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It’s Cheonju who notices it first.
To be fair, it happens to be Cheonju that notices most of the things around the Samsung dorm.
He notices the dirty socks Dayoon stashes under the bed, the pile of not so decent magazines under Seungbin’s pillow, etc. He notices the way Eojin dotes on Hyeongseok and how the only thing Hyeongseok doesn’t mind giving his undivided attention to besides League is food.
He notices the way Sehyung and Inkyu get into fights and disappear randomly only to emerge later with mussed up hair and what look like bruises on Inkyu’s wrists. He does however, his best to not notice the slight limp in Inkyu’s step or the smug smile on Sehyung’s face.
Anyways, the thing is- there’s not a lot of that escapes his observant eye when it comes to the Samsung team.
So naturally, he’s the first to notice the little tab Hyukkyu keeps open on the side of his browser. There’s nothing too special about it, except that Hyukkyu happens to have it open all the time. It sits there when he’s playing solo queue, when he’s chatting with friends on Facebook, and even when he’s sleepy, slumping in his chair and trying valiantly to stay awake.
Even more suspicious is the fact that Hyukkyu never actually clicks onto that little tab and it just leaves Cheonju so curious. He needs to know. He can’t be the keeper of secrets and not know.
He gets his chance one evening after everyone has more or less dragged their deadweight bodies into the bunk beds, ready to call it a night. Hyukkyu’s still playing league, which is typical, but Cheonju is in the mood to snoop around just to see what will happen. He waits in a corner, hidden from view which is kind of creepy, but not really considering that he lives here.
Hyukkyu’s waiting in queue, but as soon as the queue pops, Cheonju watches him exit out of the League client instead.
Interesting.
Also a little bit selfish if you ask Cheonju. Queue times in this elo level are really long and Hyukkyu’s just cost 9 other people somewhere across Korea another few minutes of wait time.
Regardless, Cheonju’s concerns are dismissed the second he watches Hyukkyu sneakily open up browser he’s had minimized for so long. He slumps down in his chair, simultaneously scooting in closer so that the the back of the chair blocks off the left-half of his screen.
He tabs over and Cheonju nearly pops something in his neck, trying to get a glimpse.
On the screen, well, there’s a screen.
He can’t hear what’s going on, but out of the corner of his eye he sees a little purple box streaming a video and it hits Cheonju that Hyukkyu is watching someone on Twitch. It’s not porn, thank god, but the fact that Hyukkyu has been so protective of this little tab, so secretive about it somehow makes it feel just as scandalous.
It’s innocent enough that Cheonju doesn’t suspect anything too fishy, but then he sees Hyukkyu smile absently into the air, cheeks a little flushed and knows it’s not a fever. Hyukkyu is watching someone stream and he, honest to god, looks a little in love.
“What are you doing?” Dayoon’s voice sounds behinds his ear and it sends Cheonju stumbling into the room, leaping out of his hiding spot.
“Nothing!” he says at the same time Hyukkyu exits out of the browser and spins his chair around, looking shell shocked.
“It’s nothing,” Hyukkyu stammers and honest to god, blushes .
Cheonju’s watched Hyukkyu grow up, he knows when there’s “nothing” and nothing. He’s walked in on so many other “nothing” scenarios to know that this is something. Nothing is when Seungbin stumbles back into the dorm two seconds away from puking his latest binge of alcohol onto the floor and the rest of them clamor around to hide him before the managers walk in. Nothing is when Inkyu makes up some bullshit excuse and makes them late to a team meeting and when Cheonju goes looking for them, he ends up walking in on Inkyu on his knees.
Using that scale of measure, this is Something Big.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” Cheonju says and Dayoon behind them sends them both a confused look.
“Who is it?” he asks and Hyukkyu immediately averts his gaze.
“It’s nothing,” he mumbles again and shuts off the display of his monitor as if that’s enough to stop Cheonju from yanking his mouse away.
Dayoon, quick to catch on as always, grabs the keyboard and between the two of them and a weakly protesting Hyukkyu, they manage to pull up Hyukkyu’s browser history.
“Who is reh-kuhls?” Dayoon spells out slowly and Cheonju knows he’s heard that name somewhere before.
Hyukkyu keeps his lips sealed tight, but he’s squirming under their gazes.
Cheonju knows he’s heard the name somewhere before. The OGN casters maybe? An interview somewhere?
“Rekkles!” Dayoon suddenly shouts and all the color from Hyukkyu’s face disappears. “He’s the AD Carry for Fnatic!”
Cheonju immediately swoops in to follow. “Are you dating him? Are you seeing him privately?”
“How?” Hyukkyu has every right to look affronted even as embarrassed as he is. “He lives in Germany hyung. Please be quiet. It’s nothing, I just like watching him play Ezreal.”
“Is that what kids are calling it these days?” Cheonju asks pointedly at Dayoon who shrugs in earnest reply.
“You’re making a scene hyung,” Hyukkyu pouts and he tugs on the mouse still in Cheonju’s hands.
Kids these days, they grow up so fast. One day they’re still in diapers and the next, they’re off having illicit relations with an enemy AD carry, whisked away under the moonlight.
“You didn’t raise him when he was still in diapers,” Eojin states rather disdainfully. He’s standing by the doorway, hair messy like he’s just woken up. “Can you guys keep it down? I’m trying to-”
“Hush,” Cheonju murmurs and continues scrolling through his phone to find photos of simpler times. When his children were young and careful and not worried about love across continents.
---
It slips out as things tend to do when Cheonju has made the keeper of secrets. Although this one is less of a secret and more speculation so to speak.
Cheonju knows the difference, but it’s hard for him to keep a lid on anything when Seungbin pries at it with a heavy hand and a cocky smile that’s just begging to be knocked down a peg or two.
Ozone and Blue are slated to face-off in the semi-finals of Spring OGN and accordingly it sets off a Cold War back in the dorm.
The minute Samsung Blue beat CJ Frost and Ozone take their win over SKT T1 K, the atmosphere between them becomes stilted. It’s like there’s an invisible wall between them during meal times and Inkyu’s adamant suggestion to keep their mingling to a minimum doesn’t help.
“We’re at war now,” he says, very seriously, and then with a smirk. “Though it’s a little too late to leak strategies now, isn’t it?”
“No one is leaking anything,” Eojin answers back just as tersely and between the two of them, Cheonju wonders if the war has ever ended.
Inkyu takes a step forward and Sehyung grabs his arm, tugging him back.
They return to their practice room to find their mouses unplugged and tied together in intricate knots with a ribbon tied on top of it just to make it all the more frustrating to unknot.
Cheonju knows it’s Sehyung’s idea. He just knows that it is.
“That’s a little petty, don’t you think?” Cheonju calls down the hallway where he can hear Seungbin snickering.
It’s not in Cheonju’s nature to be vengeful, especially not in a prank war he knows they can’t win for all of Dayoon’s enthusiasm and Eojin’s diehard mentality. It’s Samsung Ozone they’re up against after all.
All the same, he finds himself walking over to Seungbin who hasn’t moved an inch, leaning up against the wall like he’s done nothing wrong.
“Hyukkyu’s got himself an admirer,” he finds himself saying. “That handsome European AD Carry.”
“So?” Seungbin says trying to sound flippant. “He’s not good enough for Hyukkyu.”
“Ah, but Hyukkyu might like him back,” Cheonju continues lightly. “He watches his streams all night and last night when we caught him.” He leans in to make the next bit sound extra juicy. “Hyukkyu even blushed.”
“So why are you telling me this?” Seungbin asks pointedly even as the grin on Cheonju’s face doesn’t leave. “Do you expect me to do something about this?”
“Of course not,” Cheonju says, sounding alarmed. “I’m just hoping that you’ll tilt.”
---
The thing is Seungbin isn’t gay. He’s got a girlfriend and they’ve been dating for some time now.
They also have some okay sex if he’s being modest about it. They hold hands, they wear couple items and they kiss. Pretty standard stuff.
So the thing is: Seungbin really isn’t gay, but he’s thought about it maybe once or twice before. Not exactly being gay, but more along the lines of kissing Hyukkyu, holding hands, having some more than pretty okay sex.
Okay, fine. He’s thought a lot about it, which is why it makes perfect sense that he’s thinking a lot about it this time around.
He doesn’t know much about Rekkles at all, except that he has a perfect smile the way that all Nordic people seem to have and that his blonde hair is almost always perfectly styled. He’s fucking perfect looking and tall, but Seungbin’s still the better AD Carry so really, who wins in the end?
Besides, he thinks, Hyukkyu blushes all the time, or rather, Seungbin makes Hyukkyu blush all the time.
He thinks about Hyukkyu crying after a bad match and the way he sniffles into Seungbin’s shirt and the way that Hyukkyu squirms away from his overly affectionate kisses. He thinks about Hyukkyu’s red cheeks when Seungbin presses a kiss to his cheek, but then how he’s never thought about it meaning anything.
Hyukkyu might be gay and Seungbin is surprisingly okay with it.
More than okay, he’s almost a little obsessed.
---
And fucking Cheonju’s right, he does tilt.
He thinks about it a lot all week and when Cheonju comes over to shake his hand after Samsung Blue take them down 3-1 in the semifinals, he makes sure to grab his hand in the most crushing grip.
“Do something about it,” Cheonju winces, making a small nod towards Hyukkyu behind him.
“I intend to,” Seungbin grins back, just in case the camera found their interaction interesting enough to film.
He puts a normal smile back on his face, still smarting from the loss even as Hyukkyu arrives to shake his hands.
Seungbin tries not to smile too much, because well, his team has just been knocked out of the tournament after a long, hard split by Eojin’s team and that has to sting a bit even if he doesn’t feel it right now. But he finds himself staring at Hyukkyu’s little pout, the small tentative look in his eyes as he reaches out to take Seungbin’s hand and it’s just so damn cute that Seungbin thinks that there has to be another word for what he feels besides awfully gay.
He doesn’t think that way about any other boys, and it’s only Hyukkyu that he wants to touch and hold hands with. It’s always only been Hyukkyu.
Seungbin takes his hand in his and thinks about what would happen if he never let go. If Hyukkyu would still pull his hand back or if he would let Seungbin hold it if the cameras never caught them.
Either way it’s silly to think about because Hyukkyu might be gay, but Seungbin isn’t.
Really.
---
It’s the third time this week Enrique has caught Martin smile absentmindedly at his screen, which isn’t that suspicious except for the fact that he’s not fapping or getting a pentakill on Vayne.
He hears Martin let out a dreamy sigh and stifles the urge to facepalm.
Scratch that, he’s gotta be fapping. No guys looks that happy reading the news or even their latest highlight reel.
“Show me the tits,” Enrique says firmly, placing his hand on Martin’s shoulder. Martin to his credit doesn’t even flinch.
“I’m not watching porn,” he sighs and he even tabs back over to the azubu page to prove his point. “I’m just watching Deft play on Ezreal. Here look at this guy’s damage dealt, the way he-”
“Again?” Enrique says the same time Lauri pops his head over to ask. “Is that what kids are calling it these days?”
“It’s not,” Martin mutters weakly, but there’s no stopping these two when they get an idea in mind.
“Soooo,” Enrique draws out. “Are you taking notes on his positioning ?”
“Are you,” Lauri’s voice sounds from his other ear. “Enjoying his laning before he gets ganked by multiple people?”
“You two are disgusting,” Martin frowns and that gets another laugh out of both of them.
“Oh god he’s getting defensive,” Lauri laughs. “Don’t be mad, we get it: no one is allowed to gank your Korean boyfriend except you.”
“We all know you have dibs,” Enrique says very seriously. “You gotta act fast though, he’s pretty high in demand.”
“What does that mean?” Martin asks, even though he’s not sure he wants to know.
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Enrique grins. “Look at him.” He points to the screen where Deft is huffing cutely. “He’s cute, he’s a god-tier ADC, he’s-”
“Wow he is cute,” Lauri notes from the other side. “No wonder you called dibs.”
“I didn’t call dibs,” Martin says vehemently. “I just think he’s a good AD Carry and I love watching his Ezreal.”
“That has to be code for something,” Enrique nods, ignoring the rest of his words. “Is it an Ezreal and Taric reference?”
“Maybe,” Lauri pauses, deep in thought. “No one plays Taric though.”
“Yeah,” Enrique agrees. “Either way, it’s pretty cute. Kind of gay, but really cute.”
It’s not gay, Martin thinks as he switches back on the tab and makes starry eyes back at his screen as Deft scrunches his nose cutely. Okay maybe he’s not watching Deft’s Ezreal all the time, but no one needs to know that.
For what it’s worth, Enrique and Lauri would know all about being gay up each other’s asses. But this, what this is between him and Deft might be a little gayer than even that.
---
There’s an interview that hits the frontpage of Reddit a few days later. It’s got a cute picture of Martin on the preview, which is why it catches Peter’s attention before any of the patch notes do.
He clicks on it and skims, up until he reaches a paragraph that reads an awful lot like a love confession, not that he’s judging or anything. It’s just that Europeans have a way with words, or maybe it’s just Martin, he thinks.
Either way, the general consensus of Reddit and anyone who is half-literate is that Martin Larsson is hella gay for Deft. It’s everywhere in the interview, his comments, everything. Certainly, no one has ever praised Peter for his Ezreal play with that many flowery adjectives before.
So it’s not like Peter is completed surprised by this, or by the fact that Martin might be gay.
He’s flirty and Peter thinks that’s fine too. Flirting is fun, he does it all the time too. He’s made a ship name for his botlane duo with Zach. Flirting is totally okay. Rush hour is a kickass name, no one thinks they’re gay or fucking. Certainly no one thought that of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
It’s just a little fanservice for the girls and sometimes the dudes too. Who doesn’t love a little chummy bromance? What if he’s not the only Samsung guy that’s gay? Oh crap, Peter called imp hella cute- God he’s even publicly told the world that he would date Deft if he could date any pro-player. What if the world thinks he’s gay now?
Peter sits at his desk a little in shock. To his left, Zach shoots him a look, but Peter can’t even look at him right now.
He’s at a loss of what to say.
Zach is still looking at him, brows furrowed as Peter clears his throat.
“Do I?” he starts. “Am I?”
“Are you?” Zach says, voice dripping with confusion.
“Do you ever think that I?” Peter blurts out and Zach just keeps staring at him.
“Peter I have no idea what you’re trying to say,” Zach replies after a moment. “Just spit it out.”
“Do you think I go overboard with the fanservice?” he says finally and Zach takes a second to digest his words.
“Overboard like in what way?” Zach says. “I think you can be a little offensive sometimes with the trash talk, but that’s just part of your public persona, y’know.”
“Not that part,” Peter says. He makes what he hopes are helpful gestures into the air. “I meant like the stuff that I do with other guys. Calling us Rush Hour, hugging people, you know, the kinda gay stuff.”
Zach’s eyes widen. “I mean it’s just fanservice right?”
Peter nods.
“Plenty of people do it right?” Zach’s voice is low, almost conspiratory.
“Yeah like the European teams,” Peter agrees and the prickle of tension in his shoulders bleeds out.
“Yeah totally. Have you seen those guys?” Zach lets out a laugh. “They practically grab each other’s asses on camera, which is fine and all, but I don’t think you go that overboard.”
“So you think I’m normal?” Peter asks and he raises both his hands up to make a meter of some sort. “So if there’s like straight on this end.” He waves one hand. “And then really gay on this end, am I like medium gay? Less than medium gay?”
“Medium gay?” Zach repeats sullenly. “What does that even mean?”
“I don’t know man,” Peter says and he honest to god has no idea what any of this means.
He’s even touched Martin’s nipples and made a vlog about it, wow. That’s hella gay even for him.
He ponders for a second that if medium gay equates to touching nipples then maybe really gay didn’t count until you had gay sex.
Peter frowns.
Do guys have a different backdoor? How does that even work?
For all the botlane synergy they’ve built up over the years, Zach still can’t read his mind, thank god. Peter waits for him to lose interest and turn back to his computer before he opens a tab on his computer, in incognito of course and gets to work on Google.
---
All the way back in Korea, Junsik catches wind of it.
Except the wind isn’t so much a tiny little breeze as it is a galewind of comments and speculation on Inven. Most of it is laughable, because Junsik knows Hyukkyu and he also has enough common sense to know that Hyukkyu is too busy grinding away in Solo Queue every day to even think about dating someone, let alone someone who lives on the other side of the planet.
He’s known Hyukkyu all his life, well almost all of it. Their friendship is over ten years in the making and if Hyukkyu were gay, Junsik thinks he would know.
He also hopes a little that Hyukkyu would tell him, and that he would feel comfortable enough to tell Junsik that he liked boys, if he did in fact like boys. If he did, then Junsik would want him to know that he’s still here for him, against all the disparaging netizen comments and then some.
After all, isn’t that what best friends are for?
---
It takes a few extra days for Rekkles’s interview to be fully translated, but when it does the Samsung dorm explodes. Not literally, like the time Sehyung sat by idly and let Seungbin put a metal fork inside the microwave, but it’s close enough.
“You guys are going to have so much gay sex at Worlds,” Sehyung says plainly. He makes a point to print out as many copies as possible, posting them all over the shared spaces in the dorm. It’s a last ditch attempt to try and tilt Samsung Blue before the Summer semi-finals, and they all know it. Hyukkyu is the by far the easiest to tilt, although Inkyu keeps insisting that tilting Eojin will have longer lasting results.
Either way they’re not about to let a prime opportunity like this pass on by.
“You could save a lot of trees by just emailing it to us, you know,” Eojin says dryly as he plucks another page of Rekkles’s interview featuring his shining face off the coffee table.
“True,” Sehyung reaches over to take the page back and tape it back down. “But where’s the fun in that. Our little Hyukkyu is a real man now, or should I say-”
“He’s not having any kind of that dirty business,” Cheonju shoots back and Sehyung raises a brow.
“You don’t know that for sure,” he grins back and ropes Hyukkyu under his arm. “Besides, don’t you think we should get an answer for that pretty soon?”
Gwanhyung shrugs, not looking the least bit preoccupied with the idea of peeling for Hyukkyu. “He’s got a point. There’s an awful lot of money in there now.”
“In where?” Hyukkyu asks and the nine enigmatic smiles he gets in return does not make him feel any more in the loop.
“The betting pool,” Inkyu answers easily. He takes a seat across from them and crosses one leg over the other.
“For?” Hyukkyu asks even though he has a bad feeling he knows already.
“About you and that Rekkles guy,” Seungbin spits out, particularly disdainfully.
“We want to know how far you guys have gone,” Cheonju says placatingly.
“Like first base, second base or,” Sehyung grins. “All the way.”
Hyukkyu flushes, looking down on the ground.
“Be honest now,” Inkyu says and he leans in closer, nearly on the edge of his seat. “We won’t judge you if you say-”
“I think I have a crush on him,” Hyukkyu whispers slowly and Inkyu blinks.
“That’s it?” he says bewildered and then louder. “That’s it??!"
“Be quiet hyung please,” Hyukkyu pleads and the entire table turns over to look at them.
“You mean you haven’t told him anything?” Seungbin asks. He’s suddenly standing up though he has no recollection of moving from his chair.
“No?” Hyukkyu answers softly and it causes another wave of disbelief through the room.
“The whole world thinks you two are having some amazing romance,” Sehyung protests. Like Ezreal and Taric levels of romance.”
“Ezreal and Taric,” Dayoon echoes solemnly. “We all thought it was-”
“What?” Hyukkyu says.
“We all thought that you weren’t a virgin anymore,” Hyeongseok adds quietly. Very quietly, he pulls out his wallet and passes a wad of money over to Cheonju. “We put bets down too.”
“You guys do realize that he lives in Germany right?” Hyukkyu says. “And that I’ve been with you guys in Korea playing League of Legends for the past year.”
“Yeah,” Inkyu agrees. “But-”
“But what about when worlds comes around?” Sehyung goads and Hyukkyu can’t stop the flush from reaching his cheeks.
“I’m not going to suddenly fall in love,” he huffs, and there’s no hesitation in his voice this time. “I want to win.”
“I told you guys,” Wonseok chirps up and there’s a round of groans as Cheonju takes out a bag of money and passes it over to Wonseok.
“Do I want to know how much is in there?” Hyukkyu asks warily, sighing when no one offers to tell him.
Eojin sighs, deep and heavy into his hands. “Let’s just say we need to win summer to pay that off.”
“And worlds!” Dayoon chips in. “I’d like to win that too.”
Inkyu gives them a look which cleanly states- over my dead body , and yeah Hyukkyu can relate.
He gets to his feet, ignoring the weight of their stares on his back. "I'm going back to practice some more."
He hears a snicker, Sehyung probably, and lets it slide. This summer will be a good one, regardless of who wins. He wants the split title again no doubt, but deep down he knows that fate has it that it'll be Worlds this year in Korea where history is really decided. On top of that, the idea of seeing Martin makes something giddy in him bubble as he boots up his computer, hand on mouse and ready to take on the world.