A Pride-Driven Duel
Right after the second semester began.
Yeoncheong had landed the prime seat in the very back corner by the window, then gotten railroaded into becoming class president thanks to the spiteful recommendations of Seoha and Suyeon, who were thoroughly sulking.
Having experienced both the best and worst day of her life at once, she welcomed her first weekend since the semester started.
And.
That day also happened to be Nayun's birthday.
When Nayun mentioned she had a family dinner planned for the evening, Yeoncheong and the others arranged to meet up casually beforehand.
***
At a café.
"You're really okay with just this?"
Suyeon stared at Nayun as her drink began to reveal the bottom of the glass, her face clouded with more disappointment than the birthday girl's own.
"I'm fine, I said."
Nayun, for her part, just shrugged as if it were nothing at all.
"That's three birthdays in two months."
She raised her hand and spread out three fingers.
Hasol's in July, Suyeon's and Nayun's in August.
It had only been a little while ago that they'd celebrated Hasol's and Suyeon's birthdays at Yeoncheong's place, and admittedly, three of the five friends who hung out together did have birthdays bunched into those two months.
"Let's just let one of them pass lightly."
It didn't sound like something a birthday girl should say — but then again, it was precisely because she was the birthday girl that she could say it.
Hasol prodded the bottom of her glass with her straw, lips pursing.
"It's us who feel bad about it, that's all."
"Exactly. Dinner's fine. Cake's fine. So what are we even supposed to do for you, then?"
Suyeon nodded along beside her, staring hard at Nayun.
They'd come to the café at the birthday girl's own suggestion, but she clearly hadn't given up on changing her mind.
Nayun responded smoothly, as if she'd anticipated every word.
"What's the matter? Anyone would think I didn't get any presents at all."
With that, Nayun gestured with her eyes at the gifts stacked on the chair beside her.
"Besides, I already went to Yeoncheong's place, ate good food, and had cake, didn't I? Just count that as my celebration too."
When Suyeon and the rest shot her looks that demanded to know if that even counted, she added a few words.
"Oh, and I'm already getting dinner and cake tonight anyway. I couldn't eat any more today even if I wanted to."
"Then should we celebrate again some other day?"
Suyeon's eyes sparkled as though she'd been waiting all along for Nayun to say exactly that.
"Augh! The birthday girl says she's fine — how many times do I have to say it?"
What unfolded was quite the spectacle: friends desperate to celebrate more, and a birthday girl refusing them at every turn, insisting it was plenty already.
Their voices rose little by little.
The friends who weren't part of the argument exchanged a quick glance.
Knowing how Nayun and Suyeon bickered on a normal day, it looked like it might be time to step in.
Seoha, who had been quietly listening to the two go at it, finally spoke up.
"What about going somewhere else entirely instead?"
"Huh?"
Suyeon and Nayun, who had looked ready to come to blows at any moment, both turned to stare at Seoha.
"You're all saying dinner and cake don't count because we already did them, right? Then somewhere we haven't been yet would count, wouldn't it? So..."
Seoha shot a quick glance at Yeoncheong and Hasol.
A silent call for backup.
"An arcade, or a PC bang?"
"There's also karaoke, or those photo booths."
The suggestions from Yeoncheong and Hasol carried the unmistakable weight of years of lived experience.
As if to say, you'd really keep skimping on us even after all this? the corners of Suyeon's mouth and eyes curved into crescents as she turned toward Nayun.
Nayun shook her head, then asked the group.
"Then... it's fine if I pick where we go, right?"
"It's your birthday — of course it is."
Yeoncheong and the others nodded in agreement with Suyeon's words.
"Don't come crying about it later."
With one final warning, Nayun rose from her seat.
***
Following Nayun out, Suyeon stuck out her lower lip.
"No... this doesn't count..."
"Why not? Like I said, it's my birthday, so I get to pick."
"A PC bang was not in the forecast..."
The place Nayun had dragged them all to was a PC bang.
The person minding the counter looked visibly startled when five girls suddenly came pouring in all at once.
Since they couldn't exactly stand there gaping, the friends each paid for an hour up front, just as Nayun instructed.
"Yeoncheong. I don't need to walk you through this, right?"
Nayun had already settled Yeoncheong into the seat beside her and was logging into the game like it was second nature.
"Log in."
Yeoncheong knew exactly which game Nayun meant the moment she said it.
She'd played it during her visit to Nayun's place a while back, and it was the only game installed on that computer anyway.
She must have typed that ID and password countless times by now, because Yeoncheong's fingers glided across the keyboard without the slightest hesitation.
"Let's queue as a duo?"
"Obviously. Why else would I have come, only to put up with their dagger looks playing solo?"
Sure enough, Suyeon and Hasol were already sorting themselves out, dredging up IDs and passwords buried in the far reaches of their memories — and taking Seoha, who had never touched a game in her life, along with them.
To queue as a duo, friend-adding came first.
"Yeoncheong, what's your name again?"
"..."
"What's your name?"
"BitesIfTouched..."
"What?"
"I said, 'BitesIfTouched.'"
You could practically see the person behind it just from the name.
Even at a glance, it did not look like the username of someone here for a casual gaming session.
When Nayun asked her main position—
"Top."
"Oh. A deranged Mangnani."
The cracks began to show before the game had even started.
At Nayun's remark — casually trampling the sacred battleground of men with the word "Mangnani" — Yeoncheong bristled slightly.
"What's your name, then?"
"Me? 'I'llCarryYou.'"
"Ah. A deranged Spoon-fed Carry."
Yeoncheong served Nayun's words right back to her.
Her name was just as predictable.
Nayun glared daggers at Yeoncheong.
"Are you two fighting?"
Hasol, who had logged into KartRider — a game so famous it was harder to find someone who hadn't played it — caught the subtle shift in the air between Yeoncheong and Nayun.
"No."
"We haven't fought yet."
Not now, at least — but the way the two of them answered made it sound like a fight was imminent, and Hasol tilted her head, puzzled.
Nayun sent Yeoncheong an invite and waited for the matchmaking to lock in.
"Do me proud, Mangnani."
"That's my line, Spoon-fed Carry."
This was Yeoncheong's first game with a friend since becoming a girl.
Yet the duo of Mangnani and Spoon-fed Carry — tasked with holding both ends of the Rift — was already creaking at the seams before it had even rolled out.
***
DEFEAT
DEFEAT
DEFEAT
After three clean fifteen-minute surrenders, Yeoncheong and Nayun were side-eyeing each other.
Yeoncheong had once hovered between Gold and Platinum on skill alone, but between adjusting to her new female body and the grind of schoolwork, her mechanical instincts had dulled considerably.
Nayun, meanwhile, was the type who comfortably parked herself in Gold.
The greatest advantage of gaming with a friend was supposed to be communication...
But exactly how much communication was possible between two people planted at opposite ends of the Rift?
Nobody in this world enjoys losing, so Yeoncheong made the first offer.
"Let me go support, and we queue as a duo. How's that?"
"Can you even play support?"
"A little."
"...Deal."
Nayun had been just as irritated by the losing streak, apparently, because she agreed to the proposal more readily than expected. But then...
"WHAT! You said you'd play support!"
"She's fine as a support, I'm telling you! She gets good late game."
The moment that hulking blacksmith so often seen in Top lane appeared on the champion select screen, Nayun turned pale.
"Why are YOU grabbing that thing?!"
"Ah, my item cooldown wasn't up yet... sorry."
Unaccustomed to supporting, Yeoncheong instinctively last-hit minions out from under her carry.
"Fix the vision over here."
"Right now?"
"Excuse me? The support is talking back?"
Nayun treated Yeoncheong like a tool with remarkable, natural ease.
And when Yeoncheong — despite kindly warning Nayun, who seemed blissfully unaware of the danger, that enemies were incoming — that wasn't even the end of it.
"Dude, RETREAT! Retreat, retreat, retreat!"
DEFEAT
Having failed to contain the complete circus that was their bottom lane, they lost the game.
Winter cold blew through the air between Nayun and Yeoncheong — and it wasn't even autumn yet — while their three friends watched the two of them as if something were deeply wrong.
"If all they're going to do is get mad, why do they even play together?"
"Right. Isn't gaming supposed to be fun?"
It was the innocent bewilderment of friends who knew nothing of the Rift's ecosystem.
"Yeoncheong, forget it. Let's do this one-on-one."
"Now that's something I'll say."
The one-on-one stage was set in an instant.
As it happened, the three friends, whose games had just ended, perked up at the words "one-on-one" and came crowding over to watch.
Yeoncheong picked Renekton so she could handle whatever her opponent chose without trouble — and then nearly choked when she saw Nayun's pick.
One of the most universally disliked champions in the game: a pint-sized critter that hurled mushrooms and sprayed poison darts. Yeoncheong's face crumpled at the sight of it.
"Ah. I've already won, by the way."
Nayun, apparently enjoying herself already, smirked and fired emotes at the crocodile one after another.
Yeoncheong could feel a vein throbbing at her temple.
That infuriating taunting laugh made her want to march over and slaughter the little thing on the spot, but considering the range difference and the matchup, this was no time to play on emotion.
However, there was something far more infuriating than the wretched Scout of the Minute—
"Pow. Pow. Pow."
Nayun, providing sound effects with her mouth every time Yeoncheong landed a hit.
"Hit me. Come on, hit me."
"..."
With her mouth busier than her hands, Yeoncheong seriously considered picking up her keyboard and bringing it down on Nayun's head — more than once.
"Pow. Pow. What are you doing just taking hits? Is getting hit your thing, maybe?"
"You are going to be so dead..."
She was getting beaten in the game and in real life, all at once.
Then, spotting the little vermin that had habitually crept too close, the crocodile flashed forward and closed in.
Without giving the opponent even a chance to blind her, the crocodile landed its stun and pummeled the Scout of the Minute like it had been waiting for this exact moment.
"Wait! Wait a second!"
"YES!"
Nayun's voice turned desperate, and her friends raised their voices too as her health bar visibly melted away.
But whether she'd misjudged the health math or not, the Scout slipped free of the stun with a thread of health still clinging on, and flashed away into the brush.
She'd hidden using her passive, sure — but it was health that would evaporate from a single swipe of an AoE ability.
The moment the crocodile cast a spell and entered the brush after her, Nayun's champion spat poison darts and bolted.
Yeoncheong's crocodile got blinded, and her body caught fire.
"Uh! Uh!"
"Please! Please! Please!"
As both champions' health bars bared rock bottom, the spectators threw themselves into the frenzy.
Yeoncheong, however, was calm.
She had enough health left to survive one more exchange — and the crocodile had spells banked and ready.
Waiting for the blindness to fade, the crocodile chased the fleeing rat.
The blindness wore off, the enemy's movement speed boost ran out, and the gap between the two champions closed.
The very instant Yeoncheong was certain of victory—
"We won!... Huh?"
She jerked back to her mouse and keyboard, having half-risen out of her seat.
Right at that moment, a minion had died, granting the enemy champion a level-up — healing her just enough to survive.
It was the result of overlooking the experience gap that had opened up from the early range disadvantage.
"Wait! Wait wait wait!"
"Die! Just die already!"
Yeoncheong's crocodile scrambled back in for the finish — and died to a few token poison darts pelted from range.
"AAARGH! Are you KIDDING me!"
Letting out a scream, Yeoncheong slumped back against her chair.
The way she clawed at her own hair without thinking laid her frustration completely bare.
"THAT'S what I'm talking about!"
Nayun, meanwhile — the one who had died and survived — leapt to her feet with both arms raised in triumph and looked down at her.
***
When is a person at their angriest?
Dunno about the rest, but Yeoncheong could say with certainty that watching your opponent gloat and flee ranked somewhere in the top spots.
"No! One more round, come on!"
Yeoncheong called after Nayun, who was already heading out of the PC bang.
"Why would I?"
The winner has no obligation to listen to the loser.
Sure, miscalculating the experience was genuinely Yeoncheong's fault — but the enemy leveling up at that exact timing could only be called fate's cruel joke.
Nayun glanced around at the friends walking with them, and her lips curled.
"If you're done sulking, you should be off playing something else with the kids."
"Ugh..."
She was using the friends — who had played a bit of KartRider but were clearly bored of it — as a shield, so Yeoncheong found it hard to press the matter any further.
Nayun flashed her a sly grin.
"Well... if you promise to serve your tool duties faithfully, maybe I'll grant you a rematch someday."
"Piss off. Not happening."
Karaoke, the arcade — after dragging herself around all sorts of places, Yeoncheong found herself late that night.
Gripping a game into the small hours for the first time in ages.
Naturally, her insufferable teammates piled on even more stress... but still.