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The truth is, Wooje was warned plentifully about the dangers of joining HLE.
‘Han Wangho is a sly fox,’ They said, ‘That’s just how he is to everyone, don’t be fooled.’
It’s said half-jokingly, highlighted by the open rumour of the sheer number of young rookie players that have tragically harboured crushes on the elusive Peanut.
“Wooje-yah, I know it’s supposed to be rude, but feel free to reject your Wangho-hyung if he tries to get you to go drinking okay? It’s the oldest trick in the book,” Wooje feels a little awkward as he stands in the practice room as Jeonggyun-hyung helps him pack up his desk, the conversation purposefully lighthearted like it’s going to distract them from what exactly is happening, “And if he gives you any trouble for it, you can give me a call and I’ll handle him for you. You have my number.”
Jeonggyun-hyung straightens and hands Wooje the backpack in his hands. The desk Wooje had occupied for years starkly empty now compared to the other desks in the room.
“Thanks, hyung.” He ignores the backpack for a second and pushes it aside to wrap his arms around the older man’s torso. Jeonggyun-hyung squeezes him back, rubbing his back for a few seconds.
“That’s right, Wooje-yah, you can just call me ‘hyung’ now, just like you always wanted.”
They pull away from each other and say their final goodbyes in the very room Wooje had spent majority of his time in the last three years.
So it’s safe to say, Wooje is adequately equipped to handle his new team.
His first week barely counts, full of awkward introductions and relying on Hwanjoong-hyung, who finds it way more amusing to observe him trying to socialise into the group than to actually help him.
Viper is reserved too, but Wooje can see that he’s making an effort regardless. He seems to be alright to just let their rapport grow naturally rather than be proactive and approach first, which Wooje is silently grateful for. It’s already overwhelming enough moving to a new building for the first time in his life.
Peanut is exactly as people say. Friendly, talkative, cunning. Wooje can definitely tell that he’s a player that often gets his way just by the way his demeanour is confident right off the bat. Wooje admires it in a way - it’s the kind of social confidence that comes with years of being able to gel with different teammates regardless of language of background. Wooje heeds the warnings he’d received and makes sure to stay at an arms length for now, barely even acknowledging that Peanut and Hyeonjun-hyung have spent the last couple of weeks getting along like a house on fire. He really can’t afford to be distracted from his performance in the coming season anyway.
His strategy works swimmingly, with Peanut heavily preoccupied with grinding TFT for fifteen hours a day during the offseason.
But he still has a problem that’s threatening his focus in-game.
Out of all the warnings he’d received about being exposed to Peanut, nobody had even had the mind to inform him about Kim Geonwoo.
Of course, Wooje was familiar with the player, a blurry face washed out by the blinding stage lights of San Francisco’s Chase Center, a vision that periodically haunts his nightmares even two years later, but he’s never really had a reason or opportunity to get to know HLE’s mid laner before now.
It already starts off as tragically as Wooje could have ever imagined.
He’s ushered into his new dorms by a man he’s been introduced to as his new manager and is met with a clearly freshly-woken Zeka poking his head into the corridor with his toothbrush still hanging from his mouth. His hair resembles a bird’s nest, sticking out in a few different directions and making him look, well, for lack of better word, cute.
For some reason, he seems to take the image of a semi-stranger standing in his foyer in a stride, disappearing for a couple of seconds before reappearing again sans toothbrush and padding towards them. There’s a polite smile on his face as their manager introduces them and he offers to help carry the heavier luggage in.
Wooje smiles back and tries not to get distracted by the way his very normal and common white t-shirt fits on his pectoral muscles. His efforts fly out the window the moment Zeka leans down to grab onto the luggage he’d rolled in and picks it up easily, biceps flexing as he does so.
After years of being a firsthand witness to Mun Hyeonjun, Wooje naively thought he’d already had enough lifetime firsthand experience of gym rat thirst traps, but where Hyeonjun had been slim and toned, Zeka was very much bulkier and beefier. Which spells out disaster for Wooje.
He shoves back whatever thoughts he starts having (one particularly potent one being about how lovely it would be to replace that luggage and be lifted up by the mid laner instead) and tries his best to give Zeka the Peanut treatment for the rest of his first week, keeping his distance with them both.
The three weeks he spends away in military offers him respite somewhat, distracting him fully from the seedling of a crush that’s started to form. He’s just about forgotten about his attraction when he’s discharged shortly after and has to return to the dorms and face his fears.
It’s just a plain white t-shirt and checkered lounge pants so why does it have Wooje feeling the effects of late-stage puberty now?
It’s definitely not helped at all by how lovely Geonwoo-hyung is. He’s kind and patient, quiet and introverted, yet he seems to be determined to help Wooje settle in. Wooje feels shame burn through him, somewhat embarrassed that he’s feeling extremely hot and bothered by acts of hospitality.
It gets even worse when Wangho-hyung seems to catch wind of his little crush, perceptive as he is. He’s the credited pioneer of the ‘ZeZe’ duo, eyes glinting almost evilly as he suggests to the staffs to market them as a duo. It’s diabolical, and Wooje isn’t anywhere near comfortable enough with the team yet to protest. Even though he gets a little leeway that inherently comes from being the maknae of the team, he’s still missing that extra affection he’d had from everyone before that essentially allowed him to argue with just about anything he disliked.
Wooje tries to not let it get to him whenever he sees Wangho-hyung talking in a low voice with Geonwoo-hyung, chalking it up to paranoia whenever he feels Wangho-hyung glancing up at him periodically during their conversations. They’re pro-gamers after all, they’re probably talking about the game.
Geonwoo-hyung seems none the wiser to any of the happenings in the team dynamics either, loyally and steadfastly treating Wooje well by starting conversations with him and god, buying food for him. It’s Wooje’s biggest weakness by far, and he’s unable to turn down any of the offers by principle, even though he knows he should in order to protect himself. He can’t stop the way his heart pounds whenever they order late-night post-scrim snacks and Geonwoo-hyung hands his card to the delivery driver without a word. He doesn’t know if Wangho-hyung has something to do with the way everyone else seems to turn away the invitations to eat together in the dining room, each person giving a half-hearted excuse not to come, but every instance feeds into Wooje’s brain rotted delusions anyway.
By the time the season starts, that small seedling had fully bloomed into a full crush.
Wooje’s had crushes before - one very hilarious one Minhyeong likes to bring up even now on Sanghyeok-hyung which was definitely just role-model admiration he’d confused for romantic feelings when he’d been so much younger.
One slightly more serious one on Hyeonjun-hyung, which had kind of hurt when he’d gotten himself a girlfriend. He eventually gets over it as they become better friends and he’s forced to room with Hyeonjun once during a hotel mishap from one of their team trips. The arguments from their one week stint of being roommates still permeate their decidedly more joking play fights now.
And he’d had a fruitless crush on Jinhyuk-hyung for the month or so they were training for the Asian Games together, instantly attached to his approachable nature, though Wooje had very wisely kept himself in check because Jinhyuk had to remain in China after their run and that was never going to work. Still, he will never live down Minseok finding out he’d been waking up early to go to yoga classes at the asscrack of dawn because he’d heard from Sanghyeok-hyung that Jinhyuk-hyung had been attending along with him. Minseok had howled himself to tears and Wooje had promptly halted his yoga class participation just three days after they’d started.
This one felt different somehow.
Maybe it had to do with Wooje being incredibly physically attracted to Geonwoo and still being completely enraptured by his soft-spoken yet hilarious nature. Maybe it had to do with noticing that Geonwoo was putting in an extra effort to help him despite it being out of his own comfort zone. It made Wooje feel special even though he knows not to get his hopes up - after all, Geonwoo-hyung is just being nice and it’s probably the first time he’s had to work together with someone actually substantially younger than him.
Minseok’s been getting the full rundowns of his near-crash outs via KakaoTalk reports whenever Geonwoo-hyung does something nice for him or just attacks him with his insanely handsome face and physique, which, at the rate their going, is pretty much everyday.
Woojeng: He went to the gym before scrims today and came in with wet hair
Woojeng: This is FUCKED UP
Woojeng: So sick and twisted
Minseokkie-hyung: ㅋㅋㅋ
Woojeng: You’re laughing.
Woojeng: Your favourite dongsaeng in the world is having his heart broken and you’re laughing.
Minseokkie-hyung: First of all, you’re like my only dongsaeng
Minseokkie-hyung: Second of all, how do you know he doesn’t like you back?
Woojeng: Hyung no offence but
Woojeng: WE’RE BALD.
Minseokkie-hyung: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Minseokkie-hyung: Minhyeongie never saw it as a problem
Woojeng: ugh hyung you’re useless
Woojeng: Hyung would find you cute even if you literally wore a potato sack
Minseokkie-hyung: The point is
Minseokkie-hyung: The right guy wouldn’t care Wooje-ah
Woojeng: You’re right
Woojeng: but I don’t want the right guy I WANT GEONWOO-HYUNG
Wooje groans as he puts his phone down. Minseok would never get it.
Outside of Wangho-hyung, Minseok is probably the highest beneficiary of babygirlism in the entire league, and for good reason. He’s cute and he knows it. Though Wooje has always been happy to take advantage of that by sticking close to Minseok and getting his own fill of whatever food or gifts he’d received, it definitely makes it hard for Minseok to empathise with Wooje’s plights.
“Are you alright?” Geonwoo-hyung’s voice interrupts, startling Wooje from his thoughts.
“Oh- hyung, yeah, I’m alright. Sorry if I disturbed you.”
“That’s alright. Were you… talking to Keria again?” If he sounds a little reserved, Wooje doesn’t know him well enough to pick up on it just yet.
“Yeah, he made me promise to contact him at least once a day so he can nag at me,” Wooje smiles a little at the memory of Minseok drilling him about keeping in touch with that unhappy pout on his face, “but it’s mostly his way of making sure I’m doing alright.”
“Oh… that’s nice of him,” Geonwoo seems to be thinking over his next words for a little while, “The two of you are pretty close, right?”
It’s easier for Wooje to talk about his friends, or rather, anything else other than himself in front of Geonwoo.
“Yes, he’s pretty much my best friend, though please, please do not tell him that.”
“Best… friend?”
The confusion is a little alarming for Wooje. Sure, he doesn’t really make it a habit to keep up with LCK drama in his off-time, but he’d like to think the general community was aware that he and Minseok got along swimmingly.
“Um… yes? Minseok-hyung might look like an angry chihuahua but he’s actually pretty nice when you get close to him.” Wow, Wooje really hopes Minseok never gets wind of this conversation, because he’s pretty much hitting a high score in the complimenting category now.
“Oh, that’s um, cool. I think Hyeokgyu-hyung and Changhyeon-hyung said something similar about him,” He looks a little more relaxed now, though there’s still a hint of nervousness in his tone, “Anyway, I actually came over to ask you if you were feeling up for gamjatang tonight? We could go in-person since tomorrow morning’s scrims are cancelled.”
Wooje is feels a confused mix of pleased embarrassment, feeling his face heat up a little now. He’d mentioned offhandedly in-between scrim games awhile ago that he was feeling hungry, not expecting anyone to pay him any mind, let alone Geonwoo-hyung, who’d just showered after his workout. That had been more than an hour ago.
When he doesn’t respond immediately, Geonwoo shifts on his feet a little restlessly.
“You don’t have to come… it’s just a place in the area I thought you might not be familiar with. It’s um actually one of my favourite places nearby.”
It’s the first time someone has been so intentionally sweet to Wooje, he feels his ears burning when he finally snaps back quickly.
“No, I’ll come - I like gamjatang!”
Geonwoo’s (broad, wide, strong) shoulders drop a little like the pressure is leaving his body.
“Okay, cool, I’ll uh grab my wallet and meet you at the front door in five?”
Wooje nods hastily, fingers automatically moving to run through his cropped hair, a nervous habit he’s developed lately.
Even in Wooje’s limited (read: non-existent) experience in romance, this definitely read like a date. Geonwoo hadn’t even bothered asking any of their other teammates if they’d wanted to come.
Wooje sees a bit of movement from the corner of his eye after snapping out of his stupor and glances over to see Wangho’s shoulders shaking as he tries to hold in his laugh. There’s a number of things that really do annoy Wooje and not being in on a joke where he’s evidently the object is definitely one of them.
“What’s so funny, hyung?”
Wangho seems to sense that there’s an upset tone in his voice and tries to school his expression before answering.
“Nothing, I just find it really cute that the two of you are getting closer on your own.”
It makes Wooje flush for the nth time tonight. He glances around to see if anyone else in the room is noticing his silent torment and finds Dohyeon and Hwanjoong looking suspiciously resolutely at their screens, staring holes into their League client queue time.
It’s so over.
Any hope he’d had of keeping his hidden crush hidden has flown out the window and died. Minseok is going to have a field day with this information.
Well, if it’s all out for everyone to see anyway, maybe it’s okay to take advantage of the situation and satiate his own curiosity.
“Hyung, there’s actually something I want to ask.”
Wangho gives him an encouraging hum.
“Well, I was talking to Geonwoo-hyung and he was kind of surprised that I called Minseok-hyung my best friend. I was wondering if there was some kind of rumour going around about Minseok-hyung and I? We are actually really good friends still.”
He’s barely able to finish his thoughts when Wangho can’t hold it back anymore and doubles over, straight up guffawing at his words.
“What’s so funny?” He’s definitely incorporating some of his trademarked whiny maknae-voice now.
Wangho wipes the corners of his eyes where tears were threatening to squeeze out.
“Wooje-ah, that might be a good question for you to ask Geonwoo later when you go out.”
He hates how elusive Wangho’s answers are and bookmarks them in his mind to report to Sanghyeok-hyung when they do their promised monthly gatherings, though he has his suspicions that Sanghyeok-hyung might have been the original influence for this behaviour in the first place.
Wooje fights the urge to roll his eyes and instead lets his lips settle into a pout before he starts getting ready to leave. Wangho comes up to him and gives him a few encouraging pats on the back.
“Have fun, Wooje-yah. Don’t be afraid of ordering extras and sides on your Geonwoo-hyung’s card!”
Han Wangho was definitely an enigma. He seems like a combination of Sanghyeok-hyung’s playfulness, Jaehyuk-hyung’s openness, and Jeonggyun-hyung’s attentiveness. It’s pretty obvious that despite all the warnings everyone had jokingly given, Wangho-hyung is the culmination of being cared for and caring for others over and over again for years and years.
As much as Wooje was annoyed by him right now, he admires him just as much.
When he mumbles a goodbye to the rest of the room as he tries to slip away, he gets a few soft replies and then he’s really off on his own to face the most nerve-racking situation he’s ever had to face, including three World finals, one of which featuring the very man he’s about to go on a not-date with.
Geonwoo is already waiting by the door when he gets there, scrolling his phone. He’s since layered a hoodie on-top of his normal loungewear and his freshly washed hair droops over his forehead, unstyled. The softness of his image makes Wooje’s insides feel like jelly.
“Hyung.” He breathes out, voice coming out a little weaker than usual. It’s enough to get Geonwoo’s attention.
“Hey,” His voice is equally soft as he looks up, “the taxi I ordered should be just outside now.”
Wooje’s heart is beating a million miles a minute now and even though Geonwoo is just in casual clothes, he looks so dashing that Wooje feels unbearably underdressed. He picks at his sleeves a little anxiously and flips his hood over his head to cover his hair as they head outside into the cold night.
“Um, hyung, I kind of have a question to ask.”
They’re just about finished with their food, but the atmosphere of their night has pushed them to order a bottle of makgeolli to share between them. Wooje’s not even sure which one of them suggested it, but he feels like he manifested it by just wishing they could stay together outside just a little longer.
“Go ahead, Wooje-yah. Hyung will answer anything you ask.” Geonwoo’s alcohol tolerance is shockingly low, his face tinted red just one bowl of makgeolli in. He’s talking more shamelessly and honestly, brown eyes earnest as they look deeply into Wooje’s every time their gazes meet.
He’s so cute.
“I was wondering why you’re so shocked about Minseok-hyung and I?” Wooje’s fingers are subconsciously peeling at the bottle label before he adds, “I asked Wangho-hyung about it and he just told me I should ask you.”
Geonwoo’s face flushes again and this time Wooje’s almost certain it isn’t just from the alcohol.
“Wangho-hyung trolled me,” He whines, “He told me he heard that you and Keria-nim were… seeing each other and that he’d often buy you food or something.”
Wooje is, for lack of better word, gobsmacked. He lets out a surprised laugh, though he tries to control it so he doesn’t scare Geonwoo away from the conversation.
“Hyung, he did that as my friend and - I thought everyone knew that Minseok-hyung and Minhyeong-hyung have been in a committed situationship for years already.”
Geonwoo, kindhearted as he is, lets out a defeated chuckle.
“I don’t think I was thinking straight when Wangho-hyung and I had that conversation. I seem to be having that problem a lot lately.”
Wooje raises his eyebrows. It’s barely a question, but Geonwoo slumps forward embarrassedly and continues anyway.
“It’s all because of you, Wooje-yah, now Wangho-hyung won’t stop teasing me.” His vowels are stretched out drunkenly, but Wooje’s curiosity is piqued now.
“Why do you say that, hyung?”
“Because,” Geonwoo groans, “You looked like a curious baby duckling that day you moved in and I thought I just wanted to be a good hyung for the first time, but then when you came back from camp the haircut just made you look even more lost and cute. It was devastating.”
Wooje feels his heart leaps to his throat.
“Hyung, I think you’re cute-“ He pauses, unsure if it’s appropriate to call his hyung ‘cute’ yet, “-hot too, but maybe we should have this conversation tomorrow?”
“I’m not that drunk,” Geonwoo mumbles out, and though Wooje is inclined to agree, judging by the small amount he’d actually had, he still feels strangely like he’s taking advantage of Geonwoo like this.
“I know, hyung, but I’d like to talk about it tomorrow.”
Then, Geonwoo’s hand shoots out to pat Wooje’s cheek lightly, the most physical contact they’ve ever shared intentionally, paralysing Wooje on the spot.
“Anything for you, Wooje-yah.” His eyes are drooping now, like he’s struggling to stay awake and Wooje decides it’s high time to call a taxi home so he can get Geonwoo back safely before he isolates himself in his room to scream into his pillow before bed.
Wooje is helping Geonwoo get to his room when he walks past the practice room where he catches a glimpse of Wangho finishing 7th in a game of TFT. Wangho looks up when he hears them and wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.
“Have a good night?”
Wooje pretends not to hear him and safely deposits Geonwoo into his room quickly before going back to pop his head into the practice room to stick his tongue out at Wangho.
When he’s back in the solace of his own solo room, he launches himself headfirst into his bed to shout into it, making sure to set his phone up beforehand so that he can send the entire voice message of it to Minseok when he’s done.