I Just Wanted to Play Games Together (2)
"Nice! Nice!"
The female streamer clapped her hands and cheered like a little kid. In the blue team's bot lane, Yu Dahye's Ezreal and Karma had just secured a double kill against the enemy bot duo of Kai'Sa and Nautilus. And Ezreal already had two kills under his belt.
"Yeah, yeah, guys, I just need to play a little better myself," Dahye said with a smile.
Two wins in a row, and this game was already starting with two kills. What was there to be mad about? Just thinking about buying items and poking the enemy bot lane made her grin.
"Huh?"
Dahye hit Tab and checked the scoreboard.
"…"
Six minutes in, and the enemy Jayce already had 48 CS. Their team's Sylas? Thirteen.
"What the hell?"
It was too big a gap to shrug off as normal CS difference — the numbers had already blown wide open in the early game.
Since Dahye rarely checked other lanes unless she had to, the viewers were left with nothing but speculation.
"Hey, kill him! Kill him!"
On her way back to lane, Dahye started cheerleading.
"Yes!"
The red team's Gragas had tried to force a fight near the enemy side, and died in a 2v2 mid-jungle skirmish. Just like that, blue team was up 3–0.
"Why am I landing every skill today?"
Dahye's Ezreal was already stomping Kai'Sa with the gold lead, and the enemy bot lane had no answer at all.
"Huh?"
Dahye hurriedly checked top. Trying to claw back the ruined lane, Sylas had gone for a solo kill — and gotten wrecked by Jayce instead. With the wave shoved in, the turret was left completely exposed.
"What are you doing, cover top already."
Dahye — the same girl who named her account "Don't Ping Me" — started spamming pings all over the top turret.
"We're winning everywhere except top, so what."
Her face had already gone serious as she carefully looked for a fight.
"Please, please."
"Yesss!"
Dahye clenched her fist in pure joy.
Kai'Sa, already half-dead, got finished by Ezreal's Precision Barrage. A normal 2v2 bot lane no longer existed.
"Just farm CS — wait, no, don't even farm. Just don't die."
With three kills and a core item already online, Dahye's smile was back. Sure, a fed Jayce's poke would be scary, but that alone couldn't flip the game. Not when the enemy ADC was that far behind. On top of that, their Viego had just landed a successful gank and taken down the enemy Azir. Orianna was already winning mid, and the scales had fully tipped.
"…What are you doing right now?"
But SOL, true to its reputation as a bipolar mood generator, had Dahye's face go stiff the moment she watched Jayce sweep the kills in a 2v2 top-jungle fight. Her voice dropped into a pitch that was far too threatening to call soft.
"Ugh, this is suddenly pissing me off," Dahye muttered.
They still had the advantage. She'd put the enemy ADC at 0/3/1, and the mid-bot damage dealers still had a clear gold lead. And yet the game was getting derailed by a single top lane gap? Top was supposed to be the least impactful lane in SOL — that was common knowledge, right?
"Alright guys, we need to focus for this."
Third dragon fight. The enemy Jayce's items were scary, but everyone else was still ahead.
FWOOM—!
"Huhh?"
One Shock Blast from Jayce shredded the blue team's mid and support HP bars in a single hit.
"Haaah…"
Even the clean third-dragon setup had fallen apart. As a player, Dahye was already looking at this as a straight 5v5. She kept stomping the enemy bot with one-sided Ezreal poke from mid, and the damage dealer gold gap held — but then—
"Wait—!"
Before she knew it, it was Baron fight. A clean engage from the enemy Nautilus and Gragas, followed by a super-toss from Azir. Their relentless focus on Orianna paid off perfectly. Now it was the critical teamfight — red team with most of their ults spent versus blue team still at four members.
"Ah, fuck!"
She'd fought to the end, but with every escape tool spent, Dahye died screaming in frustration. The enemy Kai'Sa barely did anything — everyone just melted under Jayce's absurd damage.
And just like that, Baron fell too. Ezreal and Orianna were especially vulnerable to a Baron-buffed enemy push. Sylas, who'd been beaten up in side lanes ever since laning phase, was already a non-factor. Meanwhile Jayce, with his teammates fully pivoting into a top-carry game plan, had become an absolute monster.
Dahye clamped her mouth shut like she already knew.
"…Huh?"
In front of the bot inhibitor turret, the enemy Jayce had overextended pretty hard down bot lane, and jungle Viego was creeping up behind him. Their team could reach Jayce faster than the enemy main force.
"Kill him!"
With the bounty as the prize, everyone piled in.
"Huh?"
She couldn't believe her own eyes. Sylas exploded on the spot. Viego, failing to land his stun, died walking in. Even Karma, who'd been trying to throw out shields and CC—
"…"
The enemy Azir teleported in, and the rest of their team arrived.
"Wha—?"
"Ah, fuck, seriously."
Orianna got locked in a CC hell by the enemy team and died. Dahye's Ezreal, the last one still trying to run, got chased down by Kai'Sa's ult and finished off.
The Baron buff was still up. Jayce had backed home and was already teleporting back in.
Park Jimin smiled without even meaning to. There was something genuinely fun about winning and then celebrating it together as a team. The three honors that followed were just a bonus.
"Huh?"
Jimin hurriedly pulled up Dahye's stream. He'd already learned from her broadcasts that watching a stream while playing against them was bad manners. Stream sniping, they called it. He was curious about her reaction, but he wasn't going to cross that line. He could always check the VOD later.
"What good teammates? I played insanely well this game and Sylas just threw the whole thing."
Dahye's voice was sharp and irritated. It was hard to believe this was the same person who'd been celebrating her wins earlier.
"…"
Jimin watched Dahye and the chat.
Nuna played really well that game.
After carrying that hard, Jimin had thought the enemy Ezreal was almost the only one who felt genuinely threatening. His teammates had kept warning him to watch out for Ezreal once they cut down the Orianna with no escape tools, so he'd been conscious of her the whole time.
Because of me…
He knew full well he'd flipped the last game with his own performance. And because of that, Nuna had lost, gotten roasted in chat, and clearly wasn't in a good mood.
"I'm not feeling bad. Yeah, well… thanks."
Right as she was about to force a smile back on for the stream, Dahye read the message out loud.
"Ah!"
Jimin lit up with delight when she read his chat. He'd typed little messages like that from time to time, but this was the first time she'd actually read one on stream.
"Alright, we're still 2–1, so let's keep going."
Dahye queued up the next game. And of course, so did Jimin.
He clenched his fists and made a resolution. If they ended up on the same team this time, he was going to carry no matter what. For Dahye — whose smiling face was a hundred times prettier than her frowning one.
"Whoa…"
He was immediately overwhelmed. They'd matched again. On the stream, ADC Dahye was locking in Ashe. He was playing with Nuna again.
"Ah, but…"
Jimin was flustered. Why were they on opposite teams again?!
"Wait, what? That's the Jayce from last game?"
Dahye's expression instantly twisted into irritation.
"…"
Jimin had planned to turn the stream off while he played, but this time he shut it even faster. A strange sense of guilt settled over him. He had no idea how things had ended up like this.