SNS
The day our regular-season first place was locked in.
I would normally have headed home by now, but I stuck around at the dorms with everyone else. The coach wanted to talk about the promotion series, and it felt wrong to just walk out.
"Our opponent will probably be TH."
The promotion series pitted the LCK's ninth- and tenth-place teams against CK's first- and second-place squads. Best of five. The ninth-place team got to pick which CK side they wanted, and the leftover CK team faced tenth place. Since CK playoff experience usually didn't amount to much, most ninth-place teams went for CK's second seed.
"So AX, sitting in ninth, is going to dodge us. That leaves TH as our automatic matchup."
The coach made it clear that AX could be a real problem, but TH was a team we could beat with room to spare.
Fair enough. TH spent this whole season glued to the absolute bottom of the standings.
I'd kept up with the LCK even while grinding CK matches, so I already knew the picture. AX had fought for a playoff berth right up to the final week — a team that had only just slipped into the promotion series. TH, on the other hand, had managed their points so catastrophically that their playoff elimination was sealed the moment Round Two started.
"That said, you all know better than to get cocky, right?"
The coach swept his gaze across the roster, lingering on the bot lane duo.
"The TH guys have survived three promotion series since last year. Even if their form's tanked, they're still LCK veterans."
"Come on, Coach. We went undefeated and took the regular-season title. We can handle them."
"You forget what happened to BU in the Spring promotion series? They walked in with that exact mindset and got completely dismantled."
Jin Yuseong's remark got cut off cold. Confidence was fine, but writing off the other side was a terrible way to think. Everything in moderation.
"You feeling good about it?"
"Huh?"
"The promotion series."
I glanced sideways. Kim Dojin was looking at me with that same earnest expression he always wore.
He's been talking to me a lot lately.
It wasn't flirting or anything romantic. If I had to put a word to it… looking out for a friend? More precisely, it felt like a class president checking in on the kid who always sat a little apart from everyone else.
Have I been keeping too much distance from the team?
Now that I thought about it, outside of match days I really had been holding the others at arm's length.
Not that I can just hang around the way I did in my past life.
Honestly, if I started acting all warm and friendly with this face? I wouldn't even have a defense if someone confessed to me. Asking a bunch of guys whose entire lives revolved around gaming to tell the difference between love and like was the real crime here — the confession itself wasn't.
But I can't keep living like this forever either.
I needed to find some kind of middle ground. In esports, roster moves were basically annual. I couldn't freeze up every time I met someone new.
I'll think about it properly once the promotion series is over.
For now, the promotion series was what mattered. Best of five meant room for all kinds of chaos.
Hope the kids hold it together.
As far as I could tell, our team had the clear edge in raw skill. What we needed was a mental game that wouldn't crack.
"Whoa. Look at those cheeks."
Friday afternoon, school done for the week. I showed up at the café right on time, and the second Choi Eunseo saw me she said something completely unhinged. Did she hang around those community boards too?
"You're early. Been waiting long?"
"Nope! I literally just got here."
After spending every day around guys who only ever talked about games, meeting Choi Eunseo again hit me with a completely different energy. My system needed a second to recalibrate.
"What do you want?"
"You're buying?"
"I'm loaded."
"For real!?"
Choi Eunseo made a whole show of deliberating before settling on a single decaf americano.
"This doesn't have any syrup or sugar substitutes in it, right?"
"No, ma'am — it's just an americano. We can add syrup if you'd like."
"Then one with nothing added, please."
Every time I saw her, Choi Eunseo seemed to have a longer list of things she couldn't eat. Honestly, I was curious about the story behind it — but if she wants to tell me, she will. I wasn't going to ask until she brought it up herself. There's a reason people say ignorance is bliss.
"One decaf americano and one chocolate frappé."
We collected our drinks and headed back to our seats. I took a sip of the chocolate frappé I'd ordered. The sweetness hit my system and my mood lifted on its own.
We sat there drinking in silence for a bit before Choi Eunseo started staring at me like she was trying to burn a hole through my face.
"What?"
"Nothing. You just look different from when you're on stage."
"You watch my games?"
"Obviously!"
That aside — was I really that different in-game versus out of it? My teammates and the coach had mentioned it a few times with the same kind of wonder, and fans at meet-and-greets always said the same thing. I just never really felt it myself.
"That different?"
"Yeah. Your eyes get a little redder, and it's like you turn into a whole different person."
Doesn't everyone get serious when they're working?
I didn't consciously do anything special during matches. I just concentrated harder than usual.
"It's not weird, is it?"
"Of course not! If anything, it makes you look even cooler."
"Then we're good."
I took another sip. This place really nailed the chocolate chip flavor.
"So. So. Why'd you call me out today?"
Usually Choi Eunseo was the one who invited me. Today I'd been the one to reach out.
"What are you doing on the fifth next month?"
"Next month?"
She pulled out her phone and checked the calendar.
"That's a Saturday? Nothing planned."
"Want to go to LoL Park?"
"Huh? Why would we— oh!"
Two events were scheduled at LoL Park in September: the Worlds Qualifiers and the promotion series. And the matches in week one were—
"You're saying we should go watch the promotion series!?"
"Yeah. Coach is tight with the RG coaching staff, so he got some complimentary tickets. Said nobody else was free to use them."
"I'm in, I'm in!"
The second I floated the idea of going to a match, Choi Eunseo grabbed my hand, eyes sparkling. We'd barely seen each other during the season, so we ended up talking about everything under the sun.
"So…"
"Hm?"
"Your promotion series opponent is TH, right?"
"Why do you think that?"
"AX would never pick you guys."
Sharp as ever — exactly what you'd expect from someone who watched every single LCK game.
"Nothing's confirmed yet, but yeah, probably."
"You can win, right?"
"Obviously."
"Yeah, fair. TH went winless through all of Round Two, and your team's form is way better anyway."
Maybe it was just the long gap since we'd last hung out, but even a day of nothing but talking felt surprisingly full.
"Hey, everyone."
The first thing I did when I got home was fire up a stream. Between the season being in full swing and not streaming much lately, I figured the viewers were probably bored out of their minds.
Am I actually a streamer now?
I kept making excuses in my head even as I turned on the stream in my free time. With a mindset like that, maybe I really was a pro streamer.
Anyway, it had been a while, and the vibe in chat was pretty warm.
"How's everyone been?"
"And look — even though I finally got some time off, I still turned on a stream for you."
"If you keep complaining about how long I've been gone, I'm just going to go take a nap."
I managed to wrangle the chat back under control and settled into a regular just-talking stream the way I always did.
"How's pro life treating me, you ask?"
"It's fun. My teammates and all the staff are really good people."
…
…
"Alright, I think that's it for today's stream."
"Next stream will probably be after the promotion series wraps up. See you all then."
I hit the end-stream button and dove onto my bed the way I always did. Having the bed right behind the desk was the real problem — the second anything finished, flinging myself onto the mattress had become pure muscle memory.
It's comfortable, so… okay?
Lying there fiddling with my phone, I remembered something from the stream earlier.
They asked me to make an SNS account.
The viewers hadn't expected me to stream constantly, but they'd asked me to at least set up a social media account and post the occasional update. Plenty of teams encouraged personal SNS once you got promoted to the main league anyway, so making one early couldn't hurt.
Should I just turn off comments and DMs?
Ever since going pro, I'd been putting my personal email up on stream — and the photos people sent were… something else. Add in the comment terrorism I'd dealt with in my past life whenever my form dipped, and just locking everything down felt like the smarter move for my peace of mind.
Alright. Account's made.
Feeling like I should post something, I snapped a selfie right there from the bed, uploaded it, and dropped the profile link into the stream announcement. That should be enough — they'd find me on their own.