Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room

Book 1: The Storm is Coming

Chapter 41

“d.a.m.n it!  I’ll kill him!”  Ai Jing pushed Ai Qing away despite the fact that she was clad only in a bath towel.  “Wait a minute!  You just let it go like that.  Why on earth did you join SP?”

“For my dream.  I’m not as shallow as you; the only thing you think about is love affairs……”  Ai Qing covered her forehead at a loss.  “Have you forgotten that  you’re the one who got dumped?  I’m just trying to comfort you with my sad past, my dear!”

……

“s.h.i.t.  d.a.m.n the dream!  Don’t give me that s.h.i.ty excuse.  Have some backbone.”  Her elder sister bit her teeth angrily. “Come on.  Keep talking.  Why did that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Solo say the name of that woman!”

Because he didn’t want to disappoint his daughter.

Su Cheng was his daughter’s mother, so it was the only answer.

“Oh?  I forgot.”  Ai Qing changed her mind and acted innocent. “Uhm, how come I can’t remember it?”

“......Ai! Qing!”  Her elder sister was about to lunge at her.

Ai Qing was quicker than her sister; she pulled the bath towel off her sister and ran out of the room immediately afterwards.

That incident with Solo had gradually faded from the memory of the fans.  Even the name Su Cheng was lost to everybody.  After all, Apple Dog was much more famous than her.  Ai Qing’s pictures in compet.i.tion had been used by many people as wallpaper on their computers.  She was the only girl who could match Solo in the imagination of many people.  In 2010, when she met Solo again in Chengdu, the host and audience found her in the CS compet.i.tion arena and they still made fun of them as a couple.

It was still like that up to today.

……

Ai Qing felt that her story would’ve distracted her sister somewhat.  She believed that Ai Jing could take care of her own problem.  After all…...she was her elder sister.

Yet……

She clenched her gloved hands and harshly punched twice on the trunk of a snow covered tree.

d.a.m.n Grunt.  Why fool around with Ai Jing if you didn’t plan on staying with her!

“I really want to smash your face in with a keyboard!”  She berated the tree trunk.

“Wow.”  97’s voice appeared suddenly.  He walked out from behind the trees quickly.  “What happened with our SP manager?  Beating a poor tree to vent your anger isn’t what a professional player would do.”

While he was talking, he put his hands behind his back and glanced at the guy next to him.  “As long as you wish, this guy can be used to vent your anger, and he is absolutely free of charge.”

Dt silently glanced back at 97.

Though 97 spoke in jest, Ai Qing took his offer up and went with the two to an internet cafe.  After all she was SP’s manager.  It would be too much of a blow to the morale of SP if she missed the evening meeting and be seen playing games with key players from K&K.

But it would be different at an internet cafe.  No one there could understand their conversation.

Ai Qing pulled out the keyboard and put on earphones.  “I have a live broadcast tonight.”

97 understood the hint.  “No problem. I’ll use my alternate id and let Dt’s G.o.ddess cut me down.”  Ai Qing wasn’t sure how to respond to that.  She took the chance finally and protested to 97 when Dt was away.  “My sister just got dumped by your good brother Grunt.  Please, don’t joke around at this time.”

“What?”  97 took off his earphones, shocked.  “That’s impossible.  Grunt really likes your sister.”

“......he likes her so much that they can’t be together?”

“It could be possible.  How to put it.  Anyway, Grunt is a weirdo.  Here.”  97 pointed to his own head.  “His is different from ours.  His way of thinking is different.”  He said, then frowned and casually added. “But, talking about the structure of the brain, it looks like Dt’s is even more strange……”

He was too occupied with his own thoughts that he didn’t notice Dt already came back carrying two bags of food.

97 stopped only after the bags were set down in front of him, then he put his earphones back on and stopped talking.

Dt took out the food from the bags one by one.  Ai Qing was pleasantly surprised, then she became more and more surprised.  They were all the food she had eaten when he accompanied her that day…...the most scary thing was that he took out three cups of Starbucks in the end.

“Soy milk latte?”  Ai Qing looked up and asked with lingering fear.

Dt looked down at her nose, which had turned red from the cold.  He suddenly had the urge to touch it with his finger. As the idea flashed by, his eyes, hidden under the baseball hat, became slightly unfocused.

Until a white hand waved before his eyes.  “It doesn’t matter.  I’ll drink it even it’s soy milk latte…...I absolutely won’t waste the money from K&K’s captain.”

“Toffee nut latte.”  He said.

It was sweet and it was your favorite.  He thought.

“This one.”  Ai Qing laughed.  “It’s my favorite.  Every year I have to wait until the Christmas month to be able to drink it.”

“Really?  The Starbucks clerk recommended it.  I’m not sure whether you’d like it or not.”  He said.

I already knew it.  You mentioned it in your interviews.  He thought.

Ai Qing suddenly felt carefree.

From this evening until now, from Su Cheng to Ai Jing, all the events had made her somewhat moody.  Bu now, here, in this internet cafe in a foreign country, she could drink her favorite drink.  It seemed like everything had been solved.

Tomorrow she would be leaving Korea.

Then…...it was the final compet.i.tion in Shanghai, China.

It would be the last stop for the exhibition tournament for the game .  It was also a beginning.

Solo’s team, who had created the history of an esports era, all reappeared.  The two top clubs had entered the battlefield.  It was just like Solo’s post on Weibo when he announced the SP line-ups:  “Our dreams already died long time ago.  All past experiences and glory will be renewed from now on.”

A Dream.

That Dream was the reason she came back.

Ai Qing held the cup with both hands and sipped.  She felt that her thoughts were growing loftier……

She glanced at Dt sitting next to her, then she saw snow on the brim of his hat.  “There’s snow on your hat?  It’s all wet.”  She pulled out napkins from her bag and wiped the snow and ice for him while she spoke.

She was short while he was tall and there was a big difference in height even when they were both sitting.

Ai Qing wanted to wipe the back of the hat, so she tried to stand but he unexpectedly pressed her shoulders down.  Dt turned to her and lowered his head down to his knees to let her wipe the back of his hat.

His entire face hid underneath the shadow of the brim of his hat.

“Why do you like to wear hats so much?”  Ai Qing felt funny that he would rather lower his head than taking off the hat.  Inexplicably, she recalled how he looked when he fell asleep in the audience seat in Singapore in ‘07.  “Is it for the convenience of falling asleep without anyone knowing?”

He answered in a quiet voice after being silent for seconds:  “I’m used to it.”

Only by wearing a hat could he keep looking at her without fear of being discovered.

-------------- End of Book 1 --------------