Donghae has been giggling and outright belly laughing for about 45 minutes now, his entire body is already hurting. However, no matter how many attempts at taming his laughter, he sees something new to laugh about. He is currently watching his boyfriend try and kill the enemy Jett gliding right in front of his chosen agent, which was Sage. What has Donghae giggling like crazy though is that no matter how hard his boyfriend is simultaneously shooting and aiming his cursor at the enemy, he always ends up dead at the end. 

“Now that guy is undeniably cheating, I unloaded all my bullets at them and they take no damage but two--three bullets from them and I’m dead?” his boyfriend is now sporting a permanent pout on his face, his arms are now crossed over his chest which should look intimidating but since his shoulders are also raised, he ends up looking like a kid who got his candy stolen.

Donghae sneaks a peek at the continuous stream of hearts, cutesy cooing kaomojis and words of encouragement ranging from it’s okay, nice try to ask your boyfriend for aiming tips, he’s got lots of them ^^. Donghae doesn’t need to ask, it’s very obvious everyone is enjoying tonight’s live stream, they have been requesting it nonstop. 

You see, Donghae, or Easthae as his viewers know him, has been a twitch streamer for about two years now. He mainly plays Valorant, he’s been an avid fan of the game since beta, but he occasionally plays minecraft when he’s in the mood to just chat with his fans all night. He can confidently say that what drew fans to him is his awesome clutch skills as well as his child-like anticipation to any criticism (the helpful kind) he gets from his match teammates and game friends he’s gained from previous matches. But it hasn’t been smooth sailing when he started.

Although he’s in a good place now, gaming and streaming was never in his plans. Being the youngest, the pressure that comes from a successful older brother can never be avoided. No matter how much your parents and brother convince you that you’re the writer of your own destiny. So when his brother suggests, along with his friends in real life and online, to try streaming, Donghae took about six months to think it over. 

Those six months have been rough, physically and especially mentally. Donghae tends to overthink everything without meaning to. There are times when he just sits in a corner and gets lost in his mind thinking over a conversation he had with a friend or a stranger, going over the what ifs and what nots. It tends to be crippling sometimes but he’s thankful for his friends and family for continually supporting him and his decisions at getting better with it. 

The last push was when his father shook him out of his trance, and he spoke about his plans on becoming a streamer. “Son there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make a little more money, and if that has to come from you playing these games you love so much then why not? As long as it’s not illegal or would result in you getting yourself hurt, you have my support one hundred percent.” After that his father hugged him so tight, he shed tears and didn’t let go until his mother called them out for dinner. He really does love his parents, so much and hearing that from his father is all the assurance he needs to know that he could never disappoint his parents.

Right when he started streaming, that was when he bumped into his boyfriend, Hyukjae. There has got to be no cringier way to meet your would be partner than bumping into them and spilling their drink order on said person. 

Since he just started streaming, he still needed another way to make money to sustain himself. Good thing his brother was kind enough to offer him a job at one of his many cafes as a waiter and occasional cashier. On any good day, Donghae’s hand and eye coordination was phenomenal, heck he used to play soccer and basketball in high school and college. However, there are days wherein he just doesn’t know what happens and his body betrays him. When it’s that type of day, he trips over anything and nothing, bumps into walls and people like he’s got blindfold over his eyes and just becomes the clumsiest of klutz you’ve ever seen. And that day, just had to be that type of day.

On his way to work, Donghae has already tripped over all the cracks on the sidewalk, bumped his head on the cabinet overhead the sink, which should be a natural instinct to avoid and most recently, he bumped his pinky toe on the corner of the counter while carrying a heavy box of deliveries. Donghae had never wanted a day to end so quickly, his shift buddy-Sehun isn’t much help either with his full body laugh whenever something unfortunate happens.

Throughout that morning, Donghae has personally stationed himself as the cashier that way he would cause less drinks and pastry casualty, to which, surprisingly, Sehun has agreed to in a heartbeat. With the will to not break anything throughout his shift, as well as hurt himself severely, Donghae has managed to take all the orders and help Sehun prepare some of the items when the amount of customers started to get overwhelming. 

He can confidently say he has caused no accidents to others or himself before, during and after the lunch rush, Sehun is a witness of that. After the lunch rush he could finally let himself breathe a sigh of relief, just a few more hours and he’s free to go home and save himself from further injuries. Thinking about it gets him giddy, he starts whistling as he’s wiping down the tables. There is absolutely nothing that could ruin his day any further.

You know how people sometimes tell you not to get ahead of fate, well Donghae now knows better and promises not to call out a perfect day before it’s even done. He was in the middle of arranging the cakes and tarts that are to be sold that afternoon when he arrives. 

“Oh god, out of all the days.” Donghae’s meant to just say that in his mind but since it’s Let’s mess Donghae up day, he ends up saying it out loud and Sehun just has to be right beside him when he does. The grin that spreads on his friend’s face will forever be etched in his memory, he has never seen something so sinister and sickly sweet before, he started to break in cold sweat.

All he heard was an I got you hyung from Sehun before he disappeared from his periphery one second and was back the next. Turns out Sehun had already taken that person’s order, made it in top speed and is pushing the tray with the complete order onto his shaking hands and ushering him out through the service door and towards the table where the person of his attractions is sitting.

He has his hair down, like he always has whenever he comes to the cafe, but it’s a little longer now reaching past his eyebrows, so he looks much much softer than the last time he visited. He doesn’t know how he got to his table in one piece, the slice of strawberry shortcake and the grande java chip still looking perfect and intact, when he’s trying so hard not to let out a full body shiver.

Damn, he looks so good today.

Giggles shake him out of his stupor, his eyes going wider than physically possible when he sees a faint dusting of pink across his favorite customer’s cheeks. He realises he’s said something out loud that was supposed to be only for himself. Again. That’s just great. He stutters mutters an apology with his chin tucked to his chest and tries to quickly set the order down on the table so that he can wallow in a corner somewhere at the storage closet.

But before he could complete his first task, he hears a shy thank you, Donghae from the person in front of him and his brain decides to go haywire at that. Donghae says huh like a caveman and drops the drink right on his crush’s lap. Donghae has never wanted the ground to swallow him up so quickly.

Fast forward to two years later, Donghae can now look back to that day and never regret anything that happened to him. Clumsy trips and all. 

Back to his current predicament, much like Donghae, his viewers have also grown to love Hyukjae as time went by. Albeit he was adamant that he only stayed on the sidelines, it was unavoidable to be seen on camera when you’re basically living together. Being the loving boyfriend that he was, Hyukjae always made sure to give Donghae something to nibble and sip on whenever he did his streams. And being the cheesy little sap that he was, Donghae fails to hide the adoring smile he has for his boyfriend as a sign of gratitude. His viewers then took notice of this and started to bombard him with genuine questions like who was that and was that your girlfriend, to condescending ones like was that your mom. 

And when you're the cheesy little sap that he was, there was only a limited amount of butterflies in your stomach from all the sweet gestures before you cave into that fluffy, floating feeling. He can proudly say that he was a weak man for his boyfriend and gave in on the third time Hyukjae was caught on cam and said my boyfriend made me kimbap guys with a dreamy smile on his face, paired with flushed cheeks. 

Naturally, his viewers would ask if his boyfriend had been a gamer as well and if that was how they met. The moment he answered no the influx of requests that Donghae received to teach his boyfriend to play Valorant skyrocketed, he had to beg Hyukjae to agree. 

So here they were now, five consecutive floods of requests on streams and twice the amount of begging later, it has been a rough two games but he and his viewers were living for the content at the expense, unfortunately, of Hyukjae’s suffering. 

“Can you take over now, I at this.” Hyukjae sulkily pushes the keyboard and mouse towards him, he even hears a huff of disappointment from beloved. 

“That’s alright love, I’ve been there before. Everyone has to start somewhere right?” The pet name slips unintentionally with how much he uses it, and it makes Hyukjae stiffen but his viewers eat up at the term of endearment. “You just have to practice your aim and try not to spray—hold down on the left click when you fire, next time just tap on it continuously when you’re firing at the enemy” Donghae demonstrates by holding his boyfriend’s hand on the mouse to show him the difference between the two.

“Won’t just holding down on the left click be more efficient than tapping continuously though?” Hyukjae unconsciously leans more into Donghae’s space, like he always does whenever he’s invested in something Donghae is showing him.

“You get a hang of it the more you practice doing it during matches, and—here look at the bullet trails on the bull’s eye, see how the longer you hold down the more it tends to drag the gun up and scatter the bullets? Now look at the difference when you just tap continuously, see how it hits where you place your crosshair perfectly?” Hyukjae hums and relays what he showed him, he oohs when he gets the same result as Donghae did and decides to move his agent to the firing range where there are bots scattered.

They continue on like that, Donghae’s hand on Hyukjae’s over the mouse whenever he teaches him on how and where to use that type of ability. They spend about thirty minutes on the practice range, mostly due to Hyukjae’s insistence to just stay there, probably not feeling too confident to jump back into a match, then decide to queue for a deathmatch to practice his reaction to actual players and firing habits and end up playing 5 rounds of it. 

When Donghae, and his viewers, deem Hyukjae ready they click on unrated and wait for a match to open. There’s an influx of you can do its and I believe in you hyukjae, fighting! from their viewers, which makes Hyukjae shy and answers them with an I’ll try guys. Donghae doesn’t fight the urge to give him a kiss on the forehead, Hyukjae’s favorite type of kisses.

“Why don’t we just go spike rush for now,” Donghae takes over the mouse and cancels the queue for unrated and changes it to spike rush, “that way you get the hang of using the abilities during a match. Plus this wouldn’t be as long as unrated, your team just needs to win 4 rounds and you’re done.” then hands Hyukjae the mouse back and even gives him another kiss on the forehead and his right cheek. 

But before Hyukjae could scold Donghae for his antics, they hear match found and the screen counts down from five indicating that they’ve entered a server. Hyukjae just settles to hitting his stupidly handsome boyfriend on the chest when he hears him snicker beside him while reading the onslaught of cooing and fangirling on the chatbox. Judging from the messages, he’s regretting asking Donghae to keep the led lights on. At least with his boyfriend’s usual mood lighting he could hide the blush he’s sporting a little better. 

After the first two spike rushes, Hyukjae is slowly getting the hang of reacting to enemies jumping out from corners and anticipating where to turn judging from the sound of enemy footsteps, and honestly, Donghae can’t help but feel proud of the fast development. Although, he still gets the occasional jump scare from sudden prefiring from the enemies or the classic loud shots from the operator. Donghae still snickers albeit more toned down, especially since Hyukjae seems more invested in the game now.

“Sorry, fifteen seconds more.” Hyukjae says through the team comms when a teammate asked his agent for a heal, his boyfriend’s teammates are tamer than the previous ones he queued with, which Donghae is secretly thankful for. The previous teams they were in match with were either toxic or not at all team players. 

“Another thing you should remember when playing is that you’re in a team, so communication is key. Even where you last saw the enemy is helpful, so don’t be afraid to voice it out to the team.” Donghae explains to his boyfriend who is also invested in watching him play a match, “Agents like Sage, you need to be aware of your team’s health bars, you see those bars on the top of the screen? You need to look at it occasionally so you know who to heal. When they ask you to heal them, never just rush to where they are, you also have to be aware of your surroundings, check the map and corners, especially when you’re going to revive a teammate. As much as possible if you haven’t used your wall orb, use it to protect yourself and your teammate when reviving. If there is absolutely no way to heal them without getting fired at, help your teammate instead and throw a slow orb at the enemy’s direction, it’ll prevent them from moving away from the spray and potentially get you or your teammate a kill. You need to remember every agent in the team is important, when you’re dead so early in the round it’ll be much easier for the opposing team to plant or defuse the bomb.”

And that’s what Hyukjae tries to do, even when at first he was a little hesitant since it’s his first time playing. Most of the players were forgiving, typing out nt or its okay when Hyukjae fails to kill an opponent. Some of them though, were just so toxic, it’s like they never went through with where Hyukjae is now. His boyfriend doesn’t show it on his face but Donghae knows that it affects him somehow, it affects him as well seeing his boyfriend insecure.

“It’s just a game, okay? You’re having fun right? So let’s just continue to have fun.” he gives his boyfriend a smile and pecks his forehead to get rid of the lines that have formed. Hyukjae lets out a slow sigh and visibly relaxes, he gives Donghae a nod and returns his focus on the game but not before Donghae mutes the voice and text chat of that one toxic player. What you can’t hear or read, can’t hurt you right? He even quickly reports that account for good measure when Hyukjae has his head turned away from the screen. His viewers saw what he did though, Donghae just gives them a nonchalant shrug.

The more matches they play, Hyukjae visibly gains more confidence in communicating with the team and is more aware of the rotations, pretty soon he begins to move with the team and gets praises from his teammates for being good with the agent even for a beginner. When their current match finishes with Hyukjae’s team winning 13 to 8, his boyfriend beams at him when he sees he’s ranked third among his team with fifteen kills and eight deaths. Hyukjae’s eyes are bright and sparkling and cheeks looking soft and fluffy when Donghae praises him for his efforts, he’s so happy he doesn’t get mad at Donghae for pinching his cheeks on cam.

“So.. how was your first time playing Valorant?” They both are now facing the camera, they’re shoulders are touching if it weren’t for the arm rest they would’ve been fully glued to each other.

“It was hard, like I don’t get how you don’t use the wrong ability for a situation when I’ve accidentally thrown slow orbs at my teammates instead of healing them.” Hyukjae has his sweater paws back and are now playing with them with his fingers, having pushed his sleeves above his elbows as it was preventing him from seeing the keys properly and it also made holding the mouse difficult since his paws made it slippery. 

“You get used to it I guess, don’t worry I’ve done everything you went through when I first started so I understand your frustrations.” He reaches for the nonexistent stain on the corner of Hyukjae’s lips, just because, and caresses the skin there delicately. Just looking at his boyfriend makes it easy to dive right into their own bubble, live stream be damned right now. To which, sadly, Hyukjae quickly swats his hand away from his face and makes it a point to include a a few good smacks on Donghae’s arm. “God will you tone it down, our friends watch your streams, heck your brother’s a subscriber.” 

“It’s nothing our friends and my brother hadn’t seen before, we’re both used to their teasing by now. Are you still camera shy, babe?” this causes more smacks to come his way, all in rapid successions but Donghae just laughs laughs a little louder as he doesn’t mind when they don’t really hurt that much (Hyukjae couldn’t really hurt a fly even if he means to) plus the more times he gets hit, the redder his boyfriend’s whole being gets. “Please shut up, we agreed before starting the live that you would tone it down. Why do I even trust you?” 

His boyfriend continues to curl in on himself, trying to look small and hide from the camera praying for the ground to just swallow him up. I really do hope Heechul hyung isn’t watching this. But this falls on deaf ears when Hyukjae sees his phone light up, indicating a notification, and a message from the person he’d really like to hide from saying YAH! You idiots, wait till I see you both in person ;). Donghae seems to have caught a glimpse of the message as well, judging from the mischievous glint in his eyes. “Don’t worry Heechul hyung, we’re almost done here.”

“Okay, I think we have time for one last question, do you think you’ll be playing valorant again any time soon?” like a switch the glint is gone and Donghae’s back to the optimistic, goofy and handsome streamer his viewers have come to love. That has Hyukjae a little worried for when the camera turns off, god knows the amount of restraint his boyfriend has to not just outright kiss him on the lips that moment. Donghae has always been a er for soft, cute things, which is what Hyukjae is on the regular.

“I think if you’d queue with me, I’d go for it.” he’s looking only at Donghae now, to convey that he means what he said. Although Hyukjae isn’t really much of a gamer, he couldn’t deny that he had a lot of fun today even when his boyfriend couldn’t stop laughing at his mistakes, which is fine. Besides, Donghae’s laughter has always been his favorite sound, even if it was directed at him. But then again, it doesn’t really matter, as long as he is the reason for such hearty laughter.

“Would you allow me to make you an account then?” his streamer boyfriend’s eyes are positively sparkling and the smile on his face could not get any wider than it is now, Donghae has never really been that hard to please. Hyukjae is also weak for the man in front of him, so he gives in and he lovingly pinches his boyfriend’s cheek. A gesture he makes when Donghae is just plain adorable. “Yes, you can but please talk to me about the username first before you go making the account.” 

“Don’t worry, I already know of a perfect name for you—”

“It better not be silver belt!”

“That— is actually quite good, it even sounds edgy—”

“Please not silver belt, you know how long it took for Heechul hyung to let that go.”

“Okay, not that but how about, wait for it, ddalkinim.”

….

“...strawberry-nim?”

“Yeah, it’s also a play on your childhood nickname, dalnim! It’s cute right?”

“You do know the reason why they called me that was because I had a face full of pimples when I was in middle school to high school, it’s meant to tease me.”

“I know, that’s why I want to create a whole new meaning for that.”

“What’s it supposed to be now?”

Donghae turns to face his boyfriend, taking both his sweater paws and holds them dearly, he makes sure they’re looking each other in the eyes. “You’re my moon, your love outshines even the brightest of stars.”

“God you did not just say that in front of your viewers.” Hyukjae wretches his hands from the sappy man in front of him, his entire face turning a permanent color of red. He’s starting to have cold sweat, he just knows when Donghae has started a sappy streak there’s just no stopping him. Even himself. So before he could even continue with “There’s more!—”, Hyukjae is already lunging towards his boyfriend, plastering both his hands on his mouth to at least muffle anything that threatens to come out.

“Please no more—” he takes a quick glance at the monitor, as if the people on the chat box could help him, but unfortunately Donghae takes this moment to pry Hyukjae’s hands from his mouth and swiftly pulls his boyfriend towards him just so he could plant a loud smooch on his awaiting cheek. “I know you have your imperfections but it doesn’t take away the ethereal beauty you innately have. All the more reason to just sit and stare at you for as long as you allow me—”

“GUYS as you can see, I’ve broken him.” Hyukjae takes the matter into his hands and grabs the nearest thing he could get his hands on, which is the stuffed Nemo doll Donghae keeps on his computer desk, and smacks him right on his face making a loud thud that kind of makes him worried. Kind of. “I’ll end the stream for him tonight, it was really fun playing and streaming with you guys. I know this has scarred you for life, feel free to unsubscribe from this guys channel. Please please please forget everything you heard and saw on this live, I beg you.” He says this all the while pushing Donghae’s chair away from the monitor, away from further causing any damage, the latter choosing to go with it and glides his chair further away from the computer set up whilst saying nooooooo in decreasing volume as if there really is a great distance between them. Hyukjae’s monotonous persona breaks and he lets out a snort followed by a few peals of laughter but quickly recovers when he sees the endless cooing messages on the chat.

“Please also forget about this channel, I don’t know what will happen to the handler after I turn this stream off but rest assured he will be reprimanded with the worst possible punishment just so he doesn’t do this again in the future if and when I allow him to. Thank you guys, the old and new subscribers and viewers alike! This is the last time you’ll be seeing my face on this earth before our friends and family come for our necks for being disgusting.” Hyukjae ends the live with wide waves of his sweater paws towards the camera, but before he could fully close the stream the viewers see Donghae coming in hot towards his boyfriend, enveloping him in a bear hug eliciting merry laughter from both males. Their gummy smiles and crinkling eyes are the last thing on frame before the screen goes black and suggestions of ongoing streams line across the screen. 

------------------

*Valorant - is a free-to-play first-person tactical shooter video game being developed and published by Riot Games

Jett - one of the most picked agents in valorant, she can jump and dash her way to the highest of crates or boxes which makes it even harder to outrun or outfire her.

Sage - healer of the team, the only agent that can heal herself and her team as well as revive fallen teammates

Spike rush - it’s a fast-paced plant/defuse gamemode where everyone is equipped the same guns per round 

Deathmatch - gamemode wherein you’re queued with 14 other players equipped with the gun of your choice, highest kill number wins

Unrated - normal gamemode in valorant where you can play casually without damaging your current rank but practice on your skills and reflexes

Nt - nice try

Operator - it’s the most expensive weapon in the game (5,000 credits) but it has the highest damage per bullet out of all the weapons in valorant, it’s basically a military grade sniper

wall orb/barrier orb - sage’s ability to create a wall of ice once per round

slow orb - sages’s ability where she can throw a ball of ice anywhere and it can slow the enemies down, as well as your teammates when you walk across it

If you guys have reached this note, I'll go ahead and say thank you for taking the time to read this ^^ I'd like to consider this an early Christmas gift to myself for finishing the first of the many final exams I have this week (ಥ_ʖಥ)（￣□￣；）2020 has definitely been such a monster of a year but I hope you guys are ending it on a good note so that when you look back at this year, you would have something to smile about! (-ω-ゞ Until the next story!