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Tong Yao groaned into her pillow as there was a knock at the door. Who the fuck is knocking right now?! Didn’t they hear that she was on her period? It must be Rui then. “What is it, Rui?”
She hears the door click open and expects Rui’s cheerful voice to ask her how she’s feeling. Instead, she’s surprised by a sharper voice belonging to one of her teammates, in fact, the one she’d least expect to come in and check on her. “Tong Yao? Can I come in?”
Tong Yao manages to turn her head towards the door to look at Lao K as he peeks in the door awkwardly. “Yeah, of course, Lao K.”
The older boy slips in quietly, shutting the door behind him as he walks over towards the bed. He pauses awkwardly in front of her, so Tong Yao sits up with a grunt, shoving her fist into her painful cramp to make up for the loss of pressure. “What’s up?”
Lao K wordlessly holds up a shopping bag that she hadn’t noticed before. She takes it with a confused expression, and he nods at her to open it. She does, and is frankly a bit surprised at what she sees. It has various chocolates, essential oils, and her favorite snacks, plus something large and squishy at the bottom.
“I hope it helps,” Lao K says softly. Tong Yao can’t comprehend what’s going for some reason and it clearly shows on her face because Lao K sighs and takes a seat on the very edge of bed, looking up at her for a split second to make sure it’s ok. “I know we’re not as close as you and some of the other teammates, and I’m well aware that it’s my fault, but I guess I wanted to make sure you know that I’m here for you too. Especially if the others are being buffoons.”
Tong Yao manages a small smile at that. She and Lao K have managed some sort of silent agreement to tolerate each other at this point, playing together well but not interacting much outside of that, so the gesture is really sweet of him. She really wants to get to know him better too. She echoes her thoughts to him, and he grins.
“Sounds good.”
“We play really well together, I imagine that being friends outside of the games shouldn’t be too hard,” Tong Yao says with a smile.
Lao K nods. “Definitely.”
Tong Yao grins and opens her mouth to say something, but a wave of pain rushes through her and she groans, hunching over herself as she jams her fists into her abdomen. Lao K scoots a bit closer, clearly concerned. “Do pain meds not help?”
Tong Yao shakes her head. “Not much.”
His eyebrows furrow. “Pressure?
“That’s what usually works best,” she admits, grunting a bit. Lao K digs in the bag he brought and pulls out the squishy thing, now visible to be a cuddly weighted hot pack.
“Here, it’s not warmed up or anything but the weight should help.”
He hands it to her and she places it over her stomach, letting out a breath when the heft alleviates a bit of the pain. “Thanks,” she says. “In the spirit of getting to know each other, how do you know so much about periods?”
Lao K gives a tiny smile. “In high school, before I met Lao Mao and joined ZGDX, my best friend was a girl, and she taught me the best tricks.”
“Where is she now?”
“She moved to Beijing for college while I stayed behind in our hometown and met Ming, who brought me into the e-sports world.”
“Do you still keep in touch?”
“Sometimes. But it’s ok, we’re on good terms. And I guess being gay helps with the period knowledge too, for some reason,” Lao K jokes in an attempt to smoothly come out to her, and Tong Yao laughs.
“Smooth,” she teases. “But fair enough.”
“You’re not surprised or anything?” Lao K asks.
Tong Yao shrugs. “Not really. My roommate in college was a lesbian. And I’ve seen you and Lao Mao together, it’s not hard to guess,” she laughs. Lao K’s face turns red, but his smile says it all.
“Are your periods usually this bad?” Lao K asks as she winces in pain.
Tong Yao nods. “Yeah, this is about normal. Sometimes worse, rarely better.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok, I manage. So, you and Lao Mao?” Lao K rolls his eyes but says nothing. “How long have you guys known each other?”
“Years now,” Lao K tells her. “We were some of the first members Ming and Cheng recruited for ZGDX. Peng came later, but all of it feels like forever ago to be honest.”
“And, how long have you liked him?” Tong Yao asks, eyes wide as she takes in the new information.
“Almost as long,” Lao K admits. “He’s an idiot though, he wouldn’t notice if I held up a glittery sign in front of his face saying I love you .”
“But he’s your idiot,” Tong Yao coos, filling in the blanks.
“Yeah, he is,” Lao K agrees with a fond smile. “You know, you’re more observant than I thought.”
“I’m a gamer, of course I have good eyes,” Tong Yao complains.
“Unless it comes to yourself,” Lao K snorts.
“What do you mean?” Tong Yao demands, pouting slightly.
“Nothing, nothing,” Lao K teases.
“What is it?!” she shrieks.
“Not telling,” Lao K sing-songs. Tong Yao huffs before a new wave of pain hits her, and she presses her hands on the pad to give it more pressure as she groans. “Still hurting?” he asks, mood switched. She nods weakly. “Do you mind if I…?” Lao K asks, hesitantly gesturing towards her abdomen. “My friend taught me this technique…but if you’re uncomfortable with it I won’t do it,” he promises.
“It’s ok,” Tong Yao groans, eyes shut tightly in pain. Lao K carefully sits up closer to the head of the bed where Tong Yao is sitting, and, removing her hands and the pad, strategically places his hand over a spot over her pelvis and applies gentle pressure over her t-shirt. Tong Yao lets out a heavy breath and her hands unclench. “Is this ok?”
“Yeah,” she mumbles. “It feels better now. How do you do that?”
Lao K chuckles slightly. “My friend had bad cramps too. She taught me the right spots to put pressure.”
“But I don’t even know the right spots,” Tong Yao grumbles.
“I can teach you,” Lao K promises.
“Thanks.”
They fall into a comfortable silence for a while, Tong Yao breathing through her cramps while Lao K looks around her room at the edited decorations. If Xiao Peng had left the decorating to him, Tong Yao would have had a much easier time adjusting it to her tastes (and likely would have kept most of his picks since he knows what he’s about), but Xiao Peng was too excited to decorate and Lao K didn’t have the heart to take that away from him.
Eventually, Tong Yao speaks up to break the silence once the cramps have subsided a bit. It’s just a random question about gaming, but it quickly launches them into an in-depth conversation about their favorite tactics and strategies, favorite shikigamis, and favorite games besides Onmyoji Arena. Despite not meshing well personality-wise at the beginning, they find that they have a lot of similar gaming tendencies and preferences, even though Tong Yao is a much more aggressive gamer overall.
After exhausting that topic, they move on to others, easily chatting as if long-lost siblings until Xiao Peng knocks on the door with congee for Tong Yao.
In the time they talk, Tong Yao learns that Lao K knows even more about beauty and makeup than she does, volunteering to help her with her makeup before matches and outings and whatnot, and thoroughly enjoys shopping from his high school friendship and time experimenting with his appearance in freshman year of college. He likes to freestyle dance when he’s alone even though he says he’s not very good at it, and also has secret cooking skills that he learned in college.
In return, Lao K learns that while Tong Yao can’t cook to save her life, she has an innate gift with animals, they all love her, and contrary to what most people believe and what she’s portrayed herself as, has hidden athletic skills. They stem from her experience in youth gymnastics teams and dance classes and crews from the time she could walk until college when she discovered e-sports, and while she hates running, she enjoys dancing, and a good workout. Additionally, they both find out that the other can sing surprisingly well, promising to go to karaoke together sometime on one of their rare off-days.
When Xiao Peng texts Tong Yao that her congee is ready, the two are laughing in her room about a drama they both watched recently, Tong Yao’s cramps subsided enough for her to use the weighted pad instead of Lao K’s hand. “Hey, Xiao Peng just told me that there’s food for me downstairs. Should we go?” Tong Yao asks, semi-reluctant to break their little newfound bubble of friendship.
“We should, you should eat,” Lao K agrees. “But, uh, anytime you want someone to hang out with, or for girl talk or anything when Jinyang isn’t available, just shoot me a message, ok?”
“Sounds good,” Tong Yao says with a grin. “Also, when this mess,” she gestures to her cramps, “is over, we should duo match.”
“For sure,” Lao K agrees. He gets up and holds out a hand to help Tong Yao up, wincing in sympathy as she clutches her stomach once she’s vertical. “Food will help,” he assures.
She nods. “I know, but being vertical sucks.”
“Isn’t that the truth,” Lao K snorts.
“I’ll meet you down there,” Tong Yao says. “I have to, uh.”
Lao K gives her a thumbs up. “All good. Do what you need to, I’ll go make sure they have enough food.”
Tong Yao nods and limps over to the bathroom while Lao K leaves the room and heads downstairs, where the others are mostly all gathered around the dining table. Lu Sicheng has made a surprising sickly appearance, though he’s practically hiding himself in his hoodie off to the side, likely also sulking about a certain shorty for one reason or another that Lao K has plenty of theories about. He’ll have to ask Tong Yao about their captain sometime, now that she knows about him and Lao Mao.
Lao K takes his usual seat next to Lao Mao and wordlessly helps himself to food, sliding Tong Yao’s bowl of congee away from the center of the table and towards the free seat in between him and Sicheng. Tong Yao comes down a few minutes later, slowly limping down the stairs and all but falling into her seat as she jams her fist into her cramps. Lao K can only be slightly amazed at how women do this every month while still being a (semi)functional human. He remembers feeling this way with his friend too, the internal admiration for the quiet (or less quiet) strength they display every month. Tong Yao seems to have it bad, so he’s impressed with how relatively well she handles herself.
She silently starts eating, everyone looking back to their own food as chatter returns as normal. Lao K looks over to see Sicheng watching to make sure Tong Yao eats all her food. However, Tong Yao notices too and she pouts. “Why are you staring at me?” she demands.
“Just making sure you didn’t spill it everywhere like last time,” Sicheng replies flatly, and Tong Yao rolls her eyes, turning back to her food and taking a big bite. But there’s a tiny pink blush on her cheeks, faint, but there. Lao K smiles to himself. Oh, he’s definitely grilling Tong Yao about this later.