author's note: mostly real events but not real thoughts, just what I think went down during this drama. mirae ias also fictional, as far as I know. I guess it's sort of like a prelude to my oneshot "okay." all of the events pertaining to the lck are real, especially those pertaining to piglet's transition from skt to team liquid. title from all we are by one republic.

Champions Spring 2014

She waltzed into his life without any warning whatsoever.

It started with a quiet complaint from Impact, that someone had moved his keyboard and mouse set and he couldn’t find where it was. It then escalated as Faker started to lose weight, his health declining, as their coach and staff couldn’t keep them in line forever. Bengi had begun to lose interest in the game, his skill declining, and Pooh was trying his best to keep everyone else in the house going strong, but could barely keep himself healthy with all of his chest pains that kept affecting him.

Conditions in the house were steadily getting worse, and Piglet found that he wasn’t able to handle it. He, as well, was losing weight from the amount of practice he’d thrown himself into. He’d practice for hours each day, skipping meals and skipping sleep in order to get better.

Their staff – the coaches, the managers, everyone – didn’t know what to do with the teenage boys who were only trying to make it in the world.

All of them were desperate. After a triumphant 2013, dominating the competition in Korea, then proceeding to completely steamroll the rest of the world’s best, topping it all off with a decisive, convincing win in the Los Angeles Staples Center to become the best team in the world, something had happened.

SK Telecom T1 K, as they were now known, were no longer the best team in the world.

In fact, they’d become almost the joke of the 2014 season. They’d lost to teams that they’d never thought they could lose to. Teams like the Samsung sister teams, White-slash-Ozone and Blue, were on the rise.

Meanwhile, SKT was falling.

Piglet couldn’t stand it. He was once respected as the best AD carry in the world. Now, little brats like imp thought they could make cheeky comments about how Piglet had been playing. After White had destroyed them in Spring, Piglet felt like he wanted to retire. The game was no longer fun, like it should have been, but a chore.

He didn’t know what he would do anymore. If he wasn’t the best, what was he?

Back in Winter, SKT had continued to dominate. Sure, it’d been a rocky start, but they eventually began to gain momentum and then continue to destroy their opponents, keeping their title as the best team in Korea, maybe in the world.

Then, with Spring, came their losing streak. After they tied against SKT S, they lost, 2-0 against the almost laughable team, KT Arrows. Thanks to a tiebreaker that was far too close for comfort, they’d barely managed to squeak out of groups.

Only to lose 3-1 against Samsung Ozone.

It was nothing short of shameful.

And Piglet felt that shame deeply. He felt it in the very gut of his being, so deeply that it affected him in his playing. He began losing his confidence, all of it. He could still talk a big game, but deep inside, he’d lost his confidence that he’d gained from winning the World Championship.

All that was left was the lost child he once was, the child that wanted attention and wanted direction.

That direction came in the form of Pooh’s baby sister, Mirae. She was his only little sister, as he had older sisters, but he was only a big brother to her. She’d come to visit him, to check up on his health, from his hometown, preparing to go into college. And then, seeing how stressed her brother was, how chaotic the team was, she decided to stay.

She’d only been a year younger than Piglet, and he’d taken to her as she made herself a permanent figure in the SKT house.

Every day, she’d go to her early morning classes, then come back for lunch and make food for the boys. If they refused to eat, she’d turn off their computers, even once going so far as to unplug Faker’s computer and put duct tape over the outlet when he’d simply turned up the volume and ignored her.

The team, for the first time in what felt like forever, maybe since they started losing in Spring, actually sat together at the table to eat lunch every day. They laughed and talked like friends, rather than just quiet comments and sometimes, more heated arguments. She would always watch them with a smile on her lips and pride in her eyes.

As the Spring finals went on, the battle between Samsung Blue and Najin White Shield raged. But in the SKT house, none of that mattered.

NLB Spring 2014

Piglet would duo queue with all of his teammates, when he’d normally been solo since their losses. Bengi seemed to find his love for League again, enjoying himself as he practiced alongside Faker, who was slowly regaining whatever color was missing from his pale face. Impact, even, was beginning to return to being the team’s reliable leader.

The team went to NLB Spring, landing themselves cleanly in third place. It wasn’t first, like they’d become accustomed to, but it was better than their previous score of eighth place.

They supposed it was thanks to Mirae. Since she waltzed into the house, it had become a home for all of them.

Ever so often, Piglet would sneak looks over to Mirae, constantly making sure that she was smiling. If she wasn’t, he would do something to make her smile. Whether it be making himself look like a fool or poking fun at another one of the players.

And every time she laughed or smiled, his heart would lift.

All-Stars Paris 2014

She went to All-Stars Paris with them. She roomed with her older brother, leaving Piglet with Impact. Impact had noticed his teammate’s behavior around their new caretaker. A blushing, stuttering mess, Piglet quietly admitted, at three in the morning, that he’d come to care about his lane partner’s little sister.

Impact, smiling, as Piglet could hear his happy voice, only replied that he’d already known.

During the games, he found her in the front row of the All-Stars crowd, holding up an SKT banner with a smile on her face. She cheered for them, yelling their real names as loudly as she could. Every time he saw her, heard her screaming for him to do well, he felt like he could defeat Faker in a one on one in the mid lane.

He dominated his opponents. He didn’t let SKT drop a single game during the tournament. He wanted her to be proud. He wanted her to smile.