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It was not a big loss.
That’s what Mingyu tried to convince himself as he walked to the practice room, anyway. It was not the last Worlds semifinals where one missed hook cost them everything two years ago or even the LCK playoffs the previous year where he got a little too impatient and rushed in only to be caught by the enemy jungler.
No, it’s just their last regular season match before Road to MSI. Yet, his ADC looked like it was the end of the world.
Feedback was harsh. His ADC died too early in the game and somehow their opponent knew precisely how to shut him down (he knew why), but it was a failure on Mingyu’s part too for not being a good enough bodyguard.
Too many misplays, too many small mistakes that they need to fix before the playoffs.
When Jaehyuk left him to retire after being a solid duo for three years, Mingyu’s biggest worry was adjusting to a different ADC. Three years is a long time to play with a single person whose playstyle was solid, a veteran with titles to his name when Mingyu didn’t even have a single one when they first met.
In a way, Mingyu met him at such an early stage of his career that Park Jaehyuk molded him to his needs, and he respected that. He knew that adapting to a new ADC would be tough, and he had been spoiled by the three years of partnership with Jaehyuk to the point where they worked like clockwork.
And if it were Jaehyuk, Mingyu wouldn’t do this. He realised it was always Jaehyuk doing the comforting when they lost, and he didn’t even do much of that in their first year. He remembered the disappointment after their loss at T1 homeground and how Jaehyuk somehow procured sweet pastries to comfort him.
So he’s just returning the favour, he supposed. Comfort after a loss, to him, was a bunch of sweets and words of affirmation. Thus, he will deliver sweet pastries to his partner. The words of affirmation depends on whether or not Mingyu could find anything to say.
“Eat something.”
Mingyu put down a bag of pastries on his ADC’s desk and sat down in his own, their partnership over 6 months old now. The same length when he and Jaehyuk finished their perfect split and went on to win both MSI and EWC. Mingyu should be able to play well with him now. And yet, here he finds his ADC still grinding in solo queue at 6 AM after such a regrettable series.
An understatement, really. Because his new ADC was Lee Minhyung, one half of the iconic Gumayusi-Keria duo, and they just narrowly missed a series against Keria himself.
Look, Mingyu isn’t a stranger to drama between pro players. His first year in GenG alone he had to witness Jihoon and Choi Hyeonjoon’s weird dance around each other and stop them from almost punching each other at MSI. But the Gumayusi-Keria fallout of 2025 was such a major thing in the League community that it would easily win over MSI 25-gate as the biggest fallout in the history of the LCK.
So yes, he knew how much winning the match meant to Minhyung. After always losing to Keria's team since the LCK Cup, Mingyu was hopeful that they could make it this time. Just a little bit more improvement, better macro, better shotcalling. Anything that would prove that Mingyu could fill in Keria's shoes after many Supports have failed to make Minhyung shine.
(When he talked to Jaehyuk, the veteran argued that the Gumayusi-Keria fallout was not even half as bad as the great Faker-Peanut fallout of 2017. But Mingyu is just a new generation player who started too late, he was not privy to gossip from before LoL Park even existed. He does know more about Smash and Peyz than Jaehyuk would, but he’s not one to share gossip with… old people.)
Minhyung sighed after losing again, taking off his earphones. He looked at the paper bag and at Mingyu, “What’s this?”
“Pastries, I thought you might be hungry,” Mingyu responded. “I woke up and you never slept in your bed,” he continued, trying not to sound too much like he was nagging.
A ghost of a smile came upon Minhyung’s lips, “Thanks.” He opened the paper bag and took out a warm croissant, “You went out for this?”
“It’s for me too,” Mingyu said, taking out his pan au chocolate from the bag. “I could go back to the dorms and be bored alone or bother you for not coming home last night, thought I’d bother you instead.”
Minhyung finally chuckled, “What are you, my wife?”
“Oh? Your wife?” Mingyu said in english. “You’re my husband?”
Mingyu’s heart felt warm when Minhyung let out a wholehearted laugh. He can’t be like Jaehyuk with his wise words and his wisdom, Minhyung has literally been in the industry longer than him despite being the same age, but if Mingyu had to play the clown to get his ADC to cheer up then so be it.
“Thanks,” Minhyung said before taking a bite. He used his left hand to minimise his screen and looked at the clock in the corner. “Fuck, it was 6.30 AM?”
“Yeah, did you think the cafe was open at midnight or something?” Mingyu responded matter-of-factly.
“My bad,” he rubbed his face with his hand, running it through his hair last. He let it grow out since the first split, the bangs now covering his forehead. He looked at Mingyu, “Do I look like shit?”
“You do.”
“Is that what you should be saying to your husband?”
Mingyu rolled his eyes. “Go shower and sleep, Minhyung-ah.”
Minhyung took another bite of his croissant and hummed in response, crumbs of pastry left on his lips and all over his lap. “Shit, they will lecture me on cleanliness again when the roaches show up.”
Mingyu got up from his seat, still holding on to his own pastry, and got some tissues from the pantry. It’s a testament to how early it was in the day that Mingyu didn’t comment on how lazy Minhyung was for not getting the tissues himself, instead handing it over with little complaint.
“Thanks,” Minhyung said, trying to wipe some of the crumbs.
The practice room was silent for some time, only the buzzing sound of Minhyung’s PC and the crackling of their warm pastries as they bit into it. The air felt heavy with drowsiness, like the lazy Sunday mornings people romanticise in books. Except it’s Monday and one of them hasn’t slept a wink, while the other could use a little more.
“You didn’t get coffee?” Minhyung broke the silence when he finished his pastry, leaning back in his chair.
“You don’t want to sleep?”
“Right,” he sighed, shutting down his PC. Then, maybe because Minhyung wanted to pick a fight, “Sleeping after eating pastry is what makes your belly pop out like that, Mingyu-ya.”
“You can’t say that to your wife,” the Support said, mouth still full from the last of his pastry so it sounded more like nonsense mumbling. “And you have a belly too,” Mingyu poked at Minhyung’s belly. It barely budged, too solid with how much he works out.
“Swallow your food properly before you speak,” Minhyung threw his dirty tissue at him.
Mingyu swallowed his food in a hurry. “Marital abuse!” he cried out.
Minhyung laughed and put his hand on Mingyu’s head, as if the Support was a dog or something, and it took the fight out of him. Mingyu’s eyes widened in surprise, looking at his teammate in confusion. But Minhyung’s eyes was soft as he stroked his head and Mingyu had no idea what he was supposed to do.
“You’re really funny, Mingyu-ya,” said Minhyung.
“What the hell, bro?” Mingyu swats at the ADC’s hand. “Was that your pastry hand? You got sugar in my hair!”
“It’s not. God, you’re so dramatic,” Minhyung got up from his seat. “Maybe you really did spend too much time with Jaehyuk-hyung, you speak like him.”
“I’ve had people telling me that for three years, that insult does nothing,” Mingyu spat back, standing up as well.
“Okay, Ruler’s number 1 fanboy,” Minhyung replied, putting his hands on Mingyu’s shoulder and turning him around. Then, he started steering him from behind, “Let’s go back to the dorms.”
“Am I a rift herald?” Mingyu feigned annoyance, looking over his shoulder. But he still let Minhyung steer him out of the practice room anyway, not offering any kind of real resistance.
“Shouldn’t I be the rift herald? I can probably give you a piggy back ride,” Minhyung said once they made it to the elevator. He appraised Mingyu for a few seconds, considering. “Yeah, I probably can.”
“I am taller.”
“Yeah, but you have this,” Minhyung poked Mingyu’s belly. “And I have this,” he flexed his arm muscles.
Mingyu made a face, “How annoying.”
“Not today, though, I’m about to sleep on my feet,” Minhyung put his hands on Mingyu’s shoulders again once they reached the ground floor. “Okay, rift herald, let’s go to the dorms.”
Mingyu feels silly, so he pretended he was a rift herald getting ready to charge at a tower for a bit to make Minhyung laugh. The ADC was so amused that he was breathless by the time they reached the dorms, a little too happy after their loss yesterday. Mingyu found that he didn’t really care as long as the atmosphere was better than the suffocating mood Minhyung was in since they got back from LoL park.
“Go shower,” Mingyu said once they were in the dorms.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re really such a naggy wife,” Minhyung replied, going straight to the bathroom.
They have two days of break before practice starts for the playoffs. It was too little for Mingyu to go all the way to Busan, so he opted to stay in the dorms. If he could remember correctly, all the other players had gone back home, leaving him and Minhyung in the dorms. Even their coach Seohaeng went home to his wife and daughter after feedback last night.
Mingyu was very close to dozing off in his bed when he heard the door click open.
Minhyung came in, only with a towel around his waist and went to the wardrobe along the wall to pick out some clothes, facing away from him. His hair was not completely dry, dripping water onto his damp skin. Mingyu watched as one of the droplets of water rolled of his muscular back, the muscles moving under his skin as he raised his arms to put on a shirt.
Half a year into being Minhyung’s roommate, Mingyu has started to memorise Minhyung’s routine. After a shower, he’d spend at least five minutes flexing his muscles in front of the floor-length mirror in their shared room. He’d take some photos, check himself out and his workout progress. This time, though, he put on his clothes and barely spared a second look in the mirror.
Damn, so it really is that bad.
Mingyu sighed, he will address that later, when they’re not sleep deprived and he was not running on four hours of sleep. He walked all the way to the bakery at ass o’clock in the morning to get pastries for Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Minhyung, he thinks he’s done enough for his ADC today. Instead, he closed his eyes and pulled his blanket over himself.
“Turn off the light when you’re done,” he mumbled.
“I can’t sleep with my hair wet.”
“Then dry your hair,” Mingyu mumbled out in annoyance.
He waited for the sound of the door opening and closing or the sound of the hairdryer outside. It never came because Minhyung sat down at the edge of his bed facing Mingyu and held the hairdryer in his hand, “Dry it for me.”
Mingyu opened his eyes, “Ugh, what the fuck.”
“You’re the one who nagged me to shower before sleeping,” Minhyung replied, nudging him with the hairdryer.
“Because you look like shit, you stink, and you haven’t showered since yesterday from fucking LoL park,” Mingyu complained. He still sat up, though, no matter how reluctant. “Can’t you do it yourself?”
“But you made me do this,” Minhyung argued.
Mingyu groaned. “Plug the fucking hairdryer in and sit down on the floor.”
Minhyung eyed him and did as he was told, but not before saying, “For someone with a university degree you curse so much.”
“Like you don’t?” Mingyu rolled his eyes.
“I’m a high school dropout,” Minhyung argued, as if it gave him a free pass to do whatever. He sat cross-legged on the floor facing away from Mingyu. Sighing, Mingyu sat at the edge of his bed with both legs on Minhyung's sides before getting to work.
Mingyu actually can’t remember the last time he dried someone else’s hair. He must have done it once or twice for his ex-girlfriend before they broke up over mismatched schedules and emotional fatigue, but that was at least two years ago. Besides, her hair was long and soft, Minhyung’s was thicker and shorter.
He’s not actually sure how it came to this or if they were even close enough to do this. They were close, yes, that tends to happen when you’re roommates and winning is dependent on your synergy. It’s also natural when you have three younger teammates and you’re the only two of the same age. But he has never done this for Jaehyuk, he realised. He doesn’t remember anyone in GenG doing this for each other.
It was a level of intimacy that Mingyu has never experienced before. Yes, he was roommates with Jaehyuk for a year before he got tired of being kicked out to accommodate Siwoo's visits, but Jaehyuk would probably punch him if he even tried to ask him to dry his hair. Perhaps, to younger teammates? But the only younger teammate he had was only two years younger than him.
It didn’t take long for Minhyung’s hair to completely dry, not with his fancy ass hairdryer. But Minhyung let out deep sighs every time he stroked his scalp, like Mingyu did anything more than just holding a hairdryer and parting his hair to ensure it was completely dry. He didn't know having someone dry your hair felt that nice, maybe he should ask Minhyung to do it for him some other time.
Mingyu turned off the dryer and put it on the bedside table between their beds. “Done. Go.”
Minhyung leaned back on the side of the bed, “Mingyu-ya.”
“What now?”
“I’ll do better at playoffs,” he promised, tilting his head back far enough to look up at Mingyu.
Mingyu sighed and tapped both Minhyung’s cheeks with his palm, not hard enough that it would qualify as a slap. He squeezed those cheeks together until Minhyung had no choice but to pout. “You’re blaming yourself too much.”
“We were supposed to carry.” Except, with the way Mingyu was squeezing his face, it sounded more like garbled nonsense. To be fair, Mingyu thinks that sounds like bullshit whether or not his speech was impaired.
“Yeah, but we all made mistakes, I made mistakes too,” Mingyu said. “The kids only need to work on their consistency and we can make it. Don’t put it all on you. Remember, you’re just an egg.”
Minhyung reached up to remove Mingyu’s hands from his face. He stood up and faced Mingyu, “I’m an egg.”
“Yeah,” Mingyu looked up at him.
“And you’re the broth.”
Having listened to Minhyung's analogy so many times, Mingyu hummed in agreement. Minhyung’s the egg and Mingyu’s the broth that was supposed to bring them together. Vincenzo their tare and Zinie their noodle, Thanatos the protein on top.
They looked at each other for a few seconds silently. Mingyu wanted to say more, wanted to talk about his own insecurities. Sorry, I’m not as good as Keria. Sorry, I didn’t see the right angle. Sorry, I made bad calls that we lost to Keria. But it feels out of place to talk about it now, not when Minhyung was out of his mind too.
Mingyu shifted in his bed until he could lie down again and pulled the blanket over himself. “The broth wants to sleep for twelve hours now, and he suggests the egg does, too.”
Minhyung huffed a laugh. “Good night, broth.”
“Night, egg,” Mingyu mumbled before falling asleep.