If You Want to Do It, Do It

She's a fox.

And she wasn't even playing Ahri.

Play that bewitched people. Star power that made anyone watching root for her whether they meant to or not.

That was Kim Hanseong's read on Para — Yoon Seoha.

The fact that she won with that roster already settles it.

Last spring season, the ARK team Kim Hanseong ran had scrimmed against Still Good After Retirement and lost. That squad kept their pro-level form even after hanging up their careers. And she'd gathered a bunch of Grandmaster streamers and beaten a team like that?

Her skill was as good as proven.

If I can just get her on board and promote with her…

For next season, ARK had already nearly finished its stove-league moves exactly the way Kim Hanseong wanted — everything except mid. Promote with a female player overflowing with star power on top of that?

The team's popularity would be a blank check.

Another late night, then.

Kim Hanseong had been working overtime on all kinds of under-the-table prep before the season. He'd at least meant to get home before eleven this weekend.

By the time the fan meeting fully wrapped, it was well past midnight.

Still, he'd waited this long. He watched for an opening, approached Yoon Seoha, and spoke up.

"What is it?"

Her voice was as sharp as those cutting eyes.

"I'll be direct."

He held out a business card ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and stepped closer — and then:

She's insane.

The baby fat hadn't fully melted off yet, so her face still held a soft roundness, but give it a few years and that face would eat mid-tier celebrities alive. And here was a middle schooler aiming for the pros, standing in front of a second-division coach without so much as a flinch — pure, unshaken confidence.

Kim Hanseong erased every condition he'd been about to offer from his mind.

I have to go in with the absolute best terms.

From his own pro days to now, the number of students Kim Hanseong had worked with and coached was beyond counting. That experience let him clock in a single glance that Yoon Seoha was cut from a completely different cloth than ordinary kids her age.

"I'd like you to join our team as mid laner. As for terms — I can match top of the second division. No. Lower-tier first-division level."

His experience told him that with people like this, sizing them up and lowballing never worked as well as leading with genuine sincerity from the start. The offer he put on the table was outrageous — the kind other teams would point at and call him crazy.

"Hmm… I'm a minor, so."

"Then we could go together right now and—"

"I'll talk it over with my parents and get back to you."

A soft, polite refusal that meant not right now. Kim Hanseong could only stare blankly at the elevator doors as they slid shut.

It's quiet.

In the car on the way home, the mood was lower than usual for reasons I couldn't place, so I kept my mouth shut too. Normally Mom would have been all over me — Our daughter was so cool today! — squeezing me half to death.

Even after we got home, the quiet hung on.

"Honey, heading straight to bed?"

"I've got a few things to do. Planning to stay up a bit late tonight."

"Yeah? Then Mom and Dad will turn in first."

Only after I watched my parents disappear into the master bedroom did I head into my own room.

I changed into pajamas, washed up quickly, and turned on the computer. Then I opened the streaming platform and typed out a title.

Firing up a stream just because I'd won some event tournament. Not something I would have done in my past life.

Maybe I'd caught the bug ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the collab with Han Byul. Or maybe I'd just gotten attached after streaming this long. Honestly, the reason didn't matter much.

"I turned the stream on to celebrate the win. You all watched the broadcast live, right?"

The chat exploded the second I asked, like they'd been waiting for it. Watching it roll by was kind of fun — kind of surreal, too — so I just sat there reading without saying anything.

"Ban rampage?"

So that's what they meant.

If the team sues later, there's not much I can do about that.

Down the line, if the org decided to file lawsuits, that was out of my hands. But on my personal stream, I had no real intention of banning anyone. If someone truly crossed a line, sure — but trolls, agitators, whoever, the fact that they'd come all the way here was something I was grateful for.

I kept the casual chat going, and then a donation that stood out slid into view.

"Go pro? Of course I'm planning to. I've already gotten an offer, too."

"I can't really say which one… but I'll probably be starting in the second division."

The second I said I was thinking of joining a second-division team, most of chat looked confused. Everyone rating me so highly felt pretty good, honestly.

"I've got an age thing going on."

We kept talking about this and that and filled about an hour.

"Alright, that's it for today's stream."

I ended the broadcast, lay down on the bed, and pulled out the business card I'd gotten earlier.

I'd thought there wouldn't be any connection in this life.

I made a plan to tell my parents in the morning, and drifted off.

The next morning — Mom often went into work even on Sundays, but today she was home.

What's going on… did she sleep badly last night?

There was a faint tiredness on her as she prepared the meal. Sensing something off, I waited for the right moment while we ate a slightly late breakfast-slash-lunch.

I was about to speak the second my parents finished eating.

"Mom."

"Honey."

Her serious voice cut mine off. She'd told me to go first, but when I asked her to speak first instead—

"Do you not want to study?"

"Huh?"

"You said you want to be a pro gamer. I saw it in the interview video before yesterday's match."

Someone had messaged asking for a clip like that, and I vaguely remembered filming something rough and sending it over. So that was why she'd been in a low-pressure system since yesterday.

I thought about how to answer — and chose a straight charge.

"It's not that I hate studying. But being a pro gamer… I want to do it."

I looked up at her as I said it. Even in her late thirties, her beauty hadn't dimmed at all — the same black hair as mine, eyes with that reddish cast. A career anyone would envy on top of it. By every measure, she was an extraordinary person.

"Then do it."

"What?"

"I made you study because you were good at it from when you were little. If there's something you want to do, you should do it."

"Really…?"

"You should do whatever you want to do. Watching you yesterday, you looked like you were having fun. Losing games, winning games — all of it."

She said it and stretched my cheek out with her fingers.

"Who did you get this love of games from? Looking at that face, marrying a man like that was just my fate, I guess."

Dad scratched his head with an embarrassed laugh. Looking at myself, the love of games really did seem genetic.

"…A team reached out."

With the mood softened, I brought out the business card from yesterday and showed them.

"ARK? Never heard of them."

"Second-division team."

"Second division? Isn't second division a bit…?"

"Because of the age limit, this year I can only play in the second division."

At that, Mom said, If it's our daughter, she'll figure it out just fine, and told me to call and set up a meeting. Coach Kim Hanseong answered my message with the kind of fire that had him offering to come to our front door that very day.

And so, a few hours later…

.

.

.

"Y-you're from Daehan…?"

Kim Hanseong had probably planned to act as generous as possible while still locking in a contract that wouldn't hurt the team.

"And for now, we have a set of minimum conditions on our side."

"A-all of this…? Even so, we have our own situation to consider…"

"You don't want to?"

"That's not what I meant…"

"Then it seems the detailed terms will need to be negotiated."

"Sorry? Then these points are…?"

"Didn't I say? Minimum conditions."

An elite corporate lawyer who dealt with companies for a living was never going to just sit there and watch.