| Dohyun |

"Avatar?" Dohyun gazed blankly at the coach, dumbfounded by the sudden nickname. 

"You boost so many different accounts that it's damn near impossible to find information about you. Thus you've being dubbed as 'Avatar', as we are only able to identify you through your skills on the rift." Ssong divulged. 

Dohyun knew very well that potential pros could be blacklisted for boosting, however; he also knew that he was very discreet about his boosting service. 

It wouldn't have been easy to track him down, especially since he left little to no trace. He never met his clients in-person, and always used an anonymous transfer account.

"Because of your lack of challenger presence we almost wouldn't have found you. Except one of our players was playing on his cousin's Diamond account and came across what he considered the best Tristana (LoL champion) he's ever seen." 

"It didn't take much for us to figure out that it was a booster playing, when a day later this same 15 win-streak AD Carry main started feeding 5 games in a row at mid." The coach explained matter-of-factly. 

(Feeding means playing very terribly)

"Funny enough though, you seem to leave your own mark on each of your boosted accounts. You always buy mobi-boots, no matter which champion you're playing. It's like you wanted to give yourself a little handicap. A little mark that we quickly traced to 10 different accounts across high Masters."

(Mobi/Mobility boots are an in-game item in LoL that is not widely used)

It was true, because of his utilization of the game as a means of making money, he had never had his own true account to call his own. 

Instead, he used a special in-game item as a way to unconsciously mark his presence. Not much unlike the kind of calling card that serial killers used. Not that he was one.

"That doesn't explain how I received a note from you at my work with your phone number." Dohyun raised with fascination, slightly curious where in his pretty meticulous process he had gone wrong. 

"We pulled a few strings in the Riot Games Korea office and got the IP addresses logins for all of those accounts that we tagged. Very smart, you used different PCs for each one."

(Riot Games, is the gaming company that owns League of Legends)

This was another part of his reason for working at a PC bang, he could easily swap computers for every account he boosted. So how? 

"Except that we noticed that they all connected to the same network. Tracking down the location given your router IP wasn't easy, but we were able to trace it to a single location—"

"The Happy Gamer." Dohyun answered now realizing how they had tracked him down. 

"Of course we sent a scout there and it didn't take him long to overhear tales about the mysterious part-timer whose screen never seemed to be grey when he played." 

(When you die in League of Legends, your screen turns grey)

"Impressive. I guess you have leverage now, seeing that you could report me for boosting and force me to join your team or even blacklist me from the pro scene." He wisely reasoned, wondering what the coach was implying, now that he held this kind of information.

"I'm flattered that you would think I'm that cunning. But no, I won't force you to join. In fact at the moment it's unlikely we can even offer you a spot without seeing you scrim with our academy roster. You're known for never typing in chat, and communicating very little in your games, which will never fly in pro-play." The coach clarified, simultaneously humbling Dohyun as well. 

"But seeing you in person, and watching your vods. Call me impulsive, but I have no doubt you could be one of the greatest this game has ever seen. It would be a shame if you never even attempted it, just to earn a little petty cash." 

Dohyun was slightly stunned, what did he mean by that?

While he barely loss in low ranks, that was because he wasn't consistently in the Challenger Ranks, he had no idea how his mechanics stacked up against the very best in the world. 

"What I can do is offer you a chance to join our academy roster, that way you can still attend school. Just judging by your hesitancy, there seems to be something keeping you there." 

(Academy team is the JV team or B team in E-sports)

"Scrim with that roster, we'll provide you with an account. If you can reach to the top 10 in challenger, then we'll have more legitimacy to start considering you for the next year."

It was a lot to take in. 

"I... I—"

"—I can see you're pretty skeptical. I'm sure you have doubts, but I can assure you a starting spot on our roster will lead to many opportunities. Just look at the Exodus. Several players on previous years top rosters were offered over 500 million won a year to play." The coach seemed to read his doubt. 

The Korean Exodus a landmark event that would go down in E-sports history. After dominating the 2014 World Championships, several players from the top teams in Korea were all poached from their original teams with high salaries in China leaving a large talent gap behind in the Korean pro scene. 

"Just something to think about." Ssong finished.

"You're right. I made a promise to my family that I'd graduate high school and get accepted into college, but I'd be happy to consider your offer for the Academy team." Dohyun settled on. 

"Good, that's all I ask. Here's my business card, feel free to reach out to me if you need anything." 

The two shook hands, before the coach beckoned towards the exit. 

It took him a second, to realize what he was signaling at. 

Her. Oh my god, he had completely forgotten.

Dohyun rushed out of the arena realizing how long he had been inside. Feeling guilty that he had forced her to come and then made her wait for almost another 30 minutes. 

Glancing at an analog clock overhead, it was already 11 pm.

His eyes darted around him—he breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted her.

She was sitting on a bench outside the arena. The ticket booth had already closed and the entire building had cleared out, however what few lights remained seemed to shine solely on her. 

Like a spotlight. 

Now that he was less than a meter away, he couldn't help but admire her. 

Even with her usually doe-like eyes folded, she had stunning features that only further complimented an already tiny face and v-shaped jaw. 

Honestly, Dohyun didn't have any other answer to describe her besides: the perfect depiction of Korea's totally unrealistic beauty standards. 

Perhaps that was the best single word description... unrealistic. 

Everything about her, especially her aura seemed so otherworldly, the radiated glow that could be noticed even from a distance. 

It almost seemed a waste that she wasn't already a celebrity. 

"Hey, you awake?" He gently tapped her on the shoulder.

Minji's eyes spread open as she noticed him standing in front of her. 

"What took you so long?" She grumbled, before taking the hand he had offered to help her up.

"We were just talking about some boring stuff. Anyways, I'll take you home." 

"I have to go to my dorm. We're taking a taxi. I'm paying, and that's not negotiable." Minji demanded with a weary expression. 

"Fine, fine. We'll take a taxi princess." Dohyun chuckled at her clearly nonnegotiable terms. 

Happy to concede to her every request after keeping her for so long. 

They exited out into the dark street, Dohyun was about to head towards the curb to hail a taxi. 

"I already called one pabo..." She murmured waiving her phone for him to see. 

"-yo." She chimed at the end to keep honorifics in front of him, despite just calling him an idiot. "Anyways, enter in your address."

"It's ok, I'll take a bus from there, I can see there's one not too far from that address." He pointed to her address she had already entered into the app.

"Suit yourself." Minji grumbled, not in a very pleasant mood. 

When they got inside to the car, Dohyun quickly scooted to the very end, leaving a seat in between them. He figured they'd ride in silence, he'd apologize after they dropped her off in front of the apartment complex and they'd part ways.

"So, are you going to join the team? KT." 

To his surprise it was her who broke the silence.

"Probably not. But I guess I'll consider it more now." He responded.

"Why don't you?" Once again she questioned him in a surprisingly direct manner. 

"I have a lot of other stuff to worry about. Also my mother wants me to attend college." Dohyun sighed. 

"I mean no offense, but don't you think pro-gaming might be a more reasonable option? You don't exactly come off as the most academic person." She managed to conceal a snide remark into her question.

Dohyun scoffed as he narrowed his eyes on her. "I guess you didn't know. You're speaking to the 11th ranked student in my year." 

He never boasted his academic achievements, not wanting to be a part of the toxic academic environment that their school harbored with their ranking system. But the words just came out. 

"What?" She looked appalled by this information. 

"If it wasn't for Korean History and Literature, I'd be higher."

Minji frowned as she turned away back towards her window, clearly unsure how to respond to this information. 

"Yeah, well, still, don't you like gaming? Isn't being a pro-gamer your dream?" She inquired, her tone completely different from before. 

Like she was genuinely interested by his life. 

"I've never really thought about it, but just because it's my dream, it doesn't mean I can just do as I wish." He found himself answering from his own thoughts. "I have my mother and sister to think about."

"Can't you make money as a pro-gamer?" 

"Most don't make much, besides the dedication required would mean I'd have to drop out right now and practice to make their roster. Even then, there's no guarantee