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Yerin clutched her phone nervously, the harsh, cold edges of the device digging into her damp palm.
You can do this, she told herself, repeating the words like a prayer under her breath.
It was her final day of shooting. For the last time, her makeup had been carefully done, and only now was it truly sinking in: this was the end.
Well, not entirely. She would be back next season for a few sweet, domestic scenes at My Cottage—or rather, Our Cottage—but it wouldn’t be the same.
Soon, she’d be flying home to Sydney. Yerin missed her family and friends desperately, and part of her was bursting with excitement at the thought of seeing them again. But another part of her already mourned what she was leaving behind.
The set. The long filming days. The laughter between takes.
Her co-stars.
Season 5 would be different. She’d hardly see Hannah or Masali at all now that they’d be tucked away in Scotland as the new leads. And naturally, Yerin was happy for them, truly, but she will miss them.
At least she’d still be filming with Luke at Loseley Park.
Her stomach twisted.
God.
Luke.
How could she even begin to describe Luke?
From the very first moment they met, he had disarmed her completely. He’d greeted her with a hug so warm, it was like they had known each other for years instead of minutes. His strong arms had wrapped around her, large hands settling at her waist, and her traitorous heart had fluttered wildly in response.
It had been hopeless from the start, really.
She knew catching feelings for a co-star was a terrible idea. It was the kind of thing people warned actors about constantly. But resisting Luke had become almost impossible.
Still, Yerin had forced those feelings down. Buried them deep.
He was her friend. Her co-star. That was all he could ever be.
This show was the biggest opportunity of her career so far, and there was no way she was going to jeopardise it by developing some embarrassing crush. So she kept everything locked tightly inside her chest, even during the moments that made her wonder if maybe—just maybe—she wasn’t imagining things after all.
Like the way he sometimes looked at her a second too long for it to mean nothing.
Or the way Hannah would catch it immediately, glancing between them before mouthing, he wants you, while Yerin’s cheeks burned scarlet.
But that was ridiculous, wasn’t it?
Luke Thompson could not possibly want her like that. He was just one of those people that looked at others in a way that was... And Hannah, along with the rest of the cast, simply loved being dramatic whenever the two of them were in the same room.
That had to be it.
Now, though, Yerin had one final request to make. One tiny question that, for some irrational reason, had her nerves twisted into knots.
She was going to ask him to film a TikTok dance with her.
Surely he would say yes.
It was her last day on set, after all, and although Luke was chronically offline, she was sure she could find something easy enough for him to manage.
It was for the fans, she told herself firmly.
Definitely not because she wanted one last silly memory with him.
Taking a quiet breath, Yerin crossed the green room, weaving around cast members, crew, and the dangerously tempting snack table calling her name from across the room.
“Yerin, hi!”
Luke turned the moment he noticed her, his entire face lighting up in a way that made her stomach flip. He’d been talking to Ruth, who took one glance between them and immediately made a suspiciously quick escape.
“How’re you holding up?” Luke asked.
Yerin let out a small laugh. “Honestly? I don’t know. It still hasn’t fully hit me that we’re done. It's strange.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing briefly around the green room. “Everything feels weirdly normal, which somehow makes it worse.”
“Exactly.”
For a moment, the noise around them faded into the background.
“I think I’m gonna miss My Cottage the most,” Luke admitted suddenly staring down at the floor. “Those first few days…”
His eyes flicked back to hers.
“They were special. Mostly because of you.”
Yerin’s chest tightened painfully.
“I miss it too,” she said quietly.
Luke smiled faintly. “Guess we got lucky, huh?”
“With the script?” she teased weakly, trying to ignore the way her pulse had started hammering.
A small laugh escaped him. “No. With each other.”
Yerin swore her heart stopped.
“I’m gonna miss the filming,” he continued softly, “but I’m definitely gonna miss you more.”
He smiled then—a crooked, devastating grin that sent her heart racing so fast it almost hurt.
Before she could embarrass herself by staring too long, Luke tilted his head slightly. “So… any final-day plans?”
“Oh, yes, actually.” Yerin straightened abruptly. “PleasewillyoudoaTikTokdancewithme?”
Luke blinked once before bursting into laughter.
“What was that?”
Yerin pressed her lips together, mortified. “I said…” She cleared her throat. “Would you maybe want to do a TikTok dance with me?”
To her surprise, his expression brightened immediately.
“That sounds fun,” he said with a grin. “Although, please, spare me. We’re already dancing enough today.”
“It’s fine,” Yerin assured him quickly, relaxing a little. “I’ll pick an easy one.”
Finally, she pulled out her phone. “Actually, come on now—you can help me choose. We’ve got, like, an hour before they need us again. They’re shooting Golda and Adjoa’s scenes.”
Luke stepped closer almost instantly, leaning over her shoulder as she opened TikTok. Their arms brushed, warm even through layers of fabric, and Yerin had to concentrate very hard on keeping her hands steady.
The clean, woody scent of his cologne drifted toward her, subtle but distracting enough to completely derail her train of thought for a second.
Focus.
She opened TikTok, tapped onto her profile, then navigated to her favourites folder labelled bridgerton ideas, beginning to scroll through the videos.
“No… no, that one’s too hard,” she muttered. “Absolutely not. Oh, and that one’s a bit boring, isn’t it?”
Beside her, Luke huffed out a quiet laugh.
“You’re rather picky,” he observed, the corner of his mouth twitching upward.
“And you were the one who wanted something easy.”
“Fair,” he conceded easily. “I did say that.”
She kept scrolling—his shoulder was pressed lightly against hers, and his voice was warm beside her ear whenever he commented on a video.
“Wait, this one’s actually really good,” Yerin exclaimed suddenly.
Luke leaned in closer to watch properly, his chin nearly brushing her shoulder. “Yeah…” A slow smile spread across his face. “Okay, I actually agree with you on that one.”
“It’s easy enough,” Yerin said, replaying the video. “Look, all you have to do is move your arms a bit. And it’s a cute trend.”
Luke glanced sideways at her, amusement flickering in his eyes. “Cute, huh?”
Yerin instantly regretted the wording.
“I mean, for the fans,” she corrected quickly.
“Right,” Luke said slowly, very obviously entertained. “For the fans.”
It was only then that Yerin became painfully aware of how close they were standing.
Close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating from him. Close enough that if she tilted her head slightly—if she leaned in just a little—the distance between their mouths would disappear entirely.
Panicking slightly, she stepped back so abruptly Luke blinked at her in surprise.
“How about we practise once?” she asked quickly, setting her phone down on the table before he could notice the expression on her face.
“Right,” Luke said slowly, a grin tugging at his mouth like he knew exactly why she’d moved away. “Practise.”
Yerin ignored him with great determination.
“Okay,” she said, positioning herself beside him. “So it goes down, side, up—”
She demonstrated quickly with her arms.
“—then back.”
Luke copied her half a beat late, concentrating so hard that Yerin couldn’t help laughing.
As they tried again, Luke leaned forward at the wrong moment and their foreheads knocked together lightly.
He burst into laughter immediately. “Oops?”
Yerin laughed too, but her heart was racing far too hard for this to be funny. Their foreheads were still touching for half a second too long, his breath warm against her skin, and suddenly she couldn’t think properly at all.
She stepped back first.
“Well,” she managed, covering her face briefly with one hand, “that’s why we practise. Okay, again.”
Luke straightened obediently, though his smile never faded.
“Down,” Yerin instructed, counting along with the movements. “Side, up, bend back. Okay, now down, side, up, lean forward…”
This time, neither of them looked away.
Luke’s pale green eyes held hers so steadily that Yerin felt rooted to the spot. There was something achingly soft in the way he looked at her, like he was trying to savour every second of this moment before it slipped away.
“Was that good, Professor Ha?” Luke asked hopefully.
“Actually, yes,” Yerin admitted, pointing at him in mock surprise. “That was good.”
“Well, obviously,” he said solemnly. “You know, I was actually born to dance.”
She snorted. “…Don't lie.”
Luke laughed again, warm and bright, and Yerin felt her chest ache. God, she wished she could bottle this moment up somehow and keep it safe forever.
It was only then that she noticed the audience forming around them.
Various cast and crew members had gathered nearby, watching the two of them far too intently for comfort.
“…Don’t you all have jobs?” Luke asked, glancing over with a laugh.
Only then did Yerin notice the faint red flush creeping across his cheeks. The tips of his ears were bright red, too.
“Oh my God,” someone called from somewhere in the crowd, “just film the TikTok already!”
A chorus of agreement followed immediately.
Luke groaned dramatically. “We’ve got an audience now. Brilliant.”
“You’re the one who said you were born to dance,” Yerin reminded him.
The crowd laughed.
Luke looked back at her then, smiling despite himself. “Well, I suppose we should do this properly, shouldn’t we, Yerin?”
She swallowed around the sudden flutter in her chest and nodded. “Alright then.”
Yerin propped her phone up against a stack of paper cups on the snack table, set the timer, then hurried back beside him just as the recording countdown began.
Three.
Two.
One.
The result was catastrophic.
They were entirely out of sync from the very first movement. Luke turned bent forward when he was supposed to bend back, Yerin started laughing halfway through, and by the end of it both of them had completely abandoned the choreography altogether.
The second the recording stopped, Luke doubled over laughing.
“That was shit,” he declared loudly through his laughter.
"Well…It can't get much worse."
“Dangerous thing to say.”
Ignoring him, she reset the timer and scrambled back into position beside him. Without really thinking about it, she reached out and grabbed lightly onto his arm.
“We can do this,” she told him firmly.
“Yeah…” Luke replied, dragging the word out with heavy mock sarcasm. His gaze dropped briefly to where her hand rested against his arm before he looked up at her again.
The countdown began.
This time, Yerin tried to cue him subtly without making it obvious. She widened her eyes whenever he needed to move his arms, tilted her head slightly before each movement, and miraculously, it worked.
Luke followed perfectly beside her.
He was staring over at her with such open delight that Yerin forgot there was an audience at all. For a few seconds, it was only Luke’s laughter, the wide grin splitting across his face, and the soft crinkles forming around his eyes.
The music ended.
“We did it!” Luke shouted triumphantly.
Before Yerin could even react, he rushed forward, hands finding her waist as he scooped her clean off the floor and spun her around.
Yerin let out a startled laugh, instinctively grabbing onto his shoulders as the room blurred around them.
Then Luke gently set her back down, still grinning like he’d just won the lottery.
At that exact moment, a crew member appeared in the doorway looking deeply exhausted already, despite it only being 9AM.
“Uh, Luke and Yerin, we need you now. Yerin, makeup wants you for a quick touch-up. Luke, you’re with me.”
Luke exhaled dramatically. “And there ends my TikTok career.”
Yerin laughed breathlessly, still trying to recover from being spun around. “How will the internet survive without you?”
“My career may be short-lived,” Luke said seriously, “but personally, I think I have great potential.”
“…Sure you do,” Yerin replied, unable to stop smiling.
“Guys,” the crew member interrupted again, “please move. You are both needed now.”
Before Yerin could say anything else, Hannah suddenly appeared beside her and grabbed her wrist.
“Yerin, come with me,” she said immediately, already pulling her toward the makeup room.
“Wait, Hannah—!”
Yerin twisted around just enough to steal one last glance at Luke. He was still standing exactly where she’d left him, watching her leave with an intensity that made her stomach flip all over again.
The second they rounded the corner, Hannah started to smile.
“Oh, I see you.”
Yerin blinked. “What does that mean?”
“That TikTok trend,” Hannah said, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “Isn’t that one mostly for couples?”
Yerin nearly choked on air.
“Okay, so some people use it for couples,” she defended quickly, heat flooding her face, “but me and Luke are just friends. You know that.”
“Mhm.”
“And you know that’s all we’d ever be.”
Hannah's smile turned deeply knowing.
“Friends,” she repeated slowly.
Yerin groaned. “Don’t do that.”
“Well,” Hannah replied innocently, “from where I was standing, your ‘friend’ just picked you up, looking one second away from kissing you in front of the entire crew.”
“He was just excited…”
“He was blushing.”
Yerin opened her mouth, before she closed it again.
Because, annoyingly, Hannah was right.
The tips of Luke’s ears had been bright red.
Elsewhere, Luke was in a remarkably similar conversation. He watched Yerin disappear down the corridor, dragged away by Hannah, before reluctantly heading toward set with Claudia beside him.
Claudia was silent for approximately ten seconds, before she said casually “So, when are you going to tell her?”
“Tell her what?” Luke replied, brows furrowing in confusion.
Claudia looked at him like he was deeply embarrassing. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that you’re completely in love with her?”
Luke nearly choked. “Claudia.”
“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “And don’t even bother trying to deny it. Literally everyone knows.”
“That is absolutely not true.”
“Luke.” Claudia gave him a flat look. “Half the crew have started placing bets.”
He groaned, dragging a hand over his face. “You’re all insane.”
“No, you’re just painfully obvious.” She nudged his shoulder lightly. “Honestly, anyone who’s seen the two of you together for more than five minutes can tell.”
Luke looked away for a moment, jaw tightening slightly.
“I don’t love her,” he muttered weakly.
Claudia raised an eyebrow.
“…Okay,” he admitted after a beat. “Fine. Maybe a little.”
“A little?”
Luke let out a quiet laugh, but there was something tired underneath it now. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
“Why wouldn’t it matter?”
“Because she’s flying back to Sydney tomorrow,” he said simply. “And even if she wasn’t…” He shook his head. “Come on, Claudia. Yerin’s brilliant. She’s funny and kind and ridiculously talented, and somehow everyone loves her within five seconds of meeting her. Why would she ever look at me like that?" Luke finished quietly.
Claudia stopped walking altogether.
“You two are actually unbelievable,” she declared.
Luke laughed weakly. “Thank you?”
“No, genuinely. Bloody idiots. Both of you.” She pointed accusingly at him. “This is your last chance, by the way. Don’t spend the rest of your life wondering what would’ve happened if you’d just said something.”
Luke glanced sideways at her. “Wow. When did you become so philosophical?”
“Since I got tired of watching two people pine after each other for eight straight months.” Claudia shrugged. “Also, if you confess today, I win fifty quid, so honestly, I’m very invested in this.”
Luke barked out a laugh despite himself, shaking his head as they stepped onto set, though Claudia’s words lingered unpleasantly in his chest.
Your last chance.