Staring at the familiar drab buildings and the unnecessarily-big Eskimo head painted onto the side of the gym with the bold blue letters, "Home of the Warriors," Yu Pengkai wanted to jump out of his sister's car.
While some claim that high school is where all the fun happens, he felt none of it during his four years at Yort High School, a rigorous STEM magnet school that supposedly attracted the brightest minds. But considering even someone like him got in, he seriously questioned the school's standards.
All he knew was that the minute he grabbed his high school diploma, he was out of there as soon as he could and virtually deleted all of his memories from this time period. And until now, he never even considered setting foot back in there.
The minute they stepped out of the car, his sister disappeared to her group of friends so quickly that he found himself abandoned in the middle of the student parking lot.
He gulped. Although they were twins, she was somehow an entire level higher than him in most classes, and he suddenly realized that he had no clue where to go as he stared blankly at the passing students. Somehow, he was lucky enough to find his printed schedule sandwiched inside his folder, but it was almost like reality had yet to sink into him as he looked at the list of teacher names, some recognizable and some not as much. Nevertheless, as much as he didn't remember what they taught, what they looked like, or what they did, he clearly remembered what they all made him feel—pain.
"Hey, Kai, did you do the Dor homework?" A somewhat familiar face called out to him from a few cars down, and Yu Pengkai tried to pretend to rub his eyes to hide his awkwardness.
The approaching boy had unruly brown hair, random curls that stuck out at all the odd angles, and a face full of spotted freckles. His wide smile probably should have made him easily identifiable, but Yu Pengkai could find no such name match in his brain's inventory list.
To think, just a day ago, or should he say ten years later, his biggest fear was losing a game at the World Championships. Now, it suddenly became learning how to talk to a high schooler and finding how to get to his classes on time.
"Hey…" Yu Pengkai's voice wavered as the boy made his way over.
Unexpectedly, the curly-haired kid swung an arm over Yu Pengkai's shoulder and drew himself closer. "Yeah, I pulled an all-nighter trying to learn Joan of Arc," he admitted with a sheepish smile. "So what do you say about the Dor homework? Help a brother out."
Yu Pengkai couldn't stop himself from gawking. "Joan of Arc?"
The kid couldn't help but turn around with a sideways stare of awe, almost as if he had discovered a new species of human. "You don't know about Kings of Valor?" The shock and hurt betrayal in his voice were undeniable, and if people didn't know about the topic, the tone would have surely made it seem like he just discovered his mother's cancer diagnosis.
"How do you not know about Kings of Valor?" he repeated, his voice becoming increasingly loud with each word. Before he knew it, Yu Pengkai found the eyes of almost all neighboring students on him, some with looks of pity, others with equal disbelieve.
"I—" He was not given a chance to clarify before being cut off again.
"It's literally the hottest new MOBA game. Like it's been out for about a week, and the downloads are already off the charts! Like come on, unless you've been living under a rock, you've had to have heard of it!" While he continued rambling on about different champions and how broken some were, Yu Pengkai had already tuned him out.
"Hey, uh… homework?" he politely reminded, ultimately deciding that he didn't want to expose his earlier reaction and ruin this kid's hopes. In all honesty, all he wanted to comment on initially was how all of Joan of Arc's skills were point and click and definitely didn't need an entire night to learn. Heck, the champion should only take a maximum of one game to master.
"Oh, shoot!" After realizing Yu Pengkai was even more clueless than him regarding the assignment, he sped off toward another group of boys, screaming, "If you want me to teach you how to play, I'll see you in fourth period!"
Yu Pengkai couldn't hold back his laugh. Maybe if he actually took coaching from this kid, he might seriously terminate his eSports career before it even started.
No, he couldn't let Kings of Valor distract him from schoolwork this time. He quickly recollected his thoughts. Classes. Right, only classes. No games.
Luckily, by peeking through every room's windows for the next fifteen minutes, he was able to locate his zero period class. Mr. Dor was one of those teachers that you couldn't quite forget.
Sure, chances of you learning the calculus material were low, but the scars he left on you with his teaching style would stay with you for life. Yes, he was one of those teachers.
And although Yu Pengkai was among the first to arrive at class, he patiently stayed behind, politely holding the door open for the rest of his classmates to shuffle inside. No, it really wasn't that he was a gentleman at heart or anything. It was just that the chances of picking the seat that was his was much higher after most of them got taken.
"Quiz time!" As soon as he settled into one of the remaining chairs, he was instantly reminded of why he became an eSports player in the first place.
He was used to doing practical applications like calculating skill cooldowns and buff respawn times, not things he would never touch again in his life. And yes, he could confidently say that he never saw an integral again after high school. Drawing squiggles in place of the integrals, he had never been so confident in predicting his quiz score: a beautiful zero out of twenty.
Somehow, just somehow, he made it to all of his classes. Sure, he didn't know what homework to turn in and was too embarrassed to ask those around him, and he failed every single in-class assignment and quiz, but he managed to stay out of trouble.
Yet, even though it had felt like an eternity had passed, the day was barely half over.
Sighing, he dragged himself into fourth period, computer science class.
He looked at the only seat remaining in the room. Next to it, the curly-haired boy was eagerly beckoning to him, gesturing excitedly to his computer screen.
Only, Yu Pengkai almost had to do a double take as he rubbed his eyes in disbelief. In the row, all three computers were switched blatantly to the Kings of Valor loading screen.