Climbing the Ranks (3)
“·····”
“·····”
Jimin instinctively shut down everything on his monitor.
But he already knew this wasn't over.
That voice had been unmistakable. As mortifying as it was, he could more or less understand why his mother was so appalled.
“Come out here for a second.”
“Okay·····”
She wanted him out of his room. Normally she didn't interfere much when he was in there.
When he stepped out, he saw a black plastic bag—she'd clearly been grocery shopping. Sitting on the table was a pack of Choco Pies. Busy as she was, his mother often bought them as a snack for him.
“Sit.”
“Mm.”
Like a puppy that knew it had done something wrong, Jimin sat down neatly with his legs folded.
“What have you been running around doing lately?”
“Huh?”
Not the question he'd expected. He'd been sure she was about to scold him for whatever had been on his screen a moment ago—but suddenly the focus had shifted somewhere else entirely.
“You just take off and come home later than I do.”
“Ah·····”
Kim Eunhye's gaze was firm. The day he'd dropped out, yesterday, and today—Jimin had come home later than his mother every time. The first day he'd at least said he was meeting friends. After that, he'd just bolted into his room for fear of getting yelled at.
He loved hanging out and gaming with his friends, but he couldn't imagine his mother approving. It wasn't wholesome fun—it was a PC bang where curses flew back and forth from every direction·····
“·····”
Jimin kept his mouth shut tight.
“You're not going to tell me?”
“·····”
When he glanced away, she pressed him again for an answer.
Huh?
He looked back into her eyes.
“Haa·····”
She sighed. It wasn't the scolding voice from earlier—her face looked heavy, almost sad.
He decided to open his mouth again. He could endure his mother being angry. What he couldn't endure was that sorrowful look on her face.
“Yesterday and today I was with friends.”
“What?”
He lifted his head, met her eyes, and spoke honestly. This was a son who didn't know how to look someone in the face and lie—so Eunhye could believe him.
“Who?”
“Jonghyun and·····”
Jimin hesitated a little.
“Jonghyun and some other friends.”
The only friend his mother knew by name was Lee Jonghyun. And Jonghyun had a good reputation with her, so it seemed better to just use his name.
“How many of you?”
“Four besides me? The five of us have been hanging out.”
Yesterday and today it had been the unit crew, but the first day they'd met it had been five of them, so that was fair enough.
“What do you do when you hang out?”
“We game at a PC bang·····”
“A PC bang?”
“Yeah.”
He forced the words out. Confessing a bit of rebellion was hard—but if he didn't say it properly, his mother would suffer more for it.
In the old days she would have had to dig and dig before he spilled anything, but·····
Not anymore.
Jimin didn't want to make things harder for her. And from the time he was little, she had always stressed that lying was worse than whatever you were trying to hide.
“·····”
Having told the truth, he looked away again. At least he hadn't lied—but this was still only second best. Now he had to wait for the verdict.
“Still, you need to play in moderation.”
“Huh?”
“A kid who never used to go to PC bangs, suddenly going all the time····· Fine. I get it.”
She stood up first.
“You haven't eaten, have you?”
“Huh? Uh, yeah.”
For several days now Jimin had been eating dinner with his friends and then telling his mother he wasn't hungry. A pot was already bubbling away—she must have just finished cooking.
Ah, so that's why·····
So that was why she'd opened his door so suddenly. While she'd been preparing food, he'd just been sitting there watching a stream.
“It's hot.”
“Okay.”
Warm rice and kimchi jjigae. Exactly the kind of spread Jimin loved.
He dug in. The pork fat floating in the stew tasted sweet. The famous PC bang food and his friends' favorite spots were good, but this son still preferred the meals his mother set out for him.
“What about money, though? You don't have any right now, do you?”
“Huh?”
She asked while he was already three spoonfuls in to her one.
“Ah····· well.”
At least this one wasn't hard to answer.
“My friends treated me.”
“Treated you?”
“Yeah.”
“Where would those kids get money?”
“Jonghyun works part-time a lot, so he covers us.”
“·····”
Even he felt a little bad about freeloading off his friend—but lying was worse.
His mother suddenly stood up. When he turned to look, she had picked up her bag.
“Here.”
“Huh?”
Two green bills. Twenty thousand won. She had no idea how much money a son needed when hanging out with friends, but she'd rushed to put something out for him anyway.
“You can't just keep getting treated all the time.”
She set the money down on the table. It was a little wrinkled—bills that had been sitting around for a while since she'd withdrawn them.
“Go buy them something.”
“Okay·····”
Compared to other kids his age, Jimin received very little spending money. Not because his mother was stingy—because he spent so little of it. Watching a son who always had money left over even when she didn't give him much, Eunhye had eventually started giving him a smaller allowance.
The reason was simple. Jimin couldn't easily spend money his mother had worked so hard to earn at the restaurant.
“·····”
Still, having money now meant he could do something for his friends—and that made him happy.
“Jimin.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you having fun, hanging out with these friends of yours?”
She asked. From her expression, she wasn't fishing for anything roundabout.
“Yeah.”
“That's a relief.”
She answered right away. The truth was, Eunhye felt guilty. Dropping out must have been a shock for her son, and she'd been so scrambled herself that she hadn't even managed to comfort him.
Yeah. From now on·····
At his age, friends would be more of a comfort than his parent. Seeing him out playing instead of moping was all she needed.
—Aaaahhn!
“·····”
She didn't have the heart to freak out and scold a high school sophomore for looking at something a little spicy. That sultry, lewd scream had left her certain it was adult content. There had been a considerable misunderstanding—but at least Jimin hadn't ended up in too much trouble over it.
Of course, after that he developed the habit of turning the volume down and checking outside his door.
“Whoa, that's actually insane.”
“Told you.”
Saturday morning. Break was still break, vacation or not. From early on, the same five of them had gathered at the PC bang like the first day—and once again, Jimin was putting on a staggering display of skill.
“Thud! Crack!”
“What is that shock damage?”
“That's not the Eight I know.”
“·····”
Having four people watching him made Jimin nervous, but he focused as hard as he could.
“Oh, Gold 1. A little more and you're Platinum.”
“At this rate you'll just keep steamrolling, right?”
Unlike Yoon Sangcheol, Go Yuseok and Jeon Jaeyeong—the bot lane duo who hadn't seen this solo queue performance yesterday or the day before—were even more fired up.
“We're Emerald, but we wouldn't stand a chance.”
To an Emerald bot lane duo, the way Jimin was dismantling Gold games made ranks look meaningless.
“Jimin, let's turn chat off.”
“Okay·····”
Sangcheol, sitting next to him, reached over and muted it himself. Jimin had been destroying mid lane—and they still had the nerve to talk like that after getting blown up by a Katarina who had basically fled the lane to roam.
Still, the result was a win—thanks to Jimin's massively fed Jason and teammates who, chat quality aside, had held on decently into the late game.
“Ugh, if you carry people like that they start getting spoiled.”
“Facts.”
Sangcheol, fully locked in, even managed to diagnose the habits of players who got carried by Jimin—and sounded genuinely disappointed about it.
“Oh·····”
Jimin marveled at the color on his screen.
“Oh, Plat 4.”
“You're good, so of course you're climbing fast.”
A smile spread across his face. Just yesterday he'd been wondering when he'd ever reach Diamond—and now it kept getting closer.
“Yo, let's order food all at once.”
Jonghyun said.
“But what have you been looking at this whole time?”
“My girlfriend's birthday is coming up, so I'm browsing gifts.”
“Kyaa, of course.”
“·····”
Jonghyun stared intently at his monitor. Jimin watched his friend with curious eyes. What did it feel like to have a girlfriend? He could barely even talk to girls.
If I actually met Dahye nuna·····
And what if he actually met Yu Dahye—the one who had completely stolen his attention lately? He'd be so nervous he'd probably run away before he managed a single word of conversation.
“Hey, guys.”
“Yeah?”
Jimin pulled money out of his pocket.
“I'll buy the food.”
Four pairs of eyes locked onto their friend.
“·····”
What were they supposed to say? When things got awkward, you deferred to the usual decision-maker. The other three looked at Jimin, then shifted their gaze to Jonghyun.
“Where'd you get money?”
“Ah—my mom gave it to me.”
“Your mom?”
“Yeah.”
Jonghyun glanced at the bills in Jimin's hand. His own family wasn't wealthy, but he wasn't ignorant of Jimin's situation either. And of all their friends, he was the only one who knew that Jimin's mother raised him alone and worked at a restaurant.
“It's fine.”
“Huh?”
Jonghyun refused his friend's kindness on everyone's behalf. The others looked like they agreed with the call.
“Ah, well, um.”
“What?”
“My mom said I can't just keep getting treated, so I should buy something.”
It was a little embarrassing for a high schooler to keep saying “my mom, my mom”—but there was no way around it.
“That so?”
Jimin was more stubborn than expected. Jonghyun considered a compromise. For most guys, spending money that a hardworking widow in her forties had earned while raising a grown son was a difficult thing to accept.
“Then use that money to top up your PC bang time.”
“Huh?”
That was the best alternative he could come up with.
“If I do that·····”
“We're sitting here watching you play. Honestly, we should be the ones paying for the privilege.”
Jonghyun said it with a slight smile.
“·····”
Of course it didn't land on the first try. At the end of the day, it still meant Jimin was putting money into his own gaming time.
“He's right. Watching Jimin solo queue is fun.”
“Same.”
“Yeah.”
Sangcheol, Yuseok, and Jaeyeong chimed in.
“Ever since I started watching Jimin's solo queue, I barely even watch SOL streams anymore.”
“I'm skipping the P1 match today and just watching Jimin play.”
“Same. They're not making Worlds this year anyway.”
“Don't they still have qualifiers left?”
“Haa·····”
Yuseok and Jaeyeong, the die-hard P1 fans in the bot lane duo, suddenly sighed. They'd expected better than last year, but this season P1 still wasn't in great shape—so the comments always turned negative.
“Hey, hey—go top up already.”
“Huh? Okay.”
Jonghyun hurried him off, then turned back to his own screen to order food.
“They want me there again?”
“·····”
When no advice came from his friends, Jimin moved over, a little puzzled.
“Ah, so that's how that goes.”
“Leona just dove in weirdly just now.”
In a bot fight, a Leona who had force-initiated completely threw the play and got wiped instead. Jimin had peeled off at a good timing and survived—but the enemy Jinx walked away with three kills.
“Close one.”
“·····”
Even Jimin—who had already gotten the hang of AP mages in no time—couldn't handle the carry power of a Jinx with Lulu's help, and they lost.
“I think mid is kind of boring.”
He finally said what he'd been holding back.
“What about ADC?”
“ADC's also a little····· Top is the most fun for me.”
“Yeah?”
Top lane wasn't completely isolated, but it was still the most 1v1-oriented lane. Jimin liked being able to hit people well, and he liked being a top laner who didn't get jerked around by the rest of the team.
“Still, you're good at mid and ADC too, so climbing won't be a problem.”
“Yeah—just keep playing top as your main.”
His friends comforted him. He looked a little disappointed in SOL's system, and they liked watching him tear through strangers with that bright, happy face.
“Nice.”
“Renekton's solid, right?”
“Yeah!”
Jimin grinned after locking in a top Renekton that felt amazing when the game went well. His strong timing came early, so if the enemy didn't respect it, fun situations popped up constantly.
“Try Fiona next.”
“Fiona?”
“Yeah. Her carry potential's high—I think she'd suit you.”
Jonghyun, sitting beside him, recommended a champion. By his standards, she was the kind of pick you hated having on your team and feared facing on the other side—which somehow made her feel perfect for Jimin.
“Oh—what was that Riposte timing?”
“This is only your second game and you've already adapted?”
The enemy had tried to punish Jimin's Fiona for living on a side lane—and the result had been catastrophic. Baron went over right after.
“Ooooh, all the way to Emerald!”
“How much did you climb today?”
The day's final results appeared on the monitor. A brilliant shade of green.
Not much left now!
The corners of Jimin's mouth lifted—he still didn't fully grasp how explosively he was climbing. Of course, that high crashed hard when he got home and found out Dahye had no-showed her stream.
The next day.
Gulp.
Jimin swallowed at the sight of that distinctive color.
“Wait, is this real?”
“That's insane.”
“Whoa.”
His friends made a huge fuss. Even Jonghyun was stunned.
He actually did it.
A friend who had started SOL less than a week ago····· And Jimin still had items and champions he didn't even know—yet he had climbed to the same tier as Jonghyun, a three-year veteran who never got disrespected for his skill no matter where he went.
Of course, strewn along the path behind him were countless victims who had queued top and gotten swept away by a natural disaster.