like a fair question after talking about it all day. 

I didn't really talk about it much unless people asked, or it needed to come up, since I was a little afraid of being under the stereotyped annoying vegetarian, when I just wanted to do me and let other people do what they wanted. "I kinda go with all three of the main reasons people make the switch - health, environment, and ethics. The only time I was a big meat eater was when we went out to eat, but when at home, my parents kinda sucked at cooking most meat, and I didn't have a great diet. I tried a few times, for moral reasons and not liking a whole lot of meat, but I was at their mercy with other options until I started making my own income, and bought my own groceries. It kinda pushed me into eating better, and I started eating way more veggies than I had my entire life, and just started feeling better. It's always been in that order, health, wanting to help the environment and then being ethics," I explained.

He nodded in understanding. "This question is so gonna sound like something under a "questions vegetarians are tired of answering" this, but.."

I laughed softly. "Go ahead. I don't mind answering most of the questions so long as it's not something judgy," I assured him.

"No judgment," he promised with a smile. "I just know you hear a lot about vegetarian being kinda "step one." Have you thought about going vegan, or are you just content with being vegetarian?" he asked.

It actually was a fair question. Yes, probably one some people got asked a bit, but I didn't mind. "I thought about it, and I definitely limit a lot of my dairy intake, preferring almond milk to cows milk, and soy ice cream, vegan butter, that kind of stuff. I'm very much addicted to cheese though, so there's that. I'm not crazy about most vegan cheeses, but if those get better, maybe. As of right now, I'm not super strict on myself. If I have something and it turns out it was made with chicken broth or something, it's kinda like oh well. I do my best. The hardest part is how many hidden things that aren't vegan or vegetarian I'd never think about, so I'm pretty content with being a vegetarian at the moment, and maybe I'll evolve as society does." I felt like I was talking a lot, but he kept asking questions and seemed interested.

We did switch the subject to talk about other stuff, home life, growing up, as well as ideas for the video. As always, it was just really nice to hang out with him, especially with the walls down and allow myself to think of the idea that maybe one day soon this really would be a date.