I Don't Like Guys
Even back in my pro days, I'd only hit rank one a handful of times. Pulling it off in this body left me feeling good in spite of myself.
Until now, there'd been this nagging worry that getting TS'd hadn't changed anything — that my talent was still just my talent. But this? This was proof.
"Thanks for all the congrats, everyone. Wait, there are seriously two thousand of you watching?"
Somehow — I had no idea what had drawn them in — two thousand people were watching my stream. Hitting rank one already felt great, and on top of that, my first broadcast was turning out to be a solid success.
But then...
"Um, everyone. Why do you keep calling me by my real name?"
I'd even labeled the channel name para nice and clearly, so it was weird that everyone kept calling me by my real name anyway.
"Well... if you want to call me that, I don't really mind. Just don't cross any lines in chat."
After that, I settled into a simple chat stream. Honestly, I wanted to queue up more solo queue, but the viewers shut that down hard.
"Alright, if you've got questions, go ahead and ask. I'll answer as best I can."
The chat exploded like it'd been waiting for this exact moment, and my eyes started hurting. I was someone who routinely farmed CS in mid lane while tracking the entire map. Even so, chat flying at this volume was more than I could read.
So donation-only reading isn't just greed after all.
Back in my pro days, I'd only ever done quiet solo queue streams, so the chat never got this wild and I never really got it. Now I finally understood why streamers with a decent audience mostly just read donations.
When it flooded in like this, you simply couldn't keep up.
So does the streamer have a boyfriend?
"Nope~"
These people were relentless. Between the Master Guest Stream and now, I'd lost count of how many times I'd gotten this question.
"I don't really get why everyone's so curious, but I don't like guys."
I wasn't sure how they'd interpreted my answer, but everyone seemed satisfied, so it wasn't a problem.
We kept the Q&A going in good spirits, and then one chat message caught my eye.
"Games other than LoL? Hmm..."
A lot of people assume pro gamers only ever play their one game. But there's a saying that once something becomes how you make a living, it stops being fun. During the season you barely have time to look at anything else, but on break, most pros dive into other games.
I was no exception.
"I've tried most FPS titles. I like single-player games too."
Before I knew it, the clock had pushed past eleven.
"Alright, that's it for today's stream."
The moment I announced the end of stream, the chat that had briefly calmed down burst back into flames. Still, it couldn't be helped.
If I wanted to grow taller, I had to sleep early.
"I'll be on again tomorrow evening. Thanks for hanging out, everyone~"
I ended the stream and flopped straight onto my bed.
That was more fun than I expected.
Back in my pro days, I'd poured everything into a single goal — winning. Streaming had been nothing more than an obligation, and I'd never really connected with my viewers. Doing a stream like this, though, had been way more enjoyable than I'd imagined, and it left me feeling bad for the people who'd watched me back then.
I'll do better from now on.
Finally. Prelims start today.
Saturday morning, ten o'clock — the hour ordinary people were just waking up. For some, it was a time you could only reach by staying up all night.
Maybe I should've just gone to sleep. No — then I never would've gotten up.
Han Byeori rubbed her bleary eyes and shuffled toward the fridge. In this state, there was no way she'd stay awake until the noon VLL prelims.
After everything it took to get this chance.
How much had she suffered just to hit Grandmaster, the entry requirement? Four hundred games stuck in Diamond. Getting sniped ten games in a row. Thinking back on those days didn't exactly put her in a good mood.
"Ah, we're out of coffee."
Not a single instant can left. She'd clearly forgotten to reorder.
Her eyes drifted to the long padding hanging over the living room chair.
It's freezing out there...
But she decided she couldn't function without coffee. Wrapping the long padding around her entire body, Han Byeori headed outside.
Did it snow or something?
She kept the curtains drawn at home no matter the time of day, so she hadn't noticed — but it looked like snow had fallen overnight. She picked her way carefully toward the coffee shop, watching for the patches of ice where snow had melted and refrozen.
"Oh, hello!"
The place she'd arrived at was a tiny independently run café. Thanks to its cute female owner, it had a devoted following — though Han Byeori was not part of it. The owner was excessively friendly every single time, even without knowing she was a streamer, and it just made her uncomfortable.
This is the only place open at this hour...
Most franchise cafés didn't start serving until nine or ten, so she didn't have a choice.
"Hi... One Americano, please. Iced."
"Whoa, you cut your hair short? It's so cute!"
"Ah... thanks."
"You said you're twenty-five, right, unnie? You look so much younger than me!"
On stream, Han Byeori kept her energy cranked high — but she didn't have the bandwidth for that in real life.
"No latte today?"
"Just felt like an Americano..."
"Our Americanos are actually our bestseller!"
Han Byeori swallowed the urge to say, Yeah, because all the guys coming here are trying to hit on you.
"Just have a seat and I'll bring it right out!"
She'd already chosen takeout, so she figured she'd just sit anywhere near the counter. But—
What the hell...
This early in the morning, every seat by the counter was full. At a normal café, the corner seats were the popular ones. Looking at this crowd, she could only think these people were working overtime just to land a date.
Wow. Full hair styling and a suit? At this hour?
While she waited for her coffee, Han Byeori scanned the room. Someone who'd done a complete morning glam session and was pretending to read. Someone planted right in front of the counter watching anime for reasons unknown. Everyone here was putting in serious work before breakfast.
"Unnie! Your iced Americano's ready!"
"Thanks. I'll come again."
She took the Americano and left, silently swearing she'd never come back.
It's cold...
On the way over, she'd had her hands in her padding pockets and hadn't noticed. Now, holding the coffee, her hands were freezing. She couldn't exactly shove the cup in her pocket either, so she just toughed out the cold as she walked — until.
"Huh?"
She stepped right onto the sheet of ice coating the slope near her place. Combine hastily thrown-on warmer boots with the motor skills of someone who'd never so much as attempted exercise, and falling was inevitable. Her hands shot out on instinct and caught the ground.
"Ow... I spilled all the coffee."
She'd dumped the entire cup on the ground, but at least she didn't seem badly hurt. She grabbed a canned coffee from the nearest convenience store as a stopgap and headed home.
About an hour left, huh.
The thought of warming up her hands with a quick ranked game lasted only a moment. The second she got inside and her frozen hands started to thaw, something felt wrong.
Why does this sting?
Uneasy, she made a custom game and tried pressing the keys.
"Ah—!"
A sharp, tingling pain shot through her left hand — the one that needed to hit the keyboard. She tried a few more times, but even pressing the keys at all had become nearly impossible.
God... you've got to be kidding me.
More than the thought of blowing a hard-won opportunity, what hit her first was guilt toward her teammates. Before going to the hospital, she opened the group chat and apologized.
Even though they'd fought hard for this entry slot, they were worried about her instead — and that only made the guilt worse.
An awkward silence settled over the chat before Han Byeori spoke up.
"I, uh... I know someone who could sub. Their rank's high, too."