CHAPTER 2

Uchiha Sasuke knew that he was handsome, and he was not shy about it. Everytime he was asked about his thoughts on winning various face contests, Sasuke would not hesitate to tell the interviewers that his face was his greatest charm, and no one would be able to tell from his deadpan expression if he was joking or if he was truly that shameless. Eventually, his dry humour became one of his greatest selling points as an idol, and his female fans never ceased to go crazy over him for it.

Today was yet another day of being God's favourite. Sasuke combed a tiny glob of pomade through his hair using his deft fingers and admired his reflection in the mirror for a brief moment. He looked good – as always. And so it was time to start his day.

He made his way down to the café on the ground floor of his dormitory to grab a cup of coffee, and that was when he saw her. The little demon with the face of an angel.

Hyuuga Hinata was standing in front of the cashier staring at the menu for a good minute, trying to decide on her order for the day. Sasuke noted that she was not wearing an ugly jacket today like she used to when she was a trainee. Instead, she donned a lilac cropped camisole with a big ribbon on the front that she paired with skinny jeans and white sneakers. He was doubly annoyed when he realised that she had a very nice shoulder line and collarbones.

Sasuke sighed in frustration. This pretty menace had already ruined the entirety of his past week, and here she was on a Monday morning hogging the queue because she could not even decide on what coffee she wanted.

If only she could be as decisive about her coffee order as she was about the type of men she liked, Sasuke scoffed to himself.

As if sensing a potent source of negative energy from her side, Hinata turned and met Sasuke's intense gaze. She let out a startled noise and bowed to greet him – as she should, because he was two years her senior in this industry. Sasuke looked away the instant he caught a glimpse of her cleavage when she bent down. He was not going to blush at this little demon. It was all a trap!

"Good morning, Sasuke-san!" she chirped. Now that was too much joy for somebody who enthusiastically rejected him in an interview that had achieved 358,866 views on YouTube within 7 days. Make no mistake – Sasuke was not counting. He simply found out about this number from a video on his YouTube recommended feed which he most certainly did not click on. The video should not even have been there. YouTube's algorithm was surely faulty.

He grunted in acknowledgement and sauntered off. He could buy a coffee in the office building instead.

However, as he shoved his hands into his pocket and began to walk off, he was stopped by the woman, who tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. He angled his head to regard her impassively.

"S-Sasuke-san, are you in a hurry?"

He was about to say yes to get her to scram, but she looked at him with such wide, round eyes. Those eyes screamed innocence. He had to swallow a lump that suddenly formed in his throat. "Not really. I'm half an hour early for my dance practice."

Hinata's entire face lit up. "Can I get you a coffee then?"

"Why?"

She began to poke her fingers together. "Ano…I haven't seen you in a while. I thought it would be nice if I bought you a coffee…"

He knew Hinata was lying. That was truly a shoddy excuse to cover up for her real intention to make herself feel better for the wrong that she had committed, and Sasuke was not going to give her the satisfaction of righting her wrong using such a cheap tactic. With this in mind, he turned back to walk towards the counter. Hinata made an 'oh!' noise from behind and trailed after him like a puppy.

"Have you decided on what you want?" he drawled.

Hinata nodded. "I will get an iced latte."

Sasuke could not help but roll his eyes. This woman spent so much time thinking about her order only to pick the most basic option in the end. She was so boring. He turned to the cashier and ordered an iced latte for her and an iced americano for himself. However, before Hinata could fish out her wallet from her handbag, Sasuke tapped his card on the card reader and moved to the collection point. Hinata gasped and followed after him.

"Sasuke-san! I was supposed to buy you a coffee, not the other way around…"

"You're so slow," he replied.

Hinata pouted upon hearing this. Sasuke did not know if his words made her feel sad in the slightest, but if it did, then he was glad. She should be sad after making a mockery out of him. It had been 7 days since the interview, but the memes of him were still trending on Twitter. Hyuuga Hinata deserved to be more than a little disappointed over something as trivial as a coffee treat.

She did not know this, but she had yet to taste Sasuke's wrath, and he was going to make sure she felt sour at the end of it. A bonus would be having her crawl back to him to apologise for her colossal lapse in judgment, along with all the problems she caused him.

On second thought, he would not settle for anything less than a long, sorrowful apology. Nothing short of that would make up for his new image as a hopeless simp on the Internet. He just had to think up a plan to actualise this. He made a mental note to give this some serious consideration at the end of the day.

The moment their orders were ready, Sasuke collected his drink with haste and began to trudge off. Hinata gasped and fumbled a bit to catch up with him. His legs were longer than hers after all.

When Sasuke noticed that he was being followed, he let out an exasperated sigh. "What do you want?" he said.

Hinata flinched at his unfriendly tone and stopped in her tracks. "I…I just wanted to catch up with you… But it's okay if you are busy, I u-understand."

Sasuke halted in his steps and glared at her. Now she made him seem like the bad guy. How dare she, this manipulative little vixen.

"Are you going to Konoha's main building?" he asked instead.

To his surprise, she shook her head. "No… I am waiting for Kurenai-san to fetch me for an audition."

Sasuke raised a brow at this. "What audition?"

"Kurenai-san told me that someone had specially requested for me to audition for a role in a drama."

"What drama is this for? I didn't know you were interested in acting."

Hinata gave him a small smile. "I didn't think about acting before this, but Kurenai-san told me that it would be a good opportunity to diversify my skillset while I am still young. S-Sorry but I don't think I can disclose any other details."

Sasuke gave her words some thought. She was a relatively low-profile artist in the entertainment industry, so why would she suddenly get scouted for an acting role? And what kind of character was she going to audition for? Hinata did not seem like she could act to save her life.

If that was the case, then perhaps she was trying out for a role in an adult series, since he discovered today with no small amount of denial that she had a very attractive body. But Hinata was never going to make it as an actress in such a drama. Sasuke scoffed at the very idea. This woman was such a prude; he was absolutely certain she had no idea how to seduce a man.

Yes, now he was certain she was going to flop as an actress regardless of what role she played. Sasuke knew that he was jumping the gun here, but then again Hinata did the same when she pre-judged him in that interview. She knew nothing about him but she still said what she did anyway, so he was entitled to do the same.

In the end, he merely made an unimpressed noise and began to saunter off. Hinata squeaked and reached out to grab onto his sleeve. He turned around to glare at her. The audacity of this woman…

"I-I'm sorry if I annoyed you, Sasuke-san. I just wanted to wish you a good day ahead…" Hinata said shyly.

Sasuke heartlessly shrugged her hand off and proceeded on his merry way. If she was upset by his rude behaviour, then that was a win for him. Hyuuga Hinata deserved to feel miserable, and Uchiha Sasuke owed her nothing. He had already wasted 8 dollars on her stupid overpriced coffee after all.

Another uneventful week passed quickly. Sasuke spent most of his time camping in the dance studio to work on something new with his choreographer, Lee. Unlike most dancers, Rock Lee had a very controversial sense of style. He had a bowl-shaped hairdo, and he had the tendency to wear extremely form-fitting clothes.

It did not help that Sasuke was by nature a very judgmental person so he did not take well to receiving instructions from a maverick like Lee at first, but over time he began to take a liking to him because the man was undeniably good at what he did.

Lee was an incredibly fast and meticulous dancer despite being close to Sasuke's age. Sasuke liked to believe that his eagle eyes allowed him to copy other dancers' moves quickly, but he had to admit that Lee was rather challenging to follow compared to other choreographers. As a result, he ended up seeking him out to train privately after Naruto and Sakura had left the studio panting away.

"More youth, Sasuke-kun! Youth!" he shouted from the back of the studio when Sasuke was in the midst of krumping.

Truth to be told, Sasuke had no idea what the hell that meant, but he continued with the powerful routine anyway. At the end of it, Lee gave him a thumbs-up and walked up to him for a fist bump. Sasuke acquiesced.

"You're very talented, Sasuke-kun. I am surprised that you can keep up."

Sasuke walked to the side of the room where his bag was deposited and pulled off his shirt. He tossed it to the bench carelessly and started downing some water from his bottle in large gulps. When he was done, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and turned around to acknowledge Lee.

"Thank you. You are very talented yourself."

Lee gave him another thumbs-up. "It takes more than just talent to be a good dancer. I worked hard for this – as have you, although you are quite the dance prodigy, I must say. I've seen you cover quite a number of genres, and you're excellent in all of them. Perhaps one day we can try a contemporary dance routine."

Sasuke flinched at this, as he associated this particular genre of dance with Hyuuga Hinata. However, he was not about to reject Lee's suggestion for the stupid reason that he would be reminded of her, so he settled for a nod.

Lee walked to the corner of the room that Sasuke was at and sprawled across the bench. "What are your plans for the upcoming week?" he asked.

"Hn. I am going for a table-reading."

Lee gasped dramatically. "You're acting in a drama?"

Sasuke nodded. "Yeah. I am grateful to Kakashi for seeking out this opportunity for me."

"Wow! What is this drama about? Or are you not allowed to disclose this?"

"I haven't read the script that they sent us. All I know so far is that it is a coming-of-age romance drama."

Lee clasped his hands together and looked up at the ceiling with starry eyes, probably imagining all the possibilities. "That is so youthful! Who are your fellow cast members? Or are you not allowed to disclose this too?"

Sasuke shrugged again. "I muted the group, but the cast should be finalised by now. I'll find out soon, I guess."

Lee gave him one last thumbs-up and gathered his belongings to leave. He paused right before crossing the threshold of the room and saluted. "All the best, Sasuke-kun! I am sure you will make a good actor."

Sasuke's lips curled up into a small smile. "Thanks."

Sasuke felt that he should have been putting in more effort into this acting gig, but somehow he was not really feeling it because it was a sappy romance drama. He was certain that he did not have a romantic bone in his body, because he burned the midnight oil with Kakashi the night before the table-read to skim through the script and spent half the time lamenting the number of cheesy exchanges between the two protagonists.

At the back of his mind, he knew that he was probably not supposed to share the script with Kakashi, but he knew that the silver-haired man could keep a secret. Besides, Kakashi was practically his god-father at this point.

"Is this really what it's like to date?" Sasuke grumbled at 1am while perusing the lines in the script.

Kakashi chuckled mirthfully. "You look like such a bad boy, but you're actually so innocent, Sasuke-kun."

"I am not," the younger of the two snapped.

This only earned another laugh from Kakashi. "Denial is not a good look on you, but as your manager I am glad to know that you are prioritising your idol career."

Sasuke tossed the script to the side and let out an exasperated sigh. "What the heck is this nonsense? I am supposed to act like an emotionally constipated simp for a nerdy outcast? Is this the kind of shit women enjoy watching? And why did anyone think it was a good idea to cast me for this role?" In response, Kakashi patted him on the shoulder. Sasuke grumbled again under his breath and shrugged off the hand.

"Well, you are good-looking, and the public really digs that. It really should come as no surprise that you'll be wanted for a romance drama." Sasuke turned to look at Kakashi with a face full of defeat. "Don't worry about trivialities like this. You're still new to acting, so just start off with something that's easy like a high school drama. In time, if you find yourself amenable to becoming a committed actor, you could star in action dramas. I suppose that is what you'd prefer?"

Sasuke stood up from his seat and snatched back both copies of the script that he had printed out. "I suppose you're right. I'll do my best so that you won't lose face for recommending me."

And that was how Sasuke ended up in the building of another entertainment agency, waiting for the lift at the ground floor. He did not pay attention to his surroundings, so he was startled out of his wits when he heard a familiar mousey voice in close proximity to him. He whipped his head around to see Hyuuga Hinata, standing in her short glory wearing a fitting black cropped blazer and low-rise flare jeans. He pointedly ignored the tiny sliver of skin that was exposed below her top.

"What are you doing here?" was the first thing he said.

Hinata flinched at his bluntness but recovered quickly. "I-I am here for the table-read…" she replied.

"Hn. What a coincidence. I am here for one too."

The lift doors opened and Sasuke walked straight into it with Hinata following closely behind. The doors closed and Sasuke realised that he was now alone with the little demon. It was starting to get claustrophobic.

"Ano…did you check your messages, by the way?"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. How dare she make assumptions about him – the fact that she was correct in her implicit call-out was besides the point. "What's up?" he snapped.

Hinata lowered her gaze and began to twiddle her thumbs. "If you did, you would know that we are going for the same table-read."

What?

Sasuke immediately whipped out his phone to scroll through the dozens of messages in the group chat until he found a message detailing the agenda for the meeting. The list of persons to be present was included, with the names of the characters written next to the actors. Sasuke blanched when he saw Hinata's name right below his.

"You are playing Yui?" he asked, failing to mask the disbelief in his voice.

Hinata pouted at the condescension, but she replied in the affirmative. Sasuke's eyes widened at the confirmation and he felt his heart rate speed up.

"How did you get the role?"

"I went for the audition."

The puzzle pieces fell into place now. Sasuke facepalmed himself and stormed out of the lift the moment the doors opened. He faintly heard Hinata calling out to him from behind, but he ignored her.

This had to be a cosmic joke. Uchiha Sasuke, the trending simp on Twitter was going to play the role of an actual simp in a romance drama with Hyuuga Hinata. There were multiple moments in Sasuke's life where his pride had taken a dent, such as the first time he danced with Lee and acknowledged his inferiority, and the one time he cried on camera while trying the one-chip challenge despite having a low tolerance for spice. This casting call, however, definitely took the cake.

He paced about the hallway for an inordinate amount of time trying to internalise all of this. For a fleeting moment, he imagined himself storming up to the producer and yelling 'I quit!' to her stupid face, but his career flashed before his eyes so he reluctantly tossed that option out of the window.

"Fuck," he hissed and slammed his fist onto the wall. He did not have a backup plan, which meant that he had no choice but to go ahead with it. For a long moment, he stood in the middle of a random hallway recalling the lines that he had read through the previous night, and started gagging at the thought of having to act out those scenes with Hinata. They even included a kiss scene! That was utterly ridiculous – he had to negotiate for a pay raise now. A massive one, at that.

"S-Sasuke-kun?"

The raven-haired man spun around to meet wide, pearlescent eyes. Oh, it was just the little demon spawn who was so innocently ruining the bad boy image that he had painstakingly built up for himself over the past four years. It was no big deal at all.

"What?"

"The meeting room is the other way. Everyone is waiting for you…"

Sasuke glanced at his watch and cursed under his breath. He ignored her pointedly and began to storm towards the direction of the meeting room. Now he was late, and likely making a poor first impression on the rest of the crew and cast members. He began to grind his teeth out of frustration. This was all Hyuuga Hinata's fault. He was certain that if things continued the way they were going, she was going to ruin his career.