Opening Author's Notes
First chapter that is compatible with the main storyline but outside of it – we're going into Season 5. Also published here after first publishing it on Wattpad early this year, and it's also the first chapter where Krystal makes a notable appearance (and it won't be the last!)

2015 League of Legends Championship Series
North America – Summer Split (up to finals)
Riot North American Studios, Sawtelle, Los Angeles, California
May 30th – August 16th
 

We'd made it back to KCON in position for another big collaboration with both of our teams on hot streaks, but it hadn't been easy, and this time, it had been Cloud 9 having to deal with changes and Girls' Generation providing the support.

We had indeed gone to Katowice and won the IEM World Championship, following it up with another NA LCS championship in the Spring Split and then victory at the Mid-Season Invitational in Tallahassee against other Spring Split regional champions. However, Hai's wrist pain had become even more of an issue for him, and even though we backed him to the hilt as a leader as his shotcalling continued to be top-notch, he was not happy with himself most of the time mechanically and told us he did not feel in any shape to play in the Summer Split. This had prompted him to announce his retirement, although it was also paired with the announcement that he was remaining with Cloud 9 in an organizational capacity as Chief Gaming Officer.

This meant we had less time to celebrate because we then had to turn our attention to who our new starting mid laner would be. One evening, after done a lot of work on that, Jessica was meeting Aurora and me  at a pasta restaurant in Los Angeles while Aurora so she could get our input, and as a bonus, we were also meeting Krystal, who had free time from F(x) and was visiting.

"Times like these are another reason why it's so good that you are actually staying with them when you're here." Krystal told here, making the rest of us nod and smile. Jessica had just finished telling her some of her favorite stories about us from recent months.

This was true – when we'd picked out our new team house, we had looked for one with an extra room compared to our previous one so that Jessica could use that as her bedroom and office when she was with us since she told us she wanted to stay with us while with the team. The result had been an oft-recurring replication of the same atmosphere that we had had in our camp ahead of the Worlds quarterfinal against SKT and that much more added esprit de corps.

We shared some more light moments, including about music (including Lion Heart and Taeyeon's solo work) before we turned our attention to some more serious matters as we finished our bowls.

"What do you the two of you think of Incarnati0n after we tried him out today?" Jessica asked.

Author's Note – This is Jensen as he appeared when he actually joined Cloud 9 in 2015:

"I've heard a lot about him that we were reminded of while we were going through his file." Aurora said.

She nodded at me, and I nodded back and took up the narrative. "Incarnati0n – real name Nicolaj Jensen, from Denmark. Founding member of Team Solo Mebdi in Europe, which also included YamatoCannon and Nukeduck, who are both now at Roccat. Banned indefinitely in February 2013 due to toxicity and DDOSing..."

"What's that?" Krystal asked.

"Direct Denial of Service." I explained. "The perpetrator finds an IP address and floods it with data packets. People have used it for some real sinister purposes. When someone does it in League, they do it to make their opponent lag and basically leave them a sitting duck."

"So he cheated?" Krystal asked.

"Let me put it this way – none of us would blame anyone who said he did." Aurora said, indicating her and me as I nodded.

"He did continue playing non-competitively and even held first place on the Western European solo queue leaderboard with some montages and highlight reels released of him." I added. "He was also allowed to be an analyst for SK Gaming up until Worlds, when coaches started to earn official recognition."

"Now, he did have his case up for review twice, including this spring. Riot then decided to clear him to play competitively beginning with the Summer Split since he'd expressed remorse for his past actions and had done clear work to clean himself up, and he then decided to come here to try out after he heard of Hai's retirement." Aurora finished.

"Do you guys want to play with him?" Jessica asked.

"Well, here's the thing...First place in solo queue in a region as competitive as Europe is nothing at all to sneeze at because that means he's got mechanics for days. There's a reason why he's the best Danish mid-laner not named Bjergsen or Froggen and that says a lot...but we've all had to deal with adapting that into pro play because that's a whole other kettle of fish in many ways." I said. "But I would vote yes because he's got that fire in his belly – including a killer instinct – and he certainly didn't rub any of us the wrong way."

"I would say the same for those reasons." Aurora agreed, nodding.

"Well, tell you what – Sneaky, Meteos, Balls and Lemon say a lot of those things, and Hai and Jack also signed off on it." Jessica said with a smile that Krystal, Aurora and I mirrored. "Let's get this guy onboard."

"Can I ask for a small favor?" The new arrival asked as we brought home Chipotle before a streaming session.

"Go ahead." Jessica answered.

"Call me Jensen." He said, pronouncing it Yen-sen.

"You got it." Jessica said with a smile.

"You don't mind if I call you Nicolaj, do you?" I asked.

"No, not at all." Jensen replied with a grin. So far, so good, I thought.

"Okay then, Jensen," Sneaky said, pronouncing it Jenn-sen, before he asked, "Did you want to duo tonight?"

"Sure – let's get some carry synergy going." Jensen replied.

Later that night, Jensen made a key move as Vladimir by bursting down an enemy Draven to set up a big teamfight win.

"Nice!" He said in his marked Danish accent.

"Nice-u!" Sneaky responded in his imitation of a Korean accent.

"Nice!" Jensen yelled, in even more of a turned-up accent.

"Holy s**t...I didn't expect that." Sneaky said, chuckling as he peeled back as Lucian to grab the Crest of Cinders.

"Is this where I'm supposed to say 'Same' or...?" Jensen asked.

Sneaky instantly burst out laughing at Jensen catching on to that joke so quickly. He managed to say, "Holy s**t...yeah, if you want."

Author's Note – This actually happened during one of the first few times Sneaky and Jensen streamed a duo queue of theirs.

We did start the summer split brightly enough and were near the top of the standings, but Jensen was taking time to fit into professional play, and the fact that he couldn't play his favored assassins as much as he would like didn't help.

However, he wasn't the member of the team that was struggling the most – Meteos hadn't been happy with having to build Sightstone and Aegis of the Legion first most of the time, and his confidence had been eroding, leading to a game against Team Impulse where he had what he called one of the worst games of his professional career against Korean rising star Rush. That night, we had come home and he had told Jessica and Lemon that he was benching himself.

In some ways, only Jessica saying she was stepping down from Girls' Generation the previous fall had been more jarring for us. Not only were we missing another member of our team that had been a starter on our Worlds-winning team the previous year, but we had only 24 hours to turn around with no registered substitute jungler for that week, which mean adding another player at this point would mean a two-ban penalty in our next game. (Author's Note – This has actually happened since LCS regulations ask for rosters for the week to be submitted by a certain time.)

While Jessica, who had come back a week earlier, went to her room and started making calls, Aurora and I both sat down in the den and kitchen, looking poleaxed. After a minute, we both realized the same thing, looked at each other and nodded briskly. We then pulled out our phones to text Sooyoung, who had already become the Soshi closest to Meteos during our successful Worlds run.

"Holy crap, she's beaten us to it already!" I exclaimed.

"What?!" Aurora asked. "Oh, God bless you, Sooyoung unnie...Meteos is going to need you! What did she say?"

I showed her the text I had just seen on my iPhone, which read,

Dear Carlo,

Don't worry, I'm talking to Meteos already. Let's talk tonight for sure – and feel free to include Sica, Aurora and anyone else who wants in – but let me make sure I help him first. I know you'll understand that.

-Sooyoung

"Thanks for calling, Sooyoung noona, but don't worry, I'm fine." Meteos was saying.

"I know you're not telling me the whole truth, Meteos..." Sooyoung said inquisitively before her tone became lighter. "...But I understand what you mean too. You know you're doing the right thing for the team, but you wish it was you competing for another spot at Worlds...don't you?"

"You're right. Of course I do. Especially since I remember how it felt last October as we all do..." After a brief pause, he replied, "And that's one thing that really hurts...knowing the best thing I can do is to take myself out."

"Oh..." She said comfortingly. "It makes me want to get on the next flight over and take you out to dinner just so you can feel better. I'm still buying when – not if – we meet again." Despite the situation, she still summoned the resolve to accent those words for effect.

"Sooyoung noona, thanks, but don't. That wouldn't be worth...I'm not worth that." Meteos replied. Sooyoung later said that more pain was starting to creep into his voice here.

However, Sooyoung then swiftly, firmly and kindly responded, also addressing Meteos by his real name, "Meteos...Will...as long as I've known you, you've always been worth it."

Meteos told me he was dumbstruck here. After a few moments, he replied "Sooyoung noona...what the f**k are you saying?"

"What do you think I'm trying to tell you, Will?" Sooyoung replied – smiling, as she told us later.

"That you care about me as a friend?" Meteos asked nervously.

Sooyoung laughed and smiled before she replied, "Babo...(Fool...) Do you think I would say and do all that if I cared about you as just a friend? That would be 'So troll, dude.'" She finished with an perfect imitation of Meteos himself.

"Same." Meteos responded in kind, laughing and smiling at the imitation in spite of himself. Then it hit him again, and he almost spluttered, "Wait, then...oh, holy s**t, Sooyoung noona, you can't..."

"It's my fault too, Will. I only admitted it to myself recently too..." Sooyoung said apologetically, before she finished, "...But I do. I love you."

"I know how you feel now...because I think I felt the same about you and didn't know it." Meteos said, taking a moment but finding his courage and his voice as he plumbed the depths of his feelings. "I'm going to do my damn best not to screw this up...Saranghaeyo, Sooyoung noona."

"Oh, Will..." Sooyoung said lovingly. Meteos said despite the hard night, he felt his knees buckle slightly as he heard her blow him a kiss over the phone. "Muah!"

"Oh, my God, Sooyoung, that's incredible! Thanks so much for that – for his sake even more than ours." Jessica said once she, Aurora and I were on Skype with Sooyoung almost immediately after.

"No kidding! As terrible as it is for Meteos, I'm really happy for you two." Aurora said, and she and I both nodded.

"So do you have a plan yet for your game tomorrow against Enemy?" Sooyoung asked.

"I've been talking to someone about coming inbut we're going to save that for next week so we don't lose our bans." Jessica said. "Carlo's going to be our stand-in jungler tomorrow and Balls will play top."

"Really? That'll be something, but I believe in you guys – Fighting!" Sooyoung said. "I'll make sure Fany and especially Sunny unnie know."

"Oh, Sunny especially will want to know." Jessica said with a smile. "Thanks a lot, Sooyoung."

"Anytime, Sica!" Sooyoung said. "One more thing, guys..."

"What's that, unnie?" Aurora asked.

"Don't just play for Meteos and me tomorrow. Play for each other and for all of us." Sooyoung replied.

"We will." I answered, and Aurora and Jessica also nodded fervently.

We did manage to beat Enemy E-Sports, but while I was happy we'd won, I wasn't happy with myself.

"I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to be able to do it like that at Worlds if I keep doing that, though. I feel like I need to work my pathing a lot." I said frankly as we neared the place where we were having dinner – a Korean barbecue restaurant.

"You won't have to." Jessica responded. "The person I've been talking to about stepping in as our jungler is ready to get started. We'll be meeting him here at dinner."

"Oh, yeah!" Aurora said. "I get the feeling you don't want to tell us who he is until we get there, but what can you tell us about him?"

"He hasn't jungled professionally in a while, but he's been working hard in solo queue to pick it back up."Jessica said, a smile playing around . "Another reason I think you'll like him is that you've played with him before."

We were through the door by now, and we were all looking at each other quizzically as Jessica checked us in for the reservation she'd made in her name.

We heard someone was already there, and we surmised that this had to be the new jungler. When we got to the table, we gasped and then laughed and smiled.

Hai was already seated there, a renewed twinkle in his eyes, and Jessica beamed as she watched us celebrate like a group of who'd just gotten a brother back.

"Oh, my God!" Aurora cheered.

"Ho, ho, wow!" Jensen said. "Glad you'll be there to help us out, not just me."

"Oh, nice!" Lemon said. "Great to see you, man."

"Ha ha, yes!" Balls said, her face lighting up as he slapped hands with him and gave him a brotherly hug.

"Holy s**t, we totally forgot!" Sneaky exclaimed.

We had forgotten that Hai had originally been a jungler before he switched to being a mid laner ahead of the 2013 Spring Split, which had enabled Cloud 9 (at the time signed to Quantic Gaming) to bring in Meteos.

"Yo, I still feel bad for Sooyoung noona because Meteos is her boy, but I'd pay good money to see Tae noona's reaction to Hai coming back." Sneaky said fervently.

"You might just have to reach for your wallet, Sneaky." Jessica said with a grin. She pulled her phone out and showed the last message that Taeyeon had sent. We all eagerly leaned closer to read it:

Dear Sica,

Omona! The news went around the group fast, and even though I'm the most excited about the news, we're all thrilled to the point that we're all planning to wake up early to see his comeback! Even Sooyoung is happy that it's Hai who's coming back even if she still feels bad for Meteos (and I know we all still share that pain.) Go get 'em!

-Tae

"You got me, Jess noona." Sneaky said with a grin. "Drinks on me."

"I'd better say this before the food arrives..." Hai said, making us look at him as we sat down. "Feel free to slap me for this if you want, but as the split started, there was the egotistical part of me that wouldn't have minded if you guys lost so that I wouldn't have looked as bad mechanically. But seeing how you guys worked fought made that go away pretty quick."

"It's okay." Jessica said sympathetically. "I can understand – I remember when I was with you guys before the quarterfinal that there was a dark part of me that hoped Girls' Generation wouldn't fare as well in Guangzhou because it'd make me look good."

One of the cool things that Hai also did apart from bringing shotcalling and emotional leadership – which helped Jensen fit in more quickly – were unconventional jungle picks that a lot of our opponents hadn't prepared for much, such as Rengar and Shyvana, and we absolutely got a kick out of that. Infused with fresh energy, we managed to keep outpacing our rivals and take first place during the Summer Split regular season, which gave us the playoff top seed and a first-round bye.

This also meant that we were guaranteed a top 4 place, which in turn meant, among other things, that we would be at least be playing in the 3rd-place match during finals weekend – which, this split, was at New York's iconic Madison Square Garden. What added even more to it was that added KCON events were taking place starting that year, and Girls' Generation had already committed to one – not in Los Angeles, but in Newark, which would be the same weekend as the finals. Specifically, Friday and Saturday were concert days, while Saturday was also for the third-place match and Sunday was finals day.

The day after the end of the regular season, Jessica called a meeting at the team house and made sure Meteos was able to be there too.

"It's official." She told us, once we'd gathered in the living room. "We're teaming up again with the girls in New York and New Jersey."

Her eyes were alight, and so were ours. Even Jensen, who had not yet been part of a full-blown Girls' Generation / Cloud 9 collaboration like we'd had in Seoul and San Jose, was excited.

"They're going to do Lion Heart and then Genie a bit later...and they were asking if I could perform with them again for that." Jessica continued.

"And you said yes, didn't you, unnie?" Aurora asked with a big grin that we all mirrored.

"Of course!" Jessica said with a big smile of her own. "They also were wondering if we could do the song we've been working on."

"Oh, s**t." Sneaky said, looking at Meteos, Aurora, Hai and me in addition to Jessica.

Inspired by the events of the past year, Jessica, Tiffany, Aurora, Hai, Meteos and I had been working on a song following MSI in conjunction with Riot. We'd worked on making it a North America-centric song, which would leave the door open for songs for Korea, China, Europe and such. Hai and Meteos had even worked on it while they weren't staying with the team, and we had recently done some practice in a studio in our spare time and put together a good recording.

Meteos had even contributed with a trombone section. This was something of a nod to his high school marching band days. Back then, he and a friend had come up with a hilarious trombone warmup video, which had later gone viral after someone had dug it up after his LCS debut and recognized him.

Before any of us could say or think much else, Meteos smiled and said, "Why the hell not? It isn't every day one gets to perform live, much less at something like KCON and with you girls."

We all smiled wholeheartedly and laughed at that, but Jessica smiled the most as she said, "I love that! Okay, let's make sure we're ready as we keep prepping for the playoffs!" She then added seriously but still with a smile, "I expect no one needs to be told this, but at least for now, this news is not to leave this house, the girls' dorm or the SM offices until it's showtime."

We all nodded vigorously. Within an hour, we were finishing some pizza when Jensen went up to Jessica as we were putting our plates in the sink.

"Um, Jessi noona, can I ask you something?" He asked.

"Sure, Jensen! Go right ahead." Jessica replied.

"I know this might be a silly question...but what should I expect since it'll be my first time working together with Girls' Generation?"

"A lot of energy." Hai said. "Imagine an LCS crowd's energy while we're playing turned up by about...I dunno, 50 to 100 notches. Then imagine that combined with a Girls' Generation crowd."

"We thought we'd seen wild crowds before during that Worlds championship run, but that Grand Final crowd was something else. And San Jose brought a ton of that same energy." Aurora told him.

"It's like supercharged pixie dust." I added with a smile as I set to work scrubbing the dishes.

When we were done cleaning up, Jessica, Hai, Aurora and I noticed that Jensen hadn't gone back into queue but was watching the previous Cloud 9 Generation collaborations in Los Angeles, Seoul and San Jose on his laptop and looking at them in a way we hadn't seen him look at anything K-Pop related before.

"I'm just trying to get myself in the right frame of mind to deal with it." He explained. "How did you lads and lasses do all that?"

"We knew we were fighting for each other and for something a lot bigger than ourselves." I answered.

"I've had friends but I'm not sure if I've had a family environment – at least like this – for a long time...I definitely don't want to blow this chance." Jensen said both reflectively and determinedly. "Though I've never dealt with a stage like that..."

"Don't worry, Jensen, neither had we. You'll do just fine." Jessica said, smiling kindly at him. Jensen grinned gratefully back in response.

Two days before we played Team Liquid (Team Curse had merged with Liquid under the Liquid banner) in the semifinals with both another finals berth and another Worlds spot at stake, Jessica was turning heads even more than usual after she came back to the house after she got her hair done and dyed.

"Whoa, back to blonde?" Hai asked, smiling with his mouth agape.

Jessica beamed at him. "I've got an idea for the Genie reunion. Would you like to see? I'm going to need your help with it when we get there, actually. Specifically, I'm going to need Sneaky, LemonNation, Balls and Jensen."

"Oh?" Hai asked. "I'll get them."

He did so, but as they arrived and Jessica started explaining why she needed their help, Lemon held up his hand.

"I'd love to help you out with this, Jessica, but I think you'd better plan for me not being there if I can't be...A close friend of mine just died back home and I'll be going back to Minnesota for his wake." He said regretfully.

Jessica looked into Lemon's eyes and saw it was something he felt he had to do. "Don't worry, we understand." She said comfortingly, laying a hand on his shoulder as we consoled him. "I need to know, though...who do you have in mind to stand in as coach while you're not here?"

Lemon managed to smile, but it was sincere as he looked squarely at Jessica and replied, "You've done a great job with picking up on what we like to do and helping keep us in the right frame of mind, so I actually want it to be you."

"Really?" Jessica asked, dumbfounded.

"Jinja." Lemon echoed in Korean, making not just her but all of us smile. "Wait here."

He left and returned a minute later with the notebook and held it out to her.

"There's not too many people that I would entrust this to, Jessica. Use it well. And if you need me to clear up anything in it before you go out there, just tell me." He said.

"I will." She responded.

"That's our Jess!" Lemon cheered. "There may be a chance I can make it there in time, but even if I can't, you guys give 'em hell for me, okay?"

"You got it, Lemon." Jessica replied.

"Okay, what's the idea?" Hai asked.

Jensen found Jessica smiling at him most of the time – apologetically but also sincerely – while explaining her idea. He responded, "Oh, I see what you're talking about...Don't worry, I understand you're trying to make light of my, er, misspent youth. That still sounds cool."

"Thanks!" Jessica said. "Okay, now for my end of the deal..."

She smiled and brought out the outfit she had picked out.

"Holy f**k, that's beautiful." Jensen breathed as Jessica laid it out. Sneaky, Balls and Lemon, hardly able to speak after seeing it, just nodded.

That weekend, we beat Team Liquid 3-1 to advance to the finals. Not only did it guarantee qualification for Worlds, but it also meant we would be at KCON on both concert days (Friday and Saturday) and then play in the finals on Sunday. We would be facing Counter Logic Gaming, who had swept Team SoloMid in the other semifinal and thus set up the first NA LCS final that was not C9-TSM since Spring 2013.

Less than 48 hours later, after LemonNation had already flown back to Minnesota, Jack accompanied the remaining eight of us as we traveled to New York and checked into the same Manhattan hotel that Girls' Generation was staying at. For a few hours, we all had our own plans as Jensen brought his luggage up to his room to find Seohyun seated on the bed and turning around as he opened the door.