Looks Like We've Cleared One Hurdle
After tearing through a teamfight split 1-2 against 3-4 and once again forcing a 4-0 trade, the Seoul team began snowballing the game with unstoppable momentum.
"Jake was suffering so hard at the start, but now he's just coasting!"
"He was recovering pretty well on his own, right? But then his teammates swarmed in and just force-fed him everything! Absolutely incredible."
"How many fights in a row has Seoul just completely dominated? Their teamfight power is insane right now."
Twenty-eight minutes into the game. Global gold difference: five thousand.
After using the Peacock buff once to take down both the top and bottom Tier 2 towers, Choi Do-yun's lightning-fast engage erupted in front of the second turret. In the blink of an eye, a three-stage combo of Barrel Toss–Brewery Detonation–Cask Explosion shredded the enemy Varus's health bar to ribbons.
"Wooooah! Toss!"
"That's Varus dead again!!"
Seoul Jin Gyeo-wool▶Gyeonggi Kim Ho-jae
Even if he burned his stopwatch, it was nothing more than a stall for time.
The Seoul team breezed through the inhibitor line and marched straight toward the twin turrets.
"Uh, Twisted Fate really needs to come back. This game might be over."
"TF stayed on the side lane way too long!!"
Blue Team's turret has been destroyed!
Gyeonggi Kim Gyeong-su▶Inner Turret
Right before closing out a game, throwing it under the enemy twin turrets was a common tragedy. Dive fights dragged on and racked up heavy health losses.
But the Seoul team had two champions who could soak tower aggro with absolute confidence, so they felt not a shred of fear. Their tower dive was nothing short of an avalanche.
"Are they going for the finish?"
"Wooooaaah!"
Seoul Yu Min-jae▶Gyeonggi Lee Jae-hyeon
Red Team's turret has been destroyed!
Seoul Yu Min-jae▶Twin Turret
"It just exploded!!"
"This is it for Gyeonggi, Seouuul!"
Seoul Yu Min-jae▶Gyeonggi Kim Won-gyu
"And with that, the Seoul team claims victory in the Presidential Cup Amateur Tournament — League of Council divisionnn!"
"As the Nexus falls—"
"The champions are Seoul!"
The moment the Nexus shattered, all four players shot to their feet and threw their arms around each other.
Paycheck secured. Bonus secured.
When bundles of cash were raining from the sky, who wouldn't celebrate?
"Yeaaaaaah!"
"Paycheck! Paycheck! Paycheck!"
"Bonus! Bonus! Bonus!"
Jin Gyeo-wool approached the four of them as they spun around in a tangled hug.
"Good work. Undefeated champions in the end."
Coach Chae, who had been watching from below with his heart in his throat, was already there too, draping his massive frame over the pile of players.
"You kids did amazing! Hahaha!"
Watching five grown men leave her out completely while they clung to each other and screamed like they were about to cry, Jin Gyeo-wool felt something complicated twist in her chest.
Was it envy? Or the sting of being left out?
Normally she would have piled right in and soaked up the joy of victory with them. But right now, her mood was subtly off.
Being Jin Gyeo-wool was fine in every other way — except that her body wasn't a man's, and that was inconvenient.
That was the only thing. And it pissed her off more than it should have.
Irritation surged through her mind.
Why the hell do I even have to stand here like this?
It wasn't as if the players were deliberately excluding Jin Gyeo-wool. They were just following Coach Chae's suggestion and offering a small courtesy.
Coach Chae had told them: even if Gyeo-wool was rough around the edges and got along great with the guys, she was still a high school girl at that sensitive age. She might throw herself into the physical stuff and match their energy so she wouldn't feel left out — but deep down, it could still make her uncomfortable.
But that very consideration grated on the nerves of the Jin Gyeo-wool who had been hanging back out of respect for Coach Chae Hojin. More precisely, it scraped against the nerves of Hon Gyeo-wool, who lived inside the body.
Because she hated being alone.
Because she never wanted to be alone again.
And it wasn't as if Bae Do-hyun had been sitting quietly either. He had yielded player management to Coach Chae out of consideration — but these were the friends he had gathered with his own hands, weren't they? The Seoul teammates were just like the juniors the late Bae Do-hyun had recruited himself.
Give them up? To someone else? They're mine.
Absolutely not.
Even though everyone on the team was already her slave, Jin Gyeo-wool had begun to feel a fierce, possessive attachment to them.
Her heart thudded once. And as if every joint had been threaded onto a thin string and yanked by a puppeteer, Jin Gyeo-wool's body shot forward and latched onto the players.
Gong Je-hyeon startled at the sudden soft weight on his back and turned his head — only to find a hand already flying toward his hair.
"Hey. Celebrating without me? Why am I the one left out?"
Those were unmistakably beautiful khaki-colored eyes. On any other day, they would have been.
But today, Jin Gyeo-wool's eyes burned like open flame.
"Ah— ah! Noona! There are cameras right here!"
"Hey, hey, Gyeo-wool! Gyeo-wool!"
"I built this team, you know? This is my team?!"
"Gyeo-wool noona!"
In the end, things only calmed down once Han Yeo-reum vaulted up onto the stage.
The sight of Jin Gyeo-wool yanking Gong Je-hyeon's hair just happened to go out on the broadcast, and the LoC galleries spent a good while buzzing about it.
At the same time, stories from Jin Gyeo-wool's past resurfaced, and a personality controversy flared up alongside them.
She had already uploaded an apology video to NewTube in advance, and Lee Yeong-bin — the actual party involved — had even risked exposing his own personal information to add a full explanation of the incident, so nothing got twisted out of shape. Still, Jin Gyeo-wool spent the entire night being called the Harvester and reigned as the gallery's daily main character.
If the fans had held any real ill will toward her, the incident could have been distorted and drawn toxic fans to her doorstep. But…
Maybe it was gratitude for how she had calmed the Gold Cup chaos. Or maybe she was just so pretty that looking at her put people at ease.
Either way, the Jin Gyeo-wool and Baldie Min incident seemed to have been received by the fans as something rather delightful.
"Next, we will proceed with the awards for the League of Council event."
"Would the winners whose names are called please take the stage, and would our distinguished guests offer a round of congratulatory applause!"
With the tournament fully concluded, the awards ceremony was held around evening.
The Seoul team players attended as first-place finishers in the League of Council division.
Upon hearing that the prize money was three million won, Gong Je-hyeon muttered while waiting for their turn. His hair was still considerably puffed up from the thorough yanking Jin Gyeo-wool had given it earlier.
"Wait, three million? Split five ways that's only six hundred thousand each?"
Talk about a full stomach complaining. He could only say that because Jin Gyeo-wool was already paying them five hundred thousand a month in salary, Seoul City was giving another five hundred thousand in encouragement funds, and the undefeated championship had just added another million on top.
Jin Gyeo-wool nearly grabbed his hair again, then settled for a surly mutter instead.
"You. Know how lucky you are."
"…Why, Noonim?"
"Don't talk like a spoiled brat, you idiot. Six hundred thousand is whose dog's name?"
At that, the other players shot Gong Je-hyeon looks that screamed apologize, now.
But Gong Je-hyeon was genuinely baffled. Hearing someone as loaded as Jin Gyeo-wool — who paid her players actual salaries — say something like that was just absurd.
"Noonim saying that is kind of… you know?"
And that just happened to poke the Bae Do-hyun inside Jin Gyeo-wool.
He had lived on ramen, triangle kimbap, and convenience-store lunch boxes because he didn't have a few hundred thousand won. Bae Do-hyun still remembered that hungry spirit.
So the anger flared up all over again.
"You really don't listen when people talk—"
"Noona, hold it! Relax!"
"It's the awards ceremony~!"
Choi Do-yun and Yu Min-jae latched onto both of Jin Gyeo-wool's arms and barely managed to stop her rampage.
Today's Warm Spring Breeze had apparently already been used up; her behavior was as wild as a wolf girl raised in the wilderness.
"I'll cover his mouth."
Yu Min-jae swapped places with Ha Jeong-uk and clamped a hand over Gong Je-hyeon's mouth. Still confident enough to keep running it, Gong Je-hyeon went mmph-mmph and blinked furiously.
"And next — League of Council, the long-awaited first place!"
And just like that, it was the five players' turn. Choi Do-yun and Ha Jeong-uk started pushing Jin Gyeo-wool forward, telling her it was time to go out.
"Jin Gyeo-wool, Choi Do-yun, Gong Je-hyeon, Yu Min-jae, and Ha Jeong-uk — the Seoul Metropolitan City team!"
"Yes, congratulations. With a round of applause, please welcome them to the stage!"
The five players, dressed in the uniforms provided by the Seoul team, filed one by one from the side of the stage toward the center. When Ha Jeong-uk, walking at the front, reached the middle, the others stopped in turn behind him.
At the appearance of a beautiful girl who seemed a little out of place in a setting like this, cheers erupted from the audience seats.
The noise seemed a bit too high-pitched, so Jin Gyeo-wool turned her head to check — and sure enough. Lee Yeong-bin, Han Yeo-reum, and Cha Ga-eul were waving at her.
Jin Gyeo-wool smiled and waved back. Maybe it was because she had seen Han Yeo-reum, but the agitation Gong Je-hyeon had stirred up seemed to settle a little.
"Here they are — first place, the Seoul Metropolitan City team!"
First place — meaning the tournament champions — received the Minister of Culture and Sports Award. Beyond the simple symbolism of being number one in an amateur competition, it meant an actual medal and certificate they could take home.
Jin Gyeo-wool herself had no particular need to impress anyone at home, but some of the other players had entered this path against their families' wishes. For them, having something concrete to show for it was desperately important.
Among the five, Ha Jeong-uk had needed this title the most. After the medal was hung around his neck and he shook hands, tears welled up before he could stop them.
"What, hyung, are you crying?"
"Gong Je-hyeon, shut up."
"Hyung's parents are here."
"Where?"
Ha Jeong-uk's parents, seated below the stage, wore expressions of considerable pride. They had been furious when he said he was quitting his studies — but after seeing the practice room environment, and more importantly, watching him work with a seriousness he had never shown while studying, they had come around and accepted it.
Above all, when the two of them had visited the practice room, Jin Gyeo-wool had stepped up as captain and done the persuading, and that had made a huge difference.
Having Choi Do-yun stumble through a clumsy pitch as the so-called captain would have been far less effective than Jin Gyeo-wool laying out the perfect future she had envisioned. In practice, every parent who visited the practice room — Ha Jeong-uk's included — had been impressed.
Worries about a shabby practice environment and whether the kids were just grinding themselves down without proper pay vanished the moment they saw a facility where everything had been prepared to perfection.
After the ceremony, Ha Jeong-uk came back from taking photos with his family and started with a thank-you.
"Gyeo-wool, thank you."
"…I didn't do anything."
She hadn't particularly intended to be kind or look after anyone. She had simply used a fraction of the ability Hon Gyeo-wool possessed so she could run even a little faster toward Jin Gyeo-wool's goal — toward Bae Do-hyun's goal.
And yet here she was, being thanked for it.
It felt strange. It wasn't even a power Jin Gyeo-wool had wanted for herself. She was receiving gratitude using something that belonged to Hon Gyeo-wool.
So Jin Gyeo-wool decided to thank Hon Gyeo-wool instead.
…Thank you, Gyeo-wool.
If Hon Gyeo-wool hadn't come out to meet him back then, what would have become of Bae Do-hyun? Would he have died in a random accident, forgotten his past life entirely, and drifted as a wandering ghost?
How pretty a ghost who died because he couldn't play LoL would look was anyone's guess — but it probably wouldn't have been a clean look.
Jin Gyeo-wool closed her eyes and thought of Hon Gyeo-wool, letting Han Yeo-reum cling to her as she came over.
When she got home today, she should talk with Gyeo-wool for the first time in a while. Now that they could go to Kaohsiung, they should pray together that they would find the incense candle there.
While she was lost in that thought, Gong Je-hyeon — who had been taking photo after photo with his medal on and uploading them all to Instagram ever since the ceremony ended — sidled up to Jin Gyeo-wool.
"Noonim, one photo okay?"
"Do whatever."
The second Jin Gyeo-wool cracked her eyes open, the shutter clicked. She lifted her head to look at the shot Gong Je-hyeon had taken — and it had come out pretty well.
"Damn. The vibe is crazy."
"…How is it. Send it to me too."
It was Jin Gyeo-wool's own body, but it was a borrowed body all the same. If she looked pretty in it, he had no reason to refuse.
"…Yeah, it came out nice. Pretty as always."
Eyes half-lidded, gazing straight ahead — a detached look that belonged on someone who had lived through everything the world had to offer. Pupils that felt faintly hollow and artificial, as if they didn't quite belong to this world.
She was beautiful. Truly, as if some master craftsman had spent years pouring his soul into carving her.
But Jin Gyeo-wool evaluating her own body in the third person made Gong Je-hyeon say something unnecessary.
"That just now was… kinda full of yourself."
"What. I'm pretty, so what are you gonna do about it."
"…Ah. Aaaah! Ah!"
"You walked right into this one. You've been getting on my nerves all day, you know that?"
"Ah, Noonim!"
The moment she grabbed Gong Je-hyeon's hair, her heart settled. Jin Gyeo-wool snorted a laugh and called out to the teammates and Coach Chae Hojin who were rushing over to stop her.
"Let's go celebrate, everyone!"