winston = a hero in ow
fps = first person shooter
moba = (in this case) games like LoL, WoW

Baekhyun hasn’t gotten any proper rest since their scrims Saturday. He misses talking to Chanyeol and watching his stream — all they could exchange over the weekend were ‘How are you’s and ‘Good night’s. Thankfully, their coach had deemed them good enough to take Tuesday off, but everyone was too tired and opted to stay in the team house to rest before the big day.

Now, two hours before the match, Baekhyun is glad he didn’t go home to stream, because he’s ing spent. He smiles at his team and tells them they’re gonna be fine, but he’s nervous and his hands won’t stop trembling. “Relax a little,” Jongdae coaxes, sensing how tense Baekhyun is. “We have two hours left, why don’t you get something to eat and maybe listen to some music?”

Baekhyun shakes his head, choosing to stay in the lounge and analyse their past matches instead. They are already at the venue, and he can hear Excelsior laughing in the background, relaxed as ever. Baekhyun wonders how much time they’ve spent coming up with strategies and practising — probably not as much as his team did. Just then, a member of Excelsior comes up to him. He recognises the neon blue of their jersey, and it makes him want to puke. The colour is too bright for his liking.

“Hey,” Jongin says, waving in Baekhyun’s face. Baekhyun frowns at him and goes back to analysing their match. “What do you want, brat?” He asks.

“Nothing. Just wanted to say hi to my favourite hyung,” Jongin answers, grinning at him. He sits beside Baekhyun and Baekhyun hates the contrast between their jerseys, but he likes Jongin, so he keeps quiet. “Good luck for the match later on,” Jongin continues, seemingly oblivious to Baekhyun’s foul mood. “Don’t worry too much. Remember to breathe. You look like someone just ran over your puppy.”

“Thanks Jongin,” Baekhyun mumbles, “you too. Good luck, I mean.” Baekhyun expected Jongin to leave him alone, but he only sat there quietly, looking like he had something to say.

“Transfer season’s coming up,” Jongin comments off-handedly. Baekhyun looks up at him, curious.

“Is Excelsior planning to trade anyone?” He questions, and Jongin laughs at him. “Hyung, do you think they’ll let us know before they decide to trade any of us away?”

“Right,” Baekhyun says, switching off the video. He doesn’t want to think about it now, and Jongdae and Jongin are right. He should relax, it’s only the first stage. Now he’s left to wonder if his managers are planning to drop any of his teammates. He worries about how they might react, because their team is close knit compared to most other League teams because they’ve been together since the Korean tournaments.

“Well,” Jongin starts, getting up from his seat. “See you later, let’s catch up soon,” he says with a smile. For a second there, Baekhyun forgets that he has to play against his friend.

“Bye Jongin!” Baekhyun yells as he walks away. He should probably stop seeing Excelsior as rivals, given that he’s friends with more than half of their roster. Besides, it’s just one match. Checking his phone for any missed messages, he sees one from Chanyeol. He smiles, opening the text, his smile growing wider.

Bambi
08:30  Fighting! I’ll be rooting for u (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

He goes to find his teammates for a little team-bonding time before the match starts.

+

The match is starting and he strains his ear to listen to the casters talk about the teams. He regrets it because all of them are expecting an exciting game because of the match up, but Baekhyun doesn’t feel ready. He can hear his heart drumming loudly and it isn’t because it’s excited. He’s anxious, worried that his team won’t live up to expectations. He can hear the fans cheering loudly in a language he doesn’t really understand, but it helps calms his nerves a little when he realises they’re rooting for them.

One of the staff pats him on the back, pushing him forward and urging him to enter the arena. He puts on a big smile and walks out with his arms stretched out, giving the fans high-fives as he leads the team to their seats. He keeps his eyes focused on the ground, still shy about the attention he’s getting. Once he reaches his seat, he lets out a sigh of relief and readies himself for the game.

“Let’s get it!” Jongdae nearly shouts into the headset and Baekhyun cringes at how high his volume is cranked up. The team responses with levelled enthusiasm, and Baekhyun weakly replies with a hell yeah. He’s thankful that they’re facing the fans, because they give him strength, as cheesy as it seems. Looking around the arena, he is once again awed by the amount of people there to watch them play. He expected a different kind of crowd here in the US of A, but it wasn’t much of a change from Korea, except the language and nationalities.

He can make out a few Korean-looking faces here and there, and it humbles him to know that there are Koreans supporting him even here. There are fan banners that say ‘baekkaji #1 winston’ and ‘seoul dynasty fighting!’ and it warms his heart. A banner catches his eye, because it holds their old team name instead of Seoul Dynasty and Baekhyun smiles. But when he sees the face poking out from behind the banner, he stills in his seat.

“Jongdae…” Baekhyun murmurs into his mic, turning to look at him. “Tell me I’m seeing things and that’s not Ba- Chanyeol holding the ‘Lunatic Hai #1’ banner.”

Jongdae is quiet for a second, before he actually yells into his mic, “HOLY that’s actually Chanyeol. He’s actually here in America, what the ?” He leans out of his seat to wave at him, earning a slap on the back from Baekhyun.

“Stop screaming and pick your hero already,” Baekhyun snaps, stealing a glance at Chanyeol. It’s hard to do it discreetly when the huge monitor is right in front of him and he has to kinda tilt his head to see the crowd, but Chanyeol notices him and smiles widely, and Baekhyun can’t help but smile back.

He turns around and beckons to one of the staff, who immediately goes to him and leans down as Baekhyun whispers in her ear. "See that guy holding the Lunatic Hai banner at the back? Can you get someone to bring him into the lounge later? He's a friend and I haven't seen him in years, please?" Baekhyun pleads, and the staff is too kind to say no, so she nods her head. Baekhyun smiles at her, eyes twinkling with gratefulness. "Thank you!"

He thinks the match is gonna be just fine.

+

They don’t end up winning, but it’s a close game. They lose 2-3 and Baekhyun thinks his team did a great job anyway so they celebrate, since this is the closest they’ve ever been to beating Excelsior. Chanyeol is waiting in the lounge, sitting quietly as he looks around in amazement. Baekhyun is thankful his coach didn't ask anything about it and send Chanyeol back, because he honestly doesn’t want to go back into the arena and risk seeing disappointed fans. He wants to focus on the fact that Chanyeol is here instead.

“Man, I can’t believe you’re actually here,” Baekhyun breathes, standing in front of Chanyeol and pinching his cheeks. Chanyeol is a lot taller than he remembers, too. “Are you real? This can’t be. You didn’t tell me!”

“Surprise?” Chanyeol says as clearly as he can with his cheeks being squished. He is kinda shocked that Baekhyun would greet him like this, but he certainly isn’t complaining. “I’ll be here for a pretty long while, actually. I’ll make sure to attend all your matches.”

“You should to come to our team house and spend the day with us. We’re actually gonna have a barbeque with Excelsior tonight, you can meet the rest of my team too,” Baekhyun suggests excitedly, still in disbelief. He knows Chanyeol isn’t in America just for him, but he’s excited beyond words that someone flew over and visited him. Even his own parents are too preoccupied to do that.

Chanyeol seems to think about it for awhile before nodding his head in agreement. “All right, I’ll see you later then?” He makes a move to leave, but Baekhyun gently grabs onto his arm and stops him.

“Wait, do you have plans now?” He asks, praying that Chanyeol says no, because he really wants to spend some time alone with a friend before the team dinner — a friend who isn't in the Overwatch League. Chanyeol shakes his head no, and Baekhyun grins at him. “Want a tour around New York?”

“Uhh… okay,” Chanyeol agrees, not sounding too excited about it. Baekhyun frowns and tells him it’s okay if he doesn’t want to, but Chanyeol is quick to reassure him with a smile, saying he just didn’t expect it.

Baekhyun takes him