so the game can't stop (1/3)
so the game can't stop
namjoon/yoongi (bts) - ~21,000 words
min yoongi isn't one to give up his chance of joining seoul's crossfire team lineup, especially to a certain kim namjoon. the rest of the school, however, are all up for watching syubd and runchranda trying to pwn each other until there was one candidate standing.
a/n: i've never written anything this long. ever. i spent months shedding blood and tears with this work........ and hours of bingewatching video game high school. so yeah. i hope you like it. and shout out to agustd for rooting for me as i worked on editing this monster of a work. luv u. <3
Min Yoongi had never been familiar with anything but FPS. He was aware that ESDF was a far better configuration to control the trigger than WASD can ever be. Player targets were reached just as easily as the flimsy practice paper targets in Practice Mode. The Daegu Metro, the professional FPS team of his hometown, was his role model ever since he was E for Everyone.
First person shooting was in his blood. It had to be, with his mother being the captain of the Daegu Metro after all. It was all he ever knew since his mother placed his very first gear into his hands at the age of eight.
He was well-acquainted with precision, accuracy, stealthiness - and it seemed almost impossible that he could have his winning streak of 1-on-1 shootouts broken even when he got his acceptance video to Seoul Institute of Professional Gaming, the most prestigious high school to train students in the field of competitive gaming, just a month before the day of his middle school graduation came around. CrossFire was in his code, his mother praised, just like her. Just like his brother.
There was no room for mistakes.
A third year now, he thought that his title as captain of SIPG's varsity FPS team couldn't be taken away from him before he left to do greater things, like be scouted for the Seoul Martyrs for instance.
Who knew that he could be so so wrong?
"No fucking way am I letting a second year take my spot as varsity captain, BangPD," he hissed through his teeth, slamming his hand against the metal desk. Shihyuk stared at him, ultimately bemused. "Not the JV captain, out of all people."
Both men looked over to the person in question, a quiet acknowledging Kim Namjoon bashing away on a PSP Vita. Namjoon looked up the moment he felt pairs of eyes on him, sending a nonchalant wave in greeting. Yoongi growled at this.
"You are aware I'm still the varsity coach, right Yoongi?" Shihyuk raised an eyebrow. "You've seen Namjoon play live. He's good. Great, even. Sent his JV team to the championships in no effort flat. Won 15-0, undefeated."
"Not good enough to take my place. I'm better than him." Yoongi spat out the last word like it was poison, like Namjoon was poison. He might as well be, with that disaster he called hair. "I'm not giving up my position without a fight. You, of all people, should know that already. I worked for this."
He could already see the disappointment on his mother's face if she learned that her son didn't turn out as great as his older brother, already on the front lines of the Jeju United after being scouted his second year attending SIPG - that an underclassman had overshadowed him so easily.
No fucking way was he going to let that happen.
"Look," Shihyuk began, a smile playing on his face to try to sway his troublesome varsity captain. "How about this? Why don't you two be co-captains? That way, everyone wins. You'll be able to graduate SIPG with your precious title without a problem."
"No," Yoongi and Namjoon firmly stated in unison. They give each other warning looks.
"God, I hate children," Shihyuk remarked, rubbing his hands against his face. He should have coached the Real-Time Strategy team if he knew the FPS gamers were this difficult to handle. "You know what? Forget about me. Settle this somehow without Smash-brawling each other to the ground. You're on your own, you two." With that, his chair slid back against the wall and he made his leave.
Yoongi continued to scowl and turned his way towards Namjoon. "I hope you know I'm not giving my position up."
"And I hope you know you're the one who lost the varsity team a chance at making it to play-offs last season," Namjoon threw back, casual.
Yoongi scoffed at that. "It was a fluke. The other team set us up."
"You punched the highlights out of the opposing team's captain and got the SIPG team disqualified before the final round even began," Namjoon mused, his eyes finally looking away from the screen. "Not exactly a fluke now, is it?"
Yoongi clenched his fists against his sides. "Don't get too cocky just because you came back to the school with a trophy, second year," he spat before leaving the room. Namjoon just watched him, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Dude, he's going to crush you," Taehyung said, lollipop hanging from his lips in awe.
Jimin made a wrangled noise at Taehyung's statement, his keyboard and mouse bashing more prominent this time. "What? No. I got this in the bag. How can my best bro doubt me at a prime time like this? I'm totally going to beat this first year, alright?"
Taehyung shook his head, disapproving, his eyes full of pity towards his best friend. "Obviously you don't watch the news if you're playing League of Legends against GoldenBoy, my poor, poor friend."
"The news is for squares," Jimin said, smug. "What does the news have to do with me potentially beating the shit out of this wimpy first-year?"
Taehyung exhaled, knowing there was no way to talk him out of forfeiting with the way the growing crowd around them was cheering and yelling for bloodshed. Well. Virtual bloodshed. He craned his head to stare at the red head peeking out from the opposite monitor. Jeon Jeongguk. Sole son of the CEOs of the Game Rating Board. He was familiar with every game known to every kid in his age range in South Korea.
Jeon Jeongguk. The well-deserving recipient of the Golden Gaming Scholarship, covering full tuition and room / board while attending SIPG. Perfect for someone with the gamertag 'GoldenBoy'. Every gaming news platform nationwide raved over the remarkable skills of this kid. Of course there was controversy over admitting a student a semester earlier than they should.
But he was capable, he said in one interview. The top marks in every subject on his reports ever since he began waddling up to his feet proved just that. He made it to the big black headlines for months until the spring semester finally commenced.
Oh, if only Park Jimin knew.
"He's right, you know," Jeongguk piped up, pleased to find that his winning streak hadn't been broken, grinning at the familiar words flashing across the screen. That was too easy. "We should play again." His eyes skirted up, crinkling in his midst of his friendly smile despite the defeated look on Jimin's face.
"Hell yeah, we're going to play again!" Jimin bellowed out before Taehyung finally clasped a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
"Come on," Taehyung said. "We're going." He brought Jimin up to his feet and practically dragged him away from the monitor, dodging precariously swinging limbs in an attempt to fight his grip off. There was a scurry of things being shoved into a backpack and zipped away before Taehyung turned back to find Jeon Jeongguk following after them.
"Oi, why are you following us?" Jimin spoke up first, shooting daggers at the kid in question.
"We should be friends!" Jeongguk exclaimed, gripping onto his backpack straps. "I've never played against someone who didn't know about me. It was pretty fun." His eyes strayed away. "Plus, um. No one really wants to be friends with me, I guess."
"Gee, I wonder why," Jimin remarked dryly, met with an elbow in the side a la Taehyung. "... Ow."
"What he was trying to say is," Taehyung began, side-eyeing to make sure his friend didn't make any more ridiculous statements, "he's sorry. He's just being cocky since he plans on joining the Fighting Clan when team tryouts open up. He thinks fighting games surpass MOBA games by far."
"MOBA is a new genre," Jeongguk pointed out. "I don't think he can really judge it since it's still growing in populari-"
"Like hell, MOBA gamers are better than fighting gamers," Jimin said. He exhaled, annoyed with the kid already. "Why don't you annoy some upperclassmen? Like maybe the-"
"Being a bully already, Park Jimin? I didn't think you'd be up for that kind of social status." Yoongi popped out of nowhere and threw an arm around his shoulders. He thumped his hand against Jimin's head, lifting his brows in mock surprise. "Oh wow, did you shrink? I didn't think that was possible. Man, high school really does things to you, huh."
"We are going, Kim Taehyung!" Jimin exclaimed before grabbing onto Taehyung's wrist and physically dragging him away from the scene.
"Aw." Taehyung glanced over to a disappointed Jeongguk, accompanied by Yoongi patting his back with sympathy. He rolled the lollipop in his mouth until he cupped his mouth with both hands and shouted, "Skype me!" Jeongguk stared in disbelief, eyes wide, red flooding his face. He began to shuffle away, much to Yoongi's amusement, flustered to no end.
"Oh my God," Jimin exasperated on the way to their dorm. "I did not suggest this school to you just so you can pick up some pretty boy asses."
Jeongguk barely fit in any distance before Namjoon stopped him, sweeping away bleached locks from his face and grinning. "Oh look," he remarked. "It's a n00b. Welcome to hell, GoldenBoy." Yoongi stepped in to intervene and didn't hesitate to elbow the younger FPS player in the side. "Wow. I'm surprised you managed to reach there with that kind of height." Namjoon crossed his arms into an 'X' in a piss-poor attempt to dodge another one of Yoongi's potential hits. There was one thing about Yoongi, and that was his skill at KO-ing someone IRL with one full punch better than any of the fighting gamers.
"Uh-" Jeongguk blinked. "Hello?"
"Hello," Namjoon greeted, as if he wasn't at risk of getting mauled by a 176cm tall third year with his long fingers splayed across Yoongi's face, pushing him back. "Principal called me down telling me I'm your welcome buddy. So here I am. Again. Welcoming you to hell. Run while you can and yadda yadda."
"That's no way to welcome a first year," Yoongi hissed. "You're one step closer to making me kick you where it hurts." He stepped to block Jeongguk from Namjoon, his expression softening while looking up at Jeongguk. Shit, kids were getting taller and taller these days. "I'll be your welcome buddy. It'll be better than Namjoon going on his usual rampages about how SIPG is an utter hell, trying to scare away incoming first years."
"This happened more than once?" Jeongguk blinked again.
Yoongi felt his eye twitch at the memory. It was horrifying to the third year the day the school year rolled in again, having to watch over the second years giving out tours and handing out IDs with friendly smiles, listening to the occasional beckoning towards a first year student to join one of the teams because their rankings had been noticed. What he didn't expect in his job was having to lecture a certain Kim Namjoon about scaring away the first years, dragging away from some bullshit about how all the bathrooms were haunted by the game addicts who died from playing for prolonged amounts of time and you too will be cursed if you visit the third stall from the rig- where are you taking me, yoongi i'm greeting the first years with a casual reminder-
"I'll take you around," Yoongi stated again, firm, taking his wrist to hopefully drag Jeongguk away before Namjoon stopped them. Sadly, that wasn't the case, as Namjoon grabbed onto Jeongguk's other wrist.
"Principal JYP told me I'm the nation's golden little brother's welcome buddy. Don't butt in," Namjoon said with an innocent smile, and Yoongi swore he could feel a vein burst in his temple.
"Uh-" Jeongguk's eyes skirted back and forth, frantic. "Hyungs-"
"I'm taking him," Yoongi spat at Namjoon, tugging Jeongguk closer to him.
"No, I'm taking him," Namjoon replied, still smiling, tugging Jeongguk back.
Jeongguk wants to cry.
The moment Yoongi retreated to his room and threw his bag at the corner of his shared dorm with Pyo Jihoon, he was already fuming with steam. Jihoon eyed him for a good moment until Yoongi noticed and almost spat fire at him, wheeling back around to pay attention to his Tamagotchi. A title screen of a sidescroller flashed on Jihoon's computer screen, chipbit music playing softly through the speakers.
Yoongi retreated to his own gamespace and slid into the chair, slipping his headphones on as he booted up his computer.
Grinding virtual monsters would relieve his stress. A lot of virtual monsters.
Yoongi ranted to Seokjin through the entire way to the boss they were planning to raid together on MapleStory, his fingers mashing against the keyboard in a fury of underlying rage.
SyubD: hes rude as hell and doesnt listen
PinkPrincess: Oh, perfect. Sounds like you two are a perfect match.
SyubD: shut up hyung
He had always questioned why Seokjin chose such a ridiculous gamertag like "PinkPrincess", having been best friends with him since Yoongi was a first year student and Seokjin a second. But he knows now that it worked. Nobody took Seokjin seriously the moment they saw that very gamertag on the screen during competitions. They were easy on him, sometimes merciless if they were that big of an asshole, but he'd always beat every single one of them in PvP when it was still in stable standing.
That was Seokjin for you. Modest in his skills. Yoongi had been at the graduation ceremony, proud of his hyung for finishing with flying colors and a guaranteed spot in Nexon as a beta tester.
If they had been Skyping during this session, Yoongi would have heard Seokjin laugh. He scowled at the screen, fingers clenching into fists now, but he took a deep breath to focus on their trek. His computer pinged at him with a small pop-up at the corner of his screen. jimchar logged on.
Great.
PinkPrincess: Hi Jimin-ah.
jimchar: is he sayin he h8s namjoon hyung again
memelover420 logged on.
Fuck.
memelover420: ,safEQW@E'
Yoongi rubbed his fingers against his temples before he typed a generous:
SyubD: enter button taehyung
Silence before-
memelover420: Oh
What would these young brats do without him, honestly?
He and Seokjin waited until Jimin and Taehyung dash to join where they were headed, all four of them trailing to head for the boss's location. He glanced to find that another boy joined their party. Why he let Seokjin become the party leader was beyond him. It was probably because he was the oldest. And really fucking good at MapleStory. He squinted at the new party member's name. A certain 'GoldenBoy'.
Gee, he wondered who that could be.
GoldenBoy: hyungs!! hyungs! wait for me!
SyubD: seokjin hyung
PinkPrincess: The 95-line over there asked me to add him. So I did, because I'm a nice hyung. Unlike a certain somebody.
SyubD: shut up hyung now you made this a fucking party
PinkPrincess: Yes, I believe that's the point.
SyubD: ...
SyubD: i hate you
If it wasn't for Jihoon playing away with his little virtual pet, Yoongi would have smashed his head against the keyboard by now. He hoped they can reach the boss soon before anyone-
jimchar: oh yea hoseok hyung n namjoon hyung are loggin on 2! :D
God damn it.
SyubD: oh hell no im logging out
PinkPrincess: Be nice Yoongi. The more, the merrier. If anything, I'll let you inflict the last attack and have all the equip drops.
No. Seokjin didn't understand. Yoongi's went through hell and back to pit against Namjoon, even before this whole varsity captain fiasco. Even from the start, Namjoon had been aware of Yoongi's existence, making the second year miserable by one-upping him in everything with whatever chance he got the moment he stepped into the school as a budding first year.
Nobody wanted to cross Yoongi's path the moment he saw Namjoon take his spot as the first ranked student in the school by the end of his second year. So there was no way he was going to party up with someone he despised with all his heart.
PinkPrincess: Be nice, Yoongi.
Be nice, his ass.
runchranda: well. evidently you don't want me around
SyubD: ...
PinkPrincess: I invited him to the party when you weren't looking. :)
runchranda: :)
And sure enough, Hoseok's and Namjoon's usernames showed up on the transparent party list.
Hobi: hi guys!!! @_@/!!
Yoongi wasn't exactly surprised to find Hoseok joining on their little team, more relieved to see him online than anything else. Hoseok was practically friends with everyone despite belonging to the rhythm gamers. DDR was his thing, no matter how many gamers looked down upon it as a repetitive predictable game "too easy to master". It even received the least amount of funding, but he never looked in envy at the FPS team, always donning that stupid wide smile of his.
He always proved them wrong, making everyone's jaws drop at his lightning-fast feet moving along the corresponding arrows to Beethoven Virus. People could have sworn he's broken the laws of physics, having let go of the convenient railways behind him before and still finish off the song with a strong perfect A.
“I like it for its entertainment purposes,” Hoseok had once said. “You should see the choreo I arranged for one of the competitions. Entertainment, just entertainment.”
Yoongi got it. He witnessed how it felt to be stared at by an audience, their eyes weighing on as much pressure as they could on your shoulders, their cheers for names of their favorites. But Yoongi wasn’t Hoseok.
He always tagged along with Yoongi and Seokjin until Seokjin graduated, leaving them as a close duo. But that didn't change the fact that Hoseok was a really good friend of his. Mostly because he could tolerate his lack of temper control.
memelover420: fdgdfs$WER:
Sigh.
SyubD: taehyung. enter button.
memelover420: Hi
GoldenBoy: hi hyung! ^^
memelover420: Hey;)
GoldenBoy: ^v^
Yoongi thought he's going to puke. He knew perfectly well Taehyung just might try to keep flirting with Jeongguk on the way there. He spotted them walking together, Taehyung absolutely smitten and Jeongguk absolutely ... well ... oblivious.
jimchar: omfg can we jst quest plz
For once, Yoongi agreed with something Jimin said.
SyubD: please
And quest, they did. They reached the boss, much to Yoongi's relief. They waited, watching the timer count down. They had plenty of time to defeat it, and enough time for Seokjin to devise a brief plan.
PinkPrincess: Jeongguk-ah. Namjoon-ah. Keep a distance and take advantage of your long-range attacks.
The two followed his orders, Jeongguk being a Marksman and Namjoon a Bowmaster, keeping a fair distance away from the gruesome monster and using their skilled attacks to strike him. Yoongi just watched in awe to find that Namjoon wasn't willing to butt into his plans. Yet.
PinkPrincess: Jimin-ah. Hoseok-ah. Make sure to attack close to the boss as much as you can. I'll make sure to heal both of you. Yoongi-yah- You too. Go ahead with them.
None of them said anything, instead lunging straight for the monster with every ounce of enthusiasm in their bodies, their skilled attacks enough to inflict a hefty amount of damage. It was inevitable that the boss would be brought down a quick end, especially when outnumbered by a team of seven.
PinkPrincess: Okay, hold back now. All of you, except for Yoongi.
Just as Seokjin promised, being the kind Bishop he was. Everyone followed suit with his commands, even Namjoon, to Yoongi's surprise. Yoongi advanced with his Blade Master to strike the last attack and slay the boss into nothingness - letting all the items drop to his feet. He only picked up the equips and let the rest of their party collect the rest, still watching Namjoon's character with a cautious look in his eyes.
runchranda: gg :)
Yoongi still didn't like him.
Playing CrossFire was not an easy feat with Kim Namjoon breathing down on your shoulder, according to a certain Min Yoongi. He felt his left eye twitch at the heat of the younger student's breath hitting his neck- Namjoon was that close- and he was close to breaking his mouse into pieces with the way he was holding onto it, knuckles white against the sleek black surface of his poor gear.
"Don't you have anything better to do than to watch me?" Yoongi spat out, his tongue sticking out in concentration, trying to aim at a soldier on the CPU-controlled enemy team from a far distance. He relied on his scope, making sure the target was just at the very center-
"Your hands are shaking."
The bullet shot resonated in Yoongi's headphones, missing the opponent by just a centimeter. He sat there in stunned silence until the AI noticed and aimed at him, finishing his player off with a clean shot to the head. He swiveled around his chair, sending Namjoon the biggest death glare in the history of death glares. "What the fuck?"
"You'd think the varsity captain would have a better control on his rifle than that. How are you going to get through the games, let alone win the championships with skills as weak as those, Yoongi hyung?"
There was a serious tone underlining Namjoon's words, and it just induced more anger into Yoongi, who turned to Shihyuk for some sort of guidance. He lifted his head in the middle of observing one of the team members, only giving him a warning look. Be nice, his eyes spoke.
Fuck this.
"I'm taking an energy break," Yoongi mumbled under his breath and shoved his chair back, storming out of the room before Shihyuk could open his mouth quick enough to stop him. It was better than sitting there and letting Namjoon tell him how to play CrossFire, as if he knew best.
Some might say he did, and it just made Yoongi want to crash through the glass of the vending machine before him with his fist. He wondered if glass was easy to get out of skin, already contemplating the idea. His thoughts are easily scattered by the sound of footsteps jogging towards him. He didn't even have to look to know who it was.
"Yoongi," Namjoon breathed out, staring right at him.
Yoongi turned away, stubborn as he was, pretending like he was having difficulty deciding whether to get a bottle of Bacchus or Powerten. This was the farthest vending machine he knew from the practice room, damn it- And then he paused, taking a quick glance over to his self-proclaimed rival.
Did he really run all the way here?
"You dropped the 'hyung'," Yoongi said, quiet.
"I," Namjoon trailed off, running his fingers through bleached locks. "What?"
"You didn't call me hyung." Yoongi turned his whole body towards him, surprised at himself for being able to keep himself in a leveled composure. "You disrespectful miscreant."
Namjoon gave him a dumbfounded look, eyes wide and mouth hanging open that Yoongi was close to warning him he'll catch flies in there. Before Yoongi could let the remark past his lips, Namjoon burst out into laughter and waved his hand in an attempt for an apologetic gesture. It wasn't very convincing in Yoongi's eyes. "Oh, sorry. Sorry, hyung." His lips curled into a mischievous smile. "Though I don't think dropping an honorific once makes me a miscreant. I didn't know a hyung like you had such a wide vernacular."
"Just because I don't have an IQ of over 180 like you doesn't mean I don't know how to speak beyond dudebro and C++," Yoongi replied, finally jabbing the corresponding button for a Bacchus. "I read. Ever heard of opening a book for leisure, genius?"
"Of course not." Namjoon feigned a hurt expression, clutching onto his chest with such a dramatic fervor that Yoongi almost wanted to laugh. "Video games are life. Video games are love."
Yoongi stifled a snort, much to his disdain. The bottle clunked down to the bottom, and the older male reached down to push through the flap and grab it. "Okay. Sure." He figured that was the end of their conversation, but he remembered they still had to practice, walking side-by-side with Yoongi guaranteeing that they keep at least twenty centimeters away from each other.
He failed to notice the frown Namjoon wore. Of course he failed to see it - because Namjoon did it when he wasn't looking.
Yoongi scanned his line of players with overflowing confidence, just as pumped to begin the season as the rest of them were. Of course everyone showed up - even if they were sick or hungover from Bacchus-infused late night gaming sessions, nobody wanted to make anything an excuse to miss the game.
Lee Hyeri. Jung Daehyun. Jung Eunji. Park Sunyoung. Tuan Mark. Kim Hyelim.
Kim Namjoon.
"Okay, guys." Yoongi adjusted his jersey and smoothed out its wrinkles, scanning his team. Namjoon shuffled to join his side. "We've played both corporations countless times. With either one we get, we can still win this. Alright?"
"So, what's the mode for this game?" Hyelim asked, sweeping neon green hair out of her eyes. An appropriate color for someone who went by the gamertag 'LimeAid'.
"Elimination," Namjoon piped up.
Groans and complaints resonated in the locker room.
"Yeah. It's an easy mode, I know. But this is the first game." Yoongi paused before, "And let's be honest. It's better than playing Team Deathmatch." He eyed Mark in particular. "Don't you agree?"
"That doesn't really change the fact that we're starting off with one of the easiest modes there is," Mark remarked. "We're literally just killing each other off in under three minutes per round."
"Jesus Christ, just shut up for five minutes about how easy you think it is. We can use this to our utmost advantage. If we're lucky, the opposing team might go havoc on us, knowing it's so easy. It's Iksan Gaming High School- who knows what can happen."
"And if they put in limits?" Hyelim mentioned.
"I've taught you how to master each weapon from the summer sessions and all of fall. There's a likely chance they'll just limit us to snipers and shotguns," Yoongi replied dryly, looking over to them. "If that happens, I still have full authority over those who are sniping with me. The others should be prepared not only for full offense, but for full defense through melee techniques should you get disarmed. And remember, don't go against my orders."
"Or mine," Namjoon added.
"... Or Namjoon's."
"Where's BangPD, anyway?" Eunji asked, scanning the room for the coach.
Yoongi exhaled a sharp breath. "He's already in the Final Destination. All he told me to tell all of you was 'Good luck.'."
Gunshots filled Yoongi's ears through his headphones.
This was the last round. 1-1. They were practically pouncing at each other's necks, each and every active and alive player's real-life expressions serious and persevering. Everyone in the Final Destination, the name for the competitive arena the school proudly owned, was on the edge of their seats. Four players were left on each team. Yoongi's team just had the lesser advantage.
They belonged to the Black List.
Being Black List mercenaries meant having to let the Global Risk mercenaries win if there were still players alive the moment the timer buzzed down to zero. Flipping a coin was never a good way to determine the sides. If anything, Yoongi bet that the damn coin had tails of both sides.
He didn't have time to think of anything but sniping. He crouched down, hidden from where the naked eye could see. This was the life of a bound sniper. Isolation. Secrecy. Closed doors locked and away from anyone who would dare infiltrate his body and mind.
He wouldn't ask for anything more.
He looked up just in time to see Namjoon shot down by the lone survivor of the other team, feeling a hand pat at the small of his back. He glanced just enough to see the younger smiling sweetly at him and was quick enough to turn away, focusing back on the game. The audience cheered for their teams. SIPG. IGHS. But the supporters for SIPG were louder, screaming Yoongi's gamertag. SyubD. SyubD. SyubD.
They were counting on him.
He squinted while making his aim towards the sole player for Iksan, looking through his crossrows to make the perfect headshot. The poor guy was frantic, looking for Yoongi with every fiber of his being. But Yoongi knew better. He knew where to hide.
Five.
"Where the hell is he?" The opponent exclaimed, looking at his teammates as if they could help.
Four.
"You can do it, Yoongi," Sunyoung encouraged through whispers right next to him.
Three.
"Fuck-" The player was close to giving up, close to forfeiting despite the coach protesting against his decisions.
Two.
"Shoot him clean, hyung," Namjoon mumbled.
Yoongi closed his eyes.
One.
2-1.
SIPG won the first game of the season.
The students in the audience, proudly waving supportive banners with the school's logo, launched themselves off their seats and let out cries of victory. Yoongi stared in awe at his own monitor, his eyes flickering up to the hologram indicating that his team had won. His team. He sat there, dazed, snapping out of it only when a hand clasped onto his shoulder.
He turned to meet the eyes of Namjoon, who was generous enough to sit by him the entire game.
"You did great, hyung." Namjoon shot him a genuine smile and got up from his chair. "You totally swept the enemy team off of their feet."
Yoongi was hesitant to look over to their opposing team, who just stared back at the team captain in fury before they stormed out of Final Destination. He was blind from anything else but CrossFire, wiping half of the team clean in the first round, and he didn't even realize it. He leaned back in his chair and took his time to slip off the school-sponsored headphones, still silent, a smile curling onto his lips.
He turned to the rest of his teammates with a small grin. "How about we grab something to eat?"
Yoongi tapped the scuffed toe of his sneaker against the concrete outside of the barbeque restaurant, phone pressed against his ear, hoping for an answer. He waited, his mother's ringtone blasting that usual instrumental he chose from the game her team played until it came to an abrupt stop, telling him monotonously to call her back later. His shoulders slumped, his fingers stiffening against the device until they finally let it slip back into his hoodie's pocket.
Of course, she'd be busy.
He leaned back against the wall and tugged his beanie over brown bangs with a sigh, dejected that his mother was too busy to even be available after he won his first game of the season.
"Hey."
Yoongi turned to find Namjoon right by his shoulder, and he shuffled across the ground to give themselves more distance. If there was anything he was certain about, it was the fact that they sure as hell weren't friends. "... Hey."
Namjoon popped off the caps of two bottles of soju, smiling briefly to himself. Before Yoongi could even open his mouth to ask him where he, a second-year high school student out of all people, got alcohol, one of the bottles was stretched towards him. "I sweet-talked the waitress into getting the whole team some soju," he said, as if he knew Yoongi would ask. “You should see how trashed Youngjae is. I swear, Eunji had to stop him from trying to make out with Sunyoung. It's fucking hilarious."
"Ha ha," Yoongi replied, sarcastic. But he accepted the soju and took a long pull.
They fell into an inevitable silence.
"Why don't you come in and join the rest of us?" Of course, Namjoon would beat him to it - easily breaking the awkwardness between them. "You treated the whole team to meat that isn't as shitty as the bulbogi from the school cafeteria. Meat. The least you can do is join us for some company instead of hanging around here all by yourself."
"I was planning to," Yoongi muttered under his breath. "I was just trying to call my mom."
“Your mom,” Namjoon echoed.
"Yeah." Yoongi's eyes flickered over to him. "Song Eunhwa? She coaches the Daegu Metro."
"Whoa." Namjoon's eyes grew wide. "Didn't the Daegu Metro win last season's nationals?"
"South Korea's pride and joy in the professional league of gaming," Yoongi mused, quoting exactly from an article he had read on countless news portals and magazines. He swirled the remaining alcohol in the bottle to distract himself. "That's the team, yeah."
"Shouldn't she be extremely busy then? I mean, they have to prep for the season. The Daegu Metro is huge. I've seen them headline for every game there is."
Yoongi fell silent, head turning away. Of course, he knew that. He knew that plenty when it was just his older brother taking care of him whenever his mother was away at games. He knew that when even his father grew fatigued over the fact that she was rarely ever home until he finally left - an ordinary businessman leaving behind a family of gamers.
He already knew that, but it still hurt coming from someone else.
"Yoongi hyung?"
Don't cry, Yoongi. Don't look like you're disappointed.
"Whatever." Yoongi shrugged Namjoon's hand off of his shoulder and took a longer pull, face hardening despite his efforts. "We won our first game, yeah? It's just our first game. If anything, she'll call before playoffs- or even the championships- or something." Real pathetic, Min Yoongi.
"Hyung," Namjoon repeated again, but Yoongi ignored his attempts to get through him, his eyes more focused on the entrance of the restaurant.
"Let's just hurry up before Hyeri eats all the damn meat."
"She already did."
Another sigh. "God damn it- I should've supervised her."
Yoongi looked at the sound of laughter, noticing Namjoon's shoulders shaking before him. He had the sudden urge to smile, and his corners of his lips twitched at the realization. "... What are you laughing at? Me?" His hand lifted up, ready to hit him.
"No, no," Namjoon breathed out, still chuckling under his breath. "Just that- You're so cute, hyung."
Humiliation. That was what Yoongi felt. At least he thought so, red flush against his cheeks at Namjoon's words and eyes wide in acknowledgement. He let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding and followed through with his intentions, smacking his arm hard. "Stop fucking around. Let's get inside," he said, turning around. "... It's getting cold."
God, he needed a lot more alcohol.
"I doubt it."
"Obviously you don't know her that well."
"I know enough to guess that she wouldn't."
"Try me."
A typical bonding moment between Namjoon and Yoongi went like this. They sat down at the lunch table together with the rest of the FPS team, stabbed their chopsticks into whatever concoction the lunch ladies called food for a good few minutes, then began talking shit making bets about other people. It was a grand ol' time, at least in their case - especially since today's victim was Kim Hyelim.
"Hoseok’s with her at 3 o'clock," Yoongi piped up, muttered under his breath, jabbing the ends of his chopsticks into his rice bowl. It was supposed to be bibimbap today - well, at least the taste made up for the appearance. Kind of. High school lunch was never a kind mistress.
Namjoon looked up just in time to spot Hoseok twisting around the corner and showing up at the cafeteria with a tall blonde-haired girl walking beside him. Evidently, she knew him well enough to be accustomed to his big mouth, unflinching even when he bursted out into unpredictable laughter.
He recognized her to be Song Joohee, long-term coach of the rhythm team. After her graduation from SIPG, she didn't even bother to look at the fine print in the coaching contract before signing her name in curly lettering. People knew her as AliS, or Alice - because of how blonde she kept her hair like her namesake. She wasn't much older from the rest of them, only having coached for two years so far - so she didn't hesitate to talk to the students as if she was still attending the school like them, bright and doe-eyed.
Namjoon could see why Hoseok got along with her so well; they were too similar it was almost scary. Like Siamese twins basically. He watched her laugh along with him, swaying her long hair side to side. Aw. How romantic.
From the corner of his eye, he figured Hyelim didn't think the same - if the way she cracked his chopsticks in half from how hard she was gripping them accounted for anything.
Eunji didn't get the hint though, or maybe she did, jabbing her elbow into Hyelim's side and saying, "Aw, Lime. Look, Joohee unnie is over the-"
"I don't like her," Hyelim announced- rather loudly, to say the least. Loud enough for both Hoseok and Joohee to look her way, eyes wide in surprise. Her cheeks were almost as bright as her hair. She stood up and stepped away from the table, tray in hand, scuttering away probably to look for a hole to crawl up in and die.
Yoongi opened his hand, smug. Namjoon begrudgingly slapped a 5,000-won bill into his palm, grimacing.
"You know," Namjoon continued, "the least we can do is try and get Hyelim noona to talk to her."
"Oh please," Yoongi scoffed. "I've known Hyelim since the first year. She stuttered her way around Joohee noona all up to the day of graduation. Plus, I'm pretty sure it's against school rules. I think." The rest of the team nodded in agreement.
"That doesn't mean we should just leave that alone, Yoongi."
"Yoongi hyung," Yoongi corrected.
Namjoon let his eyes close. Breathe in, breathe out. "Yoongi hyung," he began, trying to smile, "at this rate, Hyelim noona's going to be too distracted to even play. Do you want that?"
Yoongi's eyes darted towards him. "Keep talking."
"You said she's been like this every day, right?"
"Yeah," Yoongi replied, "but that doesn't mean we can just butt in and- "
"Come on, Yoongi." Namjoon bit back his frown. "Do you really think Hoseok has any interest in Joohee noona? Trust me. Ask him yourself."
"Who? Coach?"
Hoseok was bewildered, mostly by the fact that Yoongi approached him with a question rather than a demand as per usual, wide-eyed and blinking at an unhealthy rate. "Yeah! I like her. She's a great coach. You should see her high scores on Superstar Town. She keeps on beating my ass at every song there is."
Before Hoseok could continue rambling on and on about rhythm games Yoongi couldn't be bothered with recognizing, Yoongi lifted his hand to silence him in his attempt not to tackle his underclassman for all the answers. God, Hoseok needed to shut up. Less is more. That was Yoongi's motto.
"Yeah. But, uh," Yoongi said, "Are you dating her or something?"
Yoongi didn't know Hoseok's eyes could get any bigger. "What?" Hoseok barked out in laughter, tears nearly forming at the corners of his eyes. "What? Yoongi- hyung- this is my coach you're talking about, man. Of course I'm not dating her. I could be kicked out of the team, Jesus Christ."
Yoongi released the breath he had been holding at that. "Of course. I should have known better. You love that damn game more than anything else."
"DDR is life. DDR is love," Hoseok recited.
Yoongi rubbed at his face before commenting, "Why do you and Namjoon keep on saying that?"
Hoseok clutched onto his chest dramatically, "It hurts but I do it for DDR."
It barely took a second for Yoongi to decide on having as much distance from Jung Hoseok as possible. Why don't you have normal friends, he thought to himself. Because you repel everyone else, another voice in his head insisted.
He hated that damn voice.
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