My Father
My father. His name is Seo Hansu, a total boomer, works as a big-shot executive at a major corporation, forty-nine years old. He lost his wife—my mother—when I was young, and since then, he's lived his whole life buried in work. That very man.
After that brief exchange, we got in the car and headed straight home.
I'd heard his overseas business trip still had a week left, so I wanted to ask why the hell he was here. But at the same time, I didn't want to talk to him at all, so I kept my mouth shut in the end.
The one thing I hadn't anticipated was...
“...Where'd you get those clothes?”
“Huh?”
“They're new to me.”
“...Since when have you cared what clothes I wear?”
“...Dunno.”
“Coach bought them for me. My old ones didn't fit anymore.”
“Be good to Coach Kim. He's a fine man.”
“Unlike you, Dad.”
Even at my jab, Dad didn't get mad. Our conversations had always been like this. There were times I'd wished he'd just blow up, but now it didn't faze me anymore.
“Why're you here anyway? Weren't you on your trip?”
“Work wrapped up early.”
It was such bullshit, but for a second, I wondered if he'd cut his trip short just for me.
The talk fizzled out blandly, and we slipped back into our usual silence. The drive home was long, making the awkwardness drag on forever. Normally, I'd scroll my phone, but right now, even looking at the screen made me nauseous—no escape.
At some point, I dozed off. A voice woke me—we'd arrived.
“We're here. Go inside.”
“What about you, Dad?”
“Work.”
Same old him. He dropped me off at the apartment entrance, ditched me, and peeled out. That's just who he was. No point getting mad now. Ah, it's cold.
I punched in the door code just like I remembered and stepped into the spacious lobby typical of a luxury apartment. The elevator took me up to an empty house that greeted me with silence.
I flopped face-down on my bed. My dizzy head cleared a bit. Then my eyes landed on my chest... that lump of fat... and the funk came rushing back.
“This fucking sucks...”
In my sour mood, I shoved the thoughts aside, stripped haphazardly, and headed to the bathroom. I'd been in the hospital for days without a proper wash. I'd done the basics there, but it wasn't the same.
Gamers get stereotyped as not showering, but even they feel gross after this long.
The bathroom mirror showed a girl with a soft, innocent face. So... this is me, huh.
Fucking annoying.
Small head, small hands, short height, boobs... wait, not small exactly? Bra or whatever—I hated wearing it, but the doc bitched about it, so I had Coach grab one. C-cup? Is that big?
I'd spent my life gaming; no clue about tit sizes. I scratched my head, cleared my mind, and washed up. The long hair was a total pain. I'd shave it all off at a salon later.
After drying off, I put on the women's underwear Coach got me. Learned how to hook the bra from the internet. Didn't want to, but going without was worse. Then I threw on my old white tee over it. Legs look so bare, damn.
I'd been 180cm (okay, 179), so it looked like a little sister stealing her bro's shirt. But no bottoms made it way lewder than expected. Not like I'd use this look anywhere.
Just a tee over undies, I shuffled back to my room and plopped at my desk.
“Fucking finally...”
It'd been over a week without games. No way my skills rusted, but the withdrawal was hitting hard.
I steadied my shaky hands, booted the PC, and launched League of Eternity, or LoE.
The second I logged in, a message from our top laner, Kaiser—Kang Hayun—popped up. The guy with this girly name was a gym-obsessed psycho who smashed keyboards daily and spewed jungler hate. Total trash macho.
I wasn't spilling yet anyway. Too risky if he blabs on stream.
No time for bullshit chatter. I hit start and jumped into solo queue. Queue popped in minutes.
One look at the names, and my eyes narrowed. Hanzi nicknames screaming Chinese, plus an actual Chinese pro. Not a huge worry, but in my experience, no Chinese player using hanzi on KR server was ever normal.
...Whatever, let's just play.
No issues in pick chat, solid picks all around.
Alright then...
Shall we get this game started?
~
League of Eternity's core wasn't much different from other AOS games. Destroy the enemy's nexus—the heart of their base, deep in their keep—and win.
Several maps, but the main one was Horizon's Ravine.
Top, mid, bot lanes split the map. Minions—support troops—spawn periodically and march toward the enemy base.
In between: forests, lakes, rivers, and neutral monsters called jungle mobs.
My position: mid laner. Center lane, team's core, toughest and most crucial.
The game was going pretty one-sided.
Playable characters fall into classes like warrior, fighter, mage, rogue, archer, priest, artist. Separately, roles like tank, dealer, support.
I picked Astrologer. Mage class, flexes dealer/support. Low pick rate.
Complex mechanics—aligning and tuning celestial bodies—kept it niche, artisan pick. Tough, but mastered? God-tier, pro-scene staple when strong.
Enemy mid: Ninja, rogue class. Ranged dealer base, ult into melee with ninja sword. Strong both ranges, sneaky—tons of haters.
Normally easy matchup. Astrologer strong early, sustains late, assists team—no weak phase. Ninja handles both ranges? Sure, but skills melee-based; struggles vs ranged in lane.
Our top demolished theirs. Hanzi jungler ganked top fine, scaling well. Bot duo pushed back a bit, but our ADC could carry 1v2-ish—no biggie.
Top, jungle, bot: all good.
Heat rushed to my face.
Normally, I'd ignore support chat like that. Wouldn't even see it.
Not toxic, just a normal question. Hell, polite by standards.
Because my KDA was sitting at 0/3/0.
Yeah. Simple reason I felt like shit.
I'd been solo-killed three times by the enemy Master-tier mid.
This Dice...