Something I'm Good At (2)
"What? How did you do that?"
"He didn't even use Teemo's flash."
"……Watch out. The enemy just used teleport."
"Got it."
Lee Jonghyun, currently mid as the AD assassin Zed into the enemy AP mid Ahri, spoke in a calm, even voice.
Was that a fluke?
Jonghyun still couldn't believe Jimin hadn't gotten solokilled — that he'd taken the kill instead. He'd assumed the enemy had overcommitted on a tower dive and died for it, but no: it looked like they'd traded in the middle of the lane and simply lost.
"Jimin's actually good."
"You're sure you've only played against bots? You don't have a smurf, right?"
"Haha……"
Under his friends' praise, Jimin could only feel embarrassed.
I think I'm actually getting into this.
Truthfully, he was still worried he might mess up and spoil the fun with his friends. Even so, he felt like he could enjoy himself a lot more than he had a moment ago.
"Ugh, Nidalee's spear hitboxes are so garbage."
"Whatever. She's not even standing in lane."
Once mid-lane Zed had nearly deleted Ahri, Nidalee tried a gank — but the spear aimed at Ahri standing under tower clipped just wide.
Still, Ahri was already crushed from the trades and shoved under her own minion wave. Mid laner Jonghyun kept pressing her without trouble.
"You've got to be kidding me."
A curse slipped out of jungler Sangcheol, who'd been watching bot lane.
"I told you to back off."
"If we'd just killed Ez and Karma we could've kept going."
"We kill Ez and then what, tank the entire Nami bubble for free?"
The bot duo, who'd just handed over a duo kill to the enemy Nami–Lucian, grumbled at each other.
Against a late-game-heavy Nami–Lucian, and with Lucian walking away with the double kill no less, the situation looked pretty rough no matter how you sliced it.
"Just hang in there."
Jonghyun, still winning his lane hard on Zed, said it flatly. As the highest-ranked player here at Diamond 4, he carried the heaviest responsibility.
"Ah, so that's how it goes."
"Close."
"Nice."
Jonghyun, having dumped his ultimate and every summoner to kill Ahri, let out a breath — then died himself to a last tower shot. Dying after crashing the entire wave was at least some consolation.
Even so, he was already up twenty CS and a full level. He kept telling himself he needed to do better, but the mid gap was already opening.
"Huh?"
"Wait, what?"
An allied kill announcement. It wasn't exactly shocking in a casual game that wasn't Challenger or pro play — but this time was different.
"Whew. We lived."
Top lane: Jimin's Teemo had solokilled the enemy Renekton. Again.
"What, again?"
"That's insane."
"Renek's still only on sixteen CS?"
"Jimin hasn't farmed that much either, though……"
Jimin's mechanics still weren't fully online, so he kept missing CS. Even so, his trades against Renekton were near-perfect, and Renek — failing to account for Teemo's DoT — burned flash trying to run and died anyway.
"Jimin, are you some kind of talent freak?"
"Two solokills is not normal."
"I just got lucky……"
This time even Jimin's Teemo had only barely secured the solokill on the brink of death. From his point of view, it still looked like pure coincidence.
"What if we play around top?"
"Yeah, let's do that."
Mid-lane Jonghyun floated the idea of an upper-map focused game to jungler Sangcheol. Nidalee had already monopolized the first three voidgrubs; if they could take the rest and snag Herald on top of that, it'd be perfect.
"Jimin, shove the wave slowly."
"Huh? What does that mean?"
"Ah……"
Watching him dominate the enemy top, Sangcheol had momentarily forgotten Jimin was a complete beginner. Wave control wasn't something raw mechanical talent alone could solve.
"So I just keep hitting him and not die?"
"Uh…… yeah. That works."
Figuring a mid laner would know better than a jungler, Jonghyun had been about to offer advice — and found he had nothing more to say.
"Oh, that's actually nice."
Aggressive dive-loving jungler Sangcheol liked what he saw in top. A big wave was already stacked, and Renekton, battered by Teemo, was sitting under half health. Enemy jungler Amumu had already been spotted bot-side.
"Jimin, take the aggro first!"
"Okay!"
A little tense, Jimin dove with Sangcheol. He tanked the tower first and threw a blinding dart at Renekton.
"Nice! Smooth."
A clean top dive. Nidalee took the kill and strolled out. They'd already been opening a growth lead inch by inch — now they'd put wings on it.
"Renekton has no TP either. His game is over."
"In solo queue this is straight up dodge-and-AFK territory."
The bot duo, still getting pushed around by the enemy Lucian–Nami, were enjoying the crack opening up on the other side of the map.
"……"
Am I actually doing really well?
Jimin had been worried about getting eaten alive by that crocodile monster. Now the guy looked ridiculously weak — and his friends were having fun.
"Kill Renek first!"
"He's melting."
Herald fight. Renekton, pulled out for the top-side objective, couldn't even fill the meatshield role anymore. Lucian and Nami, who'd been stomping the enemy bot duo, couldn't do a thing against the three overgrown players on the upper map.
"Nice!"
"Easy. Too easy."
The five-on-five at Herald ended with four enemy kills and a clean win. In the middle of it, Jonghyun's Zed vacuumed up the kills and was already sitting on four.
"A twenty-five-minute surrender? Come on."
"They're so bad."
Between the lifeless Renekton and the burst damage Jonghyun's Zed had been showing, the enemy team lost the will to play. And with no way to kill Jimin's hyperfed Teemo even two-for-one on a side lane, they simply couldn't find a reason to keep going.
"First game and it's already looking good."
"Jimin, you're actually cracked."
"Wasn't Jonghyun just carrying?"
"Nah. I was only a little ahead."
Does that even make sense?
From mid-game on, Jonghyun had kept his eyes on Jimin. The spacing that looked like he was toying with the enemy champion. The movement that slipped every skillshot from fog of war by a hair. The fact that unless the enemy used a flash combo that was literally unmissable, they simply could not land anything on him — Jonghyun had watched it all with his own eyes.
"Jimin, what other champs can you play?"
"Me? Uh……"
Jimin was stuck. His champion pool was tiny.
"Maybe Rumble?"
"Rumble's good."
"Better than Teemo."
"If he falls behind, though, it gets rough."
"Whatever — next game."
The second game moved at a clip.
"Hmm……"
"Huh?"
Once again, Jimin was watching Sangcheol's monitor instead of the pick screen.
"……"
Is that pretty girl from earlier going to show up again?
"Wait, what?"
"What the hell is this?"
Looking at Sangcheol's screen, Jimin and Jonghyun were surprised for slightly different reasons.
"If you're gonna stare, stare at a real woman. Why are you watching anime characters?"
"There's a real person behind it."
"Ugh."
Sangcheol had always been into streaming. Jonghyun left him to his VTuber stream and turned back to pick a champion.
"You're not watching that other streamer?"
"Huh? Who?"
"The long-haired one from earlier."
"Oh, Dahye nuna?"
"Dahye?"
"Yeah. Her ID is YuDai, but nobody actually calls her that."
So her name is Dahye.
Jimin filed the information away at once.
"Wasn't she your favorite streamer?"
"I like her, but Hirose Haruka's stream takes priority right now. Sorry."
"Is she Japanese?"
"No, she's Korean?"
"……"
Now that he listened, the Korean was completely fluent — obviously a Korean streamer. Jimin knew almost nothing about the streaming world. He didn't find it strange, though. If anything, the fact that it was all new to him made it more interesting, more mysterious.
"Alright — Rumble top, Azir mid, so I'm going Graves."
"Do whatever you want."
Sangcheol, who'd played Nidalee last game, locked in Graves, another carry jungler.
Wait — the enemy is Emerald 1?
Jonghyun, who'd been watching Jimin carefully, was startled.
Second game. Jimin's lane opponent was an Emerald 1 player on Aatrox — and last season's peak was Diamond. Even as a joke, you couldn't call that "nothing." This was a legitimately skilled player.
And he locks Aatrox almost every game.
On the current patch, top Aatrox wasn't quite OP, but he was a solid tier-one pick. Rumble sat around tier three. If Jimin really was a beginner, this should have been a miserable matchup.
"This guy's pretty good."
"……"
And yet somehow Jimin was managing the lane just fine. One full Aatrox combo would delete half his health bar — but Jimin's movement refused to give him even that, by the thinnest of margins.
"Sangcheol, I think you can come."
"Huh?"
What is this?
In return, every harpoon from Jimin's Rumble was landing clean on Aatrox. Even after teleporting back, Aatrox was low enough to be cornered.
"Wait — Diana's heading top!"
"……"
Top-side vision was a little thin, and they missed the enemy jungle gank. Aatrox and Diana crashed onto Jimin. Graves was too far to help.
"Huh?"
Aatrox was dead. And Rumble was already beating Diana senseless with overheated punches.
"Holy crap!"
"Jimin, what the hell!"
"Whew, I lived……"
His friends had looked away the moment they saw the gank, already writing him off as dead. Jonghyun had watched from start to finish.
Sidestepping every skill, then flashing forward to melt Aatrox in an instant. Perfect ability management that turned a gank into a double kill.
Sangcheol's Graves invaded and stripped Diana's jungle. The game had already tipped hard.
"You can do that much on Rumble?"
"I got lucky. I don't know Diana, so I tensed up for a second."
"You don't know Diana's kit?"
"Yeah. Aatrox looks cool so I've tried him before, but I've never played against Diana."
Park Jimin said it with a completely earnest face. Jonghyun knew Jimin didn't know how to lie.
Sangcheol's Graves opened a jungle gap, and a hyperfed Rumble turned the Rift into a sea of fire with Equalizer missiles. Second game, won. Jonghyun, who'd locked Azir confident he would carry, had spent the whole game watching nothing but Jimin.
"Haven't seen this friend before."
"Yes, ma'am. He doesn't come to PC cafes much."
"My, and he's so tall."
The owner lady smiled with that particular middle-aged warmth. With a solid free-rank win streak under their belts from the PC cafe, Jimin and his friends had found a pork cutlet place.
"Portions are huge here, and it's good."
"Jonghyun comes here like three times a week during break."
"Not that often."
It was Jimin's first time at the restaurant, so he just looked around at everything with curious eyes. Five king-size pork cutlets arrived at the table.
"I'll pay first."
Without even cutting into his cutlet, Jonghyun stood up. No one was ordering anything else, so they might as well settle the bill now. The real reason, of course, was that he'd read the hesitation on Jimin's face from the moment they sat down.
"I'll get it next time."
"Don't worry about it. I was planning to cover today anyway."
"Jimin, eat a lot. Thanks for the meal, hyung."
"Yeah."
Leaving the apologetic-looking Jimin where he was, the others started cutting into their cutlets right away.
"The sauce here is seriously good."
"It's a king cutlet, but the thickness is solid too."
Praise for the food rose from every side of the table.
"Eat."
"Huh? Oh — yeah."
Belatedly responding to Jonghyun, Jimin cut a piece and ate.
"Good, right?"
"……Yeah."
It wasn't as if he'd never had pork cutlet like this before, but the taste still felt new. Familiar and unfamiliar at once — which, in a good way, was exactly what a great restaurant was supposed to be.
"Jimin. Have you really barely played SOL?"
"Huh?"
At Jonghyun's words, Jimin lifted his head. Looking at his face, Jonghyun — who was never light about anything — seemed more serious than usual.
"Yeah. If I play games at home, I think Mom would hate it."
"A guy's allowed to play some games."
Jonghyun kept watching Jimin, who was avoiding his eyes.
"Sorry? Why me?"
"Jimin's a really good kid, but he doesn't seem to fit in well."
Suddenly he remembered a conversation from the start of the semester with his homeroom teacher, Yoo Jinho.
"You've got a lot of friends and you get along with people easily, Jonghyun. I'm counting on you."
"I wouldn't say a lot, but… alright."
The day the teacher had asked him to befriend Jimin. He'd thought it was nothing special. Tall but skinny, a kid who missed school a lot because he was sick. Being nice to him couldn't hurt.
They'd become friends faster than expected. At first the timid personality had been frustrating, but somewhere along the way the pure streak in him had grown on Jonghyun — enough that even without anyone asking, he'd wanted to comfort him on the day he dropped out.
"Jimin. I think you've got ridiculous talent for SOL."
"Me?"
Jimin said it in surprise. Talent — and for a game, of all things. Was there a more mismatched word for him? Looking at his friends' reactions, he did seem to have played well, but……
Jimin didn't know SOL. Measuring how good he actually was was impossible.
"SOL is huge. Look at the streams Sangcheol watches — they're all SOL."
"Yeah. Even people who don't know much say they're picking it up."
"If you're good at SOL, a lot of people will like you for it."
"I… I……"
His friends were suddenly hyping him up.
"I don't really know."
But he still didn't know. He'd had fun today, sure, but dropping out of school was a shock no matter how you spun it. How was he supposed to spare any thought for a game?
"Just think about it. Thinking's enough."
"……"
Jimin wasn't much of a talker. Still, being recognized for something didn't feel bad……
"I'm home."
"You're early?"
"Huh?"
Jimin stepped into the house. Of course his mom was there — he'd called earlier to say he was hanging out with friends and would be heading back.
"I thought you were playing with your friends."
"Yeah."
"You could've stayed out longer."
"I played a lot."
He scratched his head awkwardly and went to his room. Right before coming home he'd been a little worried, still haunted by the expression on her face from earlier that day — but his mom didn't look particularly upset.
"Haa……"
It had been fun with his friends. The moment he stepped into his room, though, reality settled in.
Dropping out as a second-year high school student. And not even by choice — a mid-course washout that had nothing to do with his own will. Ambitious people sometimes considered dropping out, but that story felt a long way from Jimin.
You've got talent for SOL.
"……"
His friend Jonghyun's words floated up again.
"Huh?"
People like what they're good at. If it seems like you're even a little good at something, keep working at it.
And the words his teacher had said earlier that day rose with them.
"Something I'm good at? But……"
Was that something SOL — a game? Sure, being good at a game would get you attention, but it couldn't replace school, could it?
"……"
No matter which way he turned it, no answer came.
"Ah!"
Jimin unlocked his phone and searched for something. Escaping when you're stuck is human nature. He typed YuDai into Nurtube.
"There it is."
YuDaiTV — a channel with over a hundred thousand subscribers. He hit play on the first video that showed up.
"What does that even mean?"
A strange title. Jimin was eighteen, but he wasn't fluent in internet slang.
"Guys, why are you always so curious about my past?"
"……"
Jimin glanced at the comment overlay closing in on the right side of the video, then forced his focus back to the center.
"Haa……"
Then, in an instant, he paused the video and grabbed his face with both hands. The heat in his cheeks had nothing to do with summer.
I can't look.
Even a second of looking was so embarrassing it was killing him. Pure and cute and mature all at once — a face that seemed to have every good thing piled together, and skin so pale it almost glowed. For Jimin, who had no idea what "cam filter" even meant, it was fatally overwhelming.
"Yes, I somehow survived this time too. Wow, I really thought I was about to hit Diamond 3."
"Diamond 3?"
People play solo rank the most in SOL……
Jonghyun is the only Diamond here. That means he's really good.
Jimin, at your level, you'll climb past me in no time.
The conversation he'd had with his friends over pork cutlet that day floated up in his head.
"SOL? I'm going to play this until the day I die."
"……"
If you're good at SOL, a lot of people will like you for it.
I think you've got talent for SOL.
The things his friends had said. In that moment, one thought lit up in Jimin's mind.
He wanted to play a game with this nuna.