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Hyeonjun had already played four solo queue games tonight, with three wins and one loss so far. It was also broadcast day, which meant he had to look unbothered, even though solo rank always found new ways to test his patience. Compared to yesterday, when red managed to outshine the blue banner, today was pretty decent.
Queue popped again. Hyeonjun rolled his shoulders once, leaned back into the chair, and let his eyes drift to the second monitor out of habit. Chat was already moving too fast to read properly, but the same name kept surfacing, again and again. Hyunjoon hyung. Same team. With him.
Hyeonjun smiled a little before opening their inbox.
어리고싶다: i want to do jungle
어리고싶다: really
Hyunjoon wanting jungle was already funny. Hyunjoon stating it with confidence made it funnier. Hyeonjun was aware that their top laner had been dabbling in jungle lately, saying it was easy whenever Hyeonjun was within earshot. It was honestly annoying, but also cute in the most irritating way, because it was for him.
오너: wanna do it for real?
어리고싶다: let’s do it
Hyeonjun continued, because if the world handed him a bit, he was going to commit.
오너: nidalee?
어리고싶다: i can handle nidalee
오너: okay
오너: then, i’ll go top
오너: look forward to it
He locked in Nidalee and started setting up runes for his Hyunjoon hyung. It felt ridiculous, and he knew it was ridiculous, but Hyeonjun still did it because trying things with Hyunjoon was fun.
어리고싶다: use renekton
오너: i’ll use ambessa
어리고싶다: renekton is good
오너: out of nowhere?
오너: i mean i’m good at playing renekton
오너: but it’s against jayce though?
Hyeonjun stared at the matchup. Renekton was viable, but he wanted to play Ambessa. If they were going to swap positions, Hyeonjun should choose something he enjoyed playing, right? Hyunjoon replied and offered an alternative.
어리고싶다: then, sion?
오너: sion
오너: okay
However, Hyunjoon locked in Gnar. Huh? A swap request appeared, and Hyeonjun accepted it. But the longer he looked at Gnar, the more his expression flattened into disapproval. He didn’t like it at all.
Hyeonjun requested another swap, trying to push the champion back to Hyunjoon, because surely it would be resolved in the last seonds of champ select. Hyunjoon declined. Six seconds left.
Hyeonjun looked at his rune page. Shit. His cursor hovered, indecisive. Every second spent fixing it was another second closer to whatever disaster Hyunjoon had queued up for him. “Ah! What are you doing?! Doran!”
“Hop in!” Hyunjoon called, cheerful in the way only a person with zero consequences could be.
Hyeonjun’s reply came out messier, already spiraling into the practical horror of it all. “No, I’m not talking about discord. Ah fuck… I didn’t even get to set up my runes properly.”
Champ select ended and the game loaded in with Hyeonjun holding Gnar. He joined the server and just accepted his fate. It is what it is. Hyunjoon’s voice came through, “Hey, I can’t hear you?”
Hyeonjun frowned, because as far as he could tell, everything was working. He could hear Hyunjoon perfectly. Crystal clear. “I hear you though.”
“No, for real, I can’t hear you!”
Hyeonjun fixed his earphones and microphone, but it refused to participate in whatever experiment was happening to him. So, he did the only thing available. He started talking through the wall.
At first it worked fine, in the dumbest way possible. Hyunjoon talked through discord, and Hyeonjun answered from the other side of the room. Every exchange had a tiny delay because the jungler had to physically project his voice across room partitions.
Then, lane began.
Hyeonjun realized that something was wrong. He clicked, moved, auto-attacked once, and waited for the familiar sound cues. Nothing. He tugged the cable slightly. Still nothing. Oh, I’m fucked.
Four minutes in, Gnar died. He reset, ran back, tried again. Gnar died again. And again.
Hyeonjun couldn’t hear a ping behind him. He couldn’t hear the shift in a fight, or the subtle cues that told him he was about to get punished. He only saw it when it was already happening.
Everything else became background noise he could not even hear. Hyunjoon kept calling his name, but the whole set-up was scuffed in every direction. Hyeonjun did not answer. He could not answer properly anyway, not with a dead mic, dead earphones, and a lane that required his full attention just to survive for more than a minute.
Hyunjoon checked on him through the wall, “Oner? You okay?”
Gnar died again. How could he be okay?
Hyeonjun rotated toward the bottom side of the map. His eyes flicked to the mini map and caught Nidalee moving in. They waited for some time, then Hyunjoon went in for the gank. They collapsed on Diana together. The trade finally tipped in Gnar’s favor. Hyeonjun pounced, and the last hit landed with a kill.
First kill. After five deaths.
“Oh, Oner!”
For a second, Hyeonjun forgot to be annoyed when he heard Hyunjoon’s shout through the wall. His body reacted before his pride could stop it. A grin tried to escape involuntarily after a long streak of nonsense. Suddenly, he remembered the stream. He felt his lips lift and immediately forced them down again.
Hyeonjun stared at the screen, trying to keep a neutral expression. Nonetheless, the kill felt good, even if it came packaged with humiliation. The rest of the game rolled forward in that same rhythm. Hyunjoon kept calling him, asking questions he expected him to answer. Hyeonjun still didn’t bother replying. His mind was just circling around with one thought.
He wanted to kill that Jayce so badly.
—
Hyunjoon and Hyeonjun’s disastrous lane-swap match ended with a win.
Hyunjoon couldn’t decide whether to be proud or embarrassed, so he just started laughing under his breath. Okay, that was his fault. He should’ve just swapped back again, but he wanted to hear Hyeonjun’s reaction. What he hadn’t expected was Hyeonjun’s complete radio silence. He was sulking, according to chat.
Seconds later, the door to Hyunjoon’s broadcast room opened and Hyeonjun stood there like he’d been personally wronged. “You said it was winnable!”
Hyunjoon slid his headphones off both ears and turned his body toward him, “It was!”
Hyeonjun stared at him, then exhaled a long, suffering sigh. “Haaa…”
Hyunjoon tilted his head, pretending to consider the accusation. His eyes were still bright though, and that ruined the act instantly. “No, but if you lose like that,” He said, trying to find which buttons to push, “How are you even planning to win?”
Hyeonjun wanted to argue. Hyunjoon could see the words lining up. However, he decided it wasn’t worth it, turned around, and walked back to his own broadcast room. His Hyunjoon hyung had him wrapped around his finger right now. He couldn’t win.
Hyunjoon’s smile stayed on his face. Honestly, he was enjoying this. They usually rage-baited him first, especially Hyeonjun and Sanghyuk, but getting them back felt weirdly cathartic.
They slipped back into discord like nothing had happened. Hyeonjun spoke first from the other side of the call, still a little tangy around the edges. “Ah, hyung. You’re seriously trolling with Nidalee.”
Hyunjoon let out a giggle because he kind of agreed. Locking Nidalee had felt clever for about ten seconds. Everything after that had been a gradual lesson in regret. “Why did I even pick Nidalee...”
“Exactly,” Hyeonjun fired back immediately. Without even pausing to breathe, he switched gears. “And why did you make me play Gnar? I said I didn’t want to play Gnar!”
Hyunjoon shifted in his chair and started massaging his shoulder. It was an obvious answer. It was funny. He didn’t say that, though. Instead, He leaned into innocence. “You know how to play Gnar though.”
“I said Renekton! I win with Renek,” Hyeonjun insisted, and the way he said it made it sound less like a suggestion and more like a fact that Hyunjoon was refusing to acknowledge. “You don’t even know the match-up, hyung.”
Hyunjoon didn’t really protest after that. He just smiled to himself, because Hyeonjun sounded so sure, and Hyunjoon knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it. While they waited for queue, the conversation drifted, toward whatever loose thread was hanging around.
“Where did Suhwan go?” Hyunjoon asked, because apparently their youngest had dipped. That was weird, since he had just been with Suhwan a while ago. And Suhwan didn’t really have a habit of canceling schedules unless it was unavoidable.
“I don’t know,” Hyeonjun replied. “I heard he cancelled stream.”
“Yeah, but where did he go?” Hyunjoon repeated. That was exactly why he was asking. Hyeonjun and Suhwan had gotten undeniably close, considering Suhwan had only transferred over three months ago. Hyunjoon was glad for that. Glad Suhwan wasn’t stuck with only one person to lean on. So, maybe, Suhwan had told Hyeonjun.
Hyeonjun’s answer came derisively, “If I knew that, wouldn’t I have just told you that instead, hyung?”
Hyunjoon inhaled through his nose. He knew this pattern. Hyeonjun was getting back at him. He was retaliating. “Hmm, you have your way with words.”
Hyeonjun let out an easy laugh. It sounded like praise, but the warning underneath was unmistakable. “I also think I phrased that pretty nicely just now.”
Hyunjoon’s mouth twitched with the way Hyeonjun sounded genuinely pleased with himself. It was hard to be upset at someone who was basically applauding for their unacceptable manner. These constant nudges were normal for them. They’d done worse. “Yeah, seriously.”
“See?” Hyeonjun pushed, shameless now. Hyunjoon could practically hear the grin in the younger’s voice because he wasn’t even attempting to hide it. “I delivered it properly to you.”
“Yeah. Your way of speaking is really good.”
“You understood it perfectly.”
“Hmm.” Hyunjoon hummed, dragging the sound out as he scrolled back up to read the chat again. Hyeonjun was asking about runes for jungle Jax, and Hyunjoon tossed out a few half-hearted recommendations while waiting for his own queue to pop.
Hyeonjun kept yapping. Hyunjoon answered with small, noncommittal sounds that could’ve meant anything from why is my queue taking so long to please stop talking. He’s such a menace.
Seconds later, his own lobby loaded in. Champion select came and went quickly, and he didn’t like the draft. Not even a little. He hovered his pick, then dodged. Freedom. Hyeonjun, of course, was already in game. “Share your screen, seriously. I dodged, so I got time.”
“I seriously can’t!”
“Ah, hurry up!”
“I really can’t right now,” Hyeonjun insisted. “I’m in a serious situation.”
Hyunjoon rolled his eyes, impatience prickling under his skin. It was that petty kind of stubbornness that made him want to push harder the more Hyeonjun resisted. So, naturally, he got louder. “Ah, hurry up! Share your screen!”
“You speak pretty nicely too, huh.” Hyeonjun sounded baffled.
Hyunjoon watched the jungler’s gameplay on screen but not in any helpful way. Hyeonjun’s champion moved across the lane, and Hyunjoon’s eyes tracked every click and ability. Definitely not to support, but to nitpick.
“Can I give you some feedback?” Hyunjoon asked, already smiling because he knew exactly what answer he wanted. He wanted permission. Messing with Hyeonjun might probably his favorite dessert.
“Yeah, go ahead,” Hyeonjun replied, weirdly cooperative.
Hyunjoon pointed with his voice, “Why did you use E like that?”
“Then how should I use it?”
“You should follow up his Q with flash.” That wasn’t true at all. What Hyeonjun did was right. Clean, even. Hyunjoon was just deliberately going against it.
Hyeonjun made a thoughtful noise. “Hmmm.”
“Do whatever you want then.”
“That’s what I’m going to do though?”
They went back and forth like that for a while. Hyunjoon teasing, and Hyeonjun pretending to be annoyed. Which only made it better, because Hyunjoon knew he wasn’t actually mad. If anything, Hyeonjun sounded like he was enjoying it. So was he.
The next match finally started. His own loading screen appeared, and their talking stopped. Hyunjoon adjusted in his chair, hands finding mouse and keyboard, and the game took over again.
Not long after, Hyunjoon ended the stream. He took off his headset and stood up to shake off that sticky feeling that came from sitting too long. After unplugging his mouse and keyboard, he stepped out of his streaming room and found their manager who would tidy up the things in his broadcast room.
“Where’s Oner?”
“Oner is on the 3rd floor. He said he’d play one more game.”
—
Hyeonjun had queued up top again, locked in Ambessa, and for once it actually felt clean in the way he liked. After that miserable top Gnar match earlier that had felt like chasing a mosquito with a kitchen knife, this victory sat in his chest like a reward.
He shut everything down without rushing, pulled on his hoodie, and stepped out into the hallway. Inside the elevator, he pressed the button and checked his phone, greeted by a couple of notifications he hadn’t opened yet. Well, none of them were that important. The important one was downstairs.
By the time the elevator began descending, he already knew what he would see when the doors opened. Hyunjoon would be there. It was not something they had officially agreed on, and it was definitely not something either of them had ever announced like a plan. It just happened often enough that it became routine. After streams or scrims, they would make a convenience store run before heading back to the dorms.
The doors opened and there he was. Hyunjoon leaning against the glass wall. He glanced up when Hyeonjun stepped out, “You’re so slow.”
Hyeonjun just huffed, the smallest laugh trapped in his throat, and walked over to his Hyunjoon hyung.
Outside, the air had that early night bite that made you shiver. They crossed the street together, the pedestrian light giving them the brief luxury of not having to hurry.
GS25 waited across the street, glowing too bright for how late it was. The automatic doors opened with a soft chime, and the cold air conditioning immediately washed over them. As they stepped fully inside, the store speakers switched tracks.
An IVE song started playing.
Hyeonjun’s mouth twitched before he could stop it. He chuckled, suddenly remembering that one clip from when Hyunjoon was still on Gen.G. Hyunjoon caught the sound at once. “Don’t,” He warned, already reaching out.
“I didn’t even say anything,” Hyeonjun tried, failing to look any less guilty.
Hyunjoon punched his arm, force adequate to make threat clear. “I said don’t.”
“Ah hyung, no violence in the store,” Hyeonjun laughed, finally letting it go.
He went straight for what he always ended up choosing when he was tired, boiled eggs. Simple. Just protein and salt. At the register, Hyeonjun placed his eggs on the counter. Hyunjoon set his gimbap next to them, and Hyeonjun’s eyes caught the label. “Hyung, why didn’t you just buy the tuna one?”
Hyunjoon didn’t even look at him. “Shut up. You’re not the one eating it anyway.”
Hyeonjun snorted, not offended, just entertained. His hyung was always a little scarier at hours like this. He watched Hyunjoon pay, and the cashier handed them their change and receipt. They hadn’t even moved away from the counter yet when the cashier stopped them.
“Wait,” She said, then disappeared beneath the register. Hyeonjun watched, puzzled, as she came back up holding two cold banana milks and a pack of little dorayaki snacks. She set them down beside the receipt with a thump.
Hyunjoon looked at the woman, confused. “I’m sorry. This is for…?”
The cashier smiled, “Just a gift. For couple. Valentine’s.”
Hyunjoon looked like his soul had left his body and was hovering somewhere above the instant ramen aisle. Hyeonjun burst out laughing upon seeing his Hyunjoon hyung’s reaction and turned away from the counter.
Hyeonjun understood the assumption. It wasn’t really polite to guess someone’s sexual orientation, especially with strangers, but he got it. People often misread their closeness. He just made a mental note to talk with the cashier later.
“We’re not,” Hyunjoon started, already too late, “No, we’re not a couple.”
“It’s fine,” The cashier said, nodding with confidence. She slid the items a little closer to them, “Happy Valentine’s.”
Hyeonjun was still laughing, his breath hitching now. “Why, hyung?” He bent forward. “Is it so bad if I’ll be your boyfriend?”
Hyunjoon grabbed one boiled egg from the counter. Shell and all. Before Hyeonjun could react, Hyunjoon shoved it toward his mouth.
“Ah—” Hyeonjun choked out.
The cashier made a small sound that was dangerously close to a laugh, then covered it with a cough and pretended to start reorganizing gum packs. Hyeonjun pulled the egg back out, horrified. “Hyung, are you crazy?! What if I die?!”
Hyunjoon picked up the banana milk and his gimbap, and started walking away from the counter. “You’ll live.”
Hyeonjun muttered, “I really hate you, hyung.”
“Same here.”
After they both calmed down from the Valentine’s incident, they decided to eat at the store instead of going back to the headquarters. There weren’t any tables outside, and neither of them felt like standing around with their food like strangers. So they sat inside, in that corner by the window where the plastic chairs were slightly too low and the table had a faint layer of grease that hadn’t been wiped clean.
Hyeonjun peeled his egg, tapping it once and letting the shell crack in a clean ring. Hyunjoon unwrapped his gimbap and started dissecting it. He lifted the roll and started picking at the middle. Thin slices of cucumber emerged one after another, and he set them aside with an accuracy that would’ve been impressive if it wasn’t so silly.
Hyeonjun paused mid-bite, egg held near his mouth and stared. “You’re really doing that?”
“Doing what?”
“You know there are options,” Hyeonjun said. “Like, whole different gimbap flavors. Ones that don’t have cucumber.”
"I want this one. Just without the cucumber."
“That’s not how food works, Hyunjoon hyung.”
Hyunjoon finally glanced at him, “You can mind your own business.”
Hyeonjun didn’t push further because he’d learned that Hyunjoon’s food habits were a locked door. You could knock, but you weren’t getting in. Still, watching him remove the cucumber piece by piece was entertaining.
Across from him, Hyunjoon finally began eating his gimbap and Hyeonjun observed him chew. Even though it was convenience store food and they could’ve inhaled everything and left, his hyung took his time with it. The world could wait five extra minutes while he ate the way he wanted.
When they finished, Hyeonjun expected what came next. Sure enough, Hyunjoon didn’t crumple the receipt. He flattened it on the table, smoothed it with his thumb, then started folding. Hyeonjun watched without blinking. He’d seen it so many times.
Hyunjoon’s receipt folding wasn’t impressive. The heart came out a little lopsided, but it was still obviously a heart. Hyeonjun rested his elbow on the table and propped his head, “Hyung, really? That’s the only thing you can do?”
“No, seriously,” Hyeonjun continued, because it was true and he couldn’t help himself. “You’ve been doing that forever. Like, every time. You don’t know any other shapes?”
Hyunjoon finished the last fold and pinched the top, then he looked up to Hyeonjun with his usual defensive annoyance. “You throw them away afterward anyway.”
Hyeonjun’s expression didn’t change much. He didn’t correct him. He didn’t nod either. He didn’t say, no I don’t, because that would be too direct. Hyeonjun didn’t throw them away. He never had.
Hyeonjun kept every one of them, every stupid receipt heart from every store run, coffee shop visit, and random purchase that didn’t matter. They lived tucked into pockets of bags or hidden in drawers he didn’t organize often. Sometimes, he’d find one in his hoodie or the back of his pants. He didn’t have a reason he could explain cleanly for why he was doing it. He wasn’t trying to be sentimental. He just didn’t want to be the person who discarded them.
And honestly, if it went on for a thousand more receipts, Hyeonjun wouldn’t mind. A thousand more, sure. What was the problem? Paper didn’t weigh much. A pocket could hold plenty. A drawer could always make room.
Hyunjoon, meanwhile, glided the finished heart across the table with a lazy flick, like he was passing him something insignificant. Hyeonjun picked it up, turned it once between his fingers, and shoved it into his pocket with the same unconscious motion he used for coins and keycards.
A few customers drifted in and out, and the moment passed with the two of them talking about stuff. Suhwan’s addiction with Dubai chewy cookie. Minseok inviting Hyunjoon with his pilates class. Sanghyuk losing a game of chess to Minhyung once. It was mostly about daily, useless things.
When Hyeonjun glanced at the digital clock near the door, he realized it was getting late. Though, it was already late. But pro-player late. They dumped the wrappers and plastic trays into the bins by the exit, making sure they’d thrown everything away properly.
They pushed through the sliding doors and headed back across the street.
Hyeonjun reached out and hooked his hand around the end of Hyunjoon’s hoodie sleeve, tugging it like a leash. "Hyung," He said, completely serious, “If I don’t hold this, I’m gonna get lost in Gangnam." They literally live here?!
Hyunjoon shot him a look. “Let go.”
Hyunjoon tried to shake him off once, then gave up. He was too full from the gimbap and too tired to waste energy on wrestling for his sleeve, so he just let Hyeonjun do whatever he wanted.
When the light changed, they stepped into the crosswalk, shoes hitting the painted lines together. Hyeonjun’s fingers were still hooked on the end of Hyunjoon’s sleeve, but halfway across he shifted. He let go of the fabric and closed his hand around Hyunjoon’s wrist instead. Hyunjoon didn’t complain, and the quiet consent made Hyeonjun happy.
Still, Hyeonjun didn’t realize it yet. That Hyunjoon was keeping the same shape too, except his wasn’t made of receipt or paper. It wasn’t something he could fold and hand over. He didn’t know he was holding it at all.
It belonged to the person next to him, and if either of them had been paying attention, they might have noticed it went both ways.
That maybe, Hyeonjun’s heart wasn’t the only one being held.
—