T.O.P stepped in first and it was only followed by Kai quickly after.

Sunghye’s initial response was disappointment but she didn’t try to show it and put on a smile for Kai. In turn as well she kicked Kyungmi under the table instantly who had showed her own displeasure with a groan and a glare directed towards Crusade’s Elf. It’s not as if it was his fault. They, as a team should have supported him more and worked towards levelling up to match Kai.

In the end, they were too far behind to even stand on the same ground as the Elf, which was what made Sunghye stand up and open , ready to apologize to him.

Kai shook his head as he finally stood in front of them. “It was a tie.”

“A tie?” Sehun butted in confused. “Is that even possible?”

“Yeah,” Chen added. “I mean are your levels that close?”

Kai nodded, but he averted his eyes to the floor and Sunghye’s eye twitched when she realized that he was in fact, lying. “When we were on the same team, our skills balanced each other out.”

Kyungsoo raised his brow. “You were on a team with them?”

Kai realized he screwed up then and sheepishly smiled. “Uh, yes? Surprised?”

The Siren shook his head at his question. “Not really. Given the fact you did tell us you were from a top group, it made sense if you were part of one the elites.”

“Elites?” Kai asked.

“Yeah you’re probably one of the reasons why we’re still such a cohesive team right now. You’re basically the M.V.P,” Chen said with bright eyes and leaned close. “The ‘m’ though in this case stands for ‘my’.”

Kyungmi nudged the Faery and subtly moved her head towards the direction of Sunghye who didn’t give any indication of the interaction even though she did notice it. She was busy trying to figure out why Kai needed to lie about it being a tie. Did that mean he actually lost?

Chen died the dial back a bit but not before standing up just to pat Kai’s cheek gently and softly coo at him. When the Elf laughed, everyone smiled because they knew if it was a tie then that would mean the master quest wasn’t out of their reach at all.

“What now then, if it's a tie?” Sehun asked to make sure.

A new voice, T.O.P’s, interrupted then with his own team in tow, standing a bit behind him. A few of them looked disgruntled at the result but not angry. “We still go to battle, all of us and just see who ends up winning there which means that this isn’t over.”

Kyungmi cheered loudly at the statement, followed by Chen who let out something akin to a fighting cry.

Sunghye took this chance to grab Kai by the arm and pull him to the side while everyone else was busy celebrating at the chance of beating the game officially.

“Why didn’t you tell everyone the truth?” Sunghye questioned him, her voice coming out as a whisper.

Kai simply shook his head. “I’ll tell you when we meet on the other side. I don’t want the others to know about it.”

His answer only gave Sunghye more questions, but having been gaming with him these past couple of months, the Demigod trusted him enough to know that he would eventually tell her.

She gave him a silent affirmation and watched as the others caused even more ruckus as BB-Beast silently walked out. Before T.O.P followed his team, he and Sunghye locked eyes and the Faery just gave her a small nod as if she was in on something. She stood there confused while she watched the team leave and only jumped back into the present when the barkeep finally shouted at Crusade to quiet down.

Hopefully everything would be answered tomorrow.

*

*

*

Soyou grinned at Sunghye when she told her that she would taking her break. She alongside Soyou, had noticed that Kai was waiting for her outside of the food truck after she texted him a couple hours back about where she would be while she was working.

Sunghye rolled her eyes and mumbled something about it not being like that but obviously her boss didn’t believe her and just told her to take as much time as she needed for her ‘date’.

She actually didn’t even think it was anything like that, but the more she thought about it and the fact the two would be alone, it did sort of seem a bit date like didn’t it?

Sunghye ignored the incredibly intrusive thought and smiled when she saw Kai.

“Do you want anything to eat?” she asked him.

Kai shook his head. “Nah I’m good.”

“So,” Sunghye stated, getting right to the point. “Why couldn’t we have just seen each other in the game to talk about this?”

“Well... I like being with you face to face even if it's only for a short time,” Kai answered looking straight at her.

Sunghye paused, not knowing how to even reply to that. She just thought it was because then the others wouldn’t question their secrecy if they logged in while the two were there. This was thrown at her completely out of nowhere, so much so that she just continued to stay quiet.

Kai took her silence in and just smiled brightly at her which only aided to the awkwardness and mixture of delight that she was feeling.

Quickly trying to change the topic to something that was more on track, she asked something else. “So did you lose?”

“I won, surprisingly.”

“I don’t find that surprising at all.”

Kai looked a bit abashed. “Ah, thanks.”

Sunghye grinned at him. “You’re welcome but then why lie about it?”

“Because, it’s not fun if everyone doesn’t get to play right?”

“That’s your only reason?”

“That and I just found that while we were fighting, it just felt as though we were sort of laying our feel