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“I’ve really, really fucked it up,” Choi Hyeonjoon groaned miserably into his pillow for the fifth time. “Now they’ll kick me out of T1, and no one will sign me again, and it’d be the end of my career. I’m doomed.”
Park Dohyeon rolled his eyes and flipped to another page of the Attack on Titan comics - Wooje had really been into this series lately, and the kid wouldn’t shut up until he caved in and promised to give it a read.
“I swear, Hyeonjoonie-ah, it’s not that serious.” He paused to think about it for a second, then added. “At worst, they’d just reprimand you a little bit, and then they’d watch you, and it’d be weird for a couple of months. But if it doesn’t affect the team synergy, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Choi Hyeonjoon was too distressed to notice how Park Dohyeon seemed to know a lot about this specific topic. He clutched his head. “But THAT’S the thing I’m worried about the most! What if Sanghyeok-hyung hates me?” The thought itself filled him with horror. Choi Hyeonjoon wanted to cry.
As if on cue, Han Wangho popped into the room. “Hyeonjoonie, Sanghyeok-hyung just texted me.” His voice was shaking with mirth. “He wanted to know if I knew where you were. He sounded really worried. What do you want me to tell him?”
“Tell him I’m dead.” Choi Hyeonjoon wailed at the floor. “Tell him I’ve sacrificed myself to the god of the Han River to repent for my sins. Tell him I hope he wins Worlds this year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and forever and ever and ever. Tell him that it’s been my honor to be his toplaner, even if it’s just for a little bit.”
Then he pulled the blanket over his head and rolled himself into a ball right at the corner of the bed. The bed which was also Park Dohyeon’s bed.
Han Wangho looked at Park Dohyeon. He just shrugged.
“Right.” Han Wangho pulled out his phone. His eyes were still crinkled at the edges. “I’ll just tell him you’re safe and everything’s ok. Oh, and,” he turned to Choi Wooje, who was curling himself into another ball on the other bed and visibly weirded out by all of this, “Wooje-ah, can you keep this under wraps with your ex-teammates for the time being?”
Choi Wooje, with round and confused eyes, made a zip motion with his hand.
“Thank you.” Han Wangho nodded and sat down next to the crumpled blanket lump. He gave it a slight pat, “Come on, Hyeonjoonie. I promise it’s not that bad.”
-----------------------------
It IS that bad, Choi Hyeonjoon wanted to scream. He regretted every single life decision that had led him to that moment.
Well, maybe not the decision to sign with T1. But still.
It all started from an innocent clip.
Okay, who was he kidding? It had started from way, way earlier.
Maybe it had started when Lee Sanghyeok’s stare seemed to burn him while he tried his best to avoid his gaze, all the while hearing clearly what Lee Sanghyeok was announcing to the entire room, “I like people with Hyeonjoonie’s personality.”
Maybe it had started when Lee Sanghyeok couldn’t seem to stop TOUCHING him, and giving him massages, and correcting his postures. He knew, Choi Hyeonjoon knew deep down that it was just how Lee Sanghyeok expressed brotherly affections, and yet, and yet-
Or, here’s the truth: It had started the moment Choi Hyeonjoon saw the Faker ID light up in Summoner’s Rift. Everything after that was just the encore, the inevitable conclusion, as Choi Hyeonjoon fell deeper and deeper into the tour de force of a man called Lee Sanghyeok.
“This is not good for my heart,” he’d told Dohyeon once, a few weeks ago, because he knew Dohyeon wouldn’t care and, unlike Wangho-hyung, wouldn’t laugh at him. Or worse, gossip.
Park Dohyeon didn’t deign that with a response. Chou Hyeonjoon took that as permission to continue rambling.
“You know, today I just blurted out, “Hyung, you’re so cute' after staring at his face like a creep!” There were rustling sounds on the line. Park Dohyeon imagined Choi Hyeonjoon rolling around in his bed, kicking his blanket and messing up his hair, as he often did when he was upset. “And today wasn’t even the first time! This is, like, the third time this has happened! I’m so embarrassed. What am I gonna do, Dohyeonie, Dohyeonie-ah.”
Choi Hyeonjoon was still rambling. “And sometimes he’d say something like, “I like your voice”, or like, “Hyeonjoonie-ah, you did so well”, and I’d feel so flustered I didn’t know what to say, because I didn’t want to make it weird! Why would he say things like that? Arghhhhhh.”
Hyeonjoon’s voice was getting progressively louder. Park Dohyeon briefly wondered how soundproof the T1 dorm walls were.
“Tough luck.” Dohyeon’s voice was flat. Hyeonjoon liked that. Hyeonjoon liked talking to Dohyeon because Dohyeon was always calm and logical, and he was always straightforward. It felt grounding to have Dohyeon as a friend. “Maybe you should try confessing to him, if it bothered you so much.”
“What? Dohyeonie!”
“What? If worst comes to worst, he’d reject you, and you’d be disappointed and sad, and then you’d get over it. That’s the most logical solution.”
“You’re insane.”
A brief lapse of silence. Choi Hyeonjoon belatedly realized there were clicking and explosion sounds from the crackling phone line. “Park Dohyeon, are you practicing while talking to me right now?”
“Yes.” He could practically see Dohyeon shrugging. Then, his friend drawled, because Park Dohyeon was also evil, “Unlike you, I am a professional.”
Choi Hyeonjoon hung up.
-----------------------------
Hyeonjoon had immediately dismissed the idea, but Dohyeon’s suggestion still lingered in his mind. Like an unhinged, evil seed that soon sprouted into an unhinged, evil tree.
After accidentally bodyslamming random furniture for the fifth time that month just because he was distracted by Sanghyeok’s brilliant smile, Choi Hyeonjoon felt like he’d completely, truly lost it.
“Lie down and put this ice pack on top,” Lee Sanghyeok glanced at Choi Hyeonjoon’s bruised knee. “Seriously, Wangho told me you were clumsy, but I didn’t know it was this bad.” He gave Hyeonjoon a small smile. “Do I need to hold your hand every time we go out now?”
And there went Choi Hyeonjoon’s sanity.
A million thoughts flew like a flurry of hungry pigeons inside his head, crashing into each other: Hyung, why would you say things like that? You asked Wangho-hyung about me? What did you guys talk about? Why would you say things like that? Is he flirting, or is he just being nice? Of course he’s not flirting. Why would he flirt with me of all people? I need to say something NOW. God, my face is hot. Am I blushing? Oh dear Lord, I hope not. Oh no, he’s looking at me weirdly. Yes, please hold my hand. I wonder how he’d react if I said that? Great, I took too long, now I have to think of something smart to say. Quick, quick, think of something NOW!
“I-I’ll try to be less clumsy in the future.”
The corners of Sanghyeok’s mouth visibly turned down.
Great job, Choi Hyeonjoon. He thought to himself. You’ve killed the mood and revealed yourself as a loser who didn’t know how to joke with people. Sanghyeok-hyung will hate you now.
Hyeonjoon suddenly felt very, very tired. He pulled the blanket to his chin and exhaled dejectedly.
“I’m okay, Sanghyeok-hyung. It’s just a bruise. Please go take a rest. Sorry for bothering you.”
Sensing his change in mood, Lee Sanghyeok frowned and gave him a pat on the head, “It’s not a bother, Hyeonie-ah. Hyung just like to take care of you. Call me if you need anything,” and then left.
Left alone, Choi Hyeonjoon sighed once more. He felt pathetic and miserable. Why wasn’t he a more interesting person, a more capable player? He KNEW he was good. But “good’ barely counted in front of the God of LoL. He was getting exhausted of feeling small and undeserving in front of Lee Sanghyeok.
Dohyeon’s advice surfaced in his mind again.
Maybe I really should confess. I can’t live like this anymore. Just get it over with, so Sanghyeok-hyung could reject me and I could end this stupid crush for good.
A crush that had lasted for over a decade, but still. Could it still be a crush if it’d lasted for 12 years?
Hyeonjoon wanted to cry. He wanted to call Dohyeonie or Wangho-hyung, but he’d bothered them enough about this. He pulled out his phone to scroll through social media instead.
Somehow, the algorithm served up a clip of himself. Choi Hyeonjoon looked at his past self sitting in the HLE streaming room, blithely telling a fan who asked for relationship advice:
“Just do it. It’s just relationship. If you like the other person, just be courageous and take their hand.” Past-Choi Hyeonjoon wiggled his palm at the screen and made a grabbing motion. “Like this. “I like you. Let’s date.” See? It’s not hard.”
It’s just relationship. Be courageous.
Right, his tired mind whispered. He was a son of Changwon. He’s brave. He’s a man of action. What is there to be afraid of?
In his exhaustion-addled mind, he didn’t see anything wrong with it.
So he had kicked his blanket, marched straight to Lee Sanghyeok’s bedroom, slammed the door open, and yelled into the room with his eyes shut: “Sanghyeok-hyung, I have a crush on you. Would you like to date me? If not, please give me a clean rejection so I lose all hope!”
Dead silence.
Choi Hyeonjoon peeped one eye open. And then two.
“Er, I shouldn’t be here, right?” Park Ui-jin awkwardly scratches his head.
Next to him, Bang and Wolf stared with their mouths open. A teokbokki fell from Bang’s mouth and made an audible “plop” sound; the red sauce splashed on his white T-shirt. Lee Sanghyeok’s face was unreadable.
It’s over, Choi Hyeonjoon faintly thought to himself. I’m done for.
He had screamed his confession into the face of not only Lee Sanghyeok, but also all of his friends at T1.
-----------------------------
“And then I hightailed out of there and caught a train here.” Choi Hyeonjoon concluded to a laughing Yoo Hwan-joong, who suddenly woke up to find his hyung back in the HLE dorm.
“He barged into my and Wooje’s room and made a nuisance of himself.” Dohyeon drawled. He reached over to fluff up Choi Wooje’s hair, who somehow still seemed bewildered after hearing the story twice. “Freaked the hell out of Wooje.”
“It’s okay, I’m okay.” Choi Wooje softly said.
“Thank you, Zeus-seonsu.” Choi Hyeonjoon mumbled sadly. “I always knew you were a good person, unlike your asshole of a roommate.”
“Who barged into my room in the middle of the night again?”
Han Wangho held out a hand between Hyeonjoon and Dohyeon to prevent the imminent squabbling. “You’re lucky it’s actually during T1’s break, so you don’t have to go to practice.” He set down a bowl of cereal in front of Choi Hyeonjoon. “You still scared the hell out of Sanghyeok-hyung, though. The way you didn’t say anything and just ran away. You didn’t even answer any of his calls or texts.”
“Coward,” Dohyeon commented.
“This is so hilarious, I can’t.” Yoo Hwan-joong wheezed. Hyeonjoon slapped his arm and pouted.
“Shut up,” Hyeonjoon pouted. He pointed the spoon at Dohyeon, “It’s all your fault.” He swirled the spoon around. He didn’t really feel like eating. “I really can’t look at my phone right now, so I just turned it off. Took the batteries out and everything.”
But - he was still a professional. He had to act like one. Hyeonjoon used his finger to prod at Han Wangho’s forearm, because acting cute always got his hyungs to do whatever he wanted. “Can you tell Sanghyeok hyung I’d stay here until the break ends and I’d come back in time for practice?”
As Han Wangho typed a flurry of text for Lee Sanghyeok, a yawning Kim Geonwoo walked into the common kitchen. He rubbed his eyes once, then twice.
“Hang on, am I dreaming? Why is Hyeonjoon hyung here?”
Everyone groaned as Yoo Hwanjoong gleefully recounted the story for the third time.
-----------------------------
Three days later, a slumping Choi Hyeonjoon and the full roster of HLE stood on a train platform.
“Maybe I can ask for a day off.” Choi Hyeonjoon piped up.
“No!”
He looked at his friends with what he hoped they knew was hurt betrayal.
Han Wangho was gentle. “I mean, you can’t run away from him forever. You still have your career.”
Choi Wooje was supportive. “I think Sanghyeok-hyung won’t be mean about it. He’s a very kind person.” He paused, then added. “And I think you’re an awesome player, so they won’t bench you.”
Such a good person, Hyeonjoon thought. This kid was so lovely, he loved him.
Park Dohyeon was less kind. He turned Choi Hyeonjoon around and pushed him forward, “You’ve terrorized us enough. Go!”
“Excuse me?”
“You stress-ate all my ice cream in the fridge and made Hwanjoong go buy more!”
Kim Geonwoo apparently also didn’t like him anymore, “You made us watch Titanic with you 5 times. And you cried every time!”
“You wandered around the kitchen at night like a ghost! I almost had a heart attack!”
“You terrorized Wooje! You asked him, “Will T1 sack me?” every 2 hours!”
Park Dohyeon crossed his arms, “If you don’t leave now, I’m gonna call Faker-seonsu. I don’t have his number, but I’ll ask for it from Wangho hyung, and he’d give it to me. Then I’d tell him that you’re very, very sick, and only his presence would cheer you up, and he’d have to come to fetch you PERSONALLY. And he’d come, because that’s the kind of captain he is. And you’d have to sit in his car with him, ALL ALONE, for HOURS, all the way from here back to T1 dorm. Would you like that?”
The thought chilled Hyeonjoon to the bone, “You wouldn’t.”
Park Dohyeon lifted his chin. “Watch me.”
“Fine, fine!” Hyeonjoon threw his hands up in the air. “Since you all apparently hate me now, I’ll leave.”
The train screeched to a halt in front of them. Hyeonjoon took a breath, then made to step forward.
Warmth wrapped around his shoulders. Park Dohyeon put his arm around Hyeonjoon’s back and told him in a small but certain voice, “Everything will be okay. I promise.”
He gave Dohyeon a forced smile.
He’d try to believe that.
-----------------------------
The good news was: It looked like Sanghyeok hyung hadn’t told any of the coaches or their teammates, so everyone still treated him normally. Hyeonjoon had tried to look for signs: any weird glance or passing comment that someone knew something about The Incident. There was none. Just for that, he allowed himself a sigh of relief.
The bad news was: Sanghyeok hyung had been trying to talk to him. Like, in a really obvious way.
“Hyeonjoonie, do you have time?” Lee Sanghyeok had asked, right after the first day’s practice.
“Erm… actually…” Like a frightened animal, some evolutionary response in Hyeonjoon’s hindbrain kicked in. All the courage he had gathered from before evaporated.
Hyeonjoon found himself walking backwards from Lee Sanghyeok. He’s aware his frozen smile must have looked more like crying right now. “I have… a thing… to… er, it’s kind of important? So, sorry hyung!”
Lee Sanghyeok could only hear the distant echo of the “sorry”, as by then Choi Hyeonjoon was already far gone.
This continued for the rest of the week. Somehow, Choi Hyeonjoon had decided that he wouldn’t even give Lee Sanghyeok the chance to speak to him.
Practice time? Choi Hyeonjoon would arrive the latest, right after the coaches had arrived, then immediately put his headphones on. He knew Lee Sanghyeok was professional, so practice time was safe. Small mercies.
After practice? Choi Hyeonjoon would bolt out of the room like he had fatal diarrhea.
What about mealtime and bedtime?
Well, Hyeonjoon had a solution to avoid the T1 dorm entirely.
“You know this is technically illegal right? We could get sued for this.” Jeong Jihoon levelled an unimpressed stare at Choi Hyeonjoon, who was draping himself like a wet carpet on GenG’s couch.
“Please, Jihoon-ah. I’m really tired. I just need to sleep for a few hours before I sneak back to my room. Plus, your managers love me; they have already agreed.”
Jeong Jihoon threw his hands up. “Hyung, why are you even doing this to yourself? This is like the fourth time this week you’ve been here.”
“Well I can’t sleep in an internet cafe! It’s bad for my back!”
“That’s not the point! Why would you even sleep in an Internet cafe in the first place?”
Park Jaehyuk snickered from the other sofa. “He confessed to Sanghyeok hyung and ran away.”
“You did WHAT?”
Hyeonjoon was scandalized. “How do you even know that?”
“Wangho told me. Obviously.”
Hyeonjoon muffled his screams into GenG’s pillow. He didn’t care that his saliva could get on it. Park Jaehyuk and Jeong Jihoon deserved it.
-----------------------------
“Hyeonjoon hyun-... anddddddddd he’s gone.” Moon Hyeonjun watched as Choi Hyeonjoon ran away so fast, he crashed into a trash can at the end of the hall. “That’s the third time this week.”
Lee Sanghyeok asked distractedly, also watching Choi Hyeonjoon’s retreating back, “What, that he’d run away?”
“No, that he’d crashed into the trash can. That specific trash can.”
This got a smile out of Lee Sanghyeok. “For such a skilled player, he sure is clumsy.”
Moon Hyeonjun’s voice got somber. “Hyung, do you know what’s going on with Hyeonjoonie hyung? He’s been weird.” He hesitated before continuing. “And it seems like there’s something between you guys. Your synergy has been off lately.”
“Good observation.” Lee Sanghyeok zipped up his bag. He looked frustrated, too. “I do know. But I can’t tell you. For now. Hyeonie is just being stubborn.”
Moon Hyeonjun whistled. “Interesting.” He swung his bag over his shoulder. “So how long do you think this will go on, hyung?”
Lee Sanghyeok chewed on his lips. He frowned at the floor as if it personally offended him.
“Today.”
“Huh?”
“This ends today.”
-----------------------------
What Choi Hyeonjoon didn’t know was that, for the past few days, Lee Sanghyeok, brilliant strategist as he was, had spent time mapping out his escape routine.
In order to avoid Lee Sanghyeok at all costs, he only came to the T-bap center on the 9th floor at a very specific time frame.
Time for a surprise attack.
Choi Hyeonjoon was munching on a waffle, oblivious, as Lee Sanghyeok crept in from behind.
He looks so happy. Lee Sanghyeok thought, a little bit irritated. It’s like he hadn’t spent his entire week avoiding me. Does he even have a crush on me like he said?
The place was empty except for him, Choi Hyeonjoon, and the T-bap chef, who was happily working on what looked like some sort of pastries for tomorrow. The sound of the AC whirred over their heads, concealing Lee Sanghyeok’s steps.
He slowly made his way forward. Steady, steady. A few more steps, and then he’d capture Choi Hyeonjoon in a headlock or something. Maybe a hug. Hyeonjoon wouldn’t punch him to escape, right?
Choi Hyeonjoon’s round head was nodding along to an invisible tune, a few chestnut-brown strands of hair wiggled up and down like they had their own consciousness. Cute, Lee Sanghyeok thought.
He let himself be distracted by Choi Hyeonjoon’s cuteness, and that was when the weakness of his plan was exposed. That was his downfall.
In one second, Sanghyeok helplessly found all his efforts were all for naught as the loud, excited voice of the T-bap chef echoed across the empty room:
“Oh, Sanghyeokie! I rarely ever see you come here so late. What do you wanna eat?”
The next moments felt like a movie filmed in slow motion.
He watched as Choi Hyeonjoon slowly turned around from his seat, waffle sauce still smearing his lips. He watched as Choi Hyeonjoon registered his presence. He could almost see the invisible ears on Choi Hyeonjoon’s flared back as its owner felt danger.
In one second, the world felt like it was frozen in honey - sticky and impossibly slow. In the next, Choi Hyeonjoon, the escape artist that he was, had stood up and bolted. He didn’t even grab his bag.
“Wait!” Sanghyeok yelled out and ran after him.
Years later, when they reminisce about that ridiculous situation, Choi Hyeonjoon would ask him what the hell he was thinking at that moment.
“It’s just that,” Hyeonie would tell him, “you usually were very calm and composed. That was… impulsive.”
“Yeah.” Lee Sanghyeok shrugged. “I didn’t think much, to be honest. I was acting on my emotions, more than anything.” He smiled wrily and gave Hyeonjoon a flick on the forehead. “I guess I was just sick of getting ignored by you. It didn’t feel nice.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re forgiven.”
But that’d be years later. For now, in the year 2025, Lee Sanghyeok found himself in an inane situation - having to chase a frantic Choi Hyeonjoon across T1 headquarters.
It was a fun, strange night for T1 office workers.
It started with thump-thump sounds, as someone(s) were clearly running down the hall.
A staff member frowned. “You’re not supposed to run in the office.” She swivelled around, prepared to chide whoever dared to disrupt everyone’s concentration.
She was not the only one. As half of their staff worked the night shift, they all turned around - only to watch in shock and confusion as their toplane player, Doran, zoomed past their working space at top speed, as if he was running from a serial killer.
“What the hell,” another staff member mumbled. He made his way to go after Doran. But…
“Watch out!”
The path was narrow, so before he could catch up to ask Doran what was wrong, he was almost bodyslammed by another person.
“Sorry, sorry,” the office worker stared in incomprehension as he was apologized to by… Faker? The legendary Faker?
Faker almost crashed into him?
Oh god. Oh god. He was not gonna have to pay any sort of insurance fees for injuring Faker, right?
“Oh my god, it’s okay, Faker-seonsu. Are you hurt anywh-”
The staff couldn’t finish his sentence as Faker, too, had taken off at top speed in the direction Doran went in. He could even hear Faker yelling:
“Hyeonjoonie! Choi Hyeonjoon! You stop right there!”
"No!" Doran yelled right back. A smaller "I'm sorry hyung" echoed across the high-ceilinged office.
“I must be dreaming.” The staff member mumbled again. He rubbed his eyes once. Twice. Nothing changed.
He dazedly walked back to his coworkers. “Hey, can someone punch me so I wake up? This dream is getting strange.”
-----------------------------
10 minutes later, Lee Sanghyeok and Choi Hyeonjoon had gotten every T1 employee peeking out of their office to witness this bizarre chase from the 9th floor down.
Choi Hyeonjoon knew he didn’t have much time left - needless to say, his endurance was weaker than Lee Sanghyeok's. He had to end this, quickly. And the only way to do it was…
He took a sharp turn and made for the emergency exit.
At the same time, Lee Minhyung, Moon Hyeonjun, and Ryu Minseok were just walking out of the team’s practice room, right at the moment to witness the chase pass them by.
“That looks fun.” Lee Minhyung sipped his coffee.
“Wanna join?” Moon Hyeonjun smirked at his friend.
“Exactly what I thought.” Ryu Minseok cupped one hand around his mouth and yelled. “Sanghyeok-hyung! Need any help?”
Lee Sanghyeok skidded to a stop. He turned to look at the trio 02 kids. His eyes lit up as his brain quickly whipped up a plan.
“Yes!”
The kids immediately ran to him like a herd of ducklings.
“Minhyung, you go here… Hyeonjun, you go here… And Minseok, you go here. Got it? Yes? Now scatter!”
As the kids ran to their assigned posts like dutiful sentinels, Lee Sanghyeok leisurely walked down to the 1st floor.
There’s no way Hyeonjoonie could escape this building now.
-----------------------------
Choi Hyeonjoon slowly made his way through the stuffy place.
He must have lost Sanghyeok hyung by now, right? It’s easy to spot someone approaching in this area, but he didn’t hear anything.
He checked his watch. 12:00AM. Sanghyeok must have given up and gone home by now. He’s very strict with his routines.
After glancing around to check for danger for one last time, Choi Hyeonjoon straightened up and made for the entrance. The bustling noises and gleams of city lights got louder and brighter with each step he took.
As Hyeonjoon’s canvas shoes touched the cemented pavement outside the underground parking lot, he patted his chest in relief. Danger averted.
Then his blood turned cold as he felt a strong hand grab him by the scruff of his neck, and a familiar calm voice breathed by his ear.
“Got you.”
-----------------------------
Choi Hyeonjoon stared longingly at the closed door. A few minutes ago, Lee Minhyung had dumped him unceremoniously on Lee Sanghyeok's swivel chair in his bedroom, while Moon Hyeonjun just gave him a pitying look and said, "Try to stay alive." before heartlessly pulling that door shut. Now, he was truly left alone with an ice-cold-faced Lee Sanghyeok.
“Don’t even think about it. I told them to lock it on their way out. No one but me can open it, since I have the keys.”
Choi Hyeonjoon looked down morosely at his knees. All Lee Sanghyeok could see was the top of his head. His feeling of irritation grew.
“Now, before I say anything, do you have anything to say to me after ignoring me for a week?”
Hyeonjoon winced. “So how did you know I planned to hide in the garage?”
“Easy, I saw through your little deception. We both knew your endurance was running out, so your only choice was to get out into the streets, so you could use the complex landscape to cut me off more easily. You made it look like you took the stairs to get to the 1st floor, so I’d have to run to the 1st floor to block your escape. But in reality, you just used the emergency stairs to get to another floor, where you could use the elevator to get to the underground parking lot. The parking lot exit was in the opposite direction from the front door, so I could not guard both. Even if I did guess that you could go to the parking lot, there’s only one me, so I’d have to choose. And even if I chose the underground parking lot, it was significantly harder to chase people down there, meaning it’d be much harder to catch you.”
“But you had allies.” Choi Hyeonjoon finished.
“But I had allies, yes. And you let your guard down. Now quit stalling.”
This was it, Choi Hyeonjoon wailed on the inside. This was his own private execution. The day had finally come.
Might as well get it over with. He had delayed this out of his own selfishness and trepidation for way too long.
He took a deep breath and rattled out at rapid-fire speed.
“I’m sorry for trying to avoid you this entire week, as I was scared of what you’d say to me!”
“I’m sorry for running away and making you run too!”
“I’m sorry for lying!”
“I’m sorry for affecting the team’s performance because of my personal problems.”
“And,” his voice got smaller. “I’m sorry for having inappropriate feelings for you that could possibly affect our team synergy. I won’t be weird about it, I promise! Just give me a few days, well, not days, weeks! Two weeks tops and I’d get over it! I’d be a professional. I really love our team, so please don’t fire me!”
No reply from Lee Sanghyeok. After a while, Choi Hyeonjoon timidly peered up from his lashes - only to get knocked in the forehead by Lee Sanghyeok. It was slightly painful.
“Ouch! Hyung!”
The pain jolted him out of his repentance right into a pouting mood. Yes, it was his fault to have weird feelings for his teammate and captain - but Lee Sanghyeok didn’t have to hit him? Was it such a bad thing to be loved by Choi Hyeonjoon?
He was looking up to say exactly that, as he was met by a small smile tugging up the corners of Lee Sanghyeok’s mouth.
“You really are oblivious, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“And slow, apparently.”
“What?”
“Who said you could get over it and move on?”
Another knock to the head.
“Hyung!”
Lee Sanghyeok had had enough. “You idiot. You’re not moving on. You’re not getting over anything. I won’t allow you to!”
He looked up at the ceiling, as if praying that Cupid himself would come down here and witness this absurdity. “So you really do not know I was flirting with you the entire time?”
“What?”
He massaged his forehead. “Can you say anything but the word “what”?”
Choi Hyeonjoon opened his mouth, then closed it again.
“Do you think I’d just give everyone massages?”
Choi Hyeonjoon was defensive. “Well, I don’t know! Maybe you just really liked giving massages!”
“Lord have mercy.” Lee Sanghyeok rolled his eyes heavenward. He really was in love with this idiot. “I offered to hold your hands! Your reaction made me think you knew but didn’t feel the same, and I was bothering you!”
“I thought you were joking!” Hyeonjoon said, but his voice was a mix of incredulity and happiness.
“I said I liked your voice! And I praised you so much, the kids have started complaining about favoritism!”
The smile on Choi Hyeonjoon’s face had gotten impossibly wide. “I really thought it was a captain thing.”
“Did you?”
“Well, not really.” Warmth bloomed in Choi Hyeonjoon’s chest. This was a different kind of warmth from winning - it felt sweeter, fuzzier, like his heart had turned into cotton candy. “I just… I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Your life seemed so large with so many people, so many great things. I just didn’t want to delude myself into thinking I’m special.”
A brief silence.
“So… you do have feelings for me?” Choi Hyeonjoon bashfully asked.
Lee Sanghyeok gave him an unimpressed stare.
“Right, right, sorry. So…” Choi Hyeonjoon twisted his hands, then slowly reached over to touch Lee Sanghyeok’s. “It’s my fault for running away last time, so I’d ask again. Would you like to be my boyfriend?”
Lee Sanghyeok could only sigh. “Come here, you idiot.” And engulfed Choi Hyeonjoon in a hug.
He suddenly remembered the first day Doran joined T1, his wide brown eyes and awkward smile. How as time went on, he felt himself sinking deeper and deeper into the intrigue that was this person. Doran as a teammate, Choi Hyeonjoon as a person. His bravery, his fears. His sweetness, his integrity. His in-game sharpness and his obliviousness outside of it. How underneath it all, Sanghyeok found a soul that was just like his, and yet so fascinatingly different, that Sanghyeok wanted to spend forever figuring him out.
And now this idiot belonged to him. In his arms.
“You know,” Choi Hyeonjoon’s voice was muffled from his shoulders, “dating your forever crush is cool and all, but I’m also glad I’m not fired.”
“Honey,” the nickname tasted as sweet as he’d imagined on his tongue. “I love you. Please shut up.”
“I mean,” Hyeonjoon shifted so Sanghyeok could see his face. His cheeks were cotton-candy pink. “You can try. Shutting me up, I mean.”
“Is that so,” Sanghyeok murmured.
So, as all fairytales ended: They sealed the promise up with a kiss.