Chapter Text
Reo Mikage, the heir of the great Mikage Corporation. Everyone wanted to get close to him because of his money and connections, he was always the center of everyone's attention and never lacked anything. He found his passion for soccer and some friends along the way, but... he felt something was still missing.
"Reo-chaaaan."
He sighed as he heard Bachira's shrill voice, the guy was always a little ball of energy that came and went at his pleasure. He was a strange character that he had taken a liking to after a game Reo had against his team in high school. Now they met again at college, while he studied business as his parents planned, Bachira followed in his mother's footsteps with art.
Now they were at a coffee shop near the university with Reo taking a break from his classes and student council activities, because yes, he had been elected as treasurer. Not that he would give his money away if anything was ever missing.
"What do you need now?"
Bachira pouted his lips, "That was bad, Reo-chan. I'm bored! Let's go to the arcade!"
This guy was a bad influence on him, this same scenario had happened many times: Bachira would insist and Reo didn't have enough willpower to say no to his puppy dog eyes. It was the natural cycle of things.
Or it would have been if Reo hadn't turned his head to look at the person next to him upon hearing a clear, "Damn Drunk and his fucking hand of god."
He came upon a boy with white hair and gray eyes that seemed to have a yellow ring to them in the right light. He had a disinterested expression, but his fingers typed rapidly and the click of the mouse was almost aggressive.
Reo made the most logical choice, pulled out his phone, and held up his book to cover that he was about to take a picture of that cute guy he would be researching later. Not that the other didn't notice either, considering how immersed he was in his game.
It was going well, he felt like a creepy stalker taking a video of a person in a coffee shop and in broad daylight, but this guy was just his type and he had enough connections to easily figure out who the hell he was.
He was probably from college, seemed to be the same age as him, and a regular at the cafe, namely Isagi - a friend of his he met through Bachira who worked part-time here - was dropping off a new piece of lemon tart for the guy, fortunately not in camera range.
And yes, everything was going well. But Reo forgot that he wasn't alone, and Bachira wasn't the most normal person who could be accompanying him at the moment. So he didn't react in time when his phone was knocked out of his hand.
"You..."
Bachira, the blessed son of a bitch, stood up from his chair and approached the white-haired boy, his phone recording inches away from the other's expressionless face. When the boy noticed, he looked up while still moving his hands in play. For some strange reason, he lifted the corner of his mouth in a small smile, then returned to his expression and asked, "Who are you?"
As Bachira's lips opened to give an answer, the boy returned his gaze to the screen, "Wait, the safe zone is shrinking."
Bachira continued to record the boy's face with his phone, Reo had never felt so embarrassed and mortified. He stood up quickly, gaining a slight dizziness, before reaching across and snatching the phone from the hands of his dumb friend who couldn't sit still.
"Okay, let's go to the arcade," he whispered taking Bachira's wrist.
The boy with two-tone hair smiled too much, shaking his head, "Noooo, I'm not bored anymore!"
Of course not, he was embarrassing Reo!
"So... you are?"
Reo froze in place, watching Bachira grab his shoulders and turn him so that he was facing the handsome boy. "I'm Meguru Bachira and this is Reo Mikage. He thinks you're cute-hmph."
After covering his friend's loose mouth, Reo placed his business smile, "Ignore him, we won't bother you anymore, go on with your game. My pleasure."
Without waiting for a response, he dragged the two of them to the exit. Bachira licked his hand when they were outside, causing him to push it away in disgust.
"He was just about to introduce himself! You should have waited for a second longer!"
"I wasn't going to humiliate myself there any more than you did. And no need to wait for his introduction, Isagi seemed to know him, let's ask him later," Reo hissed.
Bachira grinned, jumping up and down dumbly as they moved towards the arcade, "Finally some fun!"
After wasting time in the arcade, Bachira dragged Reo back to the café, they might as well have texted Isagi instead of coming in, but that was okay, today was his day off and he couldn't complain.
That was before he came in, the guy was still there! He was still playing while Isagi looked over his shoulder and commented from time to time.
"Yoichi!"
Bachira shouted, drawing the attention of the two people. Reo had already turned to look away. He didn't want any more embarrassment.
"Meguru! Reo! They're back, what do you need?"
Even without seeing, he knew Bachira was waggling his eyebrows suggestively. At least the guy had the decency to whisper this time, "That boy, Reo has a crush."
"Ohhhhh."
Reo's friends shared a neuron, bah.
"I see, well, his name is Seishiro Nagi. He comes here when he doesn't have class, he's in digital animation and looks to me like he does live streaming too. You know he's a bit involved in e-sports."
"You shouldn't give out so much information," Reo said, looking at Isagi and wondering if he was also randomly throwing out information about his life like that just because someone asked. This guy is a bit innocent.
"It's okay, it's you. And I don't think Nagi has a problem, you're rich, and he's been looking for a sponsor to live his dream life."
"What is this dream?"
"To live carefreely. And to play video games while relaxing at home without thinking about anything."
"So..." There was Bachira again, "You can be his sugar daddy."
Reo shuddered, "No, shut up, let's go."
After much, he managed to convince Bachira to leave, saying goodbye when his driver arrived to pick him up, apparently the other still wanted to hang out with some of his other friends, he had too much energy.
When he got to his room he searched for "NG" in his browser. After filtering the searches, he found the profile of the guy he had seen at the cafe. According to some fan sites, when NG chose his player name and consequently for his streaming channel, he just picked two random letters on the keyboard because he thought it was too much trouble to think of a user.
How had this guy made it to one of the tops in e-sports in Japan?
Reo did some research on the pros and cons of the e-sports industry in Japan before deciding.
It wouldn't be a bad decision to support this guy.
He had talent, he just needed the means to achieve more. With that laptop and his average-quality accessories, he wasn't accomplishing much. Even if he seemed to have a computer and some support, plus his live streams, it wasn't enough to bring out his talents.
Reo saw that the boy's channel had activity; NG had started live streaming. He put on his headphones and watched the stream, the boy was wearing the hood of his hoodie as he stood in his chair, now at home, looking at the camera with a sleepy expression.
Even with his obvious listlessness, he seemed to have a decent amount of followers. Reo listened to the guy give his introduction without really paying attention. He clicked a couple of times before a message popped up on the screen.
"Boss has donated $100."
NG flinched, looking at the camera in surprise, "In dollars? Ah, whoever gave this, I can't accept it, it's too much and..."
"Boss has donated $200."
NG twisted his lips, "Okay, I'll take it. Thank you, boss."
Reo contacted the owner of the e-sports team NG belonged to, a negligible part of his money was used to buy the team's contract and the building they were staying in. Alright, tomorrow, he would go meet his guys.
For now, watching the live stream was fine.