𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚁𝚞𝚕𝚎𝚜 || c.ch × k.sw ||

[E.ight]

"what do you mean you're leaving the team?" his voice cracked through a sore throat, yeah he was still sick.

"look, we've been in dozens of tournaments and barely get through most of them. i got a new manager at work and he's a lot less lenient on my mistakes. i can't risk taking days off for the tournament, i could get fired." sunwoo could hear his sadness through the phone. it was hard to listen to.

"sangyeon, how are we supposed to find another teammate on short notice? this was supposed to be our big win! without you the whole dynamic is gone, who's going to lead TheBoyz?"

"i'm really sorry sunwoo, i wish i would have known sooner. but, i think you'll find another sentinel though! i believe in you guys. i have to go, sorry again but really i think you guys can make it this time. bye, i'll talk to you later."

"hyung..." the older hung up before he could speak and sunwoo let out a heavy sigh.

great, now he somehow had to get rid of his sickness soon, find a new teammate as soon as possible, and either find a new roommate or win the dang tournament so he can pay his rent. the stress was piling up but he had to find a way to recruit a new member or else they won't qualify anymore. they had to be local as well, or at least able to commute a few times, to make it a little easier to get acquainted and form a proper team relationship.

he had a few ideas.

-

"okay, team. i'm sad to announce that sangyeon, our dear leader, is no longer with us. and no, he's not in a better place unfortunately." this meeting was made a few days later, a day everyone was available to see eachother in person.

"sunwoo he's not dead."

"well, eric, according to me he is. so we have to find a replacement as soon as possible." he cleared his throat. "i was going to head over to some internet cafes and look for players. i don't want to post anything online yet. we should split up into pairs. changmin, you're coming with me."

"aye, hyunjae that means it's you and me!" eric threw his arm around the other's shoulder and they fist bumped. "when do we leave?"

"right now. we can't waste any time, we only have a month to recruit and train a new member. we need to win the next tournament, losing is not an option."

"preach it, mr. kim! that's my cue, i'll get the car ready and then we can head out."

the four of them finalized their plan and headed out, each pair in a different direction.

-

"are we heading to DreamNet PC first? it's better to start from the bottom and work our way back to your apartment, right?" changmin made a turn heading to the first internet cafe and sunwoo just agreed with him.

"i haven't been to this pc in years, i heard it's been renovated and gets more visitors since it's nearby my old school." it made him nostalgic just to think about his school days. "oh! i just remembered."

"hm?"

he pulled his phone out of his pocket and frantically tapped and scrolled on his screen. the notification was almost lost but he found it again and held his phone out to the driving changmin.

"he liked a picture from 2016, what does this mean? i only have like 40 likes on this picture. no one ever scrolls down that far to like my pics! is he trying to say something?"

"who? chanhee?" he quickly glanced at the screen, barely seeing what he was talking about- he had to keep his eyes on the road after all. "woah- dude he's into you. that's a sign! you should do it back, he's trying to get your attention."

"really?" huh, he didn't understand all these social media methods of trying to get someone's attention. did he really have to do such cryptic things to get sunwoo's attention? he already had it. he just wished he was more direct and didn't have to put so much effort. regardless of what he thought, if changmin told him to return the 'like' then he was going to do it. did the picture matter or did it just have to be a random one?

chanhee liked a picture of him and his friends, so he scrolled down until he found a similar one. his account only went two years back, though. his very first post had hundreds of likes, still a lot less than the recent ones.

he had dark hair and was posing with a hand on his face, his tiny pinky tattoo visible. he'd never noticed it before but it was there.

he double tapped the picture and the heart showed up under his finger. the deed was done, yet he couldn't stop looking at the picture for some reason. chanhee with dark brown hair really hit different, yet the pink hair he had now fit him so well too. 

"we're here, loverboy." changmin snapped him out of his thoughts, a smirk formed on his face after seeing what had sunwoo in such a trance.

"ah-" he turned his screen off, "okay! i prepared some flyers to hand out to the players. a lot of the kids here should be around high school age so they'd still be eligible to join our team."

he split the stack of flyers in two and handed a stack to changmin. they then paid for their time in the cafe and walked in, immediately splitting up and going around to possible recruits to mention their current predicament- in the least creepy and annoying way possible.

sunwoo had his mask on to prevent from spitting his sickness everywhere, so it wasn't as easy to recognize him as a semi-popular streamer. but, luckily for him, a few kids there knew of him due to being a local himself.

already they had a ton of kids excited to try out, except there was one in the far corner that almost hid behind his computer screen. he wore a white sweater with the hoodie on, keeping his head down. he was sitting in an almost completely empty row, so sunwoo took the initiative to go over and talk to him. 

"hi, my name is sunwoo. my friends and i are entering a tournament in about a month but one of our teammates dropped out. if you play valorant, we could totally use your help if you're interested." he held the small paper out towards him. he just needed to take it and he and changmin could go to the next stop.

"thank you." he kept his head low, doing a small bow and reaching over to take the flyer from him.

sunwoo would have left, but this stranger's behavior gave him a weird vibe. then he saw it. his hand, there it was. a small cross tattoo on his pinky.

"you- what are you doing here?"