The blind date partner was a young woman who had just turned twenty, and she was currently attending college in Shanghai.
Xiao Bai had never understood why her family wanted her to go on blind dates when she was only twenty years old. Of course, as his mother put it, she was just trying to "make a friend."
The girl's hair was bound in braided pigtails, and she wore a white down-filled parka, along with a pink and white pleated uniform-type skirt—he had learned what those were during Jian Rong's crossdressing stream.
The girl also scanned him up and down.
He looked pretty similar to his photos, if not a bit skinnier—honestly, Xiao Bai's build couldn't really be considered fat at all. It was just that his face was quite chubby, and he was also especially pale, so he always gave off the impression of being somewhat plump.
Xiao Bai lowered his head and stared at the girl's legs for a few seconds. Right as the girl was feeling shy and started to subconsciously twist her fingers together, he looked up and said, "Young lady, it's five degrees outside in Shanghai today. Aren't you cold with your legs exposed?"
The girl paused briefly. "I'm wearing tights. They're flesh-colored, so it's hard to see at night."
Understanding suddenly dawned on Xiao Bai. "How badass."
The girl: "..."
Xiao Bai brought the girl to a barbeque place that their team often went to, which was also close to her school.
The girl had spent two hours doing her makeup, and even her lip gloss was applied exquisitely. Now, she stared at the several dozen lamb skewers on the big metal pan in front of her. "..."
Xiao Bai picked up a skewer and discovered that the person across from him wasn't moving. "Are you not gonna eat?"
"I'm... not super hungry." The girl said, "I'm not interfering with your practice, am I?"
"I don't have any practice today."
Xiao Bai responded perfunctorily. He was still thinking about that table full of Japanese food... and the look in Pine's eyes when he grabbed onto Xiao Bai's hood.
Abruptly, he remembered how Pine was initially even more arrogant than their team's domineering mid laner was when he first joined TTC. For better or worse, Jian Rong would still pay attention to other people—even though it was mostly just so he could insult them.
Meanwhile, Pine completely shut everyone else out of his world.
He ate alone, he climbed alone, he went out alone—apart from when they had to practice together, he rarely talked to anyone else.
Zhuang Yibai, who was naturally lively and vivacious, had a hard time understanding this type of person.
Therefore, he decided to try and deepen his understanding.
As the bot lane duo, they were the two people who needed to work on their rapport and teamwork the most in the team. So he got close to him, he took the initiative, he forcefully burst his way into Pine's world.
"Gege? Did you hear me?"
Xiao Bai pulled himself out of his thoughts and realized that the girl was looking at him, head tilted. "Sorry, what were you saying?"
As a result, the girl repeated her words again. "What do you usually do when you're not in practice?"
Xiao Bai: "Play LoL."
The girl: "...Isn't that the same thing as practice?"
"It's different. In practice, we have to play in high tiers or we have practice matches, and we can't play other roles, but when we're not in training, we can play whatever we want. I often go smurfing with P... with my teammate—which means we go play in the lower tiers. We can also switch up our roles and prioritize having fun."
