Looks Like They Reached a Compromise

Starting the next day, Chae Hojin's lonely struggle began.

Truth be told, the current Seoul Team was the kind of squad that grew just fine if you left it alone — not unlike one of those idle collection RPGs — so there wasn't much for a coach to actually put his hands on.

Even so. He had to do something.

Because when transfer season rolled around, they'd ask him about it in the interview, wouldn't they?

What exactly did you coach on the Seoul Team?

If he had nothing to say, Chae Hojin would just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be some guy who'd loafed around for half a year collecting a paycheck.

He couldn't exactly answer, "I didn't do anything — Gyeo-wool handled it all!"

And yet.

And yet!

"Do-yun, your pathing looked a little tangled earlier. Was that on purpose?"

"Ah, yes. I deliberately bent the route to set up a gank angle."

"You could've just gone for the top gank from there, but you didn't."

"Yeah. If I take that route, Noona gets really mad."

Choi Do-yun.

"Gong Je-hyeon. You didn't force anything in mid today?"

"Ah. She's already yanked my hair ten times. Any more and I'm worried it'll come out by the roots."

"…Aha."

"Lately my hair actually feels fuller, though. Guess the once-a-day, ten-Gyeo-wool treatment is working—"

Gong Je-hyeon.

"Min-jae, how was the opponent today?"

"They were bad."

"R-right. Looks like you caught every single one of their mistakes and converted them into kills?"

"Yes. I didn't miss a single one. Crossing the line. Misjudging distance. Miscalculating our summoner spells. Everything Noona always talks about."

Yu Min-jae.

Not a single one of them needed Chae Hojin's help.

"…Jeong-uk."

"Is there anything I can help you with, Coach?"

"……."

Ha Jeong-uk even took one look at Chae Hojin's despairing face and asked if he needed assistance.

No. If time just keeps slipping by like this… the contract period will end and I won't have done a single thing…

But Jin Gyeo-wool.

What kind of creature even was this monstrous girl?

According to the players, the second a mistake happened, a scolding came flying from Jin Gyeo-wool's direction.

Granted, the interference eased up a little when she was on a mechanical or physical-skill champion — but Gyeo-wool was unnaturally obsessed with managing the team.

It almost felt like she deliberately picked tanks and teamfight-oriented champions just for that purpose.

During feedback sessions, she was always unflappable.

"I don't make mistakes."

"…."

And she genuinely hadn't made any, so there was nothing to pick apart.

All Chae Hojin could do was ask how she played so perfectly.

"How do you pull off such perfect plays?"

"Hmm…. I don't know? I think a lot?"

"I see."

If thinking a lot were enough to play like that, everyone would be Jin Gyeo-wool.

"Why are you so obsessed with your teammates?"

"Well…. Because it's not a solo game. This is a game five people play as a team."

Who didn't know that.

No matter how skilled a player you had on the roster, if the team couldn't support them, the whole thing collapsed.

But as fundamental as that was, having a single player manage it was normally close to impossible.

It only worked because it was Jin Gyeo-wool — because the devilish charm she carried had welded the players into one heart and one mind.

The Winter Army existing at all, and the fact that they still hadn't lost a single game — all of it was thanks to Jin Gyeo-wool.

"I mean… honestly, I'd like to cut back on the nagging too. It just keeps catching my eye."

"…I see."

"Technically, yeah, you can save feedback for after the game — but by then it's a little late, right? Recognizing a mistake mid-match and adjusting for it is completely different from not noticing until it's over and only thinking about it afterward. It's like the difference between reviewing what you learned that same night versus trying to study it again much later. The effort required isn't the same."

Jin Gyeo-wool's words poured out as smooth as running water.

Chae Hojin found himself nodding along before he even realized it, agreeing that all of it was right.

As a coach, he wasn't supposed to just sit there and listen — but when everything she said was correct, what was he supposed to do?

Jin Gyeo-wool looked at Chae Hojin's somewhat deflated expression and thought.

I'd like to hand some of the coaching work over to him…

There just wasn't a good way to do it.

She wanted to ease the kids' tendency to lean on her, but wanting something didn't make it happen.

Should I just file the notes away and yield the floor to Coach after the games?

If she could just suppress that instinct to jab at every mistake.

Maybe she shouldn't peek at the other lanes at all.

"I should probably talk less, right?"

Chae Hojin shook his head in a rapid, flustered little series of no's.

"N-no! There's no need for that. As long as the players get along, that's what matters."

"Still. You're drawing a salary for this job. If it feels like you're not doing anything, that's a little…"

"…Ah. Th-that's true. Thank you for worrying about me…."

Poor guy.

If Bae Do-hyun were still alive, he would've bought the man a drink and talked him through it — but right now he was an eighteen-year-old minor.

There wasn't much he could do to look after him.

"Or on the weekend, maybe you guys should go hit the bathhouse together. Just the guys."

"…Maybe we should."

"Yeah. Leave me out of it, though."

That would make it look like Jin Gyeo-wool was being left out — but so what? Gyeo-wool had Yeo-reum and Ga-eul.

She was doing her own version of looking out for them, making sure the players didn't start overthinking things.

"I've been meaning to hang out with Yeo-reum and Ga-eul anyway — it's been a while. So don't worry about me, just go. I'll tell the kids too."

This way, they'd figure the girls were spending time together and act accordingly without being told.

She couldn't think of a more natural way to split the guys and girls apart.

"Oh, and… one more thing. From now on, I'm just not going to talk during games. I can hold it in."

"…You will?"

"Yeah."

She might hold and hold until the Warm Spring Breeze effect ran dry and then explode — but by that point, the players would figure it out themselves.

Ah, we screwed up a ton today and Gyeo-wool was biting her tongue the whole time, they'd think.

"I'll just be the bad guy, I guess. Right now I'm being nice enough that everyone gloms onto me… but a person's image can flip in a second, you know?"

"….Are you sure about that? I wouldn't really recommend it."

"I'm sure."

Because Jin Gyeo-wool had already been holding back a great deal.

At school, she'd gritted her teeth to shed the villainess image Hon Gyeo-wool had built up.

And even now, she was clenching her jaw so the players wouldn't start calling her a psycho.

The reason she nagged mid-game at every opportunity? Nothing complicated.

If she didn't jab at a mistake the moment it happened, it piled up and detonated in a gradient of rage.

There were habits she'd told them to fix that they still couldn't quite shake, and every time she saw one, heat shot straight up her spine.

Most of those were nearly gone by now — but somehow, those specific things still made the anger surge.

"Honestly, my personality isn't that great to begin with."

Bae Do-hyun had been patient — that didn't mean he had a short supply of anger.

If he'd been better at managing his temper, he never would have thrown a punch at Jang Jae-hong, fled the scene, and ended up in this mess in the first place.

Most of the younger guys who'd stuck close to Bae Do-hyun had been good people who stayed even knowing what he was like.

Because the lectures Bae Do-hyun gave his juniors were always right.

He wasn't trying to get a rise out of them — he was telling them so they could fix it and climb higher.

And most of them really had improved thanks to him.

That was why they'd stayed even after Bae Do-hyun failed to debut and remained a washed-up Diamond scrub.

Severe mechanical limitations meant he couldn't climb any higher himself — but his ability to analyze high-elo players' gameplay and make it his own was outstanding.

Through him, a lot of people around him got better.

Even when Jang Jae-hong showed up and started spreading dirt about him.

His people had stayed by Bae Do-hyun's side right up until the day he died in a random truck accident on New Year's.

"Anyway, Coach, you've got a job to do too. And I want to focus on my own play for a while. The tournament's almost here, so let's give it everything we've got."

She shook off the old memories flickering through her mind and held out a hand to Chae Hojin.

"Looking forward to working with you on the coaching."

Then she leaned in toward his ear and slipped him something tempting.

"I'll deliberately make little mistakes here and there — find them and scold me for them. If the kids start thinking Coach sees the game better than I do, they'll naturally start following you."

It wouldn't be simple, though.

Jin Gyeo-wool planned to leak only the kinds of mistakes you'd never catch unless you were watching the game with total focus.

"They won't be easy to spot — but that's part of a coach's skill set too, right? I believe in your ability."

Chae Hojin hesitated, then took Jin Gyeo-wool's hand.

Whether her words had sparked the competitive fire in the man named Chae Hojin, a light had already returned to those previously defeated eyes.

"Alright. I'll give it a shot. I came here to be useful — I don't want to leave without doing anything either."

Chae Hojin's large hand gently closed around Jin Gyeo-wool's small one and shook it up and down.

Thanks to the amateur players who'd faced Jin Gyeo-wool in the Seoul regional finals spilling their stories, her name started cropping up more and more often through the Recon Gallery.

Fans exhausted by the endless civil wars in the gallery had developed a habit — whenever a photo of Gyeo-wool from the regional qualifiers got posted, they upvoted it straight to the recommended section on autopilot.

Fandom wars were infuriating, but looking at Gyeo-wool's face always improved your mood, didn't it?

A girl who was almost expressionless — and even that blank look was adorable.

When it came to calming down an angry man, nothing beat a pretty girl.

Judging by how Gyeo-wool came up whenever people got bored, she still didn't have the fame to claim gallery mascot status — but it was clear that the number of people in Recon Gallery who didn't know her had gotten smaller.

And separate from her rising fame, the number of people who viewed her debut negatively grew right alongside it.

A girl who was good at the game made for great content — but putting her on a team was territory that had to be approached carefully.

Jin Gyeo-wool was Challenger, and she was clearly the ace of her current Seoul Team — but whether that would still hold when she joined a different organization?

That wasn't something fans could easily guess at.

More than anything, Recon Gallery had never cared much about amateur tournaments to begin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with.

They were already busy enough chasing memes from the first-string league and matches, and Challengers — the second-string circuit — only got the occasional mention.

So almost nobody paid attention to amateur tournaments that barely anyone watched. At most, people kept half an eye on things because Jin Gyeo-wool was there.

The subscribers of the Devil Maiden YouTube channel kept following her progress, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at least — but even that was a tiny minority.

In the end, the only people who could really take an interest in Jin Gyeo-wool were the professionals.

Amateur tournaments were a gateway to the pros in the first place. Not entertainment for the fans — a showcase put on for the organizations and agencies.

And so time passed.

Two weeks after Team Rollercoaster locked in a direct ticket to the 2018 CCK Summer finals as the regular-season first seed, carrying the oldest active jungler in the league, Scorn.

Mid-to-late August.

Across two days — August 18th and 19th — the KeG Presidential Cup National Amateur League of Council Tournament announced its opening amid a sweltering, blistering heat.