Are You Planning to Int?

"Are you planning to int?"

"You're asking if I'm in private contact ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with TSGoDie?"

For a second, I blanked. Because... well.

Chat was one spark short of catching fire.

TSGoDie could contribute to the broadcast all they liked — they were a famous regular, sure — but the idea that the two of us were privately in touch was exactly the kind of thing that bred a misunderstanding. For the viewers about to take it the wrong way, I hurried to get the words out.

"H-hyung. I have no idea why you'd even say that, but I'm not in private contact with that person or any—"

I cut myself off. If I knew him, the next answer was coming as another donation, so I opened a Miss Code room on the spot.

"You could've just contacted me on Miss Code from the start..."

"My phone was off too, so we'll call it even. Anyway, I don't contact that person on the side. Part of it's that I don't want a scandal."

He sounded faintly disappointed. I stole a glance at chat in the meantime.

...That had been a genuinely dangerous moment.

The situation was patched, at least, so I asked him carefully.

"So, hyung. Why did you ask something like that?"

Honestly, I thought it was fair. He'd barged into the stream out of nowhere to ask if I was personally close with a famous regular. I was allowed to ask why. Fortunately, he seemed to know he'd made a mess, and he answered without a fuss.

"Oh. That?"

KCK, the Korean league for Knight of Fury, was putting on a show match.

"The one where they swap lanes, right...?"

As I understood it, the pros from each team would play the match off their usual lanes. Top went mid, mid went top — that sort of thing.

"Whoa."

The best mid laner in the world, changing position to top. It was the sort of development that belonged in a web novel.

Every viewer thought it was hilarious that he was headed to top.

But then.

Someone asked, cautious, as if worried. I put the same question to my hyung, and he answered easily.

"You were, a second ago."

"Then..."

Yoo Sanghoon. The man currently called the best bot laner among active pros. But why would that hyung...

"What, is he bringing one of the Trash Trio?"

"That... long thing. Wait. Don't tell me."

That long thing. In Knight of Fury, one champion had raced past even the Trash Trio and straight off the edge of everyone's hatred. He called himself a knight. His weapon was a bow. The entire player base had turned its back on him for it.

Namely—

"Don't tell me it's Bow Knight?"

Bow Knight. A champion with the preposterous conceit of nocking a longsword on a giant bow and firing it in place of an arrow. How absurd did a design have to be to eat abuse, without a break, from the day it launched until now?

Chat convulsed at that.

Bow Knight, in a show match — and in top lane, no less. Put like that, I was already looking forward to it. Even for a show match, leaks were touchy enough that this sort of thing was rarely allowed. By now I was starting to suspect that contacting me with a donation message had been the plan from the beginning. Yeah. There was no way my hyung would fire off a donation that blatantly otherwise.

"So that's why you called me. You're trying to answer him with something like Light Knight?"

Following the way the talk had gone, it seemed he'd meant to ask that person a few things. Right now, in this country, the only one who played Light Knight at the highest level and still sat in the top ranks was TSGoDie. Just that one person. The problem was, they barely had any recorded games at all. My hyung analyzed the way other people breathed, so only then did I understand why he'd come to me.

"No. If contacting them had ever been possible, I would've already cornered them seven years ago and demanded to know why they play the game like that."

Anyway, the mood drifted along those lines, and the talk slid naturally toward what he'd actually play in the show match.

"Then it doesn't look like you can do Light Knight, hyung. So what are you planning?"

"You came all this way, so say something before you go. You said we were allowed to talk about it."

When I pressed him like that, he laughed, then fumbled for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a moment. And then he said it.

"Oh."

"Hyung..."

Sun Knight. A support with nothing but crowd control, and not a scrap of damage. Which meant—

"You're planning to int?"

"I mean, Sun Knight top is a little..."

I doubted I was the only one who thought so. Sure enough, chat convulsed.

Not a soul defended Lee Jiwon. The usual Lee Jiwon would have called Sun Knight top an absolute no. But.

Because it was a show match. I really couldn't argue with that. Bow Knight was only on the table because it was a show match to begin with.

Before I knew it, every viewer was looking forward to his top-lane Sun Knight. Seriously. Let's try putting it the way a web novel would.

The world's best mid laner goes top on a support. His opponent? A completely busted ADC.

Even that was a nasty enough title. Who could possibly not be interested?

"Anyway, it should be fun."

Even the pros were saying it'd be fun, and enjoying themselves. But...

"But hyung, if you're playing Sun Knight anyway, what about Hustle Knight?"

"You said yourself it's a show match. And Hustle Knight does put out a fair amount of damage."

"Or try Life Knight."

"And Sun Knight is fine?"

The conversation was steadily wandering off into the woods. Then again, everyone in the show match was raising hell about bringing something grotesque, so of course the talk would turn into a mess too.

Chat was slipping past any hope of control. Time to wrap this up.

"Hyung, if we keep talking, I think my stream is going to explode."

"Please. If anything, I'm glad it helped the broadcast."

With that, I ended the Miss Code call. Hanging up didn't stop chat. They kept right on arguing over which champion Lee Jiwon would pick. I queued like it was nothing and talked with them.

"KCK really did put this event together well."

"I know, right?"

I wasn't the type to keep up with every pro match, but this show match had me looking forward to it. How much?

"Ah, I want to go watch."

Enough that the urge tugged at me, just a little.

"Ah, when all of you say that, I'm getting tempted too."

Nothing said a streamer wasn't allowed to go watch a match. Plenty of them went as nothing but fans. Which was to say—

"...Should I go?"

"I can't help it. Sun Knight top — how am I supposed to sit that out."

"If there are still seats."

They'd stoked the hype for this show match this high. There was a chance the KCK Esports Arena was already sold out.

Of course.

"Ah. Queue popped."

For the moment, the stream came first.

"Mm..."

As the weekday night-shift part-timer, I suffered the same ordeal at this hour every single night. The ordeal of having absolutely nothing to do.

"Well, night's still better than day."

It really was. In the daytime the place filled with everyone from elementary schoolers to college students, parents, and men old enough to be my grandfather, and it wore me out. So I liked the night hours.

But.

"..."

Today might be a little uncomfortable. It really might. From around two, someone had been planted on the convenience store's outdoor terrace, and it was someone I knew.

"...Mm."

Choe Haeun was polishing off a bag of snacks and two cans of beer, shoulders hunched all the way in.

"...I've never seen her like that."

What on earth had happened, for her to be drinking that hard in the dead of night? I wanted to know. But I was nothing more than a convenience store part-timer, and walking up to her was difficult. All I could do was watch, sick with worry that something was wrong.

And then it happened.

The door sensor shrieked — a long, thin electronic ring — and Choe Haeun came into the store. No preamble. She headed straight for the beer cooler.

"..."

I watched, quiet. Then she came over with two cans of beer.

"..."

She set them on the counter and suddenly stared at me, blank. I scanned the barcodes as if nothing at all were strange.

But.

"...Unnie."

She spoke. The moment she did, the thought arrived on its own. Is it a habit in this damned Choe household, talking to people they aren't close with the second they drink? Last time it had been Choe Seohyeon, and now Choe Haeun was doing the same, so the theory was more reasonable than I'd expected. My personal thoughts stayed personal. Out loud, I did the job.

"Is something the matter?"

"It's... um..."

She didn't finish. Her head swayed.

...She was really drunk. Two cans of beer, and Choe Haeun was unsteady down to her body. Fortunately, even plastered, a thin thread of sense seemed to remain.

"...No. I'm sorry. I think the alcohol's got my head all wrong."

She said that and drew a card from her wallet. The instant it cleared the wallet, she dropped it.

"Ah— ah..."

The card on the floor. Haeun bent at the waist to pick it up.

And then—

"Huh? Where did the card... go...?"

...Just how drunk was she? I was sure she'd only had two cans. I waited for her to pick it up. No matter how long I waited, she couldn't find it.

"H-huh? Where'd it go?"

The search passed a full minute. I gave in, came out from behind the counter, and helped.

"Here it is."

I took the card and slid it into the reader. She stared at me blankly again.

"...Why are you looking at me like that?"

It was an awfully open stare. That was all I'd asked, and a moment later she came out with something I couldn't parse.

"...Haha. Unnie, you're... kind."

"Sorry?"

"Not like... someone else..."

Kinder than someone else? What was that supposed to mean? I couldn't tell, and it threw me. And while I was still thrown—

"...Haa. Anyway, this is all paid for, right?"

"Uh, yes..."

"Then I'll go. Sorry for being a nuisance."

With the apology, Choe Haeun picked up the beer, turned her back, and left.

But.

"...Agh!!"

I knew it. Drunk as she was, she was going down. She'd looked unsteady enough that I'd been waiting, and I ran out at once and caught her.

"Ah..."

"Are you okay?"

I asked if she was okay. Haeun's reaction was strange.

Normally, when you asked if someone was all right, they said yes or they said no. So why was there no answer? I wondered if she'd simply been startled, and looked at her — that didn't seem to be it either. Her face looked perfectly fine.

I was watching her, careful, when—

"...Whoa."

...?

An exclamation, out of nowhere. I tilted my head, wondering what that was, and Choe Haeun was at my cheek.

Wait. My cheek?

A slow, firm press. My cheek gave under her finger, and when I looked, Haeun was smiling a loose, foolish smile, poking it with one fingertip.

And then she said—

"Part-timer unnie, I've thought this for a while now... unnie, I think you're really pretty."

And with that, it was confirmed.

The moment the Choe siblings drank, they got weird.