A Christmas Overflowing with Love (1)
After our victory over Peacemaker, our team's stock skyrocketed even higher.
We'd always been a hot topic thanks to my solo queue rankings and the girls' looks, and ever since the academy league, our new metas and strategies had built us a reputation that rivaled even Division 1 teams in name recognition alone. Fans would occasionally spark heated debates about "when Shining Star would finally climb to Division 1."
Among the opinions downplaying us, the most common was "they only know weird cheese strategies—their base skill level is low." It was hard to argue against that. We'd lose pretty easily if opponents brought out picks we'd never seen before, and right after entering Division 3, we'd suffered a four-game losing streak in a row.
But the mid-game teamfight footage from the first set against Peacemaker—the one with that marathon-length exchange—spread like wildfire across communities. As the tournament progressed, people's views on us started shifting.
Especially with the Spirits champions, notorious for their insane mobility that's a nightmare even for pros to handle balanced properly. And then the perfect CC chain between those Spirits, plus the offlaner carry combo of Light Spirit and Mightback. Having showcased it all flawlessly against Dolphin and Peacemaker, it was getting harder for anyone to dismiss our team's caliber.
We swept our two matches in the last week of December—which included Christmas—with 2-0 wins, bouncing back from our 0-4 start to a solid 4-4. We'd clawed our way into the mid-table of the Division 3 Winter Season.
With the league break stretching from Christmas through New Year's ahead of us, we could finally unwind feeling good. Win just one more—the final match of Round 1 against Bloody Rose after the break—and we'd break .500 and head into Round 2.
"Alright, everyone worked hard practicing and playing. Have a great Christmas and New Year, rest up properly. Just don't lose your edge completely."
"Yes! See you later!"
The players packed their bags and headed home one by one. Everyone except Seona.
"Ahhh~ I should rest a bit too."
Saying that, Seona flopped onto the living room sofa in the practice room and stretched out luxuriously.
"You sure you're really okay not going home?"
The day Kim Seon-woo had barged into the practice room, Seona had gotten into a massive fight with her dad and declared she'd run away and never go back home. Was she actually planning to follow through? While the others packed and left, she just lounged there, waving them off without lifting a finger.
"Yeah. I'm having Christmas dinner out with Mom anyway, so what's the big deal? And even if I went home, it'd just be nonstop fighting with Dad. Why bother?"
"Still, if you keep avoiding home, your mom will worry."
"I already texted her. Told her I'm not coming back for a while. And after that press conference, she and Dad had a huge blowout too—the family vibe's toxic right now, so she actually told me to stay away. That's why this dinner's just me and her, no Dad."
"I figured your mom had no idea what happened, so she must think your dad just accepted it quietly."
Seona snorted derisively at that.
"Dad bending his stubborn pride because of someone else's opinion? Hah! That's the funniest thing I've ever heard."
Fair enough. I'd said the words, but from Kim Seon-woo's attitude and expression alone, he didn't strike me as the type. But then why had he thrown that tantrum in the practice room, stormed off, and gone radio silent to his wife—not to mention The Shine HQ—for over a month?
It was all in the past anyway. No reason for me to reach out and poke the bear, as long as they didn't come nitpicking at us.
"Anyway, Seona, what are you planning to do here?"
"Play some games, I guess. Or you could watch me practice like always, Coach! You're not heading home either, right?"
"Hey, I'm not going home, but I'm on break too, you know?"
"Pfft, whatever. A pretty girl like me is giving up her own break to practice during the holidays—shouldn't her coach help out?"
"Sigh, fine, got it. Might as well, if we're not playing around."
At Seona's request, I supervised her training and ran some games together to kill time.
Before, she would've hated being left alone with me. But ever since she'd come to the meeting room to say thanks last time, she didn't seem as averse to it anymore.
Hey, progress— at least she didn't think of me as some pervert sex offender anymore.
A pub near Sung Han University.
A group of female college students had claimed a table, laughing raucously and knocking back drinks amid the chatter.
When a woman pushed open the pub door, the students at the table spotted her and waved excitedly with big grins.
"Ah, unnie! Over here, here!"
The woman headed to their table.
It was already packed with five or six people, including a tall woman with a black ponytail and a somewhat fierce vibe, all deep into their drinks.
"Ugh, it's freezing. I was late, huh?"
"No, unnie! We've been dying laughing over Yuna—we totally lost track of time!"
"Huh? What about Yuna?"
At her senior's question, Yuna chugged her beer.
"Nooo~ Unnie, hear me out. So, at our team dinner last time..."
The senior burst into uncontrollable laughter after hearing about the dinner antics from Yuna.
"Sheesh... I mustered up so much courage to do that, and these girls say it's not even a proper way to flirt with a guy..."
"Ahahaha! Oh man, what are we gonna do with this clueless lightweight? Hey, you little rascal, you think wrapping one piece of meat ssam and feeding it to him was some big flirt move? And it wasn't even just you—the other girls on your team did it too, right?"
"Sheesh... It was all Kim Seona's fault I got dragged into it..."
Yuna's friends and seniors snickered, teasing their inexperienced friend's naivety.
"Hmm~ But isn't our Yuna in big trouble?"
"Why would I be?"
"Your team juniors started competitively wrapping ssams and going 'aaang~' first, right? This is totally that situation."
"Yeah, yeah, exactly."
"What situation?"
"Those girls definitely have a crush on your coach!"
Thud. Yuna's heart sank.
"Th-them...? No way..."
"Jeez, you dense one. When does a girl wrap food and feed it to a guy's mouth with an 'aaang~' unless she's into him? Would you do that for some guy you don't even like?"
"The others maybe not, but that one who did it first? She's for sure."
"Ha... Hayoung? Nah, no way... She seems like the type who's never even held a guy's hand."
"Same as you."
"Don't you know the saying about the quiet cat climbing the ridgepole first? Innocent, prim-looking girls are the ones who go all out."
Yuna's seniors and friends egged her on relentlessly, urging her to confess to this coach guy.
"But is that coach hot? I haven't seen a pic—I'm curious."
"Huh? You haven't? We saw the photo when Yuna came to the club room last time. He's super handsome."
"You haven't seen? Here, photo."
Yuna pulled out her phone and showed a pic of just her and Yuseong at a gukbap joint near the dorms, sipping soju with their bowls.
One friend gawked at it and grabbed Yuna's hand.
"C-can I make a move too?"
"What?!"
"Hey, he's that hot— of course your team girls are into him! You're too dense to do anything, and you don't wanna lose him to your juniors either, right? So maybe I should... Ow! This drunk's hitting people!"
Yuna was usually the most leader-like among her seniors, but guy talk turned her into prime teasing material.
One senior who'd been watching quietly leaned in and asked Yuna softly.
"But Yuna, do you actually like that coach?"
"Uh... huh?"
"Come on. From what you're saying, you're just rambling about what the others did to him—not a word about your own feelings. So if she wants to shoot her shot, what's the harm?"
"Th-that's..."
Yuna's lips quivered, but no words came out. Admitting it aloud felt too embarrassing in matters of the heart—and once said, it might become an irreversible truth.
"If you don't like him, who cares if your teammates do? Or if she makes a move? Why the freakout?"
Yuna's face flushed hotter and hotter. She wanted to speak, but her mouth just opened and closed like a carp's.
"...do..."
"Can't hear you."
"B-because! I... l-like... C-Coach... too..."
Her voice trailed off to a mosquito buzz by the end.
The senior smirked at Yuna's confession, while her friends squealed and pinched her cheeks nonstop.
"Kyaa! What do we do? Our little rascal's in love!"
"Yuna falling for a guy? The country's doomed tomorrow! Guess we'll have to teach her all the love techniques now!"
The college seniors and friends appointed themselves Cupids for Yuna's first crush, relentlessly grilling her with advice.