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It was rare for Li Junhe to go out of the base by himself. If he had the choice, he would rather stay in. On this night though, the base felt stifling. A Tai's attitude about some newcomer on the top Korean server was managing to get under his skin. Supposedly the player, Smiling, was already at the top of the Chinese Ionia server and hadn’t lost a solo round.
Instead of letting his temper get the best of him and losing his image of calm stoicism, Junhe left. He didn't even tell Cheng that he was leaving. He could feel Cheng pulling away from their team. And it wasn't just because of their shared position of ADC. TAT's attitude was going to lose them another good player. Junhe didn't want to see his thoughts about A Tai staring back at him, he just needed a break from it all.
Junhe wasn't sure where he was headed. Even though he had lived in the area for over a year, he never ventured out to explore. He only knew where the arcades and a few good noodle places were. After walking for a while, Junhe eventually came across a bustling internet café. The signs in the windows feature many of the different Korean OPL e-sports teams. Other signs boasted that this café was the best internet café for playing the OPL in the area. As he passed a poster of himself, he was glad to have remembered to wear a mask.
He paused for a moment near the doors debating if he was going to go in or not. As he scanned the crowd, a couple of younger boys and girls rushed in, talking in raised voices.
"Come on! I heard that Smiling is here," announced the boy leading the group.
"Is it true that Smiling is a girl?" questioned one of the girls.
One of the other boys shrugged his head as he spoke. “I heard that she was from China.”
"Yes, but her ID is logged in here!” exclaimed the first boy. He seemed to be vibrating as he led the way inside.
“I’ve seen her livestreams even though she doesn’t have a cam and uses a voice changer. It's so awesome to watch her play," gushed another girl.
"But girls can't play." The last boy’s comment was grumbled and barely audible.
Junhe only heard it because of how close the group was to him as they passed. Upon hearing the name Smiling though, his interest was piqued. Without another thought, he ducked into the internet café with the intent of learning more about this Smiling.
It was louder than Junhe was expecting as he made his way inside. It had been a long time since he had been in an internet café. Unbidden, a memory of the last time he was in a café came to the fore of his mind.
It was quite a few years back, before the pro scene had made its appearance. Junhe had managed to persuade his parents to let him go to an internet café while they were busy with a meeting nearby. That was where he made friends with the first girl gamer he had ever met. They were still friends and talked every now and then. Junhe realized that it had been a while since he had heard from her though. It reminded him that once he was in a quieter place, he needed to send her a message.
An announcement played over the café speakers. “The up-and-coming Master Smiling on the Korean Server is playing at our café now. The match is being streamed to the main TV for anyone wanting to watch their matches!” shouted the exuberant announcer.
Looking around, Junhe saw that overall, the main source of the noise was coming from around a large screen in the corner showing an ongoing LoL match. Ever the pro gamer that he was, Junhe started analyzing the gameplay even before he was able to get a closer look at the screen.
The play style of the Tamamo no Mae seemed really familiar, but he couldn’t pin down where he had seen a similar play style. The player was very aggressive and was definitely a solo-mid. Most likely they didn’t get to play that often with good teammates and had to carry for the win.
Junhe looked around to see if he could spot which computer the player might be using. With how busy the café was though, he doubted he would find them. He settled for watching the remainder of the game on the big screen. It wasn’t too long until the other team's nexus was destroyed, and the victory screen was flashing.
When it seemed that a new match would not be starting, Junhe decided to continue walking around to see if he couldn’t figure out on his own who this Smiling was. As he was meandering through the groups of people, the sound of a loud voice caught his attention. It was the sound of a voice that was well known to him. One that he did not expect to hear in Korea, since she did not tell him that she was visiting.
“Just because you have a dick doesn’t make you a better player!”
A gruff male voice was heard in reply, “Short thing, you better watch your mouth. I know I’m better. And I said that I wanted to have a drink with you, so we’re going over to that empty booth and drinking.”
Junhe came around the corner and was faced with a sight that gave him mixed feelings. He could see a small crowd around a smaller female as a tall bulky male towered over her with her wrist in his hand. The male had a smirk on his face as he leaned over the woman trying to use his height to intimidate her. Junhe held back a huff of laughter as he caught sight of the look in the female’s eyes.
On one hand, he wanted to knock some sense into the arrogant male. On the other hand, since the female was Tong Yao though, he wanted to see how things played out. He settled for staying behind her, but still leveled a frigid glare at the male. Yao has always dealt with men looking down on her for being short, so the boy wasn’t going to get what he was after.
“Like me, life is too short to waste my time on stinky tofu like you. This is your last chance, let me go.” The words came out with no inflection and dripping with ice. The new look in her eyes had Junhe scooting closer to the two. He would not interfere unless he had to, he did not want her ire to be focused on him.
The male clenched his jaw and sneered at the same time he tightened his hand on the female’s wrist. “What’s going to happen--” he started to mock before grunting and dropping to his knees while letting go of the female’s wrist. Everyone besides Junhe and the female were looking around confused having missed when the female’s leg struck out at the bulky male’s groin.
The female took the moment of confusion to place her booted foot on the man’s chest. “What’s going to happen, is that next time you are told no , you will accept no as an answer.” As she said no a second time, she brought her leg back and kicked the male in the chest. Junhe knew that things would escalate to a bad situation if she kept going. He stepped up to her and as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, he whispered, “Xiǎo mèimei, Yao, how about we head out?”
He felt her muscles tense up tighter at the contact and then slowly relaxed as he began talking.
Junhe heard the whispered, “Ge,” when Yao wrapped her arm around Junhe’s waist as he started trying to lead her away from the scene. Her eyes were still smoldering with anger as she stared down the group that had moved to help the downed male. There were some others that looked like they wanted to stop them from leaving. After a glance at the downed male and then to Junhe and Yao, they scurried to their downed friend’s side.
Junhe kept his hold on Yao as he led her to the exit of the café. “Do I want to know how you slipped away from your babysitter?” Junhe asked with a smirk as they were nearing the exit.
“Humph! I don’t know what you are talking about. I came here on a mini vacation from college,” Yao muttered indignantly as she kept pace with the taller male. She gracefully dodged a woman who had rushed into the café without paying attention to her surroundings. Yao’s hand spasmed where it was gripping Junhe’s side. “I will admit, I might not have thought it through coming out at night,” she hesitantly revealed as she leaned into his side.
Junhe almost missed what she said but sighed when it registered. This woman would be the death of him one day. He pulled her closer to his side and just ordered, “Let's get out of here first. I promise not to scold you this time.”
Once they were on the sidewalk and a little ways from the café, they both took a deep breath and let all of the built-up tension go.
Junhe slowly let go of Yao as he turned to face her fully. With a mask of coldness, he asked, “So, are you going to tell me why you are here and decided not to let me know Tong Yao?”
She winced at her full name being said by him and quickly grabbed onto his arms as she replied in a panicked voice, “Ge, no! Go back to xiǎo mèime. You promised not to scold me!”
He held his stare for a few more seconds as she started to shake his arms, before finally smirking and letting out a small huff of air that was considered a laugh for him.
“Ugh, that is so not fair! You know I can’t stand you being upset with me. That's a dirty trick.” Instead of letting him go though, Yao threw her arms around Junhe and hugged him. In a more serious voice, she whispered, “It was supposed to be a surprise. I missed my best male friend. Also, since the fallout with Jian Yang, even if he wasn’t my soulmate, Ma has been trying to steer my life.”
Junhe hugged her back and squeezed her a little harder at her explanation. As he was about to speak Junhe’s phone pinged with a message. He kept one arm wrapped tightly around the woman in his arms as he pulled out his phone.
[Voice message from fhdjwhdb2333.] Junhe hit play and put the phone up to his ear. “Where are you? I went to the normal arcade.”
Of course he would try to find me, Junhe thought. He debated how to reply. As he was thinking, a thought finally clicked, and he started a new voice message. “I ran into an old friend. How would you like to meet the only woman who has ever beaten you at LoL?” As the words came out of his mouth, Yao’s head shot up to look at him with narrowed eyes. He punched send as his eyes twinkled with mischief.
“What are you scheming Ge?” demanded Yao. Junhe could be playful with her at times, but she had never seen him quite like this before.
With a smirk firmly in place, Junhe looked at his phone as it chimed with an incoming message. He ignored his mèimei in favor of listening to the new message. There was a huff of annoyance before he heard Cheng press, “You have some explaining to do.” There was a brief pause before he continued, “Meet at the normal noodle shop?”
Junhe finally glanced at the woman who was staring up at him suspiciously. “I want you to meet my other best friend. Are you hungry for noodles?”
----
Cheng’s breath stuck in his throat when he saw her step into the restaurant. Her beauty radiated out from her eyes, before releasing him to take in the rest of her form. Once he was able to register the world around him again, he noticed that she was with his best friend. The next thing his eyes locked on was the way the woman’s arm was linked with Junhe’s own. He could feel the green monster in him rising, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud. Cheng wouldn’t step in the middle of anything, no matter if his hind brain thought she should be his.
As the two got closer he was able to pick up their conversation, “Xiao mèimei, it was punishment for not telling me you were in Korea. How could you not tell your Ge as soon as you landed?” Junhe seemed to be pleading with his... sister? He knew Junhe had a younger brother but had heard nothing about a sister.
“Well Ge, if your phone was on....” she began as she fluttered her eyes up at him. Cheng tuned out the world around him as he got lost in her dark eyes. It was like an ocean sweeping him into their abyss, pulling him down and drowning him. He was startled back to himself as those eyes locked onto his own. Cheng stood up as the two got closer.
Junhe spoke first, directing his attention to Cheng. “Sorry for taking off. I know you understand why I left.” Cheng turned his attention to the man and proceeded to nod his head. Before he could say anything though, Junhe continued speaking. “Cheng, let me introduce you to my other best friend and sister of choice, Tong Yao a/k/a Smiling. Xiao mèimei, this is my other best friend, Lu Sicheng a/k/a Chessman.”
Yao tilted her head as she looked up at Cheng with a twinkle of chaos in her eyes, “So, you’re the hooligan friend I beat at LoL?” After a brief pause where Cheng only stared at her with ever darkening eyes, she continued with a more heartfelt tone, “It’s nice to meet you Sicheng.”
Cheng snapped out of his daze and shot his eyes towards his best friend. At the same time, his hand shot to his shoulder. The look he gave Junhe promised retribution. “Li Junhe, I’m gonna kick your ass!” growled Cheng.
It surprised Yao how quickly Sicheng’s look changed when he switched his focus to her. He looked like a man who’d been starved of water that had finally found an Oasis. With the next words out of his mouth, she understood why. “Ignore whatever the bastard said, I’ve been keen to meet you.”
Yao sucked in a breath as she heard the words that were scrawled across her shoulder blade.
Li Junhe had no regrets.