Chapter Text
November 9th — 2025 League of Legends World Championship Finals in Chengdu
It’s T1 vs. KT on stage.
Except.
Instead of being at Dong’an Lake Sports Park Multifunctional Gymnasium, Jihoon is back at his one bedroom apartment located in Seoul.
He has been scrolling on his phone for the past three hours, swiping through hundreds of reels. He’s come across some kind ones, comforting GenG and some not-so-kind ones, berating GenG. He’s frustrated and upset at being kicked out of finals, but it’s not like he can change his outcome at the moment.
He hasn’t slept more than 4 hours total across the past three days, so what he really needs is some good shut eye. With a frustrated sigh, Jihoon sets his phone down on the nightstand and closes his eyes.
1 sheep, 2 sheep, 3 sheep…24 sheep, 25 sheep…52 sheep…87 sheep…202 sheep…608 sheep…1254 sheep…50678 sheep…90983 sheep…112365 sheep…
“…fuck.”
Okay if I can’t sleep, might as well just watch one game. Just. One.
Jihoon turns on his TV, and before he knows it, he’s glued to the edge of his bed; his eyes won’t leave the TV.
Flash in! Full committal to the fight.
T1 coming from multiple sides. Collapsing as Oner moves in on top of Perfect!
All of T1 in the pit. Smites available.
The turn onto Faker?! Is it enough?! 3K! Cuzz, in the pit. At the end of the day it does not matter, cause it is Doran to get the soul. KT might be able to get the fight, but there’s too many members of T1 standing. Ocean soul to T1 as everybody on KT falls.
His goat.
His icon.
His role model.
Faker is shown on screen for a split second, and Jihoon feels conflicted. A mix of emotions swirl within him: jealousy, envy, but more so admiration and respect.
Daesanghyeok. How can someone be so calm in the face of that much pressure? The pressure of Worlds. The pressure of being on that final stage where one misplay could mean KT storming their base, breaking down their nexus and walking home with the Summoner’s Cup?
T1 bringing us the silver scrapes! T1’s hopes live, in the grand finals!
And the telecom war has never been this insane!
Worlds finals. Game five.
Jihoon is unknowingly cheering for T1. Why?
Is it because both teams put up a good fight, and he didn’t want it to be over yet?
Is it because of how he got knocked out because of KT?
Or
Is it because of his totally not-a-crush and just a role model mid-laner on T1?
The break ensues, and Jihoon glances at his room. The state of it is a mess. Even with the only light source being the TV, he can still see a suitcase zipped open, half unpacked; clothes strewn all over the room, on his chair, on his bed, on the floor; leftover food delivery piled in a corner: half eaten ramen, empty bowls of rice, ice-cream, black bean noodles. He lets out a deep, drained sigh and mumbles, “This is terrible.”
The data analysts have taken over the screen, but it becomes background noise for Jihoon as he’s whizzing around trying to clean up his room.
“This definitely needs to go first,” Jihoon says, walking over towards the neglected food pile. As he nears, the stench of everything attacks his nostrils, and he quickly pulls his shirt over his nose, as if that’ll help deter the path from the pile to his nostrils. With his hands straight out, he gathers the leftover, most definitely spoiled now, food items in a bag and removes it from the premise. Pronto.
Jihoon walks back into his room and turns on the lights. He makes quick work to fully unpack his suitcase, and all that’s left is his clothes. He takes another look around, and now that the lights are on, it’s worse than what he thought it was… His “dirty pile” is somehow so big now that it’s made its way into what was strictly the clean pile. He pulls his clothes from his bed and his chair and throws it all onto the ground near the mound of clothes. Jihoon trudges over and plops down near the pile and starts sniffing away, sorting out the clean from the dirty.
Let’s just say, some curse words were spewed while Jihoon sniffed his way around the pile…
Jihoon folds his clean clothes and puts them away, neatly. He moves to shove his dirty clothes in a dirty laundry basket, beelines it to the washer, dumps the clothes in and runs a cycle for 52 minutes. He washes his hands, and for the first time in a while, smells himself.
…………
The sound of water running fills up the occasional silence coming from the TV. Since the shower is running, we can only assume how that went…
Jihoon exits the bathroom with a towel draped over his head in a white t-shirt and checkered pants. He plops down on his bed, facing the TV, and dries his hair haphazardly.
Will it be Bdd with his first after a life of longing for the Summoner’s cup? Or will it be Faker’s sixth trophy?
Made it just in time.
The four man! Bdd showing that he can be clutch in the moments that count, turning it again.
Damn. Hate to admit it. That was a good stun from Bdd.
Jihoon claps his hands and says to nobody in particular, “Come on. As long as T1 doesn’t let KT snowball with that advantage, it’ll be okay.”
T1 get Atakhan and ace KT! A triple kill for Guma. And T1 do it. They take over and that could very well be the nail in the coffin for the rollercoaster.
Jihoon jumps up from his bed and yells with his full chest “Nice!”
That was good. They just need to keep this momentum going.
Faker falls. KT hold. Bdd, the heart of KT is alive! It is again all eyes on Bdd because who else could it be?
3000 individual gold lead.
Crossed the stack threshold.
He is the threat that T1 must reckon with in the fights to come even with the massive lead they still hold.
Aaaaaaand I spoke too soon…
Doran looking to get things kicked off. Hook shot over the wall that brings him over. He’s taking the tower already! Flash back to get away from Cuzz’s ultimate, and the ulti manages to connect from Deokdam!
A big fumble.
Ooof, that was rough man. That really looked like a call was misunderstood. Shake it off, Hyunjoon hyung. You’re so close to the finish line. T1 still has a big advantage, so they can just reset and play it slowly.
T1 earning their legacy again and again and again!
There can be no doubting it.
T1’s screens flash blue with bold words appearing on it. “VICTORY.”
Four players on the rift today making the impossible, possible. Oner, Faker, Gumayusi, Keria and now Doran as well are now world champions!
The crowd is deafening.
An unrivaled dynasty here has just been made.
The threepeat is real!
Jihoon is happy, but also bitter at the same time. He’s excited that he gets to witness a LOL team creating history and achieving a first ever threepeat. As he is excited, he can also feel the rush of emotions from the night of GenG’s elimination flooding back to him: sadness, frustration, and embarrassment. Jihoon falls back onto his bed, and settles his right forearm over his eyes, covering them.
Speaking to the wind, he lets out a barely audible, “What would it feel like to be up there, holding that trophy…”
Jihoon finds himself tossing and turning. Things are feeling…weird to say the least. His pillow feels much more comfortable than he remembers. His blanket feels a bit different too, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. His eyes are still shut when he hears, “Hyung! Wake up!” Jihoon furrows his eyebrows and turns away from the sound. “Jihoon hyung! Wake up! We’re going to be late again!” His eyelids shoot open.
Late? What would I be late for? GenG is on vacation right now, albeit an involuntary one. My schedule is clear for the next month. Also, wasn’t I asleep on my bed in my apartment??? The rest of the team are at their respective homes, and they wouldn’t come over without a heads up.
As his thoughts are running, the voice is continuously calling for him, and it’s getting even closer to his door. Jihoon finally takes a look around and freezes.
Everything is different.
His bed.
His desk.
His chair.
His closet.
His nightstand.
Where am I?
Jihoon glances down at himself and notices that his physique looks and feels different too. Jihoon’s sure he wore a white tee and checkered pants to bed, so why is he in a black tee and black sweatpants adorned with a T1 logo?
This HAS to be some fuck ass dream.
Jihoon hurriedly lays back down and clamps his eyes shut, trying to exit the dream. Except. The voice has now reached his door, and it’s accompanied by urgent knocking.
“Hyung! If you don’t wake up now, you’re going to pay for our next meal at the Michelin restaurant!”
Jihoon recognizes that voice, and his eyes fly open. “Minseok?” he manages to croak out.
The door to the bedroom swings open revealing a Minseok dressed from head to toe in T1 apparel.
Jihoon whispers to himself, “Is this not a dream? How does Minseokie look so real? Shouldn’t T1 still be in China right now? Celebrating their threepeat???”
Minseok catches it though, with his unnecessarily sharp hearing. He laughs at him and asks, “What are you talking about, Hyung? Did you have another weird dream?”
“Ummmmmm, I think I’m currently in said weird dream…”
“Hahaha, very funny, Hyung.” Minseok makes his way towards Jihoon’s bed with worried steps. He puts his right hand on Jihoon’s forehead and his lefthand on his own forehead. “Are you sick again? It doesn’t seem like you have a fever…”
Jihoon swats Minseok’s hand away from his forehead. “How did I get here? I’m sure I fell asleep yesterday night after watching T1 win worlds finals……” Jihoon takes a brief pause, and his next words come out a little awkward, “Congrats man, you all did great up there. That stun near the pit on bot side was a nice catch.” A moment of silence ensues, and Jihoon peeks at Minseok. “…Minseokie?”
Minseok, eyes wide and alarmed, slowly backs away from the bed and books it out of Jihoon’s room, down the hallway, yelling, “Everyone, Jihoon hyung is spewing nonsensical stuff again!!!”
Jihoon swings his legs off the bed, trudges to the bathroom, and flicks the lights on.
He takes one glance at the mirror and screams, “AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”