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Sanghyeok stretches out on his bed, a yawn on his lips.
Although he’s only half tucked-in under the covers, the soft bed under his back is too comfortable to even entice him to move. It has been another busy day of scrims, solo queue, and even some swimming.
Sanghyeok savors the silent hum of the air conditioning and the soft hissing of the humidifier by the corner of his room, a stark difference to the almost-constant lively conversation of his teammates by his ears.
Not that he hates it, of course – but everyone needs some quiet time when they can.
With both his mind and body calling for some rest, sleep comes easily to T1’s midlaner.
Soon enough, Sanghyeok finds himself in a dream.
His eyes focus on something fluffy curled around his waist. Instinctively, the thing – a tail – unfurls from his body on command. Sanghyeok feels around his back, his palms finding soft fluff everywhere.
“Well, I guess I’m a nine-tailed fox,” he says to no one in particular, his tails swishing behind him as he turns to look at the massive beast at his left. As expected, a yordle taps her fingernails dully against a makeshift table on the beast’s curled tail.
“Two health potions and one Doran’s ring, please,” Sanghyeok says, but the yordle doesn’t move an inch, nor does she take notice. She only sighs, eyes unfocused on nothing.
“Two health potions and a Doran’s ring,” Sanghyeok tries again, Ahri’s magic working its way into his voice. Even he is surprised at his tone, saccharine sweet and charming.
The shopkeeper doesn’t budge. She tucks her head into her arms as if to take a nap.
“It is a dream after all,” Sanghyeok mumbles.
Tails tucked into one massive fluff behind his warm back, his steps are light as he steps off familiar paved stone steps. Beyond the snores of the shopkeeper’s massive beast companion, a slight hum of magic permeates the air, concentrated around the massive Nexus in the middle of the base.
The glowing crystal of the Nexus elongates Sanghyeok’s shadow as he departs from the walled base. Sanghyeok feels the familiar trickle of arcana condense into a floating ball in his palms. He gives the glowing orb an experimental throw, and as expected, it returns into his palms after a short while. Sanghyeok laughs.
It’s not unusual to dream about things you’re preoccupied with throughout the day, and with him playing League of Legends for most of his waking hours, it’s honestly a bit more surprising that his dreams of being in Summoners’ Rift are few and far in between.
Sanghyeok dutifully walks to his designated lane, already knowing how the game goes. Curiously, he doesn’t hear the soft patter of the robed minions’ feet against stone, nor does he feel any animosity in the air.
No minions and no enemies? Well, it’s not the first time he’s here just to enjoy the sights. But still, it doesn’t hurt to be careful.
Sanghyeok slinks into the enemy jungle, Spirit Rushing past the walls of the enemy base.
It’s empty. He experimentally steps onto the range of the towering Nexus turrets, bracing to get hit, but he doesn’t. He finally lowers his guard when he sees the enemy shop without a shopkeeper.
It’s definitely just him and his shopkeeper around, then.
He’s just about to turn back and take a dip in the river when he hears it.
Sniffles, like someone crying softly. But he can’t quite place where it is coming from.
When the next sniffle comes along with a low whine, he realizes that it was coming not from the dream world he currently was in, but someone with him, in his bed.
Now… who?
A few weeks ago, Sanghyeok had witnessed an argument-turned-full-on-debate in the waiting room as they waited for their turn at the games. The whole team had been a bit worse for wear that day, what with sudden changes in schedule that brought them out of the almost-set sleeping and waking hours of professional gamers.
In the sleep-addled daze of the younger members, an outrageous topic for debate was born: among them, who would be most susceptible to a Lilia gank in real life?
It was a nonsense question, asked to pass the time. Sanghyeok doesn’t even know how Lilia came up in the discussion. Lilia wasn’t even meta.
But despite this, everyone gave their stances and was willing to defend their answers to the absolute end.
“Definitely not me,” Hyunjoon says, reclining back onto the sofa of the waiting room.
Minhyung’s eyes narrow at him. “Why not?”
“Because I’m the jungler. I’ll be Lilia in this case. And for the record, I think the correct answer is you, because you’re the ADC. A squishy ADC alone in the lane? AHA! Thank you for the free kill!”
Wooje snorts.
“Well, I guess you’re definitely as strong as a horse,” Minhyung flashes a shit-eating grin towards the jungler, “As strong as a horse yet as docile as Lilia – eep!” Minhyung squeaks, imitating the champion as Hyunjoon throws a pillow at his head.
“No, we were talking about if Lilia came out of the game and ganked us in real life, idiot!” Minseok clarifies the prompt.
“Honestly thinking about it, I think Minseok hyung will definitely be easy to gank.” Wooje muses, and Minseok starts huffing and puffing, poking Wooje’s side.
“And why is that, Choi Wooje,” he deadpans.
Wooje puts his phone down, serious about his argument. He paints a picture with his hands. “Hyung, imagine this. You’re in your room, preparing to go to bed. You leave the night light on and tuck yourself in.”
“Okay,” Minseok is definitely unconvinced.
Everyone is leaning in at this point, perhaps except Sanghyeok, who quietly observes the chaos unfolding from behind a book.
“Now, before you sleep, the door… it creaks open.”
Hyunjoon butts in, clearly teaming up with Wooje. “The hallway light is off, but the kitchen light gives you enough light to see the outline of a woman – and she’s peeking into your room!”
Minseok rolls his eyes.
“Hey! Minseok isn’t afraid of women!” Minhyung interjects, but Wooje shushes the marksman and continues spinning the tale.
“Yeah, but Minseok knows there are no women in the dorm, and yet, there’s one at the door,” Wooje’s voice rises, miming a door opening and someone peeking in.
“She creeps into your room one step at a time, but her footsteps are weird as fuck, like she’s walking on four legs or some shit! She looks dainty as hell but her footsteps are as loud as a horse’s!” Hyunjoon joins in, springing up from the couch and stamping his feet.
Minhyung laughs at the sight, but attempts to get them to stop.
“What the hell is that?!” the marksman exclaims when Hyunjoon and Wooje start prancing around the room.
“Now, she’s coming closer and closer. You’re so terrified you can’t move, like you got hit by Cassiopeia’s ult. She’s gaining on you! You get out of the bed, you plan to outrun her somewhat,” Wooje starts moving closer from the door.
“But you see her at full now, and my god, she’s half-horse! How do you outrun a horse, her movespeed’s way faster than yours!”
“You make a beeline for the door, and then boom! She launches a bowling bowl at you expertly!” Hyunjoon mimes rolling a bowling ball towards Minseok. “It hits you in the head, and now your head hurts – you feel drowsy!”
“And the last thing you see is her giant staff before you fall asleep after she whacks you over the head with it!” Wooje finishes the story, a giant grin on his face.
“Put yourself in the same situation then! How will you even beat Lilia in that situation?” Minseok defends himself. “You’d be toast just like me!”
“Nah,” Wooje plops back onto the sofa. “I’d win.”
“And how?!” Minseok’s voice rises in tone.
“I’d parry the bowling ball before it hits me,” Wooje mimes Fiora’s riposte, “And Lilia’s ult can be parried anyway, so I won’t fall asleep even if it hits me.”
“That’s unbelievable – you’re not Fiora, Choi Wooje!”
Anyway, that was how it started. They continued this debate until it was time to go onstage, and clearly, no one was willing to admit defeat because the next morning, Sanghyeok sees an interesting photo in the team’s group chat. Minseok sends a picture of him sitting on Wooje’s bed, with the toplaner clearly passed out behind him, his bedhead visible under the covers.
Attached to the photo is the caption: My name is Lilia and I ganked Choi Wooje last night. Didn’t even move a muscle when I sat down on the bed. Gank successful!
Hyunjoon: LMAO HE DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE YOU? IDIOT
Minhyung: TOP DIFF
Sanghyeok just grins before sending a laughing sticker.
Who would’ve thought that ganking at night, taking a few photos, and then sending them to the group chat would evolve to something completely outrageous in a span of a few weeks? The members were definitely competitive, even in this regard.
Minhyung complains that Hyunjoon absolutely hogged the sheets last night, and Hyunjoon retorts that Minhyung has the gall to complain when it was his room anyways, he can do whatever the hell he wants with his sheets – and why was he sleeping in his bed last night anyway?!
Minhyung raises an eyebrow. “I remember you saying that the squishy ADC would be the easiest to gank, but you’re the most vulnerable in real life though?”
“And why is that? I’ve got taekwondo skills, you rascal,” Hyunjoon smacks his lips in annoyance.
“Hyunjoon, you sleep with no clothes on. That’s equivalent to not having any armor, dude.”
And so, the cycle continued, and that was how randomly finding a teammate at your bed when you wake up became a running gag. They’d even started a schedule of who-ganks-when so they can keep track of the score of who gets ganked the most to get to the bottom of the debate with actual recorded data.
Of course, Sanghyeok wasn’t included in this schedule and so is pretty clueless on the sequence – after all, he didn’t take part in the debate at that time. He was too busy laughing at the others’ shenanigans to think of an argument of his own.
Honestly, Sanghyeok thinks that it brought them a little bit closer, both literally and figuratively. Although they’ve never been able to catch Sanghyeok off-guard and sleep the whole night in his bed, Sanghyeok grins inwardly at the fact that the rest of the team haven’t given up on trying to gank him in real life.
In some sense, he thinks that this exercise of tenacity will also reflect in-game somehow.
Back to the question of who is ganking him tonight. Another question emerges in Sanghyeok’s mind: how long has this team member been in his bed?
Sanghyeok emerges from sleep, his eyes flying open. As much as he’s not quite in the competition, he is competitive himself and doesn’t want to lose his win streak on not getting ganked at all.
He gets his answer pretty quickly.
He hears Wooje sob behind him, similar to how the toplaner cried after their loss to DRX in 2022.
Wooje seems to be in pretty deep sleep – his arms are around Sanghyeok’s waist, and the hair at the crown of his head tickles Sanghyeok’s cheek as the toplaner’s face presses against his shoulder.
Another sob wracks through Wooje. Sanghyeok feels him shudder behind him.
Sanghyeok slowly turns in Wooje's arms so that they face each other.
It's pitch black in the room, aside from the meager light the crack under the door affords from the hallway light.
Sanghyeok feels around the dark, looping an arm around Wooje to rub soothing circles on his back. "Wooje," he says softly.
Wooje's arms around him tighten and the toplaner lets out a strangled groan from his throat, uncomfortably shifting in his sleep. Whatever Wooje's dreaming about, it isn't pleasant.
Sanghyeok plants his hands on Wooje's shoulders and gives him a shake. "Wooje, you're dreaming," Sanghyeok says a bit more firmly, and finally, Wooje seems to have woken up.
Wooje's arms go slack around him, and vaguely, Sanghyeok sees a shadow of Wooje's head lift from the pillow and turn to look at him.
"Hyung?" Wooje's voice is scratchy and a bit stuffy from tears. "Oh, did I wake you?"
Realization hits Wooje about his gank mission, or so it seems, because his head falls back down on the pillow. “Ah, too bad. Gank failed again.”
Sanghyeok sits up and reaches for his phone, switching the flashlight open before setting it back down on the nightstand as a makeshift night light.
"Well, you were having a bad dream," Sanghyeok says, running his hands through Wooje's bedhead.
"I was," Wooje says, his eyes still unfocused with sleep. “Of all the times, it had to be tonight.” The toplaner scoots closer to him and pulls him back down under the sheets, cradling Sanghyeok in his arms. “A pity, it could’ve a been successful gank, too.”
Sanghyeok hears Wooje's frantic heartbeat drumming against his ribs.
He’s scared.
"Wanna talk about your dream?" Sanghyeok asks gently.
"Sure." Wooje's voice rumbles through his chest. Sanghyeok shifts, sitting upright.
A comfortable silence fills the room as Sanghyeok massages the junction of Wooje's neck and shoulders.
"It was a weird dream... ah, just. I went to work as usual... and there were so many flowers out front."
"I didn't understand why there were those expensive flower arrangements up to the streaming rooms. So I went to the lounge, and everyone was there but you. Everyone was crying, even Coach Tom."
"And I don't know why but at that moment… I just knew that we'd lost you, and I started crying."
Oh, so it was that kind of dream.
Sanghyeok tries to lighten up the mood with a joke. “Did I perhaps get bonked in the head by Lilia too hard in your dream? That’s not your fault though, I should’ve flashed that bowling ball…” Sanghyeok studies Wooje’s face, but he looks as miserable as ever, even a bit dumbfounded now.
“But no matter, Lilia no ult, I respawn in 30 seconds, and then I’ll solo kill that Lilia myself.” Sanghyeok is persistent with his jokes. He tries to stick the landing, but more tears well up in Wooje’s eyes.
The toplaner laughs incredulously. "You’re ridiculous, hyung!"
“Hey, be nice! I died in your dream and you call me ridiculous, that’s unbelievable!” Sanghyeok replies, but he’s relieved that he’s made Wooje laugh. Sure, he’s still crying, but it’s already a big improvement.
Wooje meets Sanghyeok's eyes for a moment before his arm covers his face, a sigh escaping his lips. "I don't even know why I'm still tearing up when hyung is here now."
Sanghyeok's chest fills with warmth as Wooje burrows back into the covers, rubbing at his eyes and wiping away the tears that escape to his rounded cheeks. Wooje’s breath catches in his throat and comes out in a stuttered rhythm.
"That was just a bad dream. I'm here. I'm okay." He offers comfort as he picks up Wooje's free arm and starts looking for knots under his skin, fingers pressing down and kneading on soft muscle. He works on this arm for a while, waiting until Wooje's breathing has stabilized before moving onto the next arm.
Sanghyeok tugs on the arm blocking Wooje's face. "I'll do the other arm, too."
Wooje lies boneless in his bed and doesn't resist, even sighing contentedly as the tension in his arm eases under Sanghyeok's fingertips.
"You're good at this, hyung," Wooje comments as Sanghyeok massages his hand. Wooje looks calm now, his bout of crying letting through a wave of tiredness.
"I've been having lots of practice." Sanghyeok lets go of Wooje's hand with a pat as Wooje yawns.
"Alright, let's go back to sleep now!" Sanghyeok turns the flashlight off before sinking back into the covers beside Wooje, his back flat against the bed.
Wooje sits up halfway. “Like… here?”
Sanghyeok snorts. “Well, you’re free to go back to your room if you’d like to,” he says, the smile on his lips showing in his tone.
“Can this be considered a successful gank, then? Since I’ll be here the whole night.” Wooje says as he lies back down on his side. Sanghyeok makes a non-committal sound at the back of his throat. Wooje beams, a real smile now plastered on his face.
Nevertheless, Wooje stays.
The space under the blanket shared by two is comfortably toasty. Wooje scoots closer to Sanghyeok.
Sanghyeok closes his eyes and focuses on his breathing, slow and deep, like the ebb and flow of waves against sand. By his side, Wooje follows the rhythm of his breathing, periodically being interrupted by involuntary sighs. Silence stretches between the two for a few minutes before Sanghyeok speaks up.
"Wooje, still awake?" Sanghyeok's voice is soft, like he doesn't want to scare a frightened puppy away.
"Yes," Wooje replies, voice equally as soft.
"You're still thinking about your dream, aren't you?"
There is a bit of silence before Wooje groans. "Give me a few more minutes, it's hard to sleep after a dream like that," he mumbles.
Sanghyeok gives himself a few moments to think before speaking again.
"Come here." Sanghyeok tugs on Wooje, who rouses.
"Where?"
Sanghyeok pulls Wooje flush towards him, looping an arm around his shoulders and positioning the toplaner’s head against his chest, right above his heart.
“Wake me if it stops,” he says, and he feels Wooje chuckle.
“That I’ll do,” Wooje relaxes against him, soft and comfortably heavy against him like a weighted blanket.
Wooje listens to Sanghyeok’s heartbeat, feeling the steady rise and fall of his chest. Sanghyeok hyung is definitely sweet, even when he doesn’t say mushy stuff. In his heart, he thanks Sanghyeok for letting him sleep in his bed for tonight; he’s pretty sure that he’d be too anxious to go to sleep if he were to return to his own room.
Well, now that he can hear Sanghyeok’s heartbeat beneath him, he can rest assured.
That was just a bad dream.
Sanghyeok hyung is okay.
He’s right here.
Ah, how comfortable…
Wooje’s eyes grow heavier and heavier, like he was the one hit by Lilia’s ult. He’s now too sluggish to riposte, too comfortable under the covers and honestly feeling too safe to care. Lilia can hit him over the head as hard as she wants.
He’s with Sanghyeok, the Unkillable Demon King. Lilia would need more people to take him and Sanghyeok down.
And so, Wooje lets sleep take him.
The next day, Wooje wakes up to the sound of applause. Minseok, Hyunjoon and Minhyung stand around the bed, a glint of pride, awe and disbelief on their faces respectively.
Sanghyeok, from the sound of it, is showering in his ensuite bathroom.
“I can’t believe it,” Minseok says, eyes wide. “Sanghyeok hyung finally got ganked.”