Chapter Text
Zhou Zekai braced himself.
The number Senior gave him seemed to taunt him. He practiced what he would say in front of the mirror but his nervousness didn't go away. He still couldn’t bring himself to press the call button.
Just do it, he kept giving himself continuous pep talks in his mind.
Ay, he groaned and hit his forehead with his phone. He wondered if his Vice Captain could help push him to press the call button.
Ring .
He blinks in surprise when he hears the telltale sound of a call being done. He sees the word 'calling' for Senior Ye's contact number. He had accidentally pressed the call button.
A sharp inhale. He wanted to press cancel but a larger part of him prayed the call would come through.
With every ring, his breath shortens. It feels like a long time before the call connected.
"New phone, who dis?" The casual greeting made him blink. The voice sounded different. Less the rough voice his mind can hear even in silence and more young, boyish in a way. "Hello?"
"Senior…?" He asked, wanting to clear the confusion his mind saying that the tone is Senior Ye's but the voice isn't.
"Huh?" Confusion can be heard, "Who is this?"
"Zhou Zekai…" He feels a part of his heart breaking. Did Senior not save his number? Or maybe he just answered the call without checking the caller ID. Yes, he assured himself, that's probably it.
There was only a small sound of "oh," from the other end.
He steels himself and says, "Senior, I won the championship."
Zhou Zekai wondered if that was okay or if that was too formal. He wanted to try being casual with Senior and he hopes it does come up like that. He wanted to ask Senior Ye for his opinion, maybe fish for some praise.
Before he could, the other end cuts him. "Er - sorry, um, Zhou Zekai," Senior Ye's tone becomes more awkward and that wasn't how he knows him. "My brother, Ye Xiu, is not around."
Zhou Zekai's eyes widened and his face flushed red. "Oh," his lips trembled, "sorry."
He wants to die. This is too embarrassing. This is somewhere in between better and worse than fumbling in front of his crush. This is him fumbling in front of his crush's brother.
"No problem. I'll tell Xiu-ge to call you back later when he's back, are you okay with that?" Senior Ye's brother is far too kind.
He wants to say that they should just forget the whole thing, but here he is wanting to relay that he had called. He wondered which brother he would have to thank.
"So, uh, will you be okay with that?" Ye-di asks after the silence from his end.
"En," he nods and realizes that he can't be seen by the one on the other end. "Yes."
"Okay, I'm hanging up now." Ye-di says, and he ended the call.
Zhou Zekai looked down at his phone and gave a sigh. How disappointing that he wasn't able to hear Senior's voice. But, he brightens, Ye-di will tell Senior that he called and he might call him back.
Zhou Zekai's phone never left his side and with every notification, it was whipped out. Everyone was definitely on edge that week because of him.
---
Ye Xiuwu meant to tell San Ye. Really.
No lies.
There was only one little problem.
Mucheng introduced him to tear jerking Korean drama that just hurts his soul. It was a beautiful experience.
They ended up forgetting about playing that day and the next. With eyes glued to the screen, they spent an entire day finishing 20 episode of historical Korean drama where Ye Xiuwu laughed, cried, and ended up in a sobbing mess as his CP ends up being broken into tiny pieces - just like his heart.
It was a glorious experience.
He wanted to rewatch it.
So, he did. Twice.
And then he found a more modern K-drama that just broke his heart even more. He loved it.
And that is how Ye Xiuwu forgot the fact that - the Gunner King, the Face of Glory, voted most handsome player - Zhou Zekai ever called.
Oops.