The Red Team was just like High School 13’s esports team in the sense that they were a group of friends who played the game together. But the similarities didn’t stop there. They also had a strong Mid-Jungle pair. The Ahri and Evelynn were the players usually carrying the team to a win. Just last game they went Legendary and the game before that they were Unstoppable! They’d been on a winning streak, rising up the ranks, until this game. This game was different. There was no settling in here. There was no scaling to a point where they could comfortably fight. They were getting crushed. Ahri was losing badly to the Yasuo in mid lane, while in the Jungle… From the first minute of the game, the Lee Sin seemed to know exactly where the Evelynn was and where she was going, even when she didn’t know it herself. And he was there, waiting for her and then killing her.

The Ahri was fortunate that she could huddle near her outer tower and soak up some experience from the minions that died in lane. But the Evelynn wasn’t so fortunate. She needed to kill the Jungle monsters to get experience. To do that, she had to go into the Jungle where the Lee Sin was waiting for her. No matter from what side she entered the jungle, he was always right there. The Evelynn was lost. She didn’t know what to do. So she hovered around her jungle, searching desperately for a hint of Lee Sin before ever so carefully threading between the walls of trees.

At 9 minutes, the Evelynn had spent a good 30 seconds searching for any hint of the Lee Sin near her bottom jungle. Only when she was absolutely sure that it was safe to go in, did she walk in. Her Blue Buff Camp was empty, taken by the Lee Sin. But the Gromp was alive. So she went up to it and started attacking it. And there he was, as if on cue. “Shit! Not again!” the Evelynn cursed while flashing away.

“Want to run?” An Xin mumbled, smiling. She moved her mouse over towards the Evelynn and pressed down on the Q key–Sonic Wave! Her Lee Sin punched out with his fist, sending out a blast of air. It connected with the Evelynn and revealed her. Then he dashed towards her with the second part of his Q skill–Resonating Strike! He followed up by placing a ward behind the Evelynn, Safeguarding towards it, then turning around with a powerful roundhouse kick and sending the Evelynn flying back–Dragon’s Rage!

All the while, the Ahri had been farming in mid lane. The Yasuo was gone for a couple of seconds and she was going to get the most out of it. She figured he went back to base to spend his gold. But he hadn’t. The Yasuo had followed after the Lee Sin into the Red Team’s bottom jungle. When the Evelynn was kicked up into the air, he dashed towards her with his ultimate, suspending her in mid-air–Last Breath! Then he smacked her down to the ground and hit her with an auto attack.

《Killing Spree!》

In the NetCow Cafe, Ouyang and Liu Yue stared at An Xin, shocked, while Yang Fan stared at Lin Feng with that same look in his eyes. There was no vision of the Evelynn before they went into the jungle. But it seemed like An Xin had information the others didn’t, and that Lin Feng knew she had this information. They worked together like they’d been doing it every day for the last five years. It looked so smooth and easy, but the three spectators knew that it was anything but easy. This was an incredibly impressive play that they couldn’t hope to imitate. They simply weren’t anywhere near good enough to pull something like this off.

Lin Feng wasn’t impressed. He shook his head and said, “Bunbun, what was that? It looked like a granny playing Lee Sin!”

“Got the kill, didn’t you? My kill,” An Xin replied, glaring at Lin Feng. “Give me my kill back!”

“What? No way. That was my kill,” Lin Feng said. Then he smiled and added, “Can’t give away kills if you want to win.”

The two kept bickering back and forth, a never ending stream of words flowing from their mouths, but their hands never left their mouse and keyboard. They moved their sights to bot lane. There was no need to talk about it. They were near bot lane already, only one brush away, and Red Team’s Botlaners were having a hard time facing Tang Bingyao and Wei Dong. They were being pushed back into their tower. But they didn’t recall back to the fountain. Even after seeing the Evelynn die, they stayed in lane. Lin Feng and An Xin were going to punish that mistake. They ran through the brush and into bot lane, then towerdove.

《Double Kill!》

“AAHHHH! WHY! Why would you do that, Tang Tang?” Lin Feng wailed, grabbing his hair and pulling on it. “Why! You could’ve left a kill for me!”

An Xin laughed, carefree, “Good job, Tang Bingyao! Don’t give that idiot any kills! Killsteal from him whenever you can! Oh, right, you should leave a kill or two for me and help me win.”

“Win what?” Tang Bingyao asked, tilting her head in confusion. She’d been so focused on bot lane that she hadn’t really noticed what these two were talking about. They were more of a background noise to her.

“Didn’t you hear?” Lin Feng asked. “We’re having a little competition! Most kills wins! You should join!”

Tang Bingyao thought about it for a moment and then asked, “Is there a prize?”

An Xin smiled and said, “Of course there is! The loser treats the winner to food!”

Treating the winner to food? If Lin Feng wins, then… Tang Bingyao started smiling without even noticing it. She nodded and said, “Mhm, sure!”

This game was never going to be interesting. The skill difference was just too big. Lin Feng and An Xin were toying around with the Red Team from the start of the game and now Tang Bingyao had joined in too. They were running around the map, searching for whoever was still alive and killing them. The two who had the least kills were dragging the game out, trying to get that kill that would get them to the top, while the current winner was pushing to end the game. But even through this individual focused gamestyle, there was still nothing the Red Team could do to even pick up a single kill. The game announcer talked a one-sided conversation in kill messages.

《An enemy has been slain!》

《Double kill!》

《You have slain an enemy!》

The Red Team suffered through 20 minutes of this, though they did discuss quitting the game early. But that would get them a warning for unsportsmanlike behaviour, so they stuck around. They tried to play and win for most of the 20 minutes, at which point they could finally surrender and move on to the next game. And that was exactly what they did. It was a unanimous surrender vote.

An Xin jumped up from her chair and pointed at Lin Feng with both hands. “Ha! YES! I won! Suck that! You’re treating me and Tang Tang!”

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head and said, “Ah… I was almost second…”

“Your competition aside,” Yang Fan interrupted. He waited for everyone to look at him. Then he adjusted his glasses and said, “An Xin, you’re a really good Jungler! That was a strong performance.”

Chen Ze nodded at An Xin and said, “Yes, you’re really good. Your synergy with Lin Feng was next level. If you play against Shanghai International, we might actually win. We probably will win.”

The rest of the team nodded in agreement. Chen Ze was right. She was good. She did play great together with Lin Feng. And with her on the team, their chances of beating Shanghai International were substantially higher than with Ouyang or Liu Yue. It wasn’t that Liu Yue was worse than her on an individual level, but he couldn’t compete when it came to shotcalling and the Mid-Jungle synergy between Lin Feng and An Xin. Liu Yue wanted to play the game, but more than that, he wanted for his team to win. Right now, An Xin looked like the answer to achieve that. So he was more than willing to take a step back and let her help them.

“Thanks! But let’s not do that quite yet. That was actually my backup plan,” An Xin said. She nodded at Liu Yue and then continued, “I’m not here to be on the roster. My role is to be your coach. That’s what I’m best at.”

✹

High School 13’s esports team played a couple more games before calling it a day. It was nearing dinnertime and they were all hungry. An Xin called a cab, while the others all walked home. Lin Feng and Tang Bingyao lived in a different direction from the rest, so they walked together, like they did nearly every day. The cold autumn breeze was in the air and the sun was starting to set early. Street lamps illuminated the sidewalk, and Tang Bingyao was hopping from one tile to the next, never letting her feet touch the cracks. She always played this game that she called, ‘Don’t Step on the Cracks’. It was just that today she wasn’t quite as good at it as she normally was. She touched the cracks several times before almost stumbling over her own feet.

Tang Bingyao felt her ears heat up. Fortunately, it was already quite dark outside. H-he can’t see it, right? She glanced over her shoulder, sheepishly, to look at Lin Feng. He was watching her and grinning. But he looked like he was grinning about her almost tripping, and not about her burning ears. She felt the tension in her body relax a little, until she put her hand in the pocket of her jacket. The cash she had counted out earlier was there. I should ask him. She twirled around and looked at Lin Feng, then opened her mouth. H-hey, Lin Feng. Want to go for some milk tea? My treat! She spoke the words in her mind, but they wouldn’t come out of her mouth. They just wouldn’t.

“Uh, are you okay?” Lin Feng asked.

“Mhm,” Tang Bingyao nodded. Stupid. Stupid. Just ask him! She bit on her lips as they kept walking. Now she walked by his side. She could feel the warmth radiating from him. Do you want to get some milk tea? The words were spoken in her mind, again. She moved her mouth, testing that it still worked, and then tried it again. But no matter how she pushed herself, she couldn’t get herself to say the words. They walked past an intersection and in the distance, she could see a couple of shops. One of them was a fast food place. This is my last chance! I gotta ask him RIGHT now!

Tang Bingyao took a deep breath, clutching the money in her hand. Then she stopped walking and grabbed Lin Feng by his jacket. He stopped and looked back at her. She looked at him and could see the confusion in his eyes. I have to say it now. Her heart started pounding, racing faster and faster until it started slamming into her ribcage. NOW! Her hands felt sweaty and her face got hot, and then it started burning. NOW TANG TANG! Tang Bingyao started panicking a little bit. She forgot how she wanted to start this conversation, forgot what to do next. Oh no! What was I going to say to him? I don’t remember. No..no..no DO SOMETHING TANG TANG! So she quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out some money. Which she then showed to Lin Feng. And then stood there awkwardly for a minute before saying, “Um… Lin Feng? Look! Money! Wait. No, not that. What I wanted to ask was… Do you want… to go get milk tea…” Then the world started spinning a little, and she felt faint. But she was also Tang Bingyao, and she wouldn’t back down! “… withme?” She did it! She managed to get the question out. But she forgot the most important part, the one that would make her actions make sense. She was still standing there, holding money in her hand out to him. “M-my treat. I have money!”

All hope was not lost! High School 13 could still beat Shanghai International! Those were the words that An Xin told the esports team. She’d watched them play. Analyzed their individual and team skills. And she’d also looked into Shanghai International. If they came up with a real strategy for this next matchup, including a well thought out draft, when to make in-game rotations, which spots on the map to focus vision on, and so on, they could win. They had a real shot at making it to the Finals! An Xin needed to sit down and work it all out, but she felt strongly that it was possible.

“I’ll have it ready tomorrow,” An Xin promised. “I’ll watch a few of Shanghai International’s games from earlier in the tournament and work out the best way for us to beat them. It shouldn’t be too difficult. We can start practicing with the game plan tomorrow.”

Her declaration was met with a stunned silence. The members of the esports team had all watched Lin Feng torture himself searching for the answer. On top of that, they knew Shanghai International. They’d played against them before and watched them play in this tournament. Beating them was impossible, this was fact. Until An Xin came along. She said that they could beat them with so much confidence that they had no choice but to believe her! Ouyang was the first to buy in and start cheering, and then Liu Yue joined in. Before long, all of them were cheering and laughing and thanking An Xin for showing up just when they needed her the most.

Liu Yue was awestruck by An Xin, “Amazing… You’re amazing. How can you come up with an entire game plan in a single day? That’s insane! So cool!”

An Xin chuckled and said, “Well, I could make it better if I had more time, but the game is scheduled for this weekend. We need to come up with something fast and test it out. See if it works. That way, even if it doesn’t, we’ll still have time to adapt and pivot. Come up with a backup plan.”

“See, guys? I told you An Xin is a great coach! With her here, we don’t have to worry about a thing. Just  play ‘em like she calls ‘em, and we win!” Lin Feng laughed.

“Lin Feng! Stop! This won’t be a perfect plan. I’m going to do my best, but you guys are the ones that’ll have to make it work,” An Xin said. Then she looked at Lin Feng and gave him a coy smirk. “But I think I already have Plan B in mind. Just in case.” Then she winked at him. 

✹

With two games down and the team still revved up for a third, Ouyang stood up from his seat and BroSnapped at An Xin. “Hey babygurl! How about you play a game? I want to see your moooovveeess! You know that I know that what I really want to see is how a Diamond Jungler pushes it on everyone else!”

This suggestion was a good one that everyone approved. The way Ouyang phrased it, not so much. After a few strong glares and some facepalms, the rest of the esports team also joined in on asking An Xin to play a game with them. They all wanted to see her play. She’d talked so much, but she hadn’t actually shown them any real skill yet. All they knew was what she said. It wasn’t that they didn’t believe her. They absolutely did believe her, especially with Lin Feng vouching for her! But they were curious to see a good female Jungler. Those were very rare. Most girls played Support, and if they played another role, it was Midlaner or ad-carry. As for those who did play in the jungle, they were generally kind of terrible at it. This was just how it was. Players and analysts alike came with all kinds of reasons as to why this was. Some claimed that a lane was just a lane and they could focus on that, whereas the Jungle tied the whole map together. It required quick thinking and perfect decision making. Many believed girls weren’t good at those snap judgement calls. Others called this ridiculous and said there was another very logical reason. There just weren’t enough girls who played the game. Either way, regardless of what the real explanation was, the fact of the matter remained that there were very few good female Junglers.

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. He knew this bit of information. He’d even done some research into the matter, “Most girls are pretty terrible Junglers,” he said.

Lin Feng waved his hand and smiled. “Don’t worry about that! Bunbun isn’t a normal girl!”

Wei Dong and Chen Ze already took a step back when Lin Feng opened his mouth. They remembered the last few times that he did. Ouyang and the others leaned back half a second later. Just in time to create some distance from Lin Feng and An Xin. An Xin who’d tilted her head, a smile that looked incredibly creepy spreading wider and wider on her face. “Hmm? Did I just hear you say something weird again?”

Liu Yue nudged Ouyang, covering his mouth with one hand and reaching the other out towards Ouyang, and whispered, “Look at these goosebumps. She scary.”

Ouyang nodded, though he never actually looked at Liu Yue or his arm. His eyes were on Lin Feng. Admiration, that was what he felt. Undisguised admiration. He mumbled to no one in particular, “I have to give it to him, he’s got some massive cajones. No clue how he managed to live this long with her. But damn, she fire when she gets mad. Holy shit, how can someone be that hot? I’m feeling it.”

An Xin suddenly turned towards Ouyang and looked him in the eyes. He shrunk back, terrified she’d heard what he just said. But it seemed like she hadn’t as she only said, “Sounds good. I’ll play!” Then she turned back towards Lin Feng and said, “You’re going to play Mid.”

Lin Feng smiled and said, “Sure! We haven’t played together in forever!”

The esports team queued up for another ranked game. They quickly found an opponent and went into Champion Select. A few bans and a couple of Champion lock ins later, they moved into the loading screen, ready to play their next game. This was the game where An Xin could show off her skills, or fail spectacularly! Either way, they were all eager to watch her play.

Blue Team Line-up:
Chen Ze (Top): Rumble
An Xin (Jungle): Lee Sin
Lin Feng (Mid): Yasuo
Tang Bingyao (AD-carry): Jinx
Wei Dong (Support): Alistar

Lee Sin was a mechanic heavy Jungler. An Xin had nothing to hide behind. Regardless of their opponents, everyone would be able to tell how good she was at the end of this game. But it didn’t take that long. An Xin wouldn’t let that happen. She took the game in her own hands almost from the start. She cleared her Red Buff Camp in the bottom left jungle, then pathed all the way to the top right jungle where Red Team’s Red Buff Camp was. When she got there, the Evelynn was taking her Red Buff, unaware of the looming danger. Her health was low, and dropping lower. An Xin waited, patiently, then pressed her Q key. Her Lee Sin sent out a Sonic Wave that struck the Evelynn. Then he dashed towards her and killed her.

《First Blood!》

“WOOT WOOT!” Liu Yue cheered. “You’re awesome Bunbun!”

Ouyang shouted at almost the same time, “That was great! Did you guys see that? Woooo!”

Ren Rou smiled and said, “Go go, Bunbun! You’re the best!”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses, smiling, and said, “Great play. The Evelynn never even saw it coming. Now she’s far behind and Bunbun should have an easy game.”

An Xin clapped in her hands, laughing. “Yep! This is a good start to the game. Now to keep it going!”

An Xin was far more direct with her idea of keeping it going than the others had expected. Instead of recalling and spending the Gold she’d gotten for the kill on Evelynn, she stayed in the brush next to the Red Buff Camp. There she waited for the Evelynn to respawn and make her way back to the Red Buff Camp. That was exactly what the Evelynn did. And when she found her Red Buff still alive, she attacked it, forgetting to check the brush right next to her. An Xin happily abused this, waiting for the Evelynn’s health to drop and then using her one-level advantage to kill her again.

《You have slain an enemy!》

Liu Yue laughed, loudly so, and said, “Damn, she cheesed that hard—WaitWaitWait! I meant that that was amazing! Great play!”

“Yeah yeah, it looks great and all. It’s just…” Ouyang rubbed his chin, watching An Xin’s every move. Something felt off, but he wasn’t sure what. “Why does it feel like deja vu? Did we play before, Bunbun? No, I wouldn’t forget you.”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and said, “It probably feels familiar because that’s the exact same move Lin Feng likes to pull.”

Lin Feng moved his mouse, clicking constantly, while his other hand glided over his keyboard. All the while, he was also listening to the others and even interjecting, “Yeah! She taught me how to do that move! Most of my Jungle pathing I learned from her!” Then he pressed on his W key–Wind Wall! His Yasuo swept a wall of wind up in front of him, blocking Ahri’s Charm. Her health was low, so he dashed through a minion to close the gap and then dashed through her, hitting her with his Sweeping Blade. He followed up with a straight attack of his blade–Steel Tempest–and an Ignite. The Ahri flashed away. She tried to get to safety. But her health was already too low. The last tick of Ignite took away the last of her health.

《You have slain an enemy!》

“Not bad,” An Xin commented on Lin Feng’s kill.

Lin Feng winked at her and said, “Thanks. I’m really good at Yasuo too!”

An Xin curled her hair behind her ear and smirked. “Oh, is that so? Alright, let’s have a competition. Whoever gets more kills wins.”

Everyone expected Lin Feng to start picking up kills. He was really good and they’d seen him be even better on more than a few occasions. But they didn’t know what to expect from An Xin. They were only hoping to get a show. And that was exactly what they got. An Xin was taking this friendly competition very seriously and started hunting the Evelynn in the Red Team’s Jungle. At five minutes, she found her at the Krugs in the top side of the Jungle. From there it was a quick and easy kill. She was just too far ahead and the Evelynn wasn’t getting any experience to catch back up.

《Killing Spree!》

An Xin pathed to mid lane and helped Lin Feng pick up a kill on the Ahri, who’d just returned to lane, before heading straight back into the Red Team’s Jungle. That was where she lived this game. She walked through the bottom side Jungle, from the Blue Buff Camp to the Wolves. There, she found the Evelynn at low health trying to get some experience. An Xin killed the Evelynn and then also the Wolves for some extra experience.

《Rampage!》

Be it the spectators or the people playing the game themselves, they all just kind of watched in shock. There was nothing special about An Xin’s Lee Sin mechanics. She didn’t pull off any fancy moves. All she did was predict exactly where the Evelynn would be and kill her. This happened over and over again. From the start of the game to now, the Evelynn had only managed to clear a single Jungle Camp unmolested. That was the very first, the Blue Buff Camp. From that point onwards, the game went downhill for her. Every single time she entered her Jungle, Lee Sin would already be there and waiting for her. He’d kill her and send her back to the fountain. It felt as if the Lee Sin could see through the fog of war and locate the Evelynn wherever she was.

Ouyang and Liu Yue stared at An Xin. They were Junglers themselves and knew just how difficult it was to predict an opposing Jungler’s pathing. But An Xin was doing just that, perfectly. She knew exactly where the Evelynn would go. Ouyang and Liu Yue watched on, both awestruck and shocked as they quickly realized that An Xin was a better Jungler than both of them put together. If they had to play against her, she would slaughter them. They wouldn’t even know what hit them. Her Jungling style relied entirely on predicting what the opposing champions would do next. 

“Holy shit. Her Lee Sin is amazing…” Liu Yue muttered.

Lin Feng looked away from his screen and towards Liu Yue. “Eh, she’s alright. But she lacks the mechanics. What good is a Lee that can’t even R-Flash?”

“HMM?” An Xin turned her head towards Lin Feng, her lips curving into that dangerous smile again. That smile that made everyone around her want to run away. There was a fire in her eyes when she smiled that smile. Something changed in her demeanor. It was almost palpable. She asked, “What did you say? Say that again.”

The first thing after the dismissal bell for High School 13’s esports team was a training session at the NetCow Cafe. Eight members of the main team, including Ren Rou, found their way across the street to the internet cafe, like they did every day. It’d become a habit. Even on days that they weren’t coached by Lin Feng, they would still find themselves walking into the internet cafe without even thinking about it. But today was different from other days. That was because there was a ninth member who’d joined the team. She was An Xin.

“So you’re Bunbun?” Liu Yue asked, surprised. Then he extended his hand to An Xin and said, “Hi! Nice to meet you! I’m Liu Yue, the Jungler!” He looked An Xin up and down and then up again, a smirk appearing on his face. He turned to Lin Feng and winked. “Damn! Ouyang is right! You know all the pretty girls!”

Wei Dong and Chen Ze weren’t as straightforward as Liu Yue was. The Ouyang hadn’t rubbed off on them quite as much as it had on Liu Yue. Or perhaps it was a Jungler ailment. They extended their hands and welcomed An Xin to the group, introducing themselves.

An Xin smiled and said, “It’s nice to meet all of you too. Now let’s play some games!” She took half a step towards the computers when she was stopped in her tracks by Lin Feng being Lin Feng.

“I brought her here to help us! She’s very good at shotcalling and she comes up with some of the best strategies. I would almost say that she’s as good as me. But I’m really good at being better than her too!” Lin Feng laughed.

An Xin didn’t laugh. She curled her lips and said, “I see. Running your mouth again…” She shook her head, disappointed. “You got all this big talk, but I don’t remember you ever using that little brain in your head to shotcall or strategize. You’re the kind to run around the map doing whatever you feel like and letting your team face the consequences.”

“Oh, uhh… I don’t remember that, well… Maybe?” Lin Feng mumbled, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Then he waved his hand and smiled. “Ah, whatever! That’s not important. We have you now, that’s all that matters!”

Liu Yue looked over at An Xin and asked, “You played with Lin Feng back in Season 1, right? You must be really good at the game then! What role do you play? Are you also an ad-carry like Tang Tang?”

An Xin smiled and shook her head. “No, I’m not an ad-carry main. I’m a Jungler.”

Ouyang walked up to Liu Yue and fistbumped his shoulder. “Ha! Did you hear that? She’s a Jungler. And it gets better. She’s Diamond! Just like you! You’re both Diamond! Isn’t that great? Our team now has two Diamond Junglers! We’re finally starting to get a real team together! And if you get lazy, she’ll just take your spot. Haha!”

“Uh…” Liu Yue looked at Ouyang, rubbing his painful shoulder, then asked, “Aren’t you also a Jungler? If I become the substitute, do you become the waterboy?”

Ouyang felt his stomach drop. This was a variable he hadn’t thought about. Then the gears in his mind started spinning, searching for an answer. I’m no background character! I’m the Broman! The smile that had disappeared for a second reappeared, brighter than before. He said, grinning, “I might be Plat now. But just you wait! I’ll be Diamond in no time! And then I’ll beat both of you and become the best Jungler!”

Chen Ze grinned and said, “Right, with the help of Lin Feng. But Bunbun here got to Diamond all by herself. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.”

Liu Yue raised his hand, impatient to get a word in, and shouted, “Tang Tang is also awesome! She can beat Diamond 1s and Masters! If you compare her to those Huya streamers or other famous female players, she’s definitely the best ad-carry out of all of them!”

“They’re both really good because I coached them!” Lin Feng interrupted, patting himself proudly on his shoulder. He then turned to Tang Bingyao and asked, smiling brightly, “Isn’t that right, Tang Tang?”

Tang Bingyao tilted her head, thought for a moment, and then replied, “Mhm. Yes.”

Yang Fan chuckled, adjusting his glasses in his usual fashion, and said, “The main point here is that we got two really good League players who are also girls. That’s pretty rare. I think there isn’t another team out there who can compare to us on that front.”

Ren Rou listened to the boys fawning over Tang Bingyao and An Xin, her expression faltering. She mumbled just loud enough for everyone to hear her, “Then what about me? I’m feeling pretty left out here. I know I’m only Gold, but still…”

Ouyang’s eyes lit up. A woman in distress! He moved with an agility rarely seen from him as he suddenly stood next to Ren Rou. He nudged her and said, “Don’t worry, Rou Rou. We can duo queue after practice. I’ll carry you to Plat! You can always count on me.”

Ren Rou rolled her eyes and snorted. “Please. I’d much rather play with Tang Tang or Bunbun.” She then turned to the girls and smiled. “Don’t you two feel the same? Wanna play with me later?”

“Of course we do!” An Xin agreed. She stopped for a moment, then added, “It’s so much more fun playing with friends.”

Tang Bingyao nodded to this statement and to Ren Rou. She also didn’t mind helping Ren Rou out and carry her to Platinum, and maybe past Ouyang, just because they could.

Lin Feng stepped forward, making the others go quiet. The discussion was shifting away from introducing An Xin to the group. This was the moment to move on with the training. He looked around the members of the team, one at a time, until his eyes landed on An Xin. He smiled and said, “Bunbun will be our new coach.”

An Xin nodded towards Lin Feng and then turned to the others and said, “Yup. I’ll be the new coach. You guys play a game for me first. I want to see where we’re at, so I can come up with a good plan for the series against Shanghai International.”

“Wait. Wait. Hold on. Woah! You’re not just Diamond, but also a good coach?” Ouyang asked, his mouth falling open in surprise.

Lin Feng laughed and said, “She’s a great coach!” The best. But that last part he kept to himself. He thought back to Season 1. We didn’t have a coach back then. Not a real one, anyways. We would’ve been lost if it wasn’t for her. She always came up with the best strategies. Without her drafts and gameplans, we would’ve never made it so far… He looked over toward the girl. Though she’d never been given the name, the whole team had accepted her as her coach back then. And it didn’t look like it would be any different this time around. How she was introduced… Two images merged together.

“Hmph! Just a great coach? I’m also a pretty great Jungler, thank you very much!” An Xin added, smiling. Right now she was only Diamond 5, but it hadn’t always been like that. Back before the ranks got introduced and players climbed the ELO ladder, she’d hit 2,700. When converted to today’s rankings, that would put her at the top of Master. She was really good at the game.

“You were pretty great yeah! Until you fell off hard,” Lin Feng said, enjoying every word of that sentence. Then he waved his hand and said, “But it’s fine. You’re just a girl. Getting to Diamond is already really impressive for you!”

“Excuse me? Just a girl?” Ren Rou raised an eyebrow in surprised shock. A shock that quickly warped to anger. She narrowed her eyes and said, “What’s that supposed to mean? Trying to say girls aren’t as good as guys?”

“He’s playing the sexism card,” Tang Bingyao chimed in.

An Xin didn’t say anything, not at first. She just looked at Lin Feng and waited for his eyes to meet hers. When they did, she lifted the corners of her lips but there was no joy in her eyes. They were steady, staring at him. “HMM? Did you say something? Say it again.”

Everyone went silent. The guys in the room shrunk away. They took a step back, trying desperately not to draw any attention to them. But Ouyang failed. He stumbled into the chair behind him, making enough noise for all the eyes to draw towards him. His face went pale as he tried to make himself small.

Lin Feng looked at his friend, surprised and confused, and asked, “Huh? Why are you looking so pale all of a sudden? Did you not have enough to eat? Get a banana.”

Liu Yue mouthed for Lin Feng to shut up, he begged him, trying to connect through the BroForce. But that was Ouyang’s power. Lin Feng had no idea what Liu Yue was getting at. So with no other option left to him, Liu Yue shouted, “Lin Feng! Shut up! Are you trying to get us all killed?”

✹

The esports team played two games. One with the normal line up, with Ouyang and Lin Feng watching on from the sidelines, and one with Ouyang in the Jungle and Lin Feng in Mid. An Xin walked back and forth along the computers, paying close attention to how everyone played and how the games were unfolding. Ren Rou followed a step behind An Xin, unable to stand still and wait. Then, after the second game ended, she tugged on An Xin’s arm and asked, “What do you think? What do you think?”

An Xin was quiet for a moment, thinking, then said, “Not bad, really. You guys are better than I expected. Everyone did pretty decent. I especially liked what I saw in bot lane. Tang Tang is a super good ad-carry! I was really impressed with her!”

“Mhm, I’m ok. I think I can still improve. I have to keep working hard,” Tang Bingyao argued, hiding away her flushed cheeks behind her hands.

“You don’t have to be so modest! Bunbun only gives compliments when people really deserve it! You’re really good!” Lin Feng said, smiling. Then that smiled turned into a wide grin as he added, “Just don’t  forget. I’m the one who taught you! If it—”

“But,” An Xin said, cutting Lin Feng off. “You guys are too focused on the individual skill. There is some synergy, but no real teamplay and your objective focus is completely out of sync. No one really knows what to do and when. You need a goal before the game even starts and work towards achieving that. The lanes aren’t independent arms, they are part of one big structure. You need to work together and make the lanes become part of that bigger structure. More specifically, that means that you don’t team up for just a Dragon, but for all map based plays.” An Xin let out a long, deep sigh. She shook her head and looked around the team members. “The more I’m thinking about it, the stupider it looks. Who even came up with this strategy?”

Everyone turned towards Lin Feng, who was already proudly patting his chest. “That was all me! I came up with their strategies! They’re great, right?”

“Of course it was you,” An Xin said, shaking her head. She chuckled at herself and then said, “I should’ve expected as much. You like to bruteforce your way through everything. It’s easier than using your head, right? You’re hopeless. I’m happy I got here when I did. If this had gone on for another month…” Then she turned towards the others, her disappointment and exhaustion disappearing from her voice and whole demeanor. She looked full of life. She looked excited and happy and ready to get to work. “But you guys don’t have to worry! I’ll take care of your strategy and gameplans from now on! I’ll show you all what a real game plan looks like.”

There was a cool breeze in the air. Standing on the rooftop of High School 13, An Xin looked at Lin Feng. She’d been with Lin Feng since they were young. They’d grown up together, through the good and the bad. She knew that he was Maple. She knew of how he found his joy and happiness in life, and how he shared that with those around him. But she also knew his demons, and how he would withdraw into himself to deal with them. How he never asked for help from anyone when things got difficult. She looked at him, worried, and said, “I know about Tian Tian, Lin Feng. I do. And I know about Rake and what happened back then. It’s not your fault.” She waited for a response, only to see him hang his head lower in defeat. “It’s not your fault.” She took one step forward and repeated again, “It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.”

Lin Feng stared at the ground of the roof, though it was hard to see through the tears in his eyes. He blinked, one large droplet falling to the ground. It splashed apart. He sniffed back the tears. “It’s not your fault.” She said it again. He felt a lump in his throat and he bit on his lips. B-but… He sunk through his knees and took a deep, long breath. Then he swallowed and wiped his eyes clean with the sleeve of his jacket. He didn’t look up at An Xin, still staring to the ground, but he did start talking, slowly at first.

“T-that day, Fatty called me. R-right after the… the game. H-he was crying. He was crying, Bunbun. T-then he started apologizing… saying how useless he was… He… he said how he broke his promise to me…” Lin Feng wiped the tears from his eyes again and sniffed his nose empty. He bit his lips, fighting back everything that he’d kept in for so long. “I-i didn’t know what to say. He did amazing. He did so much better than I could’ve ever expected. They were up against SSK. It was lost before it even started… But… but he tried his best. He did so well. And then he called, crying… I didn’t care that you lost, Fatty, I only cared that you did your best!”

Lin Feng closed his eyes and turned his head away from An Xin. He scratched his forehead, his mouth moving without making a sound. Then he sniffed and continued, “F-fatty kept repeating how he failed everyone. He said it was all his fault. He… He…” Lin Feng tried to get the words over his lips, but they wouldn’t come. He sniffed and took several hasted breaths, then said, “He said that he let me down. H-he said… that he let me down. He didn’t. Fatty, you didn’t let me down. It wasn’t your fault. I know that! You can’t do it all on your own. You did your best! I know!”

Lin Feng shook his head and grinned, self-deprecatingly. “After the call with Fatty, I went and rewatched the games. I was just curious to know what might’ve happened if I was up there, playing alongside him. Like back then… I watched the game like six times in a row… I asked myself how I would’ve played the game if I was KG’s Midlaner. How would I have played against Rake? I wouldn’t, Bunbun. That’s the answer. I wouldn’t, because I would’ve never gotten that far into the tournament. KG’s Midlaner is better than I am right now. I wouldn’t have made a difference. No. That’s not quite right. I would’ve made the game even harder for Fatty… Doesn’t that make me useless? It does… I’m useless. Useless…” Lin Feng stared at the ground, anger at his own inability masking the pain, making the tears disappear. “It’s not even that I can’t help Fatty. I can’t even help my friends at school. A stupid high school League tournament and I can’t carry them to a win. A stupid school tournament! I’ve played at Worlds, and look at me now. I’m losing in a high school tournament. I’ve been trying to think of ways to carry the game. But I can’t think of any. However I look at it, I can’t win. I’m not good enough… See? I told you that I’m useless. I can’t do anything right…”

Lin Feng pushed himself to stand up and looked at An Xin. There were streaks of tears on his face, and his nose was runny. He smiled, bitterly, and said, “See? I told you that I’m useless. I’m useless. Absolutely useless…”

An Xin stared at Lin Feng, listening to his words. Her eyes went from concern to anger, but Lin Feng was so consumed in his own misery that he failed to notice. He continued, “Let’s not talk about Worlds anymore, or Rake. It’s pointless. I can’t even win some stupid high school tournament. Why am I even trying to become the best player in the world? I’m useless—OW!” Lin Feng rubbed his cheek, fresh tears in his eyes. “Ow!” he said, again. “What the fuck.” He looked up at An Xin, confused, and asked, “What was that for?”

An Xin glared at Lin Feng and said, “Well, someone has to knock some sense into you! Idiot. Useless? How dare you call yourself useless? You were the best Midlaner in China! You carried your team to the Finals of Worlds. The Finals! That’s not what constitutes useless. You are not useless.”

“You’re right. I was…” Lin Feng mumbled.

An Xin looked at Lin Feng, waited a moment, and then said with crystal clear pronunciation, “You’re going to zip your mouth and keep it zipped until I’m done talking. Understood?”

Lin Feng’s eyes widened. He nodded, slowly, very slowly, and kept his mouth shut.

“Who told you that you have to solo-carry the game in this high school tournament?” An Xin asked, pausing for a brief moment. Then she continued, “League of Legends is a team game. It is and always has been a team game. Your whole team is trying their best. All in their own role. Why do you keep thinking that you have to shoulder everything yourself? Stop putting so much pressure on yourself. You’ve hit a wall. Shit, that happens. You take a step back, evaluate, then go around it. Or tear it down. But that’s not what you’re doing, is it? You see that wall and you, for some godforsaken reason, feel the urge to ram your head into it, repeatedly. It’s what you did back then. It’s what you’re doing right now again. It’s idiotic and a terrible habit.”

Lin Feng let his head hang low. Lower. He swallowed and opened his mouth, uncertain. A short hesitation, then he mumbled, barely audible, “But I—”

“No buts. Zip it,” An Xin said, striking Lin Feng on his cheek again with her flat palm. It left a clear, red mark and Lin Feng yelped in pain, but she didn’t seem to care. She looked at him, waiting for him to shut up, then continued, “What? Think you’re so big and strong? Think putting all the pressure on yourself makes you look cool? It doesn’t. It looks pathetic. Those friends of yours in class, did you see them? Did you see how they looked at you? They were worried. I could tell. Everyone can. They are worried about you and they want to help you. You’re not alone. Stop shutting everyone out. Let people in, Lin Feng. All they want to do is help you.”

Lin Feng waited for An Xin to continue talking. She didn’t. She kept her mouth closed and looked at him. She just looked at him. Then she raised her arms. His eyes went wide. He’d seen this before. He then closed his eyes, turning his cheek towards her, ready for another slap. I’ve probably deserved it… But the slap he was expecting didn’t come. Huh? The scent of Jasmine suddenly became very strong. He opened his eyes just as An Xin wrapped her arms around him and took him in her embrace. She hugged him tightly, his muscles tensing in reflex. Then they relaxed. He relaxed. He hugged An Xin, tightly, burying his head in her neck.

“You big idiot. I know you’re in pain,” An Xin whispered into Lin Feng’s ear. “You can’t do everything yourself. You’re only human. If you keep going like this, you’ll only end up hurting yourself and everyone you care about.” An Xin paused, waited, hesitated, then ruffled Lin Feng’s hair. She smiled a smile that sounded through in her voice. “Besides, don’t you still have me?”

Those words thundered in Lin Feng’s mind. “Don’t you still have me?” He smiled. For a single moment in time, the pain disappeared. There was no anxiety, no disappointment in himself, no frustration at his own inability. There was only the warm embrace of his best friend. He hugged her as tightly as he could. He breathed in through his nose and realized the Jasmine scent came from her. Then he closed his eyes and breathed out. Feeling her soft hair brush against his face, he asked, “Bunbun?”

“Yeah?” An Xin replied.

Lin Feng let go of her and looked her in the eyes, an innocent curiosity in his own. He scratched the back of his head and asked, “Did you put on some pounds?”

An Xin’s face dropped. Her eyes went wide and her hand moved on instinct. She slapped Lin Feng harder than she ever had, and then she hit him. Again. The second time her fist connected with his chest, causing him to stumble backwards. “You asshole! Do you want to die? I lost weight! Alright? Fucking unbelievable.” She threw her hands up in the air and then turned around and walked away.

✹

An Xin didn’t stay mad for long. Lin Feng caught up to her halfway down the first flight of stairs, and after a few words of apology from him, she asked him about the High School 13 versus Shanghai International series. He told her that they had two Master rank players and three in high Diamond. Then he went on about how they came in second last year and that their style heavily leaned on the early game. She quietly listened. When he’d given her the general idea of the situation, she nodded and said, “Ok. I think I got it.”

“Oh, right,” Lin Feng said. “They’re also pretty full of themselves.”

“That’s fine. That just makes it so much more satisfying to defeat them. I already can’t wait to see their expressions,” An Xin said, smirking. Then she turned to Lin Feng and asked, “I heard our team practices right after school?”

“Yeah, we do,” Lin Feng nodded, missing out on one small, but very big detail. Then it hit him. He paused and asked, “Wait. What do you mean, ours?”

“Didn’t Ren Rou tell you? I already joined the team,” An Xin said, matter-of-factly. She looked over towards Lin Feng, who didn’t directly reply, and asked, “What? You’re not happy?”

Lin Feng quickly shook his head and said, “No, no no! I was just surprised. I’m very happy.”

“That’s what I thought,” An Xin said. She then jabbed her chest and said, smiling brightly, “Don’t forget, you might be better at the game, but I’m still the best when it comes to making strategies and shotcalling!”

“I think you’re both pretty.” That one line from Lin Feng echoed around the classroom. A classroom that was now pindrop silent. A moment in time where those words which could’ve only been spoken by the most oblivious of men hung in the air and nothing else. “I think both of you are really pretty.” There wasn’t much Lin Feng could’ve said to make the situation any worse. He was a thick-skinned Nasus, obviously farming up his Siphoning Strike, caught in between a Katarina and Ahri. Both of whom now had their claws out and an intense desire to stain them with his blood. He’d spoken the forbidden words. Tang Bingyao and An Xin turned towards him. They looked at him, stared at him, glared at him.

Ouyang started shivering. He wanted to complain about someone opening a window and letting a cold breeze inside, but the windows were all closed. Then he turned towards Yang Fan and looked at his friend. They’d known each other for years and had built up that unspoken bond of brosmanship. Words were no longer necessary between them. If they wanted to, all they had to do was lock eyes and they could communicate through the force that linked all bros. And in this moment, when their fellow bro Lin Feng needed them more than ever, their eyes found each other and their thoughts communed within the BroForce. 

〘D-damn! You feelin’ this? The room got way colder than the shoulder a girl way outta your league gives you when you try to talk to her! We need to do something! If I—〙

〘No! Do not get involved! He got into this mess on his own. There is no way this situation will improve if we get involved. It’ll definitely get worse if you start trying to help him. Let him figure out how to extricate himself from this quagmire on his own!〙

〘YeahYeah, you’re right. Dammit. Even I’m not that stupid. What was that idiot thinking?〙

Ren Rou looked at the two girls glaring at Lin Feng. Then she looked at Ouyang and Yang Fan in the middle of one of their moments where they just looked into each other’s eyes and slightly moved their lips to talk. She wasn’t really a bro, didn’t have the same kind of connection that they had with each other. She wasn’t a bro, but she could be a Sis! She didn’t know how to be one with the BroForce, but she was a woman! She knew how to get a message across without words. She seized Ouyang’s attention without making a sound and pointed towards Lin Feng and the two girls with her eyes. In that single moment, she opened herself to the BroForce, let it wash through and out of her, and synced onto the same wavelength that Ouyang and Yang Fan were on.

〘Do something about this, Ouyang! They’re going to fight!〙

The gears in Ouyang’s head started spinning. It took a hot minute to grease up the cogs and get the engines revving. But when his brain shifted into turbo, he figured out exactly what needed to be done. He grabbed the picture of Lin Feng and An Xin and tapped on An Xin’s shoulder. “An Xin! An Xin! This picture, right? Lin Feng said it was at the Season 1 LPL Finals. Does that mean you’re also into League of Legends? Are you good? I was a Gold scrub, but thanks to Lin Feng I’m at least Platinum now. Probably even better if it wasn’t for those damn teammates I keep getting matched up with!”

An Xin turned to Ouyang, frustrated. But then she saw that twinkle in his eyes and she heard the emotions behind his words. They were genuine curiosity and pride. She smiled, choosing to forget what happened a moment before, and patted her chest. “Yep! I love the game! I’ve been playing since Season 1 and I’m pretty good at it!”

“Right! Bunbun is a really good Jungler!” Lin Feng interjected, oblivious as always to the catastrophe that was just averted. “But not as good as me. I’m better!”

An Xin snorted. She glared at Lin Feng and said, “That’s it. You and me, we’re going to 1v1 later. I’ll kick your ass!”

The last few words never even registered in Lin Feng’s head. All he heard was the challenge. He smiled and said, “Sure! But you’re losing.”

The six people were all League of Legends fanatics and were more than anything happy to shift away from the awkward situation. So they quickly latched onto the new topic. Ouyang started interrogating An Xin on how good she was at the game, and she was happy to tell them that she was currently sitting on Diamond 5 in the Ionia server.

Ouyang blurted, “Damn! Diamond 5 is so good! You’re really good! That’s so amazing!”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and said, “People always say how girls aren’t good at the game. But here we got another one who’s better than we are.”

Ren Rou was also thoroughly impressed. She nodded and said, “That’s really cool!”

Lin Feng watched his friends practically falling over An Xin just because of her League rank. They hadn’t done that when he told them about his rank. He looked around, confused and a little annoyed, then shouted, “Hey! What is this? Who cares about some low Diamond player? You guys never acted like this when I told you that I’m a Challenger. I’m way better than she is!”

That was the wrong thing to say. No one cared about Lin Feng right now. They wanted to get to know their new classmate better. So four pairs of eyes shot towards Lin Feng, followed by four quick replies. 

“Shut up! No one cares!” 
“We know your rank. Stop bragging about it.” 

“Yes, yes, you’re good at the game. We know.” 

“Mhm.”

Ren Rou guided the conversation into the direction of the esports club. She’d found a new, strong female player and she was set on recruiting her. So Ren Rou started talking about how great the club was. How much it had grown recently and the achievements that had helped them grow. She spoke about the first years who’d swarmed around Tang Bingyao for her ‘1v1 Love Confessions’ and finally also about the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. First she talked about how they’d been robbed of a win last year. Then she moved on to this year and how well they were doing. They were semifinalists! But it looked like reaching the finals was going to be really difficult, since their opponent was Shanghai International.

“Shanghai International?” An Xin asked, curious. “Are they good?”

Ouyang nodded fervently and said, “Yeah! They’re really, really good! You must know that they made it all the way to the Finals last year. I thought for sure they were going to win. And they’re only better this year. Maybe they’re even better than Shanghai High School this year!”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and said, “They’re a lot better than we are. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re too good. I don’t think we can beat them in our current state.”

Ren Rou sighed, then started talking, the words flowing from her lips before she even realized it, “But we’re trying really hard. Lin Feng is especially doing everything he can. You should’ve seen him work over the past week. He’s practically killing himself ov—” She shut up and put her hand over her mouth as an extra measure the moment she realized what she was saying. Crap! I said too much…

“Hmm? What’s that?” An Xin asked, turning towards Lin Feng and looking him up and down. She saw his bloodshot eyes and the large bags under his eyes. 

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head, uncomfortable. “Uhh… I don’t know what she’s talking about. I’m fine.”

✹

Third period on Monday morning was Mathematics. After the bell rang, the students from Senior Class 7 returned to their desk and grabbed their textbooks. The teacher walked in and, after taking attendance, started explaining formulas. He turned his back to the class and started writing on the chalkboard. This was the perfect timing for An Xin to pass another note to Lin Feng.

An Xin: ﴾ What is this about you practically killing yourself? ﴿

Lin Feng: ﴾ It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. ﴿

An Xin: ﴾ Liar. ﴿

Lin Feng read the note, then put it away in his bag. He focused back on the lesson, though his eyes kept shifting towards the ideas he’d written out in his notebook on the series against Shanghai International. He forgot about the class he was in and started getting absorbed in his analysis again. Until a ball of paper hit him in the side of the head. It jolted him out of his thoughts and he glanced over towards An Xin. She was glaring at him. Her eyes were saying murder, while she was mouthing, “Open. It.”

Lin Feng looked down to the floor, where the crumpled piece of paper had fallen. He reached for it with his foot and moved it closer towards him, hesitatingly. But when he looked towards An Xin again, and saw the look in her eyes, he knew there was no evading this. So he reached down and picked up the note. He started unfolding it, noticing An Xin from the corner of his eye. She was smiling but she also wasn’t. She looked scary.

An Xin: ﴾ Next break we’re going outside to talk. ﴿

✹

After Mathematics, the students from Senior Class 7 had a 25 minutes break. An Xin stood up from her desk and looked at Lin Feng, urging him to come with her. But he didn’t get up. Instead he raised his textbook and pretended to be busy studying. She sighed, then pulled the textbook from his hands and put it in his backpack. Pushing it in his embrace, she commanded, “Take it and come.”

Lin Feng took the backpack in reflex, but didn’t get up. He leaned over his desk and complained, “I-i’m feeling a little tired. Can we talk another time?”

“What was that?” An Xin demanded, glaring at Lin Feng. “We don’t have all day. Get up.” He hesitated another moment, more time than he had. She grabbed him by his arm and pulled him up, then dragged him out of the classroom. He could only hurry after her, her fingers pinching into his arm.

Ouyang and Yang Fan watched the two walk out of the classroom, keeping their mouths shut. They knew better than to make a funny comment about Lin Feng being whipped into obedience. But when they had left earshot, Ouyang couldn’t help himself. He whisper-shouted, “What do you think those two are going to do? Having a little romantic one on one time? Maybe Lin Feng likes them bossy.”

Yang Fan shook his head, looking at the open classroom door through which Lin Feng and An Xin had walked out. Then he turned to Ouyang and said, “No. You saw them. That didn’t look or sound very romantic. Actually, it doesn’t matter what they’re going to do. Let’s just hope that with her here, Lin Feng’s mood improves. He really needs someone who knows how to get through to him and help him.”

Out in the hallways, Lin Feng was following behind An Xin. There were students everywhere and he searched for a way to escape into the crowd. But An Xin was surprisingly strong, her fingers wrapped around his arm. She would notice if he tried anything and he didn’t want to think what would happen then. So he followed, albeit reluctantly. They walked towards the stairs and went up a flight, and then another. After two months at High School 13, he’d never been in this part of the school. He couldn’t help but ask, “Bunbun, where are you taking me?”

“Somewhere quiet where no one will disturb us,” An Xin replied, curt.

Lin Feng tried to pull his arm free, but An Xin wouldn’t let him. He slowed down, but she pulled so hard that he nearly fell forward. She wasn’t letting him go. He felt his stomach drop. It felt bad, really bad. There was nowhere to escape and there were less students around then a minute ago. He suggested, timidly, “H-hey, how about we talk after school? I still need to do some work before next class.”

An Xin came to an abrupt halt, with Lin Feng almost walking into her. She turned around and raised her eyebrow. “Hmm? Something you want to say? Is there?”

“O-oh, it’s nothing. Nothing. Really. It can wait. Let’s talk now. I’ll follow you,” Lin Feng said, stumbling over his words. He followed An Xin up the last flight of stairs. There was no hallway here, only a door. An Xin pushed it open and he followed after her onto the empty terrace on the roof. The wind blew in his face as he looked around, surprised. “We have a rooftop terrace? Nice! This looks really cool!” He then turned to An Xin and asked, “Bunbun, how did you know about this place?”

“Because all schools have this. Literally every single school,” An Xin replied. She then let go of Lin Feng’s arm and looked around the rooftop terrace. There were no other students here. They were completely alone. Just the two of them. She nodded, happy, and then turned to Lin Feng. “Good. We can talk here without getting interrupted. So let’s talk.”

Lin Feng looked around the terrace. He then walked past An Xin towards the edge of the rooftop, where he looked out over the surroundings. The city center was quite some way away, but he could still see the large buildings in the distance. He heard her walk up to him, but pretended he was engrossed in the scenery. Until a flat palm slapped him in the face and an angry yell sounded in his ears, “Stop pretending! Look at me!” He inhaled, long and deep, then let it all out and turned around to look at An Xin.

An Xin looked back at Lin Feng. For the first time, the two locked eyes and really saw each other. The anger and annoyance disappeared from her eyes. The stern expression disappeared from her face. She smiled the saddest smile and asked, “I saw that KG lost… How are you taking it? Are you ok?”

Lin Feng’s lips quivered. He bit down on his teeth and looked at his best and oldest friend. She knew him. She really knew him. It was never about the Shanghai 16 School Tournament for him. It was always about Worlds and what happened there. He tried to open his mouth and say something, but only a hoarse sound came out. Then he shook his head and lowered it.

A new girl had joined Senior Class 7! Her name was An Xin and she’d told everyone about her nickname! That could only mean a single thing in the minds of the guys. She wanted to be their friend! “Bunbun, it’s nice to meet you!” some of them shouted, eager to showcase their friendliness. Of course they wanted to cozy up with An Xin. She was beautiful in every sense of the word. Ren Rou and Tang Bingyao were every students’ dream, until now. Bunbun was new, she was exotic, she was exciting. And now she was their number one. They didn’t even look at the other two girls, because only Bunbun deserved their attention right now.

There were four students who weren’t concerned with welcoming An Xin to the class. It wasn’t that they disliked her or anything like that. Rather, they stared at her, dumbstruck. Bunbun. They’d heard the name before. It was the name Lin Feng had given to a childhood friend of his. Almost collectively, from where they sat, they turned towards Lin Feng. Bunbun? Is she THE Bunbun? They saw Lin Feng look up from his notebook. Is she really… Is that really his Bunbun?

Ren Rou tried to remember the picture of Bunbun that Lin Feng had shown her. That picture was from four year ago, with the girl looking a lot younger than she did now. The girl in that picture had pigtails and was standing off in the background. They do look similar though…

Tang Bingyao didn’t need to think like Ren Rou did. She stared at An Xin and pursed her lips. There was a look in her eyes that revealed far more of her thoughts at the moment than she would’ve liked. Fortunately, everyone was looking towards Bunbun and no one was looking at her.

✹

Lin Feng was working on his latest idea for the match against Shanghai International when the homeroom teacher announced a new student was joining the class. He didn’t really care. It didn’t have anything to do with him. So he didn’t even bother to look up, scribbling down the ideas that formed in his mind before they disappeared again. Then he looked over the notes, but the letters were hard to read. He blinked his eyes and tried to ignore the pain that he felt in his head. The words on the page made sense again. This won’t work—

Then he heard the new student introduce herself. It was a voice Lin Feng recognized, one that he would know anywhere. His pen fell from his fingers on the table, then rolled off his desk and dropped to the ground. But he didn’t notice. He could only hear that voice that he knew so well. He lifted up his face and for the first time took a look at the new transfer student. Bunbun? The world was spinning before his eyes. He started worrying that it was his sleep deprivation and that he was seeing things. So he rubbed his eyes and looked again. There she was, smiling and sticking her tongue out at him. He barely moved his lips and the sound was almost inaudible as he said, “Bunbun.” She’d grown a lot since he last saw her, but she still looked the same. To him she did, anyways. She was Bunbun. She was one of his best friends growing up.

“An Xin, you can sit…” The homeroom teacher looked around the classroom. Most seats were taken, except for a few at the back of the class. He hesitated for a few seconds but then pointed towards a desk in the last row and said, “You can sit over there for now. Sorry, we don’t have that much space. We can maybe look into reshuffling the seating arrangement some other time…”

An Xin looked at the desk the teacher was pointing at. There was no one else sitting at that desk. Then she looked at the desk next to where she would be sitting. Two guys sat there. One of them was Lin Feng. She smiled at the homeroom teacher and said, “It’s fine. That seat looks perfect!” She then walked over to it and sat down on the side closest to Lin Feng. There was only the aisle separating them.

Lin Feng watched her walk and sit down at the desk next to him. He stared at her, shocked and speechless. She put her backpack down and all he could do was look at her. Then he said, his lips moving of their own accord, “Bunbun?”

An Xin paused midway through putting her books on her desk. Then she tilted her head and looked at Lin Feng. “Hey,” she said, smiling. “Long time no see.”

Before the two old friends could catch up, the school bell rang. It was the start of the second period of Monday morning. For Senior Class 7 that meant English. It was a subject many of the students hated. This wasn’t because of the subject per se, but more because of the teacher. He was a real hard ass. If he caught someone slacking off, he’d pull them to the front of the class and tell them to share their story. He liked to say that if someone felt that whatever it was they were talking about was more important than what he was teaching them, then it was only fair they shared it with the entire class and not just the students sitting next to them.

Lin Feng tried to pay attention to the class. He listened to the words of the teacher and made notes. These were notes on the class and not on the game with Shanghai International. But his mind was somewhere else entirely. It was on the girl sitting next to him. And after only a couple of minutes he tore off the edge from a page of his notebook and scribbled something down. He gave it to An Xin, who read it and wrote a reply.

Lin Feng: ﴾ Why are you here? ﴿

An Xin: ﴾ What? Do you not want me here? Teehee~ ﴿

Lin Feng: ﴾ Where are you living? ﴿

An Xin: ﴾ Mom and Dad moved here, so I had to come too. ﴿

Lin Feng: ﴾ Really? You all live in Shanghai now? ﴿

An Xin: ﴾ Yep! I’m really liking it here, though probably not half as much as you are. My parents told me that you’re living with a girl, right? They also said that she’s trying to become a League streamer. I bet you’re having a good time with her. Hehe~ ﴿

Lin Feng scratched the back of his head after reading the last note. He didn’t really know how to respond to that. He was living with a streamer girl. But she wasn’t a streamer girl. She was a girl who tried to make a living by creating real content that went beyond showing off her cleavage and long legs. But he didn’t know how to write all of that down on a small piece of paper. He turned towards An Xin, unsure, only to find her sticking her tongue out at him. Oh… Lin Feng shook his head and even showed a little smile, while An Xin stuck up her nose and laughed. She did that for half a second before quickly putting her hand over her mouth. The two looked to the front of the classroom. The teacher was looking at them, hesitating, but then continued with his lesson. Lin Feng and An Xin didn’t dare to move their eyes away from the chalkboard, listening to the teacher for a good three minutes. Then their note exchange started up again.

An Xin: ﴾ Do you like it? ﴿

Lin Feng: ﴾ Like what? ﴿

An Xin: ﴾ My new hairstyle, Goofus. ﴿

Lin Feng: ﴾ It’s new? Looks the same… ﴿

An Xin: ﴾ Does this look like pigtails to you? ﴿
An Xin: ﴾ It’s completely different. ﴿
An Xin: ﴾ My parents also finally let me get contacts! You can finally look into my eyes~ ﴿

Lin Feng: ﴾ Oh, I see. ﴿

An Xin: ﴾ What’s wrong with you? I bet that wall behind you is more fun to talk with… ﴿
An Xin: ﴾ Anyways, what are you working so hard on? ﴿
An Xin: ﴾ I mean all those pages in your notebook. You were writing so much that you didn’t even see me at first! ﴿

Lin Feng: ﴾ It’s nothing. ﴿

An Xin read the two words on the small note that was covered in tiny scribbles. She read them again, just to make sure she was understanding them correctly. But there was nothing to misunderstand about it. Dumbass. She looked up at Lin Feng and raised an eyebrow, giving him a moment to come with a better answer. He didn’t. He barely even looked at her. She waited for when he did and mouthed, “Big. Fat. Liar.”

✹

There was a short break between English and the next period. These were a valuable few minutes to the four members from the esports team in Senior Class 7. Three of them jumped up from their seat and rushed to the back of the class, while Ouyang was already badgering Lin Feng and An Xin with his questions. Well, he did until Ren Rou shot him down with one of her famous glares.

“So you’re Bunbun!” Ren Rou greeted, smiling. “Lin Feng has said so much about you! He even showed us a picture of you! I’m so happy that we finally got to meet you!”

“Oh? My picture?” An Xin asked, surprised.

Ouyang’s hand shot into Lin Feng’s desk, almost on reflex, and retrieved the pencil case. He opened it up in one fell swoop and turned it upside down. The contents fell on the desk, but he didn’t care for the pens and crayons and other items. He wanted the picture hidden beneath all of that. He grabbed it and waved it in the air. “Yep! Here! This picture! Look, look. That girl in the back. You see her with the pigtails? That’s you, right?”

An Xin took the photo from Ouyang and looked at it. Then she smiled and said, “Yup, that’s me. I think this was taken back in middle school.”

“You had your hair in pigtails and you had the glasses, but you were still tots adorbs! I could totally see the me from four years ago falling for the you from four years ago! When you walked into the classroom I almost didn’t recognize you, because hot-diggity-dawg that glow-up! But I never forget a beautiful face! I knew that I knew you, I FELT IT! Then you introduced yourself as Bunbun and it all clicked! You’re Bunbun!” Ouyang laughed, proud of his deduction skills.

“I really like what you did with your hair. You’re really pretty,” Ren Rou chimed in.

An Xin smiled and said, “Thanks, that’s really nice of you.”

Ren Rou shook her head and said, “No, no. I wasn’t trying to be nice. I’m serious. You don’t know, but when Ouyang and the other guys saw your picture, they were so jealous of Lin Feng for having such a pretty friend. They almost wanted to fight him to get your number.”

“Right, right! Nice to meet you!” Ouyang said, excited. He pointed at himself and continued, “I’m Ouyang! Best bro of Lin Feng! I’ll throw myself under the bus for my best bro and deskmate!”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses and reached out his hand. “I’m Yang Fan, friend of Lin Feng. It’s nice to finally meet you, An Xin.”

Tang Bingyao was the only one left to introduce herself. Three pairs of eyes turned towards her. But she ignored them and stuck out her hand. “I’m Tang Bingyao, but you can call me Tang Tang.”

An Xin shook Tang Bingyao’s hand and smiled. “Nice to meet you Tang Tang.” She looked at Tang Bingyao and smiled a little brighter. “You’re really pretty.”

Tang Bingyao shook her head, resolutely. “Not as pretty as you.”

Lin Feng decided that of every moment in this conversation to interject, this was the best. He stuck his head between the two girls and said, “I think both of you are really pretty.”

It was Monday morning. Senior Class 7 was in the middle of their first period of the week. Study hall. This was time intended for doing homework and preparing for upcoming tests. But that wasn’t how these students saw it. They’d just come back from a long and busy weekend, where they stayed up late and got up early to have fun with their friends. Monday morning study hall, that was the perfect window to catch up on some much needed sleep. Of the thirty students in the class, there were maybe five awake.

Ren Rou was the class president. She was supposed to lead these study hall periods. But she also understood that when the students got the option between an extra hour of sleep or doing homework, they would unanimously vote for the former. She shook her head, looking around the classroom. Then she felt drawn towards the very back of the classroom, towards the last row of desks. This was where Ouyang was snoring, quietly, and Lin Feng was scribbling in his textbook, furiously. She couldn’t see what he was writing, but she could tell he wasn’t happy. There was an aggression to the way he pushed his pen into the paper. And whenever he looked up, she could see just how bloodshot his eyes were. And the dark circles around his eyes. It looked like he didn’t get much sleep over the weekend.

Today marked the fifth day since that semifinals match between KG and SSK. It was also the fifth day that Lin Feng had withdrawn from everything going on around him. He was consumed with his notebook, losing sleep and letting everything else in his life fall behind as well. As for what was in the notebook, Ren Rou could make a decent enough guess. She’d seen some of his work only a few days ago. He’d been working on his preparations for the game against Shanghai International. From Champion Select to lane match-ups to habits of all the players, with both main team members and substitutes being taken into consideration. He didn’t leave a stone unturned, thinking of new approaches and searching for that one vital weakness he could exploit.

Ren Rou stared at Lin Feng. She still remembered how the entire team had felt when they saw what Lin Feng was working on. He’d prepared a dozen different scenarios for Champion Select, based on the Champions and strategies Shanghai International played most often. It was thorough. There were even small scribbles next to each Champion detailing the ways in which it was most likely going to be played and how to counter that. Lin Feng’s teammates didn’t know what to think of it. On the one hand, the insights and strategy were impressive. But on the other… It wasn’t healthy what Lin Feng was doing, they all knew that.

The only way the team members from the esports team knew how to help Lin Feng was by stepping up their own game. If they wanted to share the burden with him, they had to play at a level where they could actually share the burden. But they weren’t at that level. They couldn’t help him when it came to the game versus Shanghai International. They weren’t good enough. Ren Rou shook her head, upset. She wanted to help. But she wasn’t good at the game like Lin Feng. Nor did she have his insights in tactics and strategy. She could only put her trust in him and count on him pulling them through. She felt terrible about it, but didn’t see any other way.

✹

Tang Bingyao was one of the few students not fast asleep during study hall. She’d opened her English textbook and was reading the words. Sentence by sentence, page by page, the words flashed before her eyes, but they never entered her head. She didn’t even really know what book she was holding. There was something nagging at her mind, distracting her from everything else. She could hear his pen working away on the paper. I’m so stupid. She glanced over her shoulder, over towards Lin Feng, and started biting her bottom lip. He’s still working so hard. She turned back towards her textbook and tried to continue reading, but found she had no clue what page she was even on. She had to search for the last bit she remembered and that brief moment was enough for her mind to wander back towards him. She looked over her shoulder again and looked at Lin Feng, mumbling to herself, “I’m so stupid.”

He’s spent so much time coaching me, and I’m still not good enough. I can’t even beat that ad-carry from Shanghai International. He’s better. Even after everything Lin Feng tried to teach me, I’m still only here… “Ugh.” Tang Bingyao sighed, shaking her head in frustration. She wanted to help him, but she was no good at comforting people. Not in her mind, anyways. But that was for the most part because she’d never done it before. Because she’d never cared about anyone that much. And then came Lin Feng. She still vividly remembered how he sat next to her at the NetCow Cafe that first time. How he’d watched her play and then convinced her to play with him. From a 1v1 to playing together every day for months. He’d shown her something that was really worth something. He’d always been there for her and now there was this indescribable feeling telling her to do the same. She wanted to help him. She really did. But she had absolutely no clue what to do. “I’m so stupid,” she muttered, slightly louder than before.

Tang Bingyao looked towards Ren Rou, who was trying her best to lead the study hall. I even asked her. I’ve never done that before. But Ren Rou wasn’t much help either. She didn’t have a clue about how they could help Lin Feng. The two girls had talked about it for a long while, tried brainstorming together, but they came up empty. Tang Bingyao looked over her shoulder again at Lin Feng. She was chewing on the inside of her cheek now, watching him write. Maybe… What if I treat him to some food? She stared at Lin Feng as she completely forgot about the English book she was pretending to study. A plan was taking shape in her mind. She knew how much he loved food. He was always talking about it.

Tang Bingyao turned back towards her desk and grabbed her purse. “How much do two cups of milk tea cost? It should be ¥14,” she muttered, counting her money. Then she hesitated. It was more than she’d ever spent on anyone. She turned around again and looked towards Lin Feng. “He also really likes chicken cutlets…” She checked her purse and counted the bills. Then she pulled out another ¥10, confident and decisive, and stuffed the money in her coat pocket.

✹

The study hall period came to an end. The homeroom teacher walked into the classroom and gestured towards Ren Rou that she could take her seat. He then walked to the front of the classroom and cleared his throat, loudly. It woke up most of the sleeping students, and after an extra loud cough, even Ouyang woke up. “Alright,” the homeroom teacher started, giving everyone another moment to wake up. “I’ve got some news. We’re having a new student join us today.”

“A new student? Is it a girl?” Ouyang asked, every last hint of drowsiness quickly disappearing from his face. And he wasn’t the only one. Everyone perked up at the news of a new student and turned towards the homeroom teacher. This was a lot more interesting than anything else going on at school for most of them.

“Uhh, how?” one student asked, confused. “We’re already two months into the year. Aren’t they going to be behind? Will that not create issues? I don’t understand…”

The homeroom teacher cleared his throat again, waiting for the buzz that had broken out to quiet down. When it finally did, he continued, “Our new student is from Hangzhou. I hope you guys can give her a warm welcome to our school and to our class.” He then turned to the door and said in a louder voice, “You can come in now.”

The students from Senior Class 7 all turned their heads towards the door. They were all curious to find out who this new student was. As if for dramatic effect, the door opened slowly. Too slowly. There went a buzz through the classroom as everyone started guessing about the identity of their new classmate. 

“I wonder who it is, do you know?” 
“What do you think? Sexy or nah?” 
“Do you think she’s into turning?” 
“I hope she likes the theater. We really need one more girl.”

Getting a new transfer student to the classroom was like opening a box of chocolates. None of them ever knew what they were going to get. The classroom door was pushed open, revealing the new student. It was a vivacious girl! One with a beautiful smile! She was a sweet and tender nougat wrapped in a bittersweet dark chocolate. She walked in with a light blue oversized sweater over her school uniform, and black thigh-highs that only accentuated and contrasted with the uniform skirt. She was that angelic girl-next-door kind of sexy, the kind that made you feel the warmth and comfort of home while stopping your heart. The guys in the room couldn’t help but smile back at her. They didn’t know if it was something in the way that she walked or that twinkle in her eyes, but it made them happy just to see her. Her comfortable, wide sweater was a little bit too big for her. But it fit her well all the same. Somehow it matched her charm and amplified it. Its milky light blue made her long black hair seem even darker and more mysterious. And the black thigh-highs… well, that was almost too much for poor Ouyang to handle. His eyes roamed up her long, slender legs to just where they ended, right before the hemline of her skirt. And then he choked. The girl though, she didn’t seem to notice the guys in the class practically falling over her as she walked up to the homeroom teacher.

“Go on, introduce yourself to the class,” the homeroom teacher said, nudging towards the class.

The girl nodded and turned to face the class, smiling. She bowed and said, “Hi! Nice to meet you all! I transferred here from my high school in Hangzhou. I know the year has already started, but I hope I can still fit in and get along with everyone.” She looked around the class and the people she’d spend the rest of the year with. They were all looking at her, except for one. Her smile turned into a grin and she stuck out her tongue towards him. “Oh right, how could I forget? My name is An Xin. But my friends call me Bunbun.”

Lin Feng closed the door to his room behind him. He kept his hand on the knob. Paused. Still. Hesitating, for a moment. Thinking. Then he walked over to his desk and sat down. Think of something else. Anything else. He took out his books out of his backpack. Math. English. Chinese Literature. Work for tomorrow, and work for the day after. He worked for several hours at such a high pace that he didn’t have the space of mind to think about anything else. Nothing at all. Until the clock struck 11 PM. That was when he paused. The homework before him felt unimportant again. He leaned back into his chair and looked up at the ceiling. It was grain white, but he barely noticed that the ceiling was even there. His gaze was long and distant.

Lin Feng didn’t keep staring at the ceiling, though he didn’t quite know when he stopped. He’d moved without himself even realizing it, sitting up straight again, grabbing his laptop, and opening a video. It was the video of the semifinals match between KG and SSK. The same video he’d watched six times already over the last few days. Nearly two hours of footage, including the time between games. He sat in silence, staring at the series that had silenced all of China. For a brief moment in time and space, China had come to a grinding halt. That was the extent of mental damage this loss had dealt.

However, Lin Feng didn’t rewatch this series to analyze how KG had played. He’d wanted to see Fatty win, but also knew that was practically impossible. The reason he sat here, again watching this video, was to analyze his own skills. He replaced KG’s Midlaner with himself and replayed the games. This was the most recent series played by Rake. It was his current skill. And that skill was far higher than Lin Feng had expected. It was to an extent that it was hard to compare. Apples with golden apples. Pears with pomegranates. No matter how Lin Feng looked at it, regardless of the methods he tried, he always lost, and miserably so. Rake toyed around with him, showed him every corner of the Rift, and then sent him back to the fountain. From laning to farming to teamfighting, be it individual ability or awareness, he was simply worse. A lot worse. So much worse that he even doubted he could do any better than KG’s Midlaner had. I might’ve even lost against KG’s Midlaner… Especially that last realization hit hard. Someone he never considered his opponent, much less his equal, was really above him.

Lin Feng clenched his fist and slammed it down on the desk. “Fuck!” he yelped. “FuckFuckFuck!” He grabbed his hair and pulled on it. I’ve got no right to even look at these games. None. I can’t even figure out how to beat some shitty high school team… That hurt. It felt like an Asian Giant Hornet had stung him, twice or thrice. He was looking at videos from Worlds, comparing him to the best players in the world. But he had no place on the world stage. He couldn’t even figure out how to beat a high school team. He gritted his teeth, angry and frustrated. I’m useless. Useless. Useless.

Over the past several days, Lin Feng had been thinking of strategies to beat Shanghai International. It was a simple high school game, it wasn’t that difficult. But to him it was. He just couldn’t figure out how to do it. If I can’t even do this, how can I even think about Rake? I have no right. No right. I… He pulled on his hair and sighed. Useless. I can’t even figure this small problem out. What can I do? I’m useless. Absolutely useless.

There was no doubt in Lin Feng’s mind, his teammates sucked. They were nice and he enjoyed playing together with them, but they just weren’t very good at the game. He hadn’t had long enough to train them, and there was only so much he could teach them. The rest they would have to do on their own. And since they weren’t as good as he was, or liked to think he was, he never stopped to consider them. They weren’t going to win this game for him. Only he could win this game. I have to think of a way. Maybe if I get just a little better. I have to train really hard, but maybe it can be enough. Shanghai International is an easy opponent. I can still 1v5. Do I have enough time?

The night grew deep. Lin Feng stayed up. He had to think of a way. There had to be something he could do to win this series. This was just a high school tournament. If he wanted to ever make it back to the top, then this couldn’t stop him. This should be easier. It should be the easiest tournament of his life. It’s just a high school tournament. There has to be a way. They are all terrible.

✹

It was the middle of the afternoon. Senior Class 7 was following a lecture on mathematics. Their teacher, a man going through the rot before the midlife crisis, was droning on and on about functions, scribbling down chalk on the chalkboard. Most of the students in the class couldn’t even tell if the chalk formed some coherent message in the form of equations, or if it was English. Both looked the same, unintelligible. That was the case for a good majority of the class, anyways. There were the bookworms who knew exactly what was going on. But there were only a few of them, two to be precise. As for the rest of the students, they were yawning and fighting to keep their eyes open. They’d fall asleep, only to get that terrible falling sensation that woke them right back up. And then there was Ouyang.

Ouyang had put his backpack up on the table and was resting his head on it, his eyes closed and a weak snoring sound accompanying his breaths. Every now and then, he’d scare himself awake. A short moment with his eyes open. The terrifying question, “Did the teacher notice?”, playing on repeat in his mind. He’d slightly move his head, only to find their teacher still with his back to them. “Ah, safe.” He wasn’t even really awake in those moments, and he’d be back to his dreams within seconds. With a single exception.

Ouyang had just scared himself awake again. He glanced around the room, careful. A few people looked back at him. Shit. They noticed. He was nervous to look towards the teacher, but still did. Please don’t look at me. Please don’t look at me. Please… Ah, good. The teacher was still with his back turned to class, like he’d been doing all hour. Then Ouyang glanced over at his deskmate. He looked at Lin Feng, whose eyes were wide open and who was writing and writing some more. His eyes widened, shocked and now completely awake. “Damn! What are you being awake for? This is math, dude. You know, Triple Z hour!”

Lin Feng didn’t even seem to notice Ouyang talking to him. So Ouyang fought off his laziness and lifted his head off his backpack. He watched Lin Feng writing, furiously, then looking at what he’d written and ripping the page out. Once, twice, three times. It kept going and going. Ouyang then leaned over towards Lin Feng and looked at what his bro was writing. “Hey dude. Watcha wri—” He shut up. He kept his lips tightly sealed. The teacher had turned around, he saw it from the corner of his eyes. He turned towards the teacher, grabbing something from his table to start writing with. It was his phone and the target of his hard work was his table.

Through all of this, Lin Feng hadn’t noticed a thing. He was busy with something more important than Ouyang’s constant need for attention. Nor did he care for the class. He’d done his homework and knew the substance for this week of math. What he didn’t know was how to beat Shanghai International. That was what he was working on. Bans. Team compositions. Shanghai International’s play style. Lane match-ups and player habits. They were all analyzed, scrutinized, thought over a thousand and one times. He could practically dream every different scenario he’d come up with. It was exhausting. He’d been up since late last night working on this. His eyes were bloodshot and he could really use some coffee. But there was no rest for the wicked. No! Useless. Not good enough. Won’t work. Dammit. Stupid. Why am I so stupid? This is useless. I need to think of something. There has to be a way. It can’t be this difficult. It’s stupid. I’m stupid. Why am I not better? I need to be better. I have to be!

✹

Training after school at the NetCow Cafe had become somewhat of a ritual for the players from the High School 13 esports club team. They would play ranked games, sometimes playing with substitutes like Ouyang, and work on their game. Lin Feng would watch over their shoulders, pointing out their every little mistake, no matter how small or insignificant. Sure, there were better and worse days. Days on which they played terrible, and days on which Lin Feng wasn’t his usual self. The last few days had been days where Lin Feng was a little more quiet than usual. But he was never totally silent. There was always his breath blowing in their necks as he watched over them. There was always the, sometimes tired voice as he pointed out yet another mistake. Today was different. He wasn’t breathing in their necks. He wasn’t pointing out their mistakes. He was standing there shaking his head. It wasn’t even about a bad play or a misplay, he just shook his head from start to finish. There wasn’t a thing they did that looked good to him. Then, he gave up. “You guys keep practicing. Play a few more games. I’m going to play some solo queue games over there.” He pointed towards a computer that he was already walking towards.

Liu Yue turned around, as did the others from the team, and watched Lin Feng sit down behind a computer and move the mouse around. “Uhh?” He turned to Ouyang and then Tang Bingyao. “What’s going on?”

“I…” Wei Dong stared at Lin Feng, who was now clearly logging into a League of Legends account. He guessed, half convinced, “Maybe we played that badly today and he needs a moment?”

“Nah. No way. That’s not our bro-man,” Ouyang said, shaking his head. “No way. I watched you all play. You guys were doing fine. Mega fine I’d say. There’s no way that is the reason for whatever this is.”

Yang Fan adjusted his glasses. He had something to say, and it was going to be something smart, or he wouldn’t push up his glasses. “Right. We were doing fine. Just fine. Do you think that with our skill just fine is enough to beat Shanghai International? Of course it isn’t. We need to play great and even then our chances are slim to none. Let’s not beat around the bush. We need to step up our game.”

Yang Fan was right, they all knew it. They’d been working hard in their own ways towards becoming better players, towards stepping up their game. But it wasn’t anywhere near enough to beat Shanghai International. It wasn’t even enough to make the series close. Shanghai International would play with them, fountain farm them, and then laugh at them in front of a large crowd. If they didn’t watch out, it’d be a repeat from last year. Just that this time around, there was a large crowd of hundreds of people. They fell silent. If they kept up their current method of training, they could just as well give up. There wasn’t enough time before the match to get ready. But they also didn’t know what they could do to get good enough before then. Everything they knew, it wasn’t enough. It just wasn’t enough. They weren’t enough.

“It’s fine! We just have to try our best! Don’t worry about the rest!” Ren Rou cheered, trying to break the negative spiral they found themselves in. Think positive! Think positive! she told herself. Then she put on an even brighter smile than normal and took a move from Lin Feng’s playbook. Something he’d done so many times with so much success. She clenched her fist and threw it up in the air. “It doesn’t matter what happens, as long as we’ve given it our all! Everything will be worth it if we just give it our all! Let’s give it our all and do this!”

Lin Feng looked over towards Ren Rou. He’d heard her words. Then he looked at the others, who were now all nodding, with Ouyang jumping around and shouting and being his over-the-top excited self. He shook his head. It does matter. It’s not enough. He didn’t care about regrets or everything being fine. Who cares about stupid things like that? You don’t win the silver, you only lose the gold. Second wasn’t good enough. Fourth definitely wasn’t. He wanted to lead High School 13 past Shanghai International and then win the Finals. That trophy had to be theirs!

They’re not enough. I have to do this. It’s all on me. Lin Feng had watched his teammates play. Not just today, but every day for the last month and then some. He knew exactly how good they were, and how far they’d come. But the fact of the matter remained, they were Platinum, they were Diamond, they weren’t Masters or Challengers. There was a vast chasm between where they needed to be to even stand a chance to beat Shanghai International and where they actually were. The only way to bridge this chasm was if he carried them over. He had to take them on his shoulders, because on their own they would fall into the depths and lose. I have to carry them. It’s all on me.

Lin Feng stopped caring about helping his teammates improve. There simply wasn’t enough time to get them to a satisfying level. The only way was for him to make up for their shortcomings. And to get to that point, he had to work his hardest and improve as quickly as he possibly could. To that end, coaching his teammates became a waste of time in his mind. It was time better spent on working on his own skills. So that was exactly what he did. He abandoned them. Left them to their own devices. They could go home for all he cared. It didn’t matter. The only thing he cared about right now was beating Shanghai International, and to achieve that, he had to work hard. Harder than he ever had, perhaps. His eyes were locked on his screen. He was playing Yasuo in the mid lane, dashing through minions and dominating his lane. Not enough. It’s just not enough. I have to get better. I have to do this. Come on, Lin Feng. You can do this! You can! You just have to do it! Carry them! You’re good enough to do this. If you can’t even do this, why are you still trying? If you fail this, you might as well give up completely. This time, you can stay away for good. His eyes were red. I have to carry them.

✹

At the NetCow Cafe Lin Feng ignored his teammates and friends, and at home he ignored Su Xue. The world of friends and happiness he’d built up around him crumbled. A darkness shrouded him. It devoured the world as he knew it and replaced it with a single thing. League of Legends. That became his life. Playing the game and then writing down his findings, only to realize his findings weren’t sufficient to help him win against Shanghai International. He wasn’t good enough. His methods weren’t perfect yet. But he would get there through the power of will. That’s what the little voice in his mind told him, anyways.

It was a grave he’d dug himself before, a familiar road he’d walked before. The Finals of the Season 1 World Championships of League of Legends. The Korean team was too strong. He lost hope in his teammates and took on the burden himself. He had to win this game. It was all up to him. So he plotted and trained and worked every waking second. Back then it wasn’t enough. He lost and blamed himself, rightfully so. The burden wasn’t his. It wasn’t his back then and it wasn’t his right now either. But he refused to listen to that rationale. After the semifinals match at Worlds, the KG versus SSK series, he’d let the darkness in. It consumed him. It became him.

Lin Feng was only one person. He wasn’t God. But he was pushing and punishing himself as if he were. Sleepless nights in which he pushed his mind to think of new ideas and strategies, followed by long days of playing solo queue. Whenever his eyes started closing, he gritted his teeth and splashed some cold water in his face. Sleep was for the weak! He wasn’t weak! He would persevere, he would push through all obstacles, he would realize his dreams! And right now that dream was to win the Shanghai 16 School Tournament. He’d do whatever it took to accomplish that. As for everything else, that could come later. Another time. It wasn’t important, not to him. The darkness was no longer shrouding him, but shining out from him. He was the darkness.

Su Xue was helpless. She tried what she knew, cooking Lin Feng dinner and being her cheerful self. But it worked to ill-effect. Lin Feng’s friends at school had even less of an idea of what to do. They watched their friend lose himself to an invisible enemy. The bags under his eyes became the least of their worries. He’d stopped putting on clean clothes. His hair was a mess. He couldn’t keep his hands from shaking, and there was a strange twitch to his eye. Except for the seven of them, everyone else at school had started walking a large circle around him. In fact, even his friends wanted to.

The days blurred together. High School 13’s esports team didn’t stop training. But they did spend more and more time looking over at Lin Feng. He hadn’t stopped coming to the internet cafe, but he had stopped talking with them. These last few days, he sat behind a computer a row over and started playing solo queue. He was in another game, an easy one from the looks of it. He wasn’t as annoyed as he could be. Yang Fan finally turned to Tang Bingyao and said, “Hey, you know him best. Go talk to him.”

“Right! You two are already lovers, wink wink! Haha! Hottest couple ever, am I right? He has to listen to you! Tell him to stop being such a downer! I can feel his negative energy all the way from over here! It’s such a mood killer,” Ouyang chimed in.

Tang Bingyao shook her head, visibly frustrated. “I tried. It’s not working. I don’t know what to say or do. He just nods but doesn’t listen. It’s like he isn’t even here…”

Ouyang rubbed his temples and groaned, “Ahhh, then what do we do? We’re his bros! His best buds! It hurts my pure heart seeing him like this. We have to do something! Tell me what we can do!”

There was an awkward silence. They’d all tried their own ways of approaching Lin Feng, but none of it had worked. In the end, Ren Rou sighed. She looked over the others and asked, exasperated, “Is there really no one that can talk to him?”

The curtain finally closed on the second semi-finals match of the League of Legends Season 5 World Championships. Team SSK had won, and Team KG had lost. Miserably so. SSK won three games in a row, utterly crushing KG. The score of 0-3 hovered in the minds of everyone watching. And it was etched in the hearts of every League of Legends fan in China. The entire LPL had been humiliated on this day, and this match would become a permanent black stain on its record. As far as most people were concerned, today was the darkest day in the history of LPL. When that last victory screen floated over KG’s ruined Nexus… the sheer torrent of despair that washed over the tens of millions of Chinese fans watching Worlds was indescribable. It was bad enough that Team SSK had completely and utterly crushed Team KG. What made it even worse was that Team KG never gave up, they kept fighting and never stopped trying to make a comeback. The futility of all that effort though, and the fact that there was literally nothing they could do to resist SSK’s overwhelming strength, that’s what hurt the most. 

Team KG’s knockout also meant that the LPL no longer had any team playing that could carry its beacon to the Finals of this year’s Worlds. Even the three Shoutcasters had given up. They just sat there, all gloom and melancholy, not saying a word. They just didn’t know what to say. They felt the blow from this loss just as keenly as any other normal fan, and they did not have the words to express it. Or the will to provide any analysis or hype. So they sat there. Quiet and forlorn.

Then the post-match interviews started, and that was a whole new dimension of misery. Fans watched as the God Roundy broke down live on stream. They watched as he got up in front of the camera, holding the microphone with both hands. They watched him tremble and shake. When he looked straight at the camera, they saw the tears, unfallen, welling in his bloodshot eyes. Then he muttered the words, “I-i-i so-s-so SORRY!” With those words, he could no longer hold it together. He broke down sobbing, still holding the microphone and still looking at the camera. “I’m sorry…. I’m sorry… I’msorryI’msorryI’msorry—” Tian Tian repeated over and over again while choking on his own snot and tears. His tear stained face dead center on every camera and every stream. Finally, he bowed his head to the camera and continued apologizing to the viewers. The rest of Team KG’s players were similarly glum, but holding it together better than Tian Tian. They stood next to him with tears in their eyes as well, and faced the cameras. Then they also bowed and said, “Sorry.” 

The Chinese fans, both those who had flown to watch the games in person and those watching it on stream, felt their heart’s ache as God Roundy broke down. His many female followers were livid with anger that the cute and cuddly God Roundy had been made to feel such grief. No one blamed Team KG for the loss. No one could blame God Roundy for what happened. How could they? Just the fact that Team KG had made it all the way to the Semi-finals of Worlds was an incredible accomplishment, both for them and the LPL. No one on Team KG had anything to be ashamed of. The fact that made it all the way to the semifinals of Worlds was already incredible. Standing up to SSK was incredible. God Roundy had no reason to be ashamed or sad! KG had done nothing wrong, there was nothing to criticize about how they had played! 

Despite the pride they felt in KG for making it all the way to the Semi-finals and the despair they felt at Tian Tian’s grief, the fact that KG lost to SSK hurt in a completely different but equally painful way. Just thinking about how SSK trampled all over KG with a score of 0-3. That made the blood of every Chinese fan run cold and choked the breath in their throats. For a brief moment, every Chinese fan of League of Legends connected and thought the exact same thoughts. This reality that was etched in stone was difficult to confront for all of them. The pride they had for their region, for the LPL, it had just been smashed to pieces in front of their eyes. The weight of this reality pressed down on them, suffocating them.

“W-why is it like this…” Su Xue muttered. She was also starting to tear up. The mood in the chat was also gloomy. The thousands of people on her stream, none of them knew what to say to comfort her. Or to comfort each other. At this point, anything they could possibly say seemed meaningless.

Lin Feng sat next to Su Xue. Also not saying a word. He bit his lips, so hard that he actually drew blood. His hands both balled up into tight fists. His nails dug crimson crescents into his palms. But he seemed completely oblivious to the pain. All he did was stare at the monitor, at the stream of Worlds, without blinking his eyes. He stared at the score of 0-3. He stared at Fatty, crying and bowing and sobbing. Whatever physical pain was overshadowed completely by the pain in his soul and his heart at all of this.

✹

Now that the Semi-finals had ended, the two teams that would be moving onto the Finals were decided.  Team Season and Team SSK. A clash between North America and South Korea. They’d be going head-to-head next weekend to decide who the champion of the League of Legends Season 5 World Championships would be. It was a duel between the Support God Autumn and the Midlane God Rake. A collision between the two top Emperors. As exciting as it all was though, many Chinese fans no longer had the heart to continue watching Worlds. They hadn’t gotten over their disappointment from KG’s loss in the Semi-finals.

This included the regular crew from High School 13. It was now Monday, and they were still struggling to get over KG’s loss. Yang Fang and Ouyang sat in their classroom, still talking about yesterday’s game and what happened.

“Regardless of how many perspectives you analyze it in, there is no possible way that KG can be blamed for the loss. Their gameplay was flawless. It is highly unlikely that any team from the LPL could’ve done better,” Yang Fang said as he adjusted his glasses. Then he sighed. 

Ouyang’s reaction was far less measured, “Fiddle-faddle-frucksitall! SSK is too god-fucks-it-all OP! THEM BITCHES NEED TO GET NERFED! OR BANNED UNTIL THEY GET NERFED!” Then he rubbed his face and grimaced. “Bro, lemme tell you. When I saw Brother Roundy break down like that in the post-match interview. Shiiiiiitttttt! My heart, torn. Like when you give a girl a poem and she rips it apart and throws it in the wind? That kind of torn. Watching a fellow bro feel bad like that, it made me feel bad. I’m telling you, the total amount of awesome in the universe diminished when that happened. It was that bad. Shit. I haven’t felt like that in forever…”

Both Ouyang and Yang Fang fell silent for a minute after that. That’s when Ouyang noticed that Lin Feng hadn’t said a word. Or indicated that he wanted to join in on the conversation at all. Which was odd. Ouyang tilted his head toward Lin Feng and asked, “Bro Feng? Not plannin’ on yappin’, Cap’n?” Lin Feng said nothing in response to that. Ouyang turned towards Lin Feng and looked at him, “YO! What’s up man? Don’t feel like talking right now?” 

Lin Feng simply shook his head and didn’t say anything.

Ouyang opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it. He’d changed his mind. He looked at Yang Fang, who shook his head ever so slightly. Ouyang understood and didn’t push Lin Feng any further. Then he continued talking to Yang Fang about yesterday’s game, both of them keeping half an eye on Lin Feng.

Lin Feng remained the same even later on in the day, when the esports club team members had gathered together for practice. Ren Rou, Liu Yue, Chen Ze and the others also noticed that Lin Feng was being uncharacteristically quiet. Aloof and withdrawn. But just like Ouyang and Yang Fang, they didn’t dwell too much on it and decided to let things be. In their minds, he was also reeling from KG’s loss yesterday and they figured it would be best to let him sort his feelings out on his own. He’d talk to them when he was ready, if he wanted to. It all lined up in their minds. Lin Feng was going through the same thing that every League of Legends fan in China was going through right now. He’d sort himself out and be fine in a few days, they thought.

But they soon discovered exactly how wrong they’d been. All of them individually and collectively figured that Lin Feng would perk up and be back to normal in a few days. So they waited. A day passed, and he was still quiet and disconnected. Then two days. There was no change in Lin Feng. Then a third day of this passed, and that’s when they started to get really concerned. It didn’t matter what was happening, Lin Feng walked around like a quiet zombie. In class, he stopped getting involved in conversation and stopped joking around. Even when they were all practicing at the NetCow Cafe after school, Lin Feng was disconnected from everything. He didn’t say much of anything when he was coaching them either. He just stood there, quietly watching. Gone was the constant pointing out of their mistakes, the yelling, the badgering that pushed them to their limits. It was replaced by a quiet and uneasy tension, and a withdrawn Lin Feng.

That’s when they realized that something was wrong with Lin Feng. Something far more than just the loss at Worlds. They were worried about him, but there was also nothing they could do. Every time they tried to ask him what was wrong, tried to even approach the subject, he’d force out a smile and shake his head. Let them know everything was fine in that quiet way that made them all the more worried and walk away.

✹

After school, the club members gathered for a secret meeting. The subject was obviously Lin Feng and what was going on with him. 

“Dudes and Dudette, I know that he’s not fine. Especially because he’s saying that he’s fine. You know what it is? Listen, you know when you’re with a shorty and she tells you everything is okay when its not? Its that kind of fine. As the resident playa here, I can tell you for sure that the more he says everything’s fine, the more everything is obviously not fine!” Ouyang fumed.

“He really does seem off lately. I really wonder what’s going on with him. But if he doesn’t tell us, there’s nothing we can do to help him,” Ren Rou said with a look of concern.

Chen Ze and Wei Dong nodded.

Yang Fan turned to Tang Bingyao. “Tang Tang, out of everyone here right now, I think it’s fair to say that you’ve had the longest connection with Lin Feng and know him the best. Do you know what’s going on with him?”

Ouyang protested, “Hold it right there! You saying Tang Tang knows Bro Feng better than me? Do you really think anyone knows a bro better than his bro?”

Yang Fang looked at Ouyang seriously and said, “Ouyang. Not the time. Tang Tang, you tell us what’s going on.” 

Tang Bingyao shook her head. “I don’t know either.” Then she looked down at the ground. The truth was that she was just as worried about Lin Feng as everyone else. She racked her brains to figure out what was going on with him and what was causing this strange mood. She thought she had a good idea. Or at least a lead. She knew that Lin Feng was a good friend of KG’s top laner, God Roundy. So that probably had something to do with why Lin Feng was so preoccupied these days. But there was something more to it, something that she didn’t understand. That was why she couldn’t figure out exactly what Lin Feng was going through in his feelings.

Besides, she wasn’t very good at comforting people and that was just as frustrating right now. She tried to talk to Lin Feng about what he was going through a couple times now, but she always ended up backing away in the end. She just didn’t know how to comfort him. Or where to start comforting him. The whole thing was frustrating!

✹

That night, after practice ended, everyone on High School 13’s team said bye to each other and went their separate ways.

Lin Feng and Tang Bingyao walked home together, as usual. It was a calm and peaceful night. Not that many people were walking around, and the streetlights gave the sidewalk a warm yellow glow. Lin Feng walked mechanically with his eyes looking down at the ground. Not saying a word. the ground, not saying a word. Tang Bingyao walked in front of him, making sure not to step on any cracks in the sidewalk and occasionally hopping forward if there were too many. But she didn’t try to get Lin Feng to talk, nor did she say anything. But every once in a while, she’d stop and glance back at him just to make sure he was still behind her and okay. Then she’d continue walking.  The pair walked on like this in silence for a block. Until Lin Feng finally broke the silence with a question, “Hey, why do you keep looking back at me?”

“I was worried you’d hit your head on a pole. You’ve been walking with your head down this whole time,” Tang Bingyao replied while tilting her head in that adorable way girls do. She looked Lin Feng in the eyes. It’s now or never, Tang Tang! Ling Feng had broken the silence between them, she had to go for it and figure out what was bothering him. Now’s probably the best time. So she asked, “Are you okay?”

Lin Feng forced a smile and said, “Oh, I’m fine!” 

Tang Bingyao stared at Lin Feng’s face, “That smile looks super fake.”

Lin Feng’s eyes widened and the smile faltered. Then the mask broke and he looked sad and a little embarrassed. He rubbed his face with both hands before saying, “Really? No way, right…?”

Tang Bingyao didn’t respond. She kept looking at Lin Feng.

Lin Feng started feeling awkward and scratched his head. “R-really. There’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine.”

Tang Bingyao slowly nodded her head, then she asked, “Is it because KG lost?”

The question hit Lin Feng harder than he was expecting. He thought someone would eventually ask and he was prepared. But it still phased him enough to let more emotion slip through onto his face. Then he recovered and smiled. But one that had very little joy or warmth behind it. Then he replied, “I guess. A little bit. But that’s not all of it.”

Tang Bingyao scrunched up her nose and frowned. “I don’t understand.”

Lin Feng chuckled. “Ah, it’s fine. You don’t have to.” He then paused and looked up. It was clear in Shanghai tonight. There were no stars. Only the moon shining brightly overhead, shrouding the entire city in a veil of silver light. He stared at the night sky, calmly, and then suddenly asked, “Hey, don’t you think I’m really useless?”

“Huh?” Tang Bingyao remarked in surprise. The stunned look on her face was cute.

Lin Feng waved his hand and shook his head. “It’s nothing. I was just talking to myself. Come on, let’s go. We’re almost at your house.”

✹

After arriving back home, Lin Feng smelled something delicious the moment he stepped through the door. The dining room table was already set with a variety of dishes. 

Su Xue came walking out the kitchen with an apron on, carrying a plate full of stir fried eggplants. When she saw Lin Feng was back, she smiled at him and greeted, “You’re home! Come come! Wash your hands and let’s eat dinner!”

High School 13’s team members weren’t the only ones to notice Lin Feng’s peculiar mood over last few days. Su Xue was actually the first one that noticed something was off. How could she not? They basically spent every day together! She was also worried. But she had a secret weapon that none of the others did. She could cheer him up with food! That’s why she spent the day cooking so many of the things he liked to eat. But she  didn’t know what was going on with him either.

At the dinner table, Su Xue watched Lin Feng eating with his head buried in the rice bowl. She couldn’t hold herself back any longer and gently asked, “Hey, what’s going on? Is practice with the team not going well?”

Lin Feng shook his head.

Su Xue racked her brains. Then she made a wild guess and asked, “Did something happen between you and Tang Tang?” Thinking she might have hit the nail on the head, she started giving some meaningful advice. “You guys are still young. Getting into a fight or two is no big deal. But you’re the guy, so you should just let her have her way sometimes…” The more she spoke, the more she was convinced she was right.

Lin Feng flat-out denied her guess, “No, it’s not that! I think your imagination is starting to run a little too wild! Me and Tang Tang, we’re fine! Our relationship isn’t like that! We’re Master and Disciple!”

Su Xue was stumped quiet. Then she asked, “Then… then, what’s going on with you?”

Lin Feng was about to open his mouth, but then he changed his mind and shook his head. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“Ahem. Then, what about your midnight snack? Do you want a chicken cutlet? I can order you some,” Su Xue said.

“We’re still eating dinner. It’s way too early for that,” Lin Feng said quietly  and curly.

“Oh, right.” Su Xue said.

It was the first time Su Xue had seen Lin Feng be anything other than the happy, cheerful, oblivious kid that he was. The first time he’d been so curt and dismissive towards her. She didn’t know what to say. She was confused, worried, and more than a little hurt that Lin Feng wouldn’t let her in. Wouldn’t let her help him. So she stayed quiet.

They finished the rest of the meal in silence and went back to their respective rooms. 

The mood at the ShoutCaster’s Desk was not a happy one. The last thing that Stone said, “Shit. That sucks.” echoed despite the professional grade microphones, pre-amps, noise-gating, and soundproofing. Those words hung in the air, echoing without an echo. The sentiment was precise, and the ShoutCaster’s Desk reflected what every KG Fan— No, what every Chinese fan of League of Legends was feeling at the moment. Regardless of how they individually felt about KG, the team was currently carrying all of China’s hopes for the Season 5 World Championships. 

Qinghe felt it too, and tried to change the mood by forcing out a smile and some optimism, “Let’s not lose all hope just because Rake’s LeBlanc is on a rampage! There’s still more of this game to go! And let’s cheer for God Roundy back there for some quick, quick, quick thinking on his feet! That Teleport helped even things out for the whole team, pulled a baby right outta that trash-fire. If he didn’t jump in, that fight would’ve been 0-for-2. But Roundy’s Riven got there in the nick-o’-time and made it 2-for-3. And even with the kill back there, Riven is still scaling decently. Rake might be feeling the snowball, but I’m feeling like Riven’s starting to bring enough heat to melt it. Any thoughts, Stone?”

Stone was still slumped on his side of the Caster’s desk and completely missed the point of Qinghe’s analysis. “It’s no use, though. I don’t see KG turning this around…” Then his mind finally processed Qinghe’s words and he perked up a little and added tentatively, “Rake’s LeBlanc getting fed this early into the game, it’s going to be hard to stop hi—” He paused mid-sentence. Then perked up a little bit more, cautiously hopeful. “Unless.” He looked straight at the camera before continuing, “Unless God Roundy uses this lead to completely dominate top and carry the game. But that’s a big if right there, Qinghe. A real big if.”

Qinghe nodded silently. Stoically. There was nothing more he could say here. His momma didn’t raise no fool, and he knew there was very little that KG could do against a LeBlanc that was 4/0/0 this early in the game. And it was Rake’s LeBlanc too. He sighed. KG’s midlane was at an absolute disadvantage right now. Even the Lulu they’d strategically picked to counter LeBlanc was useless right now. All hope of a KG victory in this game rested solely in the hands of God Roundy’s Riven. Tian Tian was now carrying all of China on his back. 

“GO GO ROUNDY! YOU CAN DO IT!” Su Xue shouted at her monitor. But all of the people on her stream could hear how nervous she sounded underneath the cheers. 

Lin Feng, still sitting next to her, had nothing to say. He bit his lips and stared at the monitor intensely. Beneath his bangs, his eyebrows were scrunched together. He already knew what was going to happen. He knew that all of the optimism and hope would fall flat. He knew it was almost impossible for Fatty to turn this around. There was no way for Riven to turn the tide of this game.

✹

9 minutes and 25 seconds into the game. Rake’s LeBlanc was dominating the midlane, just as everyone expected. KG’s Lulu was pushed back to the safety of the tower multiple times, and eventually had to recall to base. LeBlanc froze the minion wave, and then decided it was time to go for a walk on the Rift with SSK’s Jungler Rek’Sai. Together, they roamed to top lane and took the scenic route. They circled behind KG’s outer tower in top lane and flanked God Roundy’s Riven. No man, no matter how perceptive, expects to be taken from the rear by two other men. Especially not the way Team SSK’s dynamic duo did it. Rek’Sai burrowed into the ground and popped up underneath Riven to knock her up into the air. LeBlanc jumped up over with Disortion and unloaded her full damage combo onto Riven. This combo play, the unexpected attack from behind where one Champion came in from the bottom and the other from the top, it was more than God Roundy’s Riven could handle. LeBlanc picked up another kill, and Rake killed any hope of God Roundy turning the tide in this game.

《Unstoppable!》

With that last kill, Rake’s LeBlanc was now at 5/0/0. As Riven’s body dropped to the ground, all of the Chinese viewers felt their heart’s drop too. With this single macro-gameplay masterstroke, Rake had effectively taken out KG’s outer tower at top lane, dropped Riven behind by a lot of Gold and Experience, made the cliff that God Roundy needed to climb to turn this game around even steeper, and also made his LeBlanc even stronger. Whatever tiny advantages God Roundy had built up on his Riven in the early game, and whatever small victories he’d claimed in top lane, Rake had swept all of those away with one precise play. Rake had shut God Roundy down. He knew exactly what he was going when he roamed up to top lane. And as he turned his LeBlanc back towards midlane, he looked at Riven’s corpse one last time with subtle contempt in his eyes. 

On the other side of the game and the other side of the stage, Tian Tian winced. His mind was riddled with regret and anguish. I shouldn’t have died there! I-i should’ve seen-it! S-s-should’ve known that g-g-gank was coming! His Riven’s death was more than a Champion death or giving away a kill. It was the death of any hope of KG making a comeback. As much as Tian Tian was blaming himself for letting everyone down right there, the truth was that he couldn’t be blamed for this. LeBlanc’s full combo did an insane amount of damage, that was one part. The other part was the signature SSK synergy between their Jungle and Mid.

Everyone who was even slightly involved in the competitive scene spouted on ad infinitum about how Team SSK had an Emperor and a King. And everyone also went on like a broken record about how SSK’s Emperor was the God Emperor. Rake, the One that Sits on the Throne of Sovereign. First among all the Emperors. Blah, blah, blah. But Team SSK’s real power wasn’t Rake. It was their King, Mafa. Quite possibly the best Jungle player in the world. The same league as Team Assassin’s Read XIII, but perhaps even better. Team SSK’s Mid-Jungle combo, the synergy between Rake and Mafa, that was their signature. One of the deadliest weapons in their arsenal.

In nearly every game that Team SSK played, it was the Rake-Mafa roams that helped the entire team get ahead and then snowball. Their coordination and synergy was perfect. That scary, eerie perfect. To anyone watching and anyone playing against them, it was like Rake and Mafa could read each other’s minds. This particular game against KG was no exception to that strategy. After LeBlanc and Rek’Sai ganked top lane to kill God Roundy’s Riven, Team SSK started to snowball. 10 minutes in, SSK had already pulled ahead with a gold lead of 4,000. 12 minutes in, SSK claimed and killed the first Dragon. 15 minutes into the game, the gold lead had widened to 6,000. By 20 minutes in the game, it widened even further to 8,000. The gap between Team SSK and Team KG turned from a small advantage to an ever-growing chasm. It also represented the difference in skill between the two teams.

Rake’s macro gameplay was so overwhelming that it transcended this one game against Team KG. He wasn’t just crushing them in one game, he used one move to dominate the entire series. And he wasn’t just trying to display Team SSK’s might to Team KG. The point was to push every team watching, every player past, present, and future with one play. And it worked. Too strong! That was the single thought going through the minds of every player on every team watching this game. 

A perfect Mid-Jungle duo. A flawless play that turned the entire game around for Team SSK. Even their Gnar who had been losing in the early game phase, managed to regain his footing. By the time mid-game rolled around, he was throwing out beautiful multi-Champion stuns that helped Team SSK win several teamfights.

The snowball that Rake’s LeBlanc had started turned into an avalanche for Team KG. They struggled in vain, trying to turn things around. God Roundy tried his very best to use his Riven to dive SSK’s backline, take out their main damage-dealers. But it was all for nothing. Team SSK was an anaconda, slowly wrapping around them, crushing their bones and squeezing the life out of them. Team KG was powerless against them. No amount of struggle could stop the noose that was tightening around their necks. KG was struggling with all their might and trying their best to fight back. Tian Tian was also doing his best to dive the enemy’s backline. However, SSK was like an unbreakable noose slowly wrapping around their necks.

Finally. After 31 minutes of futile thrashing, the victory screen floated up on the screen as KG’s Blue Nexus exploded with chaotic energies. KG lost the first game. The series became 0-1.

This loss was heavy. The weight of defeat settled down on all of the Chinese fans, suffocating them. Despite the reality that was evident to everyone, though, there were still those eternal optimists who refused to give up hope and tried to reassure the other’s online.

「it’s fine, it’s only one game」

「This is abest of five!」

「there’s still hope! Don’t give up!」

「roundy players really well! As long he carried a little harder!」

「we can still win!」

However, these hollow words of comfort proved to be empty. Their hopes were completely shattered by once the second game in the series started. 4 minutes into that second game, Tian Tian’s Rumble was ganked by Team SSK’s Elise and Leona and was instantly sent back to the fountain.

《First Blood!》

The rest of the game went completely downhill for Team KG. Just like the first one. 6 minutes into it, Mafa’s Elise roamed top again, this time with Rake’s Fizz in tow. They circled behind Tian Tian’s tower and killed his Rumble again. Rumble was 0/2/0. He was clearly being targeted, that much was obvious. SSK knew that God Roundy was KG’s shining hope, and they wanted to crush that early on. But there was nothing that the rest of KG could do to help. Tian Tian’s top lane was completely shut down during the early game. The rest of the game only got progressively worse for Team KG. 

10 minutes: The gold gap increased to 4,000 in SSK’s favour.

15 minutes: A team fight broke out around the Dragon Pit. Rake’s Fizz initiated the fight by picking off Konjac’s Jinx, instantly putting KG at a disadvantage. SSK won the fight 4-to-1 and pulled ahead even further. 

27 minutes: The game ended. SSK was one game away from winning the matchup, and KG had a fat doughnut on their hands.

The Chinese fans watching felt their chests tighten. Some were so nervous that they started shaking. One more loss and KG was out. Was there any hope left? Could KG pull a miracle comeback? The answer was no. Cold and cruel reality snuffed out the dying embers of hope.

The 3rd game started with an invade. Team SSK pushed through KG’s jungle and a Level 1 teamfight broke out. There was a fire-fight! And a massacre. Team SSK picked up 3 kills, two for their top Hecarim and one for their midlane Yasuo. Team KG didn’t manage to get any kills in that fight.

KG had fallen behind before the game even started, and the fat lady had finished warming up and started belting out the first notes of her opera.

10 minutes: The gold gap was 4,000.

At 20 minutes: The gold gap increased to 10,000.

Then, game over. When the purple victory emblem floated up over KG’s ruined Nexus, the Chinese fans watching online fell silent. KG was knocked out of the League of Legends Season 5 World Championship Semi-finals with a score of 0-3. A clean sweep. Many of the Chinese pros watching World grimaced and looked away. Countless Chinese fans online felt their hearts slowly turn cold, as if their entire world had turned gray. KG had lost. The LPL had lost. They were completely crushed by Team SSK without any chance of fighting back.