A Mistake

Was it because I'd covered the game screen while queuing?

At least the disaster of Yone getting banned never happened.

"But this is my first game on Yone… No matter how I look at it, I'm just going to be a burden…"

"It's fine. I'll just play hard enough for both of us."

Even after my firm answer, Curry kept fretting. The fretting went on right until the timer hit one. Then the man who'd gone quiet demanded another confirmation from me.

"…You're really locking it in. You'll have to deal with the consequences."

"I've already dealt with plenty of consequences during Part 1 of the stream, haven't I?"

I jabbed at him for stalling so pitifully, and Curry immediately locked in Yone.

Was he sulking?

"Just kidding, kidding. You did more than well enough yourself, Curry. It wasn't that hard on me."

I tossed him a line of comfort so he wouldn't actually sulk. Curry answered in a thin, quiet voice.

"Could you please make it clear whether that's a compliment or a dig…"

"If you had any sense… you'd already know."

"…I'm the sinner here. Of course I am."

Ah, this was too much fun. I wanted to torment him more. The thought kept bubbling up — but I didn't push any further. I've always been the type who saves the tastiest bite of a meal for last.

While Curry and I bantered, the ban-pick phase wrapped up completely before I knew it. The jungle champion I'd locked was Elise — the undisputed tier-one pick. I could have gone for all sorts of meme picks, but the persona of Barcode had to be a serious, pure ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠skill player. If I started looking anything like NayeonQueen, the toxic sniper who haunted Curry's stream, the armchair Sherlock Holmeses in chat might piece together my identity. The odds of my identity leaking just because Barcode played for fun were vanishingly small — but I wanted to erase even that tiny chance, so I stuck exclusively to champions with guaranteed performance. Of course, when I sniped as NayeonQueen, I'd still mess around to my heart's content. I still had a mountain of new-meta builds I wanted to try; I'd torment people properly once the collab was over.

While I was thinking all that through, the game started.

The truth was, Curry had never played Yone even once. A man who'd walked a single path as a top-laner his whole career wasn't familiar with any other lane. Plenty of people wondered how anyone could only play top — but Curry, for his part, couldn't understand people who dug other wells when one well alone wasn't enough. Put generously, he was steadfast. Put ungenerously, he had no backup plan. That didn't mean he was completely helpless on other lanes. His skill simply dropped from Diamond I level to Diamond IV when he left top. He still had a basic grasp of how other lanes worked.

So for Curry, the Part 2 collab stream with Barcode was more worry than anticipation. Could he actually pull this off? The question kept gnawing at him, but he had no choice. The usually swaggering Curry was running on low tension, gone cold — but even cold curry had to heat back up the moment he saw the champion the enemy mid had locked. The opposing mid laner had picked Kassadin, the classic AP counter. Curry had first-picked Yone, and Yone was AD. Kassadin was at a disadvantage into AD champions — and yet they'd second-picked Kassadin into a first-pick Yone? No matter how you looked at it, it was pure disrespect.

Their mid had openly mocked him, so he was going to win no matter what. With that resolve, Curry waited for the minions. Before long they arrived on the lane, and the laning phase against Kassadin began. Most Kassadins took Q at level one — the guaranteed skill — and poked. Of course, that only applied when the opponent was a ranged AP champion.

"Curry. Kassadin took W at level one. Don't give him space — poke him with Q whenever he goes for a last hit."

"How did you know Kassadin took W at level one… Ah."

The moment laning started, Barcode's coaching voice cut in, and Curry questioned it — until he saw Kassadin's auto-attack damage coming out higher than his base AD. Kassadin's W carried a passive that added bonus damage to his autos. Following Barcode's advice, Curry used Q to poke every time Kassadin went for a minion last hit.

"I'm clearing three camps and ganking at three. Keep the wave like that and take E so you can follow up."

"Understood."

On Barcode's orders, Curry took E and managed the wave so it neither pushed nor got pulled. The result: when the cannon wave arrived, Elise dropped down from the upper river and went for the gank. Elise's cocoon landed on Kassadin standing among the minions, and Curry followed up with an empowered E-into-Q combo.

Kassadin, with no mobility until he learned his ultimate, died helplessly on the spot. He'd even burned Flash, so the rest of the laning phase was going to be massively in Yone's favor. After shoving the wave and recalling, Curry bought two daggers for attack speed and a health potion. Back on the lane, he harassed the Kassadin who was trying to shove one more wave behind a big minion wave. With so many minions stacked up, both Yone and Kassadin had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dropped below half health. Curry went for the all-in before his allied minions fully died. He used E forward to chase the Kassadin trying to disengage, then fired an empowered Q to close the gap. Mixing autos and Q to stack as much damage as possible, he still saw the mark glowing red. Kassadin was already under tower. Curry used Q-Flash to finish him — but what his Yone actually showed was Flash-Q. What should have been a clean Q-Flash kill failed by a hair because of the wrong order. Forced to E back empty-handed, Curry swallowed hard.

"Curry."

"Y-yes!"

The chilly voice made Curry tense up completely.

"People make mistakes."

"R-right, of course!"

"Of course?"

"…Mistakes aren't supposed to happen in the first place. I must have briefly lost my mind."

He couldn't breathe. His body was still drawing air, but his mind felt like it had already sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

"It's your first game on Yone, so I understand completely."

"…"

"But basic combos like Q-Flash — you land those fine normally, don't you?"

"…"

"Answer."

"I do them often and I do them well!"

Curry felt extreme exhaustion. If someone told him to slam his head on the desk and sleep right now, he'd be out in seconds. Internally, he prayed someone — anyone — would come save him from this situation.

"It's fine. Just do better going forward. But I'm in a teaching position here, and if I don't see you improving…"

"I'll work hard!"

"Meaning you weren't working hard until just now?"

"No, that's not — I mean I'll work even harder."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

He had a memory from school of getting scolded by his homeroom teacher at the back of the classroom for not doing his homework. Getting chewed out while dozens of classmates watched was thoroughly exhausting. In Barcode, Curry could glimpse the teacher who'd scolded him back then. He never expected to feel this way as a full-grown adult. Swallowing the bitterness, Curry refocused on the game. Whether you were young or fully grown, getting scolded was the worst.

"Enemy Amumu and Alistar are coming bot — ult out of there."

"Two stacks into E, Q-Flash, ult — that's a Kai'Sa kill angle."

"Escape with the double wall-hop I taught you today! Nice."

From then on, Curry diligently followed Teacher Barcode's advice. A Diamond player's vision couldn't possibly see a Challenger's "angles" — but acting on the advice, he kept stacking advantages through angles he never would have seen on his own. The game ended cleanly with Elise and Yone carrying.

After the game, Curry took his hands off mouse and keyboard and looked down at them.

Maybe… I have talent for Yone?

Hard-carrying from the very first game. Even with coaching from a Challenger Yone one-trick, you still needed the skill to execute the advice. His understanding and game sense for Yone might be lacking, but his mechanics — those had to be the real deal, right? Maybe he really did have talent for Yone?

Just as the thought formed, Barcode's praise followed.

"For a first game, you did better than I expected."

"Really? You're not going to wait for me to nod and then go, 'Just kidding~'?"

"I'm not that bad of a person."

For some reason, receiving the compliment put him in a foul mood. Coming back to his senses, Curry shook his head and answered inwardly.

No. You are absolutely a bad person. How many times have I been put through the wringer on stream today?

Curry clamped his mouth shut so none of that would leak out. He left the game, accepted Barcode's party invite, and queued again. Before long, a match popped.

Curry shuddered at the familiar nickname sitting in the lobby. Dealing with Barcode alone was already overwhelming — and now NayeonQueen was sniping into this situation too?

"Hmm… Looks like we got matched with NayeonQueen?"

"Wh— that bastard… You know Nayeon?"

Barcode acting familiar with NayeonQueen made Curry jump and fire off the question.

"Of course I know. They're a regular on your stream, aren't they?"

"Uh… D-do you watch my stream often?"

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Because you never asked?"

Curry felt dizzy all over again. He'd suspected it ever since Barcode started grinding him down in Part 1 — but to think Barcode really was a regular viewer of his stream.

"This should be fun. This game."

"Ugh…"

Curry made a thoroughly sickened sound. Not one toxic player, but two? And the allied ADC's nickname looked suspicious too — a name that basically advertised I am a sniper. Was this all karmic retribution? Just as the thought crossed his mind, someone dodged.

"What a shame."

"I am not even slightly disappointed."

Thank god. Curry meant that with every fiber of his being.

The Part 2 collab with Curry wrapped up without incident. Thanks to my excellent coaching, Curry achieved the feat of carrying three games in a row on Yone. I'd wanted to keep going, but Curry ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠handled Yone better than I'd expected, and there was nothing left to coach. More than that, thick exhaustion was soaking through his voice, so I decided to let him go. I'd gotten plenty of satisfaction out of today.

As the end of stream approached, all kinds of chat messages flooded in. I didn't know when I'd go live again after today — but I had no intention of streaming often. I'd learned that streaming was a lot harder than it looked.

I laced my fingers together, stretched both arms slowly forward, then lifted them up and arched my back.

"Nnngh…"

My stiff body loosened and felt wonderful, and a sound slipped out before I could stop it. Ready to end the stream, I brought my stretched arms back down toward the desk.

Thud—

In the process, my hand bumped the cam. The camera angle tilted from low to high. I moved fast and fixed the angle back to normal — but for one clear moment, that tilted camera had been pointed straight at my face.

The instant I replayed the scene in my head, only one thought formed.

Ah. I messed up.