[✔] r (i) v a (l) r (y) // smeb x faker

ch 10

no new messages.

it's been a week since their meeting at the cafe.

kyungho sighed.

he began to wonder if sanghyeok was ignoring him. had sanghyeok taken offense at his slightly cheeky remarks after all?

or maybe sanghyeok was just busy training. his team had been severely underperforming lately, perhaps from the overwhelming pressure, roster changes, or the lack of synergy - and comments and criticism from netizens only fueled the fire.

no wonder sanghyeok is trying his best to work hard.

kyungho eventually decided to leave him alone.

however, for some reason, he had also decided to make an effort and set aside some time to spectate skt's matches. he watched skt win (and lose) matches here and there, occasionally both annoying and amusing his teammates by cheering a bit too loud. he watched as sanghyeok - his rival, and his team celebrated for finally making it to playoffs.

he also watched as he and kt rolster destroyed skt's nexus in a four game series.

he knew that no matter how much he wanted to be on good terms with sanghyeok, he had to win. he was competitive, and they were rivals after all, but he couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt as his fingers swiftly danced across the keys on the keyboard while his other hand clicked the mouse at an insane speed, bringing the once mighty sk telecom t1 to its knees.

kt had made it, they placed third.

skt placed fourth, which wasn't too bad... but...

kyungho snapped from his thoughts as sanghyeok and his team slowly approached the kt rolster players and shook their hands one by one.

he stiffly smiled and shook everyone else's hands, but when it came to sanghyeok, he held on a little longer.

"i'm sorry," he blurted out awkwardly.

sanghyeok gave him a tight smile. "don't worry about it. the better team won, didn't it?"

kyungho could sense the bitterness in sanghyeok's voice. he wasn't sure whether said tone was directed towards skt themselves - who as a team, had made many, many mistakes this spring split, or towards kt rolster - the team that robbed skt off their chance to represent korea in msi, or kyungho himself - for beating sanghyeok.

kyungho groaned internally. no, no, kyungho! you're just overthinking!

"kyungho?"

sanghyeok's voice snapped him out of his reverie... again. kyungho reminded himself to stop spacing out so much, he had done so at least three times today.

"um, yes, sanghyeok?" kyungho asked, looking at the midlaner.

wait... is sanghyeok... blushing? he looked embarrassed.

suddenly kyungho noticed the camera flashes around them, and to his horror, he also noticed that his hand was still tightly gripping sanghyeok's.

sanghyeok sighed as he saw realization dawning on kyungho's face.

"yes," the midlaner deadpanned, "you can stop holding my hand now."