Chapter Text
It’s no lie that some celebrities use a second account to look at what their fans post about them on the internet. Sanghyeok was one of those.
At first, it was just him following official accounts to get updates and news about game updates and other stuff. When he suddenly stumbled upon a post about him. It was a post about fans celebrating his anniversary, and Sanghyeok appreciated everything.
Then he fell into a rabbit hole of fan related posts. That’s when he stumbled upon posts about him and his rival mid laner, Chovy. His boyfriend.
It was weird. People assumed stuff about their relationship and it made him a bit scared that they might have gotten caught by the media. He had to ask his beloved boyfriend about this, and Jihoon just explained it’s not what he thinks. It’s just a way of people appreciating their minimal interactions.
Jihoon and Sanghyeok started dating around June 2024. They got closer when they were chosen to represent Korea in the 2022 Asian Games. And before they knew it, they started to have deeper appreciation for each other.
At first they decided to keep their relationship private. However, their teammates aren’t exactly that dumb not to notice the change in their behaviour. In the beginning of their relationship, they were still a bit careful. But as their relationship grew longer, they had become a bit less mindful about their actions.
Minhyung was the first to find out in T1. During a shoot, Sanghyeok left his phone open and Minhyung just happened to be next to him. He wasn’t planning on taking a peek. He was just gonna close the phone and give it to their manager to keep it safe when a notification popped up.
Then he got curious. So after the shoot ended, he interrogated Sanghyeok.
“Hyung… Do you have a boyfriend?” Minhyung asked when they were getting in the car.
Minseok, who was already inside, scoffed, “What are you saying? Hyung having a boyfriend before Hyunjun?”
Hyunjun, who was minding his own business in the front seat, looked back at Minseok, looking offended, “Why am I catching strays?”
“I’m gonna ignore what you just asked.” Sanghyeok replied, as he got comfortable in his seat.
“Right… Why’d you ask hyung?” Wooje, who was sitting beside Minseok in the backseat, asked while chomping on a bag of chips.
“I saw the notification on his phone. It said ‘love<3’.” Minhyung blatantly replied.
Sanghyeok coughed, almost choking on his drink.
“Hyung???” Everyone except Minhyung looked at Sanghyeok wide eyed.
That day, he wasn’t able to get away from all of the questions from his teammates. Even if he tried to escape to his room, they followed him like little ducklings following their mama duck.
So he sat on his bed while he told them about his love life. After his long story time about how they got together, he was a bit worried about how they would react, but everyone was happy for him.
“I knew it. Something was going on with the two of you during the Asian Games.” Wooje suddenly said.
After that, everyone finally left him alone to rest. He then called Jihoon and told him about how he got threatened by his teammates to talk about his love life.
Then, before they knew it, the rest of LCK knew about their relationship. Including Doran.
-
Sanghyeok was getting some rest after their scrims ended. He had a stream later that night so he wanted to get some rest before he started his stream.
Scrolling mindlessly on twitter, he came across a post about Jihoon and Hyunjoon. At first, he didn't read into it too much. It was just a photo from the time Hyunjoon was in Gen.g with Jihoon.
Then, he saw another post. Something more recent.
It was a video of Jihoon and Hyunjoon when they did a fistbump after a Gen.g versus T1 match.
Yes. T1 Doran. 2025. Doran and Faker are on the same team.
The post pointed out how Jihoon and Hyunjoon don't seem to be as close as before.
I mean come on. They've known each other since 2019. The sudden fall out of their friendship needs to be studied.
Sanghyeok got curious. He could ask Hyunjoon, his teammate, but he doesn't think they're close enough for Hyunjoon to disclose that information. He could also ask his boyfriend, Jihoon. But he doesn't know how.
While lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the staff that had came to the player lounge.
"Faker-seonsu. The manager was asking if you'll stream tonight? You're a bit late on the schedule." The staff said.
Sanghyeok immediately got up and thanked the staff for reminding him, "I will. Thank you."
The staff bowed and left after that. He grabbed his bag that contained his gear and went back to his streaming room.
-
After his stream he packed up his stuff and was about to leave, when he noticed that Hyunjoon was still playing. He knocked on the door and let himself in.
"Are you still playing?" Sanghyeok asked.
"Yeah." Hyunjoon replied, still focused on the screen.
"I'm about to go home. Why don't you pack up as well?"
Hyunjoon paused.
"Okay."
-
Back at the dorm, Hyunjoon immediately returned to his room. Sanghyeok didn't wait to go to his room. He pulled out his phone and sent a text to his boyfriend.
Sanghyeok
Just got home
You done streaming?
Jihoon
Same
Wanna come over?
Sanghyeok
Hbu come over instead?
You haven't been here since last year
Jihoon
Is everyone sleeping?
Sanghyeok
Probably
Jihoon
Okay
I'll be there in 10-20 minutes
Sanghyeok closed his phone and went to his room. Placing his bags down, he went to the bathroom to take a shower.
Wrong move.
Because when Jihoon arrived, he wasn't there to open the door for him.
Jihoon sent a text to Sanghyeok that he had arrived. Seeing that the older male didn't reply right away, Jihoon rang the doorbell only once. He felt bad since the others might be resting already, and he didn't want to disturb them at all.
His eyes went wide when it was Hyunjoon who opened the door for him.
Hyunjoon’s eyes widened. He was about to close the door again, when Jihoon stopped him.
"What are you doing here?" Hyunjoon asked, uninterested.
"Is that Jihoon?"
The two of them whipped their heads to the direction of the voice they just heard.
"Hyung." They said in unison
"Sorry. Jihoon-ah. I was in the shower." Sanghyeok said, as he walked up to the front door.
Hyunjoon had already stepped aside looking down, "I'll just go to the convenience store, hyung. I'll be back."
He bowed awkwardly to Jihoon before leaving.
"I should go." Jihoon suddenly said.
"Nope." Sanghyeok pulled him inside and closed the door. He then pulled Jihoon into his room. He wasn't about to let this opportunity to spend time with his boyfriend go to waste.
-
It was one of those days when he and Wangho decided to hangout. Just the two of them.
Their conversation started by talking about LCK, team gossip, and their boyfriends.
Wangho shared that he was now seeing someone. As one of Wangho's long time friends, Sanghyeok was very happy for him. Wangho talked about Dohyeon with such enthusiasm. Sanghyeok could tell that the male was in a happy relationship.
“How are you and Jihoon?” Wangho asked, taking a bite of his food.
“I don’t know… It’s just… usually he doesn’t mind being the one to go to my place to hang out. But these days he wouldn’t go unless I tell him there’s no one in the dorm.” Sanghyeok said, stirring his drink mindlessly.
Wangho eyes him suspiciously. When he turns to look at him, he furrows his eyebrows, “What?”
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Nothing.” Wangho said.
“Anyways… I don’t mind going over to their dorm, but sometimes I just don’t feel like leaving the place.” Sanghyeok sighed before continuing, “Last week I invited him over, and he came. I forgot to text him that time that I was taking a shower so Hyunjoon opened the do-”
“Which Hyunjoon?” Wangho asked, setting his fork down.
“Doran.”
“And? What happened?”
“Well… Hyunjoon rushed out of the house, and Jihoon was like, ‘I should go’, but I pulled him inside-”
“Don’t tell me Jihoon never told you?” Wangho said in disbelief.
“Told me what?” Sanghyeok asked, visibly frustrated.
“Oh my-... Look, hyung. This isn’t my story to tell. But you should really ask Jihoon. Only he could give you an honest answer, maybe even Hyunjoon.”
-
Sanghyeok didn’t exactly do what Wangho had told him to do. He was too scared to ask Jihoon and Hyunjoon. Plus, it’s not like he needs to know what happened between them. Right?
The day after Worlds 2025 ended, Jihoon came by his hotel room to congratulate him. At first, they had a simple conversation about the tournament. Jihoon had given him a small gift
One thing led to another and now, they find themselves tangled on Sanghyeok’s bed, getting intimate.
It had been a long time since they were last intimate. They busied themselves with practice, and when they had the time to hang out, they just ended up passing out after talking for a long time.
When Sanghyeok went into his room, he had completely forgotten to send a text to the rest of his teammates.
Completely lost in the moment, they didn’t notice someone entering the room. Only did they realize when they heard the door shut. They whipped their heads so fast, covering themselves to at least save them a little dignity.
Jihoon was the first to go check since he wasn’t fully naked. But when he went to check, there was no one there.
Jihoon walked back in the room and sat on the bed, “There’s no one there. Were we imagining things?”
“I wish.” Sanghyeok mutters.
After that, they just ended up cleaning up and going to bed.
-
Over the past few weeks, Sanghyeok had been building up the courage to ask Jihoon about him and Hyunjoon.
The younger male was completing his basic military training that is why he wasn’t able to reach out much to Sanghyeok. It was well-timed since Sanghyeok was also busy with fanmeets and other events.
It had been a month since Jihoon had come back from training. His hair was so short that he wore a beanie to hide his hair. Sanghyeok had to convince him that it was fine, but Jihoon would whine and say no.
He did end up taking it off since they had to take new pictures for their new jersey.
They had some time off before the season started so they ended up in the Gen.g dorm hanging out again.
The two of them were hanging out in Jihoon’s room cuddling in his bed, talking about Jihoon’s experience in the military camp.
Sanghyeok wasn’t focused at all. He would nod along, repeating what Jihoon last said, in hopes that the younger male wouldn’t think he was uninterested.
Of course it didn’t go unnoticed by Jihoon, he was already talking about LoL and Sanghyeok would just nod about the most random stuff he was saying.
“Hyung. What’s wrong? You’re out of it and I can clearly tell.” Jihoon said.
“What?” Sanghyeok gets up and looks at Jihoon confused.
“Do you even know what I just said?”
Sanghyeok sighed, “I’m sorry. I’m just… thinking.”
“About what? Maybe I can help you get your mind out of it.”
Sanghyeok shrugs, “You would… but I don’t know if it would be overstepping boundaries.”
Jihoon holds his hand, “You know you can tell me anything.”
Sanghyeok hesitates. He sighed for the thousandth time and said, “About you and Hyunjoon. There has to be something wrong with the two of you.”
“We… We’re good friends.”
“Don’t lie.”
Jihoon looks down, “It was really messy. That’s why I never got to talk about it.” He got closer to Sanghyeok and said, “I’ll tell you.”
-
Wangho and the rest of SKT17 decided to hangout at Sanghyeok’s house for his birthday celebration.
It was just going to be a short celebration, but the others ended up buying drinks. Wangho opted out on drinking so the other got wasted.
Sanghyeok went outside for a bit to take a breather from the chaos inside. Wangho follows after some time.
“Have you talked to Jihoon or Hyunjoon?” Wangho asked, settling beside Sanghyeok on the balcony.
“Yeah…” Sanghyeok simply replied, twiddling his fingers.
“What did he say?”
“That it was messy… and… I don’t know… I don’t feel like talking about it. I felt like I just… opened a box I shouldn’t have in the first place.”
Wangho nods, “I get you. I mean, it definitely wasn’t easy to tell this story. Especially to you.”
“Yeah… Maybe it’s just me, but… I really hope they can make up.”
“I think it’s okay to feel that way. They’re both important to you. I mean, I’m in no position to say anything about it, but, I don’t think the break up was that messy. But for them to say it was, then maybe something did happe-”
“Wait what?” Sanghyeok turns his whole body towards Wangho, completely bewildered.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You said break up… like… friendship break up… right?” Sanghyeok asked.
Wangho didn’t answer him and just stared. He looked at Sanghyeok confused before it hit him.
“What did Jihoon tell you?”
“They had a big argument that’s why they stopped being friends.”
“Sure.”
“What do you mean sure?”
“I… I’m going inside. I feel so sleepy all of a sudden.”
Wangho said in an attempt to make an escape from the situation, but Sanghyeok held the hood of his hoodie, yanking him back to where he was.
“Explain.” Sanghyeok said, not asking, but ordering. Wangho visibly gulped.
“It’s really not my story to tell, hyung. I’m sorry.”