"How are you prepared for the new season?" Shan read out loud the comment that he saw and pondered for a while, his character stopping in the middle of the dungeon. It was a safe place where he shouldn't be attacked.
They spend the entire summer doing almost nothing. Okay, half of the summer. Moving into the new highrise building, settling in. Then they had a team-building in Czechia, which consisted of doing nothing and drinking. Thankfully, they trained during the fall lot. They weren't attending worlds, so they had plenty of time.
"Well, the new season should be okay. I won't say we will win, but we will try to win," Shan said and quickly evaded the attack of the monster he was running around. Slowly, he was getting used to streaming. He didn't have to have any attachments to the viewers and he could choose what to answer and what not.
"What does Zhu long do during the winter break?" Shan chuckled. They were training and attended the wedding. But Shan wasn't sure he could disclose the wedding as Lili tried to keep it secret.
"Training," he answered only, hoping it would be enough. He could run on the map, already almost without looking. Those quests he started to stream with were dailies, easy peasy to finish. It was better to do them right at the beginning of each session, otherwise, he would forget it later.
Today, he planned to go into the arena, just randomly PvPing some players. It was nice to practice because some people were unpredictable. He finished dailies and read the chat for a while, answering some game-related questions, before he noticed a particular one.
"How come you are so good? I just started and I suck. I don't think this game is for me." Shan chuckled. It made him remember his beginnings, yet the amusement soon dissipated when his past hit him hard.
Everyone on the stream noticed his glassy-looking eyes, pale complexion, and his character getting killed by a road monster when he was distantly staring at the screen.
Shan, then called San in Korea. His name meant mountain. He was a nice hill you could relax on for his beloved ones, but a deep slope hard to climb for those who didn't like him. That was what his father said, how he named him.
Very young, he just entered high school and thankfully found some friends that didn't mind that he spent most of his free time practicing his piano. His parents were proud of him, but San hated it…
"Do you want to go to an internet cafe with us? This game has been popular lately. We can play together!" San looked at the pile of worksheets he had in front of him, the darkening sky outside, and something rebelling just arose. Something that was deeply hidden before.
"Sure," he answered Woojin, and Jiun nodded with a bright smile. Jiun was round and all squishy. Woojin was tall and too skinny with glasses. They looked nerdy, and they behaved nerdily, but San loved it. He loved them.
All three of them escaped school and hid in the internet cafe. San was so excited to make a new account.
"What are your nicknames?" he asked while pondering about his own.
"DarkGhost," Woojin shared and put on his headset. San was totally captivated by that cool name. But everything he tried on was not available.
"I'm Gravity," Jiun chuckled, and San thought that was even cooler. He laughed to himself as he thought of something. He tried four letters and surprisingly it let him use it.
"HNYG? What is that?" Woojin asked, and San's face lit up with a proud smile.
"HiddeN YounglinG…" he shared and the two that were listening just rolled their eyes and jokingly moved away from him, showing they had nothing to do with him. But almost immediately, they turned to him and explained everything that was needed to know.
"You are so bad. Your only advantage was that you have quick fingers and you know where the keys are, or you would have died instantly." Jiun was complaining, but San didn't mind. He levelled up thirty levels with them and everything was going really well with him. He loved the game.
"You suck," Woojin said after he completely defeated San in the arena. Well, or San could say Woojin completely humiliated him. He almost, almost killed him, but then walked away and let him heal, only attacking him again and almost killing him again too. While mocking him.
"What about getting me at least once? What if you managed to land your attack?" All the sentences were like this.
"What do you expect of me when it's my first day?!" he shouted and threw away the headset. It was so humiliating. Especially for someone like him, who was praised for being a genius since he could remember.
"Calm your tits down. You would have no chance against me even after ten years. I'm training every day to be a pro player." Woojin shared, and it calmed down San a bit, but inside he was still burning. He was determined to train and defeat Woojin just to wipe that smirk off of his face.
"I had rough beginnings too. I was always losing to one person. No matter how much I tried, I lost. But try to train more. Training is everything and believe me, no one is born a genius. Even geniuses practice a lot," Shan said to the camera, blinking away the tears that threatened to roll down his face. He shook his head and slapped himself on his cheeks just to wake up.
Next time, he would be more careful about questions from the past. And even now, the flying comments that almost filled his screen were all concerned about what happened.
"Shanshan, your mother is here. I talked to her a bit and…" Lily stopped when she noticed he was on the streaming computer. She mouthed sorry and backed up a bit. Shan sighed and excused himself, pausing the game and muting the mic.
"What happened?" he asked, and Lili jerked herself as if she was shocked to see him.
"You could have continued. But… she already left. Somehow your mother was okay after interrogating me and said that finally, you will have another to control you." Shan was standing with his mouth open. And it fell even more when Lili muttered: "As if someone could control you…"
"I'm not that bad," he said, his voice calm. But got offended at Lili's raised brow. She was really nice. She didn't try to get close to him as intrusively as some other people did. Yet, she cared from afar. Offering her point of view, but being okay if you did not act upon it.
Shan really liked her.
And she wasn't the only one. Against his will, more and more people in this building were getting under his skin.
Neither San nor Shan was sure he liked it. Because getting close to people was what got him to the psychologist…