| Minji |

After that day, they surprisingly became strangers to the point she felt slightly offended. It had taken her quite a lot to lower her pride and write that message to thank him. 

While planning, Minji asked him a few questions over Kakaotalk about how to best organize the desktops. 

How pro-players kept from cheating, and how to set-up a spectator environment so that the average viewer could watch from a similar perspective to the kind when she watched the pro-game. 

They passed each other once in the hallway, but she was preoccupied with some friends and before she could even bow her head to greet a sunbae as she did with most— Lee Dohyun lowered his head and floated past her like a ghost. 

A chill ran down her spine, as she wondered how someone's presence could be so completely devoid of life. However this interaction made her realize that they both seemed equally content being complete and total strangers at school.

Two weeks later, Minji stood wearily across from the stage, mentally fatigued after spending this entire week committed to finishing this. 

The logistics of the event had turned out to be even more difficult than anticipated: setting up the large projector to project the game, finding student sport commentators who knew about League of Legends (she had finally learned the true name), and actually getting the PC's installed. 

Converting the school auditorium into the planned venue was now in its 4th hour, as Minji glanced at her phone. It was already 8 o'clock now. Holy shxt.

Thank the stars, she had gotten the help of several geeky boys to help with transporting the computer lab desktops and resetting them up. As well as received generous contributions from several of her friends to help setup the auditorium chairs. 

You'd think that'd be enough, but connecting everything to the wireless system, making sure the game ran smoothly, and testing the audio system proved to be its own endeavor.

It was both physically and mentally exhausting as they requested the computer teacher plus the maintenance staff's help multiple times in a short span.

Just when fainting seemed a more viable option compared to standing, she felt a gentle pat on the top of her scalp. 

The long but slender fingers that ruffled her hair were clearly that of Jeong Seongwon. She had assumed he would've gone to his academy by now, but he had clearly stayed behind.

"Looking good." Part of her wished he was speaking about her. But as usual his words were intentionally vague to be misinterpreted by its listener. 

She turned her head and felt refreshed just seeing his side profile. 

"Sunbae!" Minji stammered backwards to fix her hair.

"Sorry, but I'm serious this looks great." The amazement in his eyes was enough. 

She spotted it then, in his other hand was a large bag full of different brightly colored soft drinks.

"Here." He set down the bag, and reached for a blue energy drink, which he uncapped for her like a true gentleman. Unlike certain people she knew. 

"Thank you sunbae." She expressed as she began frantically gulping down out of dehydration. 

Seeing that she was preoccupied, the dashing student rep took the bag and began passing them out to all those working. 

"Thank you for all of your hard work!" 

This was why he had such a perfect reputation among students. No matter what it was, he was always interacting with people, making them feel appreciated, and just showcasing great character. If nothing more, she envied that about him. 

Unlike her, he never seemed to act like he was above any situation. 

"Thank you for all of your hard work." He was bowing his head politely to the older maintenance workers who had received drinks. 

She wondered if she would be like that by her 3rd year. 

Having handed out the last of the beverages, he returned to her. 

"Anything I can do to help?" 

"I think we're ok. Thanks Seungwon sunbae."

"Of course, I'm looking forward to tomorrow." He announced, before scratching his nape. 

"Are you going to be ok though? I know you were going to participate in the talent show too, did you have time to prepare something?" 

Minji decided to take the opportunity to boast a little to her crush. "Sunbae, I'm a trainee. I always have choreography memorized, and pretty much practice songs every weekend until I want to die." 

He flashed a goofy smirk, as he slowly nodded. "My bad for underestimating you, I'll be looking forward to it then." 

"How about you sunbae? Are you going to be ok playing in this event after playing in the soccer match versus Seoul Tech?" 

"Of course, I could beat them in my sleep." Because he was always so put-together it was easy to forget he too was a competitor by nature. 

She heard that ever since joining their school, Chungdam remained undefeated when playing against the neighboring high schools, to the point that some coaches complained that it was unfair that such a talent was playing against amateurs. 

She couldn't lie, even though she wasn't organizing it, she was excited to watch him finally play outside of lunch time scrimmages or observing his practices after school. 

Seongwon sighed before glancing at the leather strapped Rolex on his wrist. "Sorry, I really do have to get to my Academy. But Kakao me if you have anything you need for tomorrow." 

"I think we've got it handled Sunbae, don't worry. Thanks for coming." 

"I know you do, I'm just scared you're doing your job too well. You might replace me before I even graduate." He teased, with his usual iconic smile.

"I'm starting to regret approaching you about joining the student council. You're really overshadowing my efforts now." 

There was something about his friendly yet teasing nature that made him appear within your grasp, when he was actually miles away from it.

Sure, some might call it manipulative, but the type of hope his attention gave, just made you want to keep on going. To keep trying to improve yourself in hopes that one day, that flirtatious smirk would amount to more than friendship. 

"Leave. Sunbae." She ushered him out in embarrassment at his praise, as he finally exited the auditorium, leaving her alone with a few of the remaining helpers. 

Seeing that things were really starting to shape up, a thought popped into her head. She reached into her cardigan pocket for her cell phone and tapped the camera application. 

Snapping a picture of the reengineered auditorium, she forwarded it over to him. 

「

Avatar Sunbae-nim

[ Avatar-ssi } |

[ ( photo attached ) } |

[ Pretty good right? } |

o

」

She frowned as the message was read within a few minutes, but no response came. 

Sure, he was working right now, but couldn't he at least say something? 

After all, she had worked so hard on making this event perfect because of his influence. 

Feeling her irritation grow, she decided to busy herself with the set-up. Helping the last remaining tech crew plug in the loaned gaming keyboards and mice, and ensuring they were all working smoothly. 

He had explained to her that mouse sensitivity was extremely important for gamers, as optimizing speed that your cursor could move from one side to another was key for dodging opponent skills. 

However, this brought up the subject of him again, and his lack of response. Was his phone broken or something? 

So what if he didn't affirm anything? She felt her own pride in her work. Who needed a potential pro-gamers approval?

"Thanks Minji-ssi." Kim Dohoon, a friendly 2nd year with circle rimmed glasses snapped her from her thoughts, as he climbed off the stage after finishing downloading different programs. 

"Huh? I should be thanking you Dohoon sunbae, and also you Changseok sunbae. Thank you both for your help." She smiled gratefully towards the last two remaining helpers. 

Neither were even going to be on stage playing, but had volunteered excitedly at the opportunity to help set-up. 

One she had begged into accepting a commentator position, however only because she felt so terrible they couldn't be more involved in the actual event. 

"No, thank you. To be honest for a lot of us, we never really looked forward to the Spring festival. But now there's an event that I'm really excited to spectate. I just know it'll be good." Changseok expressed his excitement. 

"Of course it'll be good, once we heard Dohyun is playing, everyone is stoked." Dohoon added. 

"Dohyun? Like Lee Dohyun the third year?" She figured even though he accepted it, given his personality, he'd keep a low profile. 

"Yeah! Don't you know, he recently shot up on the Challenger leaderboard? He's one of the fastest to reach top 10 from Masters. He's even on KT's Academy roster given his gamertag—ooooph." 

Changseok only stopped gushing praises because he had been elbowed by the other.

"What he's trying to say is, one of the third years you asked to play on the team could potentially become a professional player on one of the best Esports teams in Korea." Dohoon explained in layman's terms, unaware that Minji knew much more than she was letting on.

"Ahh, I see. Yeah, I don't really remember him specficially, but I'm glad they'll be someone to watch for." She smiled in response. "Hopefully a lot of people will watch." 

"I heard from a friend at Seoul Tech, that their team is practicing like crazy because they heard that a pro player is participating." Changseok chimed in.

She knew Dohyun wasn't the type to go around boasting his achievements. Which made her wonder why his name was starting to be heard now?

"Anyways, we'll be heading out. Bye Minji-ssi." 

The two boys bid farewell, leaving the auditorium completely barren besides her. 

Her hands darted to her phone as she noticed her phone vibrate and felt a mix of emotions. 

It was Jeong Seongwon. Not exactly who she was expecting to text her back. 

But it wasn't like she was disappointed. 

Minji hovered her thumb over the notification, before deciding to check it later. 

She was crossing the stage to grab her bag when the door reopened barely a minute later. Was this why he had texted her—"Did you forget something?"

No response, she spun around— it wasn't either of them, it wasn't Seongwon sunbae, nor was it any of the maintenance people. 

Standing in the gymnasium, a goofy grin plastered across his face, Lee Dohyun. 

Minji scoffed at his dramatic entrance, wondering if he really thought she would be touched by his surprise. "Did you get fired? Why are you here?" 

"I'm on break, so I decided, why not use it to check out the coolest place in the school." 

She couldn't tell if he was just being cynical, but regardless; she did appreciate him showing up.

"Anyways are you hungry?" He lifted his left hand showcasing a small plastic bag with what she hoped to be food inside.

"What did you bring that over from prison?" She couldn't help but tease his usual terrible fashion choice of an orange-ish/red button down. 

"Try it first then criticize me." He smirked before they both relocated to the edge of the redone stage, their legs dangling from it. 

Minji gazed suspiciously at the hastily aluminum foil wrapped kimbap as she received it, before taking a large bite.

The second, she bit in... she felt an explosion of flavor, as she bit into what appeared to be an entire traditional Korean meal wrapped into the seaweed roll. It was a strangely delicious combination. 

"Wow! This is so good, where'd you buy it from? Also where do they even sell Kimbap this late?" She figured most snack places would've closed by now, with the after school crowd dying down