| Minji |

Working with Seoul Tech proved to be rather easy, as they instantly agreed to the match. Their student representatives explained to her that their school had already done several Esports tournaments before. 

The second part was getting the Chungdam team together based on the roster Seungwon sunbae had given her. A task that at first proved not too difficult either, approaching the candidates seemed almost too easy.

She knew, she knew that the moment she brought her hands in front of her, widened her eyes and purposely lowered her posture to stare up at them with a pout... it was game over. Excuse her gaming pun. 

They weren't listening to her, they were more stunned that she was talking with them. 

She checked off three of the players with ease, gathering confirmations from all of those... except one. A 3rd year named Lee Dohyun, and he was starting to get on her nerves 

Minji had systematically searched through every 3rd year classroom after school, and couldn't find him. She asked guys and girls among all the various 3rd year cliques, not a single person having any clue about him. 

The only response when asked if they knew him was: "Yeah I see him in class sometimes" or "he doesn't really talk to anyone."

This guy wasn't even your run-of-the-mill outcast— at least they usually banded together to form their own clique—he was just a loner. 

It got to the point she had to consult a teacher to make sure that she was correct that he was indeed a student attending Chungdam High.

Finally, through a last resort method, she stalked his Instagram account. The kind of instagram that was so dull, it might've been fake. 10 follows, 8 of them celebrities, and if she didn't see that one of his 5 followers was an alumni of their school, she might've given up. 

She sent him several messages and waited. 

No response. 

Not even read. 

Nothing. 

An entire week had passed when she finally received a message from someone allegedly in the same classroom. It was already after school hours, so she wasn't hopeful, as he seemed to miraculously disappear from the classroom the moment class ended.

「

 Class 3-B Kim Hoojun sunbae-nim  

| { Hi Minji-ssi, Lee Dohyun came back to the classroom to grab something ] 

| { you might catch him if you hurry, before he leaves ]

 o 

」

Determined to catch her ghost-like prey, she didn't even say a word as she darted out the student council room, bounding up the stairs towards the 3rd floor. 

Many of the lights were already turned off, as it was not yet time for 3rd years to hamper down and attend self-study for the CSat yet. Most just left for their independent academies or were out enjoying their last few months of freedom.

She sprinted past empty classroom after classroom before noticing the faint silhouette of a shadow moving out of a classroom and down the hallway—away from her.

"Neo (You)!" She called forsaking any formalities. 

The mysterious figure stopped, from behind she finally got a better look at him. Even his silhouette seemed so indistinguishable, average shoulders, a skinny but not anorexic build, his height maybe 178 cm—if she was being generous.

This was the person Seongwon Sunbae was set on recruiting to his event?

Slowly turning around she noticed it, he looked strangely familiar. Then again, maybe because he looked the epitome of decent. The kind of boy, who with a sense of humor and kind personality could actually be pretty popular. 

To Minji, he seemed too normal-looking to be an obsessed gamer.

"You..." Minji repeated, startled to finally meet the man she had come to consider her nemesis.

"Can I help you?" He spoke politely, but anyone could see the annoyance in his expression.

Part of her was taken aback by his nonchalant attitude, for someone with no friends he seemed completely unfazed talking to her.

What kind of person had the nerve to ghost her? 

She had even reached out with her own instagram handle. She couldn't even count the amount of DMs she chose to ignore on a weekly or even daily basis. 

And he had their nerve too. Stay calm. Be the better person. "I'm Song Minji, I'm from the student—" 

"I know who you are." He rudely interrupted, as if oblivious to his wrong doing. 

This learning only confused her more. If he knew who she was, why didn't he respond to her?

"Is this your instagram?" She decided to test a theory. Taking out her phone she pulled up the profile she had DM-ed. 

He glanced it over before sighing. "Unfortunately, yes." 

"Then did you see my message?"

He shook his head. "I don't use my account often, mostly my sister uses it to stalk celebrities." 

The oblivious attitude made her question whether he was telling the truth, was he really this laid back? 

This guy should've been on his knees apologizing profusely for not responding and forcing her to chase him down. 

"Well, the thing is for this year's Spring festival we're hosting a student gaming event and you were selected to represent our school." She repeated her carefully crafted introduction/invitation. 

He lowered his chin slightly, his small but strangely fascinating eyes gazing directly towards her. 

The boy was barely 10 cm taller, and yet strangely cast a shadow over her.

Minji interacted on a daily basis with guys much taller than him. However, there was something about the way he didn't concede his height in the slightest to try to speak at her level like most.

"I'm not interested sorry." He promptly responded before turning to leave.

Minji was so staggered, she didn't know how to react. Here was a boy, who probably gamed every day, otherwise why else was he so unknown. And he had the audacity to turn her down without even giving it a second thought? 

She had barely accepted to help with this event out of sympathy for the forgotten as Seongwon called them. 

She almost pitied the excitement that flashed in the eyes of the boys as they volunteered excitedly. Neither did she understand why there was any selectivity in the first place, games were games. What did it matter if one was better than the other? It wasn't real life. 

Yet here was this guy; with no interest other than gaming, blatantly refusing to be in the only event that would ever allow his to bring glory to the school much less make him noticeable to his peers.

Without thinking she reached out and grabbed his wrist Kdrama style, yanking him back to face her. 

"Ya! I wasn't finished talking."

The boy narrowed his umber brown orbs, a chill befalling her spine as they locked gazes.

"One. It's extremely rude for you to walk away when I'm still talking. Two. I can't help but feel like you're belittling the work of the Student council to actually make an inclusive event to give a chance for people be like you to be involved in school events." She lectured him, the barriers she placed to uphold her golden reputation dissolving in his presence.  

She wasn't sure what had snapped inside her, but she resented this guy.

The boy scoffed in front of her, an act so disrespectful she found her hands curling into fists. The second her finger nails dug into her palm, she flinched, had she ever been so frustrated before? 

"People like you? Care to expand on that?" His words caught her off guard as she realized how out of sorts she had become. 

"You know what I mean, I don't mean it like—"

"—And I'm pretty sure you're a first year. Which confuses me why you're saying words like Neo (You) and Ya (Hey). Pretty sure I didn't give you permission to lower honorifics, or is it only ok for people like me?" He spoke over her again, cutting her off mid sentence. 

Minji clenched her teeth as she began to seethe in frustration and guilt all at once. Who the hell was he to talk to her like this? But more importantly, why couldn't she seem to refute anything he was saying? 

"I... I... I." She didn't want to say it, NO; she despised the idea of apologizing to this jerk. 

"You ignored my messages and made me spend a whole week trying to track you down just to turn me down without any explanation at all. I think that level of rudeness constitutes me to speak down." It was a shaky defense at best, but there was no way in hell she could back down now.

"Let me ask you this, do you really care about this event?" 

For the first time, she felt like she was the one being interrogated. 

"Yes, that's why I'm in charge of organizing it."

"What game is being played?" He probed.

Minji contracted her eyes, what was he trying to do? Was he attempting to