Kevin soon began typing away, his two index fingers hopping as fast as they could from key to key, the arrhythmic tapping sounds especially loud as Yu Pengkai tried to focus on his studies.
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Your Direct Messages with SupremeDragonLord:
wallythewarrior: hiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!
SupremeDragonLord: Hi.
wallythewarrior: how did you think hte joan of arc played?
wallythewarrior: *the
SupremeDragonLord: Were the two of you queued together?
wallythewarrior: yes!!!!!! :))))))))))
-----
Yu Pengkai took a deep breath, trying one last time to block out the frantic typing that seemed to grow louder with each passing second. He closed his eyes, bringing the textbook up close to his face before opening his eyes again.
Tap.
The words and chemical equations seemed even more nonsensical now that they were quite literally right in front of him.
TAP.
He had to get away. If he stayed now, he would be back down the rabbit hole again before he even knew it.
Yu Pengkai slammed the book shut once more before scanning around the room. There, on the other side of the classroom, another seat had opened up since a few students had come over to see them play Kings of Valor.
Without a second thought, he slid out of his current chair, trying to grab the textbook with one hand. This book must have weighed a solid five pounds, and with a sheepish look of embarrassment, he watched as it fell back onto the desk with a loud thud.
There was a moment of awkward silence as the eyes of everyone were on him again. Even Kevin temporarily paused his rushed typing to gawk at Yu Pengkai.
"Sorry, I'm just going to head over there to study." He looked them evenly in the eye and admitted, secretly wondering why he was apologizing to a group of high schoolers. "It's a bit hard to focus here."
"Wait Kai, are you sure it's your first time playing?" After holding in the question for a while, Josh finally mustered the courage to ask. It wasn't like he was super close with Yu Pengkai in the past. But for some reason, the Yu Pengkai today seemed almost unfamiliar to him, a bit more distanced than before if it was possible.
There was no response.
"I don't really mean anything, but your Alexander the Great plays were amazing. It was literally outplay after outplay!" Josh added. "Have you seriously not played him before?"
"Yeah, even this Cleopatra player is talking about how good you were!" Kevin pitched in, pausing in the middle of his statement to type out a few more characters in the chat.
Although Yu Pengkai knew that neither of the two meant any harm, at the split moment, he found it surprisingly hard to breathe as the memories he had been working so hard to suppress flowed freely back into his mind.
"Pentakill, was this seriously your first professional game? You played absolutely amazingly!"
"Of course. I didn't expect the competition to be this weak here." Yu Pengkai barely spared the opposing team's coach another look before heading off to his teammates.
"Wow, how do you feel about being crowned MVP for the third straight year?"
"There's not much competition for the title now, is there?" He had given the reporter a half-hearted smile before leaving the crowds behind.
"Pentakill, do you think the Championship Cup is yours for sure this year?"
"Who else could take it?" There was a searing flame in his eyes as he said so. "The past few years worth of mistakes will not repeat themselves."
Thinking back now, his responses used to be so confident, tainted with the borderly-annoying ego of his youth. It was hard for a seventeen-year-old to stay grounded after being bombarded with so many lofty words of praise, and the former Yu Pengkai had simply figured that these curt responses were the easiest way to avoid conversation and to return to practice with his teammates.
But then what happened? The fleeing from interviews. The countless reminders that he was no longer the golden boy, the child genius of Kings of Valor. Every year, the average age of professional players became younger. And every match, he began playing it like it was his last.
After ten years of playing professional Kings of Valor, if there was anything he began fearing the most, it was any snippets of praise. Only when there were expectations would there be disappointments. And there were few in the field that knew more about disappointments than Yu Pengkai.
"Kai, you spaced out."
Yu Pengkai recollected his thoughts. "Hey, sorry, but I'm going to go over to study. I don't really want to fail the class for a game...this time." The last two words were barely audible as he near-fled to the other side of the room.
It wasn't long after he settled down that he let out a sigh of frustration and stood up again. Never once looking up, he headed back to the table and snatched the textbook up with two hands and scurried back to the empty seat.
He didn't know what he was running from, but something inside him willed him to flee. For a split second, if it weren't for the setting around him, he almost thought he was back in the dark alley. So for a few moments, Yu Pengkai sat in silence, wondering why this period was dragging into an eternity.
"Hey Kai, are you ok my dude?" Yu Pengkai looked up to see Kevin's worried eyes. "I don't know if it was something we said that made you uncomfortable…" He dropped Yu Pengkai's backpack onto the floor softly. Seeing that there were no empty chairs, he settled onto the desk beside Yu Pengkai with a loud creak.
Yu Pengkai didn't reply, not knowing when he became so sensitive to emotions.
"Well...watching you play...the few of us wanted to ask a small favor from you…" Kevin coughed lightly.
Yu Pengkai still didn't reply.
"Even if you haven't played before, we think that you're literally born to dominate Kings of Valor!" Kevin put his hand on Yu Pengkai's shoulder excitedly, ignoring the desk shaking in protest underneath him. "What do you say about coaching us!"
Kevin beamed, ruffling his already messy hair. "Oh, the Cleopatra said that he's also down for lessons!"