You Want Me to Enter the Tournament? (3)
"Hey, if you just barge in like that out of nowhere, you'll scare the kid," Render said.
"Ah, sorry," Whata replied.
"Ah, it's fine!"
Whata had suddenly crashed into the Discord call. What had been a free rank game meant to loosen everyone up was now thick with the atmosphere of a real practice session.
"But just now you took a solo kill and could have snowballed hard off it. You didn't roll with it properly when you backed," Whata said.
"Ah·····"
Is that so?
Park Jimin couldn't quite feel the weight of Whata's words. It wasn't as if he didn't know the basics himself. If he had taken the solo kill, cleared every enemy minion, and then hit the turret as well, that would have been ideal. But the situation had never allowed for that; he had cleaned up just enough and hit the home button.
Ah!
It suddenly came back to him. Last time, even one of the viewers had said his recall timing felt off.
"What should I have done?"
"If you'd been a little more precise earlier, you could have shaped a really good wave. I'll talk about it after the game," Whata said.
"Understood."
They were still in the middle of a match. Whata left it at a reasonable line for later.
"Ooh, Hochang's so cool, so cool," Park Solmi said.
"Jimin, that friend Whata's got a good eye for the game, so learn well," Render said.
"Yes! I will."
"He's already playing well enough—does he really need to learn more? His tier's high too," Chongmyeong said.
"Hey, getting feedback from an ex-pro is different," Park Solmi said.
"Haha."
In the short time since this party had formed, Jimin had forced so many awkward laughs that he had even discovered he had this habit.
"·····Fighting!" Yapang said.
"Oh, yes, thank you."
When Jimin spoke, he heard Yapang's shy little laugh.
"Huh? Uh-uh, the enemy mid's kinda cooking," Park Solmi said.
Playful as she was, Park Solmi had started to say something and then mumbled it away. Mischievous teasing had to weigh private closeness and the other person's position.
"Hey hey, jungle, mid, come hit and leave," Park Solmi said.
"Pathing's tangled," Yapang said.
Better to poke someone safer.
"Oh, Yapang-nim, you're landing skills really well," Render said.
"Oh, yes, thank you."
"·····"
What am I supposed to say?
Jimin scratched his head, sheepish. If someone else started the conversation first, he could at least try something funny by his own standards. He hadn't noticed it with his friends, but he was suddenly feeling just how lonely the top lane really was.
The chat was concentrated on the higher-profile members.
"Whew·····"
"Oh what, that was basically a solo dive?" Whata said.
"I got lucky."
With no intention of waiting until the game ended, Whata had appeared again.
"At this point it's just farming time. Yeah, like that, auto, then W," Whata said.
"Yes!"
With the solo kill and the wave already pushing, Jimin's Jayce hammered the enemy turret and the gold climbed.
"Hey, everyone knows that much," Render said.
"It's a disease, a disease," Park Solmi said.
"Oh Jimin, I'm heading top next, so sync with me," Chongmyeong said.
"Yes."
"You should've gone earlier. He kept shoving and pressuring the whole time," Whata said.
"Uh····· but Jimin handles it fine on his own," Chongmyeong said.
"If he got ganked while shoving, what kind of loss would that be," Whata said.
"Yes, right, right, I'll try harder," Chongmyeong said.
"Oof, already intense," Render said.
"Hyung said to do it properly," Whata said.
"I'm fine with it?" Render said.
Regardless of the result, Chongmyeong knew Whata was right. Whata's stature in SOL was overwhelmingly higher than his own, and Chongmyeong looked up to him in his own way, so he fell in line. Lightly resetting the mood was team leader Render's job.
"But Jimin, you're really good. You just look at Naru's skills and dodge them all? If you just polish these detailed parts a bit more, the enemy wouldn't even be able to breathe," Whata said.
"Thank you, haha·····"
Faced with the other person's lavish praise, Jimin laughed awkwardly.
Wow, he seems like a really famous person.
From what he'd just heard, the man was an ex-pro and famous as a broadcaster too. For someone that impressive to say this to him—
Something·····
Praise was his fuel. This was a place where he was supposed to work hard anyway, but separately from that, Jimin felt even more motivated.
The game flowed smoothly.
"Nice! Ah, first game's way too clean," Park Solmi said.
"I'm two levels up on their Maokai," Chongmyeong said.
"You were playing a different game by yourself, so of course," Park Solmi said.
"Nuna, why only me·····" Chongmyeong said.
Park Solmi didn't bother saying, by her standards, that he was the only one here she could dig into. She was treating Render with a certain respect. Whata was the same age but they weren't exactly close. Yapang she had no connection with at all and had to be careful around. And Jimin, who was only eighteen and playing too well. She was even holding back her own rough mouth.
"Oh! Enemy top is here," Yapang said.
Yapang's Lulu was taking Baron vision when she started getting hit by the enemy top and support.
"Nuna! Escape upward."
Jimin, already heading over to help, called out.
Kwaaaang-!
One Shock Blast from Jayce's Acceleration Gate sent the enemies retreating.
"Oh, thank you!" Yapang said.
"Yes."
"·····Heh-heh," Yapang said.
"Yes?"
"Ah, nothing," Yapang said.
"······"
The other person laughed awkwardly.
She definitely said she's older than me, right?
Jimin hadn't forgotten that he was participating as a streamer right now. A broadcast was a broadcast. He couldn't just sit there like an idiot forever. He needed to speak up actively. And honestly, everyone else seemed too intimidating; without this person it might be a little hard.
"Please speak comfortably, Nuna."
"Yes!? Yes····· uh-uh, okay," Yapang said.
"Jimin," Render said.
"Hahaha.." Park Solmi said.
"Yes?"
After saying yes, Jimin got a weird feeling.
What's the problem?
He at least had the sense not to openly ask whether he'd done something wrong here.
"This friend's gonna go far," Chongmyeong said.
"Ah sorry, nobody calls me Nuna so, heh-heh, it's super awkward," Yapang said.
"·····"
Was it not that big a deal?
"I didn't know you were a nuna."
"Why?" Yapang said.
"From the voice alone I couldn't really tell."
"Me? Is it a little weird?" Yapang said.
Ah, crap.
He might have gotten ahead of himself. It could sound like he was saying her voice was a little strange. In that case, a maxim he could use here: praise makes even whales dance.
"Your voice is really cute."
He felt like he was going to die of awkwardness····· but if it had been a woman he was looking at in person, or someone like Dahye whose face he knew, that would be one thing. With a woman he'd never seen and only heard, it wasn't that hard.
"Ah! Haha.. th-that, yeah! Uh, thanks," Yapang said.
"Jimin!" Render said.
"Hey no! Ah… hahahahahaha!" Park Solmi said.
Park Solmi tried to hold it in but finally burst out laughing.
"Oh the flirting's insane," Chongmyeong said.
"Hey shut up ahahahaha," Park Solmi said.
"Everyone, this is a pure and kind friend," Render said.
Team leader Render had to clean it up.
"No way, what's with Jayce's damage," Render said.
"He got that big without even taking jungle camps?" Chongmyeong said.
"What, why's he so cool! Ah, he's a kid, right," Park Solmi said.
"Thank you."
"Oh clap clap," Yapang said.
"·····Thank you."
He didn't know the reason, but apparently talking too much to that female streamer was not allowed.
"You could have gotten even bigger. Everything else is fine, but after this let's just give Jimin some feedback," Whata said.
"Understood."
"Sorry, Jimin. That guy's not a bad friend, though," Render said.
"No, I like it."
"·····"
If it meant he could learn more about the world of SOL, Jimin was welcome anytime.
"Here, the minions," Whata said.
"Yeah, and right when the wave forms perfectly," Whata said.
"Hey, you could have hit them properly here," Whata said.
"Ha····· no, after trading that well," Whata said.
"I'm sorry."
"No, you don't need to be sorry. Wow but you're really amazing. I've never seen a kid play SOL this wildly," Whata said.
"Uh, yes, thank you."
That's a compliment, right?
Of course, he had never imagined he would be left alone and nitpicked down to the atomic level.
Beeeep-!
2025 Summoners of Legends World Championship.
Quarterfinals, set four: SCK's P1 against SCK's God Phoenix.
God Phoenix's mid laner Akali used Zhonya's at a strange timing. The shroud was already gone.
Rather than cheers for a dramatic moment, what came out was consolation for a twenty-year-old player's absurd mistake.
"P1! P1! P1!"
An SCK civil war held in Chengdu, China. The one-sided roar of P1 fans who had completely filled the arena.
As God Phoenix's nexus shattered, the set score became 3–1. The team advancing to the semis was decided.
"Heu-heu-heuk!"
A situation where his own mistake had eliminated the team. Faced with a reality too horrible, the twenty-year-old mid laner 'Luca' Kim Junyoung clawed at his hair and howled like a beast. For a player who had performed all year under the promise of becoming the next-generation SCK mid laner, the exit was far too hollow.
"Haa·····"
God Phoenix's coach, 'Lamar' Jang Yaohwan, could not figure out how he was supposed to accept this reality.
"It's okay. And get up. The fans are waiting."
The one gently comforting his crying teammate, the team's top laner and captain 'White Tiger,' also known as Whata, Song Hochang, felt even more like an adult than Yaohwan himself.
"·····"
The cheering P1 players. Called the strongest roster of all time, the ones who never looked like they would fall. He had wanted to take down that radiant team!
"Uh!"
Thirty-two-year-old Jang Yaohwan sat up in bed.
"I thought I'd forgotten all of that already. What the hell."
The Worlds quarterfinals from five years ago weren't even the greatest achievement of his life····· he had no idea why he was dreaming about it.
"What?"
Messages were stacked up.
"How many times did you spam me, you bastard."
"Something wrong?"
"The Japanese qualifiers are over so pretty soon, I guess."
"What comfort am I supposed to give. The money landing in that kid's account is insane."
"Don't say weird things. Why'd you call?"
"What, why are you so excited?"
Whata Song Hochang was not the type to hide his feelings well. Especially not with a close hyung like Jang Yaohwan.
"What?"
And he was not the type to casually say 'interesting kid' either. Yaohwan's expression grew a little more serious.
"How interesting?"
"What?"
Laughter came through the phone.