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Sanghyeok has a problem. A very cat -shaped problem. It’s driving him insane every passing second he even dares to think about it.
He groans as he runs his fingers through his bangs, fixing the way his glasses sit on the bridge of his nose right after. Sanghyeok sighs and turns his phone’s screen off before sitting down on the living room couch. The dorm is eerily quiet for an evening like this, so he finds himself thinking about the mentioned problem again .
Well, calling it just a problem doesn’t do it enough justice. It’s Jihoon. Now, Sanghyeok would feel bad if he just called him a problem, but to this heart (and brain trying to keep him calm), he is.
They are close. Ever since the Asian Games, he’d found himself texting Jihoon late into the night or had the other midlaner send him silly memes any hour of the day. They go on late-night ‘snack dates’ (as Jihoon once called them, but then didn’t understand why Sanghyeok was so flustered).
Every time he’s at their dorm (why not his own?) Jihoon somehow manages to find a way to be glued to Sanghyeok’s side even when the older isn’t a part of the conversation. Jihoon always mentions him in interviews with so much adoration in his eyes, and Sanghyeok feels like he’s going to melt away. He always talks about him, even without the older man present.
No wonder Sanghyeok fell for him.
So Sanghyeok has a Jihoon-problem. As in a crush. As in, he’s horrendously down bad for the man. Like saving-his-vods-for-”studying his gameplay”-down bad. Like smiling-at-his-phone-like-an-idiot-because-of-one-message down bad. Like saving-your-rival’s-interviews-for-no-reason down bad. You get it.
Minseok laughed at him first when he guessed it. He made a fleeting joke about the two dating, and after Sanghyeok outright blushed, he just started giggling - after that, he made a plan. To this day, Sanghyeok has no clue what that plan entails. He wishes to never know either.
..
Sanghyeok is deep into his book when the doorbell wakes him from his trance. He then makes his way to the door. He didn’t necessarily expect to open it to the frowning face of Jihoon, who immediately gives him a small hug.
“Hyung! You didn’t respond to any of my messages, and well… I got worried, you know? As one does-” Jihoon starts talking right away. “So, um, I brought some takeout and wanted to ask if you’d spend the evening with me? If you aren’t busy?”
Sanghyeok blinks at him, dumbfounded. “I apologize, Jihoon-ah. I was reading and didn’t have my phone with me. Come inside.” He urges the other to step inside the dorm and not just stand in the hallway.
The still quiet dorm quickly fills with their voices as they chat while eating. Soon after, everyone else starts getting back, and a spontaneous movie night occurs. And if they see Jihoon putting his arms around Sanghyeok’s shoulders as they basically cuddle watching the random movie Hyeonjun picked out, no one mentions it.
Sanghyeok is spending an awful lot of time with this random . Jihoon notices him duo-queueing arena with them more times than not. However, he can’t put his finger on why it bothers him so much. He’s allowed to have other friends, for fucks sake, they have a bunch of mutual ones. But who is this guy??? Genuinely dude .
So, as a completely sane person would do, he sends Sanghyeok a text.
Jihoon
hey, hyung. who’s this guy you’re playing with?
Sanghyeok
Someone I met on my alt while playing some Arena, why?
Would you like to join us?
Jihoon doesn’t respond - instead, he starts the queue for another ranked match and closes their chat. He wants to punch his monitor suddenly. He then instalocks Syndra out of spite.
Jaehyuk, watching the entire thing unfold, laughs at him shamelessly.
“Jealous much?” he asks, crossing his arms on top of Jihoon’s chair.
“What?”
“Oh, you are a lost cause. Good luck in your game!” Jaehyuk pats him on his shoulders and leaves the room entirely. Jihoon plays the entire time feeling confused and still mad .
…
Training is back in full motion, every day feels like an endless lineup of game after game - for both of them. Scrims, photoshoots, and random filming events for the teams. Whatever.
Jihoon swears he’s going insane if he can’t sleep for sixteen straight hours soon.
So when he hears their manager say they have the next three days free, he immediately texts Sanghyeok, asking if he wants to get dinner soon. He says yes. Suddenly, Jihoon’s life is a million times more beautiful.
..
The dinner goes well. They get some fried chicken and talk about anything from League to random high school stories - and don’t even notice how fast time is passing. After their server awkwardly asks them to leave because they are about to close and clean, Jihoon thinks the clock must be moving wrong.
Well, either way, they leave the restaurant and start walking toward their dorms together. Their conversation doesn’t die down, not even for one second, until they reach their destination. When that happens, they just stare at each other for a good minute before nodding and saying their goodnights.
Jihoon gets questioned by his teammates about why he was out so late. After he finishes explaining his evening, he doesn’t understand the ‘congratulations!’ he gets.
Sanghyeok
Hello.
I would like to say thank you for tonight, I had a great time. We should do things like this more often. :)
I like you, Jihoon.
Jihoon forgets to respond and just passes out for at least half a day after that. He doesn’t think anything of it until Sanghyeok… doesn’t really text him anymore or invite him over in the next few days. Then it clicks.
Oh, shit.
Jihoon spirals . He rereads the messages a dozen times. Thinks about all the moments he thought were ‘just’ friendly between the two of them; Sanghyeok showing up at his hotel to spend some time together before their match against each other and wishing him good luck with that smile.
Or how he always buys extra snacks, specific ones that he doesn’t even like, just so Jihoon has something tasty to eat.
Or how Sanghyeok never seemed to correct any of their friends when they mentioned their strange relationship.
Oh no.
Oh no.
He likes Sanghyeok. Of course, he does. And he just blew it .
Jihoon spends the entirety of the day pacing around his dorm room, trying to figure out if it’s possible to die from being emotionally dense. He thinks about all the times Sanghyeok texted him just to check up on him, brought him vitamin tablets during tournaments, and sent him birthday gifts that were weirdly perfect .
Jihoon genuinely questions if he’s the stupidest man on the planet.
He mumbles to himself while putting his shoes on, “I’m just going to tell him.”
“Tell who and what?” Geonbu looks up from the couch, scrolling on his phone.
“Sanghyeok-hyung that I like him.” Jihoon collects all the confidence scattered in his mind to admit this.
“Right now?” Genobu raises an eyebrow. “Wait, you two aren’t dating yet?”
Ignoring that last question, Jihoon flees from their dorms, practically sprinting to T1 HQ. He marches into the building like he owns the place. With some muttered apologies, he mentions an “emotional emergency” while hurrying towards the streaming area.
Now, if he was smart enough to check the time, he would know that Sanghyeok is live. However, he is not smart enough.
He pushes the streaming room’s door open, trying to catch his breath before nearly yelling, “I like you too!!!”
Sanghyeok slowly turns to him, his face pale and eyes wide open. “I… I am streaming right now.”
Jihoon freezes. He hears a ping. Then another. Then, the unholy cackling of the chat losing its collective mind while the League client music plays. The stream title: “chill soloq w/ chat :)”.
“You’re– wait. You are streaming ??” Jihoon asks, his breathing still uneven. “Since when?”
“Since before you burst in shouting about liking me back.”
Jihoon looks like he’s about to combust from embarrassment. But Sanghyeok is laughing, hands over his mouth, shoulders shaking. He's so beautiful I might die - Jihoon thinks.
“You really came all the way here to tell me that?”
“Yes!!” Jihoon blurts out. “I thought you’d think I’m just trying to save face replying now , and I panicked and- can you turn the stream off??” The distress he seems to be in might be worse than running it down at a tournament.
Sanghyeok ends the stream, eventually. But not before muting his mic, turning to Jihoon and saying, “So… you really do like me? Like... like me?”
Jihoon's immediate nods with his cheeks red make him smile before turning back to the camera.
After the stream, they sit in the room for an hour talking - awkward, sweet, not entirely able to look at each other, but both smiling like idiots. Sanghyeok admits all the little habits were out of his crush. Jihoon admits (and apologizes for) having the understanding of a dead fish.
Before they leave, Jihoon asks, “So... what now?”
Sanghyeok shrugs, takes his hand, and quietly says, “Go out to dinner with me?”
Everyone finds out, of course. No one will ever let them live this down. And Jihoon still has to go back on stream and explain why he confessed like he’s in a k-drama.
But Sanghyeok’s texts now end in little hearts. And for the first time in forever, Jihoon seriously smiles while reading them.