𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚁𝚞𝚕𝚎𝚜 || c.ch × k.sw ||

[Forty F.our]

"that was easy claps, ladies and gentlemen!" sunwoo announced after completely annihilating usone in their most recent round.

and by 'completely annihilating' he means 'just barely winning the last round after keeping a tie almost the entire game.'

"my heart is beating so fast, my eyes are hurting, and i think i have to pee." eric clutched onto the nearest person, who else could it have been other than juyeon? those two clung together like conjoined twins at times.

"you had too much coffee. try to pee it out of your system and then drink lots of water."

"yes sir mr juyeon sir."

changmin was sweating but also grinning ear to ear, "we just need one more round! we can make it to first place!"

"weren't the last two teams competing against each other all girls?"

"yes hyunjae, believe it or not we're tied with a girl team regardless of who wins." changmin began stretching once more. "at this point it doesn't matter to me anymore, i'll be happy if they win. maybe finally you'll mind your own business."

"i didn't mean anything bad i was just saying... they're pretty good if they made it this far."

"that's not important right now! what's important is the fact that we won and even better that it was against chanhee's ex-boyfriend's team." was that the only thing sunwoo cared about?

"geonhak's team has only been competing professionally for like... a year."

"juyeon don't ruin this for me. they can beat us in the future but we won today. we're honestly at our highest point so far, I'd be happy too if we went home with second place."

"this is still my first tournament- i don't know why I'm not more excited to be so close to winning the entire thing."

"that's called 'shock' my dear juyeon, it'll probably hit later tonight. but hey," he paused, "we owe you one. you've helped us a lot, really."

juyeon began to stutter, "n-no! it's the other way around. i've been dreaming of this opportunity for ages, it doesn't feel fair getting such an advantage of being put into an already professional sports team."

"look, we may be professional but only enough to get us so far. you were the push we needed, right guys?"

changmin, eric, and hyunjae (though hesitant at first) agreed.

"it was a nice change of pace, we stuck with the same old strategy every time and it's no surprise they didn't work out. no offense, hyunjae."

yeah changmin's words hurt a little, it almost sounded like sangyeon leaving the team was the best thing to ever happen to them. however they were kind of right, he was too focused on his real job to work well with the team. it wasn't his fault, but his dream was never to become an esports gamer anyway. hyunjae would just miss playing and winning with his boyfriend, but he could always count on him to be in the audience.

"none taken, i know we're making sangyeon proud and that's what's important to me."

"i'm also really glad you're in our team," eric began, forgetting suddenly all the pain he felt right after the last round, "it's been fun playing and learning with you- please say you'll stay in our team after this tournament?"

"aw, youngjae." the elder wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, "you're my favorite team member. i'd love to stay in the boyz, but only if it's an unanimous decision."

sunwoo interjected, "you're kidding, right? everyone in favor of keeping juyeon in the team, raise your hand."

eric's hand was the first to shoot up, followed by sunwoo and changmin. hyunjae, again, hesitated but at this point he really had no choice. he liked the guy anyway, he was the best choice for sangyeon's replacement in his opinion.

"see? you're not going anywhere." sunwoo was proud of his team, this was an excellent choice moving forward and it made the future seem bright. "from now on, we are the boyz. the five of us, sangyeon, and chanhee."

"wh- don't forget younghoon! he's important too."

"oh of course," the group laughed at changmin, "younghoon is part of the boyz too, he's a little forgetful okay? i haven't seen too much character development from him in this story."

"what are you talking about?"

"nothing changmin, don't worry about it."

with that, the team used the rest of their time to plan a few more final strategies. most of the pressure had been removed upon exceeding their own expectations and making it to second place, so they weren't going to stress themselves out too much.

they were all completely cool as cucumbers, this mindset alone would give them an advantage over the other team. there's nothing worse than making mistakes when you're nervous.

everything just felt like it was going according to plan? eric eventually did pee out the coffee he had earlier, and his eye pain went away. changmin was no longer jittery thanks to doing some stretches and breathing exercises. juyeon was at ease knowing eric felt better, and of course finally being an official member also played a role in his mood.

sunwoo was in a bit of a slump in the beginning of the tournament, but beating chanhee's ex-boyfriend's team really put a pep in his step. and well hyunjae was... just hyunjae. he and sangyeon were going back and forth non-stop texting, which is what they all think is keeping him so sane and composed.

it almost seemed as if nothing could go wrong- oh?

while they were relaxing in their break room, a staff member knocked and opened the door- not waiting for a response.

"the boyz? your team has been accused of cheating and are under investigation. if evidence of foul play is found, you will be disqualified."

the news hit all five of them like a truck. the happy atmosphere was shattered and their chests were heavy- it made no sense.

"cheating? who accused us?" this has never happened before, at any of their tournaments. sunwoo's rage began to build up, would usone be the team? no, chanhee said they wouldn't act that way.

"i'm not allowed to discuss that here, but i will be needing to take 'lee juyeon' into a separate room for questioning."