| Minji |

The summer sun shone brightly through the window, a window that had been intentionally cracked open for a gentle breeze to fumigate through.  

Warm rays glinted off the white porcelain mugs they had in front of them, luminescing them as if they radiated energy. 

All signs of a blissful summer cafe date. 

With May turned to June, summer break had finally settled in and no school meant more free time. More free time meant more rigorous training at her agency. 

Still, even four days living in the SM dorm, also provided three enjoyable days to herself.  

These three days would often turn into dates with Hanni, Jihan, Haerin and now Danielle. 

But today she spent in and around the Hongdae neighborhood with Hyelin. 

It all started when Dohyun had invited her to attend one of his games, and Minji asked whether his sister would be free to hangout prior. After all, though the professional gamer had very little time to spend with her, now that school was over, his adorable little sister did. 

And knowing how much she idolized her, Minji couldn't help but want to spoil her fan. So Hongdae it was. 

For those unaware of Seoul topography, Hongdae—short for Hongik Daehak (university)— was an urban neighborhood known for its art markets, indie music, mall shops and clubs all catered for nearby university students. 

Emphasis on university students. 

Which made it all the more embarrassing how much attention a 4th grader and a high schooler garnered while window shopping along the famous art market.

More than a few times, she had been approached by college students asking for her number. 

A sight very much amusing the younger Hyelin. One slick fellow had even gone so far as to ask Hyelin whether her "pretty unnie" was single or not. 

While Minji struggled to find excuses to turn them all down, Hyelin began to innocently rank them in terms of mannerisms and appearances. 

They had ended up retreating to a cafe to avoid the non-stop cycle of overly courageous young men. 

"So how's your summer break going? Excited to not have any homework?" 

Hyelin nodded, flashing an adorable teethy smile as she did. "More than that, I don't have my annoying oppa pressuring me to do my homework all the time." 

Minji giggled, often forgetting how studious her boyfriend was despite his talent in video games.

"Did he bother you a lot about that?" 

"Even when he moved into the gaming house, he kept calling omma to remind me to do my homework." Hyelin whined with her lips pursed. 

"I swear if he does that to unnie too..." 

She nodded her head in agreement. "Dohyun sunbae is like that to you too? He's always scolding me too about finishing my homework on our calls at night."

For some reason, despite her close connection to Hyelin, calling him anything other than a formal title felt strange to her. He was Hyelin's oppa, to Minji he was... well, technically oppa too. 

His sister frowned as she stared in confusion at her. 

"Unnie, I still don't understand why you and my oppa are dating. Just now, so many handsome university oppa's came to talk to you, number 5 was definitely better looking than Dohyun oppa and number 3 with the denim jacket was way taller." 

She was about to respond genuinely, confessing her appreciation for his selflessness and the respect he treated her with. However, Hyelin didn't seem to be looking for an explanation. 

"I mean, since I was young I always admired and wanted to be just like you. But if I were as pretty and talented as you I'd definitely not date someone like my oppa." 

Minji chuckled before cracking a joke. "Should I break up with him then?" 

Hyelin nodded her head at first before slowly pausing. "Only if you promise you'll still be nice to me, even if you two break up." 

In response, Minji reached over and began to wipe off the leftover cream from Hyelin's chocolate shake that had formed around the little girl's lips. 

"Aigoo, of course Hyelin-ie. I'm nice to you because you're my number one fan, no other reason." She expressed her own appreciation towards the young fan. 

It was interesting, the more she thought about it, how Seulgi unnie had practically predicted such an outcome back then. 

"Excuse me." 

Hyelin's eyes widened at the entrance of yet another college student. 

He wore a white button down shirt, with nicely parted hair and stud piercings. 

"I swear I'm not a weird person..." 

Was there a textbook that instructed them that this must be their opening line? 

How was she supposed to know if he was weird or not? 

"But I couldn't help but notice you from outside, and I don't usually do this, but... do you think I could get your number?" He slowly unveiled his phone, a little too smoothly from his pocket. 

So much for "I don't usually do this", he looked as if he had already done this to several girls today? 

"Sorry, I'm already married and this is my daughter over here." Minji spoke a blatant lie to signal her disinterest. 

"Omma, who's this weird person and when is appa coming back?" Hyelin played along as both attempted to suppress their laughter. 

"Ahhh, really? You're very young looking for your age then. Excuse me." The student seemed completely distraught as he retreated from and returned to his two friends outside the cafe. 

They could only hold it for a few seconds, when Hyelin began to loud. 

"Unnie is so mean. That oppa seemed nice too." 

"Thanks for playing along my daughter." Minji imitated a very ahjumma voice that was not too much unlike her own mother. 

"Shall we go back to walking around? I know we came here to escape the namja's (men), but I think we can't escape them wherever we go." She offered. 

"Unnie before we leave, let me take a picture for you, unnie is so pretty in this outfit." Hyelin, like her brother was pretty perceptive when it came to her ambitions. 

Now that she thought about it, perhaps it was her outfit that gave off very college student vibes, leading so many to assume her to be in university. 

"Ooooh, right here. Pose in front of the door." Hyelin instructed as if she was some photoshoot expert. 

Minji handed the literal elementary photographer her phone, before following her instruction. 

"One, two, three. Pretty! Really pretty! My oppa is so lucky." She could hear the series of shuttering sounds coming from her phone. 

After so many photoshoots, she wasn't embarrassed at all to be posing in public like this. 

However, hearing Hyelin mention Dohyun, did make her feel her cheeks grow warm. 

It was only her second time attending an esports match, and her first time watching him live. Did she look ok? She had put much more effort into dressing up for this match than her first, but she couldn't help but feel self conscious. 

Hyelin was giggling as she passed her back her phone. Did she look weird? 

"How is it?" She wondered towards the girl. 

"Look, I did pretty well didn't I? My friends at school say I should take up photography."

Minji couldn't lie, it was pretty well taken. Once again, the Lee family hidden talents seemed to be endless. 

Between exploring vendors, watching street performers and talking about Hyelin's hobbies, time flew by. Before they knew it, the afternoon had flown by and it was already 6:30.

Following her lead, the two took the bus to the nearby Mapo-gu Esports venue, a very deja-vu experience for her. 

Even though there were technically two matches today, the Telecom War as had been dubbed, was the 2nd match and prime game of the day.

For good reason too, it was the two top teams facing off, KT Rolster currently at first in the standings with a match score of 7-1 and SKT behind by a single game at 7-2. 

As soon as they stepped off the bus across from the familiar broadcasting station, she realized it was a good thing they had gotten here early. 

Outside the building was a hoard of fans, all dressed in the two team's colors. 

"Wow, I've never seen this many people here before." Hyelin commented in shock. "The last time I was here for oppa's game there weren't half this many fans." 

"It's a good thing we have special tickets." Minji beckoned to the two tickets she had on her phone from Dohyun.

With these, the two girls were able to bypass the long line of loud fans and enter the building. 

Before entering into the actual stadium, Hyelin pointed towards a large table set out manned by several studio employees with 9 or 10 fans all leaned over it.

From afar, they appeared to be decorating something.

The two scurried over to find out what it was, and noticed that they were handing out poster boards with a blank space in the center to write a message on to cheer on your favorite player and team. She grinned remembering how she used to do the same to cheer on Shinee when she was younger. 

"Are you here... for the LoL match?" An almost surprised voice chimed in from one of the female workers at the desk.

Minji grinned sheepishly before nodding. 

"I knew it, sorry if this sounds weird. But when you two first entered, this unnie said there's no way you were here for the match." 

There was a second of silence, as Minji wondered if perhaps she had overdressed for the event. 

"My unnie is just here because I forced her to come. I'm a big fan of Faker seonsu*." Hyelin interrupted, her quick wit clearly a trait that was shared in the Lee siblings. 

*seonsu is the term to address an athlete

The attendant passed her an SK Telecom sign, which caused Minji almost to snap, wondering whether this was part of her cover, or just her way of teasing her bother. 

"How about for you?" The worker refocused on her. 

All this time, she had been keenly searching for the KT logo ones with her boyfriend's name on it, and the young woman seemed to notice it. 

"Are you looking for KT's Avatar by any chance?"

"Avatar-seonsu. Is that the handsome one, you showed me earlier?" She found herself squeaking out in Hyelin's direction, pretending to be completely lost to the actual player's name. 

"Yeah, most of them are already gone, but you're in luck I saved a couple in the back, I'll go get one for you." 

"Thank you." She mumbled, as she felt Hyelin's pointer finger dig into her side.

"The handsome one?" The little girl whispered in a mocking voice. 

Minji began to playfully ruffle the girls hair, to get her revenge, as Hyelin darted backwards to avoid her. 

"You're a great unnie to accompany your little sister to a gaming event." The kind young woman returned with the poster, with the KT Logo and a small profile pic of Avatar on it. 

"Thanks." Minji lied, as she began to write her message in sharpie: 'KT Avatar Fighting!'

"He's so cool in game and handsome out of it, you picked a good player to start being a fan of." 

Minji looked up and noticed the small KT pendant that the girl had on a standard employee uniform, signaling that the girl had her own cheering interest outside of her work.

"Let's go unnie, this match looks like it's ending." Hyelin called for her, tugging at her arm. 

Like the first time d had come, they were met with a suspicious expression from the ticket collector, but after scanning the special ticket, he quickly ushered them in. 

It was just like before, except that the venue was currently emptying out as one team looked like they had just finished celebrating their win. 

Not wanting her or Hyelin to have to bear through the onslaught of KT and SKT fans that would undoubtedly rush in as soon as the next match started, Minji hurriedly starting searching for their seats. 

This time she noticed, the two had taken upper deck seats, still front seats with optimal viewing of the large screen. However, it also awarded slightly more privacy to the viewers, as she wondered if that was intentional on his end. 

The other advantage was the overhead view of the audience, the enormous grouping of other high schoolers, especially girls. 

There were so many of them, many dressed in the colors of KT Rolster. Even from behind she could see the most had large glowing sign boards with messages to players or encouragement for their favorite team.  

It was just like the last time she was here, except instead of mostly Faker, the female crowd was clearly supporting a different player— her player. 

The cardboard cutouts and carefully decorated signs made her quickly feel insecure about her seemingly thoughtless sign. 

Perhaps she should've made one at home, would he be disappointed by this?

"Don't worry, oppa doesn't like big signs like that. I'm sure your face is enough encouragement." Hyelin whispered practically reading her mind. 

Minji couldn't stop herself from blushing at the final part of the little girl's comment. 

 

. .

「

My Minji

[ did you make it ok? } |

[ everything ok with the tickets? } |

| { we're here ]

| { everything was fine with the tickets ]

| { Avatar-seonsu fighting! ]

| { ( imaged attached ) ]

| { Hyelin and I with our posters ]

[ the girl on the left is pretty cute } |

[ do you think she's single? } |

| { just focus on your game oppa ]

| { if you don't win it'll be a waste of my precious vacation days ]

o