“Lu you really shouldn’t be this pleased about the match. He made the spine crawler heart to be cocky and show off how many spare mins he has, if he had enough mins to do that then you were doing really .”

“But Channie you don’t understand! He manipulated a bunch of lings into a heart for me!”

“He’s in master league, of course he’d be good at micro, it’s not much more effort to micro the lings into a heart. Anyway Lu, the first match of the year is coming up soon and we’re up against SeoulTech, can you make it?” Jongdae’s going to be there too.”

“But do you think he’ll be there?” Lu Han asks dreamily.

“SeoulTech are the enemy Lu Han, I already know Yixing and Kyungsoo hang out with them behind my back I can’t lose you too Lu.” Chanyeol says with a frown.

“Channie you wouldn’t keep me away from my prince would you?”

Chanyeol laughs and ruffles Lu Han’s hair, “of course not Lu, but he doesn’t get to court you unless he can beat me in a 1v1.”

Lu Han scowls at the other, “But Channie that’s not fair you used to be in Korean Grand Master league. Also is Yixing coming? I need him for makeup.”

Chanyeol folds his arms, “Lu I don’t understand why you don’t you just get a new handle or something, you really don’t need to cross-dress for tournaments. I highly doubt anyone pays attention to the female pro-gaming scene. Besides, it’s your fault for ditching us for break, you were right next to the tournament. Don’t give me the speech.”

Lu Han angrily puffs his cheeks, “Beijing’s not even near Taipei! You guys are for making me go out there!" he huffs then regains composure, “are team uniforms even ready yet?”

“Yeah! They look pretty nice! Kyungsoo’s bringing them home on Sunday before school starts, you’re joining this meet Lu.”

“Whatever Channie. I am off to diligently train for our upcoming match,” Lu Han answers with an air of mock piety.

“Make sure you have your headphones, Jongdae’s singing in the war room again.”

Lu Han walks over to “war” room (just a room full of energy drinks and a jungle of wires and computers really), pointedly ignoring Jongdae, who is fresh out of the shower and caterwauling into a tv remote

Throwing himself onto large bouncy ball serving as a chair he quickly boots up SC2, Lu Han notices that his new (more than) best friend is online and types up a message.

“Do you want to 2v2? I can’t voice chat right now because my roomie is in, I don’t want you to have to listen to his terrible singing.”

“?”

“I share a dorm with my team, it’s a real party.”

There’s a bit of a pause before the next response.

“I’ll form the party and start a match?”

Lu Han’s a bit worried at the cold response but taps out a quick affirmative then leans back in his chair.

The match begins and Lu Han immediately gives control to Sehun, a few minutes later they receive the customary greeting from the other team.

[All] Lkim: GLHF

[All] Goddess: You too!

[Team] InfestorKingOh: Don’t talk to people in 2v2!

[Team] Goddess: Why not?~~~~

[All] Lkim: Especially you Goddess ;)

[All] Goddess: <3

[Team] InfestorKingOh: Don’t send those to anyone but me

[Team] Goddess: Sorry <3 <3 <3 xoxoxo

By now Jongdae has left the computer room so Lu Han sends a message to his zerg partner to get his headset and enable voice chat.

“Hello?”

“I’m being jealous, I’m not sure if my ego can recover,” comes a petulant voice on the other end.

“I’m sorry your majesty,” Lu Han says sweetly.

“As you should be,”

Lu Han pouts, his zerg prince still sounds like he’s sulking.

“I’ll take on scouting duty,” Lu Han offers, trying to win back favour.

“No you stay in the base and work, I’ll scout.”

“Oh...”

The conversation goes silent after that. For what seems like ages Lu Han’s headset is full of soft awkward static. Just when he’s about to blurt out something stupid to break the silence his team-mate’s smooth voice beats him to it.

“I can’t get in. They’ve already walled off their base. Can I use your next scan to scout them?”

Lu Han puffs his cheeks, “hell no! I’m using that energy for miners. Go up their ramp as far as you can and let me try something.”

[All] Goddess: Friend

[All] Lkim: ?

[All] Goddess: present

[All] Goddess: open up

Lu Han can hear loud guffawing over voice chat now and he frowns, “what.”

“That was your plan? Haha.. ha.. oh god they shot my scout I needed him.”

Lu Han’s frown deepens, “I thought it was a good plan,” he mumbles.

“It’s alright I just got them back. So what’s living with your team like? Are you guys in Seoul?”

“Oh yeah we’re in Seoul. It’s kinda fun, we’re all art school kids in the music department so there’s a lot of singing and guitar happening. I’ve also known some of the guys here for a long time so it’s a really nice atmosphere.” Lu Han pauses briefly, thinking about fond memories, “what about you? Are you on a team?”

“Yeah, we also live in Seoul. It’s a ing mess in this dorm and this is the only 2v2 I can play tonight because I have to go to the gym with them later.”

Lu Han giggles, his friend sounds disappointed, “wow you guys work out together?”

“Two guys on our team do martial arts and they forced the rest of us to join them in the gym, this kind of thing happens fairly frequently actually. Like we have these two Chinese guys and sometimes they’ll cook food or force us to celebrate holidays with them...”

And then they’re bantering about their respective lives. Lu Han explains that he was born in Beijing but moved to Seoul seven years ago (“I’m jealous you get Chinese food, I get so homesick sometimes.”), his fellow team members (“Yixing kind of alternates between snarky and spacey but Chinas have to stay together aaand Channie’s the captain and my bestie from secondary school.”), and his frequent sources of grief (“Kyungsoo and Jongdae are okay I guess, I’m bitter because one of them keeps flushing the toilet while I’m showering and I’m beginning to suspect they take turns.”)

Lu Han takes a deep breath, exhausted from all the talking, “oh wow I told you all this and I never properly introduced myself, my name’s Lu Han.”

“That’s a cute name,” Lu Han can hear the amusement in his partner’s voice and whinges, “you’re supposed to tell me your name too, I can’t just keep referring to you as “your majesty.”

“Sehun,” the voice says with trepidation, “but you can totally keep calling me “your majesty.”

Like the seventeen year old who destroyed MLG and actually made it to the GSL finals? Lu Han wonders, but Sehun probably gets enough for his name so he doesn’t comment upon it, it’s not like the Oh Sehun would be prattling around Master league anyway, “Well then Sehun shall we go all-in? If we leave Protoss alone for too long it ends in Colossi and then no one’s having fun.”

“Sure, do you want me to micro your troops?”

“No it’s fine I’ll manage them,” and with that, Lu Han highlights all of his units and sends them straight into the enemy base with a grin on his face.

“What the why are you sending your workers in too!?”

“When I go all-in I mean it Sehun,” he cackles.

[All] Lkim: wtf workers too?

[All] Lkim: gg

Lkim has left the game!

[All] AmericanoHero91: gg

[All] AmericanoHero91 has left the game!

At the victory screen Lu Han can hear “Oh Sehun get your down here it’s gym time!” from Sehun’s end quickly followed by a hasty goodbye from Sehun and sits there in shock. He’s been flirting with Oh Sehun, boy wonder of the South Korean pro-SC scene. Wow.