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Jaehyuk doesn’t think tea could be this annoying.
Not the act of drinking it, of course. He himself likes a good mug when the weather turns cold, and he’s not above enjoying the cafe runs he gets roped into after scrims sometimes. But watching his obnoxious, bratty teammate Jihoon turn into some sort of eccentric nobleman with his particular obsession has started to gnaw at his nerves.
Earl Grey with elderflower. Always that.
It starts subtly enough, with Jihoon tacking on an unassuming order during one of their late-night snack runs. Fine. Everyone has preferences. Minggyu always grabs matcha lattes, and Giin lives on americanos. But by the third week in a row, when Jihoon pushes aside the menu with a decisive, “No, just that one,” Jaehyuk begins to take note.
“Hey,” he says, cornering Siwoo one day at Lol Park after one of their games against Nongshim. Siwoo looks at him with reproachful eyes, clearly not in the mood for any sort of banter after his team just got thoroughly pummeled by Jaehyuk’s team. But Jaehyuk perseveres. Siwoo always has the best nose for ordeals of the heart, and he’s certain there’s something more to this tea obsession than meets the eye. “Do you think Jihoon’s been acting weird lately?”
“Jihoon is always weird,” Siwoo says glumly. He tries to wriggle his arm free from Jaheyuk’s insistent hold. “Hey, let me go, you pervert!”
“Listen to me,” Jaehyuk says, looming closer and ignoring the quip. “Has Jihoon ever shown a particular interest in a specific tea brand in front of you?”
“Tea?” Siwoo raises his eyebrows incredulously. “Jihoon doesn’t handle caffeine well. I don’t think he drinks tea at all.”
“See, that’s what I thought!” Jaehyuk says triumphantly. He leans in close, always excited to gossip if it’s Siwoo he’s talking to. “But look, over these past few weeks, he’s only been drinking this very particular brand of tea and literally nothing else.”
If it were anyone else he’d been speaking to, they might have laughed at him for nitpicking at such a tiny detail. But this is Siwoo, and Siwoo is all about nitpicking at tiny details. His eyes gleam with interest, and an interested smile perks the corners of his lips.
“No kidding,” he says. “Hey, Jihoon has like… zero interest in things like that. Zero! Which means…”
“That someone has hooked him onto it,” Jaehyuk finishes meaningfully. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
“Of course,” Siwoo says, grinning from ear to ear now. “Our little Jihoonie has gone and found himself a girlfriend. Wow! I never thought I’d see the day. I didn’t think that brat had eyes for anything but the rift.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Jaehyuk says gratefully. “Look, you keep an eye out. See if you notice anything else suspicious about him. In the meantime, I’m going to get to the bottom of this tea thing.”
“Roger that,” Siwoo agrees. With a mock salute, he flashes another grin and heads back down the hallway. Jaehyuk watches him go with a fond smile, relieved. Honestly, he’s been thinking he’s going a little crazy, fixating on a stupid detail like this, but it’s nice to see that other people agree with him.
This tea thing is weird.
He’s not going crazy.
“You’re going crazy,” Giin concludes, unimpressed, once Jaehyuk relays his suspicions to him.
“Aw, come on,” Jaehyuk says. “You don’t think it’s at least a little weird?”
“You know what I think is a little weird? You keeping tabs on what Jihoon orders from cafes. That’s what’s weird about this.”
Jaehyuk rolls his eyes. “Excuse me for keeping a close eye on my teammates. It’s not easy being the captain of a bunch of unruly idiots like you guys. You don’t get it, okay?”
“Right,” Minggyu chimes in cheerfully. “We don’t, because we’re not insane.”
“I’m not insane!”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Giin mutters.
“Look – hey, back me up over here with this,” Jaehyuk tries to appeal to Geonbu, who’d been listening in on the back and forth with a contemplative expression on his round face. When Jaehyuk addresses him, he wrinkles his nose like he prefers to have been left out of all of this.
“I dunno,” Geonbu says disinterestedly. “It is a little stalkerish of you.”
“Listen to me,” Jaehyuk insists. “The only reason someone suddenly switches to only one brand of tea, one flavor, every single day, is because there’s someone attached to it.”
“Or because you and Siwoo hyung are both nasty gossips who don’t know how to mind their own business,” Giin says flatly. “Have you considered that maybe Jihoon just likes the tea?”
“But that’s not how Jihoon works. He doesn’t just like things. It’s like you don’t know that brat at all. He’s picky as hell, but he likes variety.” Jaehyuk jabs a finger at him for emphasis. “I’m telling you, this is suspicious.”
Giin shakes his head. “You’re insane.”
Maybe he is insane. But Jaehyuk has instincts, and his instincts have carried him through worse. He keeps counting as the number of teacups emptied by Jihoon rises through the single digits into the tens and twenties, steadily approaching fifty by the end of the month. He keeps noting the way his hands curve around those delicate white cups like it’s something precious, the way his lips almost curve when he takes the first sip.
It’s weird. This is weird! Why is he the only one who’s bothered about this? If Jihoon has a girlfriend, then he wants to know about it, god damn it!
Jaehyuk is certain he’s onto something, but he’s starting to lose hope because his teammates seem so unconvinced by the prospect. That is, until inspiration strikes one day while he’s walking through Lol Park and – by some miracle – he manages to overhear a conversation bubbling in between three members of backstage staff in a quiet corner of the hallway.
“... Do you think it could be a fan?”
“I hope not! I like to think Chovy has more sense than that.”
Jaehyuk’s ears perk up like a hound, and he steps surreptitiously closer to the trio, curious for more information.
“Okay, but what makes you so sure he’s in a relationship in the first place? He’s such a hardworking player, I’m still not convinced–”
“I’m telling you! I was working on his makeup, and I saw his phone screen. He was texting someone, and – well – I’m mindful of his privacy, so all I’m just going to say is that the conversation he was having was definitely with a significant other.”
“You snooped on his phone?”
“I did not snoop! He had the thing out in front of me, okay? What was I supposed to do? Just not look at the obvious sexting messages right in front of my poor eyes?”
This is when Jaehyuk fails to resist inserting himself into the conversation. “ Sexting ?” he barks, shocked.
The three employees jump in alarm, only just realizing that Jaehyuk has been standing so close.
“Ruler-seonsu!” the tallest girl there, the makeup artist, says in alarm. “Um! I didn’t see you there, I’m so sorry!” She shares a panicked look with her two companions. Jaehyuk tries to console her with his friendliest smile.
“Sorry,” he says amiably. “I should have greeted you properly. Uh, sorry, but I can’t help but overhear your conversation. What… I mean, are you sure about what you saw? Jihoonie – er, that is, Chovy-seonsu has a girlfriend?”
“ Girlfriend?” she echoes, surprised, and shares a shocked look with her friends. “Um.”
“Um,” The shorter girl echoes, flushing to the roots of her hair.
“Um,” the third girl, the one with the dyed blonde hair, agrees meekly.
“Um, what?” Jaehyuk asks bleakly. “So he’s not committed to this girl he’s sending messages to all the time?”
The three women share another look amongst themselves, silently communicating something Jaehyuk can’t pick up on immediately.
“Actually,” the makeup artist starts, and then hesitates. “Ruler-seonsu, you won’t tell anyone about this if we tell you, right? You’re Chovy-seonsu’s teammate, after all. You wouldn’t want him to get involved in any scandals.”
“Of course not,” Jaehyuk says, affronted even by the idea. He’s more concerned about Jihoon being so careless about his love life that the employees at Lol Park seem to have caught onto it than anything else right now. In any case, he thinks it’s important that he gets this information from them so that he can at least attempt to do some damage control.
The blonde girl looks around the deserted hallway, and then leans in carefully. “Ruler-seonsu, we don’t think it’s a girlfriend at all.”
“Yeah,” the short one concurs. “As a matter of fact, we think it might be another player.”
“Another player?” Jaehyuk echoes loudly. The other three shush him vigorously. Shaking his head to rid himself of the surprise, he lowers his voice and continues. “Sorry, did you just say you think it’s another player? That’s absurd. I don’t think Jihoon would be the type to be interested in…”
He trails off when he realizes the three women are staring at him.
The makeup artist finds her voice first. “With all due respect, Ruler-seonsu, have you been paying attention to Chovy lately?”
“I have,” Jaehyuk says, offended. Clearly, he’s been paying too much attention. “I live with him, after all.”
“Well, he’s really been different lately. I mean, we work with you guys all the time in the background, so we’re privy to a lot more embarrassing details in your private lives than you might think. We see a lot of things you’d probably not want us to see.”
“That’s not reassuring,” Jaehyuk says, stifling a smile. “But carry on.”
“Anyway, Minkyung, do you think we should tell him about all the weird smiling he’s been doing recently?”
The makeup artist – Minkyung, Jaehyuk assumes – shakes her head vigorously. “No, he’ll think we’re crazy!”
“I won’t think you’re crazy,” Jaehyuk reassures. “I’ve also been thinking Jihoon has been acting a little weird lately.”
“He has, hasn’t he?” Minkyung chimes right in, encouraged. “Do you know I’ve seen him taking selfies in the green room before games sometimes?”
“Selfies. You don’t say.”
“I do say! Yena, tell him about what he asked you the other day!”
“I still can’t believe it, to be honest,” the short girl – Yena – jumps into the conversation. “Jiyeon and I were cleaning up the counter after finishing his makeup the other day. He was loitering in the green room, playing with his phone and… get this, he asked us what a good hundred-day anniversary gift would be!”
“A hundred-day anniversary gift!” Jiyeon, the blonde staff, emphasizes meaningfully. “He was really earnest about it, too. It was kind of adorable. I didn’t think Chovy had a cute side to him like that.”
“Sure you didn’t,” Minkyung cuts in. “That’s totally why you own three of his photocards and carry them around everywhere you go.”
“I – hey!” Jiyeon protests, embarrassed and pink in the cheeks. “You don’t need to call me out like that! I think he’s a very talented player and well deserving of my support, that’s all.”
“You fought with your husband over him the other day,” Yena points out helpfully. “I have to agree with Minkyung here and call you a little obsessed, you know.”
“I am not obsessed!”
“Okay, let’s all calm down,” Jaehyuk interrupts, attempting to mediate. Whether or not the employees at Lol Park are fans of the players is none of his business, and he’s definitely not interested in learning about conflicts in their personal lives. He just needs to get to the bottom of everything they know about Jihoon’s supposed secret relationship. “Have you guys noticed anything else weird about him?”
“Well,” Jiyeon says hesitantly. “There’s also the tea thing.”
Minkyung sighs. “Jiyeon, I’ve told you already. This tea thing is a reach.”
“It’s not a reach! I know I’m onto something about this!”
Jaehyuk’s eyes widen. “The tea thing,” he repeats, trying to refocus the conversation. “Can you tell me about it?”
“Yeah! Have you noticed that Chovy has been really obsessed with this one specific brand of tea lately? He’s always drinking a strange Earl Grey and elderflower blend that he’s never drunk before!”
“You don’t say,” Jaehyuk intones.
“I do say! Ruler-seonsu, you agree that it’s weird, right?”
“It is weird,” Jaehyuk agrees loyally. “But I still don’t understand what makes you think it’s one of the other players.”
“Oh, that,” Jiyeon says, looking at the makeup artist again. “Minkyung, I really think you should tell him what you saw.”
“No way! I’m not going to out him!”
“But Ruler-seonsu is his friend! He wouldn’t do anything bad to him… right?”
Three pairs of earnest eyes glance his way. Jaehyuk fights to keep a composed expression on his face, and plasters a look of extreme concern and sympathy onto his features.
“Of course not,” he says earnestly. “I just want to make sure Jihoon isn’t getting himself into any trouble, that’s all. I wouldn’t do anything to embarrass him.”
This last sentence he says with such false certainty that it rings through the empty hallway. Anyone close to him would have immediately sniffed out the insincerity behind the statement, but the three employees before him are none the wiser.
“Okay,” Minkyung relents, sighing. “See, here’s the thing. You did overhear what I said earlier about seeing what was on his phone screen right? I wasn’t able to make out the player’s face, but he’d sent Chovy a very – um! – a very incandescent photo, wearing Chovy’s team jacket. I tried not to look too closely at it – honestly, I did try! – but unfortunately I was able to make out the caption.”
“The caption,” Jaehyuk repeats. “What did it say?”
Minkyung clears her throat embarrassedly. She leans in close and lowers her voice. “It said… ‘ I look forward to beating you on the rift next time, so that I can see you wearing my jersey instead, Jihoon-ah.’ ”
“No,” Jaehyuk echoes, mock-aghast. “That’s very passionate.”
“Yeah,” Yena agrees. “And it definitely confirms that it’s another player that’s been talking to him like this.”
“You might be right about that,” Jaehyuk mutters. Then, clearing his throat, he straightens. “Well, this has certainly given me a lot to think about. Thank you for sharing your concerns with me,” he says in his best, authoritative-captain voice. “But whether there’s any truth to it or not, please allow me to suggest that you keep what you’ve learnt amongst yourselves, and to refrain from doing any further digging into Chovy’s personal life. He’s a lot pricklier than one might think, and I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate being probed like this.”
Jihoon’s fan, Jiyeon, blushes to the roots of her hair. “N-No, of course not, Ruler-seonsu. We won’t tell a soul.”
“No, and it’s none of our business,” Yena agrees.
“I won’t look at his phone again,” Minkyung chimes in.
“That’s great,” Jaehyuk says. “Thank you for the hard work, though. I’ll see you around.”
With that, he bids the employees a polite bow and a goodbye before he heads on his way back to the team’s waiting room. He’s certain now that Jihoon has a significant other, and the fact that it might be one of the other active players narrows the possible list of suspects down to a plausible handful. There’s also the fact that he’d been addressed as Jihoon-ah, and not Jihoon hyung, which only shortens the list even further.
Who amongst the active roster of LCK players not on the GENG team would talk to him so closely?
Jaehyuk stops in his tracks.
There’s someone he can ask for help with this.
So thinking, he turns tail and heads back in the opposite direction, towards the opponent’s waiting room instead.
“Minseok?” he calls, poking his head inside the T1 waiting room. He looks about cautiously, wondering if the coaching staff there might hit him over the head with a bat and kick him out into the hallway. But the players and the staff aren’t lost in any discussion, only relaxing before the match and watching the current game play out on the large screen mounted on the wall.
All of them look up in unison when they hear Jaehyuk’s voice.
“Jaehyuk hyung?” Minseok perks up, surprised to see him there at the threshold. He looks about the room like he’s confused. “Are you looking for me?”
“Yes,” he says pleasantly. “I was wondering if I could speak with you for a moment.”
T1’s ADC, Gumayusi, frowns in disappointment. The arm he has casually slung around Minseok’s shoulders tightens imperceptibly as he considers Jaehyuk thoughtfully. The sudden challenge in the younger man’s eyes makes Jaehyuk want to tease him, but he refrains from doing so, mindfully aware of the fact that he’s an outsider in enemy territory right now.
Sanghyeok looks up at him curiously from his place on the couch. In his hands, he holds a steaming mug. “Did you need something, Jaehyuk?”
“Yes,” he says politely. “Just a few minutes of Minseok’s time.” He flickers his eyes to Gumayusi. “If that’s okay.”
Gumayusi frowns. “Don’t tell him anything about the draft,” he murmurs in a very carrying whisper, which makes Minseok roll his eyes.
“Ignore him, please,” he says embarrassedly, jumping up from the couch and dusting his trousers. “What did you need, Jaehyuk hyung?”
“Could I speak with you alone?” he says, and then clarifies quickly, because Gumayusi looks like he’s ready to follow them out into the hallway: “It’s about Jihoon.”
It might have been his imagination, but he thinks Sanghyeok looks over at them curiously at the mention of Jihoon’s name. But he’s forced to let that drop as Minseok flits over to join him at his side, leading him back out into the relative privacy of the hallway.
“Minseok,” he starts cautiously. “I know you’re good friends with Jihoon, so I was wondering… have you noticed anything weird about him recently?”
Minseok stares at him with a blank expression on his face that looks just a little too innocent for Jaehyuk to buy it. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’ve been hearing some rumors,” Jaehyuk says conspiratorially. “Word is brewing that Jihoon is dating another player. I was just wondering if you’ve heard anything like that.”
Minseok blinks at him slowly, as if weighing how much he should reveal. “Another player?” he repeats, voice neutral. Then, a small, amused smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “Jaehyuk hyung… are you asking me because you care about Jihoon hyung, or because you’re just nosy?”
Jaehyuk flushes slightly. “I do care,” he says, hoping it doesn’t sound terribly like an excuse. “But maybe it’s also a little bit of the other thing. I just – look, it’s important that I check whether he’s being careful. You know Jihoon. He’s impulsive sometimes.”
Minseok grins. “To say the least. You’re worried about him for a reason, aren’t you?”
“I am!” Jaehyuk says. “Look, I’ve noticed weird things. He only drinks this very specific tea these days. Earl grey with elderflower, and nothing else. And I’ve been counting how many cups of it, too. He’s at like 54 cups since I started counting. That’s dozens of cups a week. And he smiles all the time now, Minseok. That brat! Imagine! Smiling!”
Minseok laughs. “Jaehyuk hyung, that’s not exactly proof of anything. People like tea. People smile.”
“Not Jihoon, though,” Jaehyuk insists. “He’s… really happy, Minseok. I think someone’s seriously gotten to him. Someone he really likes. And I need to know who it is before he inevitably gets himself in trouble!”
Minseok studies him carefully, expression unreadable. Then his lips twitch, and he shakes his head in a poor attempt to hold back laughter. “Alright. I’ll tell you this. You’re right, by the way. That tea isn’t a random choice. Someone very special got him hooked on it. And… if you watch very carefully, you might even figure out who it is.”
Jaehyuk raises his eyebrows. “Who is it?”
Minseok’s grin turns teasing. “Ah, well. Let’s just say it’s someone we both know quite well. Someone who really likes tea. As a matter of fact, he likes tea so much that he might even be drinking some right now.”
Jaehyuk’s smile fades.
An image of the T1 team from just moments prior, all of them immersed in their own thing within the waiting room, flashes into Jaehyuk’s mind. From all of them, his mind focuses on the quiet man sitting calmly in the corner with his hands wrapped around a mug serenely. Somehow, Jaehyuk is sure now that if he’d approached him, he would have realized that the aroma wafting from the mug was extremely familiar.
Jaehyuk looks at Minseok sharply, eyes widening, color fading from his face as the answer settles in. Minseok laughs to see the dawning expression of horrified realization on his face.
This is beyond belief.
Jaehyuk has always known Jihoon has a propensity to get himself into needless trouble, but he’s never believed in a million years that he could possibly get himself entangled in something this serious in nature.
He can’t believe the nerve of those two, honestly. Possibly the two most prolific players in the current roster of active LCK players, and they couldn’t find anyone other than each other to get into a relationship with? Jihoon is so careless about this, too. What’s he playing at, asking random Lol Park employees for advice on his absurd new relationship, without even deigning to give the rest of his team a heads up that he’s doing something like this?
Maybe Jaehyuk should give him a piece of his mind.
But then – the image of Jihoon sitting happily on the couch back at the dorms, smiling serenely at the cup in his hands, flashes into his brain. Jaehyuk sighs heavily, feeling the frustration melt out of him in mere seconds.
The worst part about this whole thing?
Jihoon is so happy. What kind of an older brother would he be if he decides to disrupt that happiness, just to preserve their image? Jihoon is an adult. He knows what he’s getting himself into. Maybe the best thing he can do is to be supportive.
But – ah, well.
Jaehyuk isn’t a saint.
He’s definitely going to get back at Jihoon about this somehow.
Jaehyuk slides back into the GENG waiting room with the biggest smile on his face, and finds his target seated in one of the swirling chairs by the desktop setups by himself, playing calmly with his phone. He smiles wider, and strides right across the room to drop on the chair right in front of him.
Jihoon looks up at him, and makes a face at the weird expression on his face. “What do you want?” he asks suspiciously.
“Oh, Jihoonie,” Jaehyuk says happily. “I am so glad you asked.”
“Are you good?” Jihoon smirks. “What, did Siwoo hyung finally put you out of your misery and agree to go out with you? Is that why you’re grinning like an idiot?”
Oh, it is going to be so much fun to watch that self-contained smirk wipe off Jihoon’s face.
“Me? Oh, no, it’s nothing to do with my love life,” Jaehyuk sighs. “It’s interesting you should say that, though! I’ve just heard the most fascinating story! From three Lol Park employees, to boot.”
“Really,” Jihoon deadpans, clearly not interested, as he returns his attention back to his phone and promptly starts scrolling.
“Really,” Jaehyuk echoes. “Don’t you want to know what they said, Jihoonie?”
“Not really.”
“They said!” Jaehyuk goes on as if he hadn’t spoken. “That they have reason to suspect that two highly prolific midlaners in the LCK are dating each other. Can you believe such a thing, Jihoonie? It’s an absurd story, right?”
Jihoon stops scrolling. To Jaehyuk’s great pleasure, his cheeks flush an embarrassed pink, and a scowl makes its way onto his face. He can see the cogwheels turn behind Jihoon’s head very quickly as he struggles to grasp at an appropriate response.
“Anyway, I just found it really funny how quickly rumors spread around here,” Jaehyuk goes on to say. “But ah, well, I was just thinking. If there were any truth to the story, which I’m not saying there is – but if there were, I would tell those midlaners a very crucial piece of advice.”
Jihoon isn’t an idiot. He knows when he’s been caught. He purses his lips embarrassedly, and keeps his eyes pointedly on the phone screen. “What would that be?”
Jaehyuk clears his throat. “They really should be thinking about investing in privacy screens for their phones. After all, the last thing we need is to catch a glimpse of any… hmm… unsavory photos, right?”
Jihoon’s eyes go wide. Fear and embarrassment instantly color his features. This entire saga has been very gratifying indeed. Siwoo is going to lose his mind when he hears about this…
“Oh, and Jihoon?” Jaehyuk adds as a final retort, almost sweetly. “Make sure we don’t lose the game today. I do not want to end up in a situation where I have to see you in Faker’s red T1 jacket. As stunning as it looks on him, I’m afraid your complexion suits black and gold all the way.”
Chuckling, Jaehyuk rises from the chair and claps Jihoon on the shoulder. He leaves him there, sitting shell-shocked and mortified, mouth agape and a prime target for flies.
Fin